| Cruisin' the Past |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Cruisin’ the Past by Ed Dooley |
The Sixties Arrive
My last essay dealt with how, at the end of 1959, people of our generation looked
back on the important events of the 1950s. Now we will consider what they thought
the 1960s might hold in store. As with most transitions from one decade to another,
many people felt that the start of the new decade would be a fresh start and a turning
point in their lives. No one could imagine, however, how dramatic that turning point
would be.
For us at Catalina High School, 1960 would be the year of our graduation, the year
we would enter “the real world.” And the world we would soon enter appeared to be
changing rapidly before our eyes. As dangerous as the 1950s Cold War might have
been, the Eisenhower Years had been stable, prosperous, and optimistic. The
1960s would bring new faces, new ideas, new threats, and new forces at work that
would transform the familiar fabric of society.
On the 2nd of January, 1960, we learned that young Senator John F. Kennedy was
entering the presidential race. Until then, and for many months after, it was almost
assumed that Vice President Richard M. Nixon would win an easy victory in the
November election. With Kennedy, a young man of charisma, the political picture
began to change. He appeared to reject much of the thinking of the past when he
called for a “New Frontier.” He especially appealed to young voters when he said,
“we must end or alter the burdensome arms race… maintain the freedom and order
in newly emerging nations, rebuild the stature of American science and education,
and prevent the collapse of our farm economy and the decay of our cities.” Many of
our generation would answer the call when the Kennedy Administration established
the Peace Corps and other public service agencies.
As the new year began, Congress was confronted with “explosive issues,”
according to the newspapers. One reporter wrote on the 4th of January 1960, “Many
of the issues to be dealt with have a familiar ring – civil rights, federal aid for
education, interest rates, defense spending, budget balancing, minimum wage
rates, foreign aid, and farm programs.” In a piece reminiscent of the safe forecasts
of astrologers, U.S. News and World Report predicted, “There probably will be
upsets… and new opportunities… in the turbulent year of 1960…. There will be a
strong new boom in 1960, but along with it – problems, and a growing struggle
against inflation. Profits and income will start up again, but the, cost of things will
edge up also. Politics will get ‘hotter’ and the heat of campaigning often obscures
important trends and issues. School problems will stay in the news [by which the
writer meant the issue of school integration]. New big strikes are an unpleasant
probability [The U.S. had just emerged from a protracted steel strike]. Ike will visit
Russia. The rocket race will continue. And of course a new president will be elected
before the year is through.”
On the international front, the problem of Cuba loomed large. The editor-in-chief of
a Spanish language newspaper in the U.S. predicted on the 4th of January that,
“Prime Minister Fidel Castro will be assassinated or overthrown within 30 to 60
days.” The editor said, “An invasion of Cuba is being prepared with some five
thousand men…” The invasion attempt did take place, but not until April 1961,
three months after President Kennedy was inaugurated, and it was a disaster for the
CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles and an embarrassment for the new President. No
one in the U.S. would have predicted at the start of 1960 that Castro would continue
to rule Cuba for nearly 50 years.
One article in the 8th of January Tucson newspapers was titled “1960 Shapes Up
As Year Of Momentous Indecision.” The reporter wrote, “The coming 12 months
likely will go into history books as a memorable year of momentous indecision.
Already 1960 is beginning to shape up as a year of high-powered, jet-propelled
diplomacy which promises to be far more spectacular than fruitful.” He continued, “In
prospect is a summit conference of the heads of the four great powers. But the
travels of world leaders are hardly likely to be limited to that, now that a pattern has
been laid down with such commanding authority in 1959 by President Eisenhower
and Soviet Premier Khrushchev. Statesmen, politicians and leaders probably will be
engaged in what will have the look of a frantic search for formulae purportedly aimed
at preserving the peace, but without surrendering either national interests or national
ambitions…. Barring a dramatic accident, 1960 seems fated to become a year of
furious activity dedicated to the major purpose of marking time.”
The Cold War warmed up, however, when Russia announced it would begin testing
rockets in the Pacific on the 15th of January. New reports stated that, “Russia’s
announcement of Pacific rocket firing plans is aimed at impressing Asian nations on
the eve of Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to Indonesia and India, diplomatic
circles said…. It shows the Russians now have the ability to shoot rockets so heavy
that there is not enough room in the vast Soviet territory to test them” Although the
Soviets maintained that the rockets were intended for the launching of Sputniks, the
U.S. suspected that they were intended for use as intercontinental ballistic
missiles.” And so the Cold War and the “rocket race” moved into high gear.
