THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
1961-1970:
1970
- The Palestinian Liberation Organization under the leadership of Yasser Arafat manages to wrest control of the Gaza Strip from Israel; the PLO's control of Gaza ends by 1972 through a series of searches and the demolition of numerous refugee camps. (Dan Cohn-Sherbok)
- The US directs a military strike by Oman against Iran. (ZMag)
- The Clean Air Act is signed into law. One of the most important pieces of environmental legislation ever enacted, enforcement of its provisions have greatly reduced the levels of smog in most American cities, and many of the country's worst polluters have been forced into compliance. In the thirty-plus years since it went into effect, US air pollution levels have dropped around 25%. Unfortunately, in 2001, George W. Bush's industry-friendly Clear Skies Initiative will roll back many of the key provisions of the Clean Air Act. (Wikipedia, Eric Alterman and Mark Green)
- An FBI wiretap authorized for the Israeli Embassy picks up Richard Perle, a Senator's staffer and working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussing with an Embassy official classified information which he said had been supplied to him by a staff member on the National Security Council. An NSC/FBI investigation identifies the staff member as Helmut Sonnenfeldt, who had been previously investigated in 1967 while a staff member of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, for suspected unauthorized transmission to an Israeli Government official of a classified document concerning the commencement of the 1967 war in the Middle East. (Counterpunch/Daily Kos)
- Unsubstantiated rumors have future president George W. Bush impregnating an unidentified Texas woman and then paying for her to have an abortion. If true, not only would such an action go directly against Bush's opposition to abortion for any reason, but, since it would have taken place before the law was changed, would have been a crime as well. The rumors are collected by Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler and a well-established source for documented negative information about Republicans. (Flynt is responsible for "outing" Republican congressman Bob Barr as having committed adultery and forcing his wife to have an abortion, among a variety of revelations about Helen Chenowith, Bob Livingston, and others.) According to Flynt, he knows a great deal about the alleged abortion: "When I said that we had proof [on Crossfire,], I am referring to knowing who the girl was, knowing who the doctor was that performed the abortion, evidence from girlfriends of hers at the time, who knew about the romance and the subsequent abortion. The young lady does not want to go public, and without her willingness, we don't feel that we're on solid enough legal ground to go with the story, because she would say it never happened.... One of the things that interested us was that this abortion took place before Roe v. Wade in 1970, which made it a crime at the time. I'd just like the national media to ask him [Bush] if abortion is okay for him and his family, but not for the rest of America...." Flynt also says he has affidavits from four different people who have direct knowledge of the incident. While it is likely that the rumor is the same kind of salacious fantasy that has long plagued Bill Clinton, some facts about the story are puzzling. After Flynt's appearance on CNN's Crossfire on October 20, 2000, where he affirmed the story and said flatly that he has the proof he needs to substantiate the allegation, the transcript of the show on the CNN Web site was edited to remove Flynt's remarks. At the same time, transcripts of the show, usually available through CNN, were not made available through CNN's transcript service. (Atheists.org)
- January 19: After initial nominee Clement Haynsworth is defeated by the Senate, Nixon nominates Georgia judge Harold Carswell for the Supreme Court to replace Abe Fortas. Carswell is lambasted for his public support of white supremacist causes, his record of opposing civil rights, and for the high rate that his decisions have been overturned by higher courts. Republican senator Roman Hruska defends Carswell by saying, "Even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Cardozas, and Frankfurters and stuff like that." Carswell's nomination is defeated by the Senate. Six years later, Carswell will be arrested for soliciting sex from a male undercover police officer in a men's bathroom. Fortas is eventually replaced by Harry Blackmun, who turns out to be far less conservative than Nixon anticipated. (Wikipedia, Paul Waldman)
- February 21: Although the official peace talks remain deadlocked in Paris, behind the scenes, Henry Kissinger begins a series of secret talks with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho, which will go on for two years. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- March: George W. Bush earns his wings in the Texas Air National Guard, flying the obsolete F-102 Delta Dart against standard TANG policy. In June he will transfer to a TANG unit at Ellington AFB near Houston, where he will remain until June 1972. The unit is nicknamed the "Champagne Unit" for the number of rich family's sons who are assigned to the unit. The TANG mentions Lt. Bush in a press release: "George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed.... As far as kicks are concerned, Lt. Bush gets his from the roaring afterburner of the F-102." During the year he once again obtains detached duty to work on the Senate campaign of his father. He also begins working for Stratford, a Texas oil firm with intimate connections to his father's Zapata Petroleum. His last Air Force physical is conducted in May 1971. (AWOLBush, Mother Jones, John Covington, UggaBugga. Kevin Phillips)
