Wednesday, July 28, 1965: 'This ... is why we are in Vietnam'

President Johnson begins his news conference by announcing plans to increase U.S. troops in the Vietnam War from 75,000 to 125,000, along with doubling the monthly military draft quota from 17,000 to 35,000. He also lays out the reasons for America's increasing involvement, including this passage:

"We did not choose to be the guardians at the gate, but there is no one else. ... Three presidents -- President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and your present president -- over 11 years have committed themselves and have promised to help defend this small and valiant nation. Strengthened by that promise,  the people of South Vietnam have fought for many long years. Thousands of them have died. Thousands more have been crippled and scarred by war. We just cannot now dishonor our word, or abandon our commitment, or leave those who believed us and who trusted us to the terror and repression and murder that would follow. This, then, my fellow Americans, is why we are in Vietnam." 

Johnson concludes with these words: "... as long as there are men who hate and destroy, we must have the courage to resist, or we will see it all, all that we have built, all that we hope to build, all of our dreams for freedom -- all, all will be swept away on the flood of conquest. So, too, this shall not happen. We will stand in Vietnam."

-- Map detail from "Azimuthal Equidistant Projection Centered on Saigon" (CIA, 1965): @

Resources
* Transcript (from "Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States"): @

* Video & audio (Miller Center, University of Virginia): @

* "Build-Up in Viet Nam" (Toledo Blade, July 25, 1965): @
* "President Doubles Draft Call" (United Press International, July 28, 1965): @

* "LBJ Hikes Draft for Viet Nam War" (Associated Press, July 29): @

* "Johnson Tells Why Vietnam in Pamphlet" (Associated Press, August 24): @

* "Why Viet-Nam" (Department of Defense, 1965; includes remarks from Johnson's news conference; from Internet Archive): @

* "Johnson's Escalation of Vietnam: A Timeline" (Bill Moyers Journal, 2009): @ 
* Excerpt from "Presidents and Protestors: Political Rhetoric in the 1960s" (Theodore Windt, 1990): @
* "McNamara, Clifford, and the Burdens of Vietnam" (Secretaries of Defense Historical Series, 2011): @
* Pentagon Papers (National Archives, 1969): @ 

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Sunday, July 25, 1965: Dylan goes electric

At the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan surprises the audience with his hard-rocking set. Accounts vary as to whether the crowd was unhappy over his new style of music or over the  quality of the sound system.

     -- Photo from Michael Ochs Archives

* Summary (www.history.com): @
* Summary (www.smithsonianmag.com): @

* Video of "Maggie's Farm" performance: @
* Video of Pete Seeger's account: @

* Set list (www.bobdylan.com): @

* Excerpt from "No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan" (Robert Shelton, 1986): @

* "No Direction Home": @ 
* "Newport: It's All Right, Ma, I'm Only Playing R & R" (The Village Voice, August 5, 1965): @
* "The Legend of Dylan at Newport" (Sam Allis, The Boston Globe, 2002): @
* "Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties" (Elijah Wald, 2015): @

* "Dylan at Newport, 1965: Music, Myth and Un-Meaning" (Edward Renehan, 2015): @ 

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Friday, July 16, 1965: The Southern Courier

The Southern Courier was established in 1965 by college students and recent graduates to cover the civil rights movement and President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty in the American South. Despite the paper's small size and relatively short publication life, The Southern Courier fulfilled an important and sorely needed role in the post-1965 South by providing African Americans and sympathetic whites with a broader sense of community in the fight for equality. The Southern Courier offered a more complex view of race relations to the general public.

     -- From Encyclopedia of Alabama (full summary: @)

* Southern Courier site (includes links to PDFs of every issue): @

* Jim Peppler Southern Courier Photograph Collection (Alabama Department of Archives and History): @
* Summary from Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement: @

* "A Personal Historian's Memories of the American Civil Rights Era: Birmingham Alabama 1967" (Joan Tornow, 2015): @
* "Civil Rights: Student Editors from Harvard Plan an Independent Newspaper" (Nashua Telegraph, May 5, 1965): @

* "New Civil Rights Paper Covers Southern Issues" (The Michigan Daily, July 1, 1965): @
* "The Southern Courier: A Study of Civil Rights Journalism in Alabama" (Nieman Reports, December 1966, page 15): @

* Excerpt from "Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took On the Ku Klux Klan" (Wayne Greenhaw, 2011): @ 

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Wednesday, July 14, 1965: Mariner 4's photos of Mars

Man's first closeup picture of Mars shows a remarkably earth-like desert area -- but gives no hint of an answer to whether they mysterious planet could harbor life. The poorly defined picture snapped as Mariner 4 flew within 10,500 miles of Mars Wednesday was released Thursday night while the U.S. spacecraft was relaying its second picture across 134 million miles of space. Almost half the picture showed only the dark void of space, with but a small portion of the edge of Mars visible in the streaked and smudged frame. (From The Associated Press; full story: @)

