The Presidents: The Vietnam War Edition

jeeshadow: I didn't include Truman because like you said, he did whatever he could to advance Civil Rights. However, I do question the "Do Nothing Congress" label. While it's true that the conservative Republicans blocked most of Truman's domestic program (Dewey had no better luck TTL), they did give Truman everything he wanted when it came to foreign policy. The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and the establishment of NATO were all approved by this "Do Nothing Congress".

volksmarschall: I know you're being serious, volksmarschall, but reading "the Burger Court" made me chuckle a little bit. I imagined a Supreme Court consisting of nine hamburgers, the Chief Justice being the only one allowed to have cheese.

Good luck with your conference. 

J.J.Jameson: As opposed to how Sparkman handled it TTL: duck and make the Attorney General handle it.

Jape: True.
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LBJ’s First Trip
November 7th, 1961 was Election Day in the United States. Although elections held in even-numbered years get all the national attention because they decide the balance of power in Washington, elections are also held in odd-numbered years. On Election Day 1961, voters in New Jersey headed to the polls to cast their votes for Governor. Seeking a second term was Republican incumbent Malcolm Forbes. Originally born in New York in August 1919, Forbes was the son of Scottish-born financial journalist B.C. Forbes who founded the “Forbes” business magazine in 1917. In 1951, Forbes launched his political career by being elected to the New Jersey Senate. In 1957, he ran for Governor of New Jersey and won with help from the Republican Advisory Committee chaired by the 1956 GOP Presidential candidate Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. As Governor, Forbes lowered taxes, cut spending, and reduced regulations in an effort to simulate economic growth. By 1961, he had succeeded in shrinking the state debt and attracting businesses to The Garden State which meant more jobs were available. That November, voters rewarded Forbes by returning him to Trenton for a second term. Since he was constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term in 1965, Forbes in early 1962 privately decided he would spend the bulk of his second term seeking a much higher political office. That winter, he informed his inner circle of his decision to seek the Republican Presidential nomination in 1964. “I have a feeling,” Forbes told his fourteen-year-old son Steve, “That in two years people will get tired of the Democrats and kick them out.”
As Governor of New Jersey, Forbes believed he could well-position himself to exploit the anti-Democratic mood he saw coming and win himself the White House. Of course, he had to win the nomination first and he initially regarded New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as being his biggest rival. It made sense after all; Rockefeller was the Governor of the most popular state in the country and would undoubtedly seek the nomination again after being denied it in 1960. However, as 1962 developed, Forbes came to the realization that Rockefeller wouldn’t be his only major rival for the nomination. Riding high on the popularity of “The Conscience of a Conservative”, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater was emerging as the strongest figure on the Right. Clearly, in order for Forbes to win the nomination, he would have to figure out how to beat Rockefeller and hold off Goldwater.

(Governor Malcolm Forbes and his wife Roberta on Election Day 1961)
On the same day Forbes won re-election, Lyndon Johnson returned to the United States from his first trip abroad as Vice President. For two weeks he had been on a tour of Asia, reassuring America’s allies who had been spooked by China’s invasion of Laos. He visited Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macao, South Vietnam, Thailand, and India. Interestingly, the suggestion for this Asian trip came not from the President or the Secretary of State but from the Attorney General. On the surface, Vice President Johnson and Attorney General Roger Ledyard couldn’t have been more different. Johnson was a towering rural Texan who had pulled himself up by his own bootstraps; Ledyard was an unimpressive-looking New Englander who came from a prominent Connecticut family and who had graduated from Yale University. Whereas LBJ craved attention and easily stood out in a crowd, Ledyard was an introvert who would much rather go home to his wife and two daughters after work than go out to a party. Then there was the political difference: the Vice President was a Democrat while the Attorney General was a Republican. However, the two men did have something in common: they were both politically savvy. Johnson knew how to bend people to his will, a fact that was not lost on Ledyard. Ledyard was among those who viewed LBJ as a powerful weapon for the Administration if utilized correctly. It had been the Attorney General who had recommended dispatching him to the Interstate Commerce Commission at the height of the Freedom Rides. Using the force of his personality, Johnson had literally scared the feet-dragging members of the ICC into desegregating interstate travel. Now in the autumn of 1961, Ledyard suggested another good use for the Vice President.

(Attorney General Roger Ledyard)
On a clear autumn afternoon at the White House, Ledyard casually strolled into the Oval Office with his hands in his pockets and threw out an idea: “Why don’t you send Lyndon to Japan?”
Jackson looked up from his desk somewhat surprised. He hadn’t been expecting his Attorney General to be getting himself involved in foreign policy. “Japan?” he repeated. Ledyard explained that since Japan and China were mortal enemies and the latter made no secret about seeking revenge against the former, “I think it would do the Japanese a lot of good if they got a reminder from us that we won’t allow the Chinese to bully them around.”
So why not send Secretary of State Dean Rusk over instead? The Attorney General’s answer was that a Rusk visit would come across as being too stiff and formal. The Vice President by contrast was a back-slapping people person who might be in a better position to project America’s friendship and support in The Land of the Rising Sun. Scoop was intrigued by the proposal; he knew from personal experience how much his Vice President loved working a crowd and being the center of attention. If anyone could persuade people, it was Lyndon Baines Johnson. Jackson relayed the suggestion to Johnson personally, believing his Vice President would jump at the chance to represent the Administration abroad. Instead, LBJ expressed reluctance to go. He was always sensitive of what others thought about him and felt that the people in the State Department who would arrange the trip held him in contempt.
“These State Department people think I’m going to go out there,” he complained, “Pat a little guy on the head, and say ‘Little man, do this.’ They don’t give me any credit for having any sense about how to treat people.”
The President did his best to allay the fears of his rather touchy Vice President, assuring him that the trip had Rusk’s complete support. “I have talked to Dean about this,” he said, “And he wants you to go. He believes as much as I do that you’ll do this country a lot of good by going over there, Lyndon.”
Indeed, Rusk himself called Johnson later to assure him that the State Department under his direct order would treat him with “the respect that you rightly deserve on this very important mission.”
He added that “There is no person in America that can equal you in knee-to-knee conversation with another man.”
With these assurances in mind, LBJ agreed to make the trip – which Rusk greatly expanded to cover most of America’s allies in Asia.