Roe v. Wade filed
- March 3: The cases that will comprise the landmark abortion cases Roe v. Wade and Does v. Wade are filed in Dallas County, Texas. The women involved are Norma McCorvey, a waitress and former carnival worker who is pregnant from what she claims to be a rape, and an anonymous married couple known as John and Mary Doe. McCorvey will use the psuedonym Jane Roe to keep her identity from the public. McCorvey has approached lawyers Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington in an attempt to find help in receiving an abortion; though Coffee and Weddington cannot help her find a doctor willing to perform what is, in Texas, an illegal procedure, they do ask for McCorvey's help in challenging Texas anti-abortion laws. At this time, most states do not allow abortions; of the 1.5 million abortions performed annually in the US, less than 10,000 are performed legally. Many women run the risk of going to unscrupulous or incompetent abortionists, suffering life-threatening medical complications, and encountering legal persecution. The two lawyers decide to use legal pseudonyms not only to protect their plaintiffs from the subsequent media spotlight and possible social persecution, but because McCorvey has a checkered background that might make a jury consider her personal failings rather than the idea of abortions in general. The cases challenge Texas law prohibiting anyone from performing or receiving abortions, and classifying any abortion attempt resulting in the death of the mother as murder. The case primarily rests on the Bill of Rights' Fourteenth Amendment, which gives Americans equal protection under the law, and a number of Supreme Court cases that establish a citizen's right to privacy. They will argue that the law is confusing in what constitutes a life-threatening situation (the only legal basis for an abortion), and a woman's right to privacy entails the right to have an abortion. Both suits ask that the Texas statutes prohibiting abortions be found unconstitutional, and that Henry Wade, the chief law enforcement officer of Dallas County, be prohibited from enforcing those statutes. In contrast, Wade's appointed lawyer to defend the case, John Tolle, will argue that the fetus has as much right to live as the mother. The cases receive immediate attention from local and national media, and opinions are quick to polarize and conflict with one another. To save time and money, the two cases are rolled into one, collectively known as Roe v. Wade. (D.J. Herda)
- March 10: Captain Ernest Medina is charged with murders for his complicity in the My Lai massacre. (Chronology of US-Vietnam Relations)
- March 11: Limited Kurdish autonomy in Iraq is recognized by treaties. Tensions abate somewhat, but do not die down completely. (FactMonster, MidEast Web, BBC)
Pol Pot rises to power in Cambodia
- March 18: Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia is deposed by General Lon Nol. Sihanouk, who had been out of the country at the time of the coup, then aligns with Cambodian Communists, known as the Khmer Rouge, in an effort to oust Lon Nol's regime. The Khmer Rouge are led by an unknown figure named Pol Pot, who eagerly capitalizes on the enormous prestige and popularity of Prince Sihanouk to increase support for his Khmer Rouge movement among Cambodians. Pol Pot will later violently oust Lon Nol, then, as dictator, begin a radical experiment to create an agrarian utopia, resulting in the deaths of 25 percent of the country's population (2,000,000 persons) from starvation, overwork and systematic executions. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- March 20: Cambodian troops under Gen. Lon Nol attack Khmer Rouge and North Vietnamese forces inside Cambodia. At the White House, Nixon and top aides discuss plans to assist Lon Nol's pro-American regime. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- March 31: The Army brings murder charges against Captain Ernest Medina concerning the massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in March of 1968. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- April 20: President Nixon announces the withdrawal of another 150,000 Americans from Vietnam within a year. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- April 30: President Nixon stuns Americans by announcing a huge offensive of US and South Vietnamese troops into Cambodia "...not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam and winning the just peace we desire." The announcement generates a tidal wave of protest by politicians, the press, students, professors, clergy members, business leaders, and many average Americans against Nixon and the Vietnam War. The incursion is in response to continuing Communist gains against Lon Nol's forces and is also intended to weaken overall NVA military strength as a prelude to US departure from Vietnam. The offensive is a disaster; the NVA and Viet Cong have long had word of the attacks, and have already left the bases, instead working to establish bases within South Vietnam itself. Other North Vietnamese will move deeper within Cambodia, ultimately helping to destabilize the Cambodian government. Far from helping bring the war to a speedy conclusion, the failed offensive lengthens the war by years. (Vietnam War Timeline, D.J. Herda)
