Wednesday, April 24, 1963: Kennedy on Vietnam

We don't have a prayer of staying in Vietnam. Those people hate us. They are going to throw our asses out of there at almost any point. But I can't give up a piece of territory like that to the Communists and then get the American people to re-elect me.

-- Said by President Kennedy to journalist Charles Bartlett. The conversation took place on April 24, 1963, according to Richard Reeves' 1993 book "President Kennedy: Profile of Power."

In late December 1962, Kennedy had said to Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield: "In 1965, I'll be damned everywhere as a Communist appeaser. But I don't care. If I tried to pull out completely now, we would have another Joe McCarthy red scare on our hands, but I can do it after I'm re-elected. So we had better make damned sure that I am re-elected." (As recounted by Kennedy aide Kenneth O'Donnell in his 1970 book "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye"; link to excerpt below)

* Transcript of JFK's April 24 news conference (from The American Presidency Project: @; from JFK Library: @; audio: @)

* "LBJ and the Kennedys" (Kenneth O'Donnell, Life magazine, August 7, 1970): @
* "JFK Reportedly Planned Vietnam Pullout in 1965" (Milwaukee Journal, August 3, 1970): @

* New York Times review of "JFK and Vietnam" (John M. Newman, 1992; no preview available of the book itself): @
* "1963 Vietnam Withdrawal Plans" (from Mary Ferrell Foundation): @
* Earlier blog post about Vietnam, from December 1962: @ 

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Saturday, April 20, 1963: Lascaux cave paintings

Dating back some 17,000 years, the underground paintings in southwestern France were discovered in 1940, and public access was allowed in 1948. On April 20, 1963, the caves were closed to the public because of damage to the paintings, primarily from the carbon dioxide generated by the thousands of visitors to the site.
* Lascaux, from Great Archeological Sites (French Ministry of Culture and Communication): @
* International Committee for Preservation of Lascaux: @
* "Early Color Photos from Another World" (from life.com): @

* From Bradshaw Foundation (Geneva, Switzerland): @
* From United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): @
* From Encyclopedia Britannica: @
* From Atlas Obscura: @

* From Sacred Destinations: @ 
* "The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists" (Gregory Curtis, 2006): @
* "Lascaux: The Prehistory of Art" (video from Réunion des Musées Nationaux; first of 6 parts): @ 

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Wednesday, April 17, 1963: 'American Prospects in South Vietnam'

We believe that Communist progress has been blunted and that the situation is improving.

We believe the Communists will continue to wage a war of attrition, hoping for some break in the situation which will lead to victory.

We do not believe that it is possible at this time to project the future course of the war with any confidence.

Those are among the conclusions of National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) 53-63, prepared by the CIA and the U.S. military and dated April 17. The report's intent was "to assess the situation and prospects in South Vietnam, with special emphasis upon the military and political factors most likely to affect the counterinsurgency movement."

* PDF of report (from www.foia.cia.gov): @

* "Estimative Products on Vietnam, 1948-1975" (National Intelligence Council, 2005; report begins on page 185): @

* "1962-1963: Distortions of Intelligence" (from www.CIA.gov): @ 
* NIE overview (from CIA): @

* NIE overview (from Council on Foreign Relations): @

* "Confrontation or Collobration? Congress and the Intelligence Community" (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2009): @

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April 1963: 'Letter From Birmingham Jail'

From "Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives: Findings in the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." (1979; full report here):

     Dr. King led an all-out attack in the spring of 1963 on racial discrimination in Birmingham, Ala., which he described as "the most segregated city in the United States." Civil rights activists sought removal of racial restrictions in downtown snack bars, restrooms and stores, as well as nondiscriminatory hiring practices and the formation of a biracial committee to negotiate integration. Sit-ins, picket lines and parades were met by the police forces of Eugene "Bull" Connor, commissioner of public safety, with hundreds of arrests on charges of demonstrating without a permit, loitering and trespassing.
     On Good Friday, April 12, 1963, Dr. King, Reverend Abernathy and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth were arrested for leading a demonstration in defiance of an injunction obtained by Bull Connor. Dr. King was placed in solitary confinement and refused access to counsel. During his incarceration, he penned his "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," a response to a statement by eight leading local white clergymen -- Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish -- who had denounced him as an outside agitator and urged blacks to withdraw their support for his crusade. In this eloquent statement, Dr. King set forth his philosophy of nonviolence and enumerated the steps that preceded the Gandhian civil disobedience in Birmingham. Specifically citing Southern segregation laws, he wrote that any law that degraded people was unjust and must be resisted. Nonviolent direct action, Dr. King explained, sought to foster tension and dramatize an issue "so it can no longer be ignored."

