Tuesday, May 25, 1965: Clay-Liston 'phantom punch'

LEWISTON, Maine -- In a one-minute fiasco that was worse than their first meeting in Miami Beach 15 months ago, Cassius Clay retained the world heavyweight title by knocking out old Sonny Liston in St. Dom's Arena Tuesday night. The first punch thrown by the 23-year-old champion was a short, nearly invisible right hand that landed on Liston's jaw. It was his only punch, after running, backing and ducking from Liston's determined pursuit. Liston crumpled from the blow, rolled over flat on his back, turned and tried to get, fell again. 

     -- "Just A Minute Clay Still Champ" (Jesse Abramson, New York Herald Tribune): @

     -- Photo by Neil Leifer, Sports Illustrated

* "Clay Wins By KO In One Minute Of 1st Round" (Associated Press): @

* "Muhammad Ali in Lewiston: The Legend of the Phantom Punch is Born" (New England Historical Society): @
* "The Night the Ali-Liston Fight Came to Lewiston" (New York Times, 2015): @

* "Ali-Liston 50th anniversary: The true story behind Neil Leifer's perfect photo" (Slate, 2015): @ 

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Sunday, May 23, 1965: 'Credibility gap'

The term -- referring to the disparity between the stated justification and the actual reason for U.S. military intervention in the Dominican Republic -- appears as part of a column written by David Wise of the New York Herald Tribune. Wise does not use those exact words; instead, it appears in the headline "Dilemma in 'Credibility Gap.' "  

     -- Clipping from The High Point (N.C.) Enterprise, May 28, 1965

(A May 1 message from Gen. Earle G. Weaver, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Lt.  Gen. Bruce Palmer Jr., commander of the U.S. forces in the Dominican Republic, summarizes the narratives: "Your announced mission is to save US lives. Your unannounced mission is to prevent the Dominican Republic from going Communist.")

     -- Source: "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968": @)

     The term gains wider use after Murrey Marder's story in The Washington Post in December 1965: "Creeping signs of doubt and cynicism about administration pronouncements, especially in its foreign policy, are privately troubling some of the government's usually stalwart supporters. The problem could be called a credibility gap. It represents a perceptibly growing disquiet, misgiving or skepticism about the candor or validity of official declarations."

     -- "Doubt Grows Over Administration Statements," as published in the (Mansfield, Ohio) News-Journal, December 7, 1965 (via newspapers.com; subscription only): @

     The term would become closely associated with the Johnson administration's conduct of the Vietnam War, as well as with the words and actions of politicians in general.

Resources
* Entry from "Encyclopedia of American Journalism" (edited by Stephen L. Vaughn, 2008): @

* Entry from "Safire's Political Dictionary" (William Safire, 2008): @

* Entry from "Historical Dictionary of the 1970s" (edited by James S. Olson, 1999): @

* Entry from "History of the Mass Media in the United States: An Encyclopedia" (edited by Margaret A. Blanchard, 1998): @

* "Credibility Gap -- Part 1" (Walter Lippman, March 1967): @

* "Credibility Gap -- Part 2" (Lippman, April 1967): @
* "The Dominican Crisis ... The Hemisphere Acts" (U.S. State Department, October 1965): @
* "Congress, Information and Foreign Affairs" (Prepared for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations by the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 1978): @

* "When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences" (Eric Alterman, 2004): @
* "McNamara, Clifford, and the Burdens of Vietnam, 1965-1969" (Edward J. Drea, Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2011): @ 

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Tuesday, May 18, 1965: James Karales' civil rights photo

James Karales' photo of the Selma-to-Montgomery march appears across two pages in Look magazine, with the words TURNING POINT FOR THE CHURCH printed across the top edge. (It was part of a story titled "Our churches' sin against the Negro.") The accompanying text reads:

There have been marches before, but never marchers like these -- a weaponless, potluck army, moving in conquest through hostile territory under the unwilling protection of the enemy. So did a Georgia preacher lead of pilgrimage of enfranchised Alabama Negroes 54 miles this spring to the steps of their state capitol. The concept was biblical. The execution was 1965 American. The Army and FBI guaranteed White House support. Patrol cars, helicopters, truck-borne latrines and first-aid vans bracketed the column; the marchers ate from paper plates with throwaway plastic spoons and slept under floodlit tents. Sustained by rationed peanuts-butter sandwiches, they never faltered in their pace and bitter humor. "I've been called 'nigger,' " said somebody up front. "Well, from now on, it's got to be 'Mister nigger.' " Across the Black Belt farmland rolled the pickup words of their new battle hymn: "Oh, Wallace, you know you can't jail us all; Oh, Wallace, segregation's bound to fail." In it, the white ministers, priests, rabbis and nuns, who had jetted vast distances to reinforce the march, found a new statement of faith.