Despite his acceptance, Johnson remained apprehensive about making his first trip abroad as Vice President. When he boarded his plane for the flight to Tokyo on October 20th, his aides and the journalists who were covering the trip all noted that he appeared uneasy and on edge. His inability to relax made him more likely to become emotional at the drop of a hat. At one point somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, one of LBJ’s aides tried to give him pointers on proper Japanese etiquette. That was a bad idea. Feeling like he was being lectured like a child, Johnson’s temper exploded. He bellowed at his aide to get off the plane immediately. “But we’re over the Pacific,” the aide meekly reminded him. His boss replied frankly that “I don’t give a damn!”
Upon landing in Tokyo for the first leg of his trip, the Vice President was warmly greeted by Japanese Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda. During the motorcade ride from the airport to the Imperial Palace, Ikeda tried to engage Johnson in a conversation. It didn’t work because LBJ kept ordering the motorcade to stop so he could get out of the car and shake hands with some of the thousands of people who were lining the route. Johnson also handed out souvenirs to random people in order to give them a reminder that they had met the Vice President of the United States. He gave out pens, cigarette lighters, and even passes to the United States Senate visitor gallery. Among those who were given the gold and white pass was an up-and-coming small business owner named Taichi Daidouji. In 1952, Daidouji and his wife Haruka took his ability to make toys for their two children and turned it into a small Mom-and-Pop toy store. His solidly-made toys found a steady supply of customers in a Japan still recovering from the devastating effects of the war. From its’ humble beginning, Daidouji Toy Company grew in size during the 1950s and had four stores in the Tokyo area by the time Johnson visited the country in the autumn of 1961. A self-made businessman, Daidouji had an ambitious plan to build more stores across Japan in which he could exclusively sell his company’s toys. Although Taichi had no use for the Senate pass, the fact that it came from a high-level American leader gave it enough of a historical value to make the pass a family heirloom. It got handed down through the generations and is today in the possession of Daidouji’s great-granddaughter Tomoyo.

(Taichi Daidouji, known as the Japanese Sam Walton for turning a small store into a national retail giant...making his family quite wealthy in the process)
At the Imperial Palace, Johnson was received cordially by Emperor Hirohito. Once regarded as a divine figure, the sixty-year-old Emperor had been reduced to a ceremonial figurehead by the Americans. The Japanese Head of State stressed in his meeting with the Vice President how much the Chinese saber-rattling had unnerved him. “We have filled the Chinese people with much anger,” he said, referring to his country’s brutal occupation of China which he himself had authorized, “And I fear greatly where that will lead.”
Ever mindful of the millions of causalities his country had suffered in World War Two, the Emperor was worried about the prospect of China launching a war of revenge against Japan. Johnson tried to calm his nerves by dismissing the fear of an all-out Chinese attack as unlikely. “Chiang would have to be so dumb as to even try to land his troops ashore,” LBJ declared in his typical blunt style, “We would sink those flimsy little boats before they could even hope to see land!”
The Emperor listened to this American’s assertions with steadfast solemnest. Despite the pledge that the United States would defend her Japanese ally in the event of a conflict with China, Emperor Hirohito still felt uneasy about the future. With Nanjing determined to make Tokyo pay for her past aggressions, it seemed like it would be only a matter of time before things came to a head. “Will America really come to our defense if war should come,” Ikeda asked LBJ after they left the Imperial Palace. Johnson didn’t try to hide his annoyance at being asked such a question. “Are you God damn serious? How much clearer do I have to make myself? We do not want that SOB [Chiang] mucking around Asia acting like he owns every damn field! If he wants war, we’ll make him pay for it!”
What if China attacked Japan with a nuclear weapon? Would the United States retaliate by unleashing her vast nuclear stockpile against China? Johnson (who knew through intelligence reports that the Chinese were quietly pursuing an atomic bomb program) once again reiterated his point that Chiang would have to be completely out of his mind to take such a drastic step. His likeliest course of action would probably be to attack Japan by sea and air. “If he does that,” LBJ promised, “You can count on us to beat him back.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to,” the Prime Minister said. He reminded the Vice President that under their Constitution which the Americans had drawn up for them after the war, Japan was barred from using aggression against her neighbors. It was only in 1961 that Japan – with strong encouragement from the United States – had begun to rebuild her military strength in earnest through the introduction of the Japan Self-Defense Force. Since Japan would be weak in the event of a Chinese attack, America would have to be the one doing the bulk of the defending.

(Johnson addresses an audience on Okinawa, where the US maintained a major military presence)
In addition to China, Korea was another country which Japan was keeping a weary eye on. Located about 120 miles away, the Korean Peninsula had Tokyo concerned because of the pro-Chinese tilt the post-Rhee government was taking in Seoul. Ikeda memorably told Johnson that his government feared Chiang would use Korea “as a dagger against our heart.”
In the Japanese mind, the easiest way for China to attack them would be across the Korea Strait, using Tsushima Island as the jumping-off point for a direct assault on the main island of Kyushu. The Vice President didn’t hide his dismissal of a Chinese amphibious assault from the Prime Minister. What he did hide was his government’s decision to eliminate the growing Chinese threat in Korea. While Johnson was visiting Japan, the CIA was in the process of covertly supporting a planned military coup against the civilian government in Seoul. The Jackson Administration had decided that the best way to “save” Korea from Chiang’s influence was to install a military hard-line regime which would ally with the US. Having done his best in Japan, LBJ next flew to the Philippines. Aside from being a traditional ally, the Philippines were important in America’s strategic planning due to her location. The main island of Luzon, home of the major Clark Field air base, sat about 160 miles south of the Chinese island of Formosa. This made the Philippines a strategic forward base for the US in the Pacific. Airplanes and ships stationed here could easily engage the Chinese in the event of a military conflict. After the Philippines came Hong Kong.

