George H.W. Bush
H.W. Bush sets up an oil company, Permago Oil, using a frontman to obscure his ownership. The frontman is later convicted of defrauding the Mexican government of $58 million. (Bushwatch)Vietnam War
The first direct shipment of US military aid to Saigon arrives. The US also offers to train the fledgling South Vietnam Army. (Vietnam War Timeline)Kikuyu, or Mau Mau, rebellion
colonial, or loyalist forces against Mau Mau rebels; the amnesty outrages and incites the left-wing resistance to the Kenyan repression, and proves to their satisfaction that Churchill, who personally approves the amnesty, is, in historian Caroline Elkins's words, "wholly willing to abandon the enforcement of law and order and to subordinate the basic human rights of Mau Mau adherents in order to maintain the support of the security forces and, ultimately, uphold British colonial rule in Kenya." (Caroline Elkins)US actions in Latin America
Panama's president, Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated with the assistance of US intelligence agents. (Historical Context of US Interventions)Cold War
The lakebed is near an abandoned B-29 airfield near Groom Lake. The area will become the site for numerous covert technology construction and testing, and though nicknamed "The Ranch" by the men working there, later becomes known to the public as Area 51 (see above). The area becomes part of the nuclear test site administered by the Atomic Energy Commission, and is cut off from inspections by the public, the military, and much of the CIA itself. Many of the reports of "alien spacecraft" and UFO sightings in northern Nevada are undoubtely the result of secret aircraft testing from the Groom Lake facility. (Philip Taubman)Cold War
the newest long-range aircraft in the Soviet Air Force and the only one that could deliver nuclear bombs to American targets, filling the skies over Moscow. The US doesn't realize that the Soviets are using only ten planes using clever flight patterns to suggest much larger numbers; US intelligence estimates that the Soviets possess at least 30 Bisons, more than enough to rain nuclear devastation throughout North America. Democrat Stuart Symington, Truman's Secretary of the Air Force, demands a Senate investigation, saying, "It is now clear that the United States, along with the rest of the free world, may have lost control of the air, except for the possibility that we still have advantages in base location and training. But it is now also clear that in quality as well as quantity of planes, the Communists are at least in the process of surpassing the United States, and I am confident that they are well ahead with the production of the possible ultimate weapon -- the intercontinental ballistic missile."Warsaw Pact
an alliance of Soviet-controlled countries in Eastern Europe designed to counter NATO. The members include the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Though allied with the USSR, Yugoslavia does not join. (NATO and UN History, Wikipedia)Cold War
The NSC notes several reasons for approving the project, and notes that the Soviets are hard at work on putting their own satellite into orbit. Nelson Rockefeller, then a presidential advisor specializing in psychological warfare, says bluntly, "The stake of prestige that is involved makes this a race we cannot lose." The NSC notes that while such a satellite would in itself be useless for surveillance purposes, the success of the project would assist in development of a satellite that could gather intelligence. A month later, headlines around the US herald the upcoming launch of a scientific satellite to be held by the end of 1958. Unfortunately, a rocket capable of delivering a payload into space is not yet available. The Air Force's Atlas missile isn't ready for such a task, and the Army's Redstone missile, developed by Wehrner von Braun's team, will experience a myriad of problems that delay the program's success. (The Redstone, though vilified by many because of its problems in getting US satellites into space, leads to the development of the Saturn rocket that will propel US astronauts into space and to the moon in the 1960s.) Ultimately, the Navy's Viking rocket will be selected to drive the first US satellite into orbit, a choice fraught with problems of its own. (Philip Taubman)Vietnam War
North Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh visits Moscow and agrees to accept Soviet aid. (Vietnam War Timeline)Algerian rebellion against France
The reaction from France is drastic; the French claim its forces kill over 1200 FLN members in retaliation, while the FLN claims the death toll is closer to 12,000, including many innocent Arab civilians. By 1956, France will commit over 400,000 troops to Algeria, including the notoriously brutal Foreign Legion and elite airborne units. Over the next two years, the FLN will conduct hundreds of successful guerrilla raids against French military and civilian targets, and will kidnap and often ritually execute captives. The FLN expands its operations to include Muslims who not only support the French, but refuse to actively support the FLN. All across Algeria, Muslims will create a "shadow" government, including social and judicial groups. (OnWar)Minority rights