Most of us had not heard of Viet Nam since the French were defeated there in
1954, and we had no idea that the United States was involved in a counter
insurgency operation there. News reports in the first week of 1960 did speak of the
“Far East,” but in the context of Chinese aims against Formosa with little mention of
Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, one reporter warned, “The Red Chinese do not
seem to intend to surrender the momentum of their bid to command the fearful
respect of the world around them.”
Scandals in the record business had been mounting to the point that on the 2nd of
January, it was reported that Congress was contemplating new laws to stamp out
payola and rigging and deception in the TV and radio industry. Soon thereafter,
Charles van Doren was arrested for perjury in testifying that answers had not been
given to him in advance on the TV show “21.” The payola scandal would bring down
a number of disk jockeys and celebrities that we had admired and began a serious
change in the record business.
Buried in the papers of those first few days of 1960 were several important articles
on research that would soon transform medical research and practice. One was a
report of a dog that had lived a week with a transplanted heart. The other report
concerned a scientist at the University of Arizona who received a grant to “probe the
stuff of life.” Dr. Albert Siegel’s grant enabled him to study nucleic acid, which
scientists had determined “tells living cells how to grow.” Dr. Siegel explained in a
newspaper article that “[nucleic acid] is made up of a long string of atoms repeating
themselves in a pattern. It is as if the world ‘cat’ were to be written ‘catcatcatcat.’
Here is where the code comes in. For nucleic acid actually is made of four ‘words’
called nucleotides. And it is thought that the way in which these are arranged in long
‘sentences’ is the code which tells nature what kind of protein to make. In turn the
protein acts as a catalyst to fashion the rest of the things a living cell needs to live
and reproduce.” With this work by Siegel and many others, the mapping of the
human genome had its start.
For those of us at CHS, national and global developments and challenges had to
take a back seat to the challenges of our final semester, exams, lining up summer
work, and then the future: college, the beginning of a trade, or – for a few – military
service. Tucson, located in the desert of the Southwest, seemed very far from the
problems of the rest of the nation or the globe. It would not be long, however, before
our generation was caught up in one of the most divisive, violent, tragic,
revolutionary, and creative decades in recent history.
My last essay dealt with how, at the end of 1959, people of our generation looked
back on the important events of the 1950s. Now we will consider what they thought
the 1960s might hold in store. As with most transitions from one decade to another,
many people felt that the start of the new decade would be a fresh start and a turning
point in their lives. No one could imagine, however, how dramatic that turning point
would be.
For us at Catalina High School, 1960 would be the year of our graduation, the year
we would enter “the real world.” And the world we would soon enter appeared to be
changing rapidly before our eyes. As dangerous as the 1950s Cold War might have
been, the Eisenhower Years had been stable, prosperous, and optimistic. The
1960s would bring new faces, new ideas, new threats, and new forces at work that
would transform the familiar fabric of society.
On the 2nd of January, 1960, we learned that young Senator John F. Kennedy was
entering the presidential race. Until then, and for many months after, it was almost
assumed that Vice President Richard M. Nixon would win an easy victory in the
November election. With Kennedy, a young man of charisma, the political picture
began to change. He appeared to reject much of the thinking of the past when he
called for a “New Frontier.” He especially appealed to young voters when he said,
“we must end or alter the burdensome arms race… maintain the freedom and order
in newly emerging nations, rebuild the stature of American science and education,
and prevent the collapse of our farm economy and the decay of our cities.” Many of
our generation would answer the call when the Kennedy Administration established
the Peace Corps and other public service agencies.
As the new year began, Congress was confronted with “explosive issues,”
according to the newspapers. One reporter wrote on the 4th of January 1960, “Many
of the issues to be dealt with have a familiar ring – civil rights, federal aid for
education, interest rates, defense spending, budget balancing, minimum wage
rates, foreign aid, and farm programs.” In a piece reminiscent of the safe forecasts
of astrologers, U.S. News and World Report predicted, “There probably will be
upsets… and new opportunities… in the turbulent year of 1960…. There will be a
strong new boom in 1960, but along with it – problems, and a growing struggle
against inflation. Profits and income will start up again, but the, cost of things will
edge up also. Politics will get ‘hotter’ and the heat of campaigning often obscures
important trends and issues. School problems will stay in the news [by which the
writer meant the issue of school integration]. New big strikes are an unpleasant
probability [The U.S. had just emerged from a protracted steel strike]. Ike will visit
Russia. The rocket race will continue. And of course a new president will be elected
before the year is through.”
