This blog won't become the This Day In 1968 Blog, like it threatened to become for 1915, 16, 17, and 18.
But it is 50 years ago, and it was quite a year, as already noted. We may, therefore, take note of some things that occurred during it.
Here's what we already missed:
January 4: Mattel introduced Hot Wheels.
I, and every boy I knew, loved those little cars.
Shoot, I still do.
January 5: Alexander Dubcek chosen as the leader of the Czech Communist party, ushering in the Prague Spring.
This seemed to usher in some hope that Communism in Eastern Europe would evolve into Democratic Socialism, something, it would would soon show, that the USSR was not prepared to accept.
January 21. The Battle of Khe Sanh, a diversion of for the Tet Offensive, commences.
The battle was one of the few real sieges of the American war in Vietnam. The Marine Corps defended the base valiantly, supplied from the air by the United States Air Force. In April the siege ended when the U.S. Army reestablished ground connection with the base. While an American victory of a sort, the fact that the NVA was capable of laying an American force to siege, would be a factor in the change in the public's mind on the war. And, we started to look like the French, in a way, with there being shades of Dien Bien Phu.
January 22: Rowan & Martin's Laugh In debuts.
Funny, and irreverent, and featuring a mild form of the exist humor that characterized a lot of American humor at the time, it was hugely popular.
January 23. The USS Pueblo taken.
As if there wasn't enough grim news, the seizure of an American vessel, and the poor performance of the Navy's officer corps as it happened, made the Americans look anemic and caused concern that the Korean War was about to revive.
The ship is still held by North Korea.
January 30. The Tet Offensive launched.
We'd win the battle, but the public's mind was lost by the fact that the NVA and VC could launch such a major offensive after years of war. A desperate gamble on their part, it proved to be a gamble that would pay off.
January 31: The US embassy in Saigon attacked by the Viet Cong.
No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, nor anyone who does not live a full lifetime; One who dies at a hundred years shall be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred shall be thought accursed.
Isaiah, Chapter 65
Clive Law was a predominant figure in memorializing Canadian military history in recent years, something that Canadians have tended to seemingly be happy to forget. He was 63 years of age when he died this past June. I wasn't aware of that until I read the current issue of the Journal of the Company of Military Historians, which just arrived.
The son of an English father and an Scots-Irish mother, Law had served in the Governor General's Foot Guards and the RCMP. In his 50s he deployed to Haiti as a civilian representative in the RCMP and he was known for his dedication to philanthropist causes. He was also the author of twelve books and many other written works.
I didn't know him, but I did have some occasional correspondence with him at one time. That's quite awhile back and it was interestingly before he became such a major figure with the Company of Military Historians, of which I'm a member and with which he has been, as noted, a central figure in recent years.
I'm somewhat noting his passing for another reason, however, and its been one on my mind recently.
I'm 54 years of age. My father's father died in his late 40s. My father died at 62. Law died of an apparent massive stroke, totally unforeseen, at age 63. There's really no telling when a person will pass and that's particularly the case for men.
I note this as I find myself, now at this age, meeting quite a few people who have plans for their future retirements, which they are placing on hold in anticipation of making a few more bucks. Men who work until their 70s with this hope. Added to that are men and women who have simply become so acclimated to working that they know nothing else and keep doing it. If a person loves their work so much they want to keep on keeping on, no matter what, so be it. But at the same time, the common American idea that a person is going to live into their 90s, with perfect health, and clear mind is, well, based more on hope than reality. You may well live that long indeed, but your mind may be clouded and your health wrecked. Or you may not live anywhere near that long.
There's a lesson in there, and I'm not necessarily saying that Clive's example is purely applicable. But in a way all of the early deaths noted above are. Death comes, when it comes. Planning on scheduling it late in life, well, you'll either win the genetic lottery, and avoid accidents, or not.
