Country Connections
By James Perry

My first article on this topic which appeared last month dealt with the 1950s and 1960s and America’s direct involvement in the Vietnam War. In last month’s article I told of the position of President John Kennedy’s opposition to the USA being involved in a war with Vietnam and he had started pulling advisors out of Vietnam. Another island country that President Kennedy wanted no war with was Cuba. The night that a bunch of Cuban refugees and a few mercenaries tried to engage Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy did not order our Air Force to provide air cover which led to the ill-fated failure of the invasion on April 17, 1961. I think President Kennedy heeded the outgoing President Eisenhower’s advice to keep the military industrial complex of the United States who wants conflict.

After the assassination of President John Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson became president the United States military and began increasing soldiers and military equipment to South Vietnam. The major incident which later proved not to have happened was in the Gulf of Tonkin where a small fleet of torpedo boats supposedly attacked a US Navy vessel in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said there was no attack but false top US government intelligence gave President Johnson the signal to quickly increase the war in Vietnam. This led to over 58,000 young American men dying in conflict with many more Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians perishing. These figures do not reflect how many American men died later from use of Agent Orange. There are an estimated more than 500,000 Vietnamese being born with birth defects and many thousands dying from Agent Orange.

A Sergeant Major of the 82nd Airborne told me of a question asked him by a Lieutenant Colonel in the 82nd Airborne if he thought the army should go back to the spit and polish army. The Sergeant Major said he told the Lieutenant Colonel that with his Vietnam War memories that an army of small men in pajamas wearing sandals had kicked the butts of an US spit and polish army in Vietnam. He said the Lieutenant Colonel just walked away.

Now moving into the ’70s: The first big show was by the Democrats. The happening was in Washington DC at a plush, plush hotel called The Watergate. The Democrats had suites leased at The Watergate for visiting Democratic dignitaries from the USA and abroad. There just happened to be a file book with pictures of lots and lots of barely clad beautiful young ladies of the night which if a visiting dignitary wished to meet and greet one would be called and asked to attend a function with said dignitary or political contributor for his pleasure.

It just happened according to G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI Agent who worked for the Nixon re-election campaign of 1972, that a top advisor of Nixon had engaged one of the young ladies and had fallen for her, so this top person in Nixon’s re-election bid decided without President Nixon’s approval to send G. Gordon Liddy and two Cubans at night with a 22-caliber pellet rifle (which was to shoot out the cameras) to The Watergate and retrieve file book with all the pictures of the ladies of the night along with the dossier and picture of the gal that had become the object of affection of Nixon’s top advisor. First attempt failed to locate the picture book and the second attempt was thwarted by an observant security officer. President Nixon knew nothing about this until later.

After learning of this, President Nixon tried to keep it quiet. This top advisor consorting with this lady of the night cost President Nixon his presidency. This description of what took place with The Watergate happening was broadcast nationally on the G. Gordon Liddy radio program after G. Gordon Liddy’s release from a five-year prison sentence for breaking into The Watergate and not knowing exactly what the reason was for the retrieval of the picture book. He later learned of the affair and the name of the Nixon advisor who initiated the break in and his prison sentence. The archive of the radio show can be researched for verification of this.

Lighter times of the 1970s include the leisure suits worn by boys and men. The afro haircuts worn by both black men and women and white men and boys. Also, remember the afro picks in the back pockets of both boys and men, and the double-knit pants worn by most Americans. The shortage of antifreeze was blamed on the double-knit clothing made from the same chemicals used in antifreeze.

We had some great singers and songs during the 1970s. Some are CCR’s “Looking Out My Backdoor,” The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun,” Brooks Benton’s “Rainy Night in Georgia,” John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Road,” The Eagles’ “Hotel California,” Lou Rawls’ “You’ll Never Find a Love Like Mine,” Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” Elvis Presley’s “Always On My Mind,” Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones,” Mary MacGregor’s “Torn Between Two Lovers,” and many more. We never hear these songs on radio anymore, but you can type in these beauties and listen to them on the internet.

Another dangerous product from the 1970s was the clackers when every bone in your hand, arms and other body parts could be injured while clacking the two balls together. Looking back on the instant success of selling these objects to the world, I wonder how many humans were injured by these clackers.

The greatest achievement began in 1969 when then President Nixon started negotiations with North Vietnam through Henry Kissinger to stop the war in Vietnam. Many trips and meetings were made by representatives of the United States and Henry Kissinger to bring the war to a close. Regardless of movies made for the public trying to blame President Nixon for the war he started late in his first term as president to end the war. The war officially ended April 30, 1975, during the presidency of Gerald Ford. Most history written today does not give President Nixon credit for initially trying to end the war.

This covers the 1970s. Next month we will continue from the 1980s through the 2020s. See you next month.