They throw his mutilated body in the Tallahatchie River near the small town of Money. Till, from Chicago, angered his white assailants by speaking to, and possibly whistling at, a white woman outside a grocery store in town. Ron Bryant, whose wife Carolyn had been the focus of Till's attentions, and his half-brother J.W. Milam are tried and acquitted by a jury packed with 12 white segregationist men. His murder, and the flagrant miscarriage of justice that allowed his murderers to walk away unscathed, is a turning point in the history of the civil rights movement. (Heroism.orgVietnam War
Diem is advised on consolidating power by US Air Force Colonel Edward Lansdale, who is attached to the CIA. Three days later, Diem proclaims the Republic of South Vietnam, assumes the presidency, and is offered support and military aid by Eisenhower. Diem's regime is marked by nepotism and incompetence, and his aloof, autocratic style of leadership fails to endear him to the Vietnamese people even though his American advisors try again and again to popularize him via American-style political rallies and tours of the country. (Vietnam War Timeline)Soviet nuclear program
the RDS-37, in Kazakhstan. Three observers die when a nearby building collapses due to the blast. Both the US and USSR will continue testing nuclear weapons for years to come. (Nuclear Weapons Archives)Vietnam War
Thousands are executed or sent to forced labor camps during this period of ideological cleansing by Ho Chi Minh. In South Vietnam, President Diem rewards his Catholic supporters by giving them land seized from Buddhist peasants, arousing their anger and eroding his support among them. Diem also allows big land owners to retain their holdings, disappointing peasants hoping for land reform. (Vietnam War Timeline)Suez Canal crisis
For a brief period, the conflict threatens to escalate into a global, and possibly nuclear, confrontation between the US and the USSR. Although the US does not directly participate in the war, it suffers a drop in popularity in the Arab world due to its partnership with all three attacking countries. (ZNet, Global Security, ZNet)Vietnam War
South Vietnam launches a brutal crackdown against Viet Minh suspects in the countryside. Those arrested are denied counsel and hauled before "security committees" with many suspects tortured or executed under the guise of "shot while attempting escape." (Vietnam War Timeline)Cold War
By 21st century standards, the delay in informing Congress, and the decision to only inform four members, would be inexcusable, but in the 1950s such a decision is not unusual. At this time, espionage is considered the exclusive bailiwick of the executive branch and the CIA. Until the May 1, 1960 shootdown of a U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers over the Soviet Union, these four would be the only members of Congress to be informed of the U-2 program. Philip Taubman writes, "The operating assumption at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue presumed that the executive branch could be trusted to handle espionage matters without tight congressional oversight and that sensitive security information was likely to be compromised if widely circulated among members of Congress. In reality, this situation distorted the constitutional balance of powers by putting Congress on the sidelines and leaving the White House and CIA virtually unaccountable for intelligence activities. The unequal apportionment of power worked well enough in the case of the U-2 and other technological projects, but it proved unwise in other areas, especially covert operations, where greater congressional involvement might have kept the White House and the Agency from overreaching. The dangers were not fully appreciated until the nation learned in the 1970s about CIA assassination plots and other dubious activities." (Philip Taubman)Halliburton
which will later become a subsidiary of the huge oil services corporation Halliburton. Johnson had arranged with George Brown and Herman Brown to avoid huge tax responsibilities. Pearson agrees to refrain from exposing Johnson's fraud when Johnson agreed to support the presidential ambitions of Democrat Estes Kefauver. Pearson writes in his diary, "This is the first time I've ever made a deal like this, and I feel a little unhappy about it. With the Presidency of the United States at stake, maybe it's justified, maybe not -- I don't know." (Spartacus Educational)Kikuyu, or Mau Mau, rebellion
Written by eyewitness Eileen Fletcher, a former rehabilitation officer who worked at the women's detention camp in Kamiti. A devout Quaker who was hired to develop rehabilitation plans for Kikuyu women detainees, Fletcher resigned her post after a year in protest over the conditions she witnessed and the lack of official support for her reform plans. Her accounts are specific, detailed, and chilling. Predictably, the British and colonial governments counterattack by making personal and unfounded slurs on Fletcher's reliability, calling her "hysterical," "catty," and incompetent. The smear job against Fletcher does little to undermine her credibility. Further revelations by other eyewitnesses receive similar treatment, with Conservative government officials trying, with some success, to interfere with the press's publication of the allegations, and even trying to influence some Labour politicians to keep their colleagues from making the allegations and their reactions to them public. Later, the Conservatives will send hand-picked delegations from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to