The CIA and William Colby

A son of the former CIA director has made a movie about his father's life entitled "The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby". It seems the film is generating some family feuding, but that's another issue. Of interest to the history teacher would be the knowledge that it was Colby who released inside information about the agency to the public. This was referred to as revealing the "family jewels" and dealt with "...agency's assassination attempts, drug testing on unwitting humans and eavesdropping on war protesters". This article notes that it was the disclosure of this information that "...saved the CIA from destruction when members of Congress were eager for its death" (why that is the case, I don't understand). The film claims that it was Colby that ran the Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Viet Cong agents in South Vietnam; causing this program to be called an assassination program. Ironically, even his death was thought by many to be an assassination. However, the film says his death was a suicide; he drowned while canoeing off the eastern shore of Maryland 15 years ago. Because of his release of the "family jewels", many in the agency hated him.

(Source: "Portrayal of Spymaster Father Divides his Family" by Ian Shapira of The Washington Post. In The Virginian Pilot on 11/24/11).

Racism in the US

It always amazes me of the extent to which some in our society have gone to segregate the races. In an article about the Civil War in the local paper, I read of the following example. In 1913 when the 50th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg was honored, former Union and Confederate soldiers came together on the old battlefield. Even thou Black soldiers fought there they were not allowed to attend the ceremony.

(Source: The Virginian Pilot on 11/27/11).

Historical Mysteries

I came across this info in a 1990 American Heritage magazine about unanswered questions from our history, and I think some of it is worth posting here. First, in the antebellum south were slaves owned by the planters or the bankers? Univ of Texas prof William Goetzmann thinks the bankers did and this "fact" would mean manumission would be controlled by them. The bankers he notes are Brown and Baring Brothers. Second, Edwin Stanton-Lincoln's War Sec't-denied him an escort protection on the night of his assassination. Stanton said the man had additional duties to perform that night but in fact had none. Stanton may also have told General Grant not to accompany Lincoln to Ford's Theater that night. This from a Columbia Univ retired dean Jacques Barzun. Third, a Stanford Prof-George Fredrickson-believes Lincoln had not made up his mind about the future of the freed slave population at the time of his death. He thinks Lincoln may have been a "moderate white supremacist". The decision seems to have been granting "universal manhood suffrage" or deportation to Africa.

Fourth, R. Reagan might have had a hand in the Challenger disaster by pushing a request that the launch take place at the time of his State of the Union address in Jan 1986. This by Charles O'Neill "historian and author". Fifth, Kenneth Galbraith of Harvard Univ wonders why the Reagan admin is not considered the "most corrupt in our history" rather than Harding's admin. He notes the S & L scandal, the "revolving larceny from the Pentagon" and Wedtech (?) for this view.

(Source: "Mysteries of American History" by the editors of American Heritage magazine in the Dec 1990 edition).

Health Care and Obama

The US Supreme Court has decided to review the Affordable Care Act and rule this June. This is the case we know of as "Obamacare" and includes a requirement for everyone to buy insurance by 2014. Low income individuals will receive a subsidy to help pay for the insurance. A fine will be levied on those who do not get insurance. This law also provides for a family to keep a child on their policy until the age of 26 and it bans insurance companies from "denying coverage to children because of preexisting conditions". Under the present system 50 million Americans are w/o health insurance but their care is paid for by "hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies, thereby increasing rates for all" (I was of the opinion that Medicaid paid these bills). Those opposed to the law say that it is unconstitutional for the gov't to require Americans to buy a product. The most recent lower court ruling was the DC Court of Appeals which upheld the law. More on this later.

(Source: " To the Supremes: High court take up Obama health law". Editorial in The Record on 11/15/11).

Update: A summary of court cases regarding the above health law follow. First, the Eastern District of Michigan upheld the health care law and the 6th Court of Appeals also upheld it. Two of the three judges on the Court of Appeals were appointed by a republican. Second, a district court in DC and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld the law. Two of the three judges on the Circuit Court were GOP appointed. Third, the Western District of Virginia and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals both upheld the law. Both courts were democratic appointments. Fourth, the Eastern District of Virginia did not uphold the law but the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals did uphold it. District court GOP appointed and the 4th Circuit was democratic appointees. Fifth, the Northern District of Florida and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals both did not uphold the law. The lower court was GOP appointed and the Circuit Court was democratic appointments. This last Circuit Court is the only one I found that did not uphold the law. I would assume that is why the issue is now in the Supreme Courts docket.

(Source: New York Times on line on 11/13/11).

Juvenile Rights

This past June the US Supreme Court ruled that the Miranda Warning should be considered when the police question a juvenile for suspicion of criminal activity. The case is J.D.B. v. North Carolina and was a 5 to 4 decision with Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor for the majority. The 13 year old was questioned by a police investigator, a police officer and a assistant principal of the school the student attended. The principal advised the youth to "do the right thing". The questioning took place in a closed but not locked area. The boy confessed to the burglaries. The article does not provide much more information other than to note previous cases dealing with juveniles. In 2005 the high court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the death penalty for a juvenile was unconstitutional. In 2010 they ruled in Graham v. Florida that life without parole for a juvenile was also unconstitutional.

(Source: "Supreme Court gives juveniles protection in police interrogations" by John Kelly in Youth Today dated June 16, 2011. Found on www.youthtoday.org.view_article.cfm?article_id=4846).

