March 15, 2024

On This Day: George Washington quells serious discord movement in the military - Mar. 15, 1783

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Newburgh Address (1783)
by George Washington

Delivered in Newburgh, New York on 15 March 1783.

(This address is Washington's answer to the Newburgh letter.)

... And let me conjure you, in the name of our common country, as you value your own sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, and as you regard the military and national character of America, to express your utmost horror and detestation of the man, who wishes, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our country; and who wickedly attempts to open the flood-gates of civil discord, and deluge our rising empire in blood.

Newburgh Conspiracy

The Newburgh Conspiracy was a failed apparent threat by leaders of the Continental Army in March 1783, at the end of the American Revolutionary War. The Army's commander, George Washington, successfully calmed the soldiers and helped secure back pay. The conspiracy may have been instigated by members in the Congress of the Confederation, which circulated an anonymous letter in the army camp at Newburgh, New York, on March 10, 1783. Soldiers were unhappy that they had not been paid for some time and that pensions that had been promised remained unfunded.

The letter suggested that they should take unspecified action against Congress to resolve the issue. The letter was said to have been written by Major John Armstrong, aide to General Horatio Gates, although the authorship and underlying ideas are subjects of historical debate. Commander-in-Chief George Washington stopped any serious talk of rebellion when he made an emotional address to his officers asking them to support the supremacy of Congress. Not long afterward, Congress approved a compromise agreement that it had previously rejected: it funded some of the pay arrears, and granted soldiers five years of full pay instead of a lifetime pension of half pay.

The motivations of numerous actors in these events are debated. Most historians say that the plot was led by civilians. Their goal was forcing Congress to make good on its long-standing promises to the soldiers. Some historians allege that serious consideration was given within the army to some sort of coup d'état, while others dispute the notion. The exact motivations of congressmen involved in communications with army officers implicated in the events are similarly debated.

Background

A number of officers organized under the leadership of General Henry Knox and drafted a memorandum to Congress. Signed by enough general officers that it could not be readily dismissed as the work of a few malcontents, the memo was delivered to Congress by a delegation consisting of General Alexander McDougall and Colonels John Brooks and Matthias Ogden in late December 1782.

It expressed unhappiness over pay that was months in arrears, and concern over the possibility that the half pay pension would not be forthcoming. The seriousness of the situation was also communicated to Congress by Secretary at War Benjamin Lincoln.

Actions of Congress

Congress was bitterly divided on the subject of finance, with Rhode Island preventing action. The treasury was empty, and Congress lacked the power to compel the states to provide the necessary funds for meeting its obligations.

The army delegation first met with Robert Morris and other nationalists. The politicians convinced McDougall that it was imperative for the army to remain cooperative while they sought funding. The hope they expressed was to tie the army's demands to those of the government's other creditors to force opposing Congressmen to act.

[Secret resignation]

On January 6 Congress established a committee to address the army's memo. When it met with McDougall on January 13, the general painted a stark picture of the discontent at Newburgh; Colonel Brooks opined that "a disappointment might throw [the army] into blind extremities." When Congress met on January 22 to debate the committee's report, Robert Morris shocked the body by tendering his resignation, heightening tension. The Congressional leadership immediately moved to keep Morris's resignation secret.

The arrival on February 13 of rumors that a preliminary peace agreement had been reached in Paris heightened the sense of urgency among the nationalists. Alexander Hamilton wrote a letter to General Washington the same day, essentially warning him of the possibility of impending unrest among the ranks, and urging him to "take the direction" of the army's anger.

[Washington stands up for the Republic]

Washington responded that he sympathized both with the plight of his officers and men and with those in Congress, but that he would not use the army to threaten the civil government. Washington believed such a course of action would violate the principles of republicanism for which they had all been fighting.

Call for meeting, [an ultimatum]

On the morning of March 10 an unsigned letter began circulating in the army camp. Later acknowledged to be written by Major John Armstrong, Jr., aide to General Gates, the letter decried the army's condition and the lack of Congressional support, and called upon the army to send Congress an ultimatum. Published at the same time was an anonymous call for a meeting of all field officers for 11 a.m. the next day.

The Newburgh Address

Washington reacted with dispatch. On the morning of the 11th in his general orders he objected to the "disorderly" and "irregular" nature of the anonymously called meeting, and announced that there would be a meeting of officers on the 15th instead. This meeting, he said, would be presided over by the senior officer present, and Washington requested a report of the meeting, implying that he would not attend. On the morning of the 12th a second unsigned letter appeared, claiming Washington's agreement to a meeting as an endorsement of the conspirators' position. Washington, who had initially thought the first letter to be the work of individuals outside the camp (specifically citing Gouverneur Morris as a likely candidate), was compelled to admit this unlikely given the speed at which the second letter appeared.

The March 15 meeting was held in the "New Building" or "Temple", a 40 by 70-foot building at the camp. After Gates opened the meeting, Washington entered the building to everyone's surprise. He asked to speak to the officers, and the stunned Gates relinquished the floor. Washington could tell by the faces of his officers, who had not been paid for quite some time, that they were quite angry and did not show the respect or deference as they had toward Washington in the past.

Washington then gave a short but impassioned speech, now known as the Newburgh Address, counseling patience. His message was that they should oppose anyone "who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood." He then produced a letter from a member of Congress to read to the officers. He gazed upon it and fumbled with it without speaking. He then took a pair of reading glasses from his pocket, which were new; few of the men had seen him wear them. He then said:

Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.

[Moved to tears]

This caused the men to realize that Washington had sacrificed a great deal for the Revolution, just as much as any of them. These, of course, were his fellow officers, most having worked closely with him for several years. Many of those present were moved to tears, and with this act, the conspiracy collapsed as he read the letter.

He then left the room, and General Knox and others offered resolutions reaffirming their loyalty. Knox and Colonel Brooks were then appointed to a committee to draft a suitable resolution. Approved by virtually the entire assembly, the resolution expressed "unshaken confidence" in Congress, and "disdain" and "abhorrence" for the irregular proposals published earlier in the week.

Historian Richard Kohn believes the entire meeting was carefully stage-managed by Washington, Knox, and their supporters. The only voice raised in opposition was that of Colonel Timothy Pickering, who criticized members of the assembly for hypocritically condemning the anonymous addresses that only days before they had been praising.

[Army disbanded]

The soldiers continued to grumble, with the unrest spreading to the noncommissioned officers (sergeants and corporals). Riots occurred and mutiny threatened. Washington rejected suggestions that the army stay in operation until the states found the money for the pay. On April 19, 1783, his General Orders of the day announced the end of hostilities against Great Britain. Congress thereafter ordered him to disband the army, since everyone agreed that a large army of 10,000 men was no longer needed, and the men were eager to go home.

Congress gave each soldier three months pay, but since they had no funds Robert Morris issued $800,000 in personal notes to the soldiers. Many soldiers sold these notes to speculators, some even before they left camp, in order to be able to make their way home. Over the next several months, much of the Continental Army was furloughed, although many of the rank and file realized it was effectively a disbandment. The army was formally disbanded in November 1783, leaving only a small force at West Point and several scattered frontier outposts.

Discontent related to pay had resurfaced in Philadelphia in June 1783. Due in part to a critical miscommunication, troops in eastern Pennsylvania were led to believe that they would be discharged even before Morris' promissory notes would be distributed, and they marched to the city in protest. Pennsylvania President John Dickinson refused to call out the militia (reasoning they might actually support the mutineers), and Congress decided to relocate to Princeton, New Jersey. There is circumstantial evidence that several participants in the Newburgh affair (notably Walter Stewart, John Armstrong, and Gouverneur Morris) may have played a role in this uprising as well.

Although many acts have been passed since to grant pensions to veterans of the revolutionary war, most notably the Pension Act of 1832, escaped slaves who fought in the war were denied pension, one of whom was Jehu Grant. Grant's 1832 pension application stated that during the Revolutionary War he had escaped from his enslaver, a Loyalist from New England, so that he would not be compelled to serve in the British forces. The application was rejected in 1834 due to Grant being an escaped slave. However, many freed slaves and slaves who enlisted with their owners' permission were granted pensions such as in the case of Jeffrey Brace, who was granted pension in 1821.

[Civilian control of military]
[Coups against republican values]

The main long-term result of the Newburgh affair was a strong reaffirmation of the principle of civilian control of the military, and banishing any possibility of a coup as outside the realm of republican values. It also validated Washington's stature as a leading proponent of civilian control.
"
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Newburgh_address
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newburgh_Conspiracy

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On This Day: King fails to stop controversial execution of British admiral - Mar. 14, 1757
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374271

On This Day: Finland cedes major assets to Soviets as Winter War ends - Mar. 13, 1940
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374215

On This Day: Cold War starts; U.S. pledges to oppose Soviet bloc spread of authoritarianism - Mar. 12, 1947
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374192

On This Day: President Biden signs $1.9 trillion rescue plan funds to be spent by Dec. 2026 - Mar. 11, 2021https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374122

On This Day: Batista, running third in the polls, cancels election and seizes the gov't - Mar. 10, 1952
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374081

March 14, 2024

On This Day: King fails to stop controversial execution of British admiral - Mar. 14, 1757

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
John Byng

Admiral John Byng (1704 – 1757) was a British Royal Navy officer who was court-martialed and executed by firing squad. After joining the navy at the age of thirteen, he participated at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. Over the next thirty years he built up a reputation as a solid naval officer and received promotion to vice-admiral in 1747. He also served as Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland Colony in 1742, Commander-in-Chief, Leith, 1745 to 1746 and was a member of Parliament from 1751 until his death.

Byng failed to relieve a besieged British garrison during the Battle of Minorca at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. He had sailed for Minorca at the head of a hastily assembled fleet of vessels, some of which were in poor condition. In the ensuing battle with a French fleet off the Minorcan coast, he was defeated and the fleet under his command considerably damaged. He then elected to return to Gibraltar to repair his ships. Upon return to Britain, Byng was court-martialled and found guilty of failing to "do his utmost" to prevent Minorca from falling to the French. He was sentenced to death and, after pleas for clemency were denied, was shot dead by a firing squad on 14 March 1757.

Career

John Byng entered the Royal Navy in March 1718, aged 13, when his father was a well-established admiral at the peak of a uniformly successful career. Early in his career, Byng was assigned to a series of Mediterranean postings. In 1723, aged 19, he was promoted lieutenant and, at 23, rose to become captain of HMS Gibraltar. His Mediterranean service continued until 1739 without much action.

In 1742 he was appointed Commodore-Governor of the British colony of Newfoundland. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1745 and appointed Commander-in-Chief, Leith, a post he held until 1746. Byng, stationed off Scotland, thwarted the resupply of the Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart, during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. The admiral also assisted the Duke of Cumberland in Britain's crackdown after the Battle of Culloden. He was promoted to vice-admiral in 1747 and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. He served as a Member of Parliament for Rochester from 1751 until his death.

Battle of Minorca

We have lately been told
Of two admirals bold,
Who engag'd in a terrible Fight:
They met after Noon,
Which I think was too soon,
As they both ran away before Night.

The island of Minorca had been a British possession since 1708, when it was captured during the War of the Spanish Succession. On the approach of the Seven Years' War, numerous British diplomats based in the Mediterranean raised the alarm that Minorca was threatened by a French naval attack from Toulon.

Byng was given orders to raise a fleet on March 1756, with only six of ten assigned ships present in Portsmouth, and all of them severely undermanned. Byng's orders were multiplex, his first target being the alleged new French fleet at Toulon, while the British garrison of Fort St Philip at Port Mahon was a secondary concern.

Despite his protests, he was not given enough money or time to prepare the expedition properly. His fleet was delayed in Portsmouth for over a month and Byng was ordered by the Admiralty Office to outfit other channel ships ahead of his own fleet. Additionally, half of his assigned ships were in disrepair or missing. When the Defiance pulled into Portsmouth, for example, the warship was missing its fore and main topmast.