Kenya on putative "fact-finding" missions; the CPA delegations would take heavily controlled tours of camps and interview selected camp and colonial officials, then come home and write glowing reports of conditions in Kenya, in attempts to refute the eyewitness accounts of torture and atrocities. But even some CPA reports contain unsettling accounts of brutality and inhuman conditions in the camps. Historian Caroline Elkins observes that the British wanted desperately to avoid charges of brutality and inhumane treatment of their colonial charges, like those that have historically vexed Belgium over its bloody-handed rape of the Congo, Germany over its genocide of the Herero in South West Africa, and France over its repressive behavior in Algeria. As Elkins writes, it was simply not British to behave in such a manner, and the stories emanating from Kenya challenged Britain's view of itself and its perception among its global neighbors. The fact that the perception of Britain as noble, paternal uplifters of uncivilized mobs of natives throughout its empire -- staunch purveyors of Kipling's "White Man's Burden" -- has always been more or less a facade, is unimportant; shaping perception is the goal. (Caroline Elkins)Conservative hate speech and intolerance
during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on a new sedition law, an attorney for Americans for Democratic Action cited one of Thomas Jefferson's more colorful quotes: "I hold that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing." Watkins responds, "If Mr. Jefferson were here and advocated such a thing, I would move that he be prosecuted." (Buzzflash)Suez Canal crisis
It begins with the developing relationship between Gamal Abdul Nasser's Egypt and the USSR; US president Dwight Eisenhower, concerned about the situation, denies Nasser $56 million in promised loans to help fund the Aswan Dam. Nasser retaliates on July 26 by announcing that Egypt will seize control of the Suez Canal from Britain and France and administer the canal itself. The canal, which connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and from there the entire southern hemisphere, is critical for the economic and military interests of every major nation on earth. On October 29, after secret consultations between representatives of the Israeli, British, and French governments, the Israeli Army invades Egypt, supported by British and French air strikes. The US, who was not consulted about the invasion, does not support it, and neither does the British public; the story of the "secret war" quickly mushrooms into a public scandal. Led by the US and the USSR, the United Nations forces the British, French, and Israeli forces to withdraw from Egypt. UN peacekeeping troops are instead sent to patrol the area. Moderate Tory British prime minister Anthony Eden, who was reluctant to invade Egypt but bent under pressure from hawkish conservative Harold MacMillan and others, is forced to resign over the crisis and the resulting oil export crunch instituted by Nasser; Guy Mollet's government in France falls as well. Eden is succeeded as prime minister by MacMillan. (History Learning Site, Suez Crisis)Cold War
Eisenhower deliberately keeps the program on a tight rein, so program director Richard Bissell decides to make the first flights as wide-ranging and audacious as possible. The flight is indeed detected by Soviet radar, and Soviet MiG fighters attempt to reach the high-flying U-2 without success. Khruschev is on a goodwill visit to the US ambassador's residence at the time, and is furious when he finds out that an American spyplane has been scoping out Soviet military bases while he is wishing the US a happy Independence Day. He feels that the US chose the date to personally humiliate and insult him. In an astonishing act of independence verging on insubordination, Bissell chooses not to inform Eisenhower that the spy plane had been detected. Bissell orders three more flights, two on July 9 over Eastern Europe, Belorussia, and the Ukraine, and a third on July 10 that overflew a large Soviet naval base on the Crimean Peninsula. All three flights are detected and unsuccessfully challenged by the Soviets, and on July 10 the Soviet ambassador delivers an angry protest note to Eisenhower. Eisenhower orders all U-2 flights halted for the time being. However, the flights are quite useful; the photos obtained from the flights show that, contrary to American fears, the Soviets possess far fewer long-range Bison bombers than previously thought, allowing Eisenhower to feel confident in opposing proposals to radically increase US military spending. Eisenhower later says that the U-2 program "produced intelligence of critical importance to the United States. Perhaps as important as the positive information -- what the Soviets did have -- was the negative information it produced -- what the Soviets did not have. U-2 information deprived Khruschev of the most powerful weapon of the Communist conspiracy -- international blackmail -- usable only as long as the Soviets could exploit the ignorance and resulting fears of the Free World." (Philip Taubman)Cold War