- May 1: President Nixon calls anti-war students "bums blowing up campuses." The next day, college campuses across America erupt in protest over the invasion of Cambodia. (Vietnam War Timeline)
Kent State murders
- May 4: At Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, National Guardsmen shoot and kill four student protesters and wound nine, leaving one permanently paralyzed. Two of the four dead are not protesters, but innocent bystanders; one is a member of ROTC. According to the National Guard, protesters were throwing rocks, supposedly justifying the Guardsmen's opening fire on the students; the allegation that a sniper had opened fire on the Guardsmen is baseless. The shootings are later proven to be indiscriminate, with students as far away as 250 yards being targeted, and some victims not even part of the protests, but simply walking to and from classes. The protests follow a week of heavy protesting in Kent, both on and off campus, with windows of downtown businesses being broken and culminating in the torching of the campus ROTC offices. Governor James Rhodes orders the National Guard to campus to ensure order; two days before the final massacre, numerous arrests are made and one student is bayoneted. On May 3, Rhodes calls the protesters "un-American" and accuses them of trying to interfere in other students' right to an education. "They're worse than the brownshirts and the communist element and also the nightriders and the vigilantes," he says. "They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America." Although Rhodes threatens to get a court order declaring martial law, he does not do so, nor does he declare a state of emergency, which would have made the protests illegal. Unfortunately, neither the Guardsmen nor the students are aware that Rhodes has not made good on his threats.
- At noon, a peaceful protest of 2000 to 3000 students in the commons area is ordered dispersed by Guardsmen, and when the order is ignored, the Guardsmen, who have little training in riot control, fire tear gas into the crowd. (The legality of the dispersal was later debated at a subsequent wrongful death and injury trial. On appeal, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that authorities did indeed have the right to disperse the crowd. One of the judges on the court said, "You're going to have to use the Final Solution on these kids!") The gas is quickly dispelled by the prevailing winds, Guardsmen charge the protesters with raised bayonets, then turn towards a large knot of protesters anywhere between 30 and 250 yards away and open fire, firing between 61 and 67 shots at the unarmed, fleeing protesters and students. (During the investigation, Guardsmen later claim that they were "in fear for their lives," a specious claim considering the lack of armament among the protesters and the distance between the Guardsmen and the students.) Campus professors, led by Glenn Park, manage to persuade the outraged students not to counterattack the Guardsmen, which would undoubtedly have led to a tremendous slaughter. Instead, the students disperse, ambulances arrive, and the Guard departs. After the killings, Kent State president Robert White orders the school to be closed.
- In response to the killings, over 400 colleges and universities across America shut down in protest, with students often being joined by equally outraged faculty members and townspeople. In Washington, nearly 100,000 protesters surround various government buildings including the White House and historical monuments. On an impulse, President Nixon exits the White House and pays a late night surprise visit to the Lincoln Memorial to chat with young protesters. 25 protesters are later arrested and charged with various crimes associated with the protests; one non-student demonstrator is convicted and two plead guilty to charges related to the burning of the ROTC building; the other 22 are either acquitted or have the charges dropped. No charges are filed against any of the Guardsmen, though a flurry of lawsuits eventually award the plaintiffs $63,000 each and an admission of "regret." The media generally supports the shootings, with Time being emblematic of the media's response: "triggers were not pulled accidentally at Kent State." (Vietnam War Timeline, Kent State Massacre, Wikipedia, D.J. Herda)
A Kent State student kneels over a murdered protester
- May 14 - 15: Two students are killed and 12 wounded when National Guardsmen fire on a crowd of student protesters at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. The protests are triggered by, among other things, the Kent State massacre and racial tensions. Around 100 black students, engaged in protests on Lynch Street near campus, are met with an armed response after fires are started and vehicles overturned. At least 70 state police and an unknown number of National Guardsmen, arriving in armored personnel carriers, arrive and confront the students, who have now moved onto campus in front of Alexander Hall. Just after midnight, the police and Guardsmen advance on the crowd and, when they are within 50 to 100 feet, open fire. The FBI later estimates over 460 rounds are fired by the police and Guardsmen; one of the two victims was actually killed behind the police line. No one is arrested in connection for the shootings; the Presidential Commission on Campus Unrest will later clear law enforcement officials in both Jackson and Kent of any wrongdoing. (Wikipedia)
