1947 - Political Events
Political Events
A presidential message to Congress March 12 outlines the Truman Doctrine with plans to aid Greece, now embroiled in civil war between communists and royalists (see 1946), and Turkey; the president proposes economic (and military) aid to countries threatened by communist infiltration and asks Congress to appropriate $400 million in military aid to the eastern European nations whose democracies are jeopardized by what are now clearly expansionist policies on the part of Josef Stalin. If Stalin is not stopped, says Truman, he will go on to take Italy, France, and the rest of Western Europe.
President Truman announces March 21 a loyalty program, authorizing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate persons with suspected communist connections.
The phrase cold war coined by presidential adviser Bernard Baruch, now 78, describes the hostility between the West and the Soviet Union. Speaking at the unveiling of his portrait at the South Carolina House of Representatives April 16, he says, "Let us not be deceived—we are today in the midst of a cold war."
The June issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists introduces what will be called the "Doomsday Clock." Asked by the magazine's cofounder Hyman Goldsmith to design the cover, artist Martyl Langsdorf (whose physicist husband worked on the Manhattan Project during the war) has created a symbol of nuclear danger, with the hands indicating 7 minutes to midnight (see 1949).
An article signed "X" in the July issue of Foreign Affairs magazine proposes a policy of "containment" toward the Soviet Union. The author is the new head of the State Department's policy planning staff George F. Kennan Jr., who helped set up the U.S. embassy at Moscow in 1943 (see 1946). Secretary of State Marshall and his successors will adopt the essentials of Kennan's policy (see Nitze, 1950).
A new Presidential Succession Act signed into law by President Truman July 18 provides that the vice president shall succeed to office in the event of the president's death, and should there be no vice president the office shall go to the speaker of the House. Next in line shall be the president pro tempore of the Senate, the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, and other cabinet officers, but the law says nothing about the possibility of the president becoming incapacitated (see Twenty-Fifth Amendment, 1967).
The National Security Act signed into law by President Truman July 26 provides for a National Military Establishment that will be renamed the Department of Defense in August 1949, replacing the War Department. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) authorized by Congress July 26 in response to an order by Truman works to counter activities by Moscow, whose agents are pouring money into western Europe and attempting through local communist parties to establish governments. Amidst cold war tensions, the president has acted on the advice of Secretary of State Marshall and James V. (Vincent) Forrestal, 55, who is confirmed as the first secretary of defense September 17 and receives greater authority over the army, navy, and air force. A U.S. Air Force independent of the army or navy is established in September with Gen. Carl Spaatz as its chief of staff, but he will find administrative work uncongenial and retire next year. Formally launched September 18 as the successor to the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS) under terms of the National Security Act, the CIA is to conduct global intelligence operations and prevent another Pearl Harbor (see Stimson, 1929).
Socialist Vincent Auriol, 62, becomes president of France January 16, Gen. de Gaulle assumes control of the nationwide Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF) Party April 14, it emerges as the strongest group in the October municipal elections (the communists are second), many peasants refuse to deliver their grain after a poor harvest, strikes in November affect nearly 2 million workers, and a new cabinet takes office November 23 under Robert Schuman, 61.
Political geographer Sir Halford J. Mackinder dies at Parkstone, Dorset, March 6 at age 86, having argued that western Europe and the United States "constitute for many purposes a single community of nations" that can offset the power of the Eurasian heartland (see NATO, 1949); former German army officer Franz Epp has died in a U.S. internment camp January 31 at age 78.
Greece's George II dies April 1 at age 56 after a second reign of 12 years as civil war continues to wrack his country. He is succeeded by his 45-year-old brother, who will reign until 1964 as Paul I.
Denmark's Kristian X dies at Copenhagen April 20 at age 76 after a 35-year reign in whose latter years he has often ridden his horse through German-occupied Copenhagen's streets to demonstrate his refusal to give up sovereignty and was imprisoned from 1943 to 1945 for speaking out against the occupation forces. He is succeeded by his popular 48-year-old son, who was also imprisoned for encouraging the Danish resistance and will reign until 1972 as Frederik IX.