Although Hong Kong was a British possession, the Americans saw it as strategically important in their Cold War with China. A look at the map reveals why. At level ten, the naval base in Hong Kong was the largest between Singapore and Shanghai. Located off the coast of China, the island city allowed whoever controlled it to project power into the South China Sea. If China captured Hong Kong, she would not only gain a major naval base but would also be in a better position to expand her growing power into the Pacific Ocean. As long as Hong Kong remained in British hands, China would have no major naval bases south of Shanghai. Thus it was in America’s best interest to keep it that way. Officially visiting Hong Kong as a symbol of America’s special friendship with England, the Vice President’s real purpose in coming to the island was to relay a top-secret message to the man in charge: Governor Robert Brown Black. Behind closed doors at the white hybrid Japanese-neoclassical Government House, Johnson told Black that “I have come to Hong Kong by direction of President Jackson.”
The Governor, who had spent the better part of the last three decades being a colonial administrator in Asia, listened intently as LBJ stated in his Southern accent that his government was very much interested in “the survival and future of this city.”
America’s interest in the defense of Hong Kong was such that he informed Black that in the event of war, the US would immediately rush reinforcements to defend the island. Johnson’s pledge that “Hong Kong will not stand alone” was made secretly because D.C. didn’t want to tip Nanjing off to their war plans. Known as Operation Orient Express, the plan in the event of war with China was to transport American soldiers from the Philippines to Hong Kong immediately after fighting broke out. The transports would sail quickly across the South China Sea, protected by a carrier task force. Operation Orient Express was drawn up on the assumption that Hong Kong could hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive. The only direct approach to Hong Kong from the mainland was via Bao’an; Chinese soldiers could attack the city across the straight separating the island from the mainland. On paper, the British defense of Hong Kong in the autumn of 1961 wasn’t all that impressive:

• 1 Infantry ’47 Division
• 4 de Havilland Vampire Mk. I Improved Turbojet Interceptor Squadrons

Given the vast size and power China could bring to bear against Hong Kong, the military presence here looked rather pitiful. However, numbers alone don’t provide the whole picture. Although obsolete by 1961 standards, the experienced (two stars) Infantry enjoyed excellent Organization (95%) and their Morale was very high (160%). Their Defensiveness was 40 and their Toughness was 35. Hong Kong’s hilly terrain gave the dug-in Infantry (Current Bonus: 20) a defensive advantage. Likewise, the four experienced (one star) Interceptor Squadrons also enjoyed excellent Organization (104%) and Morale (129%). Then there was the military installation situation of Hong Kong itself:

• 8 Improved Surface-to-Air Missile batteries (Flak Power: 230%)
• Level 9 Fortifications
• 100% Infrastructure
• Level 10 Naval Base
• Level 4 Air Base

Given London’s plan to build more military installations, add at least four more Infantry Divisions, and station a carrier task force there, Hong Kong’s defense would improve greatly. Throw in the American pledge to rush in reinforcements and you had the prospect of the city becoming a hard nut for the Chinese to crack. It had to be that way, for the alternative wasn’t pleasant for either London or Washington.

Nor was Hong Kong the only European colony living in the shadow of the Great Chinese Dragon. Since 1557, the Portuguese had been involved with the mainland city of Macao. During the 19th Century, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) signed treaties ceding Hong Kong to the United Kingdom and Macao to Portugal. In 1961, the Republic of China (which replaced the Qing Dynasty in 1912) under Chiang’s leadership abruptly declared those treaties to be null and void. The justification was that they were unequal treaties which the Europeans had forced upon China with complete disregard for her sovereignty. Now that China was starting to flex her muscles in Asia, Hong Kong and Macao became natural targets. Nanjing declared those two cities to be sovereign Chinese territory, thus making the European presence there illegal in her eyes. Johnson sensed in Hong Kong that the British attitude there was “You want us to leave? You’re going to have to make us leave!” The Portuguese attitude he got in Macao was quite different. Arriving in the city for a short visit, the Vice President found...nothing. There were no anti-aircraft guns, no fortifications, no military bases, and no military forces to be seen anywhere. Johnson couldn’t believe it. The Chinese could easily attack Macao from Guangzhou and Jiangmen and the Portuguese didn’t seem to be bothered by it one bit. When LBJ questioned Governor Jaime Silvério Marques in his pink-colored Pombaline-style Government House why nothing was being done to defend Macao, Marques nonchalantly brushed off the prospect of a Chinese invasion of the Portuguese colony as a mere bluff. “Contrary to what the Generalissimo wants you to believe,” the Governor said, “The Treaty of 1887 [which officially made Macao a Portuguese colony] is still in effect. We find it hard to believe that he would risk a war with us over this place.”
Johnson left the meeting shaking his head at the obliviousness the people running the colony were showing. “These fellows,” he said out loud once back aboard his plane, “Are so dumb they can’t fart and chew gum at the same time!”

If Macao could be written off as a lost cause, the next stop could not be. LBJ’s visit to South Vietnam was intended to be a PR move designed to signal America’s seriousness about supporting the regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem. At the Presidential Palace, the showman side of Lyndon Johnson showed itself. Waving his arms in the air, he gave a campaign-style stump speech in which he called Diem “the Winston Churchill of Asia” who was valiantly defending his people from the Northern threat. Diem responded to the Vice President’s gushing praise of him by throwing a state dinner in his honor. Afterwards, the two leaders met privately to talk for three hours. Journalist Sarah McClendon, a member of the traveling press pool, later recalled how tedious the Saigon visit turned out to be:
“Johnson decided to talk. He wanted to have one of those long line talks with Diem. Nobody could leave until they were done talking.”
Jackson saw Diem as his last line of defense in Southeast Asia against the Chinese and was willing to do whatever it took militarily to strengthen him. Personally, Johnson didn’t think a military solution alone would save South Vietnam from being taken over by Nanjing-backed North Vietnam. As he stressed to Diem, he believed that it would help improve the situation if Saigon implemented social, political, and fiscal reforms. After all, what good would supporting Diem be if he was denying the right of his own countrymen to have a say in their own government? Diem was a polite listener to Johnson’s arguments, but remained steadfastly opposed to the idea of reforms. The South Vietnamese leader made it clear that he believed he knew what was best for his people and that his course was therefore the right course to pursue. As for the introduction of American combat troops into his country, Diem told LBJ that the security situation warranted it. “I am worried that what is going on in Laos right now will spill over the border,” he confided. Despite his public assertion about Diem being “the Winston Churchill of Asia”, the Vice President came out of the meeting wondering if it was a good idea for America to put all her eggs into his basket. “I don’t know about this fellow, Diem,” he privately admitted, “He was tickled as hell when I promised him forty million dollars and talked about military aid, but he turned deaf and dumb every time I talked about him speeding up and beefing up some health and welfare projects. I spent two hours and forty-five minutes with him; tried to get knee-to-knee and belly-to-belly so he wouldn’t misunderstand me, but it doesn’t look like he got it.”

