El Pip: Given that Barry Goldwater advocated the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam and talked about lobbying one into the bathroom of the Kremlin, I can't help but wonder what might have happened had he been elected President in 1964.
Thanks. Given how strong the North Vietnamese Army is, just pushing them back across the DMZ will be an accomplishment. The American government TTL went into Vietnam with a clear objective of what "victory" is. Historically, the American government didn't really have a clear objective of what "victory" in Vietnam looked like and sent men into the jungle to fight without really knowing what they were fighting for.
Since I am finding more time to write now, the update featuring the British view on Vietnam will be done most likely next year.
The American soldiers in the early years of the Vietnam War were very gung-ho about fighting...much like how soldiers in the beginning of World War One were gung-ho about getting into the fight. It wasn't until both wars turned into a bloody slog that the gung-ho enthusiasm naturally disappeared.
Historically President Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of Cambodia and his decision ended up doing everybody more harm than good. Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were killed in the bombing campaign, there was massive protests in the United States (culminating in the Kent State shooting in Ohio), and it helped throw Cambodia into total chaos which enabled the rise of Pol Pot and his brutal Khmer Rouge regime.
The next update is going to be a break from Vietnam. As for Forbes, he will be making big decisions as time goes on.
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Malcolm X
The air inside Central Maine Youth Center was thick with anticipation as people packed the 4,000 seat Lewiston, Maine arena. It was May 25th, 1965, and people had gathered to watch two of the biggest names in boxing go at it once again. Sitting on a stool in one corner of the ring, waiting for his cue to stand up, was former World Heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. Described by one boxing promoter as being
“more ferocious, more indestructible” than Mike Tyson, Liston had won the title by knocking out champion Floyd Patterson in a September 1962 bout that lasted just two minutes. Armed with an ominous stare and a powerful left jab, Liston easily intimidated a lot of people. Not Cassius Clay. A brash Olympic gold medalist armed with lightning-fast reflexes, Clay was incredibly self-confident about challenging Liston for the title. Undaunted by Liston’s fearsome reputation, the “Louisville Lip” predicted to anyone who would listen (and anyone who wouldn’t) that he would knock out “Big Bear” in eight rounds. Many people rolled their eyes at hearing this, believing that the motor-mouth braggart had no chance of winning. In February 1964, the seven-to-one betting underdog climbed into a Miami Beach, Florida boxing ring with the hard-hitting World Heavyweight champion...and proceeded to beat him in six rounds. Worn down by Clay’s superior speed and his left eye cut, Liston threw in the towel. He no longer wanted to fight, unlike Clay who was still full of fight. After being declared the winner by technical knockout, a triumphant Clay bragged:
“I don’t have a mark on my face, I just upset Sonny Liston, and I just turned 22-years-old! I must be the greatest!”
Over a year later, the two men faced off once again in a rematch. Having completely underestimated his opponent the last time, Liston trained hard this time and prepared himself to go 15 rounds. Unfortunately for “Big Bear”, he wouldn’t get that far when he climbed into the Lewiston ring with the “Louisville Lip”. After getting hit in the jaw midway through the first round, the former heavyweight champ threw a left jab and the reigning heavyweight champ dodged it. He immediately countered with a fast right jab, knocking Liston flat on his back. He attempted to get up, only to falter and fall on his back again. That punch had been fast...too fast as it turned out. There was confusion in the audience as Liston was counted out and the defending champ was declared the winner by knockout. Some people claimed that they saw the fast right jab while other people claimed that they never saw it. That Liston somehow fell without getting hit. It became known as the “Phantom Punch,” and even the man who delivered the controversial final punch of the bout was unsure if it had connected or not. Standing over Liston before the match was called, he shouted
“Get up and fight, sucker!”
There was no getting up and fighting, however. Sonny Liston, once widely considered to be unbeatable, had been beaten again by the same man. This time though, he didn’t lose to Cassius Clay. He had lost to Muhammad Ali. After winning the World Heavyweight Championship, Clay publicly announced that he was a member of the Nation of Islam and that he was changing his name to Muhammad Ali (meaning “most high worthy of all praises” in Islam). This announcement didn’t sit well with people. Why? Because the Nation of Islam was a highly controversial organization to be associated with. Founded in Detroit, Michigan in July 1930, the Nation of Islam (NOI) was a religious and political organization which promoted Black Nationalism. Unlike other organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which sought racial integration, the NOI believed that the black race should be wholly separate from the white race. The NOI sought to empower blacks socially, politically, and economically, which it contended could never be achieved through racial integration. It also contended that Christianity was a racist religion that favored whites while Islam was a religion more welcoming of blacks. With its’ black separatist agenda, the NOI clashed with civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. whose agenda was to abolish segregation and replace it with racial equality. When MLK learned that Ali was a member of the NOI, he expressed his disappointment that the World Heavyweight champion
“became a champion of racial segregation.”
In 1934, Elijah Muhammad (pictured above) took over as the leader of the NOI. Born Elijah Poole in rural Georgia in October 1897, Muhammad moved north to Detroit in 1923 to escape the racial oppression of the South and find better opportunities in which to make a name for himself. In August 1931, he joined the NOI where he became an ardent follower of its’ black self-empowerment ideology. He regarded whites as a dangerous threat to blacks, in part because he had personally witnessed the lynching of African-Americans while living in Georgia.