- May 23: Opening arguments begin in the Roe v. Wade case in circuit court in Louisiana. Judge Sarah Hughes refuses to make the case a jury trial, and does not require plaintiff Norma McCorvey (Roe) to testify, a critical victory for the plaintiffs. The three judges who will hear the case include Hughes, a Kennedy appointee who swore in Lyndon Johnson as president, who is a staunch supporter of women's rights; Irving Goldberg, a Johnson appointee, a renowned liberal; and William Taylor, more moderate but known for his legal expertise and his impartiality. On June 17, the court finds in favor of the plaintiffs, finding the Texas abortion laws unconstitutional, but refuses to make an injunction prohibiting Texas from enforcing its laws. District attorney Henry Wade announces that the ruling does not stop his office from prosecuting abortionists, and says his office is appealing the decision. The Roe lawyers decide to take their case directly to the US Supreme Court. Several high-powered lawyers offer their services to assist the inexperienced Roe attorneys. (D.J. Herda)
- June 22: American usage of jungle defoliants in Vietnam is halted. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- June 23: George W. Bush allegedly "explores" the idea of joining the "Palace Guard" program for Vietnam duty, but instead prepares to leave combat training school. The Palace Guard program will end a week later. Bush later claims that he tried to volunteer for Vietnam duty through the program but was denied entry due to his lack of flight hours; observers note that there were much better ways to volunteer for duty than going through Palace Guard. This will not prevent Mark Racicot, Bush's presidential campaign chairman, from claiming in 2000 that Bush "signed up for dangerous duty. He volunteered to go to Vietnam." (Ian Williams)
"I find war detestable. But even more detestable are those who praise war without participating in it." -- Romaine Rolland
- June 24: The Senate repeals the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- July: Egypt agrees in principle to a revised US-sponsored peace plan for the Middle East, but the Palestinians refuse to cooperate. Instead, Palestinians across the Middle East unleash a storm of protest. Yasser Arafat attacks Egypt's Nasser by name and threatens to use violence to oppose any peace settlement. Nasser retaliates by shutting down PLO radio stations in Egypt and throwing out hundreds of PLO members. Realizing their mistake, PLO leaders meet with Nasser in Amman, where Nasser bluntly warns them not to try to overthrow Jordan's Hussein. Civil unrest in Jordan breaks out, including an assassination attempt on Hussein; in return, Hussein cracks down on Palestinian militants within his borders. In September Hussein declares martial law, and the Palestinians in Jordan react with unexpected violence. They seize the northern Jordanian city of Irbud and declare it the center of a new Palestinian republic. Nasser leads a peace initiative between Jordan and the PLO, and a cease-fire and peace agreement is hammered out in Cairo. Neither side intends to carry out the agreement; Hussein wants the PLO out of Jordan, and has already entered into a secret agreement with Israel to stop all PLO attacks from within his country. After Nasser's death in September and the ascension to power of Anwar Sadat, who is far less interested in Arab nationalism than Nasser, the Palestinians are expelled from Jordan. Arafat flees to Syria, and the PLO finds itself virtually homeless within the Arab community. Many Palestinians take temporary refuge in southern Lebanon, and for a time the PLO controls much of the southern part of that country. That situation changes when Syria decides it does not want a new, unmanageable power on their doorstep and invade Lebanon, ostensibly to support the Lebanese Christians but also to expel the PLO. An alliance between Lebanese Christians under the Phalangist movement and Israel results in virtual chaos in Lebanon, turning Beirut into a city ruled by anarchy and violence, and Lebanon into a country ripped by factionalism and fighting between Syrians, Phalangists, Israelis, and the PLO. (Dawoud el-Alami)
- July 23: Nixon approves a plan for greatly expanding domestic intelligence gathering by the CIA and FBI, among other intelligence agencies. A few days later, Nixon rescinds his approval, angering many in the intelligence community. (Watergate Time Line)
- Fall: George W. Bush's application to the University of Texas Law School is rejected due to poor undergraduate performance at Yale. (Ian Williams)
Nasser dies
- September 28: Exhausted by the peace negotiations between Jordan and the PLO, Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser dies of a heart attack, to the great sorrow of millions in the Arab world. Anwar el-Sadat takes the reins of government. (Gamel Abdel-Nasser Biography, Dawoud el-Alami)