In my own case, on that genetic lottery, so far I seem to have inherited more strongly from my mother's family in regards to that than my father's, although my father's siblings are, as I write this, all still living (this will very shortly cease to be the case). My mother's family lives seemingly forever, it seems. But as part of that, they're lucky if they live into long life with clear mind. My mother was incredibly active up to about age 90, which skewed my view of what old life must be like. But her last few years were really miserable as her mind closed in on her, a scary thing to watch. I hope to avoid that, but then frankly, I figure I'll be lucky to get past my six decade at all, for reason that I can't really explain. Something for me to consider.
The Casper Star Tribune started running retrospectives on 1968 this week, and is going to run them all year long.
The first one wasn't great, just a collection of snippets on fashion and the like, but still I'm encouraged.
While this blog is focused on things 50 years, more or less, prior to 1968, we do stray widely (rather obviously) and so I'll be interested to see with the Tribune comes up with. I'll be particularly interested as while I can recall 1968, from a child's prospective, as an adult I've been baffled by the year. It was a year of global revolution and the consequences of the year were mostly negative in my view. Not wholly of course, but largely.
1968 seems to be the year that the Boomers, for a variety of reasons, tore down much of made Western civilization. The repercussions have been permanent. Western civilization kept on keeping on, of course, but the attack on the foundations of it, from 1968, were like termites going after the foundation beam of a structure.
And this happened everywhere.
There were riots in the United States over the Vietnam War. That's easy to figure. But there were riots in Berlin and Paris as well. A seeming middle mildly left political coalition that had come into power in some places (the United States, France, the UK) and a middle mildly right political coalition that had come into power elsewhere (West Germany) collapsed. Cultural values and underpinnings that had existed for decades became untethered, not disappearing, but sort of drifting.
Now, of course, no sudden change simply arrives. When things break out, they break out after years of development of some sort, for some reason. But what was it?
The egg beater in slightly happer days, but after its service as a time and temperature sign had ended. Note the mod orange peel design of the bank itself. Library of Congress photograph.
Anyhow, the news articles on this story show how widespared the old M60 really is. Even the Reuters article about Germany cancelling updates on Turkish Leopard IIs due to their user by Turkey in Syria featured a photo of an M60 in Syria.
Today, however, the news reports that Chesapeake Oil is laying off about 500 employees nationwide, with 5 of those people being located in Wyoming. Chesapeake only has 50 employees in Wyoming now, we also read, so that's not unsubstantial amongst their remaining workforce.
We've received some warnings that a new boom might not reflect itself in employment like the old ones, although in the service industries it would seem likely to. A sign of this, perhaps?
HOUSTON
— A substantial rise in oil prices in recent months has led to a
resurgence in American oil production, enabling the country to challenge
the dominance of Saudi Arabia and dampen price pressures at the pump.
The
success has come in the face of efforts by Saudi Arabia and its oil
allies to undercut the shale drilling spree in the United States. Those
strategies backfired and ultimately ended up benefiting the oil
industry.
That would be, quite frankly, a huge American victory and a major defeat for the Petroleum Kingdom if its correct.
And it very well may be.
All throughout the price collapse of a couple of years ago was a thesis, but not the only one, that the drop in price was an effort by Saudi Arabia to crush the American petroleum industry, resurgent on technological advancements and increased prices. If the NYT is correct, and it very well may be, this is a huge development. The potential end of OPEC dominance in oil, and a new, middle price, regime in the petroleum industry with the United States and Canada as major petroleum oil powers.
Oil is holding above $65.00 bbl. That's way below the $100 bbl+ figures that we saw prior to the last crash, and indeed it would have been regarded as a crash price as it was crashing. But it's held steadily above $60.00 now for weeks. $60.00 is the regional threshold for profitability and things are, in fact, now beginning to occur. Or so we hear, and we're hearing that a lot.
Indeed, the Tribune, lately reporting on the grim situation for all sorts of businesses that were weathering the oil drought, is now reporting optimistically on a huge expansion of a local gas field. Looking at it the other way, The Economist has been analyzing it negatively for several months with observations that the price of oil is "high". Indeed, it recently ran an article captioned as follows:
Crude thinking
Why the oil price is so high
…and why it might not fall by very much soon.
