Salvador Allende
Joseph McCarthy
Ronald Reagan
Kim Il-sung
Richard Nixon
Augusto Pinochet
John Kennedy
Gamal Nasser
Nelson Mandela
Nicolae Ceaușescu
Reza Pahlavi Shah of Iran
Alexander Dubček
Saturday, February 8, 2020
->1921
Salvador Allende
Joseph McCarthy
Ronald Reagan
Kim Il-sung
Richard Nixon
Augusto Pinochet
John Kennedy
Gamal Nasser
Nelson Mandela
Nicolae Ceaușescu
Reza Pahlavi Shah of Iran
Alexander Dubček
Salvador Allende (1908 – 1973)
Salvador Allende was a Chilean physician and politician, known as the first Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections.
Allende's involvement in Chilean political life spanned a period of nearly 40 years. As a member of the Socialist Party, he was a senator, deputy and cabinet minister. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections. In 1970, he won the presidency in a close 3-way race. He was elected in a run-off by Congress as no candidate had gained a majority.
As president, Allende adopted a policy of nationalization of industries and collectivization. Due to these and other factors, increasingly strained relations between him and the legislative and judicial branches of the Chilean government culminated in a declaration by Congress of a "constitutional breakdown". A center-right majority including the Christian Democrats, whose support had enabled Allende's election, denounced his rule as unconstitutional and called for his overthrow by force.
In 1973, the military moved to oust Allende in a coup d'état supported by the CIA. As troops surrounded La Moneda Palace, he gave his last speech vowing not to resign. Later that day, Allende was assassinated.
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Native Americans settled in fertile valleys and coastal areas of Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the Mapuche or Araucanians as they were known by the Spaniards successfully resisted many attempts by the Inca Empire to subjugate them, despite their lack of state organization.
Spain conquered and colonized the region in the mid-16th century, replacing Inca rule in the north and center, but failing to conquer the independent Mapuche who inhabited what is now south-central Chile. After declaring its independence from Spain in 1818, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a relatively stable authoritarian republic. In the 19th century, Chile saw significant economic and territorial growth, ending Mapuche resistance in the 1880s and gaining its current northern territory in the War of the Pacific(1879–83) after defeating Peru and Bolivia.
In the 1960s and 1970s the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. This development culminated with the 1973 Chilean coup d'état that overthrew Salvador Allende's democratically elected left-wing government and instituted a 16-year-long right-wing military dictatorship that left more than 3,000 people dead or missing. The regime, headed by Augusto Pinochet, ended in 1990 after it lost a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a center-left coalition which ruled through four presidencies until 2010.
Allende was born in Valparaíso to a family of Belgian and Basque descent belonging to the Chilean upper middle class. They had a long tradition of political involvement in progressive and liberal causes. His grandfather was a prominent physician and a social reformist who founded one of the first secular schools in Chile. As a teenager, Allende's main intellectual and political influence came from the shoe-maker Juan De Marchi, an Italian-born anarchist. Allende was a talented athlete in his youth and graduated with a medical degree in 1933 when he was 25 years old. He then co-founded a section of the Socialist Party of and became its chairman. He married and had 3 daughters. He was a Freemason.
In 1938, Allende was in charge of the electoral campaign of the Popular Front. The Popular Front's slogan was "Bread, a Roof and Work!" After its electoral victory, he became Minister of Health in the Reformist Popular Front government which was dominated by the Radical Party of Chile which had a moderately center-left stance. While serving in this position, Allende was responsible for the passage of a wide range of progressive social reforms, including safety laws protecting workers in the factories, higher pensions for widows, maternity care, and free lunch programmes for schoolchildren.
Upon entering the government, Allende relinquished his congressional seat for Valparaíso, which he had won in 1937. After the Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany, Allende was one of 76 members of the Congress who sent a telegram to Hitler denouncing the persecution of Jews. Kristallnacht was an attack against Jews throughout Nazi German carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians. The German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues were smashed. Hundreds of Jewish people were murdered during the attacks and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked, as the attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers. Over 1,000 synagogues were burned, 95 in Vienna alone, and over 7,000 Jewish businesses were either destroyed or damaged. The accounts from the foreign journalists working in Germany sent shock waves around the world. The attacks were retaliation for the assassination of a Nazi German diplomat by a German-born Polish Jew living in Paris. Kristallnacht was followed by additional economic and political persecution of Jews, and it is viewed by historians as part of Nazi Germany's broader racial policy, and the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. The Final Solution was a Nazi plan for the extermination of all Jews within reach.It was not limited to the European continent.
In 1945, Allende became senator and in 1966 he became president of the Chilean Senate. During the 1950s, Allende introduced legislation that established the Chilean National Health Service, the first program in the Americas to guarantee universal health care. His 3 unsuccessful bids for the presidency in the 1952, 1958 and 1964 elections prompted Allende to joke that his epitaph would be "Here lies the next President of Chile." In 1952, he obtained only 5.4% of the votes. In 1958, he obtained 28.5% of the vote. Classified documents show that from 1962 through 1964, the CIA spent many millions to finance his opposition and to finance an anti-Allende propaganda. Thus, in 1964 Allende lost once more obtaining 38.6% of the votes against 55.6% for his Christian Democrat opponent. Eduardo Frei.
Allende had a close relationship with the Chilean Communist Party from the beginning of his political career. On his fourth and successful bid for the presidency, the Communist Party supported him as the alternate for its own candidate, the world-renowned poet Pablo Neruda. During his presidential term, Allende shared positions held by the Communists, in opposition to the views of the socialists. Allende won the 1970 Chilean presidential election as leader of the "Popular Unity" coalition. He obtained a narrow plurality of 36.2% to 34.9% over a former president and 27.8% going to a third candidate of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), whose electoral platform was similar to Allende's. According to the Chilean Constitution of the time, if no presidential candidate obtained a majority of the popular vote, Congress would choose one of the two candidates with the highest number of votes as the winner. The Chilean Congress chose Allende as President, on the condition that he would sign a "Statute of Constitutional Guarantees" affirming that he would respect and obey the Chilean Constitution and that his reforms would not undermine any of its elements.
Allende assumed the Presidency after signing a Statute of Constitutional Guarantees proposed by the Christian Democrats in return for their support in Congress. Upon assuming power, Allende began to carry out his platform of implementing a socialist programme called "the Chilean Path to Socialism". This included nationalization of large-scale industries notably copper mining and banking, and government administration of the health care system, educational system, a programme of free milk for children in the schools and shanty towns of Chile, and an expansion of the land seizure and redistribution already begun under his predecessor who had nationalized between one-fifth and one-quarter of all the properties listed for takeover. Allende also intended to improve the socio-economic welfare of Chile's poorest citizens. A key element was to provide employment, either in the new nationalized enterprises or on public work projects.
3,000 scholarships were allocated to indigenous children in an effort to integrate the Indian minority into the educational system. 55,000 volunteers were sent to the south of the country to teach writing and reading skills and provide medical attention to a sector of the population that had previously been ignored. Payment of pensions and grants was resumed, an emergency plan providing for the construction of 120,000 residential buildings was launched, all part-time workers were granted rights to social security, a proposed electricity price increase was withdrawn, diplomatic relations were restored with Cuba, and political prisoners were granted an amnesty. Bread prices were fixed. An obligatory minimum wage for workers of all ages including apprentices was established, free milk was introduced for expectant and nursing mothers and for children between the ages of 7 and 14, free school meals were established, rent reductions were carried out, and the construction of the Santiago subway was rescheduled so as to serve working-class neighborhoods first.
Workers benefited from increases in social security payments, an expanded public works program, and a modification of the wage and salary adjustment mechanism which had originally been introduced in the 1940s to cope with the country’s permanent inflation, while middle-class Chileans benefited from the elimination of taxes on modest incomes and property. In addition, state-sponsored programs distributed free food to the country’s neediest citizens, and in the countryside, peasant councils were established to mobilize agrarian workers and small proprietors. In the government’s first budget the minimum taxable income level was raised, removing from the tax pool 35% of those who had paid taxes on earnings in the previous year. In addition, the exemption from general taxation was raised to a level equivalent to twice the minimum wage. Exemptions from capital taxes were also extended, which benefited 330,000 small proprietors. The rate of inflation fell from 36.1% in 1970 to 22.1% in 1971, while average real wages rose by 22.3% during 1971. Minimum real wages for blue-collar workers were increased by 56% during the first quarter of 1971, while in the same period real minimum wages for white-collar workers were increased by 23%. Central government expenditures went up by 36% in real terms, raising the share of fiscal spending in GDP from 21% in 1970 to 27% in 1971. As part of this expansion, the public sector engaged in a huge housing program, starting to build 76,000 houses in 1971, compared to 24,000 for 1970. During a 1971 emergency program, over 89,000 houses were built, and during Allende’s 3 years as president an average of 52,000 houses were constructed annually.
Allende’s first step in early 1971 was to raise minimum wages in real terms for blue-collar workers by 37%-41% and 8%-10% for white-collar workers. Educational, food, and housing assistance was significantly expanded, with public-housing starts going up 12-fold and eligibility for free milk extended from age 6 to age 15. A year later, blue-collar wages were raised by 27% in real terms and white-collar wages became fully indexed. Price controls were also set up, while the Allende Government introduced a system of distribution networks through various agencies including local committees on supply and prices to ensure that the new rules were adhered to by shopkeepers. All estates which were larger than 80 hectares or 0.8 square km were expropriated. The agrarian reform had involved the expropriation of 3,479 properties which, added to the 1,408 properties incorporated under the Frei Government, made up some 40% of the total agricultural land area in the country.
The Allende Government launched a campaign against illiteracy, while adult education programs expanded, together with educational opportunities for workers. From 1971-1973, enrollments in kindergarten, primary, secondary, and post secondary schools all increased. The Allende Government encouraged more doctors to begin their practices in rural and low-income urban areas, and built additional hospitals, maternity clinics, and especially neighborhood health centers that remained open longer hours to serve the poor. Sanitation and housing facilities for low-income neighborhoods were improved. Local health councils were established in neighborhood health centers as a means of democratizing the administration of health policies. These councils gave central government civil servants, local government officials, health service employees, and community workers the right to review budgetary decisions.
The Allende government also sought to bring the arts to the mass of the Chilean population by funding a number of cultural endeavors. With 18-year-olds and illiterates now granted the right to vote, mass participation in decision-making was encouraged by the Allende government, with traditional hierarchical structures now challenged by socialist egalitarianism. The Allende Government was able to draw upon the idealism of its supporters, with teams of "Allendistas" traveling into the countryside and shanty towns to perform volunteer work. The Allende Government also worked to transform Chilean popular culture through formal changes to school curriculum and through broader cultural education initiatives, such as state-sponsored music festivals and tours of Chilean folklorists and musicians. In the space of 2 years, 12 million copies of books, magazines, and documents specializing in social analysis were published.
To improve social and economic conditions for women, the Women’s Secretariat was established in 1971, which took on issues such as public laundry facilities, public food programs, day-care centers, and women’s health care, especially prenatal care. The duration of maternity leave was extended from 6 to 12 weeks, while the Allende Government veered the educational system towards poorer Chileans by expanding enrollments through government subsidies. A "democratization" of university education was carried out, making the system tuition-free. This led to an 89% rise in university enrollments between 1970 and 1973. The Allende Government also increased enrollment in secondary education from 38% in 1970 to 51% in 1974. Enrollment in education reached record levels, including 3.6 million young people, and 8 million school textbooks were distributed among 2.6 million pupils in primary education. An unprecedented 130,000 students were enrolled by the universities, which became accessible to peasants and workers. The illiteracy rate was reduced from 12% in 1970 to 10.8% in 1972, while the growth in primary school enrollment increased from an annual average of 3.4% in the period 1966-70 to 6.5% in 1971-1972. Secondary education grew at a rate of 18.2% in 1971-1972, and the average school enrollment of children between the ages of 6 and 14 rose from 91% (1966-70) to 99%.
Social spending was dramatically increased, particularly for housing, education, and health, while a major effort was made to redistribute wealth to poorer Chileans. As a result of new initiatives in nutrition and health, together with higher wages, many poorer Chileans were able to feed themselves and clothe themselves better than they had been able to before. Public access to the social security system was increased, while state benefits such as family allowances were raised significantly. The redistribution of income enabled wage and salary earners to increase their share of national income from 51.6% (the annual average between 1965 and 1970) to 65% while family consumption increased by 12.9% in the first year of the Allende Government. In addition, while the average annual increase in personal spending had been 4.8% in the period 1965-70, it reached 11.9% in 1971. During the first 2 years of Allende’s presidency, state expenditure on health rose from around 2% to nearly 3.5% of GDP. This new spending was reflected not only in public health campaigns, but also in the construction of health infrastructure. Small programs targeted at women were also experimented with, such as cooperative laundries and communal food preparation, together with an expansion of child-care facilities.
The National Supplementary Food Program was extended to all primary school and to all pregnant women, regardless of their employment or income condition. Complementary nutritional schemes were applied to malnourished children, while antenatal care was emphasized. Under Allende, the proportion of children under the age of 6 with some form of malnutrition fell by 17%. Apart from the existing Supply and Prices councils community-based distribution centers and shops were developed, which sold directly in working-class neighborhoods. The Allende Government felt obliged to increase its intervention in marketing activities, and state involvement in grocery distribution reached 33%. The Central Labor Confederation was accorded legal recognition, and its membership grew from 700,000 to almost 1 million. In enterprises in the Area of Social Ownership, an assembly of the workers elected half of the members of the management council for each company. These bodies replaced the former board of directors.
Minimum pensions were increased by amounts equal to 2-3 times the inflation rate, and between 1970 and 1972, such pensions increased by a total of 550%. The incomes of 300,000 retirement pensioners were increased by the government from one-third of the minimum salary to the full amount. Labor insurance cover was extended to 200,000 market traders, 130,000 small shop proprietors, 30,000 small industrialists, small owners, transport workers, clergy, professional sportsmen, and artisans. The public health service was improved, with the establishment of a system of clinics in working-class neighborhoods on the peripheries of the major cities, providing a health center for every 40,000 inhabitants. Statistics for construction in general, and house-building in particular, reached some of the highest levels in the history of Chile. Four million square meters were completed in 1971-72, compared to an annual average of two-and-a-half million between 1965 and 1970. Workers were able to acquire goods which had previously been beyond their reach, such as heaters, refrigerators, and television sets. Meat was no longer a luxury, and the children of working people were adequately supplied with shoes and clothing. The popular living standards were improved in terms of the employment situation, social services, consumption levels, and income distribution.
Chilean presidents were allowed a maximum term of 6 years, which may explain Allende's haste to restructure the economy. Not only was a major restructuring program organized, he had to make it a success if a socialist successor to Allende was going to be elected. In the first year of Allende's term, the short-term economic results of the expansive monetary policy were highly favorable: 12% industrial growth and an 8.6% increase in GDP, accompanied by major declines in inflation, down from 34.9% to 22.1%, and unemployment was down to 3.8%. However, by 1972, the Chilean escudo had an inflation rate of 140%. The average Real GDP contracted between 1971 and 1973 and the government's fiscal deficit soared while foreign reserves declined. The combination of inflation and government-mandated price-fixing, together with the "disappearance" of basic commodities from supermarket shelves, led to the rise of black markets in rice, beans, sugar, and flour. The Chilean economy also suffered as a result of a US campaign against the Allende government.
The Allende government announced it would default on debts owed to international creditors and foreign governments. Allende also froze all prices while raising salaries. His implementation of these policies was strongly opposed by landowners, employers, businessmen and transporters associations, and some civil servants and professional unions. The rightist opposition was led by the National Party, the Roman Catholic Church which in 1973 was displeased with the direction of educational policy and eventually the Christian Democrats. There were growing tensions with foreign multinational corporations and the government of the United States. Allende undertook Project Cybersyn, a system of networked telex machines and computers that transmitted data from factories to the government, allowing for economic planning in real time.
In 1971, Chile re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba, joining Mexico and Canada in rejecting a previously established Organization of American States convention prohibiting governments in the Western Hemisphere from establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba. In 1972, the first of what were to be a wave of US backed strikes first led by truckers, and later by small businessmen, some mostly professional unions and some student groups. Other than the inevitable damage to the economy, the chief effect of the 24-day strike was to induce Allende to bring the head of the army into the government as Interior Minister. Allende also instructed the government to begin requisitioning trucks in order to keep the nation from coming to a halt. Government supporters also helped to mobilize trucks and buses but violence served as a deterrent to full mobilization, even with police protection for the strike-breakers. Allende's actions were eventually declared unlawful by the Chilean appeals court and the government was ordered to return trucks to their owners.
Allende raised wages on a number of occasions throughout 1970 and 1971, but these wage hikes were negated by the in-tandem inflation of Chile's fiat currency. In the period 1970–72, while Allende was in government, exports fell 24% and imports rose 26%, with imports of food rising an estimated 149%. Export income fell due to a hard-hit copper industry: the price of copper on international markets fell by almost a third, and post-nationalization copper production fell as well. Copper is Chile's single most important export. More than half of Chile's export receipts were from this sole commodity. The price of copper fell from a peak of $66 per ton in 1970 to only $48 in 1971 and 1972. Chile was already dependent on food imports, and this decline in export earnings coincided with declines in domestic food production following Allende's agrarian reforms.
Throughout his presidency, Allende remained at odds with the Chilean Congress, which was dominated by the Christian Democratic Party. The Christian Democrats who had campaigned on a socialist platform in the 1970 elections, but drifted away from those positions during Allende's presidency, eventually forming a coalition with the National Party, continued to accuse Allende of leading Chile toward a Cuban-style dictatorship, and sought to overturn many of his more radical policies. Allende and his opponents in Congress repeatedly accused each other of undermining the Chilean Constitution and acting undemocratically.
Allende's increasingly bold socialist policies in response to pressure from some of the more radical members within his coalition, combined with his close contacts with Cuba, heightened fears in Washington. The Nixon administration continued exerting economic pressure on Chile via multilateral organizations, and continued to back Allende's opponents in the Chilean Congress. Almost immediately after his election, Nixon directed CIA and U.S. State Department officials to "put pressure" on the Allende government.
Allende's Popular Unity government tried to maintain normal relations with the United States. But when Chile nationalized its copper industry, Washington cut off United States credits and increased its support to opposition. Forced to seek alternative sources of trade and finance, Chile gained commitments from the Soviet Union to invest in Chile. Allende's government was disappointed that it received far less economic assistance from the USSR than it hoped for. Trade between the 2 countries did not significantly increase and the credits were mainly linked to the purchase of Soviet equipment. Moreover, credits from the Soviet Union were much less than those provided to the People's Republic of China and countries of Eastern Europe.
The possibility of Allende winning Chile's 1970 election was deemed a disaster by a US administration that wanted to protect US geopolitical interests by preventing the spread of Communism during the Cold War. In 1970, President Nixon informed the CIA that an Allende government in Chile would not be acceptable and authorized $10 million to stop Allende from coming to power or unseat him. Henry Kissinger with the CIA planned to impede Allende's investiture as President of Chile with covert efforts to convince key Chilean military officers to carry out a coup.
The Supreme Court of Chile publicly complained about the inability of the Allende government to enforce the law of the land. The Chamber of Deputies with the Christian Democrats uniting with the National Party accused the government of unconstitutional acts through Allende's refusal to promulgate constitutional amendments, already approved by the Chamber, which would have prevented his government from continuing his massive nationalization plan.
The Chamber of Deputies called upon the military to enforce constitutional order. The Christian Democrats and the National Party members of the Chamber of Deputies joined together to vote 81 to 47 in favor of a resolution that asked the authorities to put an immediate end to breaches of the Constitution…with the goal of redirecting government activity toward the path of law. The resolution declared that Allende's government sought to conquer absolute power with the obvious purpose of subjecting all citizens to the strictest political and economic control by the State with the goal of establishing a totalitarian system.
Two days later President Allende responded, characterizing the Congress's declaration as destined to damage the country’s prestige abroad and create internal confusion, predicting that it will facilitate the seditious intention of certain sectors. He noted that the declaration which passed 81-47 in the Chamber of Deputies had not obtained the two-thirds Senate majority "constitutionally required" to convict the president of abuse of power. Essentially, the Congress were invoking the intervention of the armed forces against a democratically-elected government and subordinating political representation of national sovereignty to the armed institutions, which neither can nor ought to assume either political functions or the representation of the popular will. Allende argued he had obeyed constitutional means for including military men to the cabinet at the service of civic peace and national security, defending republican institutions against insurrection and terrorism.
In contrast, he said that Congress was promoting a coup d’état or a civil war with a declaration full of affirmations that had already been refuted beforehand and which, in substance and process directly handing it to the ministers rather than directly handing it to the President violated a dozen articles of the Constitution. He further argued that the legislature was usurping the government's executive function.
President Allende wrote:
"Chilean democracy is a conquest by all of the people. It is neither the work nor the gift of the exploiting classes, and it will be defended by those who, with sacrifices accumulated over generations, have imposed it. With a tranquil conscience I sustain that never before has Chile had a more democratic government than that over which I have the honor to preside. Congress has made itself a bastion against the transformations and has done everything it can to perturb the functioning of the finances and of the institutions, sterilizing all creative initiatives."
He added that economic and political means would be needed to relieve the country's current crisis, and that the Congress were obstructing said means. Having already paralyzed the State, they sought to destroy it. He concluded by calling upon the workers, all democrats and patriots to join him in defending the Chilean Constitution and the revolutionary process. Allende scheduled a plebiscite to resolve the constitutional crisis, but he was deposed before it could take place.
Just before the capture of the Presidential Palace, with gunfire and explosions clearly audible in the background, Allende gave his farewell speech to Chileans on live radio, speaking of himself in the past tense, of his love for Chile and of his deep faith in its future. He stated that his commitment to Chile did not allow him to take an easy way out, and he would not be used as a propaganda tool by those he called "traitors."
"Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Keep in mind that, much sooner than later, the great avenues will again be opened through which will pass free men to construct a better society. Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!"
Shortly afterwards, the coup plotters announced that Allende had committed suicide. Lingering doubts regarding the manner of Allende's death persisted throughout the period of the Pinochet regime. Many Chileans and independent observers refused to accept on faith the government's version of events amid speculation that Allende had been assassinated by government agents.
Following Allende's death, General Augusto Pinochet refused to return authority to a civilian government, and Chile was later ruled by a military junta that was in power up until 1990, ending almost 4 decades of uninterrupted democratic rule. The military junta that took over dissolved the Congress of Chile, suspended the Constitution, and began a persecution of alleged dissidents, in which thousands of Allende's supporters were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. Since Pinochet's rule ended, Chile had become one of the most stable democracies in the Americas.
Joseph McCarthy was an American politician who served as U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death. In 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion. He was known for alleging that numerous Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere. Ultimately, the smear tactics that he used led him to be censured by the U.S. Senate. The term "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities.
McCarthy was born on a farm, the fifth of 7 children. McCarthy dropped out of junior high school at age 14 to help his parents manage their farm. He attended University from 1930 to 1935 working his way through studying first electrical engineering for 2 years, then receiving a law degree in 1935.
McCarthy became the youngest circuit judge in the state's history by defeating incumbent Werner who had been a judge for 24 years. In the campaign, McCarthy exaggerated Werner's age of 66, claiming that he was 73, and so allegedly too old and infirm to handle the duties of his office.
McCarthy's judicial career attracted some controversy because of the speed with which he dispatched many of his cases as he worked to clear the heavily backlogged docket he had inherited. Wisconsin had strict divorce laws, but when McCarthy heard divorce cases, he expedited them whenever possible, and he made the needs of children involved in contested divorces a priority. When it came to other cases argued before him, McCarthy compensated for his lack of experience as a jurist by demanding and relying heavily upon precise briefs from the contesting attorneys. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a low percentage of the cases he heard, but he was also censured in 1941 for having lost evidence in a price fixing case.
In 1942, shortly after the U.S. entered WWII, McCarthy joined the United States Marine Corps, despite the fact that his judicial office exempted him from military service. His college education qualified him for a direct commission, and he entered the Marines as a first lieutenant. McCarthy reportedly chose the Marines with the hope that being a veteran of this branch of the military would serve him best in his future political career. McCarthy's friend and campaign manager applied for active duty in the Army Air Force in early 1942, and advised McCarthy: "Be a hero—join the Marines." When McCarthy seemed hesitant, he asked, "You got shit in your blood?"
McCarthy served as an intelligence briefing officer for a dive bomber squadron in the Solomon Islands for 30 months between 1942 and 1945, and held the rank of captain by the time he resigned his commission. He volunteered to fly 12 combat missions as a gunner-observer and remained in the Marine Corps Reserve after the war, attaining the rank of major.
He later falsely claimed participation in 32 aerial missions in order to qualify for a Distinguished Flying Cross and multiple awards of the Air Medal, which the Marine Corps chain of command decided to approve in 1952 because of his political influence. McCarthy also publicized a letter of commendation which he claimed had been signed by his commanding officer. However, his commander revealed that McCarthy had written this letter himself, probably while preparing award citations and commendation letters as an additional duty, and that he signed his commander's name. A "war wound", a badly broken leg that McCarthy made the subject of varying stories involving airplane crashes or anti-aircraft fire had in fact happened aboard ship during a raucous celebration for sailors crossing the equator for the first time.
