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(1960 ended up like just about every other year before and since: Crisis)

It's getting about that time of year when the long glances back start. For C&L and just about every other blog it will be a look at 2009; what went on, what didn't go on, what crisis did we land in or avert. How did life as we know it change this particular year.

Since Newstalgia is mostly knee-deep in the past,I thought I would kick off the roundup of year-enders with a look at 1960 and how the world changed during that particular 12 months, and how a lot of it has remained the same.

1960 saw the election of a new President and the Cold War entering new and uncharted territory. It saw Africa emerging as a continent of newly independent nations, the Middle East contemplating Israel as a nuclear neighbor. Latin America was deemed the next hot spot in East-West relationships and Germany struggling with its divided status.

On December 28, 1960 CBS News ran a one-hour round table discussion between Edward R. Murrow, Howard K. Smith, David Schoenbrun, Daniel Schorr and other notable CBS News reporters, weighing the issues that made 1960 a memorable year.

Howard K. Smith: “Well, I think our change is about as drastic a change as you can have under constitutional government. I’ve emphasized the fact that the Presidents and their intents differ drastically. But the men around them differ too. The emphasis in the previous administration was on businessmen. At present I think scholars probably have a plurality. It’s said that if all the appointees made by Kennedy so far were to walk down the hall together there would be a deafening jangle of Phi Beta Kappa keys. And there are three Rhodes Scholars among them. Many of them are famed for some very useful and active ideas, but the main thing that induces me to believe this will be an active administration is the fact there has seldom been, since the Civil War, such an accumulation of crises and merely problems as there is now and we have to act or there will be disaster.”

Always the threat of disaster and some crisis. No matter when.

1960 or 2009 - it doesn't really change.

. . .and neither does the cost of keeping blogs together.

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Today it's 1955 - fifty-five years ago and the world was entirely a different place. Knee-deep in the Cold War with hot spots in Asia creeping up all over. Parts of Europe still getting back on their feet. Africa slowly emerging from Colonialism and experiencing growing pains. The world in general still fearful of The Bomb and America in particular still politics as usual.

Part of the Years Of Crisis series from CBS Radio which began in 1949, it was hosted by Edward R. Murrow with correspondents reporting in and giving their assessment of the world situation as it was, that year-end in 1955.

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(Prime Minister Nuri As-Said of Iraq in 1958 - perceived as a good guy but perceptions went askew)

At the risk of overdosing on Year-end Reviews, I thought I would toss one last one in before putting to bed until next year. This one comes via the CBS Radio program "Years Of Crisis" - in 1958 they were celebrating 10 years on the air and, in addition to looking back at the news events of 1958, also looked back at the significant news events of the previous ten years. A fascinating look at how history has changed very little in the fifty-two years since. Also interesting is the assessment of Iraq, having gone through a revolt in 1958.

Edward R. Murrow: “Winston Burdett, what was the most important development in the Middle East?”

Winston Burdett (CBS News): “It was the revolution in Iraq. Only six months ago we were all still thinking of Iraq as an island of stability in a stormy area. It was tied to the west by the Baghdad Pact. It was enjoying the benefits of more than two hundred million dollars a year in oil revenues. And it was carrying out the biggest building program in roads, schools and dams since the Mongol invasions. Iraq had a likeable young King and a Prime Minister, Nuri as-Said who for sheer ability was the grand champion of all Middle East politicians. And through him the country went through the motions of parliamentary democracy. All of this: Parliament, Prime Minster, King and dynasty was swept away in a one day revolution. Obviously, we had been wrong about Iraq. Their stability had been an optical illusion. We had forgotten that her old regime was widely unpopular, her democracy a sham, her elections rigged, her press gagged, and her newly educated classes excluding from leadership. Above all, the Baghdad Pact itself was detested.

Continue reading »

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(Benazir Bhutto - Assassination was only seconds away)

Only two years ago, but could be another century. This Year-End wrap up comes from 2007, about to dive knee-deep into the 2008 elections and the continuing saga of Pakistan. The return of Benazir Bhutto and the subsequent assassination, turning an already shaky country into a state of chaos. And indications our economy was about to cascade into the abyss - but there was that denial thing.

Two years ago.

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(Frank Costello at the Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings - taking the Fifth to new vistas)

With the Korean War grinding on and the country gearing up for the 1952 elections, the big spectacle of the year on Radio and Television was the Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings on Capitol Hill. Organized crime had become a way of life and gambling was its biggest commodity. With Mafia figures lined up to testify (or refuse to testify as was the case), the country was riveted to each new revelation and intrigued by the parade of exotic names attached to the hearings and being grilled by 1952 Vice-presidential hopeful Estes Kefauver.

The Cold War was also in full bloom, with the trial of accused spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and General MacArthur relieved of his command in Korea.

All in all, 1951 was a pretty interesting year and far from a dull one.

But then, most aren't dull in retrospect anyway.

And the same is true with this one.

don't forget . .

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(Quiz Show Scandals of 1959 - chipping away at our great National Naivety)

Coming to the end of the 1950s. 1959, just fifty years ago, the world was starting to come unglued. The eternal Cold War was slogging along with the extra added bonus of the Space Race being solidly in the Soviet Unions corner by the end of the decade. Berlin and U2 just around the corner. Scandals took a bite out of our collective innocence with rigged Quiz shows and teary-eyed confessions of wrong doing plastered across most newspaper headlines.

All in all, it was a year of transition - a preview of coming attractions for the 1960s. The decade when all social mores were kicked to the side and independence was rife throughout the world. But that was to come.

1959 was a curious look back with an apprehensive look ahead. This look back came from CBS News, narrated by Walter Cronkite.

speaking of looks . . .