The economist did start off with an observation that does indeed reflect the observations many who follow the rise and fall of crude prices:
PERHAPS the most vexing thing for those watching the oil industry is not
the whipsawing price of a barrel. It is the constant updating of
theories to explain what lies behind it.
The article goes on to analyze that, coming to the conclusion, perhaps right or wrong, that the perception of scarcity, or lack of it, has a lot to do with market volatility.
Any way you look at it, $65.00 isn't $125.00 bbl, nor is it $25.00 bbl. Maybe things are a little stable, maybe, for a little while, which will mean a recovery in the Wyoming economy and will start to fill up the coffers of the state a bit as well.
Which usually means that the state pretty much instantly, rightly or wrongly, abandons discussion of alternative revenue sources and diversifying the state economy.
Indeed, one of the political candidates may have trouble with this going forward as it will, ironically, cut into her argument on the "getting the Federal Government off our backs" (or words to that effect). Harriet Hageman has been arguing that Wyoming's economy is a three legged stool, with those legs being agriculture, tourism and the mineral industry. Close observers, however, know that this isn't true, and I've expounded on that before. Wyoming's economy is actually a four legged stool, sitting furniture analogy wise, with agriculture, tourism, the mineral industry and government. We don't like to acknowledge that last one, but it's a huge factors in our economy. In fact, Wyoming has a higher percentage of state workers per capita than any of the neighboring states (way more than Colorado, but more than Nordic North Dakota as well). As the tax system is all based on the mineral industry, and as tourism and agriculture cannot effectively support taxes as the level required for our expenditures, when the mineral industry catches a cold the state government catches the flu. Of course, that doesn't impact the Federal government, but right now we have an Administration that's not exactly keen on ramping up Federal employment.
Anyhow, this puts individuals with Hageman's outlook in a strange position. Oil is recovering and it clearly has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with regulation. People with her point of view, however, cannot acknowledge that, as that would mean that the price of oil is purely controlled by external factors, which in fact it is. As The Economist notes:
Beneath the dramatic ups and downs in the oil price and its changing
influence on the world economy are some big themes: the rise of the
shale-oil industry and how OPEC responds; the dependence of the big oil
exporters in the Middle East on high oil prices; the peak in oil demand
in America and eventually elsewhere. These forces will have a big say in
where oil prices eventually settle.
And that's what determines how the oil industry does in Wyoming. But if the state's rights libertarians acknowledge that, that means that this leg of our "three legged stool" and the four leg of our actual four legged one is pretty darned wobbly. And it also would mean that the entire issue of "getting the Federal government" off our backs is moot now, as Trump has cut regulations considerably and, at the same time, while purely coincidentally the price has risen and a new boom, or maybe a boomlet, is on. I.e., you can't campaign on driving the Germans out of France if they've surrendered already. That political ship has sailed.
But in sailing, we should take some caution, and some hope. In terms of hope, this boom, at least right now, doesn't look like it will get overheated. That's always a huge problem in all sorts of ways. But there's real hope that it might not. Right now, the price of oil doesn't appear to be drastically inflating. Most of the producers of oil around the globe have real incentives not to allow that to occur. And as we've noted here in the past, and as The Economist does in its article, technological advances may and societal changes have loosened the world's dependence on oil, even in formerly car crazy America. Added to that, technological changes in the oilfield itself will mean that the return of oil will not mean the return of all the jobs that went with it. The petroleum industry was relying on older rigs in the last boom. So much so that men who had worked overseas were often shocked by the antiquity of the equipment in the US. That was changing, and as rigs come back on line it will the the newer ones in increasing numbers, with the old ones being increasingly a thing of the past.
A
just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law
of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral
law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a
human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law.
Ironically I listed to this while on my way to go goose hunting. A hunting trip unfortunately interrupted mid morning by one of the primary evils of modern civilization, the cell phone, with the receipt of a panicky work telephone call I had to address. Following that, I received news of a not unexpected but none the less tragic arrival of "the undiscovered country" for a family member, and packed up and headed home.
