1954 - Political Events
Political Events
France appeals for U.S. aid to relieve her troops surrounded at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina (see 1953). President Eisenhower declares that defeat of communist aggression in Southeast Asia is vitally important to the United States but declines to deploy U.S. airpower to relieve the siege. Ike outlines the "domino theory" at a press conference April 7; allegedly first voiced by newspaper columnist Joseph Alsop, 43, it says, "You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last is that it will go over very quickly." But the president resists "hawkish" suggestions by Vice President Nixon, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and Chicago-born Joint Chiefs of Staff head Admiral Arthur W. Radford, 58; Eisenhower refuses to send U.S. forces to Vietnam, and the 8-week siege of Dien Bien Phu ends May 7 with the surrender of the garrison to Viet Minh forces under the command of Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap.
A Geneva Conference of world powers meeting from April 26 to July 21 divides Vietnam at the 17th parallel into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. France, Britain, the United States, China, and the Soviet Union sign the Geneva Accords that effectively end French rule in Indochina.
Ho Chi Minh takes power as president of the communist "Democratic Republic" of North Vietnam after 9 years of leading anti-French guerrilla forces as head of the communist-led Viet Minh. Now 64, Ho gives Viet Minh apparatchik Le Duan, 46, responsibility for establishing an underground Communist Party organization in South Vietnam.
South Vietnam gains "complete independence" in "free association" with France under terms of a treaty signed June 4 by France's Premier Joseph Laniel and South Vietnam's Prince Bau Loa (see 1953). Bau Loa is succeeded June 14 by former interior minister Ngo Dinh Diem, now 53, who has returned from exile at the request of acting prime minister Bao Dai, beaten Bao Dai in a government-controlled referendum, and heads a new U.S.-backed regime as prime minister; Bao Dai goes into exile once again (see 1955).
Cambodia gains full independence from France under the leadership of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who will abdicate next year in favor of his parents but remain head of state (see 1953; Khmer Rouge, 1967).
Filipino Hukbalahap Army of Liberation leader Luis Taruc comes out of the jungle and surrenders to authorities, effectively ending the Huk Rebellion that began in 1946. Now 41, Turac goes on trial for revolt and terrorism and will be given a 12-year prison sentence (but see 1968).
A nuclear-fusion (hydrogen) "device" exploded by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission March 1 at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific is hundreds of times more powerful than the atom bomb (see 1956; Eniwetok, 1952).
Japanese mothers begin collecting signatures for an anti-nuclear petition, starting a movement that will attract delegates from dozens of countries in August of next year to the first international conference at Tokyo.
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) established at Manila September 8 joins Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, France, Britain, and the United States in an anti-communist pact (see 1951). The treaty will come into force in February of next year with the avowed purpose of defending against subversive activities and cooperating in steps designed to promote economic and social progress, but Pakistan will withdraw in 1968, France will suspend financial support in 1975, and SEATO will go out of existence at the end of June 1977.
Japanese democratic politician Yukio Ozaki dies at Zushi, Kanagawa prefecture, October 6 at age 95 and is remembered as the nation's "father of parliamentary politics." Prime minister Shigeru Yoshida resigns in December at age 76, having formed five different cabinets since 1946. He has been forced to vacate his leadership by Ichiro Hatoyama, now 71, who was removed from the Allied purge list in 1951 and allowed to take his seat in the Diet in April 1952. Hatoyama has merged the two conservative parties (the Liberals and Democrats) into the Liberal-Democratic Party that will hold power for decades.
Laos gains full sovereignty December 29 by agreement with Paris.
Rome objects January 29 that U.S. Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce is interfering in Italian domestic affairs, but she will continue in the post until 1957.
Moscow grants East Germany full sovereignty March 26 but rejects German unification in a meeting at Berlin of British, French, U.S., and Soviet foreign ministers. France, Britain, and the United States sign Paris pacts October 23 setting an end to occupation of West Germany.
Former German Army chief of staff and blitzkrieg theorist Heinz W. Guderian dies at Fuessen in Bavaria May 15 at age 65; former Italian prime minister Alcide De Gasperi of a heart attack at Sella di Valsugana August 19 at age 73; Soviet UN delegate Andrei Vishinsky of an acute stenocardiac attack at New York November 22 at age 70 while working on a speech that he is to give at the UN General Assembly's atoms-for-peace debate.