     -- Image from NASA; all Mariner 4 photos: @

* "Mariner 4 Makes Flight Past Mars" (The New York Times): @

* Flight details (NASA): @

* "Mariner to Mercury, Venus and Mars" (Jet Propulsion Laboratory): @

* "Mariner 4: First Spacecraft to Mars" (Space.com): @

* "Blast from the past: Mariner 4's images of Mars" (The Planetary Society, 2012): @
* "Looking back at Mariner images of Mars" (The Planetary Society, 2013): @
* Hand-colored image: @ (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and @ (Dan Goods)

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July 1965: Polaroid Swinger

     For only a double sawbuck now, you get not only a Polaroid camera but also a chance to admire one of the simplest and smartest exposure systems since the day, a century and a quarter ago, when Daguerre first squinted into the sun and shot a picture of a man getting his shoes shined.

     The camera is the brand-new Swinger, just announced by Polaroid. Its gets its name from the way you carry it -- on a wrist strap. It shoots only black-and-white, 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches.

     -- "The Swinger: New $20 Polaroid" (Popular Science, August 1965): @

* "50 Years Ago, the Polaroid Swinger Found Instant Fame" (Christopher Bonanos, 2015): @

* "Instant: The Story of Polaroid" (Bonanos, 2012): @

* "The Polaroid Swinger: Changing the Market in an Instant" (Michael Beschloss, New York Times, 2015): @

* Instruction booklet (from www.cameramanuals.org): @

* TV ad (from archive.org): @
* "New for Camera Buffs" (Popular Mechanics, August 1965): @ 
* "Polaroid Produces Under-$20 Camera" (Associated Press, July 1965): @

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Tuesday, June 29, 1965: 'Murder in Mississippi'

Norman Rockwell's illustration accompanies Charles Morgan Jr.'s article "Southern Justice," published June 29 in Look magazine. It depicts civil rights activists Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, killed in June 1964 in Mississippi.

Background

Rockwell based his illustration on Hector Rondon Lovera's photo (often called "Aid From The Padre"), taken in June 1962 during a short-lived rebellion in Venezuela. The photo was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year for 1962 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1963.

     * Story behind the photo (from "Picture Coverage of the World: Pulitzer Prize Winning Photos," Heinz Dietrich-Fischer, 2011): @

Early on, Rockwell's illustration (intended as a two-page spread) included the three victims as well as their killers.

This is Rockwell's finished version. Look editors decided to use Rockwell's earlier sketch in the magazine, though this work (known as "Murder in Mississippi") has become the more well-known of the two.

Resources
* Summary from Norman Rockwell Museum: @ (related reference materials can be found on the museum's website by searching for "Murder in Mississippi")
* Text of "Southern Justice" (from Norman Rockwell Museum): @

* "American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell" (2007): @

* "Rockwell & Race" (The Pop History Dig): @

* Earlier post on Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner (June 1964): @

* Earlier post on Rockwell's "The Problem We All Live With" (January 1964): @

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Monday, June 28, 1965: 'It's What's Happening, Baby'

In this prime-time special on CBS, hosted by disc jockey Murray the K (Murray Kaufman), performers donate their time and talents to educate teenagers about the function of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity. ... In between segments, Murray the K and other entertainers comment on the various opportunities provided by the OEO and appeal to employers to help youths find work. (From The Paley Center for Media; link: @)

     -- TV listing from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 28

     -- Image from Martha and the Vandellas' performance of "Nowhere to Run," filmed at Ford's Dearborn Assembly Plant (where the Mustang was built)

Note: As of this writing the entire show is available online. Start here with part 1; to the right are links to parts 2 and 3.

* "Experimental Show Aimed at Teenagers" (Associated Press, June 25): @

* "Hip Show Passes the Word" (United Press International, June 29): @

* "Antipoverty Film Called 'Shameful' " (Associated Press, June 30): @
* "Battle Against Poverty Has Been Beset By Controversy, Criticism, Complaint" (United Press International, July 15): @
* " 'It's What's Happening' did the job: 10,000 wrote" (Washington Afro-American, July 27): @

* Entry from The Murray the K Archives: @

* Entry from Ray Charles Video Museum: @

* Chapter by Norma Coates in "Music in Television: Channels of Listening" (Edited by James Deaville, 2011): @

* Excerpt from "The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music" (Edited by Andy Bennett and Steve Waksman, 2015): @ 

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Sunday, June 20, 1965: The Beatles in Paris

Taken during one of their two performances at the Palais Des Sports. Photo by Patrice Habans.