McCarthy was reelected unopposed to his circuit court position. He then began a much more systematic campaign for the 1946 Republican Senate primary nomination, with support from the Republican Party's political boss in Wisconsin. He was 38 years old.
In his campaign, McCarthy attacked his opponent La Follette for not enlisting during the war despite the fact that he had been 46. He also claimed La Follette had made huge profits from his investments while he, McCarthy, had been away fighting for his country. In fact, McCarthy had invested in the stock market himself during the war, netting a huge profit in 1943. La Follette's investments consisted of partial interest in a radio station, which earned him a meager profit over 2 years. The suggestion that La Follette had been guilty of war profiteering was deeply damaging, and McCarthy won the primary nomination 207,935 votes to 202,557. It was during this campaign that McCarthy started publicizing his war-time nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe", using the slogan, "Congress needs a tail-gunner". McCarthy was elected to his first term in the Senate with support from the Communist-controlled United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, CIO, which preferred McCarthy to the openly anti-communist La Follette. In the general election against Democratic opponent, McCarthy won 61.2% and thus joined the Senate.
Senator McCarthy was a popular speaker, invited by many different organizations, covering a wide range of topics. His aides and many in the Washington social circle described him as charming and friendly, and he was a popular guest at cocktail parties. He was far less well liked among fellow senators, however, who found him quick-tempered and prone to impatience and even rage. Outside of a small circle of colleagues, he was soon an isolated figure in the Senate.
He was active in labor-management issues, with a reputation as a moderate Republican. He fought against continuation of wartime price controls, especially on sugar. His advocacy in this area was associated by critics with a $20,000 personal loan McCarthy received from a Pepsi bottling executive, earning the Senator the derisive nickname "The Pepsi-Cola Kid".
He successfully ran for the U.S. Senate 4 years later. After 3 largely undistinguished years in the Senate, McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in 1950 when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring who were employed in the State Department. He produced a piece of paper that he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department.
"The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."
In succeeding years after his 1950 speech, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President Harry S. Truman, the Voice of America, and the U.S. Army. He also used various charges of communism, communist sympathies, disloyalty, or sex crimes to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government. Homosexuality was prohibited by law at the time, it was also perceived to increase a person's risk for blackmail. So he initiated a "Red Scare“ against communists, and a "Lavender Scare“ against homosexuals.
The Army-McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held in 1954 to investigate conflicting accusations between the United States Army and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. The Army accused Chief Committee Counsel Roy Cohn of pressuring the Army to give preferential treatment to David Schine, a former McCarthy aide and friend of Cohn's. McCarthy counter-charged that this accusation was made in bad faith and in retaliation for his recent aggressive investigations of suspected Communists and security risks in the Army. The hearings received considerable press attention, including live television coverage.
The media coverage, particularly television, greatly contributed to McCarthy's decline in popularity and his eventual censure by the Senate. In 1954, the Senate voted to censure McCarthy by a vote of 67-22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion.
It was later concluded in a report that the individuals on McCarthy's list were neither Communists nor pro-communist, and said the State Department had an effective security program. The report labeled McCarthy's charges a "fraud and a hoax", and said that the result of McCarthy's actions was to "confuse and divide the American people to a degree far beyond the hopes of the Communists themselves". Republicans responded in kind, stating that the Democrats were guilty of "the most brazen whitewash of treasonable conspiracy in our history". The full Senate voted 3 times on whether to accept the report, and each time the voting was precisely divided along party lines.
McCarthy's methods also brought on the disapproval and opposition of many. The term "McCarthyism" was coined as a synonym for demagoguery, baseless defamation, and mudslinging. Later, it would be embraced by McCarthy and some of his supporters. "McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled," McCarthy said in a 1952 speech, and later that year, he published a book titled McCarthyism: The Fight For America.
McCarthy discredited his critics and political opponents by accusing them of being Communists or communist sympathizers. McCarthy campaigned for several Republicans in the 1950 elections. All the candidates McCarthy supported, won their elections, and those he opposed lost. The elections, including many that McCarthy was not involved in, were an overall Republican sweep. McCarthy was credited as a key Republican campaigner and was regarded as one of the most powerful men in the Senate.
McCarthy and President Truman clashed often during the years both held office. McCarthy characterized Truman and the Democratic Party as soft on, or even in league with, Communists, and spoke of the Democrats' "twenty years of treason". Truman, in turn, once referred to McCarthy as "the best asset the Kremlin has", calling McCarthy's actions an attempt to sabotage the foreign policy of the United States in a cold war and comparing it to shooting American soldiers in the back in a hot war. It was the Truman Administration's State Department that McCarthy accused of harboring "known Communists".
During the Korean War, when President Truman dismissed General MacArthur, McCarthy charged that Truman and his advisers must have planned the dismissal during late-night sessions when "they've had time to get the President cheerful on bourbon”.
One of the strongest bases of anti-Communist sentiment in the United States was the Catholic community, which constituted over 20% of the national vote. McCarthy identified himself as Catholic, and although the great majority of Catholics were Democrats, as his fame as a leading anti-Communist grew, he became popular in Catholic communities across the country, with strong support from many leading Catholics, diocesan newspapers, and Catholic journals. McCarthy established a bond with the powerful Kennedy family, which had high visibility among Catholics. McCarthy became a close friend of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., himself a fervent anti-Communist, and was a frequent guest at the Kennedy compound. He dated two of Kennedy's daughters and was godfather to a son.
Joseph Kennedy had a national network of contacts and became a vocal supporter, building McCarthy's popularity among Catholics and making sizable contributions to McCarthy's campaigns. The Kennedy patriarch hoped that one of his sons would be president. Joseph Kennedy supported McCarthy as a national Catholic politician who might pave the way for a younger Kennedy's presidential candidacy.
Unlike many Democrats, John F. Kennedy, who served in the Senate with McCarthy 4 years from 1953 never attacked McCarthy. Kennedy said, "Hell, half my voters in Massachusetts look on McCarthy as a hero."
During the 1952 presidential election, the Eisenhower campaign toured Wisconsin with McCarthy. Eisenhower declared that while he agreed with McCarthy's goals, he disagreed with his methods. Conservative colleagues advised that Eisenhower could lose Wisconsin if he alienated McCarthy supporters.
With his victory in the 1952 presidential race, Eisenhower became the first Republican president in 20 years. The Republican party also held a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. After being elected president, Eisenhower made it clear to those close to him that he did not approve of McCarthy and he worked actively to diminish his power and influence. Still, he never directly confronted McCarthy or criticized him by name in any speech, thus perhaps prolonging McCarthy's power by giving the impression that even the President was afraid to criticize him directly.
McCarthy won reelection in 1952 with 54% of the vote. Those who expected that party loyalty would cause McCarthy to tone down his accusations of Communists being harbored within the government were soon disappointed. Eisenhower had never been an admirer of McCarthy, and their relationship became more hostile once Eisenhower was in office. In a 1953 speech that was carried on national television, McCarthy began by praising the Eisenhower Administration for removing "1,456 Truman holdovers who were ... gotten rid of because of Communist connections and activities or perversion." He then repeated unsubstantiated accusations that attempts were made to "put Communists and espionage agents in key spots in the CIA."
In the same speech, he criticized Eisenhower for not doing enough to secure the release of missing American pilots shot down over China during the Korean War. By the end of 1953, McCarthy had altered the "20 years of treason" catchphrase he had coined for the preceding Democratic administrations and began referring to "21 years of treason" to include Eisenhower's first year in office.
As McCarthy became increasingly combative towards the Eisenhower Administration, Eisenhower faced repeated calls that he confront McCarthy directly. Eisenhower refused, saying privately "nothing would please McCarthy more than to get the publicity that would be generated by a public repudiation by the President."
With the beginning of his second term as senator in 1953, McCarthy was made chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations. According to some reports, Republican leaders were growing wary of McCarthy's methods and gave him this relatively mundane panel rather than the Internal Security Subcommittee—the committee normally involved with investigating Communists—thus putting McCarthy where he can't do any harm. However, the Committee on Government Operations included the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and the mandate of this subcommittee was sufficiently flexible to allow McCarthy to use it for his own investigations of Communists in the government.
McCarthy appointed Roy Cohn as chief counsel and 27-year-old Robert Kennedy as an assistant counsel to the subcommittee. Cohn brought with him, as his assistant, Schine, heir to a hotel-chain fortune, who would bear much responsibility for triggering McCarthy's eventual downfall. This subcommittee was the scene of some of McCarthy's most publicized exploits. When the records of the closed executive sessions of the subcommittee under McCarthy's chairmanship were made public, the report from Senators read:
The subcommittee first investigated allegations of Communist influence in the Voice of America, at that time administered by the State Department's United States Information Agency. Many VOA personnel were questioned in front of television cameras and a packed press gallery, with McCarthy lacing his questions with hostile innuendo and false accusations. A few VOA employees alleged Communist influence on the content of broadcasts, but none of the charges were substantiated. Morale at VOA was badly damaged, and it was VOA's darkest hour when McCarthy and his chief hatchet man, Cohn, almost succeeded in muffling it.
The subcommittee then turned to the overseas library program of the International Information Agency. Cohn toured Europe examining the card catalogs of the State Department libraries looking for works by authors he deemed inappropriate. McCarthy then recited the list of supposedly pro-communist authors before his subcommittee and the press. The State Department bowed to McCarthy and ordered its overseas librarians to remove from their shelves material by any controversial persons, communists, fellow travelers, etc. Some libraries went as far as burning the newly forbidden books. Shortly after this, in one of his public criticisms of McCarthy, President Eisenhower urged Americans not to be book burners and not to be afraid to go in a library and read every book.
Soon after receiving the chair to the Subcommittee on Investigations, McCarthy appointed Matthews as staff director of the subcommittee. One of the nation's foremost anti-communists, Matthews had formerly been staff director for the House Un-American Activities Committee. The appointment became controversial when it was learned that Matthews had recently written an article titled "Reds and Our Churches" which opened with the sentence, "The largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the United States is composed of Protestant Clergymen."
A group of senators denounced this shocking and unwarranted attack against the American clergy and demanded that McCarthy dismiss Matthews. McCarthy initially refused to do this. But as the controversy mounted, and the majority of his own subcommittee joined the call for Matthews's ouster, McCarthy finally yielded and accepted his resignation. For some McCarthy opponents, this was a signal defeat of the senator, showing he was not as invincible as he had formerly seemed.
In 1954, the U.S. Army accused McCarthy and his chief counsel, Cohn, of improperly pressuring the Army to give favorable treatment to David Schine, a former aide to McCarthy and a friend of Cohn's, who was then serving in the Army as a private. McCarthy claimed that the accusation was made in bad faith, in retaliation.
The hearings lasted for 36 days and were broadcast on live television by ABC. Of far greater importance to McCarthy than the committee's inconclusive final report was the negative effect that the extensive exposure had on his popularity. Many in the audience saw him as bullying, reckless, and dishonest, and the daily newspaper summaries of the hearings were also frequently unfavorable. In the polls, those with a negative opinion of McCarthy increased from 29% to 45%, and those with a positive opinion sunk from 50% to 34%.
An increasing number of Republicans and conservatives were coming to see McCarthy as a liability to the party and to anti-communism. There was a growing impatience with the Republican Party. McCarthyism has become a synonym for witch-hunting and the denial of civil liberties. A staunch anti-communist, wrote a 5-part series of articles criticizing McCarthy. He stated that McCarthy has become a major liability to the cause of anti-communism", and accused him of wild twisting of facts and near facts that repels authorities in the field.
A reporter and moderator of the show “See it Now“ said of McCarthy:
“The line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one, and the junior Senator McCarthy from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent. His actions have caused alarm and dismay among our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it—and rather successfully. Cassius was right: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."
There was nationwide popular opinion backlash against McCarthy, in part because for the first time his statements were being publicly challenged by noteworthy figures. To counter the negative publicity, McCarthy made a number of charges against the journalist Murrow, including the accusation that he colluded with the Russian espionage and propaganda organization. This response did not go over well with viewers, and the result was a further decline in McCarthy's popularity. Several members of the U.S. Senate had opposed McCarthy well before 1953. Senator Margaret Smith called for an end to the use of smear tactics. Six other Republican Senators joined her in condemning McCarthy's tactics. McCarthy referred to Smith and her fellow Senators as "Snow White and the six dwarfs".
The Senate voted to "condemn" McCarthy. The Democrats unanimously favored condemnation and the Republicans were split evenly. After his censure, McCarthy continued senatorial duties for another two and a half years, but his career as a major public figure had been unmistakably ruined. His colleagues in the Senate avoided him; his speeches on the Senate floor were delivered to a near-empty chamber or were received with conspicuous displays of inattention. The press that had once recorded his every public statement now ignored him, and outside speaking engagements dwindled almost to nothing. President Eisenhower, finally freed of McCarthy's political intimidation, quipped to his Cabinet that McCarthyism was now "McCarthywasm".
Still, McCarthy continued to rail against Communism. He warned against attendance at summit conferences with "the Reds", saying that "you cannot offer friendship to tyrants and murderers without advancing the cause of tyranny and murder." He declared that "coexistence with Communists is neither possible nor honorable nor desirable. Our long-term objective must be the eradication of Communism from the face of the earth."
McCarthy's was a changed man after the censure. Declining both physically and emotionally, he became a pale ghost of his former self suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and was frequently hospitalized for alcoholism. McCarthy had also become addicted to heroin. Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, became aware of McCarthy's addiction in the 1950s, and demanded he stop using the drug. McCarthy refused saying:
“I wouldn't try to do anything about it, Commissioner. It will be the worse for you and if it winds up in a public scandal and that should hurt this country, I wouldn’t care. The choice is yours”.
Anslinger decided to give McCarthy access to heroin in secret. The heroin was paid for by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, right up to McCarthy's death. Anslinger never publicly named McCarthy, and he threatened a journalist who uncovered the story with prison.
McCarthy died at the age of 48 of alcoholism.
Evidence, in the form of decrypted Soviet messages, Soviet espionage data has partially vindicated McCarthy by showing that many of his identifications of Communists were correct and that the scale of Soviet espionage activity in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s was larger than many suspected. The penetration of the American governmental services by members or agents, conscious or otherwise, of the American Communist Party in the late 1930s was not a figment of the imagination. It really existed and assumed proportions which, while never overwhelming, were also not trivial. Under the Roosevelt administration warnings which should have been heeded fell too often on deaf or incredulous ears. Not a few but hundreds of American Communists abetted Soviet espionage in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. No modern government had been more thoroughly penetrated.
Ronald Reagan was an American politician and actor who was a Republican President of the USA from 1981 to 1989. Before his presidency, he was Governor of California, from 1967 to 1975, after a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader.
Raised in a poor family in small towns of northern Illinois, Ronald Reagan worked as a sports announcer on several regional radio stations. After moving to Hollywood in 1937, he became an actor and starred in a few major productions. Reagan was twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild, the labor union for actors, where he worked to root out Communist influence. In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a motivational speaker at General Electric factories. Having been a lifelong Democrat, his views changed. He became a conservative and in 1962 switched to the Republican Party. In 1964, Reagan's speech, "A Time for Choosing", in support of Barry Goldwater's floundering presidential campaign, earned him national attention as a new conservative spokesman.
Barry Goldwater was senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. Despite losing the election by a landslide, Goldwater is the politician most credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal, a series of social liberal programs enacted between 1933 and 1938. The programs were in response to the Great Depression in the 1930s, and focused on the "3 Rs" - Relief for the unemployed and poor, Recovery of the economy to normal levels, and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. Goldwater mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the hard-fought Republican primaries. Though raised an Episcopalian, he was the first candidate with ethnically Jewish heritage to be nominated for President by a major American party. Goldwater's conservative campaign platform ultimately failed to gain the support of the electorate and he lost the 1964 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, bringing down many conservative Republican office-holders as well.
Building a network of supporters, Reagan was elected Governor of California in 1966. As governor, Reagan raised taxes, turned a state budget deficit to a surplus, challenged the protesters at the University of California, and ordered National Guard troops in during a period of protest movements in 1969. He was re-elected in 1970. In 1981 he was elected president of the USA. Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", advocated tax rate reduction to spur economic growth, control of the money supply to curb inflation, economic deregulation, and reduction in government spending. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, escalated the War on Drugs, and fought public-sector labor.
Over his 2 terms, his economic policies saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4%, and an average annual growth of real GDP of 3.4%; a third of what Franklin Roosevelt had achieved. While Reagan did enact cuts in domestic discretionary spending, increased military spending contributed to increased federal outlays overall, even after adjustment for inflation. During his re-election bid, Reagan campaigned on the notion that it was "Morning in America", winning a landslide in 1984 with the largest Electoral College victory in history. Reagan carried 49 of the 50 states. In 1980, Reagan received 489 (90.9%) of the electoral votes while Jimmy Carter received only 49 (9.1%). In 1984, Reagan received 525 (97.6%) of the electoral votes—the greatest raw number of votes in history—while Walter Mondale received only 13 (2.4%).
Reagan touted a strong economic recovery from 1970s stagflation and the 1981–82 recession, as well as the widespread perception that his presidency had overseen a revival of national confidence and prestige. Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including ending of the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, and the Iran–Contra affair. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an "evil empire", he transitioned Cold War policy from détente to rollback, by escalating an arms race with the USSR while engaging in talks with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, which culminated in shrinking both countries' nuclear arsenals. During his famous speech in Berlin, President Reagan challenged Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!". Five months after the end of his term, the Berlin Wall fell, and in 1991, nearly 3 years after he left office, the Soviet Union collapsed.
Leaving office in 1989, Reagan held an approval rating of 68% matching those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later Bill Clinton, as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. While having planned an active post-presidency, in 1994 Reagan disclosed his diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease and died 10 years later at the age of 93. His tenure constituted a realignment toward conservative policies in the United States.
Kim Il-sung was the leader of North Korea for more than 45 years from its establishment in 1948 until his death. He was the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) from 1949 to 1994. Coming to power after the overthrow of Japanese rule in 1945, he authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950.
Korea which was ruled by Imperial Japan from 1910 until the closing days of WWII was split into 2 regions with separate governments. The north was placed under the Russian sphere of influence, and the south, under American sphere of influence. Both claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither accepted the border as permanent. The Korean War began in 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China and Russia came to the aid of North Korea. North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign by the United States which killed 20% of the North Korean population. The fighting ended in 1953, when an armistice was signed. No peace treaty was signed and the 2 Koreas continued to be technically at war.
Under his leadership, North Korea became a workers' state with a publicly owned economy. It had close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union. By the 1960s, North Korea enjoyed a relatively high standard of living, outperforming the South, which was riddled with political instability and economic crises. The situation reversed in the 1980s, as a stable South Korea became an economic powerhouse fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid and internal economic development while North Korea stagnated. The country received funds, subsidies, and aid from the USSR and the Eastern Bloc until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
The resulting loss of economic aid adversely affected the North's economy making it slide into isolation and poverty. During this period, North Korea also remained critical of United States imperialism. Kim Il Sung's mass popularity came to dominate domestic politics. In 1980, his eldest son Kim Jong-il, was elected his heir to supreme leadership.
Kim Il-sung`s family was not very poor, but was always a step away from poverty. He was raised in a Presbyterian family, and his maternal grandfather was a Protestant minister, and his father had gone to a missionary school and was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and his parents were very active in the religious community. Kim’s family participated in anti-Japanese activities. When Kim was 8 years old his family along with many Koreans fled to Manchuria to escape famine. Like most Korean families, they resented the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, which began in 1910. Japanese repression of opposition was brutal, resulting in the arrest and detention of more than 52,000 Korean citizens in 1912 alone.
Kim rejected the feudal traditions of older-generation Koreans and became interested in Communist ideologies. His formal education ended when the police arrested and jailed him for his subversive activities. At 17, Kim had become the youngest member of an underground Marxist organization with fewer than 20 members. 2 years later, he joined the Communist Party of China. The Communist Party of Korea had been founded in 1925, but had been thrown out of the Comintern the early 1930s for being too nationalist.
The Comintern was an international communist organization that advocated world communism. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State. It was founded after the 1915 Zimmerwald Conference in Switzerland which Vladimir Lenin had organized against those who refused to approve any statement explicitly endorsing socialist revolutionary action. The Comintern was officially dissolved by Joseph Stalin in 1943.
Feelings against the Japanese ran high in Manchuria. In 1930, a spontaneous violent uprising in eastern Manchuria arose in which peasants attacked some local villages in the name of resisting "Japanese aggression." The authorities easily suppressed this unplanned, reckless and unfocused uprising. Because of the attack, the Japanese began to plan an occupation of Manchuria. A relatively weak dynamite explosive charge went off near a Japanese railroad in Manchuria and although no damage occurred, the Japanese used the incident as an excuse to send armed forces into Manchuria and to appoint a new puppet government.
Kim joined various anti-Japanese guerrilla groups in northern China. In 1935, he became a member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, a guerrilla group led by the Communist Party of China. Kim led his troops to victories for which he became famous. Japanese regarded Kim as one of the most effective and popular Korean guerrilla leaders. By the end of 1940 he was the only leader still alive. Pursued by Japanese troops, Kim and what remained of his army escaped into the Soviet Union where the Soviets retrained the Korean Communist guerrillas. Kim became a Major in the Soviet Red Army and served in it until the end of WWII in 1945. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan in 1945, and the Red Army entered Pyongyang. Kim was chosen by Stalin as a Communist leader for the Soviet-occupied territories. The Soviets installed Kim as chairman of the North Korean branch of the Korean Communist Party and he returned after 26 years in exile. His Korean was marginal at best as he had only had 8 years of formal education, all of it in Chinese.
In 1949, Kim became the party chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and a cult of personality was promoted. Statues of Kim appeared, and the people began calling him the "Great Leader". North Korea's decision to invade South Korea a year later was a counter-attack to the United States`s occasional invasions with the intention to push further north and into the Asian continent. Soviet intelligence had obtained information on the limitations of US atomic bomb stockpiles as well as defense program cuts, leading Stalin to conclude that the Truman administration would not intervene in Korea.
After a series of offensives and counter-offensives by both sides, followed by a grueling period of largely static trench warfare that lasted 2 years, the front was stabilized along a demilitarized zone. Over 2.5 million people died during the Korean war.
Kim immediately embarked on a large reconstruction effort. He launched a 5-year national economic plan with all industry owned by the state and all agriculture collectivized. The economy was focused on heavy industry and arms production. In the ensuing years, Kim established himself as an independent leader of international communism. Kim Il-sung successfully resisted efforts by the Soviet Union and China to depose him. In 1955, rival leaders in the Korean Communist Party were purged and executed. A year later, he joined Mao in the "anti-revisionist" camp, which did not accept Khrushchev's program of de-Stalinization, yet he did not become a Maoist himself. At the same time, he consolidated his power over the Korean communist movement. In the mid-1960s, Kim became impressed with the efforts of North Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh to reunify Vietnam through guerrilla warfare and thought something similar might be possible in Korea one day. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, from 1989–1991, completed North Korea's virtual isolation. These events led to mounting economic difficulties because Kim refused to issue any economic or democratic reforms.
In 1994, Kim began investing in nuclear power to offset energy shortages brought on by economic problems. This was the first of many "nuclear crises". Despite repeated chiding from Western nations, Kim continued to conduct nuclear research and carry on with the uranium enrichment program.
Kim Il-sung collapsed from a sudden heart attack at the age of 82. Kim Il-sung's death resulted in nationwide mourning and a 10 day mourning period was declared by Kim Jong-il. His funeral in Pyongyang was attended by hundreds of thousands of people who were flown into the city from all over North Korea. Kim Il-sung's body was placed in a public mausoleum where his preserved and embalmed body lies under a glass coffin for viewing purposes. His head rests on a traditional Korean pillow and he is covered by the flag of the Workers' Party of Korea.
Richard Nixon was an American politician who served as a Republican President of the USA from 1969 until his resignation in 1974, when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office. Nixon was born in California and served as a senator there. He had a reputation as a leading anti-communist, and because of that was elevated to national prominence. Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, and ended the military draft.
The Vietnam War occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1955 to the fall of Saigon in 1975. It was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese Army was supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies and the South Vietnamese army was supported by the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies. The Viet Cong also known as the National Liberation Front, were South Vietnamese communists aided by the North, fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region, while the People's Army of Vietnam, also known as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) engaged in more conventional warfare, at times committing large units to battle. As the war continued, the military actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role and engagement of the NVA grew. South Vietnamese and U.S. forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, and airstrikes. In the course of the war, the U.S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
The North Vietnamese government, along with the Viet Cong, was fighting to reunify Vietnam. They viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later from the U.S. The U.S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism.
