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A curious mix of optimism and pessimism for this week, ending on April 26th in 1964.

On the optimistic side - President Johnson announced to the world that the U.S. would make substantial reductions in Nuclear Weapons and Uranium enrichment production. Simultaneously, it was announced by Nikita Khruschev via Radio Moscow, that the Soviet Union would do the same thing. The news was greeted with a sense of relief and UN General Secretary U Thant offered an evaluation on what was deemed a hopeful sign towards an easing of Cold War tensions.

On the Pessimistic side - tensions were brewing between the U.S. and Cuba as Cuban Premier Fidel Castro vowed to down any U.S. Reconnaissance planes flying over Cuban territory as it had been doing since 1962.

On the optimistic side - Sec. of State Dean Rusk returned from a fact-finding mission to Saigon and offered an upbeat assessment of the situation in Vietnam, saying the South Vietnamese Army could handle themselves nicely.

On the Pessimistic side - Defense Secretary Robert McNamara conceded it will "take time" for any progress to be made in Vietnam and that the South Vietnamese Army is running a defensive strategy rather than an offensive one. Oh well.

Meanwhile - the four year long negotiations between the Railroads and the Unions was finally at the settlement stage. And just in the nick of time, as the settlement averted a threatened strike.

President Johnson went on a brief tour of the Appalachia region, hitting the towns and cities worst hit by poverty and unemployment, touting his War on Poverty legislation. He was greeted with waves of enthusiasm.

Not so enthusiastic were reports from Capitol Hill saying the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was at a standstill, making the future unclear for passage of the Legislation.

And the much publicized "Stall-ins", threatened for Opening day of the New York Worlds Fair on April 22nd, didn't materialize. But that didn't stop some 300 Civil Rights demonstrators from being arrested from the Fair opening anyway.

All this in one week, ending on April 26th 1964, as reported on the ABC Radio Voices In The Headlines program.

I remember just how much of a panic people got into when the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated to this point on October 23rd. We had all become too familiar with the "pending atomic attack" from the Soviet Union over the years. And how, as a kid living in Los Angeles, reading an article in the L.A. Times with accompanying graphic of just how much of L.A. would be reduced to dust if such an event occurred. As best as I could tell, our house was destined to be boiling ash and it created no end to the amount of sleepless nights in the days and months to come.

In retrospect, it probably explains a lot of what we eventually grew into and the choices we'd make because, let's face it, we were convinced we'd be radioactive waste at any given moment.

But I think it was the cool detachment of the media when this crisis hit the boiling point that is so fascinating in hindsight. And this broadcast from 7:00 pm Eastern on the evening of the 23rd perfectly exemplifies that.

Ray Scherer (NBC News): “The most significant moment of this perhaps historic day came at seven minutes after seven tonight when the President took up a pen and put his name to the Quarantine Proclamation, a two page document titled ‘Interdiction Of Delivery Of Offensive Weapons To Cuba’. Here is the list of prohibited materials: Surface to Surface Missiles, Bombers, Bombs, Air-To-Surface Rockets and Guided Missiles, Electronic Equipment To Support Them. After 10:00 tomorrow morning, any ships carrying such materials will be turned back. If there is resistance, force shall be used, says the document, to the extent necessary.”

It's interesting to consider (and I certainly didn't at the time), that no doubt there was a family somewhere in Moscow with a 12 year old kid who was probably just as freaked out about the possibilities of being reduced to radioactive waste as I was. The threat of war is just like that.

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When news of the ill-fated CIA backed invasion of Cuba at The Bay Of Pigs was first announced on April 17th, it wasn't clear if the attempted overthrow of the Castro regime would be a success or not. But as hours and days passed, it was clear it wasn't. In fact, it was a howling failure and it made for a goodly amount of Anti-U.S. propaganda fodder for the Soviet press and another big set-back for our Foreign Policy in Latin America.

President Kennedy made an address to the country during a meeting of the Press Association. At the time it wasn't made known the CIA had anything to do with the invasion, rather it was touted to be a group of Anti-Castro rebels, trained and equipped on a shoestring, attempting to overthrow Fidel Castro. That part looked good on paper. But the reality was a bit different.

Here is that address from April 21, 1961.

And further evidence the 70's were just as haywire as every other decade. The news from June 14, 1978 was proof.

In the continuing series of accusations and denials, President Jimmy Carter alleged he had irrefutable proof that Cuban advisers were heavily involved in the rebel uprising in Zaire, from intelligence gathered that Cuban troops were training rebels in bases from neighboring Angola. Castro flatly denied it. The saga dragged on.

Meanwhile, Carter pressed to put negotiations with China on the fast track in an effort to get full normalization of relations as soon as possible.