“I have seen enough of the white man’s brutality to last me 26,000 years.”
Under Muhammad’s tireless leadership, the NOI expanded - first across the Midwest and then across the country. He preached to his followers that blacks were the original human beings and that whites developed as an evil offshoot race whose sole purpose was to conquer and oppress them. His goal therefore was to liberate African-Americans from this oppression and give them the strength to stand firmly alone from White Americans. His teachings, which whites naturally found to be offensive and mainstream black civil rights activists like Roy Wilkins found to be hateful, appealed to young black men who were subjected to racism and violence by whites (who were the devil in Muhammad’s eyes) on a daily basis. To recruit members for his organization, Muhammad looked to jails. It was in a Massachusetts jail that he recruited Malcolm Little. Born in May 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, Little was the fourth of seven children. His parents were local black activists, which made them a target for violence at the hands of white racists who believed they were
“spreading trouble”.
By the time Little was six-years-old, his father and four of his uncles had been killed and his home had been burned down by whites. As a teenager, having had his aspiration of being a lawyer crushed by racism, Little fell into a criminal lifestyle of drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery, and pimping. While living in Massachusetts in 1946, he was arrested and sentenced to eight-to-ten-years in prison for larceny and breaking-and-entering. Now that he had a lot of time on his hands, Little developed a voracious appetite for reading. He read anything he could get his hands on, including material about the NOI. What he read changed his life. Like many young black men sitting in a jail cell, Little found Muhammad’s message that “you are better than the white man who put you in prison” to be mentally liberating. Looking back at his time in jail, Little would recall:
“Between Mr. Muhammad’s teachings, my correspondence, my visitors, and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life.”
Not particularly religious when he went into prison, Little (pictured above) left prison in August 1952 a full-fledged NOI convert. Following the NOI’s strict rules, he gave up eating pork and quit smoking. He also changed his name. Members of the NOI were required to change their last names, which the organization believed was a relic of slavery. Malcolm Little therefore became Malcolm X, the X symbolizing his unknown ancestral African family name.
“For me, my ‘X’ replaced the white slave master name of ‘Little’ which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed upon my paternal forebears.”
After being paroled, Malcolm devoted himself to spreading the NOI’s message and expanding its membership. He quickly became influential, which caught the eye of the FBI. Regarding him as a radical, they launched a surveillance of him which would last the rest of his life. A charismatic speaker, Malcolm convinced hundreds of African-Americans a month to join the NOI (estimates of how many people he ultimately recruited range from 25,000 to 75,000). Everywhere he spoke, he had a packed audience of blacks who wanted to hear what he had to say. Malcolm knew instinctively how to work his audience, how to stir up their emotions and get them to think about his message:
“Thoughtful white people know they are inferior to Black people. Even [President John] Sparkman knows it. Anyone who has studied the genetic phase of biology knows that white is considered recessive and black is considered dominant. The entire American economy is based on white supremacy. Even the religious philosophies, in essence, white supremacy. A white Jesus. A white Virgin. White angels. White everything. But a black Devil, of course. The ‘Uncle Sam’ political foundation is based on white supremacy, relegating nonwhites to second-class citizenship. It goes without saying that the social philosophy is strictly white supremacist. And the educational system perpetuates white supremacy.”
Standing 6 feet 3 inches and weighing about 180 pounds, Malcolm was described by those who saw him as being
“powerfully built” and
“mesmerizingly handsome and always spotlessly well-groomed.”
Among those who were attracted to him was Betty Sanders, whom he married in January 1958 and had six daughters with. As the 1950s progressed, Malcolm’s racially-charged remarks were spread across the country via print, radio, and television coverage. His growing popularity within the African-American community brought him into conflict with the mainstream Civil Rights Movement. Organizations like the NAACP denounced him and the NOI as being irresponsible extremists whose views didn’t represent the common interests of African-Americans. Malcolm fired back, calling MLK
“a chump” and dismissing the other civil rights leaders as being nothing more than
“stooges” for the white establishment. By the early 1960s, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were two of the most well known black men in the United States and they couldn’t have been any more different. While King fought against racial segregation, Malcolm advocated the complete separation of African-Americans from White Americans.
“You are better than the white man,” he told his followers,
“You are better than the white man! Now, that isn’t saying much. That isn’t saying anything. Who is he to be equal with?”