By 6 April, still short of over 800 men, Byng set sail from Portsmouth using Colonel Robert Bertie's fusiliers in place of sailors.

Byng arrived at Gibraltar and was told of the French landing. Remarkably, General Thomas Fowke, then in command at Gibraltar, held a war council and refused to supply Byng with a regiment of marines, as ordered by the War Office. Further, naval facilities at Gibraltar were dilapidated.

Byng wrote a letter to the Admiralty Office explaining the situation as dire. Many military historians have interpreted that dispatch as Byng preparing for failure and that Byng did not believe that the garrison could hold out against the French force. Without marines to land, and with only fusiliers to lend to the garrison (which would render his fleet – once again – severely undermanned), Byng nonetheless steered his fleet toward Minorca to assess the situation for himself.

Byng sailed on 8 May 1756. On 19 May, Byng's fleet appeared off of Port Mahon and he endeavoured to open communications with the fort. The French squadron appeared before he could open up a line of communication with any fort officer, however.

The Battle of Minorca was fought on the following day. Byng had gained the weather gage, which both forces had attempted to gain. However, the two fleets were not parallel with one another. Byng called for a lasking manoeuvre, meaning that all his ships would turn in unison and, with the wind behind them, sail straight toward the enemy bow first.

Because of the angle, the leading van took the brunt of the damage. The last ship in that squadron, the Intrepid, was heavily damaged, losing three of its masts including the main. The next three ships, the Revenge, Princess Louisa and Trident, did not pass the now listing Intrepid to keep the sanctity of the battle line. Instead, those ships nearly collided with one another, with Captain Frederick Cornwall of the Revenge eventually navigating his ship between the Intrepid and the enemy.

Byng's battle line was broken. It cost Byng twenty to thirty minutes to reform the line and once the line was reformed, the French pulled full sail and expediently pulled away.

Byng remained near Minorca for four days without establishing communication with the fort or sighting the French. On 24 May, he called a war council of his own where, by unanimous voting, Byng's fleet would return to Gibraltar for repairs, succour, sailors and more marines for the garrison. The fleet arrived at Gibraltar on 19 June, where they were reinforced with four more ships of the line and a 50-gun frigate. Repairs were effected to the damaged vessels and additional water and provisions were loaded aboard. But, before his fleet could return to sea, another ship arrived from England with further instructions, relieving Byng, Fowke and several others of their command and ordering a return to home.

On arrival in England, Byng was placed in custody. The garrison resisted the Siege of Fort St Philip until 29 June, when it was forced to capitulate.

Fallout after Minorca

News of the Battle of Minorca's outcome was wanting. The Newcastle ministry had suffered military setbacks elsewhere in the British Empire; George Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity, Edward Braddock's army's losses in Pennsylvania, the siege of Fort Oswego, and the renewal of the Carnatic Wars in India with the fall of Calcutta. Domestically, conditions were also horrid: food riots had broken out, beginning in the Midlands, spreading to Wales to the south and as far north as Glasgow. Another failure would challenge Newcastle's hold on power. Indeed, in the wake of publication of the battle, George II was flooded with petitions and addresses to investigate the government's poor handling of a whole host of issues.

When news of the Battle of Minorca did arrive, it was via a Spanish diplomat, who carried a dispatch from the French admiral, Byng's counterpart, Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière. Without any word from Byng, or any other naval or army officer attached to his fleet, ministers chose to recall several officers, Byng included. It would be another 20 days before Byng's version of the battle arrived in London. By then, however, ministers had chosen a course of action detrimental to Byng.[citation needed]

On 26 June 1756, the government newspaper, The London Gazette, printed an edited version of Byng's report removing passages and rewording others to make the admiral appear a coward. Protest against Byng began with effigy burnings mostly in port cities throughout England and one as far away as Boston, Massachusetts.

Even prior to the battle, George Bubb Dodington informed Henry Fox that ministers had already chosen a scapegoat in case events in the Mediterranean went astray. Clearly the government had chosen Byng to take the fall for their neglect of the Mediterranean theatre.

Court-martial

Byng's perceived failure to relieve the garrison at Minorca caused public outrage among fellow officers and the country at large. Byng was brought home to be tried by court-martial for breach of the Articles of War which had been revised eleven years prior to mandate capital punishment for officers who did not do their utmost against the enemy, either in battle or pursuit.

Byng's court-martial was convened on 28 December 1756 aboard the elderly 96-gun vessel HMS St George, which was anchored in Portsmouth Harbour.

The court acquitted Byng of personal cowardice. However, its principal findings were that Byng had failed to keep his fleet together while engaging the French; that his flagship had opened fire at too great a distance to have any effect; and that he should have proceeded to the immediate relief of Minorca rather than returning to Gibraltar. As a consequence of these actions, the court held that Byng had "not done his utmost" to engage or destroy the enemy, thereby breaching the 12th Article of War.

Once the court determined that Byng had "failed to do his utmost", it had no discretion over punishment under the Articles of War. In accordance with those Articles the court condemned Byng to death, but unanimously recommended that the Lords of the Admiralty ask King George II to exercise his royal prerogative of mercy.

Death warrant [not signed]

It fell to Admiral John Forbes, in his role as Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty, to sign Byng's death warrant. This he refused to do, believing the sentence to be illegal, instead attaching to the warrant a document explaining his refusal.

Clemency denied and execution

First Lord of the Admiralty Richard Grenville-Temple was granted an audience with George II, to request clemency, but this was refused in an angry exchange. Four members of the board of the court-martial petitioned Parliament, seeking to be relieved from their oath of secrecy to speak on Byng's behalf. The Commons passed a measure allowing this, but the Lords rejected the proposal.

Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder was aware that the Admiralty was at least partly to blame for the loss at Minorca due to the poor manning and repair of the fleet. The Duke of Newcastle, the politician responsible, had by now joined the Prime Minister in an uneasy political coalition and this made it difficult for Pitt to contest the court-martial's verdict as strongly as he would have liked. He did, however, petition the King to commute the death sentence. The appeal was refused; Pitt and the king were political opponents, with Pitt having pressed for George to relinquish his hereditary position of Elector of Hanover as being a conflict of interest with the government's policies in Europe.

The severity of the penalty, combined with suspicion that the Admiralty had sought to protect themselves from public anger over the defeat by throwing all the blame on the admiral, led to a reaction in favour of Byng in both the Navy and the country, which had previously demanded retribution. Pitt, then Leader of the House of Commons, told the King: "the House of Commons, Sir, is inclined to mercy", to which George responded: "You have taught me to look for the sense of my people elsewhere than in the House of Commons."

The King did not exercise his prerogative to grant clemency. Following the court-martial and pronouncement of sentence, Byng was detained aboard HMS Monarch in the Solent and, on 14 March 1757, he was taken to the quarterdeck for execution in the presence of all hands and men from other ships of the fleet in boats surrounding Monarch. The admiral knelt on a cushion and signified his readiness by dropping his handkerchief, whereupon a squad of Marines shot him dead.

Legacy [and Voltaire]

Byng's execution was satirised by Voltaire in his novel Candide. In Portsmouth, Candide witnesses the execution of an officer by firing squad and is told that "in this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others."

Byng was the last of his rank to be executed in this fashion and, 22 years after the event, the Articles of War were amended to allow "such other punishment as the nature and degree of the offence shall be found to deserve" as an alternative to capital punishment.

In 2007, some descendants of the Byng family petitioned the government for a posthumous pardon. The Ministry of Defence refused. Members of his family continue to seek a pardon, along with a group at Southill in Bedfordshire where the Byng family lived.

Byng's execution has been called "the worst legalistic crime in the nation's annals". Some defend the policy, however; naval historian N. A. M. Rodger believes it may have influenced the behaviour of later naval officers by helping inculcate:

a culture of aggressive determination which set British officers apart from their foreign contemporaries, and which in time gave them a steadily mounting psychological ascendancy. More and more in the course of the century, and for long afterwards, British officers encountered opponents who expected to be attacked, and more than half expected to be beaten, so that [the latter] went into action with an invisible disadvantage which no amount of personal courage or numerical strength could entirely make up for.

Such policy considerations were no comfort to the family of their victim. Warren Tute said "far from encouraging anyone at all, this judicial murder had the opposite effect". Admiral Byng was buried in the Byng vault at the Church of All Saints in Southill, Bedfordshire. His epitaph there expresses their view:

To the perpetual Disgrace
of PUBLICK JUSTICE
The Honble. JOHN BYNG Esqr
Admiral of the Blue
Fell a MARTYR to
POLITICAL PERSECUTION
March 14th in the year 1757 when
BRAVERY and LOYALTY
were Insufficient Securities
For the
Life and Honour
of a
NAVAL OFFICER

"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng

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On This Day: Finland cedes major assets to Soviets as Winter War ends - Mar. 13, 1940
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374215

On This Day: Cold War starts; U.S. pledges to oppose Soviet bloc spread of authoritarianism - Mar. 12, 1947
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374192

On This Day: President Biden signs $1.9 trillion rescue plan funds to be spent by Dec. 2026 - Mar. 11, 2021https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374122

On This Day: Batista, running third in the polls, cancels election and seizes the gov't - Mar. 10, 1952
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374081

On This Day: French face killing/torture after Japanese coup in Indochina - Mar. 9, 1945
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374038

March 13, 2024

On This Day: Finland cedes major assets to Soviets as Winter War ends - Mar. 13, 1940

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Winter War

The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union.

The Soviets made several demands, including that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons – primarily the protection of Leningrad, 20 mi from the Finnish border. When Finland refused, the Soviets invaded. Most sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and cite the establishment of the puppet Finnish Communist government and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols as evidence of this, while other sources argue against the idea of a full Soviet conquest.

Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders in temperatures as low as ?43 °C (?45 °F). The battles focused mainly on Taipale along the Karelian Isthmus, on Kollaa in Ladoga Karelia and on Raate Road in Kainuu, but there were also battles in Salla and Petsamo in Lapland.

Following the initial setbacks, the Soviets reduced their strategic objectives and put an end to the puppet Finnish communist government in late January 1940, informing the Finnish government that they were willing to negotiate peace. After the Soviet military reorganized and adopted different tactics, they renewed their offensive in February 1940 and overcame the Finnish defences on the Karelian Isthmus. This left the Finnish army in the main theatre of war near the breaking point, with a retreat seeming inevitable. Consequently, Finnish commander-in-chief Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim urged a peace deal with the Soviets, while the Finns still retained bargaining power.

Hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty in which Finland ceded 9% of its territory to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the country's international reputation suffered. Their gains exceeded their pre-war demands, and the Soviets received substantial territories along Lake Ladoga and further north. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to believe that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful and confirmed negative Western opinions of the Soviet military. After 15 months of Interim Peace, in June 1941, Germany commenced Operation Barbarossa, and the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviets began.

Soviet offensive on the Karelian Isthmus

The Soviets increased bombardments, wearing down the defenders and softening their fortifications. During daylight hours, the Finns took shelter inside their fortifications from the bombardments and repaired damage during the night. The situation led quickly to war exhaustion among the Finns, who lost over 3,000 soldiers in trench warfare. The Soviets also made occasional small infantry assaults with one or two companies. Because of the shortage of ammunition, Finnish artillery emplacements were under orders to fire only against directly threatening ground attacks. On 1 February, the Soviets further escalated their artillery and air bombardments.

Although the Soviets refined their tactics and morale improved, the generals were still willing to accept massive losses to reach their objectives. Attacks were screened by smoke, heavy artillery, and armour support, but the infantry charged in the open and in dense formations. Unlike their tactics in December, Soviet tanks advanced in smaller numbers. The Finns could not easily eliminate tanks if infantry troops protected them. After 10 days of constant artillery barrage, the Soviets achieved a breakthrough on the Western Karelian Isthmus in the Second Battle of Summa.