* Summary from The Beatles Bible: @

* Summary from "The Unreleased Beatles: Music & Film" (Richie Unterberger, 2006): @

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Friday, June 18, 1965: 'War is Hell'

Place: South Vietnam

Photographer: Horst Faas

Original caption (from The Associated Press): An unidentified U.S. Army personnel wears a hand-lettered "War Is Hell" slogan on his helmet June 18, 1965, during the Vietnam War. He was with the 173rd Airborne Brigade battalion on defense duty at Phuoc Vinh airstrip in South Vietnam.

The earliest publication date I can find is from July 23, 1967 in various newspapers as part of a story and a block of photos on soldiers' helmets. Caption: That old American individualism comes out even in the jungles of South Vietnam, as the above pictures show. Hats definitely are in fashion when the bullets fly -- and the fashions are as varied as the ingenuity of the GIs. Some are functional -- such as the extra machine gun ammunition around a machine gunner's hat, top left; some are expressive -- such as the "war is hell" band at top center; some are poignant -- like the helmet liner marked off for every day of the wearer's tour in bottom left; and some are nostalgic, such as the helmet featuring the snapshot in bottom center.

Note: In June 2012, the soldier was identified as Larry Wayne Chaffin, who served in 1965-66 (from The Southern Illinoisian: @). 

Horst Faas' Vietnam photos

* From The Denver Post: @

* From The Associated Press: @

Origins of phrase 'War is hell' (General William T. Sherman)

     -- Image from Ohio State Journal, August 12, 1880, on Sherman's speech the day before.
* From "Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order" (John F. Marsalek, 2007): @
* From "The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations" (2006): @
* From "Nashville: The Western Confederacy's Final Gamble" (James L. McDonough, 2004): @ 

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Friday, June 18, 1965: Anthony Quin and Huey Krohn

Place: Jackson, Mississippi

Photographer: Matt Herron

Account (from "103 More Pickets Held in Jackson," New York Times: @)

     In one incident at the white-columned Governor's Mansion, a beefy, suntanned Mississippi highway patrolman and a wide-eyed, 5-year-old Negro boy scuffled over the child's tiny American flag.

     The boy, Anthony Quin, was in a group of six who huddled in a shaded entrance of the building. He sat solemnly on the bottom step with his flag. Next to him was Dr. June Finer, a pretty, 30-year-old Chicagoan who works here with the Medical Committee on Human Rights.

     Dr. Finer had been trying to get into the stockage at the state fair grounds to give medical attention to the prisoners. The city police have refused and say they have two local doctors working there. Dr. Finer, a nursette bag of medical supplies over her shoulder, decided to be arrested and see for herself.

     As the squad of patrolmen advance on the little group to make the arrests, Dr. Finer put her arm around the boy. "Gimme that flag," said Patrolman Huey Krohn, a driver for Gov. Paul B. Johnson Jr. Anthony refused.

     The patrolman tried to wrest the flag from him but the child held on. He was dragged a few feet by the man and then lifted several feet off the ground. Finally the patrolman broke the stick of the flag and thrust the child from him. Anthony fell on the ground and began to cry. He was taken into the paddy wagon.

     The boy, the son of Mrs. Aylene Quin, chairman of the Freedom Democratic party in Pike County, was arrested once before during a voter registration drive in Magnolia. Last fall he was injured when his mother's house was bombed in McComb. His mother and a sister, Jacky, 9, were arrested with him today.

     The child was released several hours later in the custody of Alvin Bronstein, chief staff counsel of the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee.

     "That man hit my elbow and that was the only thing that made me start crying," the boy said, looking down at his blue sneakers. What did he think of having his flag taken away? 'I don't think nothin' about it,' he said.

Note: Herron's series of photos was awarded second place in general news stories in the World Press Photo competition for 1965.

Matt Herron
* From www.worldpress.org: @ (photos) and @ (profile)
* Herron's account of incident (from "Telling Their Stories," The Urban School of San Francisco): @
* Herron's account (from Princeton Alumni Weekly): @
* mattherronwriter.com: @

* www.takestockphotos.com (Herron is director): @

Anthony and Alyene Quin (often spelled as "Aylene" on websites and in news accounts)
* Alyene Quin profile (from SNCC Legacy Project): @
* Alyene Quin profile (from Mississippi Civil Rights Project): @

* "Civil Rights Incidents in McComb" (1964, from Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @

Dr. June Finer

* Profile (from Jewish Women's Archive): @

* Medical Committee for Human Rights pamphlet (from Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @

* "The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care" (John Dittmer, 2009): @

* "Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement" (Debra L. Schultz and Blance Wiesen Cook, 2002): @

Other resources

* "Jackson Jails 103 Rights Marchers" (Associated Press, June 18, 1965): @
* 2014 blog entry from M.J. O'Brien, author of "We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired": @
* "When Youth Protest: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1970" (Mississippi Historical Society): @

* "Local People: the Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi" (John Dittmer, 1994): @ 

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June 1965: 'Yesterday' and 'Like a Rolling Stone'

Monday, June 14 and Thursday, June 17: The Beatles (specifically, Paul McCartney and a string quartet) record "Yesterday."