Whereas MLK favored a strategy of bringing about racial change through nonviolence, Malcolm encouraged black people to respond to violence by whites with violence of their own. If a white person slapped them, for instance, don’t turn the other cheek. Slap them back. His message resonated powerfully with African-Americans who were tired of being told to sit and wait for freedom, justice, and equality. However, it wasn’t just MLK that Malcolm was having issues with. He was increasingly finding himself at odds with his leader Elijah Muhammad. Starting in late 1961, there were violent confrontations between NOI members and white police officers in Los Angeles, California. In one unprovoked incident which made national headlines, the police beat several Black Muslims outside a mosque and then raided the mosque, continuing to beat up Muslims and shooting seven of them (one of whom died from his wounds). When no charges were filed against the police, an outraged Malcolm demanded retaliation against the police. He was stunned when Muhammad ordered him to stand down. Unlike him, Muhammad didn’t want to take any violent action that would escalate the matter. This stark difference marked the beginning of a deterioration in their relationship. Their relationship was further strained by Muhammad’s extramarital affairs with his young secretaries, which violated the NOI’s strict rule that members engage in heterosexual monogamy. When Muhammad justified his sexual behavior by referring to precedents set by Biblical prophets, it didn’t sit well with Malcolm. For his part, Muhammad grew greatly jealous of all the media attention Malcolm was garnering. He felt that as the leader of the NOI, he should be the star of the show...not one of his ministers. Fed up with the tension, Malcolm publicly announced in March 1964 that he was leaving the NOI and striking out on his own.
He founded his own Islamic organization and flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to begin his Hajj. The Hajj is a required pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca that every Muslim has to perform at least once (as long as they are physically and financially able to do so). The Hajj was an eye-opening experience for Malcolm, for he saw Muslims of
“all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans” treating each other equally and with respect. His experience forced him to
“rearrange” his own views on race and
“toss aside some of my previous conclusions.”
He returned to the United States with a different attitude. Malcolm toned down his incendiary rhetoric towards whites and reached out to the Civil Rights Movement to bury the hatchet.
“I’ve forgotten everything bad that they have said about me,” he declared,
“And I pray they can also forget the many bad things I’ve said about them.”
He convinced a weary MLK, the man he had spent years attacking for being his polar opposite, to meet with him in an effort to show the public that he was a new and improved Malcolm X.
“It’s time for us to submerge our differences,” he told King,
“And realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem [racism], a common problem – a problem that will make you catch hell whether you’re a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist.”
While Malcolm worked to improve his relationship with the Civil Rights Movement, his former relationship with the NOI was becoming a personal threat to him. Malcolm’s departure had made him a traitor in Muhammad’s eyes. The leader of the NOI viciously told one of his ministers Louis Farrakhan (who would become the leader of the NOI in 1978) that
“hypocrites like Malcolm should have their heads cut off.”
Throughout 1964 and into 1965, Malcolm received multiple death threats from members of the NOI. On February 14th, 1965, his wife Betty received an anonymous phone call in which she was informed that her husband was
“as good as dead.”
On February 19th, the FBI received a tip from an NOI informant that a plan was in the works in which
“Malcolm X is going to be bumped off.”
Two days later, Malcolm went to the Audubon Ballroom in New York City to give a speech. Built in 1912 by Fox Film Corporation (later 20th Century Fox) founder William Fox, the Audubon Ballroom contained a theater with 2,500 seats and a second-floor ballroom that could accommodate 200 people. Malcolm had just begun to speak when someone in the packed audience yelled,
“Nigger! Get your hand out of my pocket!”
As startled people looked around to see what was going on, a man rushed forward and shot Malcolm square in the chest with 10 buck shots from a sawed-off shotgun. At the same moment, two other men charged towards Malcolm and shot him with semi-automatic handguns. He was rushed to nearby Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where he was shortly pronounced dead. According to the autopsy, the 39-year-old had 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms, and legs.
In the aftermath of Malcolm’s assassination, the three gunmen were arrested and identified as NOI members Tallmadge Hayer, Norman Butler, and Thomas Johnson. They were all convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison (Butler was paroled in 1985, Johnson in 1987, and Hayer in 2010). Over 14,000 people attended the three-day public viewing for Malcolm in Harlem; when his funeral was held on February 27th at Harlem’s thousand-seat Faith Temple of the Church of God in Christ, loudspeakers were set up for the overflow crowd outside. Multiple civil rights leaders attended the funeral including John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, and James Forman. Actor Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy, in which he described Malcolm as
“our shining black prince who didn’t hesitate to die because he loved us so.”
“Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial, and bold young captain – and we will smile. Many will say turn away – away from this man, for he is not a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter, and an enemy of the black man – and we will smile. They will say that he is of hate – a fanatic, a racist – who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we will answer and say to them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you would know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him.”
Malcolm X was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Reactions to his assassination were mixed. MLK told Betty that
“while we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems that we face as a race.”
On the other end of the scale, Muhammad – who denied that he had anything to do with the assassination – didn’t shed a tear for the death of his former minister:
“Malcolm X got just what he preached.”
The “New York Post” wrote that
“even his sharpest critics recognized his brilliance – often wild, unpredictable, and eccentric, but nevertheless possessing promise that must now remain unrealized” while “Time” called him
“an unashamed demagogue whose creed was violence.”
Asked about Malcolm’s assassination at a press conference, President Malcolm Forbes replied that he was shocked by the brutality of his death and expressed his sympathy for his family. He then quickly changed the subject, not wanting to dwell on the controversial figure any longer than he had to. Malcolm X was gone, but his open encouragement of blacks to be more confrontational with whites would create problems for the new President.