On the international front, the problem of Cuba loomed large. The editor-in-chief of
a Spanish language newspaper in the U.S. predicted on the 4th of January that,
“Prime Minister Fidel Castro will be assassinated or overthrown within 30 to 60
days.” The editor said, “An invasion of Cuba is being prepared with some five
thousand men…” The invasion attempt did take place, but not until April 1961,
three months after President Kennedy was inaugurated, and it was a disaster for the
CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles and an embarrassment for the new President. No
one in the U.S. would have predicted at the start of 1960 that Castro would continue
to rule Cuba for nearly 50 years.
One article in the 8th of January Tucson newspapers was titled “1960 Shapes Up
As Year Of Momentous Indecision.” The reporter wrote, “The coming 12 months
likely will go into history books as a memorable year of momentous indecision.
Already 1960 is beginning to shape up as a year of high-powered, jet-propelled
diplomacy which promises to be far more spectacular than fruitful.” He continued, “In
prospect is a summit conference of the heads of the four great powers. But the
travels of world leaders are hardly likely to be limited to that, now that a pattern has
been laid down with such commanding authority in 1959 by President Eisenhower
and Soviet Premier Khrushchev. Statesmen, politicians and leaders probably will be
engaged in what will have the look of a frantic search for formulae purportedly aimed
at preserving the peace, but without surrendering either national interests or national
ambitions…. Barring a dramatic accident, 1960 seems fated to become a year of
furious activity dedicated to the major purpose of marking time.”
The Cold War warmed up, however, when Russia announced it would begin testing
rockets in the Pacific on the 15th of January. New reports stated that, “Russia’s
announcement of Pacific rocket firing plans is aimed at impressing Asian nations on
the eve of Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to Indonesia and India, diplomatic
circles said…. It shows the Russians now have the ability to shoot rockets so heavy
that there is not enough room in the vast Soviet territory to test them” Although the
Soviets maintained that the rockets were intended for the launching of Sputniks, the
U.S. suspected that they were intended for use as intercontinental ballistic
missiles.” And so the Cold War and the “rocket race” moved into high gear.
Most of us had not heard of Viet Nam since the French were defeated there in
1954, and we had no idea that the United States was involved in a counter
insurgency operation there. News reports in the first week of 1960 did speak of the
“Far East,” but in the context of Chinese aims against Formosa with little mention of
Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, one reporter warned, “The Red Chinese do not
seem to intend to surrender the momentum of their bid to command the fearful
respect of the world around them.”
Scandals in the record business had been mounting to the point that on the 2nd of
January, it was reported that Congress was contemplating new laws to stamp out
payola and rigging and deception in the TV and radio industry. Soon thereafter,
Charles van Doren was arrested for perjury in testifying that answers had not been
given to him in advance on the TV show “21.” The payola scandal would bring down
a number of disk jockeys and celebrities that we had admired and began a serious
change in the record business.
Buried in the papers of those first few days of 1960 were several important articles
on research that would soon transform medical research and practice. One was a
report of a dog that had lived a week with a transplanted heart. The other report
concerned a scientist at the University of Arizona who received a grant to “probe the
stuff of life.” Dr. Albert Siegel’s grant enabled him to study nucleic acid, which
scientists had determined “tells living cells how to grow.” Dr. Siegel explained in a
newspaper article that “[nucleic acid] is made up of a long string of atoms repeating
themselves in a pattern. It is as if the world ‘cat’ were to be written ‘catcatcatcat.’
Here is where the code comes in. For nucleic acid actually is made of four ‘words’
called nucleotides. And it is thought that the way in which these are arranged in long
‘sentences’ is the code which tells nature what kind of protein to make. In turn the
protein acts as a catalyst to fashion the rest of the things a living cell needs to live
and reproduce.” With this work by Siegel and many others, the mapping of the
human genome had its start.
For those of us at CHS, national and global developments and challenges had to
take a back seat to the challenges of our final semester, exams, lining up summer
work, and then the future: college, the beginning of a trade, or – for a few – military
service. Tucson, located in the desert of the Southwest, seemed very far from the
problems of the rest of the nation or the globe. It would not be long, however, before
our generation was caught up in one of the most divisive, violent, tragic,
revolutionary, and creative decades in recent history.
| The News Makers |
| Dwight D, Eisenhower |
| Fidel Castro |
| Nikita Khrushchev |
| Richard Nixon |
| John F. Kennedy |
| Charles van Doren |