From the Encyclopedia of Alabama (full entry here): 

     Early in his eight-day imprisonment, King read the white ministers' statement and began composing a response. He gave bits and pieces of the letter to his lawyers to take back to movement headquarters, where the Reverend Wyatt Walker began compiling and editing the literary jigsaw puzzle. The men settled on a final version on April 16, 1963. The 21-page, typed, double-spaced essay appears as though it is personal correspondence, addressed to the eight white ministers. It opens with a salutation reading "My dear fellow clergymen" and concludes with "Yours for the cause of peace and brotherhood." The final version of the letter explores two central themes: justification and admonishment. King justifies his presence in Birmingham, his uses of nonviolence and direct action, his timing, his willingness to break laws, and his apparent extremism. The civil rights leader also admonishes white moderates and white churches for not doing more to help the movement's quest for equality.

Image from The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta (link to two handwritten pages here)

King was released from jail on April 20. Portions of the letter were published in the New York Post Sunday Magazine on May 19. It was published in its entirety by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, on May 28 (see link below).
* Summary (from Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University): @
* Letter (from MLK Research and Education Institute): @
* Annotated letter (from MLK Research and Education Institute): @
* Clergymen's letter (as published in Birmingham News, April 13, 1963; from Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections): @
* Text of both King's and clergymen's letters (booklet published by American Friends Service Committee, May 1963): @

* Readings of both letters (video from McCombs School of Business, University of Texas): @
* "Martin Luther King Arrested in Birmingham Demonstration" (Associated Press, April 13): @
* "Martin Luther King Released From Jail" (Associated Press, April 21): @
* "Martin Luther King, Walker v. City of Birmingham, and the 'Letter From Birmingham Jail" (David Benjamin Oppenheimer, U.C. Davis Law Review, 1993): @

* "Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the 'Letter From Birmingham Jail' " (S. Jonathan Bass, 2o01): @

* "Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation" (Jonathan Reider, 2013): @
* "Letter From Birmingham Jail: A Worldwide Celebration" (Birmingham Public Library): @ 
* Earlier post on King's letter from jail in Albany, Georgia (July 1962): @

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Wednesday, April 10, 1963: Edwin Walker and Lee Harvey Oswald

From The Associated Press:

     DALLAS -- A bullet from a high-powered rifle whizzed through a window Wednesday night, narrowly missing former Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker, who was sitting at a desk filling out his income tax.

     The bullet bored a one-inch hole in the wall and fell out on the other side on some packages. Splinters from the bullet's casing struck Walker in the arm.

     "I want a purple heart," said Walker, who was not seriously injured.

     Walker grabbed a pistol and made a search for the would-be assassin. He would not say who he though did it.

     "We have lots of enemies in Dallas and everywhere," Walker said. "It looks like the mayor is going to have to start giving out purple hearts."

     Walker seemed more perturbed by the fact he did not get his income tax finished than he did about the attempt on his life.

     Police theorized whoever fired the shot must have done so in an alley about 50 yards from the window. The bullet struck in the middle of the window. Walker was seated about 15 feet from the window.

     Walker, 53, resigned from the Army to become a spokesman for conservative causes.

     He was arrested during the riot at the University of Mississippi last fall and was charged with rebellion, insurrection and seditious conspiracy. He was cleared of the charges.

Note: The Warren Commission report (1964) concluded that the shot was fired by Lee Harvey Oswald, using the same rifle that was later used to kill President Kennedy. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (1979) stated "that the evidence strongly suggested that Oswald attempted to murder General Walker."

Photo from Corbis Images, dated October 1, 1962. Caption reads: Former Major General Edwin A. Walker, who led U.S. troops into Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 to force integration at Central High School, is led away at bayonet point by U.S. troops after refusing to move from the courthouse in downtown Oxford. Walker has been in Oxford to support the stand taken by Governor Ross Barnett, who is attempting to prohibit Negro James Meredith from registering at the University of Mississippi.