The French government falls June 12; Premier Laniel is succeeded by Radical-Socialist Party leader Pierre Mendès-France, 47, who favors greater self-rule by Tunisia and Morocco and French withdrawal from Indochina. Mendès-France escaped from a Nazi prison camp during World War II and joined Gen. de Gaulle's Free-French forces.
The Algerian National Movement (Mouvement National Algérian) founded by nationalist leader Ahmed Messali Hadj, now 56, agitates for independence from French colonial rule (see 1946), but it is soon eclipsed by the rival National Liberation Front (Front de Liberation National, or FLN), whose members begin a revolt October 31 (see 1957).
The Soviet Union vetoes a Security Council resolution January 22, blocking Israel from building a Jordan River power project; it is the first of several Soviet vetoes in behalf of Arab nations.
Egypt's military government ousts Gen. Muhammad Naguib (see 1953). Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser, 36, takes over as premier April 17. Britain agrees July 27 to a timetable for withdrawing all troops from the Suez, and Nasser signs a treaty with Britain October 19 providing for British withdrawal from the Suez Canal Zone within 20 months. Britain is to give up her rights to the base at Suez, but the Egyptians agree to keep it in combat readiness and permit British entry in the event of an attack on Turkey or any Arab state by an outside power. Nasser seizes full control of the Egyptian government November 14 following a coup by young army officers; he declares himself a pan-Arabist and socialist, allying himself with Moscow (see 1956).
Guatemala's president Jacobo Arbenz (Guzmán) charges January 29 that Nicaragua is planning to invade his country with support from several other Latin American states and tacit U.S. consent (see 1951); he has forced the United Fruit Co. to sell his government much of its land, resettled 100,000 peasants on that land, and provoked the anger of the company's chairman Samuel Zemurray, who has enlisted the support of the CIA (headed by former United Fruit Co. board member Allen Dulles), the U.S. State Department (headed by former United Fruit Co. lawyer John Foster Dulles), and New York public relations man Edward L. Bernays (who orchestrates a campaign to make the world believe that Arbenz is a communist). Guatemala dissents from a resolution approved in March by the Tenth Inter-American Conference meeting at Caracas to bar communism from the Western Hemisphere. The State Department reports a major shipment of communist-made arms to Guatemala March 17; her foreign minister declares May 21 that a U.S. boycott has left his country defenseless, forcing her to buy arms from communist sources; the CIA organizes a pathetic rebel force to overthrow the Arbenz government, it fails, but Arbenz realizes that he has no chance against the U.S. Government and steps down June 27 under pressure from U.S. Ambassador John Emil Peurifoy, 47; Arbenz takes refuge in Uruguay (he will later move to Cuba), and the CIA installs Col. Carlos Castillo Armas, 39, as president; Armas will soon reverse most of the reforms instituted by Arbenz, offering generous concessions to foreign investors (see 1957). The coup convinces communist Che Guevara that Washington will always oppose progressive leftist governments; he leaves for Mexico, where he meets the Cuban exile Fidel Castro (see 1953; 1956).
"Free Puerto Rico!" cries Lolita Lebron, 28, March 1 from the gallery of the House of Representatives, and she fires the first of eight shots that injure five congressmen (see constitution, 1952). The divorcée and her three confederates have pulled out concealed weapons to stage their demonstration; each will serve at least 23 years in prison, rejecting parole offers lest he or she appear repentant or acceptive of U.S. law.
Paraguay's president Federico Chávez tries to strengthen his regime by arming the national police (see 1949). His efforts to build a managed economy by further nationalizing industry and controlling production, trade, wages, and prices have antagonized the right wing of the Colorado Party, as have his moves toward establishing closer ties with Argentina. Army commander-in-chief Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, 41, deposes the septuagenarian Chávez in a coup d'état May 5, voters in a one-party election choose Stroessner to serve as president until February 1958, but Stroessner will rig elections to remain in power until 1989, heading a military dictatorship that will provide refuge to Nazi war criminals.