Beginning in 1950, American military advisers arrived in what was then French Indochina. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s and peaked in 1968. Gradual withdrawal of U.S. ground forces began as part of "Vietnamization", which aimed to end American involvement in the war while transferring the task of fighting the Communists to the South Vietnamese themselves. In the U.S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture. Direct U.S. military involvement ended in 1973 and Saigon was captured by the North Vietnamese Army in 1975 which marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities. Nearly 4 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed with 300,000 Cambodians and 50,000 Laotians and nearly 60,000 US service members. Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972 opened diplomatic relations between the 2 nations, and he initiated détente and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union the same year.
Nixon's administration generally transferred power from Washington to the states. He imposed wage and price controls for a period of 90 days, enforced desegregation of Southern schools and established the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon also presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing, which signaled the end of the moon race. He was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U.S. history in 1972, when he defeated George McGovern. In 1972, Nixon received 520 (96.7%) of the electoral votes while George McGovern received only 17 (3.2%).
Nixon undertook a series of economic measures referred to as the Nixon Shock in 1971, the most significant of which was the unilateral cancellation of the Bretton Woods international agreement where the United States was committed to backing every dollar overseas with gold. Other currencies were fixed to the dollar, and the dollar was pegged to gold. When countries began to convert their dollars into gold, Nixon cancelled the agreement. The dollar became a fiat currency no longer backed by gold, but by trust. The promise on each note “redeemable in gold” was replaced by “in God we trust” with god meaning the privately owned US central bank, the Federal Reserve, that had the right to print as much dollars for the government as it felt needed, and earn interest on it.
The year 1973 saw an Arab oil embargo, gasoline rationing, and a continuing series of revelations about the Watergate scandal where Nixon attempted a cover-up of his involvement in a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The scandal escalated, costing Nixon much of his political support, and in 1974, he resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office. After his resignation, he was issued a pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford. In retirement, Nixon's work writing several books and undertaking of many foreign trips helped to rehabilitate his image.
He suffered a debilitating stroke and died 4 days later at the age of 81.
Augusto Pinochet was a Chilean general, politician and the dictator of Chile for 17 years between 1973 and 1990. He remained the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 1998. Pinochet assumed power in Chile following a United States-backed coup d'état in 1973 that overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of President Salvador Allende and ended civilian rule. Pinochet admired Napoleon as the greatest among French and also greatly admired Louis XIV.
Under the influence of the free market-oriented neoliberal "Chicago Boys" led by Milton Friedman, the military government implemented economic liberalization, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. These policies produced what has been referred to as the "Miracle of Chile." Critics claimed that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. Chile was, for most of the 1990s, the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms continues to be in dispute.
The Crisis of 1982 was a major economic crisis suffered in Chile. The crisis took place during the time of the Chilean military dictatorship following years of radical neoliberal reforms. The 1982 crisis was the worst economic crisis in Chile since the 1930s. The GDP of Chile retracted 14.3% and unemployment rose to 23.7%. After the socialist presidency of Salvador Allende (1970—1973), and following the 1973 coup, the Chicago boys implemented the neoliberal economic policies. In 1979 however, Chile decided to depart from the neoliberal principle of free floating exchange rates, with disastrous results.
The lead up to the 1982 crisis can be traced to the overvalue of the Chilean peso which was helped by the peg of the peso to the US dollar and to high interest rates in Chile that hampered investment activities. From 1973 to 1982 Chile's external debt rose astronomically. In 1981, two banks were bailed out by the government on the basis of having taken excessive risks. 2 financial were also bailed out. 2 banks were nationalized. A year later, the government made a massive bank intervention, bailing out 5 banks and dissolving 3 others.
In the years following the crisis the economic policy of the dictatorship changed to include price bands for some foodstuffs and a floating exchange rate. A price band is a policy instrument that insulates domestic producers when the world price for a commodity falls below a calculated reference price. Protection is provided by imposing tariffs on the imported commodity.
Supporters of the neoliberal policy of the military dictatorship have argued that the crisis was born outside Chile and hit the whole of Latin America in the so-called “Lost Decade”. Others contest that this kind of crisis are inherent weaknesses of the neoliberal model. Economist Milton Friedman blamed precisely the departure from the neoliberal model and political intervention which a fixed exchange rate is. According to some, the changes to economic policies in the 1970s caused mass unemployment, purchasing power losses, extreme inequalities in the distribution of income and severe socio-economic damage. It is argued that the 1982 crises as well as the success of the economic policy after 1982 proved that the 1973 -1981 radical economic policy of the Chicago boys harmed the Chilean economy. Pinochet’s fortune grew considerably during his years in power through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud and for commissions levied on arms deals.
Chile was officially neutral during the Argentinian Falklands War in 1982, but Chile's long range radar gave the British task force early warning of air attacks. The 10-week war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over British overseas territories in the South Atlantic began when Argentina invaded and occupied the islands in an attempt to establish the sovereignty it had claimed over them. Chile's warning allowed British ships and troops in the war zone to take defensive action. Chilean support included military intelligence gathering, radar surveillance, allowing British aircraft to operate with Chilean colors, and facilitating the safe return of British Special Forces.
Pinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new Constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the Presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution.
Pinochet was born in Valparaíso. At age 16, Pinochet entered Military School and after 4 years studying military geography, he graduated with the rank of Second Lieutenant in the infantry. In 1943, at age 28, Pinochet married and had 5 children. 2 years later, he returned to his studies in the Academy, and after obtaining the title of Officer Chief of Staff in 1951, he returned to teach at the Military School.
In 1968, at age 43, he was named Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Division, based in Santiago, and at the end of that year, he was promoted to brigadier general and Commander in Chief of the 6th Division. 3 years later, he was promoted to division general and was named General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison and within a year, he was appointed General Chief of Staff of the Army. With rising domestic strife in Chile, Pinochet was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army in 1973 by President Salvador Allende just the day after the Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved a resolution asserting that the government was not respecting the Constitution. Less than a month later, the Chilean military deposed Allende. The combined Chilean Armed Forces overthrew Allende's government in a coup, during which the presidential palace was shelled and Allende was assassinated.
Pinochet was the leading plotter of the coup and had used his position as commander-in-chief of the Army to coordinate a far-reaching scheme with the other 2 branches of the military and the national police. The new government rounded up thousands of people and held them in the national stadium where many were killed. This was followed by brutal repression during Pinochet's rule.
The CIA helped fabricate a conspiracy against the Allende government, which Pinochet was then portrayed as preventing. The US imposed an "invisible blockade" that was designed to disrupt the economy under Allende, and contributed to the destabilization of the regime. The US covert actions actively destabilized Allende's government and set the stage for the 1973 coup.
The U.S. provided material support to the military government after the coup, although criticizing it in public. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000, titled "CIA Activities in Chile", revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende, and that it made many of Pinochet's officers into paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military, even though some were known to be involved in human rights abuses. The CIA also maintained contacts in the Chilean DINA intelligence service. DINA led the multinational campaign which among other activities carried out assassinations of prominent politicians in various Latin American countries, in Washington, D.C., and in Europe. DINA kidnapped, tortured and executed activists holding left-wing views. This culminated in the deaths of 60,000 people. The United States provided key organizational, financial and technical assistance to the operation.
A military junta was established immediately following the coup. The junta exercised both executive and legislative functions of the government, suspended the Constitution and the Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, banned all parties and halted all political activities. This military junta held the executive role for the first year, after which it remained strictly as a legislative body, the executive powers being transferred to Pinochet with the title of President. The junta members originally planned that the presidency would be held for a year by the commanders-in-chief of each of the 4 military branches in turn. Pinochet consolidated his control, first retaining sole chairmanship of the military junta, and then proclaiming himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation."
In 1973, the Chilean economy was deeply hurt for several reasons, including the expropriation of 600 businesses by the Allende government, a tiered exchange rate that distorted markets, protectionism, and the economic sanctions imposed by the Nixon administration. Inflation was 1000%, the country had no foreign reserves, and GDP was falling rapidly. By 1975, the government set forth an economic policy of free-market reforms that attempted to stop inflation and collapse. Pinochet declared that he wanted "to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of proprietors." To formulate the economic rescue, the government relied on the so-called Chicago Boys led by US economist Milton Friedman.
There was an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Pinochet. His military bodyguard was taken by surprise, and 5 members were killed. Pinochet's bulletproof Mercedes Benz vehicle was struck by a rocket, but it failed to explode and Pinochet suffered only minor injuries. The junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's coalition. All other parties were placed in "indefinite recess" and were later banned outright. The government's violence was directed not only against dissidents but also against their families and other civilians.
Chile's nationalized main copper mines remained in government hands, with the 1980 Constitution later declaring them "inalienable". In 1976, Codelco was established to exploit them but new mineral deposits were opened to private investment. Capitalist involvement was increased, the Chilean pension system and health care and education were privatized.
Financial conglomerates became major beneficiaries of the liberalized economy and the flood of foreign bank loans. Large foreign banks reinstated the credit cycle, as the Junta saw that the basic state obligations, such as resuming payment of principal and interest installments, were honored. International lending organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank lent vast sums anew. Many foreign multinational corporations such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Dow Chemical, and Firestone, all expropriated by Allende, returned to Chile. Pinochet's policies eventually led to substantial GDP growth, in contrast to the negative growth seen in the early years of his administration. Foreign debt also grew substantially under Pinochet, rising 300% between 1974 and 1988.
His government implemented an economic model that had 3 main objectives: economic liberalization, privatization of state owned companies, and stabilization of inflation. In 1985, the government started with a second round of privatization, it revised previously introduced tariff increases and gave a greater supervisory role for the Central Bank. Pinochet's market liberalizations have continued after his death.
Wages decreased by 8%. Family allowances in 1989 were 28% of what they had been in 1970 and the budgets for education, health and housing had dropped by over 20% on average. The junta relied on the middle class, the oligarchy, foreign corporations, and foreign loans to maintain itself. Businesses recovered most of their lost industrial and agricultural holdings, for the junta returned properties to original owners who had lost them during expropriations, and sold other industries expropriated by Allende's government to private buyers. This period saw the expansion of business and widespread speculation.
Pinochet organized a plebiscite in 1980 to ratify a new constitution, replacing the 1925 Constitution. The new Constitution gave a lot of power to the President of the Republic, Pinochet. It created some new institutions, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the controversial National Security Council (COSENA). It also prescribed an 8-year presidential period.
Critics argue the neoliberal economic policies of the Pinochet regime resulted in widening inequality and deepening poverty as they negatively impacted the wages, benefits and working conditions of Chile's working class. By the end of Pinochet's reign, around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line. By the late 1980s the economy had stabilized and was growing, but around 45% of the population had fallen into poverty while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes rise by 83%.
Confronted with increasing opposition, notably at the international level, Pinochet legalized political parties in 1987 and called for a vote to determine whether or not he would remain in power until 1997. If the "YES" won, Pinochet would have to implement the dispositions of the 1980 Constitution, mainly the call for general elections, while he would himself remain in power as President. If the "NO" won, Pinochet would remain President for another year, and a joint Presidential and Parliamentary election would be scheduled. Political advertising was legalized as a necessary element for the campaign for the "NO" to the referendum, which countered the official campaign, which presaged a return to a Popular Unity government in case of a defeat of Pinochet. The opposition gathered into the “Coalition of Parties for NO".
The "NO" option won with 56% of the votes, against 44% of "YES" votes. Pinochet accepted the result and the ensuing Constitutional process led to presidential and legislative elections the following year. The opposition and the Pinochet government made several negotiations to amend the Constitution and agreed to 54 modifications. These amendments changed the way the Constitution would be modified in the future, added restrictions to state of emergency dispositions, the affirmation of political pluralism, and enhanced constitutional rights as well as the democratic principle and participation to political life. The Constitutional changes were approved by 91.25% of the voters.
A Christian Democrat won the 1989 presidential election with 55% of the votes and in 1990, Pinochet left the presidency and transferred power to the new democratically elected president. Pinochet remained as Commander-in-Chief of the Army until 1998. He was then sworn in as a senator-for-life, a privilege granted by the 1980 constitution to former presidents with at least 6 years in office. His senator-ship and consequent immunity from prosecution protected him from legal action in Chile. Shortly before giving up his power, Pinochet prohibited all forms of abortion, previously authorized in case of rape or risk to the life of the mother.
In 1998, Pinochet was arrested while on a trip to London. The case was a watershed event in judicial history, as it was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction. Out under house arrest, he was eventually released in 2000 on medical grounds without facing trial. Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president," which granted its holder immunity from prosecution and a financial allowance; this replaced Pinochet's senatorship-for-life. 111 legislators voted for, and 29 against. In 2000, Pinochet was stripped of his parliamentary immunity by the Supreme Court, and indicted. Pinochet resigned from his senatorial seat shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling. Pinochet, who still benefited from a reputation of righteousness from his supporters, lost legitimacy when he was put under house arrest on tax fraud and passport forgery.
Pinochet's trial continued until his death with an alternation of indictments for specific cases, lifting of immunities by the Supreme Court or to the contrary immunity from prosecution, with his health a main argument for, or against, his prosecution. In 2002, Pinochet was indicted for the kidnapping of 75 opponents. The Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment for various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons. The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember. 2 years later, the Supreme Court overturned its precedent decision, and ruled that he was capable of standing trial. He was charged with several crimes and was again placed under house arrest. He suffered a stroke. When questioned if he was the direct head of DINA, he answered: "I don't remember, but it's not true. And if it were true, I don't remember." In 2006 Pinochet was indicted for kidnappings and torture. A DINA biochemist admitted to having created black cocaine, which Pinochet then sold in Europe and the United States. The money for the drug trade was allegedly deposited into Pinochet's bank accounts. He was again sentenced to house arrest for the kidnapping and murder of 2 bodyguards of Salvador Allende.
In 2004, a United States Senate money laundering investigation uncovered a network of over 125 securities and bank accounts used by Pinochet and his associates for 25 years to secretly move millions of dollars. A year later, Pinochet's wife and 4 of his children, his personal secretary and his former aide were indicted on tax evasion and falsification charges stemming from the investigation. A year later, Pinochet's daughter was detained at Washington DC-Dulles airport and subsequently deported while attempting to evade the tax charges in Chile. A year later, Pinochet's 5 children, his wife and 17 other persons including 2 generals, one of his former lawyer and former secretary were arrested on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They were accused of having illegally transferred millions to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.
Pinochet suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 91 without having been convicted of any of the crimes of which he was accused.
Massive spontaneous street demonstrations broke out throughout the country upon the news of his death. Routine sadism was taken to extremes in the prison camps. The rape of women was common, including sexual torture such as the insertion of rats into genitals and "unnatural acts involving dogs." Detainees were forcibly immersed in vats of urine and excrement. Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as "the telephone" involved the torturer slamming his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim, leaving the person deaf. Prisoners were dragged into the parking lot and had the bones in their legs crushed as they were run over with trucks. Some died from torture; prisoners were beaten with chains and left to die from internal injuries. Following abuse and execution, corpses were interred in secret graves, dropped into rivers or the ocean, or just dumped on urban streets in the night.
Kennedy, commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from 1961 until his assassination. Many important historic events took place during his presidency.
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between 2 Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), for supremacy in spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the missile-based nuclear arms race between the 2 nations that occurred following WWII, aided by captured German missile technology and personnel. The technological superiority required for such supremacy was seen as necessary for national security, and symbolic of ideological superiority. The Space Race spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, unmanned space probes and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group in 1961. This counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. The invading force was defeated within 3 days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Castro.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. An agreement was reached during a secret meeting between Khrushchev and Fidel Castro in 1962 and construction of a number of missile launch facilities. Along with being televised worldwide, it was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, and the presence of American ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to agree to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter future harassment of Cuba.
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibited all test detonations of nuclear weapons except for those conducted underground. Negotiations initially focused on a comprehensive ban, but this was abandoned due to technical questions surrounding the detection of underground tests and Soviet concerns over the intrusiveness of proposed verification methods. The impetus for the test ban was provided by rising public anxiety over the magnitude of nuclear tests, particularly tests of new thermonuclear weapons called hydrogen bombs, because they were based on nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei and the resulting nuclear fallout. A test ban was also seen as a means of slowing nuclear proliferation and the nuclear arms race. Though the ban did not halt proliferation or the arms race, its enactment did coincide with a substantial decline in the concentration of radioactive particles in the atmosphere.
The Peace Corps, a volunteer program run by the United States government was established by Executive Order issued in 1961. The stated mission of the Peace Corps included providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand American culture, and helping Americans to understand the cultures of other countries. The work is generally related to social and economic development. Each program participant, a Peace Corps Volunteer, was an American citizen, typically with a college degree, who worked abroad for a period of 2 years after 3 months of training. Volunteers worked with governments, schools, non-profit organizations, non-government organizations, and entrepreneurs in education, business, information technology, agriculture, and the environment.
The building of the Berlin Wall, a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989 completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it nearly 30 years after it was built. Families living in the same neighborhood but on opposite sides of the wall were prevented from contacting each other. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area later known as the "death strip" that contained anti-vehicle trenches and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-WWII period.
The Trade Expansion Act to lower tariffs was enacted in 1962. The United States Congress granted the White House unprecedented authority to negotiate tariff reductions of up to 80%. It paved the way for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ("GATT") negotiations, concluding in 1967. GATT was a multilateral agreement regulating international trade. According to its preamble, its purpose was the "substantial reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis." It was negotiated during the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment. It eventually led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.
The Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s encompassed social movements in the United States whose goals were to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans and to secure legal recognition and federal protection of the citizenship rights enumerated in the Constitution and federal law. The leadership was African American, and much of the political and financial support came from labor unions, major religious denominations, and prominent white Democratic Party politicians such as Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon B. Johnson and white Republican Party politicians such as Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Senator Everett Dirksen. The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance.
Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations and productive dialogues between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations, which highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts, sit-ins, marches, and a wide range of other nonviolent activities. This phase of the Civil Rights Movement witnessed the passage of several major pieces of federal legislation.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, expressly banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment practices and ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace, and by public accommodations.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored and protected voting rights for minorities.
The Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 removed racial and national barriers and opened the way for black immigrants from Africa and the Western Hemisphere.
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.
African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to take action. A wave of inner city riots in black communities from 1964 through 1970 undercut support from the white community. The emergence of the Black Power movement, which lasted from 1966 to 1975, challenged the established black leadership for its cooperative attitude and its nonviolence, and demanded political and economic self-sufficiency. Many popular representations of the movement are centered on the leadership and philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the movement.
Kennedy defeated Vice President, and Republican candidate, Nixon in the 1960 U.S. Presidential Election. At age 43, he became the youngest elected president. In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, famously saying: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
President John F. Kennedy gave his speech "The President and the Press" in 1961 before the American Newspaper Publishers Association:
"The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know."
"For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed”.
“Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed-- and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment-- the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution-- not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"--but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold educate and sometimes even anger public opinion”.
“And so it is to the printing press--to the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news-- that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent."
In 1963 President Kennedy signed executive order #11110 which restored the U.S. Government's authority to issue currency without the Federal Reserve. President Kennedy was assassinated 90 days after signing this executive order and the executive order was never carried out.
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested that afternoon and determined to have fired shots that hit the President from a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby mortally wounded Oswald 2 days later in a jail corridor. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, but its report was sharply criticized. The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations agreed that Oswald fired the shots that killed the president, but also concluded that Kennedy was likely assassinated as the result of a conspiracy. The majority of Americans alive at the time of the assassination and continuing into the next generation believed that there was a conspiracy and that Oswald was not the only shooter. Since the 1960s, information concerning Kennedy's private life has come to light, including his health problems and allegations of infidelity.
President Kennedy and President Lincoln, who served as President 100 years before share very strange coincidences.
- Both were tragically assassinated during their term in office. Both were admired by many and hated by those who opposed his political views. Both were directly concerned with Civil Rights. Both had a child who died while they were in the White House.
- Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946 and 14 years later to the presidency. Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846 and 14 years later to the presidency.
- Kennedy was shot in the back of the head on a Friday in the presence of his wife by Lee Harvey Oswald. Lincoln was shot in the back of the head on a Friday in the presence of his wife by John Wilkes Booth.
- Kennedy's secretary, named Lincoln, warned him not to go to Dallas. Lincoln's secretary, named Kennedy, warned him not to go to the theater.
- Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse while Kennedy was riding in a Lincoln limousine made by Ford with his wife sitting in car number 7. Booth shot Lincoln in the Ford Theater while Lincoln was attending a play with his wife sitting in box number 7.
- Oswald fled to a theater after shooting Kennedy from a warehouse. Booth fled to a warehouse after shooting Lincoln in a theater.
- Both Booth and Oswald were suspected to be part of a greater conspiracy and were killed before being brought to trial.
- Kennedy's successor was Lyndon Johnson, born in 1908 and died 10 years after Kennedy's death . Lincoln's successor was Andrew Johnson born in 1808 and died 10 years after Lincoln's death.
- Both Kennedy and Lincoln proposed that the federal government be able to issue interest-free currency instead of borrowing money at interest from private banks.
Gamal Nasser was the second President of Egypt, serving 14 years from 1956 until his death. Nasser led the 1952 overthrow of the monarchy and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year. Following a 1954 attempt on his life by a Muslim Brotherhood member, he cracked down on the organization and assumed executive office, officially becoming president in 1956. Nasser's popularity in Egypt and the Arab world skyrocketed after his nationalization of the Suez Canal and his political victory in the subsequent Suez Crisis. Calls for pan-Arab unity under his leadership increased, culminating with the formation of the United Arab Republic with Syria that lasted from 1958-1961.
In 1962, Nasser began a series of major socialist measures and modernization reforms in Egypt. Despite setbacks to his pan-Arabist cause, Nasser's supporters gained power in several Arab countries, but he became embroiled in the North Yemen Civil War. He began his second presidential term in 1965 after his political opponents were banned from running. Following Egypt's defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, Nasser resigned, but he returned to office after popular demonstrations called for his reinstatement. By 1968, Nasser had appointed himself prime minister, launched unsuccessful attack for 3 years trying to regain lost territory. He began a process of depoliticizing the military, and issued a set of political liberalization reforms. Nasser became an iconic figure in the Arab world, particularly for his strides towards social justice and Arab unity, modernization policies, and anti-imperialist efforts. His presidency also encouraged and coincided with an Egyptian cultural boom, and launched large industrial projects, including the Aswan Dam.
The Aswan Dam was built across the Nile between 1960 and 1970. Construction of the Dam became a key objective of the government following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. With its ability to control flooding better, provide increased water storage for irrigation and generate hydroelectricity the dam was seen as pivotal to Egypt's planned industrialization. Like the earlier implementation, the Dam has had a significant effect on the economy and culture of Egypt.
Before the Dam was built, the annual flooding of the Nile during late summer had continued to pass largely unimpeded down the valley from its East African drainage basin. These floods brought high water with natural nutrients and minerals that annually enriched the fertile soil along its floodplain and delta. This predictability had made the Nile valley ideal for farming since ancient times. Since this natural flooding varied however, high-water years could destroy the whole crop, while low-water years could create widespread drought and associated famine. Both these events had continued to occur periodically. As Egypt's population grew and technology increased, both a desire and the ability developed to completely control the flooding, and thus both protect and support farmland and its economically important cotton crop. With the greatly increased reservoir storage provided by the High Aswan Dam, the floods could be controlled and the water could be stored for later release over multiple years.
The Dam has resulted in protection from floods and droughts, an increase in agricultural production and employment, electricity production, and improved navigation that also benefits tourism. Conversely, the dam flooded a large area, causing the relocation of over 100,000 people. Many archaeological sites were submerged while others were relocated. The dam is blamed for coastline erosion, soil salinity, and health problems.
Egypt has one of the longest histories of any modern country, emerging as one of the world's first nation states in the 10th millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilization, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanization, organized religion and central government. Egypt's rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, which has endured, and at times assimilated, various foreign influences, including Greek, Persian, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and European.
In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers was replaced by a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes or overgrazing in 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. By 6,000BC, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley. Several pre-dynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared on pottery vessels. A unified kingdom was founded in 3,150BC by King Menes, leading to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next 3 millennia. Egyptian culture flourished and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs.
1,550BC marked the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well known Pharaohs. including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first historically attested expression of monotheism came during this period. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom.
In 525 BC, the powerful Achaemenid Persians, led by Cambyses II, assumed the formal title of pharaoh, but ruled Egypt from his home of Susa in Persia (modern Iran). The Persians were toppled several centuries later by Alexander the Great who designated his general Ptolemy to rule Egypt. The last ruler from the Ptolemaic line was Cleopatra, who committed suicide following the burial of her lover Mark Antony who had died in her arms from a self-inflicted stab wound, after Octavian had captured Alexandria for the Roman Empire.
In 639AC, Egypt was invaded and conquered by the Islamic Empire by the Muslim Arabs. The Arabs brought Sunni Islam to the country. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices, leading to various Sufi orders that have flourished. Muslim rulers nominated by the Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next 6 centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Fatimid Caliphate.
