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This section of America, Vol. 2 follows the nation from the spring of 1948,
through Alger Hiss's first trial, the founding of the People's Republic of China
and the battle, "Who lost China?", Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and
the ghastly promulgation of Apartheid in South Africa.
1949
April 4
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in D.C.
by twelve nations
(Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, Iceland,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal
& the US of A)
The muscle of NATO grew out of
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty:
"The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them
in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack
against them all."
The Great Pacifica!
April 15
Lewis Hill ('19-'57) was a dissatisfied journalist
who'd been a conscientious objector in W2
& decided to set up a radio station
supported by listeners! &
free of the twisting fingers of advertisers
so he created the Pacifica network
The first station was KPFA in Berkeley
which gleamed to the air April 15
In the early '50s the station was the center
of intellectual life in the Bay
A 2nd station KPFK began in LA
& the great WBAI went on air in NYC in '60
May 11
Siam changed its name to Thailand
May 22
the ex-Secretary of Defense James Forrestal
jumped 13 floors
to his death
leaving behind as a suicide note
some lines from Sophocles
on the peace of the final enfoldment
May 23-24
the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) with
a capital at Bonn
came into existenz
formed from the British, U.S. & French occupation zones.
Konrad Adenauer cofounded the Christian Democratic Union &
was president of the assembly that wrote a new German constitution
In the Eastern Zone
the Soviets gave voters a "unit list" of candidates
to accept or reject
& the People's Congress was elected in May
by the accept/reject method
Hiss's First Trial
May 31-July
The first trial of Alger Hiss
ended in mistrial after the jury hung
8-4
There was a second trial four months later
with a guilty verdict.
June 11
Hank Williams sang on the Grand Ole Opry radio show in Nashville
One of his tunes was the exquisite "Lovesick Blues"
with its world class yodel riff
on the oo of the sung word "blues"
--listen to it
They loved the man
some called the Hillbilly Shakespeare
and brought him back for six encores
July 15
Truman signed a Housing Act, w/ Federal aid for
slum removal and low cost housing
August
a Constitution in Hungary
setting up a Sovietesque state
August 10
The Department of War was
renamed
the Department of Defense
August 14
In the First election in West Germany
the Christian Democrats won 139 seats
Social Democrats 131
Free Dems 52, Others 80
Konrad Adenauer was chosen the first Chancellor on September 15
•
At a world peace conference in Paris
Paul Robeson had said that black Americans ought not to fight a war against
the Soviet Union on behalf of their own oppressors
after which the US gov't and media began a ferocious attack
His passport was revoked in 1950
–not gi'en back till '58
& he was prevented from professional gigs till '57
The FBI, CIA, & other surv-orgs compiled
tens of 1,000s of pages on him and
harassed him for 20 years
Song of the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion
June 14
Robeson gave a concert in Moscow
in seven languages
including Yiddish. He spoke Yiddish well
& could read Sholom Aleichem in the original
The concert was broadcast throughout Russia
Its close was the Yiddish "Song of the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion"
Robeson had learned about Stalin's mad
executions of Jewish intellectuals
He mentioned in the tune's introduction
how he'd met with the poet Itzik Feffer
--this was to try to save him from execution
In '52 the Russian police state killed him anyway
Look it up.
The Peekskill Riot
September 4
In July the Harlem Chapter of the Civil Rights Congress
announced that Paul Robeson would
do a benefit
in Peekskill on August 27
& the local Junior Chamber of Commerce
exploded in opposition
The concert was to be at a place called Lakeland Acres
a few miles north of Peekskill
where bullies with billy clubs, brass knuckles and rocks
attacked some women and children
who had come early to hear the show
Books and pamphlets were set on fire,
cars overturned
13 were seriously injured
and finally police interceded.
Robeson could not get to the gig.
The black community was angered
held a rally at the Golden Gate Ballroom in Harlem
and were determined to confront the rioters
The concert was rescheduled for September 4
More than 20,000 attended
Robeson, guarded by trade unionists
sang well
Then, at concert's closure, the Peekskill Riot began
For several miles along the roads from the song grounds
the racist sleaze attacked
pelting the crowd with rocks
& smashing auto windows, 140 were injured
Howard Fast called the riot
"the first great open manifestation of American fascism"
Two Days in September
On September 22
the Russians set off their first a-bomb
& the next day Bruce Springsteen was born
–in a twisty wrinkle of the cosmos
Springsteen was being swaddled just about the time
Truman told his weekly cabinet meeting
the news about the Soviet bomb
"The calmer the American people take this
the better,"
said General Omar Bradley
chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
September 30
the Berlin Airlift was over
after 277,264 flights
& cars surged back and forth once again
on the autobahn
The People's Republic of China
October 1
At the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing
before 200,000
Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed
the People's Republic
with Chou En-lai as Premier
October 1-November 11
Risking themselves in the anti-labor political whirl
500,000 steelworkers went on strike
for better pensions
& the companies gave in!
October 7
The Democratic Republic
was established in East Germany
under the overall control of the Communist Party
October 14
Leaders of the Communist Party USA
were convicted of "conspiracy"
under the 1940 Smith Act
for advocating the forcible overthrow of the gov't
–the Supreme Court upheld th' conviction in '51, in Dennis v. US
Who Lost China?
Right wing nuts
railed "Who lost China?"
It was, in part, just sleazy Democrat-bashing
But it was as clear as the urine of a commie
where the fault lay:
"Acheson Lost China"
October 16
Greek Civil War, going on since May, 1946
was over &
the right wing, with big help from the CIA, won a
thirty year hegemony
October 24
the headquarters of the United Nations in NYC opened
Minimum Wage just a bit
October 26
Harry Truman signed the law
that took it from 40¢ to 75¢
December 6
The great Leadbelly
suffering with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
went this day to Beulahland
from Bellevue
Glorious Concept
"The Psychopathology of Time and Life"
by Marshall McLuhan
in the fall '49 Neurotica
Neurotica was a good example of the concept of
putting out a magazine
to stir into
a few thousand like-minded souls
to create action!
as in Dwight Macdonald's
politics
published from 1944 to '49
–you can look it up
December 26
Albert Einstein, after 30 years
pondering & jotting equations
published his "Generalized Theory of Gravitation"
to unite gravity & electromagnetism
in one flow of math
December 27
The Netherlands
gave up the former Dutch East Indies
(except Western New Guinea)
–over 13,500 islands
along the equator
which it had controlled since 1602.
The Japs had seized it during War 2
after which
the Dutch wanted it back
but now, under UN pressure, Indonesia was independent
and a man named Sukarno was elected President
Apartheid
The Population Registration Act
in South Africa
began the procedures for defining humans
as white, colored or African
outlawing marriage 'tween Euro and non-Euro
& sex 'tween Euros and "Colored"
–to be continued–
America, A History in Verse, Volume 2, 1940-1961 has recently
been published by Black Sparrow Press. Volume 1 (1900-1939),
was published in 2000 by Black Sparrow Press.
More America, A History in Verse Vol. 2
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