Even though the U-2 had provided US intelligence with critical information, Eisenhower knew how seriously the flights were flouting international law and provoking the Soviets. If Moscow were to run similar flights over the US, he says, "the reaction would be drastic." He also realizes how badly the American public would react if news of the flights were to be made available. The limitations of the U-2 would result in two things: only partially successful efforts to improve the plane's ability to fly over Soviet airspace without detection, and a far more ambitious program to move US surveillance into space. (Philip Taubman)Suez Canal crisis
along with Army Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan and Defense Ministry official Shimon Peres, visits France to establish an alliance between the two countries. In a clandestine meeting with French PM Guy Mollet and British foreign minister Selwyn Lloyd, a plan for France, Britain, and Israel to wrest control of the Suez Canal and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt is hatched. (Dan Cohn-Sherbok)US space program
The Army's Jupiter-C, a variation of the Redstone, reaches 682 miles into the atmosphere, and speculation is that it could have delivered a satellite into Earth orbit. Meanwhile the Navy's Viking rocket, part of its Project Vanguard, is beset with problems and cost overruns, eroding Pentagon support for it. But project director Homer Stewart insists on sticking with Vanguard, even though studies indicate that the Army's Redstone rocket might be able to deliver a 17-pound payload into orbit by January 1957. (Philip Taubman)Suez Canal crisis
Ostensibly to eradicate bases of Arab fedayeen fighters that regularly attack Israeli targets, the strike is in reality the first stage of an Israeli attempt to take the Sinai and the Suez Canal from Egypt. The US's Eisenhower advises Israel to withdraw once the fedayeen bases are destroyed. A US-proposed cease-fire resolution by the UN is defeated by Britain and France, who clandestinely support the Israeli invasion and threaten to intervene with their own forces. (Dan Cohn-Sherbok)Cold War
the first step towards developing a satellite surveillance system. The Eisenhower administration has already made public its goal of putting a civilian scientific research satellite in orbit by 1958; the civilian project works to delay research and development of a surveillance satellite system, and gives the USSR the impetus it needs to beat the US into space. "The whole scheme was one of the greatest miscalculations of the cold war," writes Philip Taubman. (Philip Taubman)Hungary's "October Rebellion"
attempts to pull out of the Warsaw Pact as part of the "October Rebellion," but Soviet forces crush the rebellion and execute Nagy. 30,000 Hungarians die under Soviet tanks and rifle fire, and 200,000 flee the country. Although the US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, had promised the Hungarian people that they "could count on" American assistance, the US ultimately does nothing to help Hungary resist the Soviets, largely because of Hungary's geographical location and because of the crisis surrounding the Suez Canal, which was taking up most of the West's attention. (Wikipedia, History Learning Site)Vietnam War
Peasant unrest in North Vietnam resulting from oppressive land reforms is put down by Communist force with more than 6000 killed or deported. (Vietnam War Timeline)Suez Canal crisis
The USSR strongly objects to the Israeli attack, and implies that the USSR may intervene on Egypt's side with its own forces. The US informs France that any Soviet attack on British or French forces in the Suez will result in American retaliation. On November 7, the CIA leaks a report that the USSR will launch a devastating attack on Israel if the occupation of the Suez continues; Israel shrugs off the threat and announces its refusal to cooperate with the UN, which demands immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces. More worrisome to Israel is Eisenhower's threat to cut off all military and economic aid if the assault continues. Eventually Israel withdraws its troops on the condition that all fedayeen attacks from Egypt cease, and the Straits of Tiran are opened to Israeli shipping. As a result, Israel's economy grows by leaps and bounds; Jewish immigration to Israel is heightened; and Jordan, once a virtual tributary state to Egypt, becomes much more dependent on US aid after King Hussein dismisses Jordan's pro-Nasser government. (Dan Cohn-Sherbok)Kikuyu, or Mau Mau, rebellion
under the direction of the Conservative government in London, unleashes the most brutal round of repression and brutality yet in its Kenyan colony, called "Operation Progress." Viewing the European Convention on Human Rights as an "irritant" which hinders their efforts to establish their unquestioned control of Kenya, colonial officials institute systematic and horrific repressive measures on their Mau Mau detainees in the detention and labor camps throughout Kenya, employing newly devised methods of torture and forced indoctrination. Officials write convoluted and legalistic defenses of their methodologies, using terminologies such as "compelling force" in place of the banned "punitive force" to describe the tortures carried out on detainees. Although fierce, the program does little to bring "order" to the camps; British control of Kenya is inevitably breaking down. (Caroline Elkins)Vietnam War
The Soviet Union proposes permanent division of Vietnam into North and South, with the two nations admitted separately to the United Nations. The US, unwilling to recognize Communist North Vietnam, rejects the proposal. (Vietnam War Timeline)Cold War