On Capitol Hill - Questions were being posed to Israel regarding their future status of the Gaza Strip and the Occupied West Bank. The inquiry set off a rift in the Knesset, causing a three-way split in the Israeli cabinet.

The United Nations was wrestling with the Lebanon situation. Southern Lebanon was going relatively smoothly, but it was Northern Lebanon that was the cause of concern. Tensions were high in that region over the killing of the son, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter of former President Sulieman Franjileh by Phalangist gunmen, and fears of an outbreak of violence during the funeral put everyone on the alert.

Japan was weighing their Oil Storage policy as the result of serious damage done to several Oil tanks and the resultant spill of millions of gallons of crude at facilities in Sendai, which had been hit hard by a recent earthquake.

And Jimmy Carter was meeting on this day with Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai for talks regarding U.S.-India relations. The two got on famously, even though there were areas of disagreement.

And the news ended with a roundup of recent Primary election results around the country.

And that's how life rolled, this June 14, 1978 as reported on The CBS World News Roundup.

A mostly political day, this October 13th in 1979. The Florida Caucus was underway with Ted Kennedy actively being the boil on Jimmy Carter's posterior. Iowa was holding a straw poll too, with George Bush campaigning for the Republican nod.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill a temporary Compromise Money bill squeaked past the House with threats of Government shutdown avoided for now (cue: broken record). The House also passed a bill lifting price controls on Gasoline with many fearing the cost of a gallon of gas would skyrocket to $2.00. The goings on in Iran seemed to be a likely scapegoat for the gouge.

This week's installment of "Ask The President" would feature no phone calls - the assumption being clairvoyants would occupy the otherwise busy phone banks instead.

Fidel Castro was busy painting New York red after his appearance the previous night at the UN, giving lots of face time to dignitaries and politicos.

Speaking of Cuba - the Washington Post reported the U.S. was moving in the direction of establishing a multi-National Naval force in the Caribbean as a precaution against overtures from Havana to the rest of Latin-America.

Vietnam was busy accusing China of repeated border intrusions - surefire sign a hotspot was getting ready to develop.

And Bolshoi Ballet stars Leonid and Valentina Kozlov were the latest in a long string of Soviet dancers defecting to the U.S. - making their American debut in New Orleans with a new company and packed house.

And the world pirouetted endlessly on, this October 13th 1979 as reported by Neil Strawser and crew at The CBS World News Roundup.

Another thrill packed week in October history - this one from the 15th in 1979, via the CBS News program The World This Week. Wall Street took a dive, the interest rates took a hike and the housing market took a powder.

John Bohanon (CBS News): “It all started last week – the Federal Reserve Board raises the Interest rate, the rate banks are charged for borrowing from the Fed. An increase of one full point to 12 percent. Something has to be done, says the Fed, to stop inflation and curb speculation. On Monday; the first reaction. The Dow Jones Industrials went down over thirteen and a half points. Tuesday: Another shock; several banks raise their prime rate, the rates the banks charge their best corporate customers. The Prime up one full point to fourteen and a half percent; an unprecedented increase. Down goes the Dow again, another twenty-six and a half points. Bond prices plunge. And on Wednesday, history is made on Wall Street. A record trading day, almost 82 million shares changing hands. At one point, the market down nearly 25 points for the day.

The rest of the week was taken up with Fidel Castro's visit to the UN and his very vocal support for the PLO, the 1980 campaign trail, the Ted Kennedy factor and fears of a major recession washing up on our financial shores.

Just another week - same as it always is.

Hard to imagine it's been fifty years since Castro assumed power in Cuba. Even harder to imagine travel restrictions have been relaxed after all this time.

Ever since the government of Fulgencio Batista fell and Fidel Castro took over, the subject of Cuba has been a contentious one. In 1959 the Cold War was in full bloom and the almost constant fear of countries coming under the influence of the Soviet Union was on most Americans minds, especially when the countries coming under the influence happened to be in our own hemisphere.

Shortly after Castro assumed power, it was speculated by a number of American news outlets that Cuba was warming to the Soviet Union and that Communism had a definite toehold at our doorstep. Cuba, after all was a mere 90 miles away and it would prove to be a flashpoint in many an east-west showdown in the years following.

In May of 1959 CBS Radio did a documentary called "Is Cuba Going Red", hosted by newsman Stuart Novins. It was contended that Cuba had been overtaken by communist elements and was in the grips of becoming a totalitarian state, so fresh from its independence from the Batista government.

The documentary drew a huge amount of criticism and it forced CBS to run a companion show in order to allow Cuban spokespeople to air their side of the story.

The end result was a discussion that turned into a minor yelling match between Novins and Senator Charles Porter from Oregon.

The first part is the portrayal of Cuba as it was in May of 1959, asking the question if the island had gone Communist. And the second part is a rebuttal argument by the Cuban Ambassador and various officials from the Cuban government.