1969 - Political Events

Political Events

Former Saudi king Saud ibn Abdul Aziz dies of a heart attack at Athens February 23 at age 67. He has reportedly been receiving an annual stipend of $10 million.

U.S. B-52s secretly attack communist bases in Cambodia in March as 543,000 U.S. troops escalate the war in Vietnam with support from small contingents sent by Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, and South Korea (whose government has sent 50,000 men). Gen. Earle Gilmore Wheeler, 61, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, directs the bombing on orders from President Nixon, who wants to stop the flow of Soviet arms and equipment coming through Cambodia.

North Vietnamese foreign minister Mme. Nguyen Thi Binh announces a 10-point peace program at Paris May 8. Chief negotiator for the National Liberation Front and foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary government, she submits a plan for the unification of Vietnam, but the other peace conference delegates reject it as the "quagmire" once predicted by France's president Charles de Gaulle becomes all too evidently a fact.

The Battle of Hamburger Hill (Ap Bia Mountain) rages from May 10 to May 20 in what will be the last major combat operation by U.S. troops in Vietnam; 633 North Vietnamese are killed, 46 U.S. soldiers die (about 400 are wounded).

Opposition to the Vietnam War grows in the United States as Americans learn about the secret bombing of Cambodia and the atrocities committed last year at My Lai.

President Nixon meets with President Thieu at Midway June 8 and announces the start of U.S. troop withdrawal and a new "Vietnamization" policy that will help the Indochinese nation deal with her own problems. Nixon's Omaha-born secretary of defense Melvin R. (Robert) Laird, 46, has come up with the term as a way to defuse U.S. involvement in southeast Asia as a political issue. Some 25,000 U.S Marines will be withdrawn immediately, the president promises.

North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh dies at Hanoi September 3 at age 79 after 15 years as president. He is succeeded as president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam by Vice President Ton Duc Thang, 81, who will become president of a reunited Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976. Le Dung (Le Duan), now 61, has been first secretary of the Vietnam Workers' Party and assumes leadership of the party, forming a triumvirate with Truong Chinh, now 62, and Pham Von Dong to rule the country.

Malaysia has riots as hostilities erupt between Chinese and Malays (see 1963; 1970).

Premier Kosygin meets at Beijing (Peking) Airport with Zhou Enlai (Chou En-lai) en route home from the funeral of Ho Chi Minh at Hanoi; the two communist leaders discuss Sino-Soviet border clashes that have occurred earlier in the year in East and Central Asia. Formal border conferences begin at Beijing October 19 amid signs of deepening divisions in the communist world.

Former president Dwight D. Eisenhower dies of congestive heart failure at Walter Reed Hospital March 22 at age 78. He has been a patient at the facility since May of last year; former CIA director Allen W. Dulles has died of influenza complicated by a pulmonary edema at his native Washington, D.C., January 29 at age 75; Sen. Everett M. Dirksen (R. Ill.) dies at Washington September 7 at age 73.

The U.S. Senate fails to confirm former president Johnson's Supreme Court chief justice nominee Abe Fortas (the first time such a nominee has been rejected since 1795). Fortas will resign from the court next year under threat of impeachment. President Nixon nominates St. Paul, Minn.-born Court of Appeals judge Warren Burger, 61, to succeed Earl Warren as chief justice (see 1968), Burger wins easy confirmation, he is sworn in June 23, and he will serve until his retirement in 1986. The Senate votes 55 to 45 in November to reject Nixon Supreme Court appointee Clement F. Haynsworth Jr., 56, whose ethical and philosophic standards were questioned by organized labor and civil-rights groups; legal scholar John Minor Wisdom, now 64, of the Fifth Circuit Court has helped to end segregation in the South and is a leading candidate for appointment to the high court, but Attorney General John Mitchell reportedly complains that Wisdom is a "damn left-winger" who would be "worse than Earl Warren" if he ever got on the Supreme Court (see Carswell, 1970)

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D. Mass.) loses some credibility as a statesman when the body of a former campaign worker for the late Robert Kennedy is retrieved on the morning of July 19 from a 1967 Oldsmobile sedan that plunged into Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island off Martha's Vineyard some hours earlier and is upside down in eight feet of water. Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, left a party at midnight of July 18 with Sen. Kennedy; he drove off Dike Bridge, allegedly tried to save the young woman, but has failed unaccountably to report the accident to police for 10 hours and thus raised questions as to his judgment. Kennedy has defied tradition by challenging Russell Long of Louisiana after only 6 years' tenure and defeated the 20-year veteran January 4 to become assistant majority leader at age 35. Financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy dies at Hyannisport, Mass., November 18 at age 81 (he suffered a stroke in 1961 and has never recovered); as his only surviving son, Edward will survive the scandal and serve in the Senate into the 21st century, winning widespread acclaim for his vigorous support of progressive causes.