In 1250, the Mamluks, a Turko military caste, took control. A century later, the Black Death killed about 40% of the country's population. In 1517, Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and became a province of the Ottoman Empire. The defensive militarization damaged its civil society and economic institutions. The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade. Between 1687 and 1731, Egypt experienced 6 famines. The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population. Egypt was always a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control, due in part to the continuing power and influence of the Mamluks, the Egyptian military caste who had ruled the country for centuries. Egypt remained semi-autonomous under the Mamluks until it was invaded by the French forces of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, and subsequently defeated by the British.
The Suez Canal, built in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. Its construction led to enormous debt to European banks, and caused popular discontent because of the onerous taxation it required. In 1875 Egypt was forced to sell its share in the canal to the British government. Within 3 years this led to the imposition of British and French controllers who sat in the Egyptian cabinet, and, with the financial power of the bondholders behind them, were the real power in the Government. Local dissatisfaction with European intrusion led to the formation of the first nationalist groupings in 1879. After WWI, the country arose in its first modern revolution. The Egyptian revolution of 1919 was a countrywide revolution against the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan. It was carried out by Egyptians and Sudanese from different walks of life in the wake of the British-ordered exile of revolutionary leaders. The revolt led the UK government to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence in 1922.
Following the 1952 Revolution by the Free Officers Movement, the rule of Egypt passed to military hands. Nasser assumed power as President in 1956. He nationalized the Suez Canal which caused an invasion of Egypt by Israel UK and France to regain Western control of the Suez Canal and to remove Egyptian President Nasser from power. After the fighting had started, political pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations led to a withdrawal by the invaders and Egyptian sovereignty and ownership of the Canal was confirmed by the United States and the United Nations. The episode humiliated Great Britain and France and strengthened Nasser.
Gamal Nasser was born the son of a postal worker in Alexandria. He attended a primary school for the children of railway employees until 1924, when he was sent to live with his paternal uncle in Cairo, and to attend elementary school. Nasser's family traveled frequently due to his father's work. He was not distressed by his frequent relocations, which broadened his horizons and showed him Egyptian society's class divisions. His own social status was well below the wealthy Egyptian elite, and his discontent with those born into wealth and power grew throughout his lifetime. Nasser spent most of his spare time reading, particularly when he lived near the National Library of Egypt. He read the Qur'an, the sayings of Muhammad and the biographies of nationalist leaders Napoleon, Atatürk, Otto von Bismarck, and Garibaldi and Winston Churchill.
It was in Alexandria that Nasser became involved in political activism. After witnessing clashes between protesters and police he joined in demonstrations calling for the end of colonialism in Egypt. In 1935, when he was 17, Nasser led a student demonstration against British rule and was wounded and almost killed. Nasser's involvement in political activity increased throughout his school years, such that he only attended 45 days of classes during his last year of secondary school. Despite it having the almost unanimous backing of Egypt's political forces, Nasser strongly objected to the continued presence of British military bases in the country.
In 1937, Nasser focused on his military career and had little contact with his family. At the academy, he met Anwar Sadat, with whom he first discussed dissatisfaction at widespread corruption in the country and their desire to topple the monarchy. Because of his energy, clear-thinking, and balanced judgment, Nasser emerged as the group's natural leader.
In 1942, the British Ambassador marched into King Farouk's palace and ordered him to dismiss the Prime Minister for having pro-Axis sympathies. Nasser saw the incident as a blatant violation of Egyptian sovereignty and wrote, "I am ashamed that our army has not reacted against this attack", and wished for "calamity" to overtake the British. He began to form a group of young military officers with strong nationalist sentiments who supported some form of revolution.
Nasser's first battlefield experience was in Palestine during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Following the British withdrawal, King Farouk sent the Egyptian army into Palestine and Nasser became a national hero for enduring Israeli bombardment while isolated from their command. After the war, Nasser sent emissaries to forge an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood but soon concluded that the religious agenda of the Brotherhood was not compatible with his nationalism. From then on, Nasser prevented the Brotherhood's influence over his cadres' activities without severing ties with the organization.
After 1949, Nasser's group adopted the name "Association of Free Officers" and advocated little else but freedom and the restoration of their country’s dignity. Nasser`s group comprised 14 men from different social and political backgrounds, including representation from the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian Communist Party, and the aristocracy. Nasser was unanimously elected chairman. Nasser was determined to establish the independence of the army from the monarchy. In 1952, a confrontation between British forces and police resulted in the deaths of 40 Egyptian policemen, provoking riots in Cairo the next day which left 76 people dead. Afterwards, Nasser published a simple 6-point program to dismantle feudalism and British influence in Egypt. The Free Officers' intention was not to install themselves in government, but to re-establish a parliamentary democracy. Nasser did not believe that a low-ranking officer like himself would be accepted by the Egyptian people, and so selected General Naguib to be his "boss" and lead the coup in name. The revolution they had long sought was launched and was declared a success the next day. The Free Officers seized control of all government buildings, radio stations, and police stations, as well as army headquarters in Cairo. While many of the rebel officers were leading their units, Nasser donned civilian clothing to avoid detection by royalists and moved around Cairo monitoring the situation. In a move to stave off foreign intervention 2 days before the revolution, Nasser had notified the American and British governments of his intentions, and both had agreed not to aid Farouk. Under pressure from the Americans, Nasser had agreed to exile the deposed king with an honorary ceremony.
In 1953, the monarchy was abolished and the Republic of Egypt declared, with Naguib as its first president. After assuming power, Nasser and the Free Officers expected to become the "guardians of the people's interests" against the monarchy and the privileged pasha class while leaving the day-to-day tasks of government to civilians. The Free Officers then governed as the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) with Naguib as chairman and Nasser as vice-chairman. Relations between the RCC and the civic government grew tense, as the latter viewed many of Nasser's schemes - agrarian reform, abolition of the monarchy, reorganization of political parties as too radical. He was deposed and Naguib assumed the role of prime minister, and Nasser that of deputy prime minister. Nasser`s Agrarian Reform Law was put into effect This law gave the RCC its own identity and transformed the coup into a revolution.
Prior to the 1952 coup that installed Naguib as President, less than 6% of Egypt's population owned more than 65% of the land in the country, and less than 0.5% of Egyptians owned more than one-third of all fertile land. These major owners had almost autocratic control over the land they owned and charged high rents which averaged 75% of the income generated by the rented land. These high rents coupled with the high interest rates charged by banks plunged many small farmers and peasants into debt. Furthermore, peasants who worked as laborers on farms also suffered, receiving extremely low wages. They were characterized as an exploited mass surrounded by hunger, disease and death, much like the French peasants before the French Revolution.
Initially, land reform essentially abolished the political influence of major land owners. However, it only resulted in the redistribution of about 15% of Egypt's land under cultivation, and by the early 1980s, the effects of land reform in Egypt drew to a halt as the population of Egypt moved away from agriculture. The Egyptian land reform laws were greatly curtailed under Anwar Sadat and eventually abolished.
Nasser banned all political parties, creating a one-party system whose chief task was to organize pro-RCC rallies and lectures, with Nasser its secretary-general. Nasser led the Egyptian delegation negotiating a British withdrawal from the Suez Canal. When Naguib began showing signs of independence from Nasser by distancing himself from the RCC's land reform decrees and drawing closer to Egypt's established political forces and the Brotherhood, Nasser resolved to depose him. A year later, Naguib was put under house arrest, and the RCC proclaimed Nasser as both RCC chairman and prime minister. Hundreds of thousands of protesters, mainly belonging to the Brotherhood, called for Naguib's return and Nasser's imprisonment. Nasser's security force arrested thousands of participants in the uprising. The RCC succeeded in provoking the beneficiaries of the revolution, namely the workers, peasants, and petty bourgeois, to oppose the decrees, with one million transport workers launching a strike and thousands of peasants entering Cairo in protest. Nasser announced the decrees' revocation in response to the "impulse of the street". Hundreds of Naguib's supporters in the military were either arrested or dismissed.
A year later, a Muslim Brotherhood member attempted to assassinate Nasser while he was delivering a speech in Alexandria to celebrate the British military withdrawal. The speech was broadcast to the Arab world via radio. The gunman was less than 10 m away from him and fired 8 shots, but all missed Nasser. Panic broke out in the mass audience, but Nasser maintained his posture and raised his voice to appeal for calm. With great emotion he exclaimed the following:
“My countrymen, my blood spills for you and for Egypt. I will live for your sake and die for the sake of your freedom and honor. Let them kill me; it does not concern me so long as I have instilled pride, honor, and freedom in you. If Gamal Abdel Nasser should die, each of you shall be Gamal Nasser ... Gamal Nasser is of you and from you and he is willing to sacrifice his life for the nation.”
The crowd roared in approval and Arab audiences were electrified. The assassination attempt backfired, quickly playing into Nasser's hands. Upon returning to Cairo, he ordered one of the largest political crackdowns in the modern history of Egypt, with the arrests of thousands of dissenters, mostly members of the Brotherhood, but also communists, and the dismissal of 140 officers loyal to Naguib. 8 Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to death. Naguib was removed from the presidency and put under house arrest, but was never tried or sentenced, and no one in the army rose to defend him. With his rivals neutralized, Nasser became the undisputed leader of Egypt.
Nasser's street following was still too small to sustain his plans for reform and to secure him in office. To promote himself and the Liberation Rally, he gave speeches in a cross-country tour, and imposed controls over the country's press by decreeing that all publications had to be approved by the party to prevent "sedition". In 1955, the RCC appointed him as their president, pending national elections.
Israeli troops attacked the Egyptian-held Gaza Strip with the stated aim of suppressing Palestinian Fedayeen raids. Palestinian Fedayeen are militants or guerrillas of a nationalist orientation from among the Palestinian people. Palestinians consider the Fedayeen to be "freedom fighters", while Israelis consider them to be terrorists. Considered symbols of the Palestinian national movement, the Palestinian Fedayeen drew inspiration from guerrilla movements in Vietnam, China, Algeria and Latin America. The ideology of the Palestinian Fedayeen was mainly left-wing nationalist, socialist or communist, and their proclaimed purpose was to defeat Zionism, claim Palestine and establish it as "a secular, democratic, nonsectarian state".
Emerging from among the Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their villages as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, in the mid-1950s the Fedayeen began mounting cross-border operations into Israel from Syria, Egypt and Jordan. The earliest infiltrations were often to access the lands and agricultural products they had lost as a result of the war, or to attack Israeli military, and sometimes civilian targets. The Gaza Strip, a Palestinian state declared in 1948, became the focal point of the Palestinian Fedayeen activity. Fedayeen attacks were directed on Gaza and Sinai borders with Israel, and as a result Israel undertook retaliatory actions, targeting the Fedayeen that also often targeted the citizens of their host countries, which in turn provoked more attacks.
Palestinian Fedayeen groups were united under the umbrella the Palestine Liberation Organization after the defeat of the Arab armies in the 1967 Six-Day War, though each group retained its own leader and independent armed forces.
Nasser did not feel that the Egyptian Army was ready for a confrontation and did not retaliate militarily. His failure to respond to Israeli military action demonstrated the ineffectiveness of his armed forces and constituted a blow to his growing popularity. Nasser subsequently ordered the tightening of the blockade on Israeli shipping through the Straits of Tiran and restricted the use of airspace over the Gulf of Aqaba by Israeli aircraft. Nasser felt that if he was to maintain Egypt's regional leadership position he needed to acquire modern weaponry to arm his military. When it became apparent to him that Western countries would not supply Egypt under acceptable financial and military terms, Nasser turned to the Eastern Bloc.
Nasser mediated discussions between the pro-Western, pro-Soviet, and neutralist conference factions addressing colonialism in Africa and Asia and the fostering of global peace amid the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union. Nasser sought a proclamation for the avoidance of international defense alliances, support for the independence of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco from French rule, support for the Palestinian right of return, and the implementation of UN resolutions regarding the Arab–Israeli conflict. He succeeded in lobbying the attendees to pass resolutions on each of these issues, notably securing the strong support of China and India. Nasser officially adopted the "positive neutralism" of Yugoslavian president Tito and Indian Prime Minister Nehru as a principal theme of Egyptian foreign policy regarding the Cold War. Nasser was welcomed by large crowds of people lining the streets of Cairo on his return to Egypt and was widely heralded in the press for his achievements and leadership in the conference. Consequently, Nasser's prestige was greatly boosted as was his self-confidence and image. With his domestic position considerably strengthened, Nasser was able to secure primacy over his RCC colleagues and gained relatively unchallenged decision-making authority, particularly over foreign policy.
In 1956, the new Constitution of Egypt was drafted, entailing the establishment of a single-party system under the National Union (NU) Party, a movement Nasser described as the "framework through which we will realize our revolution". With the NU, Nasser attempted to incorporate more citizens, approved by local-level party committees, in order to solidify popular backing for his government. The NU would select a nominee for the presidential election whose name would be provided for public approval.
Nasser's nomination for the post and the new constitution were put to public referendum and was approved by an overwhelming majority. The constitution granted women's suffrage, prohibited gender-based discrimination, and entailed special protection for women in the workplace. The RCC dissolved itself and its members resigned their military commissions as part of the transition to civilian rule. During the deliberations surrounding the establishment of a new government, Nasser began a process of sidelining his rivals among the original Free Officers, while elevating his closest allies to high-ranking positions in the cabinet.
After the 3-year transition period ended with Nasser's official assumption of power, his domestic and independent foreign policies increasingly collided with the regional interests of the UK and France. France condemned his strong support for Algerian independence, and the UK was agitated by Nasser's campaign against the Baghdad Pact formed in 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey and the United Kingdom. US pressure and promises of military and economic aid were key in the negotiations leading to the agreement. The Pact lasted for 24 years till 1979.
Nasser's adherence to neutralism regarding the Cold War, recognition of communist China, and arms deal with the Eastern bloc alienated the United States. In 1956, the US and UK abruptly withdrew their offer to finance construction of the Aswan Dam, citing concerns that Egypt's economy would be overwhelmed by the project. As a response, Nasser gave a speech in Alexandria announcing the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company as a means to fund the Aswan Dam project in light of the British–American withdrawal. In the speech, he denounced British imperialism in Egypt and British control over the canal company's profits, and upheld that the Egyptian people had a right to sovereignty over the waterway, especially since 120,000 Egyptians had died building it. The motion was technically in breach of the international agreement he had signed with the UK in 1954, although he ensured that all existing stockholders would be paid off. That same day, Egypt closed the canal to Israeli shipping. The nationalization announcement was greeted very emotionally by the audience and, throughout the Arab world, thousands entered the streets shouting slogans of support. It was only after the canal's nationalization that Nasser gained near-total popular legitimacy and firmly established himself as the charismatic leader and spokesman for the masses not only in Egypt, but all over the Third World. Soon his pictures were to be found in the tents of Yemen and the posh villas of Syria.
France and the UK, the largest shareholders in the Suez Canal Company, saw its nationalization as yet another hostile measure aimed at them by the Egyptian government. The UN met on the matter of the canal's nationalization and adopted a resolution recognizing Egypt's right to control the canal as long as it continued to allow passage through it for foreign ships. Shortly thereafter, however, the UK, France, and Israel made a secret agreement to take over the Suez Canal, occupy the Suez Canal zone, and topple Nasser. Israeli forces crossed the Sinai Peninsula, overwhelmed Egyptian army posts, and quickly advanced to their objectives. Two days later, British and French planes bombarded Egyptian airfields in the canal zone. Nasser ordered the military's high command to withdraw the Egyptian Army from Sinai to bolster the canal's defenses. Nasser ordered blockage of the canal by sinking or otherwise disabling 49 ships at its entrance. 2,000 Egyptian soldiers were killed during engagement with Israeli forces, and some 5,000 Egyptian soldiers were captured by the Israeli Army. To counterbalance the Egyptian Army's dismal performance, Nasser authorized the distribution of about 400,000 rifles to civilian volunteers and hundreds of militias were formed throughout Egypt, many led by Nasser's political opponents.
The US Eisenhower administration condemned the tripartite invasion, and supported UN resolutions demanding withdrawal. The resolution was passed and the invaders withdrew. As a result of the Suez Crisis, Nasser brought in a set of regulations imposing rigorous requirements for residency and citizenship as well as forced expulsions, mostly affecting British and French nationals and Jews with foreign nationality, as well as many Egyptian Jews. Some 25,000 Jews, almost half of the Jewish community left in 1956, mainly for Israel, Europe, the United States and South America.
By 1957, pan-Arabism had become the dominant ideology in the Arab world, and the average Arab citizen considered Nasser his undisputed leader. Radio station spread Nasser's ideas of united Arab action throughout the Arabic-speaking world, so much so that one can claim that Nasser conquered the Arab world by radio. Egypt expanded its policy of dispatching thousands of high-skilled Egyptian professionals, usually politically-active teachers, across the region. Nasser also enjoyed the support of Arab nationalist civilian and paramilitary organizations throughout the region. His followers were numerous and well-funded. They called themselves "Nasserites", despite Nasser's objection to the label. The US adopted the Eisenhower Doctrine and pledged to prevent the spread of communism and its perceived agents in the Middle East. Although Nasser was an opponent of communism in the region, his promotion of pan-Arabism was viewed as a threat by pro-Western states in the region. Eisenhower tried to isolate Nasser and reduce his regional influence by attempting to transform King Saud into a counterweight. Relations between Nasser and King Hussein, the king of Jordan deteriorated when Hussein implicated Nasser in 2 coup attempts against him. Nasser subsequently slammed Hussein on Cairo radio as being "a tool of the imperialists". Relations with King Saud also became antagonistic as the latter began to fear that Nasser's increasing popularity in Saudi Arabia was a genuine threat to the royal family's survival. Despite opposition from the governments of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Lebanon, Nasser maintained his prestige among their citizens and those of other Arab countries.
Nasser nationalized all remaining British and French assets in Egypt, including the tobacco, cement, pharmaceutical, and phosphate industries. When efforts to offer tax incentives and attract outside investments yielded no tangible results, he nationalized more companies and made them a part of his economic development organization. He stopped short of total government control: two-thirds of the economy was still in private hands. This effort achieved a measure of success, with increased agricultural production and investment in industrialization. Nasser initiated the Helwan steelworks, which subsequently became Egypt's largest enterprise, providing the country with product and tens of thousands of jobs. Nasser also decided to cooperate with the Soviet Union in the construction of the Aswan Dam to replace the withdrawal of US funds.
Despite his popularity with the people of the Arab world, his only regional ally was Syria. Turkish troops massed along the Syrian border, giving credence to rumors that the Baghdad Pact countries were attempting to topple Syria's leftist government. Nasser sent a contingent force to Syria as a symbolic display of solidarity, further elevating his prestige in the Arab world, and particularly among Syrians. As political instability grew in Syria, delegations from the country were sent to Nasser requesting unification with Egypt. The United Arab Republic (UAR) was proclaimed and the Arab world reacted in stunned amazement, which quickly turned into uncontrolled euphoria. Nasser then ordered a crackdown against Syrian communists, dismissing many of them from their governmental posts. On a surprise visit to Damascus to celebrate the union, Nasser was welcomed by crowds in the hundreds of thousands.
“The holy march on which the Arab nation insists, will carry us forward from one victory to another ... the flag of freedom which flies over Baghdad today will fly over Amman and Riyadh. Yes, the flag of freedom which flies over Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad today will fly over the rest of the Middle East.”
In 1958, Iraqi army officers overthrew the Iraqi monarchy and the next day, Iraqi prime minister and the entire Iraqi royal family were killed, mutilated and dragged across Baghdad. Nasser recognized the new government and stated that any attack on Iraq was tantamount to an attack on the UAR. US marines landed in Lebanon, and British Special Forces in Jordan, upon the request of those countries' governments to prevent them from falling to pro-Nasser forces. Nasser felt that the revolution in Iraq left the road for pan-Arab unity unblocked. He put Syria in a police state by imprisoning and exiling landholders as well as communists who objected to the introduction of Egyptian agricultural reform in Syria.
Nasser played a significant part in the strengthening of African solidarity in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning in 1958, Nasser had a key role in the discussions among African leaders that led to the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. In 1960, Nasser nationalized the Egyptian press, which had already been cooperating with his government, in order to steer coverage towards the country's socioeconomic issues and galvanize public support for his socialist measures. Secessionist army units launched a coup in Damascus, declaring Syria's secession from the UAR. Nasser declared that Egypt would recognize an elected Syrian government. He blamed interference by hostile Arab governments. Nasser suffered something resembling a nervous breakdown after the dissolution of the union; he began to smoke more heavily and his health began to deteriorate.
In 1961, opposition to the union mounted among some of Syria's key elements, namely the socio-economic, political, and military elites. In response to Syria's worsening economy, which Nasser attributed to its control by the bourgeoisie - the people of the city including merchants and craftsmen. Nasser decreed socialist measures that nationalized wide-ranging sectors of the Syrian economy. After years of foreign policy coordination and developing ties, Nasser, President Sukarno of Indonesia, President Tito of Yugoslavia, and Prime Minister Nehru of India founded the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Its declared purpose was to solidify international non-alignment and promote world peace amid the Cold War, end colonization, and increase economic cooperation among developing countries.
Nasser sought to firmly establish Egypt as the leader of the Arab world and to promote a second revolution in Egypt with the purpose of merging Islamic and socialist thinking. To achieve this, he initiated several reforms to modernize al-Azhar, the de facto leading authority in Sunni Islam, and to ensure its prominence over the Muslim Brotherhood and the more conservative Wahhabism promoted by Saudi Arabia. Nasser instructed al-Azhar to create changes in its syllabus that trickled to the lower levels of Egyptian education, consequently allowing the establishment of coeducational schools and the introduction of evolution into school curriculum. The reforms also included the merger of religious and civil courts. Nasser forced al-Azhar to issue a fatwā admitting Shia Muslims, Alawites, and Druze into mainstream Islam. For centuries prior, al-Azhar deemed them to be "heretics".
Nasser embarked on a major nationalization program for Egypt, believing the total adoption of socialism was the answer to his country's problems and would have prevented Syria's secession. In order to organize and solidify his popular base with Egypt's citizens and counter the army's influence, Nasser introduced the National Charter in 1962 and a new constitution. The charter called for universal health care, affordable housing, vocational schools, greater women's rights and a family planning program, as well as widening the Suez Canal.
Nasser also attempted to maintain oversight of the country's civil service to prevent it from inflating and consequently becoming a burden to the state. New laws provided workers with a minimum wage, profit shares, free education, free health care, reduced working hours, and encouragement to participate in management. Land reforms guaranteed the security of tenant farmers, promoted agricultural growth, and reduced rural poverty. As a result of the 1962 measures, government ownership of Egyptian business reached 5%. With these measures came more domestic repression, as thousands of Islamists were imprisoned, including dozens of military officers.
In 1962, Nasser's regional position changed unexpectedly when Yemeni officers led by Nasser supporter overthrew the leader of North Yemen. Saudi Arabia gave support to reinstate the kingdom, while Nasser sent militarily aid to the new government. Egypt became increasingly embroiled in the drawn-out civil war until it withdrew its forces 5 years later in 1967. Algeria became independent of France. As a staunch political and financial supporter of the Algerian independence movement, Nasser considered the country's independence to be a personal victory. Amid these developments, a pro-Nasser clique in the Saudi royal family defected to Egypt, A year later a military coup in Iraq led by a Ba'athist–Nasserist alliance toppled the government of Iraq and a Nasserist, was chosen to be the new president. A similar alliance toppled the Syrian government. The new Iraqi and Syrian governments sent Nasser delegations to push for a new Arab union.
Nasser called for a unified Arab response against Israel's plans to divert the Jordan River's waters for economic purposes, which Syria and Jordan deemed an act of war. Nasser blamed Arab divisions for what he deemed "the disastrous situation". He discouraged Syria and Palestinian guerrillas from provoking the Israelis, conceding that he had no plans for war with Israel. During the summit, Nasser developed cordial relations with King Hussein of Jordan, and ties were mended with the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Morocco. Nasser moved to formally share his leadership position over the Palestine issue by initiating the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO). In practice, Nasser used the PLO to wield control over the Palestinian Fedayeen.
In 1965, Nasser was re-elected to a second term as UAR president. He was the only candidate for the position, with virtually all of his political opponents forbidden by law from running for office, and his fellow party members reduced to mere followers. That same year, Nasser had the Muslim Brotherhood chief ideologue imprisoned, found guilty of plotting to assassinate Nasser and executed. A year later, as Egypt's economy slowed and government debt became increasingly burdensome, Nasser began to ease state control over the private sector, encouraging state-owned bank loans to private business and introducing incentives to increase exports. During the 60's, the Egyptian economy went from sluggishness to the verge of collapse, the society became less free, and Nasser's appeal waned considerably.
The 1967 Six-Day War started when the Israeli Air Force struck Egyptian air fields, destroying much of the Egyptian Air Force. Before the day ended, Israeli armored units had cut through Egyptian defense lines. Egyptian troops withdrew from Sinai causing the majority of Egyptian casualties during the war. Israel quickly captured Sinai and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
Nasser appeared on television to inform Egypt's citizens of their country's defeat. He announced his resignation on television later that day. Hundreds of thousands of sympathizers poured into the streets in mass demonstrations throughout Egypt and across the Arab world rejecting his resignation, chanting, "We are your soldiers”. Nasser retracted his decision the next day.