Bangkok, Thailand and New Delhi, India made up the final leg of Johnson’s two-week trip. The Chinese invasion of Laos had driven Thailand into the arms of the US and India had been a US ally since the 1950s. By the time Lyndon arrived in Bangkok, he had grown completely fed up with the journalists who were traveling with him. Everywhere he went, he had made it a point to go out of his way and mingle with the locals. Wherever there was a crowd, he would dive into it and shake hands until he felt like his hands would fall off. As the highest-ranking government official presently in Asia, LBJ wanted to project a positive image of the United States as a nation that literally believed in the phrase “hands across the ocean”. Unfortunately, that’s not how the traveling journalists saw things. Since Johnson was violating protocol by plunging into the crowds, they viewed him as being ignorant and embarrassing. They even presented him as such in their dispatches back home. The Vice President, who thought the journalists were the ones being ignorant, finally had enough of all this negative press. At 2:30 in the morning, he called the journalists into his room and gruffly proceeded to “correct some misperceptions that you people are putting out there.”
After Johnson gave them a piece of his mind, his press secretary George Reedy made the surprise announcement that there would be an early dawn visit to Bangkok’s famous floating markets. About a half-hour later, the journalists were informed that the visit had been canceled and that they should get some sleep. When they awoke in the morning, they were startled to learn that they had been lied to. LBJ had gone ahead and visited it without the media’s presence. For the first time during the entire trip, he had been able to be himself and not be bothered by the critical journalists who were always in tow. Of course, this tactic didn’t help Johnson’s rocky relationship with the media – who now had a personal reason to give him nothing but grief.

SotV: Since the game allows you to engineer government overthrows...why not?

volksmarschall: I know Eisenhower regretted appointing Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, calling it his "biggest damn mistake" or something to that effect. Speaking of the Supreme Court:

• Chief Justice Curtis Shake (1941-1978; Willkie appointment)
• Associate Justice Hugo Black (1937-1971; Roosevelt appointment)
• Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter (1939-1962; Roosevelt appointment)
• Associate Justice William O. Douglas (1939-1975; Roosevelt appointment)
• Associate Justice Nathaniel L. Goldstein (1945-1981; Dewey appointment)
• Associate Justice Charles D. Breitel (1946-1986; Dewey appointment)
• Associate Justice Earl Warren (1949-1969; Dewey appointment)
• Associate Justice Herbert Brownell, Jr. (1949-1989; Dewey appointment)
• Associate Justice Ernest McFarland (1957-1968; Sparkman appointment)

Since Frankfurter will be retiring in 1962, that gives Jackson one Supreme Court appointment. I'm thinking about putting in Archibald Cox, the lawyer best known for eventually getting fired by Nixon in the Saturday Night Massacre during the Watergate Scandal.

You must be talking about Woodrow Wilson. What other New Jersey governor could there be?

It's funny. There's three version of HOI (soon to be four) and I have only played version 2.
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Operation Guardrail
The media may not have understood Johnson’s intentions, but Ledyard sure did. After all, he had suggested this trip for this very reason. Upon the Vice President’s return to North America from Asia, the Attorney General called him up and congratulated him on a job well done. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do,” he said in a pleasant tone of voice, “You made the Asians feel like we really do care about them.”
The next morning, LBJ reported to the President in the Oval Office. “Chiang has the Japanese pissing all over themselves,” was his rather colorful description of the tenseness which had permeated Japan. He explained that the Japanese were on edge about China’s saber-rattling and anxious about whether the United States really would come to their defense. He recommended a show of force to build up Japan’s confidence in the United States, either by moving the proposed Anglo-American joint naval exercise from Hong Kong to Japan or strengthening America’s military power on Okinawa (or both). Speaking of Hong Kong, Johnson had no doubt that the city could be held as long as Operation Orient Express was put into action as soon as conflict broke out. “The British are determined,” he observed, “Not to surrender the Pacific to the Chinese. They would rather fight to the last man than allow Hong Kong to fall again.”
By contrast, the Vice President had nothing but scorn for the Portuguese. They were doing absolutely nothing to defend Macao, having convinced themselves that the Chinese were merely bluffing. He therefore thought it would be a waste for the US to commit troops and supplies to defend Macao “when the Portuguese aren’t willing to defend their own damn colony!”
LBJ was also quite frank about his assessment of South Vietnam:
“Diem is a complex figure beset by many problems. He has admirable qualities, but he is remote from the people. He is surrounded by persons less admirable and capable than he is.”
He advised Jackson not to be totally loyal to Diem to the point of blindness, warning that “at some point we may be faced with the decision of whether we further our support for him or we start to look around and see if there is someone else we can support.”

Five days after the Oval Office meeting, Operation Guardrail was carried out in Korea. Until the summer of 1960, the Korean Peninsula had been dominated by Syngman Rhee. An anti-Communist strongman, Rhee had brutally repressed anyone on the Left who was deemed to be a threat to the government in Seoul. Tens of thousands of Koreans across the country were put to death, creating political turmoil which alarmed the United States. Although Rhee was technically America’s ally, neither the Stevenson nor Sparkman Administrations were impressed by his iron-fisted rule. In June 1960, a fraudulent Presidential election in which the deeply unpopular Rhee won with 80% of the vote triggered a nationwide backlash. When people took to the streets of Gwangju to protest the election, the police opened fire and killed eighty-six protestors. On June 17th, a battle began in Pyongyang over the control of the railroad station (which served as the central rail hub in Northern Korea). For days, the protestors who occupied Pyongyang Station – mysteriously armed with guns and ammo – exchanged fire with soldiers dispatched to retake the building. Rhee then resorted to brute force, using the M26 Pershing tanks supplied to him by the US to blast the occupiers out of Pyongyang Station. When the rebels retreated, the tanks proceeded to shock the world by literally running them over.