Chicago judge Julius Hoffman, 74, hears testimony in the case of United States v. Dellinger and others that opens September 24 (see 1968). New York-born civil-rights lawyer William (Moses) Kunstler, 50, defends David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, Jerry Rubin, university lecturer Lee Weiner, 32, and chemistry professor John R. Froins against charges that they conspired to incite riot. Justice Hoffman has Seale gagged and manacled to his chair in the courtroom and sentences him in November to 4 years in prison for contempt of court.

Radicals who have broken with Students for a Democratic Society change their name from the Weathermen to the Weather Underground. The original name came from the Bob Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues," whose lyric contains the words, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." The Weather Underground will plant bombs to protest the continuing war in Vietnam.

"I will say confidently that looking ahead just three years the war will be over," says President Nixon October 12. "It will be over on a lasting basis that will promote lasting peace in the Pacific."

The New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam demands a moratorium on the war October 15 and masses hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Washington, D.C., November 15. Police surround the White House with D.C. Transit buses parked bumper to bumper to protect the executive mansion, where President Nixon watches a football game on television. The police use tear gas to disperse demonstrators gathered in front of the Justice Department, and the antiwar left charges the FBI and the CIA with spying on them and breaking into their offices to gather information.

A bomb explodes at Manhattan's Criminal Court building November 12—the eighth government or corporate building to be bombed since July 26. Police and FBI agents arrest four militant radicals, including Jane Hale Alpert, 24, hours later. They also seek Pat Swinton in connection with the bombings but she will evade apprehension, and Alpert will jump bail (see 1974).

Journalist Seymour M. Hersh breaks the story of last year's My Lai massacre November 12; explicit photographs of villagers killed at My Lai appear November 20 in the Cleveland Plain Dealer (see 1971).

Chicago police raid an apartment before dawn December 4 pursuant to a court order. The 14 officers are armed with a Thompson submachine gun, five shotguns, a .357 pistol, and 19 or 20 .38 caliber pistols. Black Panther leader Fred Hampton or Mark Clark fires one shot at the police, the police fire at least 82 shots, killing both Hampton and Clark, and recover illegal weapons.

Admiral Raymond A. Spruance (ret.) dies of arteriosclerosis at Pebble Beach, Calif., December 13 at age 83.

Québecois separatists kidnap British Trade Commissioner James Richard Cross at Montreal October 5, and Quebec's labor minister Pierre Laporte is abducted by four armed men October 9. Prime Minister Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act October 16, the first such invocation in peacetime, and calls the army into Montreal. Police are empowered under the law to round up and detain anyone suspected of involvement in the violence without formal charges, and some 450 people are arrested, including separatist Pierre Vallières (who will be released and dissociate himself from his organization, calling it a "terrorist menace"). Laporte's body is found a few days later in the trunk of a car, and the Front for the Liberation of Quebec claims responsibility.

Irish nationalist Robert Briscoe dies of cancer at Dublin in May at age 74. Queen's University, Belfast, undergraduate Bernadette (Josephine) Devlin, 21, is one of 12 Northern Irish members seated in Britain's House of Commons, becoming the youngest MP since the election of William Pitt the younger in 1781 (see 1949). She views the situation in Ulster as a class struggle, not a religious war, since Protestants on the lower economic scale are as much exploited as the predominantly working-class Roman Catholics who constitute one third of Northern Ireland's population (see 1971).

Gen. Sir Miles Dempsey dies at Yattindon, Berkshire, June 6 at age 72; a collapsed aorta kills former British Army general Harold R. L. G. Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, at Slough June 16 at age 77; Rear Admiral Graham H. Stokes, Royal Navy, dies at London August 22 at age 66.

West German elections September 28 end without a clear winner. Former German chancellor Franz von Papen has died at Obersasbach, West Germany, May 2 at age 89.

Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader and former foreign minister Willy Brandt (Karl Herbert Frahn), 55, becomes chancellor of the Federal Republic October 21 in a coalition government that pursues the policy of Ostpolitic, recognizing the status of Eastern European nations with a view to improving relations.

Czechoslovakia's Communist Party leader Gustav Husák succeeds Alexander Dubcek as first secretary in April (his title will be changed to general secretary in 1971), reverses Dubcek's reforms, and begins a purge of the party's liberal members under a new federalism that has come into force January 1 as he focuses on managing the Czech economy and stifling internal dissent (see 1968). Prime Minister Cernik is named prime minister of the new federal government and quickly moves to disavow "errors" that he and others have committed (but see 1970). Husák will give up his position as general secretary in 1987 but will retain the presidency until December 1989 (see Husák, 1971).

Former Soviet Army marshal Kliment E. Voroshilov dies of a heart attack at Moscow December 3 at age 88. He was president of the USSR from 1953 to 1960.

Former Venezuelan president and writer Romulo Gallegos dies at Caracas April 4 at age 84. Venezuela inaugurates a new, democratically elected president: Rafael Caldera Rodriguez will remain in office until 1974, legalizing the Communist Party and establishing diplomatic relations with Moscow.

Former Jamaican prime minister Norman W. Manley dies of a heart attack at Kingston September 3 at age 76; former Mexican president Adolfo Lopez Mateo of cancer at Mexico City September 22 at age 59; former Brazilian president Marshal Arthur da Costa e Silva at Rio de Janeiro December 17 at age 67 (he suffered a cerebral stroke August 29).

Russian-born Milwaukee-raised Palestine pioneer Golda Meir (née Mabovitch), 70, is sworn in as Israel's fourth premier February 17, replacing Levi Eshkol, who dies at Jerusalem February 26 at age 73. Foreign minister from 1956 to 1966 and before that the minister of labor, Meir has been opposed by Agudat Israel, a religious party whose members adhere to the Orthodox rule that Jewish men do not look at "strange women." She will hold office for 5 embattled years.

Indian political leader and journalist C. N. (Conjeevaran Nataragen) Annadurai dies of stomach cancer at Madras February 2 at age 59; six mourners die in a stampede February 3 when his body lies in state at the city's Ragji Hall, nearly 3 million people attend his funeral February 4, but 28 persons are killed en route when they are struck by bridge girders while riding atop a packed train.

Pakistan's president Ayub Khan resigns March 26 as street riots erupt in cities throughout the country; now 61, he has announced that he would not stand for reelection and is succeeded by his protégé, army commander in chief Gen. Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, 52, who served in Italy and the Middle East during World War II and organized the Pakistani Staff College in 1947. "I will not tolerate disorder," says Yahya Khan. "Let everyone return to his post" (but see 1971; environment [cyclone], 1970).

Indian banker-diplomat Sir Benegal Rama Rau dies at Bombay (Mumbai) December 13 at age 80.

Former Congo president Joseph Kasavubu dies at Boma, Lower Congo, March 24 at age 55 (approximate); former Congo premier Moise Tshombe in exile at Algiers June 29 at age 49.

Sudan's premier Ismail al-Azari is overthrown May 25 in an army coup. He dies of a heart attack at Khartoum August 26 at age 69, and Gen. Gaafar Mohamed el-Nimeiri, 39, takes over as prime minister in October. President of the Council for the Revolution, Nimeiri is a 1966 graduate of the U.S. Army Command College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (see 1970).

Kenyan political leader Tom Mboya, 38, is gunned down in a Nairobi street July 5, initiating clashes between his Luo tribesmen and Jomo Kenyatta's Kikuya tribe.

A Libyan military coup September 1 overthrows Idris I, now 79, who is receiving medical treatment at a Turkish spa. The king has distanced himself from Arab nationalist movements in his 18-year reign, and the ardent nationalist Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi, 27, has taken the opportunity of Idris's absence to seize power and turn the monarchy into a republic. His cohorts name him commander in chief of the armed forces and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, which becomes the nation's new governing body (see 1970).

Somalia's president Abdi Rashid Ali Shermarke is assassinated October 15 at age 49 while visiting the drought-stricken northeast. Premier Mohammed Ibrahim Egal rushes home from Palm Springs, Calif., where he has been visiting actor William Holden, but Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre dissolves the legislature, arrests government leaders, sets himself up as dictator of a renamed Somali Democratic Republic, and asks the Peace Corps to leave (see 1960; 1974).

Buganda's former king Sir Edward F. W. Walugenbe Mutebiluwanguela Mutesa II dies of acute alcohol poisoning at London November 21 at age 45.

President Nixon bans production of chemical and biological warfare agents in November (see environment [Utah nerve gas contamination], 1968). Included are bacteria that produce anthrax, tick-borne encephalitis, bubonic plague, psittacosis (parrot fever), Q-fever, brucellosis, tularemia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and botulism along with the chemical agents mustard gas, phosgene, and the VX nerve gas that killed 6,400 sheep last year. Riot control agents such as tear gas remain in production.