Nasser accepted UN Resolution, which called for Israel's withdrawal from territories acquired in the war. His supporters claimed Nasser's move was meant to buy time to prepare for another confrontation with Israel, while his detractors believed his acceptance of the resolution signaled a waning interest in Palestinian independence. Nasser appointed himself the additional roles of prime minister and supreme commander of the armed forces. Angry at the military court's perceived leniency with air force officers charged with negligence during the 1967 war, workers and students launched protests calling for major political reforms in 1968. Nasser responded to the demonstrations by removing most military figures from his cabinet and appointing 8 civilians in place of several high-ranking members of his government.
Nasser proclaimed a manifesto stipulating the restoration of civil liberties, greater parliamentary independence from the executive and a campaign to rid the government of corrupt elements.
In 1968, Nasser commenced to reclaim territory captured by Israel, ordering attacks against Israeli positions east of the then-blockaded Suez Canal. Nasser offered Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement arms and funds after their performance against Israeli forces. He advised Arafat to think of peace with Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state comprising the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Israel retaliated against Egyptian shelling with commando raids, artillery shelling and air strikes. This resulted in an exodus of civilians from Egyptian cities along the Suez Canal's western bank. Nasser ceased all military activities and began a program to build a network of internal defenses, while receiving the financial backing of various Arab states. A year later Nasser appointed Sadat as his vice president and brokered an agreement between the PLO and the Lebanese military that granted Palestinian guerrillas the right to use Lebanese territory to attack Israel.
Nasser used the lull in fighting to move missiles towards the canal zone. Meanwhile, tensions in Jordan between an increasingly autonomous PLO and King Hussein's government had been simmering. A military campaign was launched to rout out PLO forces. The offensive elevated risks of a regional war.
Unexpectedly Nasser suffered a heart attack and died several hours later. He was only 52 years old.
Following the announcement of Nasser's death, Egypt and the Arab world were in a state of shock. Nasser's funeral procession through Cairo was attended by at least five million mourners in a 10-kilometer procession to his burial site. All Arab heads of state attended, with the exception of Saudi King Faisal. King Hussein and Arafat cried openly, and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya fainted from emotional distress twice. Almost immediately after the procession began, mourners engulfed Nasser's coffin chanting, "There is no God but Allah, and Nasser is God's beloved… Each of us is Nasser."
Nasser serves as an iconic figure throughout the Arab world, a symbol of Arab unity and dignity and a champion of social justice in Egypt.
Nasser's Egyptian detractors considered him a dictator who thwarted democratic progress, imprisoned thousands of dissidents, and led a repressive administration responsible for numerous human rights violations. Islamists in Egypt, particularly members of the politically persecuted Brotherhood, viewed Nasser as oppressive, tyrannical, and demonic. Liberals criticized Nasser`s limitations on freedom of expression and political participation.
Nasser inspired several nationalist revolutions in the Arab world. The extent of Nasser's centrality in the region made it a priority for incoming Arab nationalist heads of state to seek good relations with Egypt, in order to gain popular legitimacy from their own citizens. To varying degrees, Nasser's system of government was continued in Egypt and emulated by virtually all Arab republics, namely Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya. Algeria's first president, a staunch Nasserist drove out the king of North Yemen. Other coups influenced by Nasser occurred in Iraq in 1958 and Syria in 1963. Muammar Gaddafi, who overthrew the Libyan monarchy in 1969, considered Nasser his hero and sought to succeed him as "leader of the Arabs".
Although Nasser was a proponent of secular politics, he was an observant Muslim who made the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca 2 times. He was known to be personally incorruptible, a characteristic which further enhanced his reputation among the citizens of Egypt and the Arab world. Nasser had few personal vices other than chain smoking. He maintained 18-hour workdays and rarely took time off for vacations. The combination of smoking and working long hours contributed to his poor health. Nasser`s friend, colleague and vice-president Anwar Sadat became president on Nasser`s death.
Anwar Sadat (1918-1981) was the third President of Egypt, serving for 11 years from 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers. Sadat was a senior member of the Free Officers who overthrew King Farouk in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and a close confidant of President Nasser, under whom he served as Vice President twice and whom he succeeded as President in 1970. He led Egypt in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 in an unsuccessful attempt to regain Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967. He returned to Cairo a national hero.
In his 11 years as president, Sadat changed Egypt's trajectory, departing from many of the political and economic tenets of Nasserism, re-instituting a multi-party system, and launching the Infitah economic policy. This was an “open door” policy to private investment in Egypt in the years following the 1973 War with Israel. It was accompanied by a break with longtime ally and aid-giver the USSR which was replaced by the United States.
It also included the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty signed in the United States in 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The treaty was signed by Egyptian president Sadat and Israeli prime minister Begin, and witnessed by US president Carter. This won him and Israeli Prime Minister Begin the Nobel Peace Prize, making Sadat the first Muslim Nobel laureate.
Though reaction to the treaty, which resulted in the return of Sinai to Egypt, was generally favorable among Egyptians, it was rejected by the country's Muslim Brotherhood, which felt Sadat had abandoned efforts to ensure a Palestinian state. With the exception of Sudan, the Arab world and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) strongly opposed Sadat's efforts to make a separate peace with Israel without prior consultations with the Arab states. The peace treaty was one of the primary factors that led to his assassination.
The Infitah economic policy ended the domination of Egypt's economy by the public sector and encouraged both domestic and foreign investment in the private sector.
The relationship between Iran and Egypt had fallen into open hostility during Nasser's presidency. Sadat turned this around quickly into an open and close friendship with Iran. The Egyptian and Iranian governments were turned from bitter enemies into friends. The relationship between Cairo and Tehran became so friendly that the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, called Sadat his "dear brother".
After the 1973 war with Israel, Iran assumed a leading role in cleaning up and reactivating the blocked Suez Canal with heavy investment. The country also facilitated the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Sinai Peninsula by promising to substitute the loss of the oil to the Israelis with free Iranian oil if they withdrew from the Egyptian oil wells in western Sinai.
All these added more to the personal friendship between Sadat and the Shah of Iran. After his overthrow, the deposed Shah spent the last months of his life in exile in Egypt. When the Shah died, Sadat ordered that he be given a state funeral.
When Sadat was assassinated, he was succeeded by his vice president Hosni Mubarak.
During the 2010 Arab Spring, which resulted in a revolution in Egypt that deposed Mubarak and replaced him temporarily with a Muslim Brotherhood candidate Morsi, photographs of Nasser were raised in Cairo and Arab capitals during anti-government demonstrations. Nasser became a "symbol of Arab dignity" during the mass demonstrations.
Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa for 5 years from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalized racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party for 6 years from 1991 to 1997.
By the early 17th century, Portugal's maritime power was starting to decline, and English and Dutch merchants competed to oust Lisbon from its lucrative monopoly on the spice trade. Dutch interest was aroused after 1647, when two employees of the Dutch East India Company were shipwrecked there for several months. The sailors were able to survive by obtaining fresh water and meat from the natives. They also sowed vegetables in the fertile soil. Upon their return to Holland they reported favorably on the Cape's potential as a "warehouse and garden" for provisions to stock passing ships for long voyages. In time, the Cape become home to a large population of former Company employees who stayed in Dutch territories overseas after serving their contracts. Dutch traders also imported thousands of slaves to the fledgling colony from Indonesia, Madagascar, and parts of eastern Africa.
Some of the earliest mixed race communities in the country were later formed through unions between the Dutch settlers who became independent farmers known as Boers, their slaves, and various indigenous peoples. This led to the development of a new ethnic group, the Cape Coloreds, most of whom adopted the Dutch language and Christian faith. The Boers formed loose militias and both sides launched bloody but inconclusive offensives, and sporadic violence, often accompanied by livestock theft.
Great Britain occupied Cape Town between 1795 and 1803 to prevent it from falling under the control of the French. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, it was formally ceded to Great Britain and became an integral part of the British Empire. British immigration to South Africa began around 1818, subsequently culminating in the arrival of the 1820 Settlers. The new colonists were induced to settle for a variety of reasons, namely to increase the size of the European workforce and to bolster frontier regions against tribal invasions.
The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1884 in the interior started the Mineral Revolution and increased economic growth and immigration. This intensified British efforts to gain control over the indigenous peoples. The struggle to control these important economic resources was a factor in relations between Europeans and the indigenous population and also between the Boers and the British. The Boer Republics at first successfully resisted British encroachments using guerrilla warfare tactics, which were well suited to local conditions. The British were ultimately successful. Anti-British policies among white South Africans focused on independence. During the Dutch and British colonial years, racial segregation was mostly informal, though some legislation was enacted to control the settlement and movement of native people. The Natives' Land Act of 1913 severely restricted the ownership of land by blacks. Natives controlled only 7% of the country.
In 1931 South Africa became a Dominion of the British Commonwealth, fully sovereign but retaining the British monarchy. In 1948, the National Party was elected to power. It strengthened the racial segregation begun under Dutch and British colonial rule. The Nationalist Government classified all peoples into 3 races and developed rights and limitations for each. The white minority (less than 20%) controlled the vastly larger black majority. The legally institutionalized segregation became known as “apartheid.” While whites enjoyed a high standard of living, the black majority remained disadvantaged by almost every standard, including income, education, housing, and life expectancy.
In 1961, the country became a republic following a referendum and exchanged the monarch for a President. Despite opposition both within and outside the country, the government legislated for a continuation of apartheid. The security forces cracked down on internal dissent, and violence became widespread, with anti-apartheid organizations such as the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress carrying out guerrilla warfare and urban sabotage.
Rival resistance movements also engaged in occasional inter-factional clashes as they jockeyed for domestic influence. Apartheid became increasingly controversial, and several countries began to boycott business with the South African government because of its racial policies. These measures were later extended to international sanctions and the divestment of holdings by foreign investors. In the late 1970s, South Africa initiated a programme of nuclear weapons development. In the following decade, it produced 6 deliverable nuclear weapons.
In 1990 the National Party government took the first step towards dismantling discrimination when it lifted the ban on the African National Congress and other political organizations. It released Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years' serving a sentence for sabotage. A negotiation process followed. With approval from a predominantly white referendum, the government repealed apartheid legislation. South Africa also destroyed its nuclear arsenal and acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. South Africa held its first universal elections in 1994, which the ANC won by an overwhelming majority.
Nelson Mandela was born to a royal family. His great-grandfather was king of a tribe. His father was a local chief and councilor to the monarch. “No one in my family had ever attended school . On the first day of school my teacher gave each of us an English name as was the custom among Africans in those days. I was named Nelson”.
Nelson grew up with 2 sisters where he tended herds as a cattle-boy and spent much time outside with other boys. Both his parents were illiterate, but being a devout Christian, his mother sent him to a local Methodist school when he was 7 years old. In 1933 when he was 15 years old, Mandela began his secondary education in a Western-style institution that was the largest school for black Africans. His family wanted him to gain skills needed to become a privy councilor for his tribe's royal house. After he graduated, he attended a Methodist college that emphasized the superiority of English culture and government. Mandela became increasingly interested in native African culture. He considered the European colonialists not as oppressors but as benefactors who had brought education and other benefits to southern Africa.
Although he had friends connected to the African National Congress (ANC) who wanted South Africa to be independent of the British Empire, Mandela avoided any involvement with the anti-imperialist movement and became a vocal supporter of the British war effort when WWII broke out. He helped to found a first-year students' house committee which held a boycott against the quality of food, for which he was suspended from the university and he never returned to complete his degree.
In 1940, when Nelson was 22 years old, there was arranged marriages for him. At the same time there was an arrest warrant out for him. He fled to Johannesburg and found work as a night watchman at a mining company, but was fired when the headman discovered that he was a runaway. With the help of an ANC activist, he was hired as an articled clerk at the law firm. The law firm was run by a liberal Jew sympathetic to the ANC's cause. At the firm, Mandela befriended members of the ANC and the Communist Party.
Mandela attended Communist Party gatherings, where he was impressed that Europeans, Africans, Indians, and from African tribes mixed as equals. He did not join the Party because its atheism conflicted with his Christian faith, and because he saw the South African struggle as being racially based rather than as class warfare. To continue his higher education, Mandela signed up to a University of South Africa correspondence course, working on his bachelor's degree at night. Mandela began studying law at the University and as he was the only black African student, he faced considerable racism. He became increasingly politicized.
In 1943 when Mandela was 25, he marched in support of a successful bus boycott to reverse fare rises. Joining the ANC, he was increasingly influenced by senior members. One ANC member was also a member affiliated with the "Africanist" branch of African nationalism, which was virulently opposed to a racially united front against colonialism and imperialism or to an alliance with the communists. Despite his friendships with non-blacks and communists, Mandela believed that black Africans should be entirely independent in their struggle for political self-determination. Deciding on the need for a youth wing to mass-mobilize Africans in opposition to their subjugation, Mandela was among a delegation that approached ANC President on the subject and the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was founded in 1944.
Mandela met his first wife who was a trainee nurse and ANC activist and they had a daughter. Mandela enjoyed home life, welcoming his mother and his sister to stay with him and he became a full-time student, subsisting on loans from his royal family.
In the South African general election in 1948, in which only whites were permitted to vote, the Afrikaner-dominated Party took power, soon uniting with the Afrikaner Party to form the National Party. Openly racialist, the party codified and expanded racial segregation with new apartheid legislation. Gaining increasing influence in the ANC, Mandela and his party cadre allies began advocating direct action against apartheid, such as boycotts and strikes, influenced by the tactics already employed by South Africa's Indian community. Mandela and his colleagues had guided the ANC to a more radical and revolutionary path. Having devoted his time to politics, Mandela eventually dropped out of school and was elected national president of the ANCYL.
A general strike was called by African, Indian, and communist activists in protest against apartheid and white minority rule. Mandela opposed the strike because it was multi-racial and not ANC-led, but a majority of black workers took part, resulting in increased police repression and the introduction of the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950. Mandela then became convinced to embrace the idea of a multi-racial front against apartheid. Influenced by the Soviet Union's support for wars of national liberation, his mistrust of communism broke down and he began reading literature by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Zedong, eventually embracing the Marxist philosophy. He was strongly drawn to the idea of a classless society which was similar to traditional African culture where life was shared and communal.
In 1952, Mandela began work at a law firm, which was owned by a communist. His increasing commitment to work and activism meant he spent less time with his family. The ANC began a joint Defiance Campaign against apartheid with Indian and communist groups. The campaign was designed to follow the path of nonviolent resistance influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Mandela addressed an assembled crowd of 10,000, initiating the campaign protests, for which he was arrested and briefly jailed. These events established Mandela as one of the best-known black political figures in South Africa. With further protests, the ANC's membership grew from 20,000 to 100,000. The government responded with mass arrests and introduced the Public Safety Act, 1953 to permit martial law.
Mandela was arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act and stood trial as one of the 21 accused. Found guilty of "statutory communism", a term that the government used to describe most opposition to apartheid, Mandela was given a 6 month ban from attending meetings or talking to more than one individual at a time. Mandela obtained work as an attorney for a law firm before passing qualification exams to become a full-fledged attorney. A year later, he opened his own law firm operating in downtown Johannesburg. The only African-run law firm in the country, it was popular with aggrieved blacks, often dealing with cases of police brutality. Disliked by the authorities, the firm was forced to relocate to a remote location after their office permit was removed under the Group Areas Act. As a result, their clientele dwindled. As a lawyer of aristocratic heritage, Mandela was part of Johannesburg's elite black middle-class, and accorded much respect from the black community.
“We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people.”
In 1955,after taking part in the unsuccessful protest to prevent the forced relocation of all black people from a suburb of Johannesburg, Mandela concluded that violent action would prove necessary to end apartheid and white minority rule. He was banned a second time from any political activities. A year later he received his third ban on public appearances, restricting him to Johannesburg for 5 years, but he often defied it.
Mandela's marriage broke down and Evelyn who accused him of adultery left him with their children. Initiating divorce proceedings, she claimed that Mandela had physically abused her. He denied the allegations and fought for custody of their children. She withdrew her petition of separation, but Mandela filed for divorce. The divorce was finalized with the children placed in Evelyn's care. During the divorce proceedings, he began courting a social worker, Winnie, whom he married in 1958. She later became involved in ANC activities, spending several weeks in prison. Together they had 2 children.
Mandela was arrested alongside most of the ANC national executive, and accused of "high treason" against the state. Held in Johannesburg Prison amid mass protests, they underwent a preparatory examination before being granted bail. The prosecution argued that the ANC leadership committed high treason by advocating violent revolution, a charge the defendants denied.
In 1959, Africanists dissatisfied with the ANC's united front approach founded the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). Mandela disagreed with the PAC's racially exclusionary views, describing them as "immature" and "naïve". Both parties took part in an anti-pass campaign in early 1960, in which Africans burned the passes that they were legally obliged to carry. One of the PAC-organized demonstrations was fired upon by police, resulting in the massacre of 69 protesters. The incident brought international condemnation of the government and resulted in rioting throughout South Africa. Responding to the unrest, the government implemented state of emergency measures, declared martial law and banned the ANC and PAC. They arrested Mandela and other activists, imprisoning them for 5 months without charge.
Imprisonment caused problems for Mandela and his co-defendants in the Treason Trial. Their lawyers could not reach them, so the lawyers withdrew in protest until the accused were freed from prison when the state of emergency was lifted in 1960. Over the following months, Mandela used his free time to organize a conference at which 1,400 anti-apartheid delegates met, agreeing on a stay-at-home strike during the celebrations when South Africa became a republic. 6 years after the Treason Trial began, the judges produced a verdict of not guilty, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to convict the accused of "high treason", since they had advocated neither communism nor violent revolution. The outcome embarrassed the government.
Disguised as a chauffeur, Mandela traveled around the country incognito, organizing the ANC's new cell structure and the planned mass stay-at-home strike. A warrant for his arrest was put out by the police. Mandela held secret meetings with reporters, and after the government failed to prevent the strike, he warned them that many anti-apartheid activists would soon resort to violence. He believed that the ANC should form an armed group to channel some of this violence in a controlled direction. Inspired by the actions of Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolution, Mandela became chairman of a militant group MK. Mandela gained ideas from literature on guerrilla warfare by Marxist militants Mao and Che Guevara. Although initially declared officially separate from the ANC so as not to taint the latter's reputation, MK was later widely recognized as the party's armed wing. Most early MK members were white communists who were able to conceal Mandela in their homes.
Operating through a cell structure, MK planned to carry out acts of sabotage that would exert maximum pressure on the government with minimum casualties. They sought to bomb military installations, power plants, telephone lines, and transport links at night, when civilians were not present. Mandela stated that they chose sabotage because it was the least harmful action, did not involve killing, and offered the best hope for racial reconciliation afterwards. He added that should this fail, then guerrilla warfare might be necessary.
In 1962, police captured Mandela. The USA CIA who feared Mandela's associations with communists, had informed the South African police of his location. Mandela was charged with inciting workers' strikes and leaving the country without permission. Found guilty, he was sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment.
“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to see realized. But if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”.
In 1963, police uncovered paperwork documenting MK's activities, some of which mentioned Mandela and he was charged with 4 counts of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the government. Mandela was found guilty on all 4 charges. Although the prosecution had called for the death sentence to be applied, the judge instead condemned him to life imprisonment.
Isolated from non-political prisoners, Mandela was imprisoned in a damp concrete cell measuring 2.5m x 2m, with a straw mat on which to sleep. Verbally and physically harassed by several white prison wardens, he spent his days breaking rocks into gravel. Mandela was initially forbidden to wear sunglasses, and the glare from the lime permanently damaged his eyesight. At night, he worked on his LLB degree through a correspondence course, but newspapers were forbidden, and he was locked in solitary confinement on several occasions for the possession of smuggled news clippings. He was permitted one visit and one letter every 6 months, although all mail was heavily censored.
The political prisoners took part in work and hunger strikes. Mandela initiated the "University of Robben Island", whereby prisoners lectured on their own areas of expertise. From 1967 onward, prison conditions improved; black prisoners were given trousers rather than shorts, games were permitted, and the standard of their food was raised. By 1975, Mandela was allowed a greater numbers of visits and letters. He corresponded with anti-apartheid activists like Desmond Tutu. He began his autobiography, which was smuggled to London, but remained unpublished at the time. Prison authorities discovered several pages, and his LLB study privileges were revoked for 4 years. Instead, he devoted his spare time to gardening and reading until the authorities permitted him to resume his LLB degree studies in 1980.
By the late 1960s, Mandela's fame had been eclipsed by Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). Seeing the ANC as ineffectual, the BCM called for militant action, but following the Soweto uprising of 1976, many BCM activists were imprisoned on Robben Island. Mandela tried to build a relationship with these young radicals, although he was critical of their racism and their contempt for white anti-apartheid activists. In 1980, the slogan "Free Mandela!" sparked an international campaign that led the UN Security Council to call for his release.
Despite increasing foreign pressure, the government refused, relying on its Cold War allies US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Both considered Mandela's ANC a terrorist organization sympathetic to communism, and supported its suppression. In 1982, Mandela along with senior ANC leaders was transferred to another prison to remove their influence on younger activists in the Robben Island prison. Getting on well with the prison's commanding officer, Mandela was permitted to create a roof garden. He also read voraciously and corresponded widely, and was permitted 52 letters a year.
The early 1980s witnessed an escalation of violence across the country, and many predicted civil war. This was accompanied by economic stagnation as various multinational banks, under pressure from an international lobby, had stopped investing in South Africa. Numerous banks asked South African President Botha to release Mandela, then at the height of his international fame, to defuse the volatile situation. Although considering Mandela a dangerous "arch-Marxist", in 1985 Botha offered him a release from prison if he unconditionally rejected violence as a political weapon. Mandela spurned the offer, stating, "What freedom am I being offered while the ANC organization of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts." In 1985, Mandela was met by an international delegation sent to negotiate a settlement, but Botha's government refused to co-operate, instead calling a state of emergency and initiating a police crackdown on unrest. The anti-apartheid resistance fought back, with the ANC committing 231 attacks in 1986 and 235 in 1987. The violence escalated as the government used the army and police to combat the resistance.
Over the next 3 years, the government proposed the release of political prisoners and the legalization of the ANC on the condition that they permanently renounce violence, break links with the Communist Party, and not insist on majority rule. Mandela rejected these conditions, insisting that the ANC would only end its armed activities when the government renounced violence. In 1989, in a surprise move, Botha invited Mandela to a meeting.
Botha was replaced as state president by de Klerk 6 weeks later. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, de Klerk called his cabinet together to debate legalizing the ANC and freeing Mandela. Although some were deeply opposed to his plans, de Klerk met with Mandela to discuss the situation, a meeting both men considered friendly, before legalizing all formerly banned political parties in 1990 and announcing Mandela's unconditional release. Shortly thereafter, for the first time in 20 years, photographs of Mandela were allowed to be published in South Africa.
Leaving his prison holding hands with his wife Winnie in front of amassed crowds and the press; the event was broadcast live across the world. He gave a speech declaring his commitment to peace and reconciliation with the white minority, but made it clear that the ANC's armed struggle was not over, and would continue as a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid. He expressed hope that the government would agree to negotiations, so that there may no longer be the need for the armed struggle, and insisted that his main focus was to bring peace to the black majority and give them the right to vote in national and local elections. Staying at Tutu's home, in the following days Mandela met with friends, activists, and press, giving a speech to an estimated 100,000 people.
Encouraging foreign countries to support sanctions against the apartheid government, he was welcomed by French President François Mitterrand, by Pope John Paul II, and by UK prime minister Thatcher. In the United States, he met President George H.W. Bush, addressed both Houses of Congress. He became friends with Cuba`s President Castro, whom he had long admired. He met India`s President as well as President Suharto in Indonesia and the Prime Ministers in Malaysia, and Australia. He visited Japan, but not the Soviet Union, a longtime ANC supporter.
In 1990, Mandela led a multiracial ANC delegation into preliminary negotiations with a government delegation. The negotiations led to the government lifting of the state of emergency Act. Recognizing the ANC's severe military disadvantage Mandela offered a ceasefire for which he was widely criticized by MK activists. He spent much time trying to unify and build the ANC. He was elected ANC President and a 50-strong multiracial, mixed gendered national executive was elected.
Although presented globally as a heroic figure, Mandela faced personal problems when ANC leaders informed him that Winnie had set herself up as head of a gang, the "Mandela United Football Club", which had been responsible for torturing and killing opponents, including children, in Soweto. Though some encouraged him to divorce Winnie, he decided to remain loyal until she was found guilty by trial. In 1991, Winnie was found guilty and sentenced to 6 years in prison for kidnapping and assault. The ANC forced her to step down from the national executive for misappropriating ANC funds and Mandela announced his separation from her.
The Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) was attended by 228 delegates from 19 political parties. De Klerk insisted that post-apartheid South Africa must use a federal system combining a central government with independent regional governments. Mandela demanded a unitary system governed by majority rule where regional governments can be created and abolished and their powers broadened and narrowed by the central government. Of the 192 UN member states, 165 are governed as unitary states.
Following a massacre of ANC activists by government-aided militants, Mandela called off the negotiations. He called for a special session of the UN Security Council and proposed that a UN peacekeeping force be stationed in South Africa to prevent "state terrorism". Calling for domestic mass action, the ANC organized the largest-ever strike in South African history, and supporters marched on Pretoria. When 28 ANC supporters were massacred during the protest march, Mandela realized that mass action was leading to further violence and resumed negotiations. The negotiations agreed that a multiracial general election would be held, resulting in a 5-year coalition government of national unity and a constitutional assembly that gave the National Party continuing influence.
The ANC also conceded to safeguarding the jobs of white civil servants. They agreed on an interim constitution based on a liberal democratic model, guaranteeing separation of powers, creating a constitutional court, and including a US-style bill of rights. The country was divided into 9 provinces, each with its own premier and civil service. Soon after, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
With the election set for 1994, the ANC began campaigning, opening 100 election offices and orchestrating People's Forums across the country at which Mandela could appear, as a popular figure with great status among black South Africans. The ANC campaigned on a programme to build 1,000,000 houses in 5 years, introduce universal free education and extend access to water and electricity. The party's slogan was "a better life for all", although it was not explained how this development would be funded.
Mandela devoted much time to fundraising for the ANC, touring North America, Europe and Asia to meet wealthy donors, including former supporters of the apartheid regime. As widely expected, the ANC won a sweeping victory, taking 63% of the vote, just short of the two-thirds majority needed to unilaterally change the constitution. The ANC was also victorious in 7 provinces.
The newly elected National Assembly's first act was to formally elect Mandela as South Africa's first black chief executive. His inauguration took place in Pretoria in 1994, televised to a billion viewers globally. The event was attended by 4,000 guests, including world leaders from a wide range of geographic and ideological backgrounds. Mandela headed a Government of National Unity dominated by the ANC which had no experience of governing by itself but containing representatives from the National Party.
Aged 76, he faced various ailments, and although exhibiting continued energy, he felt isolated and lonely. Despite his opulent surroundings, Mandela lived simply, donating a third of his annual income to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, which he had founded in 1995. Although dismantling press censorship, speaking out in favor of freedom of the press, and befriending many journalists, Mandela was critical of much of the country's media, noting that it was overwhelmingly owned and run by middle-class whites and believing that it focused too heavily on scaremongering about crime.
Presiding over the transition from apartheid minority rule to a multicultural democracy, Mandela saw national reconciliation as the primary task of his presidency. Having seen other post-colonial African economies damaged by the departure of white elites, Mandela worked to reassure South Africa's white population that they were protected and represented in "the Rainbow Nation". Although his Government of National Unity would be dominated by the ANC, he attempted to create a broad coalition by appointing de Klerk as Deputy President and appointing other National Party officials as ministers for Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Minerals and Energy, and Home Affairs.
In 1995, Mandela heavily chastised de Klerk for awarding amnesty to 3,500 police officers just before the election, and later criticized him for defending former Minister of Defense when the latter was charged with murder. Emphasizing personal forgiveness and reconciliation, he announced that "courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace." He encouraged black South Africans to get behind the previously hated national rugby team. Mandela won the hearts of millions of white rugby fans. Mandela's efforts at reconciliation assuaged the fears of whites, but also drew criticism from more militant blacks. Among the latter was his estranged wife, Winnie, who accused the ANC of being more interested in appeasing the white community than in helping the black majority.
Mandela oversaw the formation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate crimes committed under apartheid by both the government and the ANC, appointing Tutu as its chair. To prevent the creation of martyrs, the Commission granted individual amnesties in exchange for testimony of crimes committed during the apartheid era. It held 2 years of hearings detailing rapes, torture, bombings, and assassinations, before issuing its final report in 1998. Mandela praised the Commission's work, stating that it had helped move away from the past to concentrate on the present and the future.
Mandela's administration inherited a country with a huge disparity in wealth and services between white and black communities. Of a population of 40 million, around 23 million lacked electricity or adequate sanitation, and 12 million lacked clean water supplies, with 2 million children not in school and a third of the population illiterate. There was 33% unemployment, and just under half of the population lived below the poverty line. Government financial reserves were nearly depleted, with a fifth of the national budget being spent on debt repayment, meaning that the extent of the promised Reconstruction and Development Programme was scaled back, with none of the proposed nationalization or job creation. In 1996, the RDP was replaced with a new policy which maintained South Africa's mixed economy but placed an emphasis on economic growth through a framework of market economics and the encouragement of foreign investment. Many in the ANC derided it as a neo-liberal policy that did not address social inequality, no matter how Mandela defended it.
Under Mandela's presidency, welfare spending increased by 13% in 1996/97, 13% in 1997/98, and 7% in 1998/99. The government introduced parity in grants for communities, including disability grants, child maintenance grants, and old-age pensions, which had previously been set at different levels for South Africa's different racial groups. In 1994, free health care was introduced for children under 6 and pregnant women, a provision extended to all those using primary level public sector health care services in 1996. By the 1999 election, the ANC could boast that due to their policies, 3 million people were connected to telephone lines, 1.5 million children were brought into the education system, 500 clinics were upgraded or constructed, 2 million people were connected to the electricity grid, water access was extended to 3 million people, and 750,000 houses were constructed, housing nearly 3 million people.
The Land Reform Act 3 of 1996 safeguarded the rights of labor tenants living on farms where they grew crops or grazed livestock. This legislation ensured that such tenants could not be evicted without a court order or if they were over the age of 65. Recognizing that arms manufacturing was a key industry for the South African economy, Mandela endorsed the trade in weapons but brought in tighter regulations to ensure that South African weaponry was not sold to authoritarian regimes. Under Mandela's administration, tourism was increasingly promoted, becoming a major sector of the South African economy.
By 1999, 10% of South Africa's population was HIV positive. Critics accused Mandela's government of doing little to stem the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country. Mandela was also criticized for failing to sufficiently combat crime. South Africa had one of the world's highest crime rates, and the activities of international crime syndicates in the country grew significantly throughout the decade. Mandela's administration was also perceived as having failed to deal with the problem of corruption.
Further problems were caused by the exodus of thousands of skilled white South Africans from the country. They were escaping the increasing crime rates, and higher taxes. This exodus resulted in a brain drain, and Mandela criticized those who left. At the same time, South Africa experienced an influx of millions of illegal migrants from poorer parts of Africa; although public opinion toward these illegal immigrants was generally unfavorable, characterizing them as disease-spreading criminals who were a drain on resources, Mandela called on South Africans to embrace them as brothers and sisters. The new Constitution of South Africa was agreed upon by parliament in 1996, enshrining a series of institutions to place checks on political and administrative authority within a constitutional democracy. Mandela stepped down as ANC President in 1997.
Retiring in 1999, Mandela aimed to lead a quiet family life working with the Nelson Mandela Foundation that focused on rural development, school construction, and combating HIV/AIDS. Although he had been heavily criticized for failing to do enough to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic during his presidency, he devoted much of his time to the issue following his retirement, describing it as a war that had killed more than all previous wars.
In 2004, aged 85 and amid failing health, Mandela announced that he was "retiring from retirement" and retreating from public life, remarking, "Don't call me, I will call you." Although continuing to meet with close friends and family, the Foundation discouraged invitations for him to appear at public events and denied most interview requests.
After suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection, Mandela died at the age of 95.
He was openly opposed to capitalism, private land-ownership and the power of big money. Mandela was influenced by Marxism, and during the revolution he advocated socialism but denied being a communist. The 1955 Freedom Charter, which Mandela had helped create, called for the nationalization of banks, gold mines and land, to ensure equal distribution of wealth. Despite these beliefs, Mandela initiated a programme of privatization during his presidency in line with trends in other countries of the time.
Mandela was a private person who often concealed his emotions and confided in very few people. Privately, he lived an austere life, refusing to drink alcohol or smoke, and even as President made his own bed. Renowned for his mischievous sense of humor, he was known for being both stubborn and loyal, and at times exhibited a quick temper. He was typically friendly and welcoming, and appeared relaxed in conversation with everyone, including his opponents. Constantly polite and courteous, he was attentive to all, irrespective of their age or status, and often talked to children or servants. He was known for his ability to find common ground with very different communities. In later life, he always looked for the best in people, even defending political opponents to his allies, who sometimes thought him too trusting of others.
He is alongside Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of the 20th century's exemplary anti-racist and anti-colonial leaders. Mandela's international fame had emerged during his incarceration in the 1980s, when he became the world's most famous prisoner, a symbol of the anti-apartheid cause, and an icon for millions who embraced the ideal of human equality.
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian politician. In 1965 he succeeded to the leadership of Romania’s Communist Party which he maintained for 24 years from 1965 till he was executed.
After a brief period of relatively moderate rule, Ceaușescu became increasingly brutal and repressive. By some accounts, his rule was the most rigidly Stalinist in the Soviet bloc. He maintained controls over speech and the media that were very strict even by Soviet-bloc standards, and internal dissent was not tolerated. His secret police, the Securitate, was one of the most ubiquitous and brutal secret police forces in the world. In 1982, with the goal of paying off Romania's large foreign debt, Ceaușescu ordered the export of much of the country’s agricultural and industrial production. The resulting extreme shortages of food, fuel, energy, medicines, and other basic necessities drastically lowered living standards and intensified unrest. Ceaușescu's rule was also marked by extensive cult of personality, nationalism, a continuing deterioration in foreign relations even with the Soviet Union, and nepotism, favoring friends and family for political appointments.
As anti-government protesters demonstrated in Timișoara in 1989, he perceived the demonstrations as a political threat and ordered military forces to open fire causing many deaths and injuries. The revelation that Ceaușescu was responsible resulted in a massive spread of rioting and civil unrest across the country. The demonstrations, which reached Bucharest, became known as the Romanian Revolution. Ceaușescu and his wife fled the capital in a helicopter, but were captured by the armed forces, hastily tried and convicted by a special military tribunal on charges of genocide and sabotage of the Romanian economy in a roughly one-hour-long show trial. Ceaușescu and his wife were then immediately executed by a firing squad.
40,000 years ago, the oldest known Homo sapiens in Europe lived in Romania forming the the earliest European civilization with the earliest known salt mines in the world. Roman incursions under Emperor Trajan in 100AD resulted in the area becoming a province of the Roman Empire. The Roman rule lasted for 165 years. The Roman colonists introduced the Latin language. The province was rich in ore deposits especially gold and silver. When the Roman troops pulled out in 271, the territory was invaded by various migrating peoples.
In the Middle Ages, Transylvania had become a largely autonomous part of Hungary and in the 14th century they guarded the eastern lands from the threat of the Ottoman Empire. By 1541, the entire Balkan peninsula and most of Hungary had been conquered and integrated into the Ottoman Empire.
Modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a union of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. At the end of WWI, Transylvania was united with Romania. During WWII, Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union until 1944, when it joined the Allied powers and faced occupation by the Red Army forces. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war. Following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition towards democracy and a capitalist market economy.
Ceaușescu was born in a small village, being 1 of 10 children of a poor peasant family. His father owned 3 hectares (100m x 300m) of agricultural land, a few sheep, and he also supplemented his family's income through tailoring. Nicolae studied at the village school until at the age of 11, when he ran away from his extremely religious, abusive and strict father to Bucharest, the Paris of the Balkans. He became an apprentice shoemaker. He worked in the workshop of a shoemaker who was an active member in the then-illegal Communist Party. Ceaușescu was soon involved in the Communist Party activities becoming a member in early 1932, but as a teenager, he was given only small tasks. He was first arrested in 1933, at the age of 15, for street fighting during a strike and again, in 1934, first for collecting signatures on a petition protesting the trial of railway workers and twice more for other similar activities. By the mid-1930s, he had been arrested several times. The profile file from the secret police named him a dangerous Communist agitator and distributor of Communist and antifascist propaganda materials. For these charges, he was convicted in 1936 to 2 years in prison, an additional 6 months for contempt of court, and one year of forced residence. In 1947 he married and his wife played an increasing role in his political life over the years.
After the Communists seized power in Romania in 1947, he headed the ministry of agriculture, then served as deputy minister of the armed forces becoming a major-general. In 1952, he was brought into the Central Committee when the party's "Muscovite faction" had been purged. In the late 1940s-early 1950s, the Party had been divided into the "home communists" who remained inside Romania prior to 1944 and the "Muscovites" who had gone into exile in the Soviet Union. With the partial exception of Poland, where the Polish crisis of 1956 brought to power the previously imprisoned leader of the "home communist", Romania was the only Eastern European nation where the "home communists" triumphed over the "Muscovites". In the rest of the Soviet bloc, there were a series of purges in this period that led to the "home communists" being executed or imprisoned. That Stalin decided in favor of the "home communists" in Romania stemmed largely out of anti-Semitism as the leader of the "Muscovites" was Jewish, and thus unacceptable to an increasingly anti-Semitic Stalin. Ceaușescu was a "home communist" who benefited from the fall of the "Muscovites" in 1952. In 1954, Ceaușescu became a full member of the Politburo and eventually rose to occupy the second-highest position in the party hierarchy. He was elected general secretary in 1965.
One of his first acts was to change the name of the party from the Romanian Workers' Party back to the Communist Party of Romania and to declare the country a socialist republic, rather than a people's republic. In 1967, he consolidated his power by becoming president of the State Council, making him de jure head of state. His political apparatus sent many thousands of political opponents to prison or psychiatric hospitals.
Initially, Ceaușescu became a popular figure, both in Romania and in the West, because of his independent foreign policy, which challenged the authority of the Soviet Union. In the 1960s, he eased press censorship and ended Romania's active participation in the Warsaw Pact, but Romania formally remained a member. He refused to take part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces and even actively and openly condemned that action. He traveled to Prague a week before the invasion to offer moral support to his Czechoslovak counterpart, Alexander Dubček. Although the Soviet Union largely tolerated Ceaușescu's recalcitrance, his seeming independence from Moscow earned Romania a maverick status within the Eastern Bloc.
Ceaușescu's main aim as leader was to make Romania a world power, and all of his economic, foreign and demographic policies were meant to achieve his ultimate goal - turning Romania into one of the world's great powers. Demography was destiny he believed and countries with rising populations were rising powers. During the following years he pursued an open policy towards the United States and Western Europe. Romania was the first Warsaw Pact country to recognize West Germany, the first to join the International Monetary Fund, and the first to receive a US President, Richard Nixon. In 1971, Romania became a member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Romania and Yugoslavia were also the only Eastern European countries that entered into trade agreements with the European Economic Community before the fall of the Eastern Bloc.
A series of official visits to Western countries including the US, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain helped Ceaușescu to present himself as a reforming Communist, pursuing an independent foreign policy within the Soviet Bloc. He also became eager to be seen as an enlightened international statesman, able to mediate in international conflicts, and to gain international respect for Romania. He negotiated in international affairs, such as the opening of US relations with China in 1969 and the visit of Egyptian president Sadat to Israel in 1977. Romania was the only country in the world to maintain normal diplomatic relations with both Israel and the PLO. In 1984, Romania was one of the few Communist countries to participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics when most of the Eastern Bloc's nations boycotted this event.
In 1966, Ceaușescu, in an attempt to boost the country's population, made abortion illegal and brought in one of the world's harshest anti-abortion laws. Mothers of at least 5 children were entitled to significant benefits, while mothers of at least 10 children were declared "heroine mothers" by the Romanian state. Few women ever sought this status. Instead, the average Romanian family during the time had 2 to 3 children. The government targeted rising divorce rates, and made divorce more difficult—it was decreed that a marriage could be dissolved only in exceptional cases. By the late 1960s, the population began to swell. In turn, a new problem was created by child abandonment, which swelled the orphanage population. Nicolae claimed and decreed that children were better off in the mean conditions of state-run institutions than in the care of impoverished families. The orphanages held, among thousands of children, an estimated 3,000 infected with AIDS.
In 1971, Ceaușescu visited China, North Korea, Mongolia and North Vietnam. He took great interest in the idea of total national transformation as embodied in the programs in North Korea and China's Cultural Revolution. He was also inspired by the personality cults of North Korea's Kim Il-sung and China's Mao Zedong. He admired both Mao and Kim as leaders who not only totally dominated their nations, but had also used totalitarian methods coupled with generous shots of ultra-nationalism mixed in with communism in order to transform both China and North Korea into major world powers. Furthermore, that Kim and even more so Mao had broken free of Soviet control were additional sources of admiration for Ceaușescu. An index of banned books and authors was established, heralding the beginning of a "mini cultural revolution" in Romania. Strict ideological conformity in the humanities and social sciences was demanded. Competence and aesthetics were to be replaced by ideology; professionals were to be replaced by agitators; and culture was once again to become an instrument for political-ideological propaganda and hard-line measures. In 1974, Ceaușescu converted his post of president of the State Council to a full-fledged executive presidency. He was re-elected every 5 years for the next 15 years. The new post made him the nation's top decision-maker both in name and in fact ruling by decree.
Starting with the 1973-74 Arab oil embargoes against the West, a period of prolonged high oil prices set in, that characterized the rest of the 1970s. Romania as a major oil-producer greatly benefited from the high oil prices of the 1970s, which led Ceaușescu to embark on an ambitious plan to invest heavily in oil-refining plants. His plan was to make Romania into Europe's number one oil refiner not only of its oil, but also of oil from Middle Eastern states like Iraq and Iran, and then to sell all of the refined oil at a profit on the Rotterdam spot market. Romania lacked the money to build the necessary oil refining plants. Ceaușescu chose to spend the windfall from the high oil prices on aid to the Third World in an attempt to buy Romania international influence. He borrowed heavily from Western banks on the assumption that when the loans came due, the profits from the sales of the refined oil would be more than enough to pay off the loans. A major problem with Ceaușescu's oil-refining plan which led to Romania taking enormous loans was the low productivity of Romanian workers, which meant that the oil-refining plants were finished years behind schedule. The 1977 earthquake which destroyed much of Bucharest also led to delays in the oil plan. By the time the oil refining plants were finished in the early 1980s, a slump in oil prices had set in, leading to major financial problems for Romania.
In 1977 over 30,000 miners went on strike complaining of low pay and poor working conditions. The striking miners were inspired by similar strikes along Poland's Baltic coast 7 years before. Hearing reports that his soldiers were reluctant to fire on fellow Romanians led Ceaușescu to negotiate a compromise solution to the strike. In the years after the strike, the majority of its leaders died of cancer. It was revealed that doctors give the strike leaders 5-minute chest X-rays. In 1978, he made a state visit to the UK where a £200m licensing agreement was signed between the Romanian government and British Aerospace for the production of more than 80 aircraft. The deal was said at the time to be the biggest between 2 countries involving a civil aircraft. Ceaușescu's political independence from the Soviet Union and his protest against the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 drew the interest of Western powers, whose governments briefly believed that he was an anti-Soviet maverick and hoped to create a schism in the Warsaw Pact by funding him.
In the 1980s, Ceaușescu ordered the export of much of the country's agricultural and industrial production in order to repay its debts. The resulting domestic shortages made the everyday life of Romanians a fight for survival as food rationing was introduced and heating, gas and electricity blackouts became the rule. During the 1980s, there was a steady decrease in the Romanian population's standard of living, especially in the availability and quality of food and general goods in shops. During this time, all regional radio stations were closed, and television was limited to a single channel broadcasting for only 2 hours a day. The debt was fully paid in 1989.
The conflict with Hungary over the treatment of the Magyar minority in Romania had several unusual aspects: not only was it a vitriolic argument between 2 officially Socialist states, it also marked the moment when Hungary, a state behind the Iron Curtain, appealed to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe for sanctions to be taken against Romania. The later 1980s were marked by a pronounced anti-Hungarian discourse, which owed more to nationalist tradition than to Marxism, and the ultimate isolation of Romania on the world stage.
Ceaușescu opposed all forms of perestroika and glasnost, the reform and openness policies of Russia's Mikhail Gorbachev. He was very displeased when other Warsaw Pact countries decided to try their own versions of Gorbachev's reforms. In particular, he was incensed when Poland's leaders opted for a power-sharing arrangement with the Solidarity trade union. He even went as far as to call for a Warsaw Pact invasion of Poland, a significant reversal, considering how violently he opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia 20 years earlier.
Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country that retained diplomatic relations with Israel and did not sever diplomatic relations after Israel's pre-emptive strike against Egypt at the start of the Six-Day War in 1967. Ceaușescu made efforts to act as a mediator between the PLO and Israel. Romania was the only Soviet bloc country to attend the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which had been boycotted by the Soviets and their allies in response to the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. It was the only Warsaw Pact country that did not sever diplomatic relations with Chile after Augusto Pinochet's coup.
Ceaușescu created a pervasive personality cult, giving himself such titles as "The Genius of the Carpathians". The most important day of the year during Ceaușescu's rule was his birthday - a day which saw Romanian media saturated with praise for him. It was one of the few days of the year when the average Romanian put on a happy face, since appearing miserable on this day was too risky to contemplate. Ceaușescu was greatly concerned about his public image.
After the earthquake of 1977, he started a reconstruction plan of Bucharest. The People's House was the center of this project. Named Project Bucharest - an intended replica of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Its construction was organized as a contest and won by a 28 year old woman who was appointed chief architect of the project. In total, the team that coordinated the work was made up of 10 architects, which supervised a further 700. The building was erected on the site of the National Archives and some monasteries that were demolished along with a hospital as well as about 37 old factories and workshops.
One fifth of the old city center was demolished along with 50,000 homes. The works were carried out with forced labor of soldiers and so the cost was minimized. Between 20,000 and 100,000 people worked on the site, sometimes operating in 3 shifts with 3,000 workers dying on the job. Out of 1,100 rooms, only 400 rooms and 2 meeting rooms ended up to be finished and used. The building has 8 underground levels, the last one being an anti atomic bunker, linked to the main state institutions by 20km of catacombs. The bunker is a room with 1.5m thick concrete walls. The same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza, the People`s House sinks by 6mm each year as its massive weight leads to the settlement of layers below the construction.
In 1988, Ceausescu's administration publicized a "bulldozing" plan to eliminate 7,000 villages before the end of the century with the objective to establish new ago-industrial centers where the various national groups would be absorbed by the majority Romanian population. His goal was to turn peasants into workers.
The expanding centralization of the government in Bucharest greatly eroded the hitherto independent political and cultural institutions of the Transylvania Saxons and Banat Swabians. Under their strongly centralized regimes that are typically considered Stalinist, Romania used prison and labor camp systems that were unmatched in Eastern Europe after Stalin's death. Using a secret police network called the Securitate, the economic and political policies of the Romanian Communist government had devastating consequences for the German minorities that caused them to flee in droves.
Despite this multi-ethnic recognition, minorities felt noticeably marginalized by the pronounced Romanian cultural and linguistic nationalism that increasingly pervaded, under Ceaşescu. German-language schools and institutions that were previously recognized in the 1950's were merged with Romanian schools staffed by ethnic Romanians so that the majority of students were Romanian even in previously German schools. This was one aspect of the Romanization campaign that eroded on the previous independence of Romania's Germans and pressured their emigration.
Towards the end of the the Ceaşescu regime in the 1970's and 1980's, the Romanian nationalism complex expanded. Ceauşescu tapped into the Antisemitism and xenophobia that was strong in Romanian society by directly subduing the already-limited autonomy of the Hungarian, Gypsy, and German minorities. All of these factors encouraged the Saxons and Hungarians, already close to the borders of Hungary, to emigrate voluntarily and leave the 800-year-old Saxon community in ruins. Residents of distant and rural Transylvania were often relegated to move to large urban cities far away to find a job and an education. 600,000 persons of all ethnic groups left Transylvania to big cities, primarily Bucharest. 280,000 left Romania proper for Transylvania to work on or build collectives and new government projects. This greatly offset the ethnic distribution of Transylvania and, when combined with the Hungarians' and Germans' mass emigration, furthered the disappearance of the German heritage of Transylvania.
The most direct policy affecting the autonomous society of the Saxons and Swabians was the policy of land and property confiscation. This dismantled the independent commercial and political foundations of the German and Hungarian communities in Transylvania by aggregating them to state control. The seizure of Saxon and Hungarian family property and farms that their ancestors had spent centuries maintaining greatly pressured a mass exodus out of Romania. The Germans were accused of being disproportionately wealthy as land owners and aristocrats, and were thus a target for land confiscations and redistribution to the native Romanian majority. The Saxons' family homes were given to poor ethnic Romanian farmers. Romanians argued that the Saxon minority had spent 800 years controlling an unequal share of Transylvania's land and subsuming the rights of the Romanian majority. These economic and political problems encouraged a mass emigration of Saxon and Hungarian families in Transylvania leaving behind the property that their ancestors had spent centuries developing. Ultimately, Romania's Germans were increasingly relegated to flee Romania. They had lost their largely independent societies and local self-government. Pressured by the aforementioned factors, massive waves of emigration of Romania's Germans occurred from 1944 until the collapse of Communist Romania over Ceausescu's corpse that caused the 800-year-old Saxons' and the 300-year-old Swabians' communities to almost completely vanish.