Grisly images of Koreans being crushed to death underneath the tank treads splashed across the front pages of newspapers all over the world. At the White House, President Sparkman was furious at what he was seeing unfolding in Korea:
“What kind of S.O.B. does something like this?”
Rhee’s decision to retake the railroad station by force backfired badly for him because it only made people even more opposed to his rule. After savagely beating the Vice President of Korea to death in retaliation, a huge crowd stormed Rhee’s residence...only to find that he had chosen to take his own life rather than face the wrath of his people. On June 28th, two days after Rhee’s death, an interim administration took power in Seoul and abolished the First Republic of Korea. In September 1960, new parliamentary elections gave birth to the much-more democratic Second Republic of Korea. Although the United States officially recognized this new government, privately she was bothered by the fact that China had covertly aided Rhee’s overthrow. Following the June Revolution, the CIA made the startling discovery that the Chinese had abandoned their self-imposed isolation by smuggling weapons across the Yalu River into Northern Korea. From there, the weapons flowed down into the hands of rebels like those at Pyongyang Station. A year before Chiang publically announced his plan to build a Chinese sphere of influence in Asia, he had tested the waters by exploiting the revolt in Korea. The establishment of a new government in Seoul provided Nanjing with the golden opportunity to expand her influence into the Korean Peninsula.

On October 18th, Chang Myon was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Korea. Unlike the previous government in which the President wielded immense power, the beefed-up office of Prime Minister made Chang the real leader in Korea. He presided over a country more than ready to put the terrors of the Rhee era behind it. The new government restored the freedom of political expression, allowing new political groups to form and union membership to soar. The bicameral national legislature passed laws banning Rhee supporters from holding positions in the government, military, and police force. However, it was the economy which proved to be Chang’s most pressing problem. Unemployment and inflation shot up considerably in the final months of 1960 as the country struggled to make the transition from autocratic rule to democracy. By the beginning of 1961, the Hwan (Korea’s currency) had lost half its value against the dollar. Into this economic turmoil came the Chinese, eager to take a friendly approach towards their goal of taking over Korea. During the first week of 1961, Chiang paid his neighbor a state visit. He told Chang that he had nothing but sympathy for the Korean people, noting that his country too had suffered from a terrible economy. “It took us a long time to be able to stand on our two feet again,” he said with great empathy. However, now that China had entered the 1960s in a much better economic condition, his country felt strong enough to use her experience to help those in need. Chiang assured Chang that if the Koreans followed his country’s advice, “I have no doubt in my mind that your people will be able to look back at this time next year and say that they are better off.”

(One way to earn a living in post-Rhee Korea)
Starting that winter, China and Korea signed several trade agreements giving the latter’s supply of resources a much-needed boost. China also gave Korea several blueprints to help her research industrial technologies faster. Chinese economic advisors were dispatched to the country while Chinese businessmen invested capital in Korean businesses in order to help spur job creation. The result was a shot in the arm for Korea's economy; by autumn, both unemployment and inflation had been brought under control. As Korea’s economy stabilized, the country credited China for helping to jumpstart her economic revival. That June, Chang flew to Nanjing for a state visit and delivered a speech hailing the Chinese for their wisdom and guidance in helping his country dig itself out of the hole. The speech didn’t sit well with the Americans, who were growing increasingly alarmed by the strengthening of diplomatic relations between China and Korea. By simulating Korea’s economy in a direct fashion, China was effectively taking the country under her wings. In other words, she was subjugating Korea without firing a shot. “How do we halt this trend?” Jackson asked in a meeting with his national security team a few days before his trip to Europe. Obviously from the American point of view, the pro-Chinese sentiment running rampant in Seoul was bad news because it meant that they were losing their strategic position in the Korean Peninsula. D.C. believed that at this rate, Korea would be integrated into China’s sphere of influence and – to use Prime Minister Ikeda’s phrase – provide Chiang with “a dagger against [Japan’s] heart.”
Like Jackson asked, what should the United States do about it? Ironically, it was the Chinese themselves who provided the answer. A month after Chang’s visit, China invaded Laos with the excuse that they were intervening to halt her ongoing civil war. Jackson decided that since the Chinese were going to install a new puppet regime in Laos, the United States would intervene in Korea and force a change the regimes there as well. He ordered the CIA to develop a plan to overthrow Chang’s government and rollback the Chinese presence in Korea. What the CIA came up with was Operation Guardrail.

The figurehead for Operation Guardrail was this man: Major General Park Chung-hee. Park was one of the most powerful and influential men in the military, serving as the Chief of the Operations Staff of the Korean Army. If anyone could provide the CIA with a credible figurehead in which to covertly support, it was Park. Fortunately, Park was as weary about the direction the Second Republic was taking as the Americans were. Park, along with a group of ten military officers, opposed their government’s decision to embrace the Chinese. They believed that doing so was undermining Korean sovereignty, making her too dependent on China for economic progress. They had been talking about mounting a coup against Chang’s government when the CIA came knocking. The CIA told Park that the United States was willing to financially back the coup and install him as the new leader of Korea. In return, the United States wanted Park to expel the Chinese from the Korean Peninsula and re-align his country behind her. Park agreed to these demands but threw in a demand of his own: he wanted a free hand in running the country. He didn’t want to end Chinese dominance only to have the Americans move in and replace them. The CIA agreed and joint-planning for the coup commenced. Jackson approved Operation Guardrail, believing it to be the best way to rescue Korea from Chiang’s clutches. The CIA proceeded to flow funds into the coffers of the planners, who scheduled their coup for November 13th, 1961.

Donning a pair of sunglasses which would become his public trademark, Park stood in front of army headquarters in Seoul on that Monday morning and gave a passionate speech to the soldiers assembled before him. The Major General warned that the civilian government was betraying the country by allying openly with China. Since they were traitors to the cause of Korean independence, Park declared that “we shall rise up against the government and save our country! We can accomplish our goals without bloodshed! Let us save our country together!”
The gathered soldiers cheered out loud, feeling patriotism surge through them. This wasn’t simply a coup; this was a mission to save Korea! They quickly spread outward, securing most of downtown Seoul. Park, serving as the leader of the coup, then ordered Special Forces Command to occupy the Blue House (the executive office and official residence of the powerless President). Once the Blue House had been safely secured, Park’s forces seized control of the Korean Broadcasting Company. There Park issued a proclamation to the nation announcing that the military was now in power:
“The military authorities – thus far avoiding conflict – can no longer restrain themselves and have undertaken a concerted operation on this day to completely take over the three branches of the Government. The armed services have staged this uprising because:

1. We believe that the fate of the nation and the people cannot be entrusted to a regime which has abdicated to a foreign power.
2. We believe that the time has come for the armed forces to give direction to the nation, which has gone dangerously astray.”