* Excerpts from Warren Commission report (from Assassinations Archives and Research Center): @ and @

* Walker's testimony to Warren Commission (from history-matters.com): @

* Excerpts from House Select Committee report (from archives.org): @ and @ and @

* Video of Walker after shooting: @

* Links to FBI and Senate documents on Walker (from maryferrell.org): @

* Walker entry from Texas State Historical Association: @

* Chronology of Oswald's life (from "Frontline," PBS): @ 

* Earlier post on Oswald buying rifle (March 12, 1963): @

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Wednesday, April 10, 1963: USS Thresher

Some 220 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the nuclear submarine USS Thresher sinks, killing all 129 aboard. The accident occurred after the submarine lost power and dropped to the ocean floor, breaking apart from the deep-sea pressure.

Photo from the U.S. Navy. Caption reads, "Overhead view of Thresher's upper rudder, photographed from a deep-sea vehicle ... The view shows draft markings on the rudder side and a navigation light at its top. The original photograph bears the date October 1964."
* Entry from Naval History & Heritage Command: @

* Entry from "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships": @

* "What Really Happened to the Thresher (Popular Science, February 1964): @

* "USS Thresher (SSN-593) 3 August 1961 - 10 April 1963" (Proceedings magazine, March 1964): @

* "50 years later, a look at what really sank the Thresher" (Navy Times, April 2013): @

* thresherbase.org: @

* threshermemorial.org: @

* Photos of crew (from oneternalpatrol.com): @

* "Thresher Loss" (Navy video): @ 

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Saturday, April 6, 1963: Learning disabilities

     From the Learning Disabilities Association of America (link below):

     On April 6, 1963, a group of parents convened a conference in Chicago entitled "Exploration into the Problems of the Perceptually Handicapped Child." Professionals from various disciplines and with diverse and extensive clinical experience in dealing with the needs of these children participated. Professionals and parents shared a common concern: the recognition of the dire need for services for their children, services that did not exist.

     The 1963 conference articulated the cornerstones on which the field of Learning Disabilities is based. The underlying assumptions put forth provided the frameworks for legislation, theories, diagnostic procedures, educational practices, research and training models. A consensus was reached on a name for the category ... the term "Learning Disabilities," embedded within the title of Dr. Samuel Kirk's conference paper, was selected.

Note: Kirk first used the term "learning disabilities" in his 1962 book "Educating Exceptional Children" (link to 2012 edition below).

* "Educating Exceptional Children" (Kirk et al): @

* Learning Disabilities Association of America: @

* "Definition of learning disabilities" (from National Association of Special Education Teachers): @

* "Learning disabilities: Historical Perspectives" (from National Research Center on Learning Disabilities): @

* "Learning disabilities movement turns 50" (Washington Post, April 2013): @

* Obituary of Samuel Kirk (New York Times, July 1996): @ 

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Thursday, March 28, 1963: 'The Birds'

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, "The Birds" premieres in New York. From Bob Thomas of The Associated Press (full link below):

     "What's the matter with all the birds?" asks a character in Alfred Hitchcock's new film, "The Birds."

     What is the matter, indeed? Sea gulls peck at boaters at Bodega Bay, Calif. Others swoop down on a children's birthday perty. A flight of sparrows invade a house by the chimney. Whole henhouses refuse to eat.

     Something's got to give, and it's the humans. The birds come flying at them like a plague of oversized, carnivorous locusts. Anyone who has been swooped at by a nesting mockingbird know what terror that can hold.