Ceausescu's late 'Rational Eating Programme' that restricted the Romanian diet to detrimental rations compounded the exodus of German emigrants. This was exacerbated by a growth in anti-minority sentiment against the Hungarians and Germans in Romania after 1989, as Romanians scrambled to define a new capitalist economy and liberal politic. Tens of thousands of Gemans and Hungarians petitioned for exit visas to emigrate to Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Ceausescu's regime charged an inordinately high cost for visas outside of the Communist Bloc. The impoverished majority could not afford this, and many families were described as having their luggage packed for years in the queue. Many Germans and Hungarians intentionally failed at school and did as little work as possible so as to force the Romanian government to give them passports to alleviate a social drain. West Germany offered to pay for granting exit visas to Romanian German families. Romania was anxious to grant passports to Jews in exchange for money and their departure. Romania essentially "sold" German families to West Germany at negotiated rates per family. Upon being deported or approved for emigration, German families were allowed to keep only what they could carry. Their property was forfeit to the state or Romanian farmers, or fell into dilapidation before being occupied by Gypsies.
The massive depopulation of Romania's Germans through emigration led to the collapse of the 800-year-old Saxon community. German-language schools and academic institutions were closed due to a lack of students. Only 96,000 Saxons were in Romania by 1990, spread over 266 small towns and cities. The total German population in Romania dropped from nearly 800,000 (4.1%) before WWII to only 66,646 (0.3%), a 91.5% loss of Romania's vanished German communities.
Romanian cultural and state policy became increasingly exclusive and nationalistic as Ceausescu's cult of personality amplified. As Romania formally broke from Soviet influence and distanced itself from the Warsaw Pact, it grew an increasingly nationalistic framework in which the very distinct German and Hungarian minorities felt visibly disenfranchised. Hungarian and German language institutions were widely closed and a policy of linguistic assimilation was accelerated. The feeling of discrimination was evident at the end of Ceausescu's regime in 1989. Romania`s security apparatus Securitate was especially hostile towards Hungarian and German minorities. Hungarian and German communities protested across the country before he was deposed by mobs and eventually executed by firing squad.
Demonstrations in the city of Timișoara were triggered by the government-sponsored attempt to evict an ethnic Hungarian pastor, accused by the government of inciting ethnic hatred. Members of his ethnic Hungarian congregation and Romanian students joined the demonstration, which soon lost nearly all connection to its initial cause and became a more general anti-government demonstration. Regular military forces, police and Securitate fired on demonstrators killing and injuring men, women and children. Failing to control the crowds, the Ceaușescus finally took cover inside the building that housed the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. The rest of the day saw an open revolt of Bucharest's population, which had assembled in University Square and confronted the police and army at barricades. The rioters were no match for the military apparatus concentrated in Bucharest, which cleared the streets by midnight and arrested hundreds of people in the process. The rebellion spread to all major cities across the country.
Rank-and-file soldiers switched sides to the revolution almost en masse. The commanders made no effort to keep their men loyal to the government. Ceaușescu made a last desperate attempt to address the crowd gathered in front of the Central Committee building, but the people in the square began throwing stones and other projectiles at him, forcing him to take refuge in the building once more. One group of protesters forced open the doors of the building, by now left unprotected. They managed to overpower Ceausescu's bodyguards and rushed through his office and onto the balcony. Although they did not know it, they were only a few meters from Ceaușescu, who was trapped in an elevator. He and his wife managed to get to the roof and escaped by helicopter, only seconds ahead of a group of demonstrators who had followed them there. During the course of the revolution, the western press published estimates of the number of people killed by Securitate forces in attempting to support Ceaușescu and quell the rebellion. There were thousands of fatalities.
Ceaușescu and his wife fled the capital whence they fled again and were captured. On Christmas Day in 1989 the Ceaușescus were tried before a court. They faced charges including illegal gathering of wealth and genocide. At the end of the quick show trial the Ceaușescus were found guilty and sentenced to death. A soldier standing guard in the proceedings was ordered to take the Ceaușescus out back one by one and shoot them. The Ceaușescus were executed by a gathering of soldiers, while hundreds of others also volunteered. The firing squad began shooting as soon as the 2 were in position against a wall. A TV crew who were to film the execution only managed to catch the end of it as the Ceaușescus lay on the ground shrouded by dust kicked up by the bullets striking the wall and ground. The Ceaușescus were the last people to be executed in Romania before the abolition of capital punishment in 1990.
Reza Pahlavi was the last Shah of Iran from 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution in1979. He was the second and last monarch of the House of Pahlavi. Reza came to power during WWII after an Anglo-Soviet invasion forced the abdication of his father. During Reza's reign, the Iranian oil industry was briefly nationalized, until a US and UK-backed coup d'état deposed the prime minister and brought back foreign oil firms. Under his reign, Iran marked the anniversary of 2,500 years of continuous Persian monarchy since the founding of the Achaemenid Empire by Cyrus the Great.
Reza also introduced the White Revolution, a series of economic, social and political reforms with the proclaimed intention of transforming Iran into a global power and modernizing the nation by nationalizing certain industries and granting women suffrage.
Reza gradually lost support from the Shi'a clergy of Iran as well as the working class, particularly due to his strong policy of modernization, conflict with the traditional class of merchants, relations with Israel, and corruption issues surrounding himself, his family, and the ruling elite. Various additional controversial policies were enacted, including the banning of the communist Party and a general suppression of political dissent by Iran's intelligence agency. According to official statistics, Iran had as many as 2,200 political prisoners in 1978, a number which multiplied rapidly as a result of the revolution.
Several other factors contributed to strong opposition to the Shah among certain groups within Iran, the most significant of which were US and UK support for his regime, clashes with Islamists and increased communist activity. By 1979, political unrest had transformed into a revolution which forced him to leave Iran. Soon thereafter, the Iranian monarchy was formally abolished, and Iran was declared an Islamic republic led by Ruhollah Khomeini. Facing likely execution should he return to Iran, he died in exile in Egypt, whose president, Anwar Sadat, had granted him asylum. Due to his status as the last Shah of Iran, he is often known as simply "The Shah".
Reza described his father Khan as a dominating man with a violent temper. A tough, fierce, and very ambitious soldier who became the first Persian to command the elite Russian-trained Cossack Brigade, Khan liked to kick subordinates in the groin who failed to follow his orders. Growing up under his shadow, Reza was a deeply scarred and insecure boy who lacked self-confidence. Khan believed if fathers showed love for their sons, it caused homosexuality later in life, and to ensure his favourite son was heterosexual, denied him any love and affection when he was young, though he later become more affectionate towards the Crown Prince when he was a teenager.
Khan was an outspoken admirer of Hitler, though this was less because of any racism and anti-Semitism on his part, but rather because he saw Hitler as someone much like himself, namely a man who had risen from an undistinguished background to become a notable leader of the 20th century. Khan often impressed on his son his belief that history was made by great men such as himself, and that a real leader is an autocrat. Khan was a huge barrel-chested and muscular man leading his son to liken him to a mountain.
Throughout his life, Reza was obsessed with height and stature, for example wearing elevator shoes to make himself look taller than he really was. He often boasted that Iran's highest mountain Mount Demavand was higher than any peak in Europe or Japan. As Shah, Reza constantly disparaged his father in private, calling him a thuggish Cossack who achieved nothing as Shah, and most notably the son almost airbrushed his father out of history during his reign, to the point that the impression was given the House of Pahlavi began its rule in 1941 rather than 1925.
Reza's mother was an assertive woman who was also very superstitious. She believed that dreams were messages from another world, sacrificed lambs to bring good fortune and scare away evil spirits, and clad her children with protective amulets to ward off the power of the evil eye.
She was the main emotional support to her son, cultivating a belief in him that destiny had chosen him for great things, as the soothsayers she consulted had explained her dreams as proving just precisely that. Reza grew up surrounded by women, as the main influences on him were his mother, his older sister Shams and his twin sister Ashraf. Traditionally, male children were considered preferable to females, and as a boy, Reza was often spoiled by his mother and sisters. He was very close to his twin sister Ashraf.
After becoming Crown Prince, Reza was taken away from his mother and sisters to be given a "manly education" by officers selected by his father, who also ordered that everyone including his mother and siblings were to address the Crown Prince as "Your Highness". The result of his upbringing between a loving, if possessive and superstitious mother and an overbearing martinet father was to make Reza a young man of low self-esteem who masked his lack of self-confidence, his indecisiveness, his passivity, his dependency and his shyness with masculine bravado, impulsiveness, and arrogance, making him into a person of marked contradictions as the Crown Prince was both gentle and cruel, withdrawn and active, dependent and assertive, weak and powerful.
By the time Reza turned 11, his father dispatched his son to a Swiss boarding school for 4 years. On his first day as a student in 1931, the Crown Prince antagonised a group of his fellow students who were sitting on a bench in a park outside with his demand that they all stand to attention as he walked past, just as everybody did back in Iran, which led to an American student beating up Mohammad Reza, who swiftly learned to accept that no one would stand to attention wherever he went in Switzerland. Reza lost his virginity to a maid who worked at that school.
After returning to Iran, the Crown Prince was registered at the local military academy in Tehran where he remained enrolled until 1938, graduating as a Second Lieutenant. Upon graduating, Reza was quickly promoted to the rank of Captain, a rank which he kept until he became Shah.
During his time in Switzerland, Reza befriended Perron, the son of a gardener who worked at the school and who would become his best friend and "twin". Perron, an eccentric, effeminate man who dressed in a campy style, walked with a limp and who did little to hide his homosexuality, was often beaten up by the students until one day Reza came to his defense. The Crown Prince liked Perron so much that when he returned to Iran in 1936, he brought Perron back with him, installing his best friend in the Marble Palace. Perron lived in Iran until his death in 1961 and as the best friend of Reza was a man of considerable behind-the-scenes power.
One of the main initiatives of Iranian and Turkish foreign policy had been a pact in 1937 forming an alliance bringing together Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, with the intent of creating a Muslim bloc that would hopefully deter any aggressors. President Atatürk of Turkey suggested to his friend Khan during the latter's visit to Turkey that a marriage between the Iranian and Egyptian courts would be beneficial for the 2 countries and their dynasties, as it might lead to Egypt joining the pact.
In line with this suggestion, Reza and Princess Fawzia of Egypt married. Reza's marriage to Fawzia produced one child, a daughter. Their marriage was not a happy one as the Crown Prince was openly unfaithful, often being seen driving around Tehran in one of his expensive cars with one of his girlfriends. Reza's dominating and extremely possessive mother saw her daughter-in-law as a rival to her son's love, and took to humiliating Princess Fawzia, whose husband sided with his mother. A quiet, shy woman, Fawzia described her marriage as miserable, feeling very much unwanted and unloved by the Pahlavi family and longing to go back to Egypt.
In the midst of WWII in 1941, Nazi Germany began Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union. This had a major impact on Iran, which had declared neutrality in the conflict. Soviet and British diplomats passed on numerous messages warning that they regarded the presence of a number of Germans administering the Iranian state railroads as a threat, implying war if the Germans were not dismissed. Britain wished to ship arms to the Soviet Union via Iranian railroads, and statements from the German managers of the Iranian railroads that they would not cooperate made both Moscow and London insistent that the Germans Khan had hired to run his railroads had to be fired. Later that year British and Soviet forces occupied Iran in a military invasion.
Reza was shocked to see the Iranian military simply collapse, with thousands of terrified officers and men all over Tehran taking off their uniforms in order to desert and run away despite the fact they had not seen combat yet. Reflecting the panic, a group of senior Iranian generals called the Crown Prince to receive his blessing to hold a meeting to discuss how best to surrender. When Khan learned of the meeting, he flew into a rage and attacked one of his generals striking him with his riding crop, tearing off his medals and was about to personally execute him when Reza persuaded his father to have the general court-martialed instead. The collapse of the Iranian military that his father had worked so hard to build up humiliated his son, who vowed that he would never see Iran defeated like that again.
When Reza, the Crown Prince replace his father and became Shah, the streets filled with people welcoming the new Shah jubilantly. The main Soviet interest in 1941 was to ensure political stability to ensure Allied supplies, which meant accepting the throne. Subsequent to his succession as king, Iran became a major conduit for British and, later, American aid to the USSR during the war. This massive supply effort became known as the Persian Corridor.
A general amnesty was issued 2 days after Reza's accession to the throne. All political personalities who had suffered disgrace during his father's reign were rehabilitated, and the forced unveiling policy inaugurated by his father in 1935 was overturned. During his early days as Shah, Reza lacked self-confidence and spent most of his time with Perron writing poetry in French.
In 1945-46, the main issue in Iranian politics were the Soviet-sponsored separatist government in Iranian Azerbaijan and Kurdistan, which greatly alarmed the Shah. He repeatedly clashed with his prime minister whom he viewed as too pro-Soviet. At the same time, the growing popularity of the Communist Party also worried Reza, who felt there was a serious possibility of a coup. Reza was relieved when the Red Army pulled out of Iran. Stalin stated that he had to pull out of Iran as otherwise the Americans would not pull out of China, and he wanted to assist the Chinese Communists in their civil war against the Kuomintang. In 1946, the Iranian Army led by the Shah in person entered Iranian Azerbaijan. Most of the fighting occurring between ordinary people who attacked functionaries of the defeated regime who had behaved brutally. Reza credited his easy success in Azerbaijan to his "mystical power".
Reza was well known as a womanizer who often spoke of women as sexual objects who existed only to gratify him. As a regular visitor to the nightclubs of Italy, France and the United Kingdom, he was linked romantically to several actresses. The young Shah was also the target of at least 2 unsuccessful assassination attempts. The Shah married a second time in 1951. She was 16, half his age.
By the early 1950s, the political crisis brewing in Iran commanded the attention of British and American policy leaders. In 1951, prime minister Mosaddegh committed to nationalizing the Iranian petroleum industry had the parliament unanimously vote to nationalize the oil industry, thus shutting out the immensely profitable AIOC, which was a pillar of Britain's economy and provided it political clout in the region. The CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) funded and led a covert operation to depose prime minister Mosaddegh with the help of military forces disloyal to the government. The plot hinged on orders signed by Reza to dismiss the prime minister and replace him with a choice agreed on by the British and Americans.
Despite the high-level coordination and planning, the coup to depose Mosaddegh initially failed, causing the Shah to flee to Baghdad, and then to Rome. During his time in Rome, he spent most of his time in nightclubs with Queen Soraya or his latest mistress. He hated taking decisions and could not stick to them when taken. He had no moral courage and was constantly living in fear. To get him to support the coup, his twin sister Princess Ashraf, who was much tougher than him and publicly questioned his manhood several times, visited him in 1953 to berate him into signing a decree dismissing the prime minister. After a brief exile in Italy, he returned to Iran, this time through a successful second attempt at a coup. Prime minister Mosaddegh was arrested and tried. The Shah saved him from being executed by commuting the sentence to 3 years to be followed by life in internal exile.
Alongside the strong personal support of Prime Minister Churchill for covert action, the American government gave the go-ahead to a committee that went to Iran to meet Reza. A car picked him up at midnight and drove him to the palace. He lay down on the seat and covered himself with a blanket as guards waved his driver through the gates. The CIA bribed him with $1 million in Iranian currency, which they had stored in a large bulky cache. US actions further solidified sentiments that the West was a meddlesome influence in Iranian politics.
Reza returned to power, but never extended the elite status of the court to the technocrats and intellectuals who emerged from Iranian and Western universities. Indeed, his system irritated the new classes, for they were barred from partaking in real power. In the aftermath of the 1953 coup d'état, Reza was widely viewed as a figurehead monarch and the American backed Prime Minister Zahedi was viewed by others as the "strong man" of Iran. Reza feared that history would repeat itself, remembering how his father was a general who had seized power in a coup d'état in 1921 and deposed the last Qajar shah in 1925, and his major concern in the years 1953-55 was to neutralise Zahedi.
American and British diplomats in their reports back to Washington and London in the 1950s were openly contemptuous of Reza's ability to lead, calling the Shah a weak-willed and cowardly man who was incapable of making a decision. The contempt in which the Shah was held by Iranian elites led to a period in the mid 1950s where the elite displayed divisive tendencies, feuding among themselves now that Mossadegh had been overthrown. This allowed Reza to play off various factions in the elite to assert himself as the nation's leader.
Supporters of the banned National Front were persecuted, but in his first important decision as leader, Reza intervened to ensure most of the members of the National Front brought to trial such as Mosaddegh himself were not executed as many had expected. Many in the Iranian elite were openly disappointed that Reza did not conduct the expected bloody purge and hang Mosaddegh and his followers as they had wanted and expected. In 1954, when 12 university professors issued a public statement criticizing the 1953 coup, all were dismissed from their jobs.
Reza tried very hard to co-opt the supporters of the National Front by adopting some of their rhetoric and addressing their concerns, for example declaring in several speeches his concerns about the Third World economic conditions and poverty which prevailed in Iran, a matter that had not much interested him before. In 1955, Reza began to quietly cultivate left-wing intellectuals, many of whom had supported the National Front and some of whom were associated with the banned communist party, asking them for advice about how best to reform Iran. It was during this period that he began to embrace the image of a "progressive" Shah, a reformer who would modernize Iran, who attacked in his speeches the "reactionary" and "feudal" social system that was retarding progress, bring about land reform and give women equal rights.
Determined to rule as well as reign, it was during the mid 1950s that Reza started to promote a state cult around Cyrus the Great, portrayed as a great Shah who had reformed the country and built an empire with obvious parallels to himself. Alongside this change in image, he started to speak of his desire to "save" Iran, a duty that he claimed he had been given by God, and promised that under his leadership Iran would reach a Western standard of living in the near future.
During this period, Reza sought the support of the ulema, a body of Muslim scholars who are recognized as having specialist knowledge of Islamic sacred law and theology by upholding the traditional policy of persecuting those Iranians who belonged to the Baha'i faith. He allowed the chief Baha'i temple in Tehran to be razed in 1955 and banned the Baha'i from gathering together in groups.
By this time, the Shah's marriage was under strain as Queen Soraya complained about the power of Reza's best friend Perron, whom she called a "piece of shit" and a "limping devil". Perron was a man much resented for his influence over Reza and was often described by enemies as a "diabolical" and "mysterious" character, whose position was that of a private secretary, but who was one of the Shah's closest advisers, holding far more power than his job title suggested.
In 1958, a military coup to depose the Shah was thwarted, which led to a major crisis in Iranian-American relations when evidence emerged that America was involved. A year later, the Shah began negotiations on a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, which he claimed to have been driven to by a lack of American support. After receiving a mildly threatening letter from President Eisenhower warning him against signing the treaty, Reza chose not to sign, which led to a major Soviet propaganda effort calling for his overthrow.
A sign of Mohammad Reza's power came in 1959 when a British company won a contract with the Iranian government that was suddenly canceled and given to Siemens instead. An investigation by the British embassy soon uncovered the reason why: Reza wanted to bed the wife of the Siemens sales agent for Iran, and the Siemens agent had consented to allowing his wife to sleep with the Shah in exchange for winning back the contract that he had just lost.
Reza gave Israel de facto recognition by allowing an Israeli trade office to be opened in Tehran that functioned as a de facto embassy, a move that offended many in the Islamic world. When President Eisenhower visited Iran, Reza told him that Iran faced 2 main external threats, the Soviet Union in the north and the new pro-Soviet revolutionary government in Iraq. He asked for vastly increased American military aid, saying his country was a front-line state in the Cold War that needed as much military power as possible.
The Shah and Soraya's controversial marriage ended when it became apparent that even with help from medical doctors, she could not bear children. Soraya later told the New York Times that the Shah had no choice but to divorce her, and that he was heavy-hearted about the decision. However, even after the marriage, it is reported that the Shah still had great love for Soraya, and it is reported that they met several times after their divorce and that she lived her post-divorce life comfortably as a wealthy lady, even though she never remarried.
In the 1960 U.S. elections, the Shah had favored the Republican candidate Nixon, whom he had first met in 1953. Relations with the victor of the 1960 election, the Democrat Kennedy, were not friendly. In 1961, a teacher's strike involving 50, 000 people began in Iran, which Reza believed was the work of the CIA. He had to sack his prime minister and give in to the teachers after learning that the Army probably would not fire on the demonstrators.
Reza's first major clash with Ayatollah Khomeini took place in 1962 when he Reza changed the local laws for swearing in members of municipal councils, to allow Iranian Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and Baha'i to take the oath of office using their holy books, instead of the Koran. Khomeini wrote to the Shah to say this was unacceptable and that only the Koran could be used to swear in members of the municipal councils regardless of what their religion was.
Feeling pressure from demonstrations organized by the clergy, the Shah withdrew the offending law, but it was reinstated with the White Revolution of 1963. In 1963, Mohammad Reza launched the White Revolution, a series of far-reaching reforms, which caused much opposition from the religious scholars. They were enraged that the referendum approving of the White Revolution in 1963 allowed women to vote with the Ayatollah Khomeini railing in his sermons against the fact that women had been allowed to vote, saying the fate of Iran should never be allowed to be decided by women.
Nationwide demonstrations against Reza's rule took place all over Iran with the center of the unrest being the holy city of Qom. It was students studying to be imams at Qom who were most active in the protests and Ayatollah Khomeini emerged as one of the leaders of the protests, giving sermons calling for the Shah's overthrow. At least 200 people were killed with the police throwing some students to their deaths from high buildings and Khomeini was exiled to Iraq in 1964.
The second attempt on the Shah's life occurred in 1965. A soldier shot his way through the Marble Palace. The assassin was killed before he reached the royal quarters. Two civilian guards died protecting the Shah.
One of Reza's favorite activities were watching films and his favorites were light French comedies and Hollywood action films, much to the disappointment of Farah, his wife who tried hard to interest him in more serious films. Reza was frequently unfaithful towards Farah. His right-hand man Alam regularly imported tall European women for "outings" with the Shah. If women from the "blue-eyed world" were not available, he would bring the Shah "local product". Alam, in his most destructive moments of sycophancy, reassured the Shah-or his "master" as he calls him-that country was prosperous and no one begrudged the King a bit of fun. Reza had an insatiable appetite for sex, and needed to have sex several times a day, every day, or otherwise he would fall into depression. He also had a passion for automobiles and air planes, and by the middle 1970s, the Shah had amassed one of the world's largest collection of luxury cars and planes. Reza's court was as open and tolerant, noting that his and Farah's 2 favorite interior designers were openly gay. Farah began collecting art and by the early 1970s owned works by Picasso, Gauguin, Chagall, and Braque, which added to the modernist feel of the Palace.
In 1967, 26 years into his reign as Shah, he took the ancient title “King of Kings" in a lavish coronation ceremony held in Tehran. He said that he chose to wait until this moment to assume the title because in his own opinion he "did not deserve it" up until then. He felt “there was no honor in being Emperor of a poor country."
As part of his efforts to modernize Iran and give the Iranian people a non-Islamic identity, Reza quite consciously started to celebrate Iranian history before the Arab conquest with a special focus on the Achaemenid period. In 1971, Reza celebrated the twenty-five-hundredth anniversary of the Iranian monarchy and $100 million was spent on the celebration. This became a major scandal, as the contrast between the dazzling elegance of the celebration and the misery of the nearby villages was so dramatic that no one could ignore it. Months before the festivities, university students went on strike in protest. However Reza argued that the celebrations opened new investments in Iran, improved relationships with the other leaders and nations of the world, and provided greater recognition of Iran.
The Shah had an elaborate fireworks show put on together with a sound and light show transmitted by hundreds of hidden loudspeakers and projectors intended to send a dual message; that Iran was still faithful to its ancient traditions and that Iran had transcended its past to become a modern nation, that Iran was not "stuck in the past", but as a nation that embraced modernity had chosen to be faithful to its past. The message was further reinforced the next day when the "Parade of Persian History" was performed at Persepolis when 6,000 soldiers dressed in the uniforms of every dynasty from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis marched past Reza in a grand parade that surpassed in sheer spectacle the most florid celluloid imaginations of Hollywood epics.
To complete the message, Reza finished off the celebrations by opening a brand new museum in Tehran housed in a very modernistic building and attended another parade in the newly opened Stadium, intended to give a message of "compressed time" between antiquity and modernity. A brochure put up by the Celebration Committee explicitly stated the message:
"Only when change is extremely rapid, and the past ten years have proved to be so, does the past attain new and unsuspected values worth cultivating. Iran has began to feel confident of its modernization".