Hungarian communists seize power with backing from the Red Army in a coup d'état May 30 while Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy, 43, is on holiday in Switzerland. Hungary becomes a Soviet satellite (see 1956).
The Communist Information Bureau (Informatsionnoye Byuro Komunisticheskikh I Rabochikh) (Cominform) is founded in September at Góra, Poland, by the Communist parties of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Former Croat partisan leader Marshal (Josip Broz) Tito is the most ardent supporter of the bureau, and its headquarters are established at Belgrade (but see 1948).
Former White Russian general Anton I. Denikin dies of a heart attack at Ann Arbor, Mich., August 8 at age 74. He has lived in exile since 1920, first at Constantinople, then in France (where he hid during World War II), and since last year in America; former British general Sir Ian Hamilton dies at London October 12 at age 94; French general Philippe Leclerc dies at Colomb-Bechar, Algeria, November 28 at age 44 (he is celebrated as the liberator of Paris); former British prime minister Stanley Baldwin, 1st earl Baldwin of Bewdley, dies at Astley Hall, near Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, December 14 at age 80; former Italian king Victor Emmanuel III at Alexandria December 28 at age 78.
Romania's Michael abdicates under communist pressure December 30 after a 7-year reign. The Romanian monarchy begun by Carol I in 1866 is ended and Romania becomes a communist state.
Arabs and Jews reject a final British proposal for division of Palestine into Arab and Jewish zones administered as a trusteeship February 7 (see 1946). Britain refers the question to the United Nations. British troops end their 6-year occupation of Iraq October 26 but retain two RAF bases (see 1948). The UN general assembly votes November 29 for partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem to be under a UN trusteeship; the Jews approve the plan, the Arabs reject it. Palestine has about 1 million Arabs and 650,000 Jews, many of whom have immigrated illegally to find sanctuary from European persecution. The Arab League announces December 17 that it will use force to resist partition, and raids begin against Jewish communities in the Holy Land (see Israel, 1948).
The Cheribon (Linggadjati) Agreement pledges Dutch and Indonesian authorities to settle any dispute by arbitration if they cannot resolve it by themselves and to cooperate in establishing a Netherlands-Indonesian Union to be formed no later than January 1, 1949, with the Dutch queen as its sovereign. Initiated late last year in western Java it is signed at Batavia (soon to be renamed Jakarta) March 25, but the two sides soon resume hostilities, Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir resigns under pressure in June, and the Dutch mount a "police action" against republican forces in July. The United Nations intervenes by creating a Good Offices Committee with members from Australia chosen by the republicans, from Belgium chosen by the Dutch, and from the United States selected by both (see Renville Agreement, 1948).
Burmese nationalist leader Bogyoke Aung San dies in the council chamber at Rangoon July 19 at age 32 while the council is in session when his political rival U Saw has him gunned down along with his brother and five ministers (see 1945). He has conferred early in the year at London with Clement Attlee and announced an agreement January 27 that provided for Burma's independence within a year; his AFPFL party has won 196 of 202 seats in the April election for a constitutional assembly, and although communists have denounced him as a "tool of British imperialism," he has supported a resolution for independence outside the British Commonwealth. U Saw was interned in Uganda during the war and will be executed for his role in the killings (see 1948).
Britain sets up Pakistan August 14 as an independent state bordering India to the west and east with her capital at Karachi. India gains independence from Britain August 15 and becomes a dominion following endorsement of a plan to partition the subcontinent by the Muslim League and the All-India Congress. Field marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, now 63, supervises the division of the Indian Army, and Jawaharlal Nehru, now 58, becomes first prime minister of Hindu India (see Gandhi, 1948; constitution, 1950); Pakistan names London-trained lawyer Mohammed Ali Jinnah, 71, of the Muslim League to be governor general. A cosmopolitan non-Islamist who wears European clothes, Jinnah drinks alcohol and is married to a Parsi woman; he is suspicious of the vain and self-serving British viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, now 47, who pretends to ignore the fact that his wife, Edwina, is sleeping with Nehru, but Jinnah is dying of tuberculosis. His sister Fatima, 53, serves as his hostess and is always at his side; she has opposed Conservative Orthodox attitudes and worked since 1934 for the social emancipation and welfare of women. Fatima Jinnah will become known as Madar-i-Millat ("Mother of the Country"), and Pakistan will remain a secular state despite efforts by Islamic extremists to take over her government. The former governor of Bengal Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd earl of Lytton, dies at Knebworth, Hertfordshire, October 26 at age 71.
Kashmir's maharajah agonizes over whether to join Pakistan or remain with India (a Hindu, his people are mostly Muslim). A rebellion breaks out in Kashmir, Pakistan sends in troops, the maharajah signs an agreement in October to join India in exchange for military support, and the dispute over control of Kashmir is referred to the United Nations December 30 after millions have died in bloody riots following the partition, which has been ineptly handled. The departure of the British raj after nearly 2 centuries leaves the subcontinent in a troubled condition but with a legacy that includes a common language (for use, at least, in courts of law and many business transactions) and a superb railroad network (see 1948).
Former Japanese Imperial Navy chief of staff Adm. Osami Nagano dies at Tokyo January 5 at age 66 while on trial for war crimes.
Nationalist Chinese authorities on Taiwan crush opposition to their rule (see 1945). The "February 28 Incident" actually begins February 22 at Taipei when a police officer hits a woman on the head with his handgun and then fires into a crowd, killing a pedestrian; it ends with Chinese troops shooting their way into the city March 8, breaking into houses, and killing an estimated 10,000 Taiwanese, including the island's elected political leadership (news of the incident is suppressed). The mainland Chinese impose martial law, creating a police state that will continue for more than 40 years.
A Chinese troopship evacuating Nationalist troops from Manchuria sinks off Yingkou (Yingkow) in November, killing an estimated 6,000.
Siam's (Thailand's) military takes control of the government in November, staging a coup d'état that forces former premier Pridi Phanomyung to seek refuge in China (see 1946; 1948).
Western Samoa becomes a UN trust territory administered by New Zealand, whose forces occupied the islands in 1914 and have held them under a League of Nations mandate (see 1962).
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) is founded by liberal academics and civic, labor, and political leaders to promote and support liberal, internationalist, but anticommunist causes, candidates, and legislation. The ADA establishes headquarters at Washington, D.C., and will become closely allied with the Democratic Party.
Georgia has a political quandary following the death late last year of governor-elect Eugene Talmadge. His racist 33-year-old son Herman E. (Eugene) ran his campaign and covets the governorship himself, the state constitution allows the legislature to choose between the top two candidates, former governor Ellis G. Arnall refuses to move, lieutenant governor-elect M. E. Thompson claims that he is the rightful successor, young Talmadge serves for 67 days, the state supreme court rules that he has not been the actual governor, it gives the governorship to Thompson, and it orders a special election to be held next year; Talmadge will win that election and be elected to a full 4-year term in 1950.
A "Hollywood Black List" of alleged communist sympathizers compiled at a conference of 48 studio executives meeting at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel names an estimated 300 writers, directors, actors, and others known or suspected to have Communist Party affiliations or of having invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination when questioned by the House Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities. Those attending the Waldorf Conference include Barney Balaban, Harry Cohn, William Goetz, Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, Dore Schary, Nicholas Schenck, Spyros Skouras, Paul Terry, Walter Wanger, and Albert Warner. The "Hollywood Ten" who refuse to tell the committee whether they have been communists are Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, now 39, who has in fact been a Party member since 1943 but will quit in 1948 after finding Party meetings intolerably boring. The film industry blacklists the "Hollywood Ten" November 25 and all draw short prison sentences for refusing to testify. Dalton Trumbo's screen credits include the 1943 film Tender Comrade with Ginger Rogers, whose mother has tearfully testified before the House Un-American Affairs (Dies) Committee that her daughter had to utter the "communist line" in the film "Share and share alike—that's democracy" (see 1950).
Retired U.S. Marine commander Evans Carlson of 1942 Carlson's Raiders fame dies at Plymouth, Conn., May 27 at age 51, having been forced by malaria and battle wounds to retire last year from active service; former Canadian prime minister Richard B. Bennett, Viscount Bennett, dies at Mickleham, Surrey, June 27 at age 76; former diplomat and international civil servant John G. Winant commits suicide at his Concord, N.H., home November 3 at age 59, depressed by events that have unfolded since the death of President Roosevelt 2½ years ago. The first copy of his only book Letter from Grosvenor Square arrives at his house later in the day.