By 11 February, the Soviets had approximately 460,000 soldiers, 3,350 artillery pieces, 3,000 tanks and 1,300 aircraft deployed on the Karelian Isthmus. The Red Army was constantly receiving new recruits after the breakthrough. Opposing them, the Finns had eight divisions, totalling about 150,000 soldiers. One by one, the defenders' strongholds crumbled under the Soviet attacks and the Finns were forced to retreat. On 15 February, Mannerheim authorised a general retreat of the II Corps to a fallback line of defence. On the eastern side of the isthmus, the Finns continued to resist Soviet assaults, achieving a stalemate in the battle of Taipale.

Peace negotiations

Although the Finns attempted to re-open negotiations with Moscow by every means during the war, the Soviets did not respond. In early January, Finnish communist Hella Wuolijoki contacted the Finnish Government. She offered to contact Moscow through the Soviet Union's ambassador to Sweden, Alexandra Kollontai. Wuolijoki departed for Stockholm and met Kollontai secretly at a hotel. On 29 January, Molotov put an end to the puppet Terijoki Government and recognized the Ryti–Tanner government as the legal government of Finland, informing it that the USSR was willing to negotiate peace.

By mid-February, it became clear that the Finnish forces were rapidly approaching exhaustion. For the Soviets, casualties were high, the situation was a source of political embarrassment to the Soviet regime, and there was a risk of Franco-British intervention (which was overestimated by Soviet intelligence in February and March 1940). With the spring thaw approaching, the Soviet forces risked becoming bogged down in the forests. Finnish Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner arrived in Stockholm on 12 February and negotiated the peace terms with the Soviets through the Swedes.

Both Germany and Sweden were keen to see an end to the Winter War. The Germans feared losing the iron ore fields in Northern Sweden and threatened to attack at once if the Swedes granted the Allied forces right of passage. The German invasion plan, named Studie Nord, was later implemented as Operation Weserübung. Leon Trotsky opined after the war that Hitler would view a Soviet occupation of Finland as a threat to this plan. Any potential German plans for bases in Finland would also be thwarted if the Soviets occupied Finland, though Trotsky himself believed that Hitler was not interested in occupying Finland, but rather its role as a buffer between Germany and the USSR.

End of war in March

On 9 March, the Finnish military situation on the Karelian Isthmus was dire, as troops were experiencing heavy casualties. Artillery ammunition was exhausted and weapons were wearing out. The Finnish government, realizing that the hoped-for Franco-British military expedition would not arrive in time, as Norway and Sweden had not given the Allies right of passage, had little choice but to accept the Soviet terms. Finnish President Kyösti Kallio resisted the idea of giving up any territory to the Soviet Union, but eventually agreed to sign the Moscow Peace Treaty. When he signed the document, the tormented president uttered the well-known words:

Let the hand wither that signs this monstrous treaty!

Moscow Peace Treaty

The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed in Moscow on 12 March 1940. A cease-fire took effect the next day at noon Leningrad time, 11 a.m. Helsinki time. With it, Finland ceded a portion of Karelia, the entire Karelian Isthmus and land north of Lake Ladoga. The area included Viipuri (Finland's second-largest city [Population Register] or fourth-largest city [Church and Civil Register], depending on the census data), much of Finland's industrialised territory, and significant land still held by Finland's military – all in all, nine per cent of Finnish territory. The ceded territory included 13 per cent of Finland's economic assets. 12 per cent of Finland's population, 422,000 to 450,000 Karelians, were evacuated and lost their homes. Finland ceded a part of the region of Salla, Rybachy Peninsula in the Barents Sea, and four islands in the Gulf of Finland. The Hanko peninsula was leased to the Soviet Union as a military base for 30 years. The region of Petsamo, captured by the Red Army during the war, was returned to Finland according to the treaty.

Finnish concessions and territorial losses exceeded Soviet pre-war demands.

Aftermath and casualties

The 105-day war had a profound and depressing effect in Finland. Meaningful international support was minimal and arrived late, and the German blockade had prevented most armament shipments.

Immediately after the war, Helsinki officially announced 19,576 dead. According to revised estimates in 2005 by Finnish historians, 25,904 people died or went missing and 43,557 were wounded on the Finnish side during the war.

The official Soviet figure published on 26 March 1940, with 48,475 dead and 158,863 sick and wounded. More recent Russian estimates vary. In 2013, Pavel Petrov stated that the Russian State Military Archive has a database confirming 167,976 killed or missing along with the soldiers' names, dates of birth and ranks.

Germany

The Winter War was a political success for the Germans. Both the Red Army and the League of Nations were humiliated, and the Anglo-French Supreme War Council had been revealed to be chaotic and powerless. The German policy of neutrality was unpopular in the homeland, and relations with Italy had suffered. After the Moscow Peace Treaty, Germany improved its ties with Finland, and within two weeks, Finnish-German relations were at the top of the agenda. More importantly, the very poor performance of the Red Army convinced Hitler that an invasion on the Soviet Union would be successful. In June 1941, Hitler declared, "we have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down".

Allies

The Winter War laid bare the disorganisation and ineffectiveness of the Red Army and that of the Allies. The Anglo-French Supreme War Council was unable to formulate a workable plan, revealing its unsuitability to make effective war in either Britain or France. This failure led to the collapse of the Third Daladier Government in France and the nomination of Paul Reynaud as the new Prime Minister of France.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War

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On This Day: Cold War starts; U.S. pledges to oppose Soviet bloc spread of authoritarianism - Mar. 12, 1947
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374192

On This Day: President Biden signs $1.9 trillion rescue plan funds to be spent by Dec. 2026 - Mar. 11, 2021https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374122

On This Day: Batista, running third in the polls, cancels election and seizes the gov't - Mar. 10, 1952
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374081

On This Day: French face killing/torture after Japanese coup in Indochina - Mar. 9, 1945
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374038

On This Day: Intl Women's Day history features women's activism in Russia, other countries - Mar. 8, 1917
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373993

March 12, 2024

On This Day: Cold War starts; U.S. pledges to oppose Soviet bloc spread of authoritarianism - Mar. 12, 1947

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine is an American foreign policy that pledges American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats." The doctrine originated with the primary goal of countering the growth of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, and further developed on July 4, 1948, when he pledged to oppose the communist rebellions in Greece and Soviet demands from Turkey. More generally, the Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations threatened by Moscow. It led to the formation of NATO in 1949. Historians often use Truman's speech to Congress on March 12, 1947 to date the start of the Cold War.

Truman told Congress that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Truman contended that because totalitarian regimes coerced free peoples, they automatically represented a threat to international peace and the national security of the United States. Truman argued that if Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid, they would inevitably fall out of the United States sphere of influence and into the communist bloc with grave consequences throughout the region.

The Truman Doctrine was informally extended to become the basis of American Cold War policy throughout Europe and around the world. It shifted U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union from a wartime alliance to containment of Soviet expansion, as advocated by diplomat George Kennan. It was distinguished from rollback by implicitly tolerating the previous Soviet takeovers in Eastern Europe.

The Turkish Straits

At the conclusion of World War II, Turkey was pressured by the Soviet government to allow Russian shipping to flow freely through the Turkish Straits, which connected the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. As the Turkish government would not submit to the Soviet Union's requests, tensions arose in the region, leading to a show of naval force on the site of the Straits. Since British assistance to Turkey had ended in 1947, the U.S. dispatched military aid to ensure that Turkey would retain chief control of the passage. Turkey received $100 million in economic and military aid and the U.S. Navy sent the Midway-class aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Greek crisis

By late 1946, Britain informed the United States that due to its own weakening economy, it could no longer continue to provide military and economic support to royalist Greece.

In 1946–47, the United States and the Soviet Union moved from being wartime allies to Cold War adversaries. The breakdown of Allied cooperation in Germany provided a backdrop of escalating tensions for the Truman Doctrine. To Truman, the growing unrest in Greece began to look like a pincer movement against the oil-rich areas of the Middle East and the warm-water ports of the Mediterranean.

In February 1946, Kennan, an American diplomat in Moscow, sent his famed "Long Telegram", which predicted the Soviets would only respond to force and that the best way to handle them would be through a long-term strategy of containment; that is, stopping their geographical expansion. After the British warned that they could no longer help Greece, and following Prime Minister Konstantinos Tsaldaris's visit to Washington in December 1946 to ask for American assistance, the U.S. State Department formulated a plan. Aid would be given to both Greece and Turkey, to help cool the long-standing rivalry between them.

American policy makers recognized the instability of the region, fearing that if Greece was lost to communism, Turkey would not last long. Similarly, if Turkey yielded to Soviet demands, the position of Greece would be endangered. A regional domino effect threat therefore guided the American decision. Greece and Turkey were strategic allies important for geographical reasons as well, for the fall of Greece would put the Soviets on a particularly dangerous flank for the Turks, and strengthen the Soviet Union's ability to cut off allied supply lines in the event of war.

Truman's address

To pass any legislation Truman needed the support of the Republicans, who controlled both houses of Congress. The chief Republican spokesman Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg strongly supported Truman and overcame the doubts of isolationists such as Senator Robert A. Taft. Truman laid the groundwork for his request by having key congressional leaders meet with himself, Secretary of State George Marshall, and Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson.

Acheson laid out the "domino theory" in the starkest terms, comparing a communist state to a rotten apple that could spread its infection to an entire barrel. Vandenberg was impressed, and advised Truman to appear before Congress and "scare the hell out of the American people." On March 7, Acheson warned Truman that the communists in Greece could win within weeks without outside aid.

When a draft for Truman's address was circulated to policymakers, Marshall, Kennan, and others criticized it for containing excess "rhetoric." Truman responded that, as Vandenberg had suggested, his request would only be approved if he played up the threat.

On March 12, 1947, Truman appeared before a joint session of Congress. In his eighteen-minute speech, he stated:

I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.

I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.

I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes.

The domestic reaction to Truman's speech was broadly positive, though there were dissenters. Anti-communists in both parties supported both Truman's proposed aid package and the doctrine behind it, and Collier's described it as a "popularity jackpot" for the President. Influential columnist Walter Lippmann was more skeptical, noting the open-ended nature of Truman's pledge; he felt so strongly that he almost came to blows while arguing with Acheson over the doctrine. Others argued that the Greek monarchy Truman proposed to defend was itself a repressive government, rather than a democracy.

Despite these objections, the fear of that there was a growing communist threat almost guaranteed the bill's passage.  In May 1947, two months after Truman's request, a large majority of Congress approved $400 million in military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey. Increased American aid assisted the Greek government's defeat of the KKE, after interim defeats for government forces from 1946 to 1948. The Truman Doctrine was the first in a series of containment moves by the United States, followed by economic restoration of Western Europe through the Marshall Plan and military containment by the creation of NATO in 1949.

Long-term policy and metaphor

Historian Eric Foner writes that the doctrine "set a precedent for American assistance to anticommunist regimes throughout the world, no matter how undemocratic, and for the creation of a set of global military alliances directed against the Soviet Union."

The Truman Doctrine underpinned American Cold War policy in Europe and around the world. In the words of historian James T. Patterson:

The Truman Doctrine was a highly publicized commitment of a sort the administration had not previously undertaken. Its sweeping rhetoric, promising that the United States should aid all 'free people' being subjugated, set the stage for innumerable later ventures that led to globalisation commitments. It was in these ways a major step.

The doctrine endured, historian Dennis Merill argues, because it addressed broader cultural insecurity regarding modern life in a globalized world. It dealt with Washington's concern over communism's domino effect, it enabled a media-sensitive presentation of the doctrine that won bipartisan support, and it mobilized American economic power to modernize and stabilize unstable regions without direct military intervention. It brought nation-building activities and modernization programs to the forefront of foreign policy.

The Truman Doctrine became a metaphor for aid to keep a nation from communist influence. Truman used disease imagery not only to communicate a sense of impending disaster in the spread of communism but also to create a "rhetorical vision" of containing it by extending a protective shield around non-communist countries throughout the world. It echoed the "quarantine the aggressor" policy Truman's predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had sought to impose to contain German and Japanese expansion in 1937 ("quarantine" suggested the role of public health officials handling an infectious disease). The medical metaphor extended beyond the immediate aims of the Truman Doctrine in that the imagery combined with fire and flood imagery evocative of disaster provided the United States with an easy transition to direct military confrontation in later years with the Korean War and the Vietnam War. By framing ideological differences in life or death terms, Truman was able to garner support for this communism-containing policy.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Doctrine

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On This Day: President Biden signs $1.9 trillion rescue plan funds to be spent by Dec. 2026 - Mar. 11, 2021https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374122

On This Day: Batista, running third in the polls, cancels election and seizes the gov't - Mar. 10, 1952
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374081

On This Day: French face killing/torture after Japanese coup in Indochina - Mar. 9, 1945
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374038

On This Day: Intl Women's Day history features women's activism in Russia, other countries - Mar. 8, 1917
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373993

On This Day: Approx. 600 civil rights marchers brutally attacked by police in Selma, Alabama - Mar. 7, 1965
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373913

March 11, 2024

On This Day: President Biden signs $1.9 trillion rescue plan funds to be spent by Dec. 2026 - Mar. 11, 2021

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also called the COVID-19 Stimulus Package or American Rescue Plan, is a US$1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021, to speed up the country's recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. First proposed on January 14, 2021, the package builds upon many of the measures in the CARES Act from March 2020 and in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, from December.

On February 8, 2021, the Financial Services and Education and Labor committees released a draft of $1.9 trillion stimulus legislation. A portion of the relief package was approved by the House Ways and Means on February 11, setting it up for a vote in the House. The legislation was also approved by the Transportation and Infrastructure, Small Business, and House Veterans Affairs committees. On February 22, the House Budget Committee voted 19–16 to advance the bill to the House for a floor vote. The bill passed the House by a vote of 219–212 on February 27. All but two Democrats voted for the bill and all Republicans voted against the bill. A modified version passed the Senate on March 6 by a vote of 50–49. The final amended bill was passed by the House on March 10 by a vote of 220–211 with one Democrat (Jared Golden) voting against it alongside all Republicans. The bill was signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021.

The American Rescue Plan Act provided for direct economic stimulus payments to individual taxpayers with incomes of $75,000 or less. The Act also allocated $350 billion in assistance to state and local governments, $14 billion for COVID-19 vaccine distribution, and $130 billion to schools to help them safely re-open for in-person instruction. The Act included $300 billion in unemployment benefits that were scheduled to extend through Labor Day 2021, as well as an expanded child tax credit. In addition, the Act called for the distribution of $50 billion to small businesses and another $25 billion for relief for small and mid-sized restaurants. The Act expanded eligibility for Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies and gave states incentives to expand Medicaid.

Key elements

The Act allocated $60 billion to counties and $10 billion for a Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund. (The bill initially passed by the House would have instead allocated $65 billion to counties and $65 billion to municipalities; rather, the Senate formula was adopted). Key elements and provisions of the Act include:

Employment

Extending expanded unemployment benefits with a $300 weekly supplement through Labor Day (September 6, 2021), preventing benefits from expiring on March 31, 2021.
Most Democrats favored a higher unemployment benefit amount. The version of the bill initially passed by the House provided for a $400 weekly supplement. Also, some favored continuing the benefits through early October 2021; however, the final bill contained a scaled-back provision at the insistence of Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and other moderate Senate Democrats.
The Act made the first $10,200 in unemployment benefits for 2020 non-taxable for households with incomes below $150,000, thus avoiding the risk of many workers incurring surprise federal tax liability.
The Act provided for $1,400 direct economic stimulus payments to individuals.
The Act granted emergency paid leave to over 100 million Americans.
The Act provided a tax credit through October 1, 2021, to employers who chose to offer paid sick leave and paid family leave benefits. However, the Act did not require employers to provide the benefit, as Biden had initially proposed to do.
The Act extended a 15% increase in food stamp benefits. The increase, which was passed in previous rounds of stimulus legislation, was set to expire at the end of June 2021; the Act extended it through September 2021).

Tax provisions

Expands the child tax credit.
Expands the child and dependent care credit.
Expands the earned income tax credit.
Forgiven student loan debt is made tax-free.
Reduction of reporting requirement threshold (1099-K) for third party settlement organizations.
Three tax increases on large corporations and wealthy individuals, collectively raising $60 billion in revenue. These are:
- Limits publicly traded companies' ability to deduct executive compensation (for employees more than $1 million) from their corporate taxes (will generate $6 billion in tax revenue).
- Repeals an obscure provision in the tax code that gave multinational corporations additional discretion in accounting for interest expenses (will generate $22 billion in tax revenue).
- Extends "loss limitation" restrictions on unincorporated businesses (will generate $31 billion in tax revenue)[92]
Grants to small businesses, specifically:
- $28.6 billion for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
- $15 billion for Emergency Injury Disaster Loans (a long-term, low-interest loan program of the Small Business Administration); priority for some funds would go to "severely impacted small businesses with fewer than 10 workers".
- An additional $7 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, and an expansion of the eligibility criteria to some non-profit organizations previously excluded from the program.
$3 billion for a payroll support program for aviation manufacturers.
$1.25 billion in funding for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant for music halls and other concert venues.
$175 million for a Community Navigator Program to reach out to eligible businesses.
Funding for the Recovery Startup provision of the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), a refundable payroll tax credit. Small businesses that launch a new offering after February 15, 2020, can claim up to $7,000 per employee per quarter in Q3/Q4 2021, capped at $100,000.

State, local, and tribal government aid

$350 billion to help state, local, and tribal governments bridge budget shortfalls and mitigate the fiscal shock.
A total of $195 billion would be allocated among the states and the District of Columbia, and the tribes and territories would be allocated about $25 billion.

Education

$122 billion for K-12 schools, to safely reopen most schools within 100 days.
T K-12 school funds may be used to improve ventilation in school buildings, reduce class sizes to make social distancing possible, purchase personal protective equipment, and hire support staff.
At least half of the money to colleges and universities must go to emergency grants to students.
20% of school funding must be directed to programs to help counteract "learning loss" for students who missed school during the pandemic.
Almost $40 billion for colleges and universities, including:
- Over $10 billion to over 1,000 community colleges
- Over $2.7 billion to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Over $190 million to Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
- About $11 billion to Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs)
- About $5 billion to Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions (AANAPISIs)
- Almost $1 billion to Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs)

Housing

$21.6 billion for rental assistance programs. This fund will provide money to states and local governments, which will then provide grants to eligible households. These grants can be used to pay for rental assistance as well as utility fees.
$10 billion for the Homeowner Assistance Fund. This fund will allocate money to states and local governments, which will then give grants to homeowners to prevent them from defaulting on their mortgage or foreclosing on their home. These grants can also be used to pay for flood insurance premiums, HOA fees, utility bills, and any other necessary payments to prevent the homeowner from losing their home.
$5 billion for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program. These funds must go to those who are or were recently homeless, as well as individuals who are escaping from domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking.
$5 billion to support state and local programs for the homeless and at-risk individuals. These funds can be used for rental assistance, housing counseling, and air humidifiers. and homelessness prevention services. Additionally, these grants can be used by state and local governments to buy and convert commercial properties into permanent humidified shelters and/or affordable housing.
$4.5 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which will assist homeowners with the costs of heating and cooling.
$750 million for housing assistance for tribes and Native Hawaiians. These grants can be used by tribal nations or Native Hawaiians to pay rent or stay housed.
$500 million in grants for low-income homes to help with water services.
$139 million for rural housing assistance programs.
$120 million for housing counseling services.

COVID-19 Provisions

COVID-19 funding (including for COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and contact tracing) and other healthcare-related funding:
-$50 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for vaccine distribution and assistance. Additionally, FEMA will reimburse up to $9,000 for a funeral held for a COVID-19 victim.
$47.8 billion on COVID-19 testing, mitigation, and transmission prevention, including diagnosis, tracing, and monitoring.
$13.48 billion for Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare programs through September 30, 2023.
$10 billion under the Defense Production Act for personal protective equipment and other medical gear, and for response to pathogens that could become future public health emergencies.
$7.66 billion for workforce programs for state, local, and territorial public health departments and certain nonprofits, including funds to hire and train "case investigators, contact tracers, social support specialists, community health workers, public health nurses, disease intervention specialists, epidemiologists, program managers, laboratory personnel, informaticians, communication and policy experts, and any other positions as may be required to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19."
$7.6 billion to community health centers and Federally Qualified Health Centers to combat COVID-19, including promotion, distribution, and administration of the COVID-19 vaccine; COVID-19 tracing and mitigation; COVID-19-related equipment; and COVID-19 outreach and education.
$7.5 billion to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for COVID-19 vaccine distribution, administration, and tracking,[102] including preparation of community vaccination centers and mobile vaccine units and acceleration of vaccine deployment.[3][102] The bill funds 100,000 public health workers for vaccination outreach and contact tracing.
$6.05 billion for "expenses related to research, development, manufacturing, production and purchase of vaccines".
$5.4 billion to the Indian Health Services.
$3.5 billion in block grants to states, evenly split between the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant program and the Substance Abuse Prevention Treatment Block Grant program.
$1.75 billion for genomic sequencing, analytics, and disease surveillance.
$1 billion to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for vaccine confidence programs to increase vaccination rates.
Approximately $750 million on global health security to fight COVID-19 and other emerging infectious diseases.
$500 million to the Food and Drug Administration to evaluate vaccine performance and facilitate vaccine oversight and manufacturing.
$330 million for teaching health centers with graduate medical education programs.
$500 million to the CDC for public health surveillance and analytics, including a modernization of the U.S. disease warning system to predict COVID-19 "hot spots" and emerging public health threats.
$200 million for nursing loan repayment programs.
$100 million for the Medical Reserve Corps.
$100 million for a Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program.
$80 million for mental and behavioral health training.
$86 billion for a rescue package/bailout for approximately 185 multiemployer pension funds (usually pension plans set up by a union and industry) that are close to insolvency. The pension funds collectively cover 10.7 million workers.

Transportation

$30.5 billion in grants to public transit and commuter rail agencies across the country to mitigate major decreases in ridership and fare revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes $6 billion to the MTA in the New York area (the U.S.'s largest public transit agency) and $1.4 billion to WMATA, VRE and MARC in the D.C. area.
$15 billion for airlines and airline contractors for a third extension of Payroll Support Program (which would otherwise have expired at the end of March 2021). The extension will prevent the furlough of more than 27,000 aviation employees.
$8 billion for U.S. airports.
$2 billion for Amtrak.
$10.4 billion for agriculture and USDA, of which:
$4 billion (39% of total agricultural expenditures) and $1 billion (9.7% of total agricultural expenditures) goes to debt forgiveness and outreach/support, respectively, for socially disadvantaged farmers. Experts identified the relief bill as the most important legislation for African-American farmers since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, benefiting many who were not fully compensated by the Pigford settlements.
$3.6 billion (35% of total agricultural expenditures) for COVID-19 response (e.g., for agricultural and supply chain workers) and for the purchase and distribution of food.
$800 million (7.7% of total agricultural expenditures) for Food for Peace.
$500 million (4.8% of total agricultural expenditures) for USDA-administered Emergency Rural Development Grants for Rural Healthcare.

Cybersecurity

$1.85 billion for cybersecurity funding as a response to the SolarWinds hack.
$1 billion will go to the General Services Administration's Technology Modernization Fund which will help the federal government launch new cyber and information technology programs.
$650 million will go to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to improve its risk mitigation services.
$200 million will go to the U.S. Digital Service.

Healthcare

Subsidizes 100% of premiums for COBRA recipients from April 1 to September 30, 2021. Due to these subsidies, at least 2.2 million additional people will enroll in COBRA in 2021.
- Changes to ACA
Removing the welfare cliff by removing the income limit on premium subsidies. Instead, anyone can be eligible for premium subsidies if the cost of their premiums is more than 8.5% of their income. These subsidies will not affect rich households.
Increasing subsidies that are already available to low-income households. An estimated 2.5 million uninsured people will get covered due to these changes. Additionally, about 3.4 million of the lowest income enrollees will see their premiums fall by 100%.
Create a special rule whereby anyone who qualifies for unemployment automatically qualifies for the maximum amount of subsidies.
Protect any ACA subsidy recipient from clawbacks due to income fluctuations in 2020.
- Changes to Medicaid and CHIP
Requires coverage of COVID-19 vaccines, vaccine counseling and COVID-19 treatment. Expands state options for COVID-19 testing for the uninsured.
Allows states to give 12 months of post-partum coverage for new mothers.
Introduce new incentives for states to expand Medicaid coverage.

Impact

The bill's economic-relief provisions were overwhelmingly geared toward low-income and middle-class Americans, who received the direct payments, the bill's expansion of low-income tax credits, child-care subsidies, expanded health-insurance access, extension of expanded unemployment benefits, food stamps, and rental assistance programs.The bill contains little direct aid to high income-earners, who largely retained their jobs during the COVID-19 economic shock and bolstered their savings. Biden's administration crafted the plan in part because economic aid to lower-income and middle-income Americans (who are more likely to immediately spend funds on bills, groceries, and housing costs to avoid eviction or foreclosure) is more likely to stimulate the U.S. economy than aid to higher-earners (who are more likely to save the money). The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy predicted that the stimulus bill's direct payments, child tax credit expansion, and earned income tax credit expansion would boost the income of the poorest one-fifth of Americans by nearly $3,590. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill's increase in health insurance subsidies would lead to 1.3 million previously uninsured Americans gaining health insurance coverage.

The Tax Policy Center wrote that, for households making under $25,000, the bill would cut their taxes by an average of $2,800, which would boost their after-tax income by 20%. Additionally, low-income households with children would see an average tax cut of about $7,700, and this would boost their after-tax income by 35%. Middle-income households will also see an average tax cut of about $3,350, and this would increase their after-tax income by 5.5%. Overall, about 70% of the bill's tax benefits will go to households making under $91,000.

Inflationary impact

A March 2022 study released by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco estimated that U.S. fiscal support measures designed to counteract the severity of the pandemic's economic effect (among them, the American Rescue Plan and the 2020 CARES Act) may have raised core inflation about 3 percentage points by the end of 2021, noting that this estimate falls "in the upper range of findings from other recent research". At the same time, the study notes that these measures may have prevented "outright deflation and slower economic growth, the consequences of which would have been harder to manage". The study estimates the effect on inflation from the aggregate of all U.S. fiscal support measures and does not give estimates for the effects of individual measures.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Rescue_Plan_Act_of_2021

(edited from article)
"
ARPA 3-Year Anniversary: Documenting the Success of Direct Federal Aid to Cities and Towns
March 4, 2024

APRA’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) provided integral relief for local governments to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure stability for communities moving forward. During a time of uncertainty, SLFRF allocations ushered in funds to help cities, towns and villages ignite a bottom-up economic recovery strategy to assist the hardest-hit residents, stabilize municipal budgets, and maintain consistent spending on standard local government operations and services.

The SLFRF program provided direct federal aid in the form of block grants to all state, county and municipal governments, allowing for more opportunities for regional and multi-jurisdictional collaborations compared to competitive or categorical grants that are often limited to narrowly defined activities. Additionally, the SLFRF distribution model equitably allocated aid for metropolitan cities by borrowing the anti-poverty formula from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to deliver funding where it was needed the most. Relatedly, the three- and a half-year timeframe given to recipients to obligate funds has continued to foster opportunities to broadly engage residents and respond to community feedback on decisions around the use of these one-time dollars to address historic, immediate and long-term inequities. Many communities formalized community feedback opportunities, like Dayton, OH, which invested in a resident survey to use community voices and data to guide their decisions.

New safeguards for local government autonomy also allowed local leaders to tailor expenditures to their own community’s top priorities by discouraging states from layering additional or more restrictive spending limitations beyond those approved by Congress. The combination of direct federal aid and safeguards for local autonomy largely eliminated any cause for state and local competition that characterized earlier allocations of emergency aid.

As the December 2024 obligation deadline approaches, municipalities must make a final decision on where to obligate any remaining SLFRF dollars. Given that these are one-time funds, local governments will likely endeavor to obligate and spend down their grant funds to as close to zero as possible.
"
https://www.nlc.org/article/2024/03/04/arpa-3-year-anniversary-documenting-the-success-of-direct-federal-aid-to-cities-and-towns/

(edited from article)
"
As 2024 deadline approaches, local governments have committed the bulk of their American Rescue Plan dollars

By the end of June 2023, 335 large cities and counties had committed SLFRF dollars to 13,268 projects, up from 11,771 projects at the end of March 2023 (a 13% increase). Large cities and counties appropriated $55 billion (85%) of their SLFRF dollars across these projects and had spent $30 billion of those appropriations.

While the SLFRF program was designed as a pandemic relief package, the Treasury Department’s Final Rule allowed for these funds to be used to address long-standing health, social, and economic disparities, recognizing that these inequities exacerbated the impact of the pandemic in many of the U.S.’s most vulnerable communities. By the end of June 2023, large local governments had committed roughly $17.8 billion of their SLFRF allocations across programs that provide aid to disproportionately impacted communities, including projects that address housing insecurity, community violence, mental health, and substance abuse. These investments account for approximately one third of all SLFRF commitments made to-date.

This trend supports findings from previous Brookings Metro research that local governments largely pursued “dual-track” investment strategies with their SLFRF allocations, first choosing to support emergency relief programs before investing in longer-term strategic priorities. Among SLFRF projects targeting economic disadvantage, investments in community aid and other acute, grant-based supports (like rental assistance and small business loans) were much more likely to have been obligated or spent. This contrasts with lower expenditure rates across long-term programmatic investments in mental health support, substance abuse prevention, affordable housing, and broadband expansion. These expenditure categories have a longer time horizon for desired impact, can be more capital-intensive, and require complex planning around program design, execution, and financial sustainability.

While local governments have until December 2024 to finish obligating their SLFRF allocations and until December 2026 to spend them, having these funds in their possession now provides a unique opportunity to address worsening community and public health crises, such as rising deaths by suicide and drug overdoses.
"
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/as-2024-deadline-approaches-local-governments-have-committed-the-bulk-of-their-american-rescue-plan-dollars/

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On This Day: Batista, running third in the polls, cancels election and seizes the gov't - Mar. 10, 1952
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374081

On This Day: French face killing/torture after Japanese coup in Indochina - Mar. 9, 1945
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374038

On This Day: Intl Women's Day history features women's activism in Russia, other countries - Mar. 8, 1917
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373993

On This Day: Approx. 600 civil rights marchers brutally attacked by police in Selma, Alabama - Mar. 7, 1965
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373913

On This Day: FDR's Bank Holiday begins, amid fear that all banks are unsafe - March 6, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373860

March 10, 2024

On This Day: Batista, running third in the polls, cancels election and seizes the gov't - Mar. 10, 1952

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (1901-1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as a military dictator from 1952 to 1958, until he was overthrown in the Cuban Revolution.

Military coup and dictatorship (1952–1959)

In 1952, Batista again ran for president. In a three-way race, Roberto Agramonte of the Orthodox Party led in all the polls, followed by Carlos Hevia of the Authentic Party. Batista's United Action coalition was running a distant third.

On March 10, 1952, three months before the elections, Batista, with army backing, staged a coup and seized power. He ousted outgoing President Carlos Prío Socarrás, canceled the elections and took control of the government as a provisional president. The United States recognized his government on March 27. When asked by the U.S. government to analyze Batista's Cuba, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. said:

The corruption of the Government, the brutality of the police, the government's indifference to the needs of the people for education, medical care, housing, for social justice and economic justice ... is an open invitation to revolution.

Economy of Cuba

Upon his seizure of power, Batista inherited a country that was relatively prosperous for Latin America. According to Batista's government, although a third of Cubans still lived in poverty, Cuba was one of the five most developed countries in the region. In the 1950s, Cuba's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was roughly equal to that of Italy at the time, although still only a sixth of that of the United States.

Moreover, although corruption and inequality were rife under Batista, Cuban industrial workers' wages rose significantly. In 1953, the average Cuban family only had an income of $6.00 a week, 15% to 20% of the labor force was chronically unemployed, and only a third of the homes had running water. Despite this, according to the International Labour Organization, the average industrial salary in Cuba became the world's eighth-highest in 1958, and the average agricultural wage was higher than some European nations (although, according to one sample from 1956 to 1957, agricultural workers could only find employment for an average of 123 days per year while farm owners, rural tenants and sharecroppers worked an average of only 135 days per year).

Relationship with organized crime

Brothels flourished. A major industry grew up around them; government officials received bribes, policemen collected protection money. Prostitutes could be seen standing in doorways, strolling the streets, or leaning from windows. One report estimated that 11,500 of them worked their trade in Havana. Beyond the outskirts of the capital, beyond the slot machines, was one of the poorest, and most beautiful countries in the Western world.

— David Detzer, American journalist, after visiting Havana in the 1950s

Throughout the 1950s, Havana served as "a hedonistic playground for the world's elite", producing sizable gambling, prostitution and drug profits for the American mafia, corrupt law-enforcement officials, and their politically elected cronies. In the assessment of the Cuban-American historian Louis Perez, "Havana was then what Las Vegas has become." Relatedly, it is estimated that by the end of the 1950s the city of Havana had 270 brothels. In addition, drugs, be it marijuana or cocaine, were so plentiful at the time that one American magazine in 1950 proclaimed "Narcotics are hardly more difficult to obtain in Cuba than a shot of rum. And only slightly more expensive." As a result, the playwright Arthur Miller described Batista's Cuba in The Nation as "hopelessly corrupt, a Mafia playground, (and) a bordello for Americans and other foreigners."

In a bid to profit from such an environment, Batista established lasting relationships with organized crime, notably with American mobsters Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano, and under his rule Havana became known as "the Latin Las Vegas".

Batista encouraged large-scale gambling in Havana. In 1955, he announced that Cuba would grant a gaming license to anyone who invested US$1 million in a hotel or $200,000 in a new nightclub—and that the government would provide matching public funds for construction, a 10-year tax exemption, and waive duties on imported equipment and furnishings for new hotels. Each casino would pay the government $250,000 for the license, plus a percentage of the profits. The policy omitted background checks, as required for casino operations in the United States, which opened the door for casino investors with illegally obtained funds. Cuban contractors with the right connections made windfalls by importing, duty-free, more materials than needed for new hotels and selling the surplus to others. It was rumored that, besides the $250,000 to obtain a license, an additional "under the table" fee was sometimes required.

As the new hotels, nightclubs, and casinos opened, Batista collected his share of the profits. Nightly, the "bagman" for his wife collected 10% of the profits at [several casinos].

Support of U.S. business and government

At the beginning of 1959 United States companies owned about 40 percent of the Cuban sugar lands—almost all the cattle ranches—90 percent of the mines and mineral concessions—80 percent of the utilities—practically all the oil industry—and supplied two-thirds of Cuba's imports.

— John F. Kennedy

In a manner that antagonized the Cuban people, the U.S. government used its influence to advance the interests of and increase the profits of the private American companies, which "dominated the island's economy". By the late 1950s, U.S. financial interests owned 90% of Cuban mines, 80% of its public utilities, 50% of its railways, 40% of its sugar production and 25% of its bank deposits—some $1 billion in total. According to historian Louis A. Pérez Jr., author of the book On Becoming Cuban, "Daily life had developed into a relentless degradation, with the complicity of political leaders and public officials who operated at the behest of American interests."

According to historian and author James S. Olson, the U.S. government essentially became a "co-conspirator" in the arrangement because of Batista's strong opposition to communism, which, in the rhetoric of the Cold War, seemed to maintain business stability and a pro-U.S. posture on the island. On October 6, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy, in the midst of his campaign for the U.S. presidency, decried Batista's relationship with the U.S. government and criticized the Eisenhower administration for supporting him.

Batista, Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution

On July 26, 1953, just over a year after Batista's second coup, a small group of revolutionaries attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago. Government forces easily defeated the assault and jailed its leaders, while many others fled the country. The primary leader of the attack, Fidel Castro, was a young attorney who had run for parliament in the canceled 1952 elections. Batista suspended constitutional guarantees and increasingly relied on police tactics in an attempt to "frighten the population through open displays of brutality."

Batista held an election in 1954. The CIA had predicted that Batista would use any means necessary to ensure he won the election. Batista lived up to their expectations, utilizing fraud and intimidation to secure his presidency.

By late 1955, student riots and anti-Batista demonstrations had become frequent, and unemployment became a problem as graduates entering the workforce could not find jobs. These were dealt with through increasing repression.

[...]

The purge of the officer corps contributed to the inability of the Cuban army to successfully combat Castro and his guerrillas. Batista's police responded to increasing popular unrest by torturing and killing young men in the cities. However, his army was ineffective against the rebels based in the Sierra Maestra and Escambray Mountains.

In an effort to gather information about Castro's army, Batista's secret police pulled in people for questioning. Many innocent people were tortured by Batista's police, while suspects, including youth, were publicly executed as a warning to others who were considering joining the insurgency.

The United States supplied Batista with planes, ships, tanks and the latest technology, such as napalm, which he used against the insurgency. However, in March 1958, the U.S. announced it would stop selling arms to the Cuban government. Soon after, the U.S. imposed an arms embargo, further weakening the government's position, although landowners and others who benefited from the government continued to support Batista.

Elections were scheduled for June 1958. The U.S. rejected the results of the elections and announced plans to withhold diplomatic recognition of the Rivero Agüero government.

On December 31, 1958, at a New Year's Eve party, Batista told his cabinet and top officials that he was leaving the country and resigned. After seven years, Batista knew his presidency was over, and he fled the island in the early morning.

As news of the fall of Batista's government spread through Havana, The New York Times described jubilant crowds pouring into the streets and automobile horns honking. The black and red flag of the July 26 Movement waved on cars and buildings. The atmosphere was chaotic. On January 8, 1959, Castro and his army rolled victoriously into Havana. Already denied entry to the United States, Batista sought asylum in Mexico, which also refused him. Portugal's leader António Salazar allowed him to settle there on the condition that he completely abstain from politics.

After he fled to Portugal, Batista lived in Madeira, then later in Estoril. He died of a heart attack on August 6, 1973, at Marbella, Spain.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista

---------------------------------------------------------

On This Day: French face killing/torture after Japanese coup in Indochina - Mar. 9, 1945
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016374038

On This Day: Intl Women's Day history features women's activism in Russia, other countries - Mar. 8, 1917
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373993

On This Day: Approx. 600 civil rights marchers brutally attacked by police in Selma, Alabama - Mar. 7, 1965
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373913

On This Day: FDR's Bank Holiday begins, amid fear that all banks are unsafe - March 6, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373860

On This Day: Filipino massacre campaign by U.S. military - Mar. 5, 1906
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373780

March 9, 2024

On This Day: French face killing/torture after Japanese coup in Indochina - Mar. 9, 1945

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina

The Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina was a Japanese operation that took place on 9 March 1945, towards the end of World War II. With Japanese forces losing the war and the threat of an Allied invasion of Indochina imminent, the Japanese were concerned about an uprising against them by French colonial forces.

Despite the French having anticipated an attack, the Japanese struck in a military campaign attacking garrisons all over the colony. The French were caught off guard and all of the garrisons were overrun, with some then having to escape to Nationalist China, where they were harshly interned. The Japanese replaced French officials, and effectively dismantled their control of Indochina. The Japanese were then able to install and create a new Empire of Vietnam, Kingdom of Kampuchea and Kingdom of Luang Phrabang which under their direction would acquiesce with their military presence and forestall a potential invasion by the Allies.

French Indochina

French Indochina comprised the colony of Cochinchina and the protectorates of Annam, Cambodia and Tonkin, and the mixed region of Laos. After the fall of France in June 1940 the French Indochinese government had remained loyal to the Vichy regime, which collaborated with the Axis powers.

The following month governor Admiral Jean Decoux signed an agreement under which Japanese forces were permitted to occupy bases across Indochina. In September the same year Japanese troops invaded and took control of Northern Indochina, and then in July 1941 they occupied the Southern half as well. The Japanese allowed Vichy French troops and the administration to continue on albeit as puppets.

By 1944 with the war going against the Japanese after defeats in Burma and the Philippines they then feared an Allied offensive in French Indochina. The Japanese were already suspicious of the French; the liberation of Paris in August 1944 raised further doubts as to where the loyalties of the colonial administration lay.

Opposing forces

In early 1945 the French Indochina army still outnumbered the Japanese in the colony and comprised about 65,000 men, of whom 48,500 were locally recruited Tirailleurs indochinois under French officers. The remainder were French regulars of the Colonial Army plus three battalions of the Foreign Legion. A separate force of indigenous gardes indochinois (gendarmerie) numbered 27,000. Since the fall of France in June 1940 no replacements or supplies had been received from outside Indochina. By March 1945 only about 30,000 French troops could be described as fully combat ready, the remainder serving in garrison or support units. At the beginning of 1945 the understrength Japanese Thirty-Eighth Army was composed of 30,000 troops, a force that was substantially increased by 25,000 reinforcements brought in from China, Thailand, and Burma in the following months.

The coup

In early March 1945 Japanese forces were redeployed around the main French garrison towns throughout Indochina, linked by radio to the Southern area headquarters. The Japanese envoy in Saigon Ambassador declared to [French Governor Admiral] Decoux that since an Allied landing in Indochina was inevitable, Tokyo command wished to put into place a "common defence" of Indochina. Decoux however resisted stating that this would be a catalyst for an Allied invasion but suggested that Japanese control would be accepted if they actually invaded. This was not enough and Tsuchihashi accused Decoux of playing for time.

[Message to negotiate not delivered]

On 9 March, after more stalling by Decoux, Tsuchihashi delivered an ultimatum for French troops to disarm. Decoux sent a messenger to Matsumoto urging further negotiations but the message arrived at the wrong building. Tsuchihashi, assuming that Decoux had rejected the ultimatum, immediately ordered commencement of the coup.

[Japanese forces move against French]

That evening Japanese forces moved against the French in every center. Japan issued instructions to the government of Thailand to seal off its border with Indochina and to arrest all French and Indochinese residents within its territory. Instead, Thailand began negotiating with the Japanese over their course of action, and by the end of March they hadn't fully complied with the demands.

[... Fighting ensues around the geography]

Once the Japanese had cut off all communications to the forts they invited General Émile Lemonnier, the commander of the border region, to a banquet at the headquarters of the 22nd division of the Imperial Japanese Army. Lemonnier declined to attend the event, but allowed some of his staff to go in his place. They were taken prisoner and soon after the Japanese bombarded Fort Brière de l'Isle, attacking with infantry and tanks. Finally, the main fortress of Brière de l'Isle was overrun after heavy fighting.

Lemonnier was subsequently taken prisoner himself and ordered by a Japanese general to sign a document formally surrendering the forces under his command. Lemonnier refused to sign the documents. As a result, the Japanese took him outside where they forced him to dig a grave along with [the] French Resident-superior. Lemonnier again was ordered to sign the surrender documents and again refused. The Japanese subsequently beheaded him. The Japanese then machine-gunned some of the prisoners and either beheaded or bayoneted the wounded survivors.

The battle of Lạng Sơn cost the French heavy casualties and their force on the border was effectively destroyed. European losses were 544 killed, of which 387 had been executed after capture. In addition 1,832 Tonkinese colonial troops were killed (including 103 who were executed) while another 1,000 were taken prisoner. On 12 March planes of the US Fourteenth Air Force flying in support of the French, mistook a column of Tonkinese prisoners for Japanese and bombed and strafed them. Reportedly between 400 and 600 of the prisoners were killed or wounded.

On the 12th the Japanese then advanced further north to the border town of Dong Dang. where the Japanese launched an attack against the town. The French resisted for three days. The Japanese were then reinforced by two regiments from 22nd Division from Lạng Sơn and finally overran the French colonial force. Fifty-three survivors were beheaded or bayoneted to death.

[U.S. provides minimal support to French]

The United States and China were reluctant to start a large-scale operation to restore French authority, as they did not favour colonial rule, and had little sympathy for the Vichy regime which had formerly collaborated with the Japanese. Both countries ordered that their forces provide no assistance to the French, but American general Claire Lee Chennault went against orders, and aircraft from his 51st Fighter Group and 27th Troop Carrier Squadron flew support missions as well as dropping medical supplies for Sabattier's forces retreating into China. Between 12 and 28 March, the Americans flew thirty-four bombing, strafing and reconnaissance missions over the North of Indochina but they had little effect in stemming the Japanese advance.

[French loss]

By mid April Alessandri, having realised he was on his own, split his force into two. Soon a combination of disease, ration shortages and low morale forced him into a difficult decision. With reluctance he disarmed and disbanded his locally recruited colonial troops, leaving them to their fate in a measure which angered French and Vietnamese alike. Many of the tirailleurs were far from their homes and some were captured by the Japanese. Others joined the Viet Minh. The remaining French and Foreign Legion units gradually discarded all of their heavy weapons, motor vehicles and left behind several tons of ammunition without destroying any of it. The division were soon reduced in numbers by disease and missing men as they moved towards Son La and Dien Bien Phu where they fought costly rearguard actions.

By this time de Gaulle had been informed of the situation in Indochina and then swiftly told Sabattier via radio orders to maintain a presence in Indochina for the sake of France's pride at all costs. By 6 May however many of the remaining members of the Tonkin Division were over the Chinese border where they were interned under harsh conditions. Between 9 March and 2 May the Tonkin division had suffered heavily; many had died or were invalided by disease. In combat 774 had been killed and 283 wounded with another 303 missing or captured.

Aftermath

The coup had, in the words of diplomat Jean Sainteny, "wrecked a colonial enterprise that had been in existence for 80 years."

French losses were heavy. 15,000 French soldiers in total were held prisoner by the Japanese. Nearly 4,200 were killed with many executed after surrendering - about half of these were European or French metropolitan troops. Practically all French civil and military leaders as well as plantation owners were made prisoners, including Decoux. They were confined either in specific districts of big cities or in camps.

Those who were suspected of armed resistance were jailed in the Kempeitai prison in bamboo cages and were tortured and cruelly interrogated.

The locally recruited tirailleurs and gardes indochinois who had made up the majority of the French military and police forces, effectively ceased to exist. About a thousand were killed in the fighting or executed after surrender. Some joined pro-Japanese militias or Vietnamese nationalist guerrillas. Deprived of their French cadres, many dispersed to their villages of origin. Over three thousand reached Chinese territory as part of the retreating French columns.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_in_French_Indochina

---------------------------------------------------------

On This Day: Intl Women's Day history features women's activism in Russia, other countries - Mar. 8, 1917
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373993

On This Day: Approx. 600 civil rights marchers brutally attacked by police in Selma, Alabama - Mar. 7, 1965
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373913

On This Day: FDR's Bank Holiday begins, amid fear that all banks are unsafe - March 6, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373860

On This Day: Filipino massacre campaign by U.S. military - Mar. 5, 1906
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373780

On This Day: Frances Perkins, Architect of Social Security/New Deal takes office - Mar. 4, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373728

March 8, 2024

On This Day: Intl Women's Day history features women's activism in Russia, other countries - Mar. 8, 1917

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
International Women's Day

International Women's Day (IWD) is a holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement. IWD gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women. Spurred by the universal female suffrage movement, IWD originated from labor movements in North America and Europe during the early 20th century.

The Russian Revolution

On March 8, 1917, in Petrograd, women textile workers began a demonstration that eventually engulfed the whole city, demanding "Bread and Peace"—an end to World War I, to food shortages, and to Tsarism.

This marked the beginning of the February Revolution, which alongside the October Revolution, made up the Russian Revolution. Revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky wrote, "23 February (8th March) was International Woman's Day and meetings and actions were foreseen. But we did not imagine that this 'Women's Day' would inaugurate the revolution. Revolutionary actions were foreseen but without a date. But in the morning, despite the orders to the contrary, textile workers left their work in several factories and sent delegates to ask for the support of the strike… which led to mass strike... all went out into the streets." Seven days later, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.

After the Russian Revolution, Bolsheviks Alexandra Kollontai and Vladimir Lenin made IWD an official holiday. On May 8, 1965, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet decreed International Women's Day a non-working day in the USSR, "in commemoration of the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at the front and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace. But still, women's day must be celebrated as are other holidays."

[Earliest versions]

The earliest version reported was a "Women's Day" organized by the Socialist Party of America in New York City on February 28, 1909. This inspired German delegates at the 1910 International Socialist Women's Conference to propose "a special Women's Day" be organized annually, albeit with no set date; the following year saw the first demonstrations and commemorations of International Women's Day across Europe. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, IWD was made a national holiday on March 8; it was subsequently celebrated on that date by the socialist movement and communist countries. The holiday was associated with far-left movements and governments until its adoption by the global feminist movement in the late 1960s. IWD became a mainstream global holiday following its promotion by the United Nations in 1977.

International Women's Day is a public holiday in several countries. The UN observes the holiday in connection with a particular issue, campaign, or theme in women's rights.

[Promotion of suffrage]

In August 1910, an International Socialist Women's Conference was organized ahead of the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark. Inspired in part by the American socialists, German delegates Clara Zetkin, Käte Duncker, Paula Thiede, and others proposed the establishment of an annual "Women's Day", although no date was specified. The 100 delegates, representing 17 countries, agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights, including women's suffrage.

[Employment sex discrimination]

The following year, on March 19, 1911, the first International Women's Day was marked by over a million people in Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. In Austria-Hungary alone, there were 300 demonstrations, with women parading on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, carrying banners honoring the martyrs of the Paris Commune. Across Europe, women demanded the right to vote and to hold public office, and protested against employment sex discrimination.

IWD initially had no set date, though it was generally celebrated in late February or early March. Americans continued to observe "National Women's Day" on the last Sunday in February, while Russia observed International Women's Day for the first time in 1913, on the last Saturday in February (albeit based on the Julian calendar, as in the Gregorian calendar, the date was March 8). In 1914, International Women's Day was held on March 8 for the first time in Germany, possibly because that date was a Sunday. As elsewhere, Germany's observance was dedicated to women's right to vote, which German women did not win until 1918. Concurrently, there was a march in London in support of women's suffrage, during which Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.

Second–wave feminism

IWD remained predominantly a communist holiday until circa 1967 when it was taken up by second-wave feminists. The day re-emerged as a day of activism, and is sometimes known in Europe as the "Women's International Day of Struggle". In the 1970s and 1980s, women's groups were joined by leftists and labor organizations in calling for equal pay, equal economic opportunity, equal legal rights, reproductive rights, subsidized child care, and the prevention of violence against women.

Adoption by United Nations

The United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day in 1975, which had been proclaimed the International Women's Year. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as an official UN holiday for women's rights and world peace. It has since been commemorated annually by the UN and much of the world, with each year's observance centered on a particular theme or issue within women's rights.

Adoption by corporations

By the twenty-first century, IWD has been criticized as heavily diluted and commercialized, particularly in the West, where it is sponsored by major corporations and used to promote general and vague notions of equality, rather than radical social reforms. The website internationalwomensday.com was established in 2001. The website was being managed by the British marketing firm Aurora Ventures with corporate sponsorship. The website began to promote hashtags as themes for the day, unconnected with the UN theme, which became used internationally.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day

---------------------------------------------------------

On This Day: Approx. 600 civil rights marchers brutally attacked by police in Selma, Alabama - Mar. 7, 1965
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373913

On This Day: FDR's Bank Holiday begins, amid fear that all banks are unsafe - March 6, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373860

On This Day: Filipino massacre campaign by U.S. military - Mar. 5, 1906
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373780

On This Day: Frances Perkins, Architect of Social Security/New Deal takes office - Mar. 4, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373728

On This Day: Oil discovered in Saudi Arabia, now funding programs to use more oil - Mar. 3, 1938
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373628

March 8, 2024

On This Day: Intl Women's Day history features women's activism in Russia, other countries - Mar. 8, 1917

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
International Women's Day

International Women's Day (IWD) is a holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement. IWD gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women. Spurred by the universal female suffrage movement, IWD originated from labor movements in North America and Europe during the early 20th century.

The Russian Revolution

On March 8, 1917, in Petrograd, women textile workers began a demonstration that eventually engulfed the whole city, demanding "Bread and Peace"—an end to World War I, to food shortages, and to Tsarism.

This marked the beginning of the February Revolution, which alongside the October Revolution, made up the Russian Revolution. Revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky wrote, "23 February (8th March) was International Woman's Day and meetings and actions were foreseen. But we did not imagine that this 'Women's Day' would inaugurate the revolution. Revolutionary actions were foreseen but without a date. But in the morning, despite the orders to the contrary, textile workers left their work in several factories and sent delegates to ask for the support of the strike… which led to mass strike... all went out into the streets." Seven days later, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.

After the Russian Revolution, Bolsheviks Alexandra Kollontai and Vladimir Lenin made IWD an official holiday. On May 8, 1965, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet decreed International Women's Day a non-working day in the USSR, "in commemoration of the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at the front and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace. But still, women's day must be celebrated as are other holidays."

[Earliest versions]

The earliest version reported was a "Women's Day" organized by the Socialist Party of America in New York City on February 28, 1909. This inspired German delegates at the 1910 International Socialist Women's Conference to propose "a special Women's Day" be organized annually, albeit with no set date; the following year saw the first demonstrations and commemorations of International Women's Day across Europe. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, IWD was made a national holiday on March 8; it was subsequently celebrated on that date by the socialist movement and communist countries. The holiday was associated with far-left movements and governments until its adoption by the global feminist movement in the late 1960s. IWD became a mainstream global holiday following its promotion by the United Nations in 1977.

International Women's Day is a public holiday in several countries. The UN observes the holiday in connection with a particular issue, campaign, or theme in women's rights.

[Promotion of suffrage]

In August 1910, an International Socialist Women's Conference was organized ahead of the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark. Inspired in part by the American socialists, German delegates Clara Zetkin, Käte Duncker, Paula Thiede, and others proposed the establishment of an annual "Women's Day", although no date was specified. The 100 delegates, representing 17 countries, agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights, including women's suffrage.

[Employment sex discrimination]

The following year, on March 19, 1911, the first International Women's Day was marked by over a million people in Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. In Austria-Hungary alone, there were 300 demonstrations, with women parading on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, carrying banners honoring the martyrs of the Paris Commune. Across Europe, women demanded the right to vote and to hold public office, and protested against employment sex discrimination.

IWD initially had no set date, though it was generally celebrated in late February or early March. Americans continued to observe "National Women's Day" on the last Sunday in February, while Russia observed International Women's Day for the first time in 1913, on the last Saturday in February (albeit based on the Julian calendar, as in the Gregorian calendar, the date was March 8). In 1914, International Women's Day was held on March 8 for the first time in Germany, possibly because that date was a Sunday. As elsewhere, Germany's observance was dedicated to women's right to vote, which German women did not win until 1918. Concurrently, there was a march in London in support of women's suffrage, during which Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.

Second–wave feminism

IWD remained predominantly a communist holiday until circa 1967 when it was taken up by second-wave feminists. The day re-emerged as a day of activism, and is sometimes known in Europe as the "Women's International Day of Struggle". In the 1970s and 1980s, women's groups were joined by leftists and labor organizations in calling for equal pay, equal economic opportunity, equal legal rights, reproductive rights, subsidized child care, and the prevention of violence against women.

Adoption by United Nations

The United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day in 1975, which had been proclaimed the International Women's Year. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as an official UN holiday for women's rights and world peace. It has since been commemorated annually by the UN and much of the world, with each year's observance centered on a particular theme or issue within women's rights.

Adoption by corporations

By the twenty-first century, IWD has been criticized as heavily diluted and commercialized, particularly in the West, where it is sponsored by major corporations and used to promote general and vague notions of equality, rather than radical social reforms. The website internationalwomensday.com was established in 2001. The website was being managed by the British marketing firm Aurora Ventures with corporate sponsorship. The website began to promote hashtags as themes for the day, unconnected with the UN theme, which became used internationally.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day

---------------------------------------------------------

On This Day: Approx. 600 civil rights marchers brutally attacked by police in Selma, Alabama - Mar. 7, 1965
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373913

On This Day: FDR's Bank Holiday begins, amid fear that all banks are unsafe - March 6, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373860

On This Day: Filipino massacre campaign by U.S. military - Mar. 5, 1906
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373780

On This Day: Frances Perkins, Architect of Social Security/New Deal takes office - Mar. 4, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373728

On This Day: Oil discovered in Saudi Arabia, now funding programs to use more oil - Mar. 3, 1938
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373628

March 7, 2024

On This Day: Approx. 600 civil rights marchers brutally attacked by police in Selma, Alabama - Mar. 7, 1965

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Selma to Montgomery marches

The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression; they were part of a broader voting rights movement underway in Selma and throughout the American South. By highlighting racial injustice, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the civil rights movement.

Since the late 19th century, Southern state legislatures had passed and maintained a series of Jim Crow laws that had disenfranchised the millions of African Americans across the South and enforced racial segregation. The initial voter registration drive, started in 1963 by the African-American Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) failed as local White officials arrested the organizers and otherwise harassed Blacks wishing to register to vote.

The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally ended segregation but the situation in Selma changed little. The DCVL then invited Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the activists of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to amplify the efforts, and these figures drew more prominent people to Alabama. Local and regional protests began in January 1965, with 3,000 people arrested by the end of February.

[Death of Jimmie Lee Jackson during peaceful march]

On February 26, activist and deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson died after being shot several days earlier by state trooper James Bonard Fowler during a peaceful march in nearby Marion. To defuse and refocus the Black community's outrage, James Bevel, who was directing SCLC's Selma voting rights movement, called for a march of dramatic length, from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery, calling for an unhindered exercise of the right to vote.

[Bloody Sunday]

The first march took place on March 7, 1965, led by figures including Bevel and Amelia Boynton, but was ended by state troopers and county possemen, who charged on about 600 unarmed protesters with batons and tear gas after they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the direction of Montgomery. The event became known as Bloody Sunday.

[Death of minister James Reeb]

Law enforcement beat Boynton unconscious, and the media publicized worldwide a picture of her lying wounded on the bridge. The second march took place two days later but King cut it short as a federal court issued a temporary injunction against further marches. That night, an anti-civil rights group murdered civil rights activist James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston.

[25,000 people stage demonstration]

The third march, which started on March 21, was escorted by the Alabama National Guard under federal control, the FBI and federal marshals (segregationist Governor George Wallace refused to protect the protesters). Thousands of marchers averaged 10 mi a day along U.S. Route 80 (US 80), reaching Montgomery on March 24. The following day, 25,000 people staged a demonstration on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol.