- November: George H.W. Bush loses his bid for a Senate seat to Democrat Lloyd Bentsen, even though he has received $112,000 in illegal campaign donations from the Nixon White House slush funds. Bush is becoming a figure of national prominence, already being touted by columnist David Broder as a possible replacement for Spiro Agnew as Nixon's vice-presidential candidate in the 1972 campaign. (Bushwatch, Kevin Phillips, Ian Williams)
- November 3: George W. Bush is promoted to first lieutenant in the TANG. He is rejected for admission by the University of Texas law school. (AWOLBush, Mother Jones)
- November 20: American troop levels in Vietnam drop to 334,600. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- November 24: A young Rush Limbaugh is granted 1-Y draft status, effectively ending any possibility of his being drafted into the military. Limbaugh obtains the deferment by presenting an affidavit from his private physician confirming that Limbaugh has what is called a "pilonidal cyst," on his backside: according to the Military Entrance Processing Command, a pilonidal cyst was then and is now a so-called "disqualifying condition" for induction, being a congenital incomplete closure of the neural groove at the base of the spinal cord in which excess tissue and hair may collect and cause discomfort and discharge. The cyst can be corrected by surgery, but short of that it is viewed by the military as a needless risk amid unsanitary conditions in the field. Limbaugh will later be reclassified as 4-F when the 1-Y status is discontinued. Limbaugh, who will become a prominent conservative radio talk show host, will cloud the issue when confronted about it during his career, variously claiming that he suffered from a football-related knee injury that cannot be confirmed (his high school coach cannot recall any such injury, and draft records have long since been destroyed). In 1992, when asked about his deferment, he will carefully state, "I had student deferments in college and, upon taking a physical, was discovered to have a physical -- uh, by virtue of what the military says, I didn't even know it existed -- a physical deferment and then the lottery system came along, when they chose your lot by birthdate, and mine was high. And I did not want to go -- just as Governor [Bill] Clinton didn't." In 1993 Limbaugh's mother will confirm that Limbaugh avoided the draft due to the cyst. In 2002 he will dismiss the entire incident as "Internet B.S.," as seen by his response to a caller's query: "No, you see, that's part of popular mythology that is out there that I have not whined nor complained about, Greg. But that is just a bunch of internet BS and hyperbole. Never happened. Was not the cause, wasn't the case."
- The dispassionate chroniclers at Snopes.com observe, "These kinds of responses, provided by Limbaugh on his show and available on [his] web site, are unconvincing and dissembling. Why not just give a straightforward answer to the question? After all, 'I had a knee injury' is a simple explanation (and hardly an embarrassing one), but dismissing the issue as 'Internet BS' and railing against 'Internet conspiracy theories' sound too much like the response of someone who is evading the question. Instead, Limbaugh provides non-responsive 'answers' when queries are posed by quickly steering the focus away from himself and claiming that 'the message is that unless you've been a member of the military, you have no right to support it' (which isn't the message at all -- the message is about whether it's hypocritical for those who escaped the draft to criticize others who did) but doesn't address the issue of his own draft status in the least. There is, of course, a huge difference between draft evasion (or 'draft dodging') and draft avoidance: The former involves the use of unethical or illegal means (e.g., bribing a doctor to falsify a medical report, fleeing the country) to escape military service; the latter involves taking advantage of established legal means (e.g., college deferments, conscientious objector status) to avoid or delay military service. The issue discussed here is clearly not one of draft evasion, and the matter of who is justified in criticizing whom for not serving in Vietnam is a gray area to be hashed out in the public arena. The only conclusions drawn here are that Rush Limbaugh was ineligible for the draft due to a physical condition, that he had a pilonidal cyst, and that if there's an explanation for his draft status other than the cyst, he has yet to offer it." Limbaugh himself will keep the issue alive by his relentless attacks on presidential candidate, and later president, Bill Clinton for Clinton's own draft avoidance. (Snopes Urban Legends)
- December 22: The Cooper-Church amendment to the US defense appropriations bill forbids the use of any US ground forces in Laos or Cambodia. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- American troop levels in Vietnam drop to 280,000 by year's end. During the year, an estimated 60,000 soldiers experimented with drugs, according to the US command. There were also over 200 incidents of "fragging" in which unpopular officers were attacked with fragmentation grenades by men under their command. In addition, many units are now plagued by racial unrest, reflecting the disharmony back home. (Vietnam War Timeline)