Anyhow, it's a poor idea to post on things of this type while in a poor frame of mind, but I am anyway. As I do that, I'm sitting getting ready to go to Mass. But as I'm a western American Catholic, I'm in my Sunday street clothes, which in this case includes a t-shirt which has a spork and a the works "Live Simply" on it, a gift from my teenage daughter who obviously knows my heart.
Exactly. And, yes, Sunday morning wear of a type. I'll wear a hooded sweatshirt over it. It's winter here, after all.
I'm noting all of this as I'm both linking in an interview of the author, but as I'm musing, and in a bit of a despondent mood as well. And that reminds me of the footer photograph that I added to this blog after the turn of the year. . . a minor but not insignificant revision to it.
I know that a human population the size we now have can't really go back to our pre civilization state, and we don't even really want to. But a society more like that romanticized (as it surely papered over the bad parts) in I'll Take My Stand, existed not only in the region addressed but in most regions up until then. And all of the objective evidence is that that situation was generally better than the current one. A goal, albeit a return goal, for a society, perhaps, that seems to be aimlessly sweeping away the best parts of its existence and making itself incompatible with what it is creating.
Funeral of Lt. Col. John McCrea who died on this day in 1918. This Canadian work is in the public domain in Canada because its copyright has expired due to one of the following:it was subject to Crown copyright and was first published more than 50 years ago, or it was not subject to Crown copyright, and it is a photograph that was created prior to January 1, 1949,the creator died more than 50 years ago.
McCrea was a Canadian physician serving in the Canadian forces (a relative of mine served in the same hospital and mentioned him by name in her correspondence). While serving in that capacity he contracted pneumonia and passed away on this day, in 1918.
McCrea is most famous for the poem In Flanders Fields, arguably the most famous poem to come out of the Great War, in what was a very poetic age it seems.
All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the
individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts.The land
ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils,
waters, plants and animals, or collectively the land.
The Land Ethic,A Sand County Almanac. Aldo Leopold
On this day in 1918 Texas Ranger Company B raided the village of Porvenir, Texas, a Hispanic Texas town, and killed the male inhabitants therein. They were accompanied by elements of the 8th Cavalry which may not have participated in the massacre, at least according to contemporary investigations, and which assisted the survivors thereafter, attempting to keep them from harm and sending for Priest from a local village.
Fifteen Hispanic men lost their lives in the massacre.
The details of the tragedy remain sketchy today, save for the killing of the Mexican civilians. When the news first broke in mid February, it was claimed by the Rangers and some non Mexicans of the town that property from the Brite's Ranch Raid had been found in the town and that the villagers had opened upon the Rangers. This is almost certainly not true. Later investigations seemed to indicate that it was an act of pure race based violence on the Mexican inhabitants of the town. Most of the early information indicated a complete lack of participation by the Army, although a small detail of soldiers was in fact sent with the Rangers. They claimed to have waited outside the town and not to have known what was occurring within it. As noted, contemporary accounts do indicate that some villagers took refuge with the cavalrymen and that protection was afforded to them.
This was one of the instances in which the border war along the Mexican border seems to us today to have a foot in the 19th Century, even while having one in the 20th. Atrocity in war would be something the world would see a lot more of in the 20th Century, so perhaps we should not. But an ethnic massacre within our own borders of this type does indeed seem very peculiar today, as well as being highly tragic.
The incident did lead to investigation when the news broke. The investigation recommended trial for all of the Rangers and exonerated the Army, but a grand jury did not indite any of the Rangers. Texas, however, disbanded Company B. Following this a wider investigation by Texas condemned the Rangers for a history of extrajudicial killings. The Rangers were thereafter reformed into a more professional force and this era of the Rangers came to an end.
In spite of the 1918 exoneration of the Army, a 2015 archeological survey turned up shell casings from period Army weapons. At least one of the investigating archeologist reached the conclusion that Army involvement in the tragedy had in fact occurred.
And so January 1918 would see two tragedies that read now like something out of the Frontier West occurred at same time the global tragedy was playing itself out in Europe.
The town does not exist today. The victims of the raid were buried by their relatives in a nearby town, across the border, in Mexico.