In the 1970s, Iran had an economic growth rate equal to that of South Korea, Turkey and Taiwan, and Western journalists all regularly predicated that Iran would become a First World nation within the next generation. Significantly, a "reverse brain drain" had begun with Iranians who had been educated in the West returning home to take up positions in government and business. The firm of Iran National had become by 1978 the largest automobile manufacturer in the Middle East producing 136,000 cars every year while employing 12,000 people. Reza had strong state socialism tendencies and was deeply involved in the economy with his economic policies bearing a strong resemblance to the same policies being pursued in South Korea at the same time. Reza considered himself to be a socialist. Reflecting his self-proclaimed socialist tendencies, despite that unions were illegal, the Shah brought in labor laws that were surprising fair to workers. Iran in the 1960s and 70s was a tolerant place for the Jewish minority. Reza's reign was the "golden age" for Iranian Jews when they were equals, and when the Iranian Jewish community was one of the wealthiest Jewish communities in the world. The Baha'i minority also did well after the bout of persecution in the mid-1950s ended with several Baha'i families becoming prominent in world of Iranian business.
The Shah's diplomatic foundation was the United States' guarantee that it would protect him, which was what enabled him to stand up to larger enemies. While the arrangement did not preclude other partnerships and treaties, it helped to provide a somewhat stable environment in which Reza could implement his reforms. Another factor guiding Reza in his foreign policy was his wish for financial stability which required strong diplomatic ties. A third factor in his foreign policy was his wish to present Iran as a prosperous and powerful nation. This fueled his domestic policy of Westernisation and reform. A final component was his promise that communism could be halted at Iran's border if his monarchy was preserved. By 1977, the country's treasury, the Shah's autocracy, and his strategic alliances seemed to form a protective layer around Iran.
The Shah of Iran was the first regional leader to recognize the State of Israel as a de facto state, although when interviewed, he criticized American Jews for their presumed control over U.S. media and finance. In 1965, after the Americans proved reluctant to sell Reza some of the weapons he asked for, the Shah visited Moscow where the Soviets agreed to sell some $110 million worth of weaponry. The threat of Iran pursuing the "Soviet option" caused the Americans to give in on selling Iran weapons. British, French and Italian arms firms were willing to sell Iran weapons, thus giving Reza considerable leverage.
Concerning the fate of Bahrain (which Britain had controlled since the 19th century, but which Iran claimed as its own territory) and 3 small Persian Gulf islands, the Shah negotiated an agreement with the British, which, by means of a public consensus, ultimately led to the independence of Bahrain against the wishes of Iranian nationalists. In return, Iran took full control of three strategically sensitive islands in the Strait of Hormuz, which were claimed by the United Arab Emirates.
During this period, the Shah maintained cordial relations with the Persian Gulf states and established close diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia. Reza saw Iran as the natural dominant power in the Persian Gulf region, and that no challenges to Iranian hegemony would be tolerated, a claim that was supported by a gargantuan arms-buying spree that started in the early 1960s. In 1972, Reza told a visiting President Nixon that the Soviet Union was attempting to dominate the Middle East via its close ally Iraq, and to check Iraqi ambitions would also be to check Soviet ambitions. Nixon agreed to support Iranian claims for a disputed border with Iraq and to generally back Iran in its confrontation with Iraq.
Reza financed Kurdish separatist rebels in Iraq, and to cover his tracks, armed them with Soviet weapons which Israel had seized from Soviet-backed Arab regimes, and then handed over to Iran at the Shah's behest. The initial operation was a disaster, but the Shah continued attempts to support the rebels and weaken Iraq. In 1975, the countries signed the Algiers Accord, which granted Iran the disputed border in exchange for his ending support for Iraqi Kurdish rebels.
The Shah also maintained close relations with King Hussein of Jordan, Sadat of Egypt, and King Hassan II of Morocco. Starting in 1970, Reza formed an unlikely alliance with the militantly left-wing regime of Colonel Qaddhafi of Libya as both leaders wanted higher oil prices for their nations, leading to Iran and Libya joining forces to press for the "leapfrogging" of oil prices. Under Nixon, the United States finally agreed to sever all contact with any Iranians opposed to the Shah's regime, a concession that Reza had been seeking since 1958.
The Americans initially rejected Reza's suggestion that they join him in supporting the Iraqi Kurdish fighting for independence on the grounds that an independent Kurdistan would inspire the Turkish Kurds to rebel, and they had no interest in antagonizing the NATO member Turkey. Some of the Shah's advisers also felt it was unwise to support the Kurds saying that if the Iraqi Kurds won independence, then the Iranian Kurds would want to join them. When Nixon and Kissinger visited Tehran in 1972, the Shah convinced them to take a larger role in what had, up to then, been a mainly Israeli-Iranian operation. The Shah wanted to see America aid Iraqi Kurds in their struggles against Iraq, against the warnings of the CIA and State Department that the Shah would ultimately betray the Kurds. He did this in 1975 with the signing of the Algiers Accord that settled Iraqi-Iranian border disputes, an action taken without prior consultation with the U.S., after which he cut off all aid to the Kurds and prevented the U.S. and Israel from using Iranian territory to provide them assistance. The sudden cut-off of Iranian support in 1975 left the Kurds very exposed, causing them to be crushed by Iraq. The Iraqis celebrated their victory in the usual manner, by executing as many of the rebels as they could lay their hands on.
Kissinger later wrote in his memoirs that it was never the intention of the U.S. or Iran to see the Kurds actually win, as an independent Kurdistan would have created too many problems for both Turkey and Iran. Rather the intention was to "irritate" Iraq enough to force the Iraqis to change their foreign policy.
The Shah also manipulated America's dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Although Iran did not participate in the 1973 oil embargo, he purposely increased production in its aftermath to capitalize on the higher prices. In 1973, only 2 months after oil prices were raised by 70 per cent, he urged OPEC nations to push prices even higher, which they agreed to and more than doubled the price. Oil prices increased 470 per cent over a 12-month period, which also increased Iran's GDP by 50 per cent. Despite personal pleas from President Nixon, the Shah ignored any complaints, claimed the U.S. was importing more oil than any time in the past, and proclaimed that:
"the industrial world will have to realize that the era of their terrific progress and even more terrific income and wealth based on cheap oil is finished."
With Iran's great oil wealth, the Shah became the preeminent leader of the Middle East, and self-styled "Guardian" of the Persian Gulf. In 1961 he defended his style of rule, saying "When Iranians learn to behave like Swedes, I will behave like the King of Sweden."
During the last years of his regime, the Shah's government became more autocratic. The Shah's picture was everywhere. The beginning of all film showings in public theaters presented the Shah in various regal poses accompanied by the strains of the National Anthem. The monarch also actively extended his influence to all phases of social affairs. There is hardly any activity or vocation in which the Shah or members of his family or his closest friends did not have a direct or at least a symbolic involvement. In the past, he had claimed to take a 2-party system seriously and declared:
"If I were a dictator rather than a constitutional monarch, then I might be tempted to sponsor a single dominant party such as Hitler organized."
However, by 1975 he had abolished the 2-party system of government in favor of a one-party state. The Shah justified his actions by declaring:
"We must straighten out Iranians' ranks. To do so, we divide them into two categories: those who believe in Monarchy, the constitution and the Six Bahman Revolution and those who don't. A person who does not enter the new political party and does not believe in the 3 cardinal principles will have only 2 choices. He is either an individual who belongs to an illegal organization, or is related to the outlawed communist party, or in other words a traitor. Such an individual belongs to an Iranian prison, or if he desires he can leave the country tomorrow, without even paying exit fees. He can go anywhere he likes, because he is not Iranian, he has no nation, and his activities are illegal and punishable according to the law".
By the 1970s, Reza was considered one of the world's most successful and able leaders. From 1973 onward, he proclaimed his aim as that of the "Great Civilization", a turning point not only in Iran's history, but also the history of the entire world, a claim that was taken seriously for a time in the West. The great wealth generated by Iran's oil encouraged a sense of nationalism at the Imperial Court. The Empress Farah recalled of her days as a university student in 1950s France about being asked where she was from:
“When I told them Iran, the Europeans would recoil in horror as if Iranians were barbarians and loathsome. But after Iran became wealthy under the Shah in the 1970s, Iranians were courted everywhere. Yes, Your Majesty. Of course, Your Majesty. If you please, Your Majesty. Fawning all over us. Greedy sycophants. Then they loved Iranians.”
Reza shared the Empress's sentiments as Westerners came begging to his court looking for his largess, leading him to remark in 1976:
“Now we are the masters and our former masters are our slaves. Everyday they a beat a track to our door begging for favors. How can they be of assistance? Do we want arms? Do we want nuclear power stations? We have only to answer, and they will fulfill our wishes."
Among the royalty that came to Tehran looking for generosity from a Shah known for his lavish spending were King Hussein of Jordan, the former King Constantine II of Greece, King Hassan II of Morocco, the princes and princesses of the Dutch House of Orange and the Italian Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, whom the Shah had once courted in the 1950s. He enjoyed close relations with Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.
In an era of high oil prices, Iran's economy boomed while the economies of the Western nations after the oil shock of 1973-74 were trapped in stagflation (economic stagnation and inflation), which seemed to prove the greatness of Reza both to himself and to the rest of the world. In 1975 the Shah gave a $1 billion US loan to the United Kingdom and another $1 billion US to France.
In 1976, Reza told in an interview:
"I want the standard of living in Iran in ten years' time to be exactly on a level with that in Europe today. In twenty years' time we shall be ahead of the United States".
The overthrow of the Shah came as a surprise to almost all observers. The first militant anti-Shah demonstrations of a few hundred started in 1977 after the death of Khomeini's son Mostafa. In 1978, an article attacked Khomeini, who was in exile in Iraq at the time. It referred to him as a homosexual, a drug addict, a British spy and claimed he was an Indian, not an Iranian. The next day, protests against the article began in the holy city of Qom, a traditional center of opposition to the House of Pahlavi.
Reza was diagnosed with cancer in 1974. As it worsened, from the spring of 1978, he stopped appearing in public, with the official explanation being that he was suffering from a "persistent cold". He moved to his resort on the Caspian Sea, where he was treated for his cancer. To try to stop his cancer, Reza took an anti-cancer drug that causes depression and impairs thinking. As the country was swept up with nationwide protests and strikes, the court found it impossible to get decisions from Reza, as he became utterly passive and indecisive, content to spend hours listlessly staring into space as he rested by the Caspian Sea while the revolution raged. The seclusion of the Shah who normally loved the limelight sparked all sorts of rumors all over Iran about the state of his health and damaged the imperial mystique, as the man who had been presented as a god-like ruler was revealed to be fallible after all.
The Shah-centered command structure of the Iranian military and the lack of training to confront civil unrest was marked by disaster and bloodshed. There were several instances where army units had opened fire, the most notorious one later became known as "Black Friday". Thousands had gathered in Tehran for a religious demonstration. With people refusing to recognize martial law, the soldiers opened fire, killing and seriously injuring a large number of people. Black Friday played a crucial role in further radicalizing the protest movement. The massacre so reduced the chance for reconciliation that Black Friday is referred to as "the point of no return" for the revolution.
Strikes were paralyzing the country, and a "total of 6 to 9 million", more than 10% of the country, marched against the Shah throughout Iran. After flying over a huge demonstration in Tehran in his helicopter, Reza accused the British and the Americans of organizing the demonstrations, screaming that he was being "betrayed" by the United Kingdom and the United States. The fact that the BBC's journalists tended to be very sympathetic towards the revolution was viewed by most Iranians, including Reza, as a sign that Britain was supporting the revolution. This impression turned out to be crucial, as the Iranian people had a very exaggerated idea about Britain's capacity to "direct events" in Iran. In a subsequent internal inquiry, the BBC found many of its more left-wing journalists disliked Reza as a "reactionary" force, and sympathized with a revolution seen as "progressive".
Reza's view of the revolution as a gigantic conspiracy organized by foreign powers suggested that there was nothing wrong with Iran, and the millions of people demonstrating against him were just dupes being used by foreigners, a viewpoint that did not encourage concessions and reforms until it was too late. For much of 1978, Reza saw his enemies as "Marxist" revolutionaries rather than Islamists. The Shah had exaggerated ideas about the power of the KGB, which he thought of as omnipotent, and often expressed the view that all of the demonstrations against him had been organized in Moscow, saying only the KGB had the power to bring out thousands of ordinary people to demonstrate. The oil workers went on strike, shutting down the oil industry and with it, Reza's principal source of revenue. The Iranian military had no plans in place to deal with such an event, and the strike pushed the regime to the economic brink.
The revolution had attracted support from a broad coalition ranging from secular, left-wing nationalists to Islamists on the right, and Khomeini, who was now based in Paris after being expelled from Iraq, chose to present himself as a moderate able to bring together all the different factions leading the revolution. Reza went on Iranian television to say "I have heard the voice of your revolution" and promised major reforms. In a major concession to the opposition, Reza freed all political prisoners while ordering the arrest of the former prime minister and several senior officials of his regime, a move that both emboldened his opponents and demoralized his supporters.
The Shah learned that many of his generals were making overtures to the revolutionary leaders and the loyalty of the military could not longer be counted upon. In a sign of desperation Reza reached out to the National Front asking if one of their leaders would be willing to become prime minister. The Shah was especially interested in having the National Front's Sadighi as prime minister. Sadighi had served as interior minister under Mosaddegh, had been imprisoned after the 1953 coup, and had pardoned by Reza on the grounds that he was a "patriot". Sadighi remained active in the National Front and was willing to serve as prime minister under Reza in order to "save" Iran, saying he feared what might come after if the Shah was overthrown. Despite the opposition of the other National Front leaders, Sadighi visited the Shah several times to discuss the terms under which he might become prime minister, with the main sticking point being that he wanted the Shah not to leave Iran, saying he needed to remain in order to ensure the loyalty of the military.
When Reza was exiled and left Iran, spontaneous attacks by members of the public on statues of the Pahlavis followed, and within hours, almost every sign of the Pahlavi dynasty was destroyed. All political prisoners were freed and Ayatollah Khomeini was allowed to return to Iran after years in exile. Khomeini appointed his own interim government. Pro-Khomeini revolutionary guerrilla and rebel soldiers gained the upper hand in street fighting, and the military announced its neutrality and the dissolution of the monarchy was complete.
Explanations for the overthrow of Reza include his status as a dictator put in place by a non-Muslim Western power, the United States, whose foreign culture was seen as influencing that of Iran. Additional contributing factors included reports of oppression, brutality, corruption, and extravagance. Basic functional failures of the regime have also been blamed, such as economic bottlenecks, shortages and inflation, the regime's over-ambitious economic programme, the failure of its security forces to deal with protests and demonstrations, and the overly centralized royal power structure.
Some achievements of the Shah, such as broadened education, had unintended consequences. While school attendance rose Iran's labor market could not absorb a high number of educated youth. In 1966, high school graduates had "a higher rate of unemployment than did the illiterate", and the educated unemployed often supported the revolution.
During his exile, Reza traveled from country to country seeking what he hoped would be temporary residence. First he flew to Aswan, Egypt, where he received a warm and gracious welcome from President Anwar El-Sadat. He later lived in Marrakesh, Morocco as a guest of King Hassan II. Reza loved to support royalty during his time as Shah and one of those who benefited had been Hassan, who received an interest-free loan of $110 million US dollars from his friend. Reza lived in the Bahamas, and near Mexico City.
The Shah suffered from gallstones that would require prompt surgery. He was offered treatment in Switzerland, but insisted on treatment in the United States. President Carter did not wish to admit Reza to the U.S. but came under pressure from many quarters, with Kissinger phoning Carter to say he would not endorse the SALT II treaty that Carter had just signed with the Soviet Union unless the former Shah was allowed into the United States. As many Republicans were attacking the SALT II treaty as an American give-away to the Soviet Union, Carter was anxious to have the endorsement of a Republican elder statesman like Kissinger to fend off this criticism. Reza had decided not to tell his Mexican doctors he had cancer, and the Mexican doctors had misdiagnosed his illness as malaria, giving him a regime of anti-malarial drugs that did nothing to treat his cancer, which caused his health to go into rapid decline as he lost 30 pounds. A doctor sent by David Rockefeller reported to the State Department that Reza needed to come to the United States for medical treatment.
The State Department warned Carter not to admit the former Shah into the U.S., saying it was likely that the Iranian regime would seize the American embassy in Tehran if that occurred. President Jimmy Carter reluctantly allowed the Shah into the United States to undergo surgical treatment. His prolonged stay in the United States was extremely unpopular with the revolutionary movement in Iran, which still resented the United States' overthrow of Prime Minister Mosaddegh and the years of support for the Shah's rule. The Iranian government demanded his return to Iran, but he stayed in the hospital. Reza's time in New York was highly uncomfortable; he was under a heavy security detail as every day, Iranian students studying in the United States gathered outside his hospital to shout "Death to the Shah!"
Reza's admission to the United States resulted in the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the kidnapping of American diplomats, military personnel, and intelligence officers, which soon became known as the Iran hostage crisis. Reza wanted to go back to Mexico but was refused. Mexico was a candidate to be a rotating member of the UN Security Council, but needed the vote of Cuba to be admitted, and the Cuban leader Fidel Castro told him that Cuba's vote was conditional on Mexico not accepting the Shah again.
Reza lived for a short time in Panama. Reza's misery was greatly increased as his chief bodyguard was a militantly Marxist sociology professor who spent much time lecturing Reza on how he deserved his fate because he been a tool of the "American imperialism" that was oppressing the Third World. In addition Reza was charged a monthly rent of $21,000 US dollars, making him pay for all his food and the wages of the 200 National Guardsmen assigned as his bodyguards. The new government in Iran still demanded his and his wife's immediate extradition to Tehran. A short time after Mohammad Reza's arrival in Panama, an Iranian ambassador was dispatched to the Central American nation carrying a 450-page extradition request. That official appeal alarmed both the Shah and his advisers.
The only consolation for Reza during his time in Panama were letters from Princess Soraya saying that she still loved him and wanted to see him one last time before he died. Reza in the letters he sent to Paris declared he wanted to see Soraya one last time as well, but said that the Empress Farah could not be present, which presented some complications as Farah was continually by his deathbed.
After that event, the Shah again sought the support of Egyptian president Sadat, who renewed his offer of permanent asylum in Egypt to the ailing monarch. He returned to Egypt in 1980, where he received urgent medical treatment. By that point, it was arranged by Sadat that Soraya would quietly visit Reza on his deathbed in Egypt without Farah present but Reza died at the age of 60 before Soraya could come to Egypt from her home in Paris.
In 2016, thousands of people in Iran celebrating Cyrus Day in tomb of Cyrus, chanted slogans in support of him, and against the current Islamic regime of Iran and Arabs, and many were subsequently arrested.
Alexander Dubček was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia. He attempted to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring in 1968, but he was forced to resign following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Later, after the overthrow of the government in 1989, he was Chairman of the federal Czechoslovak parliament.
The area of Czechoslovakia was long a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the empire collapsed in 1918 at the end of WWI. From 1939- 1945, it was incorporated into Nazi Germany. From 1948-1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet bloc with a command economy. A period of political liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was forcibly ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by several other Warsaw Pact countries, invaded.
In 1989, as Marxist-Leninist governments and communism were ending all over Europe, Czechoslovaks peacefully deposed their government in the Velvet Revolution. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the 2 sovereign states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Alexander Dubček was born after the family relocated to Czechoslovakia from Chicago. When he was 3, the family moved to the Soviet Union, in part to help build socialism and in part because jobs were scarce in Czechoslovakia. In 1938 when he was 17 years old, he returned to Czechoslovakia. During WWII, Dubček joined the underground resistance against the wartime pro-German Slovak state. In 1944, he fought in the Slovak National Uprising and was wounded twice. After the war, he steadily rose through the ranks in Communist Czechoslovakia. In 1963, a power struggle in the leadership of the Slovak branch placed a new generation of Slovak Communists in control of the party. As leader, he became First Secretary of the Slovak branch of the party and worked to promote Slovak identity.
Under Dubček's leadership, Slovakia began to evolve toward political liberalization. The political and intellectual climate in Slovakia became freer than that in the Czech Lands. He and other reformers sought to liberalize the Communist government, creating "socialism with a human face". Though this loosened the party's influence on the country, he remained a devoted Communist and intended to preserve the party's rule. However, during the Prague Spring, he and other reform-minded Communists sought to win popular support for the Communist government by eliminating its worst, most repressive features, allowing greater freedom of expression and tolerating political and social organizations not under Communist control. A poll gave him 78% public support yet he found himself in an increasingly untenable position. The program of reform gained momentum, leading to pressures for further liberalization and democratization. At the same time, hard-line Communists in Czechoslovakia and the leaders of other Warsaw Pact countries pressured him to rein in the Prague Spring. Though Dubček wanted to oversee the reform movement, he refused to resort to any draconian measures to do so, while still stressing the leading role of the Party and the centrality of the Warsaw Pact.
The Soviet leadership tried to slow down or stop the changes in Czechoslovakia through a series of negotiations. The Soviet Union agreed to bilateral talks with Czechoslovakia. Dubček tried to reassure the Soviets and the Warsaw Pact leaders that he was still friendly to Moscow, arguing that the reforms were an internal matter. He thought he had learned an important lesson from the failing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, in which the leaders had gone as far as withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact. He believed that the Kremlin would allow him a free hand in pursuing domestic reform as long as Czechoslovakia remained a faithful member of the Soviet bloc. Despite his continuing efforts to stress these commitments, Brezhnev and other Warsaw Pact leaders remained wary, seeing a free press as threatening an end to one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, and by extension elsewhere in Eastern Europe.
In 1968, Warsaw Pact forces entered Czechoslovakia. The occupying armies quickly seized control of Prague and the Central Committee's building, taking Dubček and other reformers into Soviet custody. But, before they were arrested, Dubček urged the people not to resist militarily, on the grounds that presenting a military defense would have meant exposing the Czech and Slovak peoples to a senseless bloodbath. Later in the day, Dubček and the others were taken to Moscow on a Soviet military transport aircraft.
The inspired non-violent resistance of the Czech and Slovak population, which delayed full loss of control to the Warsaw Pact forces for a full 8 months became a prime example of civilian-based defense. Resisters changed street names and road signs, pretended not to understand Russian, and of put out a great variety of humorous welcoming posters. Radio stations called for the invaders to return home. Nevertheless, the reformers were forced to accede to Soviet demands, signing the Moscow protocols and the tanks crushed Dubcek's Prague Spring.
Dubček and most of the reformers were returned to Prague and he retained his post as the party's first secretary until 1969. The achievements of the Prague Spring were not reversed overnight, but over a period of several months. Shortly after, he was hospitalized in Bratislava complaining of a cold and had to cancel a speech. Rumors sprang up that his illness was radiation sickness and that it was caused by radioactive strontium being placed in his soup during his stay in Moscow in an attempt to kill him.
Dubček was forced to resign as First Secretary following the Czechoslovak Hockey Riots which were a short lived series of protests, mildly violent on occasion, that took place in response to the 1969 World Ice Hockey Championships. The Czechoslovakia national ice hockey team beat the Soviet team in the 1969 World Ice Hockey Championships in Stockholm. Throughout Czechoslovakia, 500,000 fans crowded the streets of their cities to celebrate the win. In some places, particularly Prague, the celebrations turned to protests against the Soviet military who continued to occupy the country after the Warsaw Pact invasion the previous summer. Some of the demonstrations turned violent as protesters attacked Soviet military units. The protests were suppressed by the Czechoslovak military and police, now under full control of the hardliners from the Communist Party. The events were used as a pretext to oust the remaining leaders of the Prague Spring. Among them, Dubček was forced to resign as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
Dubček was re-elected to the Federal Assembly and became its Speaker. He was later sent as ambassador to Turkey in the hope that he would defect to the West, which however did not occur. In 1970, he was expelled from the Communist party and lost his seats in the Slovak parliament and the Federal Assembly. After his expulsion from the party, he worked in the Forestry Service in Slovakia. He remained a popular figure among the Slovaks and Czechs he encountered on the job.
During the Velvet Revolution of 1989, he appeared with Václav Havel on a balcony where they were greeted with uproarious applause from the throngs of protesters below and embraced as a symbol of democratic freedom. He disappointed the crowd somewhat by calling the revolution a chance to continue the work he had started 20 years earlier, and prune out what was wrong with Communism. By that time, the demonstrators in Prague wanted nothing to do with Communism of any sort, even the humane version represented by Dubček. Later that night, he was on stage with Havel when the entire leadership of the Communist Party resigned, in effect ending Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.
Dubček was elected Chairman of the Federal Assembly and re-elected in 1990 and 1992. At the time of the overthrow of Communist party rule, he described the Velvet Revolution as a victory for his humanistic socialist outlook. In 1990, he received the International Humanist Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. In 1992, he became leader of the Social Democratic Party of Slovakia and represented that party in the Federal Assembly. At that time, Dubček passively supported to maintain the union between Czechs and Slovaks in a single Czecho-Slovak federation against the ultimately successful push towards an independent Slovak state.
Dubček died in 1992, as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash. He was 71 years old.
Back to INDEX
NEXT:
->1961
Back to INDEX
NEXT:
->1961
Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Yasser Arafat, Martin Luther King, Hafez al-Assad,
Boris Yeltsin, Václav Havel, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-il, Muammar Gaddafi, Osama bin Laden, Diana, Princess of Wales
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment