1981 - Political Events
Political Events
President Reagan says in his inaugural address January 20, "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem." Republicans will continue for more than 25 years to insist (often in the face of contrary evidence) that government is the root of social and economic ills and if the country can only get government regulation "off the people's backs" all problems will be solved through the magic of the marketplace. Reagan's admirers will later hail the next 8 years as a golden era in which the president's ideas, optimism, and winning personality have helped lift the country to prosperity while forcing the collapse of the Soviet Union, but Congress in this decade will appropriate so much money for Reagan's military measures that it will triple the national debt, making it impossible to continue funding the social programs of former president Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and even threatening the viability of New Deal social initiatives dating to the 1930s.
Iran releases all U.S. hostages January 20 (they are flown to Algiers following 444 days in captivity) after U.S. negotiators agree to unblock certain Iranian funds and Iran agrees to repay U.S. bank loans.
Admiral Stansfield Turner resigns as CIA director January 20 and is replaced by lawyer and OSS veteran William J. Casey, now 67, who headed President Reagan's election campaign and will head the agency until his death in 1987.
President Reagan and three others are wounded by pistol bullets March 31 as they leave the Washington Hilton Hotel in an assassination attempt with no evident political motive. Ardmore, Okla.-born gunman John (Warnock) Hinckley, 25, has evidently shot the president to impress film starlet Jodie Foster; Reagan tells his wife, Nancy, "I forgot to duck," but he has lost half his blood, come within minutes of dying, and will hereafter be more withdrawn. Reagan's Texas-born press secretary James Brady, 40, suffers permanent brain damage; handguns remain readily obtainable in most of the United States (see crime [Brady Bill], 1993).
Gen. Omar N. Bradley (ret.) dies of cardiac arrest at New York April 8 at age 88. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle goes into production to replace the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier used since the 1960s and will prove its value in combat.
President Reagan appoints Arizona Judge Sandra O'Connor (née Day), 51, to the Supreme Court July 7. Although she has had only 18 months' experience on the state appeals court, she graduated third in her Stanford University Law School class (Justice William Rehnquist was first), championed women's rights in her 6 years as a state legislator, and sided against anti-abortion zealots, favors the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, is opposed by right-to-life activists, is confirmed by the Senate September 21, and becomes the first female justice ever to sit on the high court. In her 24-year tenure her views will move increasingly to the political center and hers will often by the pivotal vote in 5-to-4 decisions.
President Reagan's assistant secretary of defense Richard Perle convinces Reagan over the objections of Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig to adopt a "Zero Option" policy on intermediate-range missiles: proposed November 18, it requires that Moscow dismantle the Soviet Union's SS-4, SS-5, and SS-20 missiles based in Europe and Asia (each has three warheads) in exchange for Washington's agreement not to deploy Pershing II and Tomahawk cruise missiles in Europe. Perle assumes that Moscow will reject the proposal, thereby clearing the way for U.S. deployment of the ICBMs (but see 1982).
Terrorists assassinate Northern Ireland's former parliamentary speaker Sir Norman Stronge and his son January 21—4 days after an attempt at Belfast on northern Irish nationalist Bernadette Devlin McAlisky, now 33, and her husband, who have supported IRA hunger strikers. Devlin has been shot and seriously wounded but makes a defiant appearance in Spain. Ten hunger strikers die in a Belfast prison protest from May to July. Bobby Sands dies May 5 at age 27 after 65 days without food, having recently been elected to Parliament despite the fact that he was serving a 14-year sentence for firearms possession.
Rebellious Spanish Civil Guard troops storm the Parliament building at Madrid in a coup attempt February 23, but Juan Carlos intervenes to abort the coup.
Pope John Paul II is wounded at Rome May 13 in an assassination attempt in St. Paul's Square. His attacker is the Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, now 23, who was arrested 2 years ago after the killing of Turkish newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci but escaped before he could be brought to trial; KGB complicity is widely suspected, but Agca claims to be Jesus Christ and will receive a presidential pardon in June 2000 following an appeal by the pope to Italian authorities.
Italy's cabinet resigns May 26 after revelations linking 953 cabinet officers, legislators, judges, and bankers to a secret Masonic organization. Italy has about 550 Masonic lodges, and although they are not illegal there is a law barring secret organizations, and the grandmaster of Propaganda Two—the lodge in question—has refused to divulge his membership list. Investigating magistrates have charged grandmaster Licio Gelli with "criminal association" and spying for Argentina, claiming that the lodge is a secret sect that combines business and politics with the intent of destroying constitutional order and transforming the parliamentary system into a presidential system. The list of members was released April 21, allegedly having been found in Gelli's country house; most of those named denied being members.
French voters elect socialist François (Maurice) Mitterand, 64, president in June balloting.
Former Norwegian environmental minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, 42, becomes prime minister. A Harvard-trained physician with four children, she is Norway's first female prime minister and will become prime minister again in 1986.
Polish general Wojciech Jaruzelski, 57, becomes prime minister in February, the fourth in a year, as social unrest continues (see 1980). Jaruzelski orders an army-police crackdown in September on lawlessness and anti-Soviet activity, he succeeds Stanislaw Kania as first secretary of the Communist Party October 18, and he imposes martial law December 13 to squelch strikes. Solidarity is outlawed, the martial law will continue for 19 months, and opposition leaders who include Lech Walesa will either go underground or serve time in prison (see 1982; human rights [Popieluszko], 1984).
Six Afghan guerrilla groups continue strong opposition to Soviet occupation forces, which have suffered at least 10,000 casualties since the invasion that began in December 1979.
Lebanese Christian militiamen aided by Israeli forces shoot down two Syrian helicopters, the Syrians move surface-to-air missiles into the Bekaa valley east of Beirut, Israel threatens to knock out the missiles, and President Reagan summons former under secretary of state Philip C. Habib, 61, out of retirement to help negotiate a truce.
Israeli jets under the command of David Ivry, 47, destroy Iraq's French-built Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad June 7 in a preemptive strike (Operation Opera) ordered by Menachem Begin to prevent production of weapons-grade plutonium. Critics worldwide blast Prime Minister Begin for his unilateral action, but Iraq has so much oil that she clearly has no need of nuclear energy and there can be no doubt about the hostile purpose of the reactor's existence. Iraq's Saddam Hussein will continue for the next 20 years and more to pursue efforts to develop a nuclear-weapon capability.
Iran's president Abolhassan Bani-Sadr is removed from office June 22 and flees to France. Ayatollah Mohammed Beheshti, chief justice and head of the Islamic Republican Party, is killed along with four key government ministers in a bombing attack at Teheran June 28. Iran's president Ali Rajai, Prime Minister Hojatolislam Javad Bahonar, and Col. Houshang Dagsgerdi die in a bombing attack at Teheran August 30; a grenade kills Ayatollah Assadolah Madani, an aide to the Ayatollah Khomeini, at Teheran September 11 as war continues between Iraq and Iran (see 1980; 1982).
Israel's prime minister Menachem Begin appoints Gen. Ariel Sharon minister of defense in June; Sharon has been a vigorous advocate of Jewish settlement in occupied Arab territories. Israeli and PLO forces clash through June and July with several weeks of heavy fighting, shellfire falls on Israeli settlements, and Israeli jets strike targets in Beirut and southern Lebanon before a cease-fire is negotiated with Habib's help July 24. Israel charges in August that Palestinians are moving artillery and ammunition within Lebanon's UN zone (see 1978), former Israeli defense minister and foreign minister Moshe Dayan dies of a heart attack at Tel Aviv October 16 at age 66, and Israel annexes the Golan Heights December 14, raising strong protests (see 1982).
Egypt's president Anwar el-Sadat cracks down on dissidents; has 1,600 arrested in a single night in September; and falls victim to Islamic extremists who assassinate him at Cairo October 6 while he is watching a parade of troops. Dead at age 62, Sadat is succeeded by Vice President Hosni Mubarak, 53, who was on the reviewing stand with the president. Mubarak has several hundred fundamentalist fanatics arrested and 24 tried for murder (five will be executed); he immediately affirms Egypt's commitment to Sadat's peace treaty with Israel but makes friendly overtures to other Arab states, initiates release of political prisoners, and will hold power into the 21st century.
Image Pop-Up
Egypt's Anwar Sadat paid with his life for having effected a rapprochement with Israel at Camp David.Army officers in Bangladesh fail in an attempted coup May 30 but kill President Ziaur Rahman, the army chief of staff who took power late in 1976. He is succeeded by his vice president Abdur Sattar, 74, who will hold office for only 10 months (see 1982).
President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines ends 8 years of martial law January 17 and wins election to a second 6-year term June 16 (see 1972), but Marcos has effectively ended democracy in the country and stifled opposition, using anticommunism to mask a policy of suppression (see 1983).
Mao Zedong's widow, Jiang Qing, is sentenced to death January 25 and dragged from the courthouse shouting, "It is right to rebel! Making revolution is no crime!" Her sentence is later suspended.
Ethnic Malay Mahathir bin Mohammad wins confirmation as Malaysian prime minister July 16 after years of internal conflict with ethnic Chinese, who own most of the country's tin mines and rubber plantations; now 55, the former country doctor was unanimously elected president of the United Malays National Organization June 26 and succeeds Hussein bin Data Onn, who retires. Mahathir is the nation's first leader not to have participated in the negotiations that led to Malaysia's independence from Britain in 1957, and he will rule the country for more than 17 years, initially with the help of Anwar Ibrahim, now 34.
Burma's president U Ne Win resigns voluntarily November 9 after 19 years in power and is succeeded by his second-in-command San Yu, now 63, who will hold power until 1988, continuing the repressive policies of his predecessor; Ne Win remains chairman of the ruling Socialist Program Party.
Ghana has a coup d'état December 31. Jerry J. Rawlings seizes power, accusing President Hilla Limann, 47, of taking the country "down the road to economic ruin"; he institutes an austerity program to reduce budget deficits.
The Surinam government announces in mid-April that its army foiled a second coup attempt March 15 about 40 miles west of Paramaribo (see 1980). One man was left dead, the coup leader was seriously wounded, and a dozen co-conspirators were arrested, says the government (see 1982).
Panamanian strongman Brig. Gen. Omar Torrijos (Herrera) is killed with six others in a plane crash near Penonomé August 1 at age 52. Longtime CIA informant Col. Manuel Antonio Noriega, 48, emerges as the most powerful figure in Panama (see 1988).
Uruguay's National Council of civilians and military officers installs Gen. Gregorio Alvarez, 55, as president September 1 as the country's dictatorship continues (see 1973; 1984).
Belize (formerly British Honduras) becomes a fully independent commonwealth September 21 (see 1973). Prime Minister George Price, 62, has led the tiny Central American colony to independence, but Guatemala refuses to recognize the new nation and will not do so until 1991; about 1,500 British troops remain to protect it from the threat of a Guatemalan invasion (see 1984).
Former Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt dies while visiting New York September 28 at age 73.
Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean gain full independence from Britain November 1.
El Salvador's bloody civil war continues (see 1980). The U.S.-trained and financed Atlacatl Battalion death squad invades a guerrilla stronghold in Morazán and massacres more than 800 men, women, and children December 11 at El Mozote. There is only one known survivor, Rufina Amaya gives an eye-witness account, but the Reagan administration dismisses her story as propaganda, and El Salvador officials will insist for 11 years that there was no massacre.
The Canadian House of Commons votes 246 to 24 December 2 to approve Prime Minister Trudeau's resolution reforming the nation's constitution to make Canada entirely free of British rule (see 1982). Only the representatives from Quebec dissent.
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