With twenty heavily-armed divisions now supporting the coup, Operation Guardrail was going according to plan. Park quickly declared martial law, which meant suspending the Constitution, dissolving the national legislature, and arresting the Chang cabinet.

On November 17th, Park appeared before reporters and announced that the Second Republic of Korea had been formally dissolved. The country would now be in the hands of the military with him as the leader. He proceeded to outline the policies which his government would pursue:

• Korea would become anti-China, meaning that the Chinese would no longer be welcomed in the country. Anyone who was a Chinese citizen would be expelled and all Chinese assets in Korea would be seized.
• Korea would join the United States in opposing China’s imperial ambitions.
• The government would be purged of pro-Chinese sentiments.
• The government would build an autonomous national economy free of international control.

The proclamation was everything Jackson could have hoped for when he gave the green light for Operation Guardrail. Within hours of Park’s speech, the United States announced its’ recognition of the new regime in Korea. “Now no one will say that I lost Korea,” Scoop confidently predicted to LBJ after issuing his statement to the press. The installment of Park as Korea’s newest dictator eased the fears in the United States and Japan of a Chinese takeover. However, it didn’t mean the end of drama on the Korean Peninsula. On December 10th, knowing that Chiang would look for any way to undermine the new anti-Chinese regime, the CIA aided the Koreans in the establishment of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. The KCIA’s mission was to monitor and disrupt both anti-government movements and efforts by China to reassert her influence in Korea. The KCIA would see a lot of counterespionage activities in the years ahead as Nanjing devoted time and resources probing the country's national security for weaknesses. As time would show, the war between the United States and China over the control of the Korean Peninsula was far from over.

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The next update will be the last update of 1961. Then it will be onto 1962.

Kurt_Steiner: We will the next time we visit Korea (which might not be for a while).

El Pip: It’s quite possible we might end up with a Korean War after all. My thinking is that since the US overthrew the Democratic government of Korea in favor of a harsh military regime, Chiang might be tempted to send his army across the Yalu River at some point in the name of liberation. I’ve heard some historians argue that Hitler might have won the war on the Eastern Front had he been in a more liberating mood in places like the Ukraine, where the people hated Stalin. We could very well see something similar in Korea. Since the Chinese were helping the Koreans get back onto their feet before the Americans came along and stopped all that, this fondness might make the Koreans flock to an invading Chinese army promising to liberate them from military iron-fisted rule in Seoul. The US of course would react militarily to protect their man from a Chinese overthrow and the result very well could be American and Chinese troops fighting in Korea.

volksmarschall: When I was writing this update, it was never far from my mind that the people living in Northern Korea TTL aren't suffering from the horrendous conditions that they are presently suffering.

Without further ado, here it is: the last update of 1961!
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One Wedding and a Funeral
Asia dominated the bulk of Jackson’s attention in the final months of his first year in office. He moved decisively to check China’s growth, authorizing the overthrow of Chinese-friendly governments in Korea (Operation Guardrail) and Cambodia (Operation Matas). Scoop also ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans to have 8,000 American combat troops deployed in South Vietnam by the end of 1962 – then doubling it to 16,000 by the end of 1963. However, on December 16th, the President was able to put everything aside and focus all his attention on one of the happiest events of his life: his wedding. Ever since his high school days in Everett, Washington, Jackson had been a bachelor by choice. Despite the occasional girlfriend, his real “love” was his career and he pursued it with all the energy he could muster. Starting out in law, Scoop was elected to the House of Representatives in 1940, the Senate in 1952, the Vice Presidency in 1956, and the Presidency in 1960. On January 4th, 1961, the President-elect was still putting together his executive team. Although he had the major positions like White House Chief of Staff and Press Secretary filled, the position of personal secretary was eluding him. On that day, Jackson received a visit from his friend Democratic Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico. When Anderson asked how things were going, he was told that “I am having a harder time finding a secretary than I am picking people for my cabinet.”
Upon hearing this, the Senator replied that he could understand the frustration “because good help really is hard to come by in this town.”
Thinking about it further, Anderson decided to help his friend out by making a recommendation:
“You know, there's a young lady in my office that is quite good at doing secretarial work. She types fast and never complains about her work. I would hate to lose her, but I think she might be of better service working in your office instead.”
Intrigued, Jackson agreed to meet the young lady whom Anderson was speaking so highly of. At this point, with the personal secretary post vacant, he had nothing to lose.

The next day, Anderson formally introduced Henry M. Jackson to Helen Hardin. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Hardin was a slim, elegant, very attractive, and well-educated twenty-eight-year-old blonde. She held a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in contemporary literature. She made a striking impression on Jackson, who immediately hired her to be his personal secretary. Hardin found her new boss to be quite appealing, telling a friend that he was handsome and had “a friendly easy manner, a firm handshake, and a bright look.”
Two weeks later, Jackson was sworn in as the thirty-eighth President of the United States. Hardin moved into her new office in the West Wing and threw herself into the secretarial job, proving herself to be exactly the dutiful hard worker Anderson had said she was. As Scoop’s personal secretary, she followed him everywhere he went, always looking upbeat and ready to do whatever work he needed her to do without complaint. In late February, after a particularly long day at work, Jackson asked Hardin to join him in his private quarters for a cup of tea. This tea time became their first “date” and Hardin afterwards said that the experience of drinking tea alone with him had “swept me off my feet.”
By the beginning of spring, it had become obvious to those who knew Scoop best that he was smitten by his secretary and was actively courting her.

In the summer of 1961, it was an open secret in D.C. that romance was blossoming between the two. Four decades before Facebook and Twitter allowed everyone to easily make their private lives public knowledge, Jackson and Hardin could discreetly enjoy being a couple in the knowledge that the only way their private relationship could become public knowledge was if the media decided to make it public knowledge. They didn’t. The media respected the privacy of the Presidents, believing that it wasn’t their duty to report everything to the American people about the Head of State. Reporters mentally had what Maxwell Smart would soon call a “Cone of Silence”, keeping sensitive private information amongst themselves. For instance, the media didn’t disclose to the public that President Franklin D. Roosevelt couldn’t walk without assistance and that he moved around the White House in a custom-built wheelchair. FDR’s successor Wendell Willkie carried on an extramarital affair with writer Irita Van Doren while in office, a fact that reporters were aware of but refused to reveal. Benefitting from the media’s self-imposed Cone of Silence, Hardin accompanied Jackson on his trip to Europe and even discreetly shared bedrooms with him. After Scoop had gone through the stress of discussing matters with Nikita Khrushchev in Prague, Hardin eased his stress as best she could by massaging his neck and shoulders. Clearly, she had become more than simply his secretary. In September, the First Couple finally decided to make their quiet relationship public knowledge.