Karales' son, Andreas, recounted how the photo came to be: " ... he described trying to find an image that would symbolize the meaning and feeling of the march. He struggled over the course of the five-day march, making countless attempts to produce something that he felt worthy of his goal. On the last day a storm swept in and he knew that this was his moment. He rushed to get to the right spot to frame both events as they happened. He was fortunate to get the shot as the storm moved on quickly. ... The menacing clouds and synchronized stride of the marchers happened in one short moment and is what makes this photograph so special. It was one of my father's greatest catches and was the result of his great patience." -- From "Andreas Karales' Memories of his Father, James" (via Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina): @

* Karales' obituary (Los Angeles Times, 2002): @

* Earlier post on Selma-to-Montgomery photographers: @ 

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Tuesday, May 18, 1965: Head Start

WASHINGTON -- President Johnson said Tuesday 530,000 of "poverty's children" will be given a head start in pre-school guidance centers so they won't already be doomed to fail because of family backgrounds when they start school. More than half the estimated one million disadvantaged children expected to start school next fall will take part in the first summer sessions of Project Head Start. ... The program calls for teaching the children things that most people take for granted. Some of the children have never seen a book, a flush toilet or electric lights. They also will receive medical and dental care.

     -- From Associated Press story: @

     -- 1965 photo, Buffalo, New York, by Milton Rogovin; from Library of Congress

* Johnson's remarks (American Presidency Project): @

* "U.S. Program for Children Set to Begin" (Associated Press, May 18): @
* Office of Head Start, Department of Health and Human Services: @

* National Head Start Association: @

* "Timeline: Head Start's Journey" (Education Week): @

* "Head Start: The War on Poverty goes to school" (EducationNext): @

* "Project Head Start to Help Needy Pre-School Children" (New York Times, March 9, 1965): @
* "Project 'Head Start' Helps Negro Tots" (Jet magazine, June 17, 1965): @
* "Let's Make 'Head Start' Regular Start" (Ebony magazine, September 1965): @
* "Operation Head Start" (1965 video by Goldsholl Associations for Chicago Public Schools; from Chicago Film Archives): @
* "Head Start" (1966 video, Office of Economic Opportunity; from www.criticalpast.com): @
* "Operation Head Start" (1967 video by Paul Burnford Productions for Office of Economic Opportunity): @
* "An Evaluation of Operation Head Start Bilingual Children, Summer, 1965" (Philip Montez, Foundation for Mexican-American Studies, August 1966): @ 
* "Head Start: The Inside Story of America's Most Successful Educational Experiment" (Edward Zigler and Susan Muenchow, 1992): @
* "Project Head Start: Models and Strategies for the Twenty-First Century" (Valora Washington and Ura Jean Oyemade Bailey, 1995): @

* "Critical Perspectives on Project Head Start" (edited by Jeanne Ellsworth and Lynda J. Ames, 1998): @

* "The Birth of Head Start: Preschool Education Policies in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations" (Maris A. Vinovskis, 2005): @

* "Launching the War on Poverty: An Oral History" (Michael L. Gillette, 2010): @
* "The War on Poverty: A New Grassroots History" (edited by Annelise Orleck and Lisa Gayle Hazirjian, 2011): @

* "Head Start Origins and Impacts" (Chloe Gibbs, Jens Ludwig and Douglas L. Miller, from "Legacies of the War on Poverty," 2013): @ 

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May 1965: Teenage diets

An Agriculture Department nutritionist contends that the teen-age girl is the poorest-fed member of the whole family. The teen-age boy also needs an improved diet. Dr. Evelyn Spindler, nutritionist for the department's Federal Extensive Service, says there is nothing wrong with a teen-ager eating a hamburger or a piece of pizza, if the youngster drinks a milkshake at the same eating, and consumes a green salad, or a banana. She says such a meal, or snack, is far better than a combination of a soft drink and potato chips.

     -- From "Nutritionist says teen-age girl poorest fed member of family" (United Press International, May 19, 1965): @

     -- Image from "Improving Teenage Nutrition" (Federal Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, December 1963): @

* "Nutritionist Says Diet of Today's Youth is Improper" (United Press International, May 25): @

* "Selected Programs on Improving Teen-Age Nutrition" (Federal Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1962): @ 

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