[Voting Rights Act of 1965]

The violence of "Bloody Sunday" and Reeb's murder resulted in a national outcry, and the marches were widely discussed in national and international news media. The protesters campaigned for a new federal voting rights law to enable African Americans to register and vote without harassment. President Lyndon B. Johnson seized the opportunity and held a historic, nationally televised joint session of Congress on March 15, asking lawmakers to pass what is now known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He enacted it on August 6, removing obstacles for Blacks to register en masse. The march route is memorialized as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, a designated National Historic Trail.

"Bloody Sunday" events

On March 7, 1965, an estimated 525 to 600 civil rights marchers headed southeast out of Selma on U.S. Highway 80. The march was led by John Lewis of SNCC and the Reverend Hosea Williams of SCLC, followed by Bob Mants of SNCC and Albert Turner of SCLC. The protest went according to plan until the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they encountered a wall of state troopers and county posse waiting for them on the other side.

["All white men" deputized]

County sheriff Jim Clark had issued an order for all white men in Dallas County over the age of twenty-one to report to the courthouse that morning to be deputized. Commanding officer John Cloud told the demonstrators to disband at once and go home. Rev. Hosea Williams tried to speak to the officer, but Cloud curtly informed him there was nothing to discuss. Seconds later, the troopers began shoving the demonstrators, knocking many to the ground and beating them with nightsticks. Another detachment of troopers fired tear gas, and mounted troopers charged the crowd on horseback.

[TV and newspaper images]

Televised images of the brutal attack presented Americans and international audiences with horrifying images of marchers left bloodied and severely injured, and roused support for the Selma Voting Rights Campaign. Amelia Boynton, who had helped organize the march as well as marching in it, was beaten unconscious. A photograph of her lying on the road of the Edmund Pettus Bridge appeared on the front page of newspapers and news magazines around the world.

Another marcher, Lynda Blackmon Lowery, age 14, was brutally beaten by a police officer during the march, and needed seven stitches for a cut above her right eye and 28 stitches on the back of her head. John Lewis suffered a skull fracture and bore scars on his head from the incident for the rest of his life. In all, 17 marchers were hospitalized and 50 treated for lesser injuries; the day soon became known as "Bloody Sunday" within the black community.

Response to "Bloody Sunday"

After the march, President Johnson issued an immediate statement "deploring the brutality with which a number of Negro citizens of Alabama were treated". He also promised to send a voting rights bill to Congress that week, although it took him until March 15.

SNCC officially joined the Selma campaign, putting aside their qualms about SCLC's tactics in order to rally for "the fundamental right of protest". SNCC members independently organized sit-ins in Washington, DC, the following day, occupying the office of Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach until they were dragged away.

The executive board of the NAACP unanimously passed a resolution the day after "Bloody Sunday", warning

If Federal troops are not made available to protect the rights of Negroes, then the American people are faced with terrible alternatives. Like the citizens of Nazi-occupied France, Negroes must either submit to the heels of their oppressors or they must organize underground to protect themselves from the oppression of Governor Wallace and his storm troopers.

In response to "Bloody Sunday," labor leader Walter Reuther sent a telegram on March 9 to President Johnson, reading in part:

Americans of all religious faiths, of all political persuasions, and from every section of our Nation are deeply shocked and outraged at the tragic events in Selma Ala., and they look to the Federal Government as the only possible source to protect and guarantee the exercise of constitutional rights, which is being denied and destroyed by the Dallas County law enforcement agents and the Alabama State troops under the direction of Governor George Wallace. Under these circumstances, Mr President, I join in urging you to take immediate and appropriate steps including the use of Federal marshals and troops if necessary, so that the full exercise of constitutional rights including free assembly and free speech be fully protected.

Aftermath and historical impact

Johnson's televised speech before Congress [in August 1965] was carried nationally; it was considered to be a watershed moment for the civil rights movement. He said:

Even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause, too, because it is not just Negroes but really it is all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.

Many in the Civil Rights Movement cheered the speech and were emotionally moved that after so long, and so hard a struggle, a President was finally willing to defend voting rights for blacks. According to C. T. Vivian, an SCLC activist who was with King at Richie Jean Jackson's home when the speech was broadcast

I looked over ... and Martin was very quietly sitting in the chair, and a tear ran down his cheek. It was a victory like none other. It was an affirmation of the movement.

Many others in the movement remained skeptical of the White House, believing that Johnson was culpable for having allowed violence against the movement in the early months of the campaign and was not a reliable supporter. Neither Jimmie Lee Jackson's murderer, nor Reverend Reeb's was ever prosecuted by the federal government. J. L. Chestnut, reflecting the view of many Selma activists, feared that the president had "outfoxed" and "co-opted" King and the SCLC. James Forman quipped that by quoting "We Shall Overcome", Johnson had simply "spoiled a good song". Such grassroots activists were more determined than ever to remain independent in their political organizing.

Before the march to Montgomery concluded, SNCC staffers Stokely Carmichael and Cleveland Sellers committed themselves to registering voters in Lowndes County for the next year. Their efforts resulted in the creation of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, an independent third party.

The bill was signed by President Johnson in an August 6 ceremony attended by Amelia Boynton and many other civil rights leaders and activists. This act prohibited most of the unfair practices used to prevent blacks from registering to vote, and provided for federal registrars to go to Alabama and other states with a history of voting-related discrimination to ensure that the law was implemented by overseeing registration and elections.

[Voter registration limited to two days a month]

In the early years of the Act, overall progress was slow, with local registrars continuing to use their power to deny African Americans voting access. In most Alabama counties, for example, registration continued to be limited to two days per month. The United States Civil Rights Commission acknowledged that "The Attorney General moved slowly in exercising his authority to designate counties for examiners ... he acted only in counties where he had ample evidence to support the belief that there would be intentional and flagrant violation of the Act." Dr. King demanded that federal registrars be sent to every county covered by the Act, but Attorney General Katzenbach refused.

In the summer of 1965, a well-funded SCLC decided to join SNCC and CORE in massive on-the-ground voter registration programs in the South. The Civil Rights Commission described this as a major contribution to expanding black voters in 1965, and the Justice Department acknowledged leaning on the work of "local organizations" in the movement to implement the Act. SCLC and SNCC were temporarily able to mend past differences through collaboration in the Summer Community Organization & Political Education project. Ultimately, their coalition foundered on SCLC's commitment to nonviolence and (at the time) the Democratic Party. Many activists worried that President Johnson still sought to appease Southern whites.

[Increases in registration]

By March 1966, nearly 11,000 blacks had registered to vote in Selma, where 12,000 whites were registered. More blacks would register by November, when their goal was to replace County Sheriff Jim Clark; his opponent was Wilson Baker, for whom they had respect. In addition, five blacks ran for office in Dallas County. Rev. P. H. Lewis, pastor of Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, ran for state representative on the Democratic ticket. David Ellwanger, a brother of Rev. Joseph Ellwanger of Birmingham, who led supporters in Selma in 1965, challenged incumbent state senator Walter C. Givhan (d. 1976), a fierce segregationist and a power in the state senate. First elected to the state senate in 1954, Givhan retained his seat for six terms, even after redistricting that preceded the 1966 election.

In November 1966, Katzenbach told Johnson regarding Alabama, that "I am attempting to do the least I can do safely without upsetting the civil rights groups." Katzenbach did concentrate examiners and observers in Selma for the "high-visibility" election between incumbent County Sheriff Jim Clark and Wilson Baker, who had earned the grudging respect of many local residents and activists. With 11,000 blacks added to the voting rolls in Selma by March 1966, they voted for Baker in 1966, turning Clark out of office. Clark later was prosecuted and convicted of drug smuggling and served a prison sentence. The US Civil Rights Commission said that the murders of activists, such as Jonathan Daniels in 1965, had been a major impediment to voter registration.

Overall, the Justice Department assigned registrars to six of Alabama's 24 Black Belt counties during the late 1960s, and to fewer than one-fifth of all the Southern counties covered by the Act. Expansion of enforcement grew gradually, and the jurisdiction of the Act was expanded through a series of amendments beginning in 1970. An important change was made in 1972, when Congress passed an amendment that discrimination could be determined by "effect" rather than by trying to prove "intent". Thus, if county or local practices resulted in a significant minority population being unable to elect candidates of their choice, the practices were considered to be discriminatory in effect.

In 1960, there were a total of 53,336 black voters registered in the state of Alabama; three decades later, there were 537,285, a tenfold increase.

Legacy and honors

In 1996, the 54-mile Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail was designated and is preserved by the National Park Service. As part of the National Historic Trail, the National Park Service operates three interpretive centers (Selma, Lowndes County, and Alabama State University in Montgomery).

In February 2015, both houses of Congress voted for a resolution to award Congressional Gold Medals to the "foot soldiers" of the Selma campaign. In a later ceremony, two dozen individuals in Selma received certificates. Barack Obama signed the resolution in law on March 7. The award ceremony officially took place on February 24, 2016, at the US Capitol. Surviving marchers John Lewis and Frederick Reese accepted medals on behalf of the Selma marchers.

Commemorative marches

Since 1965, many marches have commemorated the events of Bloody Sunday, usually held on or around the anniversary of the original event, and currently known as the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee. In March 1975, Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., led four thousand marchers commemorating Bloody Sunday. On its 30th anniversary, Rep. John Lewis, former president of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent activist during the Selma to Montgomery marches, said, "It's gratifying to come back and see the changes that have occurred; to see the number of registered voters and the number of Black elected officials in the state of Alabama to be able to walk with other members of Congress that are African Americans."

On the 40th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, over 10,000 people, including Lewis, again marched across Edmund Pettus Bridge. Also, in 1996, the Olympic torch made its way across the bridge with its carrier, Andrew Young, along with many public officials, to symbolize how far the South has come. When Young spoke at the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church as part of the torch ceremony, he said, "We couldn't have gone to Atlanta with the Olympic Games if we hadn't come through Selma a long time ago."

In March 2015, on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama, the first African-American U.S. president, delivered a speech at the foot of the bridge and then, along with former U.S. President George W. Bush, Representative John Lewis, and Civil Rights Movement activists such as Amelia Boynton Robinson (at Obama's side in a wheelchair), led a march across the bridge. An estimated 40,000 people attended to commemorate the 1965 march, and to reflect on and speak about its impact on history and continuing efforts to address and improve U.S. civil rights.

[John Lewis final crossing of bridge]

After John Lewis died in July 2020, he managed to cross the bridge one last time when his casket, which was carried by a horse-drawn caisson, crossed along the same route he walked during the Bloody Sunday march.

Revitalization

Montgomery was one of four state capitals chosen for a Greening Americas Capitals Grant, a project of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Beginning in 2011, EPA and community groups developed the study through consultations and a 3-day design workshops, aided by nationally acclaimed urban planners. The Montgomery portion of the Selma to Montgomery trail was being improved through a multimillion-dollar investment in order to enhance the trail and related neighborhoods. The city chose a section that passes through a "historically significant African-American neighborhood". Projects planned to improve design and sustainability include infill development, resurfacing, pedestrian improvements, environmental improvements including new trees and green-screens, and drainage improvements. In addition, many information panels have been installed, as well as several permanent public art displays that are tied to the march.

The work in Montgomery is related to a larger multi-agency effort since 2009 between the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), EPA and the National Park Service to improve areas along the National Historic Voting Rights Trail to enable local communities to thrive. The US 80 corridor has been described in an EPA summary as a "54-mile corridor of high unemployment, health issues, lower educational and economic achievements, and severe rural isolation". Among the serious environmental issues identified by EPA has been the presence of active and abandoned gas stations along the highway, with potential contamination from petroleum leaks from underground storage sites. A site in Montgomery had been identified as a problem, and EPA conducted additional assessments since the beginning of the project. Cleanup of the Montgomery site was scheduled to be completed in 2011. In addition, the agencies have sponsored community engagement to develop plans related to community goals. Since 2010, federal teams have met with community leaders in Selma, Hayneville and Montgomery, the county seats of Dallas, Lowndes and Montgomery counties.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches

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