Civil War and Post-traumatic stress disorder

This source indicates that the incidence of mental illness increased dramatically after the Civil War. There were 40 state and federal "asylums" for the mentally ill in 1860 and by 1880 there were 140. "Sadly, two-thirds of the patients stored in those massive warehouses were Civil War veterans". Most people had no idea of the "grim personal nightmares that would haunt the war's veterans, their families and society for years after". Most of these vets were ignored or forgotten by society in the years following the war. There are graves behind many of these old asylums-marked only by numbers without names-where the veterans were buried. Many of the patients in the asylums up to 1900 were veterans suffering from what today we know as "post-traumatic stress disorder.

(Source: "Whose graves are These? The quiet crisis of mentally ill Civil War veterans" by Allen Cornwell. In The Civil War Historian May/June 2006).

Election of 1864

An issue in the close presidential election of 1864 may have been the candidate George McClellan picked as his vice-president, as least for those in uniform. George H. Pendleton was a "Copperhead" and one who opposed the war and a plank of the Democratic party was known as the "failure plank" that "offered a cessation of hostilities and a convention of States, with a view to peace on the basis of reunion". This plank was seen "as insulting to the soldiers" and many then voted for Lincoln even thou McClellan was very popular with the troops.

(Source: "An Inmate of this Famous Hotel: Civil War letters of Captain Timothy W. Kelly" by Elaine Kelly Pease-a relative of Cap. Kelly. In The Civil War Historian May/June 2006).

Civil War

A question of interest to me centers on the issue of how much of the CSA was actually occupied by federal troops for most of the war. I know that the sea islands off Georgia were in Union hands from the start and Cape Hatteras, NC and the island itself were also controlled by federal troops. The area west to Edenton,NC was also in Union hands; which was about 20 miles or so. I will have to find the source for this for an update. I have recently read that even thou the confederate iron-clad Virginia was launched from the Norfolk VA area as of May of 1862 that area also was under Union control.

(Source: "Bell of the CSS Virginia: the life and death of the first Confederate ironclad" by Philip D. Gordy, a Michigan born doctor with an interest in the Civil War. In The Civil War Historian May/June 2006).

Nat Turner

In 1967 William Styron won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Confessions of Nat Turner and at the time he was hailed by the black community and historians for his work. Some time later opinion about his novel changed and he was widely and harshly criticized for "errors" he made regarding Turner and the black response to slavery in general. This even thou the book was a novel thus a work of fiction. In the article I note here Styron speaks in his own defense. This article-written 20 years ago-implies the debate has passed into history. Styron notes there was only one primary document about Turner from which to gain information; that was a 7000 word account by Turner's court-appointed lawyer-Thomas R. Gray. That document was entitled "Confessions of Nat Turner".

Regarding the critics it would seem that the issues in dispute were Turner's "madman" mentality and his killing of a white woman he had known; the only death linked directly to Turner. Another issue was whether he had a wife-Turner gives him one-that many historians believe he did not have. Many black critics also note that a white man could not possibly know the black slave experience.

A rebuttal to Styron came with Ten Black Writes Respond which was critical. Historian Eugene D. Genovese-"preminent historian of American slavery" defended Styron and disputed Ten Black Writes...

The bottom line is Styron's book came to be treated with hostility and went un-read by the black community. It would also seem that no one really knows what Nat Turner was like because there is little primary source material on him.

This source also mentions that before the Turner revolt many in the South were considering abolishing slavery.

(Source: "Nat Turner Revisited" by William Styron. American Heritage October 1992)

Herman Cain and "9-9-9" Plan

This post is based on an article in The Record on the tax plan noted above. The article says the plan is in no way "simple" as Mr Cain claims. In the first phase of the plan income tax rates for individuals and corporations would be reduced to 25 %, it would "allow for favorable rate" on overseas profits for corporations, and end the capital gains tax. In the second phase, the "9-9-9" part comes in. Abolish the payroll tax, establish 3 new tax rates; one of which would be 9 % on income w/ no personal exemptions, standard deduction, mortgage deduction, earned income tax credit or child credit. Establish a 9 % federal sales tax in which companies would pay and corporate income tax that would be like a "value-added tax". In the third phase the new income tax and value-added tax would be thrown out and a "fair tax" of 9 % established. This source says that at that time a 30 % retail sales tax would be created (I have read or heard nothing of this idea and don't know if this is a federal, state or both tax). This source says the system would be too complicated and would not work as Cain says it would. (Is the source or Cain correct? I don't know). This obviously needs more research.

(Source: "Cain's '9-9-9' plan Does it add up? by Ramesh Ponnuru who writes for Bloomberg News and is a senior editor of the National Review. In The Record on 10/23/11).

"West Point Code"

Early in the Civil War many West Point trained Union officers followed the "West Point Code" which held that Confederate property and even slaves were to be protected from looting and destruction. George B. McClellan and Don Carlos Buell were two officers who followed this code even to the point of court-martialing a subordinate officer for his conducting of a "hard war" policy. That officer was a Russian born American named John Basil Turchin (his American name shortened from the Russian). Turchin held the rank of General and was considered an excellent officer who may have saved the day for Union forces as Chickamauga. He was found guilty in the court martial-held before the battle of Chickamauga-and dismissed from the service only to be returned to the field by friends in high places in Washington and those who wanted to follow a more brutal treatment of the South. This source notes that after the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation the "necessity of a 'destructive war' " became the policy (I am not sure why it was necessary). This information comes from a review of a book on Turchin by Stephen Chicoine who appears to come from Connecticut. The title is below.

(Source: "John Basil Turchin and the Fight to Free the Slaves" by Stephen Chicone. Reviewed by Greg Romaneck in the Civil War Historian from May/June 2006).