Brazil's president Getulio Vargas resigns under pressure from the military August 23 after a government scandal. A failed attempt August 5 on the life of right-wing newspaper editor Carlos Lacerda has killed an Air Force major, Vargas's son Lutero had been competing with Lacerda for a seat in the legislature, an investigation has linked the killer to the head of Vargas's personal guard, and demands for the president's impeachment have grown. After spending a sleepless night, Vargas commits suicide in his bedroom early the next morning at age 71, shooting himself in the heart after typing an eloquent note. Vargas is succeeded by his vice president João Cafe Filho (see 1955).
A charter signed December 15 makes the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius, Saint Martin) an autonomous part of the Netherlands, whose colonial forces have held the Caribbean islands since the 1630s. Secessionists will urge a break with the mother country, but the Dutch will increase the islanders' political autonomy and all five islands will vote in the mid-1990s to remain Dutch.
Lockheed Missile Systems Division is created January 1 by Lockheed Aircraft Corp. with temporary offices at Burbank, Calif. (see 1938). The company has profited from military contracts during the Korean War, which increased sales to $802 million and employment to 51,500; its new division starts with just 65 employees, but it has inherited some engineers and a contract for an X-plane from the parent corporation, and by year's end it has produced $24 million in sales, its payroll has grown to 2,800 (including 800 in research and engineering), it relocates to Van Nuys, and by 1961 it will account for more than half of Lockheed's total business (see 1958; Lockheed Martin, 1994).
Ottawa and Washington agree to build a "DEW" lane (Distant Early Warning Line) of radar stations across northern Canada to alert authorities to the approach of aircraft or missiles over the Arctic.
Sen. McCarthy conducts hearings from April 22 to June 17 as chairman of the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee and charges that a communist spy ring is operating at the U.S. Army Signal Corps installation at Fort Monmouth, N.J. (see 1951). The Senate voted earlier in the year to finance Sen. McCarthy's anticommunist investigations, with only Sen. J. William Fulbright (D. Mo.) expressing opposition. The hearings are televised across the country, McCarthy accuses the secretary of the army of concealing evidence, and the secretary retains Boston lawyer Joseph Nye Welch, 63, to represent him. When McCarthy makes a vicious, homophobic charge against one of his assistants June 9, Welch says, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or recklessness . . . Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
The Atomic Energy Commission revokes J. Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance June 29, President Eisenhower follows suit, the AEC appoints a board to investigate, it clears Oppenheimer of disloyalty charges but votes 2 to 1 that Oppenheimer's imprudent associations have made him a security risk and upholds revocation of the physicist's security clearance (see 1953). Loyola University chemistry professor Ward Vincent Evans, 71, casts the dissenting vote, and Oppenheimer will receive the AEC's Fermi Award in 1963 after the anticommunist frenzy stirred up by Sen. McCarthy has abated.
The C-130 Hercules transport plane makes its maiden flight August 23 from Burbank, Calif., to Edwards Air Force Base. Kansas City-born Lockheed Aircraft designer Willis Hawkins, 48, has designed the four-engine turbo-prop cargo and personnel carrier with the internal dimensions of a railroad boxcar. A four-man crew can operate the aircraft; Lockheed will begin delivery in December 1956, and it will be deployed worldwide as Air Force and National Guard units employ the flying boxcar to convey paratroopers, heavy equipment, and humanitarian supplies.
Right-wing senator Patrick A. "Pat" McCarran dies at Hawthorne, Nev., September 28 at age 78, having helped lead the fight against alleged "communist subversives"; longtime Memphis political boss Edward H. "Boss" Crump dies at Memphis October 16 at age 80, having lost power 6 years ago after nearly 40 years of controlling Tennessee politics.
Sen. Everett M. (McKinley) Dirksen, 58 (R. Ill)., withdraws his support from Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and the Senate votes 65 to 22 December 2 to condemn McCarthy for misconduct. Sen. J. William Fulbright has helped to draft the bill of particulars attached to the censure motion.
The U.S.S. Forrestal launched December 12 is the world's largest aircraft carrier. The 80,000-ton ship is 1,050 feet in length, has cost nearly $198 million, and can attain a speed of 40 knots.
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