* Movie trailer: @

* Script (from dailyscript.com): @

* Entry from Turner Classic Movies: @

* Entry from AMC's filmsite.org: @

* New York Times review: @    

* "Hitchcock Goes To The Birds" (Thomas): @

* "A Hitchcock Reader" (1986): @

* "The Day of the Claw: A Synoptic Account of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds" (Ken Mogg, Senses of Cinema, 2009): @

* Earlier post on "Psycho" (June 1960): @ 

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Friday, March 22, 1963: 'Please Please Me'

The Beatles' first album is released in Britain, following the success of their singles "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" (which had reached No. 1 in Britain in late February-early March). Eight of the album's 14 songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
* Listen to album (mono mix): @
* Entry from thebeatles.com: @

* Entry from beatlesbible.com: @
* Excerpt from "The Beatles Diary" (Barry Miles, 2001): @

* Liner notes, by Tony Barrow: @ (image) and @ (text) 

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Friday, March 22, 1963: 'Route 66'

     Glenn Corbett joins the cast of CBS's "Route 66" as Army veteran Lincoln Case (in the episode "Fifty Miles From Home"). It is the first U.S. television show to feature a regularly appearing character who saw combat in Vietnam.
     From newspaper TV listings: "A Ranger, who emerges from the fighting in South Vietnam as a hero, finds himself facing more serious personal challenges in civilian surroundings."
     From DVDtalk.com: "In his introductory episode ... we learn that Lincoln not only served a tour in Vietnam, but that he was held prisoner there and had escaped after killing many of his captors ... Later in the episode, he tells of a harrowing experience where he lost the woman he loved to the Viet Cong."

* "Route 66" entry from Museum of Broadcast Communications: @

* Series overview from TV critic Ed Bark: @
* Watch "Fifty Miles From Home" (from Hulu): @
* Vietnam-related episodes: @
* "Why the mostly forgotten 'Route 66' was one of TV's most ambitious shows" (from A.V. Club): @
* "Wanderlust and Wire Wheels: The existential search of 'Route 66' " (Mark Alvey, from "The Road Movie Book" (edited by Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark, 1997): @
* "The Road Story and the Rebel: Moving Through Film, Fiction and Television" (Katie Mills, 2006): @ 

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Thursday, March 21, 1963: Alcatraz closes

From United Press International:

     Only the ghosts of "Scarface Al" Capone, George "Machinegun" Kelly and others of America's most notorious gangsters inhabited the lofty cell blocks of Alcatraz Prison Friday.
     The last 27 of the island prison's 260-inmate population were removed Thursday and transferred to other institutions prepatory to closing down "The Rock" by June 30.
     Those 27 left the easy way -- by boat. During its 29 years as the home of the federal government's most hardened convicts, 7 inmates were shot and killed, 6 drowned or were believed to have drowned, and 26 were seized in 14 escape attempts.
     A blond, thin-faced gun smuggler from Anchorage, Alaska, named Frank C. Weatherman had the distinction of being the last inmate off Alcatraz. A newsman asked him how he felt about it.
     "Good. Good for me, good for everyone. Alcatraz never was no good," the 29-year-old convict replied.
     A few minutes after Weatherman and the others departed, guard Gordon Gronzo clumped down the steps of the 75-foot-high gun tower No. 1. He carried a rifle and wore another cartridge belt slung over his shoulder. No longer was there any need for him to watch for trouble on Alcatraz.
     Alcatraz was opened in 1934 to house incorrigibles during the wave of gangland violence that followed the end of Prohibition.
     The decision to abandon the 29-year-old prison in San Francisco Bay area was prompted by its deterioration from age and salt air. Federal officials said it would cost $5 million to renovate it.
     ... The 12-acre island will be turned over to the General Services Administration as surplus property June 30. California congressmen currently are sponsoring legislation to create a commission that would decide what to do with what has long been one of San Francisco's top tourist sights.
* " 'Rock' Closes" (newsreel, from criticalpast.com): @

* alcatrazhistory.com: @
* Alcatraz Island entry from National Park Service: @
* Alcatraz entry from Federal Bureau of Prisons: @
* Earlier post on escape (June 1962): @ 

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Monday, March 18, 1963: Gideon v. Wainwright

From oyez.org (link below):

   In 1961, Clarence Earl Gideon was charged in a Florida state court with a felony for breaking and entering. He lacked funds and was unable to hire a lawyer to prepare his defense. When he requested the court to appoint an attorney for him, the court refused, stating that it was only obligated to appoint counsel to indigent defendants in capital cases. Gideon defended himself in that trial; he was was convicted by a jury and the court sentenced him to five years in a state prison.