Helicopter designer Frank Piasecki shows September 12 that his HRP-1 Rescuer can pick up 10 men where a Sikorski helicopter can pick up only one (see transportation, 1945). Now 27, Piasecki has been the first man to manufacture large helicopters; he delivers his "Flying Banana" to the U.S. Navy and works on an HRP-2 model for Marine Corps assault missions (see transportation, 1949).
North American Aviation flies its first swept-wing jet fighter October 1. Powered by a General Electric J-47 engine with 5,200 pounds of thrust, it has a maximum speed of 685 miles per hour, a cruising speed of 540 mph, a range of 1,200 miles, a service ceiling of 49,000 feet, and can carry six .50-caliber machines guns plus eight five-inch rockets or 2,000 pounds of bombs. The first production model of the F-86 Sabre will fly May 20 of next year, and 4 months later will set a speed record of 670.9 miles per hour (see 1950).
A U.S. Bell X-1 rocket plane piloted by West Virginia-born U.S. Air Force captain Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager, 24, reaches Mach 1.06 (750 miles per hour) October 14 at California's Murac Dry Air Field (later Edward Air Force Base); it breaks the sound barrier that has been broken up to now only by planes diving earthward with help from gravity.
Avions Marcel Dassault Breguet Aviation is founded by French aviation pioneer Marcel-Ferdinand (Bloch) Dassault of 1916 variable pitch propeller fame, who survived 3 years' imprisonment at Buchenwald and has converted to Roman Catholicism, adopting the pseudonym used by one of his brothers in the French resistance (d'assault means literally "on the attack"). Now 55, Dassault will produce Mirage fighter planes and make his company France's leading aeronautical firm.
The Soviet MiG-15 fighter plane that makes its maiden flight in December has a performance speed of 669 miles per hour at sea level, 605 mph at 35,000 feet, and a service ceiling of 50,800 feet (15.484 meters). Designed by Artyom Ivanovich Mikoyan and Mikhail Yosipovich Gurevitch using captured German technology, the swept-wing "aircraft-soldier" will go into service for the Red Army in 1949 and develop an enviable reputation for rugged reliability, maneuverability, speed, and firepower (see 1950).
The AK-47 (Avtomar-Kalashnikov-47) designed by Soviet inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, 27, is a cheap, automatic, compact, easily maintained assault rifle that will be used worldwide by soldiers, guerrillas, and criminal elements. A tank sergeant during the war, Kalashnikov was wounded in battle, became obsessed with the superiority of German weapons, and devised a gas-operated gun that uses a short cartridge (7.62 by 39 millimeters) and works on the principle of a machine gun: the gas from each round is recycled into the piston and used to load the next round. Kalashnikov brought his prototype to the Aviation Institute at Alma-Ata and was soon sent to Moscow to compete with other Soviet designers. Production begins on the AK-47, whose technology will be licensed free to gunmakers in China, North Korea, and other countries.
Venezuelan voters elect novelist Rómulo Gallegos to the presidency by an overwhelming majority (see coup, 1945). Now 62, Gallegos helped Rómulo Betancourt found the liberal Acción Democrática Party 6 years ago, and Provisional President Betancourt has pushed through a revision of the nation's constitution to provide for election of presidents by direct popular vote rather than by the national legislature, with candidates to be native born, over 30, and ineligible for reelection until 10 years after the end of a 5-year term (but see 1948).
Paraguay has a civil war as Liberals revolt against the reactionary regime of Gen. Higinio Morinigo, who has ruled since the death of Gen. José Estigarribia in 1940. Morinigo has rewarded the Colorados and persecuted the Liberals, but it is the Colorados who depose him, and the country will have six weak presidents in the next 6 years (see 1949; Stroessner, 1954).
President Truman appoints Luis Muñoz Marín to the governorship of Puerto Rico (see 1940). Now 49 and the island's first native-born governor, Munoz Marín will be elected governor next year in Puerto Rico's first gubernatorial election (see 1950).
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