to be launched from a secret US base in Lahore, Pakistan. The flights provide invaluable photographic documentation of the Soviet rocket and missile base at Tyuratam, Kazakhstan, the nuclear testing ground at Semipalantinsk, and a previously unknown missile base in Sary Shagan. Unfortunately for the Americans, the Soviets are able to track the flights, and are enraged. (Philip Taubman)Vietnam War
"The cost of defending freedom, of defending America, must be paid in many forms and in many places...military as well as economic help is currently needed in Vietnam," Eisenhower states. Diem's government, however, with its main focus on security, spends little on schools, medical care or other badly needed social services in the countryside. Communist guerrillas and propagandists in the countryside capitalize on this by making simple promises of land reform and a better standard of living to gain popular support among peasants. (Vietnam War Timeline)Cuban revolution
Open revolution breaks out in Cuba, with Cuban Fidel Castro and idealistic Communist revolutionary Che Guevara leading the fight. After rebel forces defeat a small garrison of Cuban soldiers, 800 US-trained Cubans are sent into the mountains to find and eradicate Castro's forces. (History of Cuba)Minority rights
9 black students attempting to begin classes in Little Rock find that the schools have been put "off limits" to them by order of Governor Orval Faubus. For three weeks, National Guardmen prevent the students from entering school. On September 24, Eisenhower orders Army paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division to escort the terrified students into school past mobs screaming "Get the n*ggers!," and the students are able to join whites in classes, though the nine students are routinely abused, insulted, and physically attacked by their intolerant classmates.Vietnam War
Viet Minh guerrillas begin a widespread campaign of terror in South Vietnam, including bombings and assassinations. By year's end, over 400 South Vietnamese officials are killed. (Vietnam War Timeline)Soviet space program
Not only does the Soviet Union beat the United States into space, the successful launch galvanizes fears that the USSR will soon be able to rain nuclear devastation upon the US from space. The first attempt to launch a US satellite on the heels of Sputnik ends in disaster on December 6 when the rocket, a Navy Vanguard, explodes two seconds after firing. As public ridicule and panic fills the US media, and the Eisenhower administration tries and fails to brush off the Soviet achievement as a mere curiosity, a new crash-priority program for delivering a surveillance satellite into space is formed under the leadership of the CIA's Richard Bissell, the leader of the U-2 program. The US media for the first time publicly lambasts Eisenhower for the failure of the United States to beat the Russians into space; the New York Times writes of the president's "unexpected naivete" about the benefits of winning the space race. Democrats, like Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson, take the opportunity to flog the administration, accusing it of letting the Soviets take the "high ground" of space, which could ultimately lead to Soviet domination of the world. (Philip Taubman)Cold War
which had fallen into obscurity, is revived as a result of the Sputnik launch. A November 12 report says that the US should be able to put a surveillance satellite into orbit by the end of 1958. (The original idea is for a recoverable satellite that will orbit the earth, photograph Soviet and other targets, and return to earth, allowing the US to recover the film from on board. Only later will streaming data transmission be perfected enough to allow satellites to stay in orbit indefinitely.) The December 6 explosion of a Navy Vanguard rocket will prompt the Pentagon to shift its focus to the Army's Jupiter-C rocket. (Philip Taubman)Algerian revolution against France
commanding French forces in Algeria, partitions the country into sectors and successfully limits FLN guerrilla incursions, though at a high cost in manpower and expenditures. Salan also constructs a heavily patrolled system of barriers to limit infiltration from Tunisia and Morocco. The French military ruthlessly applies the principle of collective responsibility to villages suspected of sheltering, supplying, or in any way cooperating with the guerrillas. Villages that could not be reached by mobile units are subject to aerial bombardment. The French also initiate a program of concentrating large segments of the rural population, including whole villages, in camps under military supervision to prevent them from aiding the rebels -- or, according to the official explanation, to protect them from FLN extortion. Between 1957 and 1969, more than 2 million Algerians are removed from their villages, mostly in the mountainous areas, and resettled in the plains, where many find it impossible to reestablish their accustomed economic or social situations. (OnWar)Middle East unrest
Marines enter Lebanon to "preserve stability." (ZNet)US intervention in Southeast Asia
US threatens China with a nuclear strike if it invades Taiwan, now the home of Chinese Nationalists who fled the communist takeover of China. (ZNet)Cuban revolution