The President – through the arrangement of the Secret Service – took his girlfriend out to dinner at Arbaugh’s, a popular D.C. restaurant located on Connecticut Avenue near Cleveland Park. They were openly seen holding hands and afterwards the White House officially announced that Jackson and Hardin were indeed dating. The national reaction to the news was generally positive. Although there were those who were offended by the fact that the President was having a relationship with a woman twenty years his junior, many were happy to see that the lifelong bachelor not only had a woman at his side now but a beautiful and intelligent one at that. Even outspoken stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce, whose use of profanity in his jokes were testing the limits of Free Speech, couldn’t resist expressing his satisfaction with the news in his typical blunt style:
“God, isn’t it great having a President you can imagine sleeping with this woman?”
The announcement made Hardin an overnight sensation, as well as an unexpected role model for women across America. Everywhere women copied her hairstyles as well as her dresses, all wanting to look like the beautiful girlfriend of the President of the United States. On November 29th, Scoop presented Helen with a diamond ring and asked her to marry him. She said “Yes”, thus making him the first President since Woodrow Wilson to get married while in office. The wedding took place on December 16th in the East Room of the White House. The portraits of George and Martha Washington – the first Presidential couple – looked on as Jackson and Hardin exchanged their wedding vows. In keeping with the President’s thriftiness, the wedding ceremony was a simple affair attended by the couple’s closest friends and family members. Senators Anderson, Hubert Humphrey, and Estes Kefauver attended the wedding with their wives. Former President John Sparkman and his wife Ivo also sat in the audience. Although he wasn’t invited, former President Thomas E. Dewey nonetheless sent a telegram “extending heartiest congratulations to you and your bride on this happy day.”
White House Chief of Staff John Salter served as best man. Second Lady Lady Bird Johnson, who had fulfilled the First Lady’s role of White House hostess during 1961, served as the matron of honor in recognition of the fact that she would now have to show Helen the ropes of being the First Lady. The wedding reception was held in the State Dining Room, where the entertainment was surprisingly provided by one of Helen’s favorite singers: Elvis Presley. Although Presley at this time had stopped performing live in favor of pursing a film career, Jackson used his considerable influence as President to get the King of Rock and Roll to come to the White House and perform at his wedding reception. Told flat-out by his manager Colonel Tom Parker that “there is no way in hell I am going to allow you to decline this,” Presley dutifully showed up in the State Dining Room with his backing band and sang several romantic songs while the First Newlyweds danced. Helen was thrilled by Elvis’ presence at her reception but some of the wedding guests were left dumbfounded by the entertainment choice. The man who had generated a storm of controversy in the mid-1950s with his pelvis gyrations was now standing before them as arguably the ultimate wedding singer.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Jackson then spent their honeymoon at Camp Ewing, the wooded Presidential retreat in Maryland. It wasn’t exactly Hawaii, but given the never-ending attention the job required as well as Jackson’s workaholic nature, a proper honeymoon was deemed to be undoable at the time. The new First Lady took things in stride though; she came to the marriage with the understanding that being the wife of the President of the United States meant her life would be different from those of ordinary wives. Publically, Helen Jackson used her position as First Lady to create a positive example of what a marriage should look like. She radiated pride and joy in being Scoop’s wife for life. For his part, Scoop became a devoted husband who was easy to satisfy. Helen would also use her position to redecorate the White House in 1962, changing the Sparkman Era décor to match her elegant tastes. In the private quarters for instance, muted beige and cream became the prevailing color scheme. That same year, amidst the domestic turmoil which was rocking the Administration, the Jacksons happily informed a delighted nation that they were expecting their first child. In a year that needed good news, the national baby watch which then developed provided it. On February 7th, 1963, Helen gave birth to Anna Marie Jackson at George Washington University Hospital. Their daughter was given the middle name “Marie” in honor of Scoop’s beloved late mother Marine (who went by that nickname).

(The First Family, circa 1964)
Two weeks before proposing to his girlfriend, the President received sad news from Texas: his friend Sam Rayburn was dead at the age of seventy-nine. For months, the beloved House Minority Leader had been battling cancer without any luck. After Congress adjourned for the remainder of the year in October, Rayburn flew home to Bonham to try to rest. It was there on November 16th that he died in the local hospital. Like everyone in D.C., Jackson was saddened by the loss of Rayburn. Serving in the House of Representatives since March 1913, the Texan was one of the most respected men in Washington. House Democrats elected Rayburn as their leader in January 1937 and kept him in that spot regardless of whether they were in power or not...out of the simple fact that they liked him so much. Rayburn served as Speaker of the House twice: 1940-1945 and 1951-1959. During the G.O.P. domination of the White House (1941-1953), Speaker Rayburn worked closely with the Republican Presidents to pass bipartisan measures. Dewey actually found it easier to work with him than with the Speaker from his own political party, Joe Martin (1945-1951). When the Vice President learned of Rayburn’s death, he immediately became grief-stricken. The two men had been very close, to the point that they were like father and son. Thus LBJ took the news of his passing very hard. “I never saw a man become so depressed,” Helen later recalled with sympathy, “For days he looked like his life had been completely shattered.”
On November 20th, Rayburn was laid to rest in Bonham. His reputation for fairness and integrity was such that major political figures from both sides of the aisle attended the service to pay their respects. Jackson, Johnson, Dewey, Sparkman, Speaker Charles Halleck, House Majority Leader Gerald Ford, and Rayburn’s deputy John McCormack were all in attendance. When Congress reconvened on January 10th, 1962, McCormack was elected by House Democrats to serve as their new Minority Leader. The Bay Stater obviously had big shoes to fill and not everyone thought he was the right person to follow Rayburn. Mississippi Representative William Colmer once complained that McCormack spent too much time “wanting to be liked by us.”

Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn (January 6th, 1882 – November 16th, 1961)
Rayburn’s funeral and the marriage to Helen Hardin closed out Jackson’s first year in office. 1961 had been an eventful year and the President had been kept busy throughout. Although his Fair Deal domestic program had largely stalled in Congress, he had been able to make progress in areas like childcare and veteran affairs. He also poured millions of dollars into national defense, believing that a strong United States would be able to stand up to the Soviets and the Chinese without blinking. Jackson also became the first Democratic President to stop shying away from civil rights, giving moral support to leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. despite strong opposition from his Southern colleagues. Thanks to this, racial integration gained political momentum in 1961. It also gained social momentum that year from an unlikely source: Detroit. There in The Motor City, a black record executive named Berry Gordy was demonstrating that he could bring blacks and whites together through the power of music. He was carefully crafting African-American groups such as The Miracles (“Shop Around”) and The Supremes to both present a public image that could cross the racial divide and perform songs that could unite the masses regardless of skin color. One of the songs put out by his Motown Record Corporation, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes, topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart the week the President got married. The song, which would soon be covered by an up-and-coming British rock band called The Beatles, became the black music label's first number one hit with White America. While Motown’s across-the-board popularity would continue to build in 1962, Scoop Jackson’s popularity would plummet due to a series of domestic problems that would dominate his second year in office.

January 1962

H.Appleby: It's true that "Operation Orient Express" has an obvious flaw. Chinese submarines could easily wreck havoc on the convoys, as well as Chinese naval bombers. I mean, there's no guarantee that Hong Kong will hold in the event of a Chinese attack. The fall of Macao is a sure thing and Hong Kong will probably be touch-and-go. The advantage that Hong Kong has is that gamewise, it can only be attacked from one land province. Since the game gives you penalty for having too many attacking units in one province, that may work in the favor of the British defenders.

In any event, this war I have been referring to in my updates isn't going to happen until 1966-1967ish. What I am doing now is laying down the groundwork for an eventual war between China and the West.

The British are feeling more militant TTL, which is probably a good thing because America needs her help in Asia.

El Pip: I don't think the British will be fighting in Vietnam for the simple reason that the Vietnam Mod probably doesn't have British units in which to use. Prime Minister Butler of course wants to look tough on China, but that may not translate into sending British soldiers to fight in Vietnam.

H.Appleby: And I thought Communists only existed in the Democratic Party.

Oh. I am absolutely not a military hardware guy. You will never see me do a tank porn update. An American politics porn update? Absolutely. Tank porn? Never.

The Royal Navy has 221 ships, making it the second largest navy in the world behind the US.

Kurt_Steiner: The next question is who I will put in charge to command those forces in Vietnam.

volksmarschall: It was an idea that popped into my head. Once it was there, I just had to do it. You can hire an Elvis impersonator to sing at your wedding reception. If you're the President of the United States, why not get the real Elvis to sing at your wedding reception? One of the advantages of being President is that you can get celebrities to show up at the White House. Dwight Eisenhower got cowboy Roy Rogers to do rope tricks at a White House kids birthday party during the 1950s and George H.W. Bush liked Dana Carvey's dead-on impression of him on "Saturday Night Live" enough to invite him to the White House in 1992.
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On the Drawing Board

• Christie: Elite Self-Propelled Artillery
  SP Art New Model: M109A1 155mm
  SP Art: Model ‘M109 155mm’ is now obsolete
• Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works: Mach 2.5 Fighter
  Ftr New Model: McDonnel Douglas F-4 Phantom II
  Ftr: Model ‘Republic F-105B Thunderchief’ is now obsolete
• NASA: Mobile Surface to Air Missile
  AA New Model: Mobile SAM
• North American Aviation: Modern Aircraft Industry
  Int F: Time -17 days
  Ftr: Time -18 days
  CAS: Time -22 days
  Nav: Time -22 days
  Str: Time -25 days
  Tac: Time -19 days
  Tra: Time -18 days
  CAG: Time -23 days
  Cav: Time -4 days
• Springfield Armory: 1963 Mechanized Division
  Mec New Model: Mechanized Infantry ‘63
  Mec: Model ‘Mechanized Infantry ‘59’ is now obsolete

State of American Technology










Production Status

Highlights of the Year

• The 34th Academy Awards is held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. For the seventh time, actor Bob Hope hosts the award ceremony. “West Side Story”, a musical directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, dominates by winning eleven awards:
  • Best Picture
  • Best Director
  • Best Supporting Actor (George Chakiris)
  • Best Supporting Actress (Rita Moreno)
  • Best Adapted Screenplay (Ernest Lehman)
  • Best Musical Score (Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin, and Irwin Kostal)
  • Best Sound Recording (Gordon E. Sawyer and Fred Hynes)
  • Best Art Direction, Color (Art Direction: Boris Leven; Set Decoration: Victor A. Gangelin)
  • Best Cinematography, Color (Daniel L. Fapp)
  • Best Costume Design, Color (Irene Sharaff)
  • Best Film Editing (Thomas Stanford)
  Rounding out the top winners, Paul Newman wins Best Actor for his role in “The Hustler” and Audrey Hepburn wins Best Actress for her role in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.
• President Henry M. Jackson proudly gives the opening speech at the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle, Washington. The centerpiece of the six-months-long World’s Fair is the massive 605-feet Space Needle observation tower, the tallest structure in the country west of the Mississippi River.
• At the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, inmates Frank Morris and brothers John/Clarence Anglin manage to successfully break out of prison under the cover of darkness and paddle away from Alcatraz Island in a handmade inflatable raft. None of the three men are ever seen again, leaving the FBI unable to determine whether they drowned in their attempt or accomplished the seemingly impossible feat of making it to shore.
• Sam Walton opens the first Wal-Mart discount retail store in Rogers, Arkansas.
• After replacing drummer Pete Best with Ringo Starr, The Beatles record their first single “Love Me Do” at Abbey Road Studios in London, England. Co-written by band members John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “Love Me Do” would peak at #16 on the UK Singles Chart.
• On NBC, Johnny Carson succeeds Jack Paar as host of “The Tonight Show”. Carson would go on to host the late-night talk show until his retirement in 1992, earning the title "The King of Late Night". Carson in turn would be succeeded by his friend and frequent guest host David Letterman.
  
  (For thirty years, Johnny Carson and his sidekick Ed McMahon provided late night entertainment to millions of Americans on NBC)

[video=youtube;_xuMwfUqJJM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xuMwfUqJJM[/video]