* From The Beatles Bible: @

* From "The Beatles Anthology" (2000): @
* From "All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release" (Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon, 2013): @

Wednesday, June 16: Bob Dylan records "Like a Rolling Stone." 

* From Rolling Stone magazine (2015): @

* "Greil Marcus on Recording 'Like a Rolling Stone' " (NPR, 2005): @

* "Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads" (Marcus, 2005): @ 

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Thich Quang Duc and George Wallace

If you're looking for the entries from June 11, 1963, click here for Thich Quang Duc's self-immolation and here for George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.

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1965: Barbie Miss Astronaut

Two years after Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union became the first woman in space, Mattel begins selling astronaut outfits for Barbie ("Miss Astronaut") and Ken ("Mr. Astronaut"). It would be another year before Hasbro introduced astronaut gear for GI Joe.

* Summaries from www.barbiecollector.com: @ (Barbie) and @ (Ken)
* Summary from Fashion Doll Guide: @

* "Mattel's Astronaut Barbie Becomes a Mars Explorer with NASA help" (space.com, 2013): @ 

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Monday, June 7, 1965: Griswold v. Connecticut

In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that a state's ban on the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. The case concerned a Connecticut law that criminalized the encouragement or use of birth control. ... Estelle Griswold, the executive director of Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Buxton, doctor and professor at Yale Medical School, were arrested and found guilty as accessories to providing illegal contraception. They were fined $100 each. Griswold and Buxton appealed to the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, claiming that the law violated the U.S. Constitution. The Connecticut court upheld the conviction, and Griswold and Buxton appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviewed the case in 1965. The Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision written by Justice William O. Douglas, ruled that the law violated the "right to marital privacy" and could not be enforced against married people.

     -- From "Expanding Civil Rights: Landmark Cases," www.pbs.org: @

     -- Caption: Estelle Griswold, executive director of the Planned Parenthood League, standing outside the center in April 1963, which was closed pending decision of the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Connecticut state law forbidding sale or use of contraceptives (from "The Legal Legacy of Griswold v. Connecticut," David J. Garrow for American Bar Association, 2011): @

* "Birth Control Law Said 'Invasion of Privacy' " (The Associated Press): @

* Oral arguments (from The Oyez Project): @

* Text of ruling (from FindLaw): @

* "Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the making of Roe v. Wade" (David J. Garrow, 1994): @

* Summary from "Sexual Rights in America: The Ninth Amendment and the Pursuit of Happiness" (Paul R. Abramson, Steven D. Pinkerton and Mark Huppin, 2003): @

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June 1965: Vacuum of space

Despite the fact that a considerable number of studies have been carried out on the effects of rapid decompression to high altitudes, there is still very little information and data concerning the actual effects of exposures to extremely low barometric pressures -- that is, to pressure environments approaching the near-vacuum of space. This information is becoming increasingly urgent in view of the current manned space flights, the programmed flights to the surface of the moon, and the need for man to function safely within a pressure suit in space. ... The critical situation confronting an aerospace crew should accidental loss of pressure be experienced dictated the use of physiologically normal animals so that the data collected would be as valid as possible to obtain. Normal, anesthetized dogs were therefore used; 126 animals were rapidly decompressed to absolute pressures of 1 to 2 mm. Hg.

     -- From "Experimental Animal Decompressions to a Near-Vacuum Environment" (Bancroft and Dunn, NASA Technical Report, published June 1965): @

* "Human Exposure to Vacuum" (www.geoffreylandis.com): @

* "What happens if you are exposed to the vacuum of space?" (Phil Plait, Discover magazine, 2012): @
* "Human Exposure to the Vacuum of Space" (www.aerospaceweb.org): @
* "The Body at Vacuum" (from "The Engines of Our Ingenuity," University of Houston): @
* "Survival in Space Unprotected is Possible -- Briefly" (Scientific American, 2008): @
* "The Crew That Never Came Home: The Misfortunes of Soyuz 11" (Space Safety magazine, 2013): @
* Summary of Soyuz 11 flight (Encyclopedia Asronautica): @
* "The Effect on the Chimpanzee of Rapid Decompression to a Near Vacuum" (NASA, 1965): @
* "Rapid (Explosive) Decompression Emergencies in Pressure-Suited Subjects (NASA, 1968): @

* "Bioastronautics Data Book" (NASA, 1974; see Chapter 1, "Barometic Pressure"): @ 

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