in the year, Cuba's Fulgencio Batista receives over a million dollars' worth of military aid from the US. Batista's military is completely financed, supplied, and trained by the US. Nevertheless, Castro's rebel forces are winning increasing numbers of victories against Batista. (History of Cuba)Election fraud
engineered to discourage black and Hispanic voters by forcing them to "qualify" by interpreting passages from the Constitution to the satisfaction of GOP election monitors. This and other attempts by both Republicans and Democrats to prevent blacks and Hispanics from voting are rendered illegal by the 1965 Voting Rights Act. (Greg Palast)Sherman Adams scandal
who has alienated many Republicans by controlling access so strictly to Eisenhower, resigns when investigative reporter Jack Anderson reveals that Adams has accepted an expensive vicuna fur coat and other lavish gifts from Bernard Goldfine, a Boston textile manufacturer who was being investigated for Federal Trade Commission violations. Goldfine, who had business with the federal government, was cited for contempt of Congress when he refused to answer questions regarding his relationship with Adams. Anderson eventually publishes evidence that Adams had twice persuaded the Federal Trade Commission to "ease up its pursuit of Goldfine for putting false labels on the products of his textile plants." (Wikipedia, Spartacus Educational)US space program
a 30-pound satellite dubbed Explorer that contains two tiny radio transmitters and a small Geiger counter for measuring space radiation. Though Explorer is a midget compared to the two Sputniks currently orbiting the earth, the launch is enough to recover much of America's lost prestige and trigger celebrations around the country. (Philip Taubman)Cold War
take photos of Soviet targets, and deliver its film payload to a secure destination. The CIA works jointly with the Air Force and the newly established Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The CIA's Richard Bissell is placed in charge of the program. To preserve absolute secrecy, the government announces the ostensible scrubbing of the WS-117L program, and announces the inauguration of a new Air Force satellite program called Discoverer. This is a classic example of disinformation designed to fool both the USSR and the American media, both of whom were well aware of the WS-117L program. The secret spy satellite program will be known as Corona. (Philip Taubman)Algerian rebellion against France
The French populace is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Algerian war, feeling that it is becoming another quagmire similar to the one recently weathered in Indochina; de Gaulle's initiative are somewhat successful in reducing support for the Algerian rebel group FLN among many Algerian Muslims. In 1958, the French military abandons its previous tactics of containment and mounts huge search-and-destroy missions throughout the country. (OnWar)US intervention in Iraq
In what one US diplomat characterizes as a "horrible orgy of bloodshed," a coup in Iraq places General Abd al Karim Qasim in power, replacing King Faisal II, who is executed. Qasim is widely viewed as being sympathetic towards socialist and Communist states, though not directly aligned with either Moscow or Beijing. Qasim is also very sympathetic towards a vision of a Nasserite UAR, but refuses to join with Egypt in forming a unified country. (UPI, FactMonster, MidEast Web, 1UpTravel)Soviet nuclear program
Shortly thereafter, Khruschev announces that the USSR has a missile capable of delivering a 5-megaton warhead to a target 8,000 miles away, well within the United States. In January 1959, Khruschev will claim that Soviet ICBMs have shifted the balance of power in the USSR's favor. US officials have no way of knowing that the Soviets are bluffing, that the Soviets are having the same problems with their rockets that the US is having, and that many of the missiles claimed to exist actually do not. The US is highly disturbed by the Soviet pronouncements, and a January 22 announcement by Neil McElroy, the secretary of defense, that the US will voluntarily drop out of the ICBM race and concentrate on building long-range bombers and submarine-based missiles is publicly challenged by General Bernard Schriever, the head of the Air Force's missile program, who angrily insists that the US should be increasing its supply of ICBMs. In response, many in the American media blast the Eisenhower administration for "sleepwalking through the cold war." (Philip Taubman)Cuban revolution
The US has consistently refused Batista's requests for direct military intervention; Terrence Cannon explains why: "The US did not send in the Marines for one basic reason: it did not fear the revolution. It was inconceivable to the US policy makers that a revolution in Cuba could turn out badly for them. After all, US companies owned the country." (History of Cuba)Israel-Palestinian conflict
Fatah, is founded in Kuwait by Palestinian students and exiles, including Yasser Arafat. (Fatah is a reverse mnemonic for the initials of its true name, the Palestinian Liberation Party.) Fatah establishes camps in most Arab countries; its first training camp for guerrilla fighters is in Algeria. Arafat, the leader of Fatah, eventually becomes the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, an umbrella group of Palestinian resistance groups, when the PLO is founded in 1964. (Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Dawoud el-Alawi)