   In a unanimous decision on March 18, 1963, the Supreme Court held that Gideon had a right to be represented by a court-appointed attorney ... The Court found that the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of counsel was a fundamental right, essential to a fair trail, which should be made applicable to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Florida State Prison photo from September 11, 1961; from Florida Department of Archives

* Transcript (from supreme.justia.com): @

* Audio of oral arugments (from oyez.org): @

* Gideon's Petition for a Writ of Certiorari (from National Archives, January 1962): @

* "Answer to respondent's response for Writ of Certiori" (April 1962): @ (images) and @ (text)
* Documents from Florida Supreme Court case files (from Florida Division of Library and Information Services): @

* Summary (from pbs.org): @

* Short podcast (from uscourts.gov): @

* "Gideon's Trumpet" (Anthony Lewis, 1964): @

* Gideonslegacy.org: @

* Video -- 50th anniversary program from American Bar Association Litigation (January 2013): @
* "Just an ordinary inmate" (St. Petersburg Times, March 20, 1963): @ 
* Constitutional amendments (from National Archives and Records Administration): @

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1963: Quasars

   Short for "quasi-stellar radio sources," quasars are defined as massive and extremely remote celestial objects, emitting exceptionally large amounts of energy, and typically having a starlike image in a telescope. It has been suggested that quasars contain massive black holes and may represent a stage in the evolution of some galaxies. (Oxford Dictionaries).
   Their existence was first reported in studies appearing in the March 16, 1963, edition of the journal Nature. The photo shows quasar 3c 273 at the center.
* "3c 273: A star-like object with large red-shift" (Maarten Schmidt, Nature, March 16, 1963): @

* Definition from "Firefly Astronomy Dictionary" (2003): @

* Entry from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Center: @

* Entry from britannica.com: @

* Frequently Asked Questions About Quasars (Department of Physics, Virginia Tech): @
* "The Great Quasar Odyssey" (New Scientist, November 1982): @ 

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Friday, March 15, 1963: Loyola vs. Mississippi State

The all-white Mississippi State University team plays Loyola University of Chicago (with four black starters) in the NCAA basketball tournament. Mississippi State's president and basketball coach had arranged for the team to secretly travel to East Lansing, Michigan, defying an unwritten rule about Mississippi teams playing against integrated teams and a court injunction barring the team from leaving the state. Loyola wins, 61-51, en route to the national championship.

From the March 25 edition of Sports Illustrated:

   Literally out of hiding to play Loyola the night before had come Mississippi State, the team that saddened the hearts of segregationists everywhere by agreeing -- eagerly -- to participate in a tournament open to Negroes. On the eve of his team's departure from Starkville, Coach Babe McCarthy got word that a sheriff was out with a court order that could keep the team in Mississippi. Like Little Eva skipping across the ice ahead of the bloodhounds, McCarthy skipped into Tennessee. University President Dr. D.W. Colvard vanished, too. Early Thursday morning an assistant coach verified that the coast was clear at the airport, hustled the team into a plane and away it flew on a modern underground railroad in reverse.

* "A Game That Should Not Be Forgotten" (ESPN.com, 2012): @

* "Game of Change" (Loyola video): @

* "One Night in March" (documentary): @ (website) and @ (video)

* "Maroons Make Getaway, Meet Loyola in NCAA" (Associated Press, March 15): @
* "Ramblers: Loyola Chicago 1963 -- The Team That Changed the Color of College Basketball" (Michael Lenehan, 2013): @

* "Champions for Change: How the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Their Coach Defied Segregation" (Kyle Veazey, 2012): @

* "Benching Jim Crow: The Rise and Fall of the Color Line in Southern College Sports, 1890-1980" (Charles H. Martin, 2010): @ 

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Thursday, March 14, 1963: Pop art at the Guggenheim

Pop art comes to the Guggenheim Museum in New York with the opening of the show "Six Painters and the Object," featuring the works of Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol. (Included in the show was Johns' 1958 work "Three Flags," pictured.) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art would have a companion show in July-August, "Six More," featuring West Coast artists.

* Catalog: @

* Review by Barbara Rose for Art International (May 1963): @

* "Six More" catalog: @

* Earlier post on Andy Warhol's soup cans (July 1962): @

* Earlier post on "Pop Goes the Easel" (March 1962): @

* Earlier post on Roy Lichtenstein (1961): @ 

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