Pages of Promise (34 page)

Anglo-French Forces
Capture Port Said in Bid
to Take Suez
by S. Stuart Taylor CAIRO, EGYPT
6 November 1956 (INS)

   Today, British and French forces landed at and captured Port Said and Port Fuad in Egypt, following the bombings begun on October 31. Many here in Cairo view the Anglo-French action as an effort to destroy President Nasser as well as to gain control of the Suez Canal, which is critical to oil transport to Western Europe and the United States. Israeli troops are said to be within thirteen miles of the canal.

U.S. Outstanding in Track
and Field in Melbourne
by S. Stuart Taylor MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
8 December 1956 (INS)

   The 1956 Summer Olympics were officially closed today by Avery Brundage, president of the International Olympic Committee. Attendance at the games is estimated at over two million. The United States won sixteen gold medals in track and field, including Bob Richards in the pole vault, retaining his Olympic title. In swimming, although the Australians won most of the gold medals, the close competition with the U.S. kept fans cheering and applauding. Among notable team competitions, the U.S. still has never lost an Olympic tournament basketball game, winning the final 89–55 over the Soviet Union, with Bill Russell and Bo Jeangerard scoring 13 and 16 points, respectively.

Tightened Border Controls
Block Hungarian Refugees
by S. Stuart Taylor VIENNA, AUSTRIA
1 February 1957 (INS)

   The controls at the Hungarian border with Austria have been severely tightened in the last few days. Through interpreters, many Hungarian refugees here tell of fleeing for their lives in the middle of the night and making treacherous frontier crossings. Among them are students who took part in the spontaneous revolt that began last October and lasted until the Soviets took military action in November against an essentially civilian uprising. The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, assisted by the United States Escapee program and voluntary agencies, is gaining momentum in assisting refugees to emigrate from Austria and resettle. Estimates put the number of refugees at 178,000. Though the border closing has slowed the flow into Austria to a trickle, refugees continue to flee to Yugoslavia.

Hammarskjöld Concludes
Talks with Nasser
by S. Stuart Taylor CAIRO, EGYPT
26 March 1957 (INS)

   UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld today concluded seven days of talks with Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser concerning operation of the Suez Canal. Talks were certainly helped by the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Egypt and the Gaza Strip earlier this month. The canal has been blocked by Egypt with sunken ships, which are being cleared by a UN salvage fleet. The Suez matter is expected to increase Nasser’s prestige in the Arab world as a champion of Arab nationalism.

Arkansas Governor
Uses National Guard
against Negro Students
by S. Stuart Taylor LITTLE ROCK, ARK.
4 September 1957 (INS)

   Yesterday, the governor of Arkansas, Orval E . Faubus, surrounded Central High School in Little Rock with 270 national guard troops and state police armed with billy clubs and rifles. Nine Negro students were thus barred from entering for the fall term. Faubus claimed he was acting to prevent public disorder; critics charge that the governor is intent on at least delaying if not voiding U.S. Supreme Court ordered integration.

Mob Violence
in Little Rock
by S. Stuart Taylor LITTLE ROCK, ARK.
23 September 1957 (INS)

   Governor Orval Faubus, in compliance with a federal court injunction, withdrew national guard troops from Central High School in Little Rock, and an outbreak of violence ensued when eight Negro students attempted to enter today. Four adult Negroes walked up the street toward the school in a diversionary tactic. The waiting mob attacked, beating and kicking them, while the Negro students entered the school. When the crowd discovered the students had entered, they shrieked and howled; women wept and screamed. Three reporters on the scene from
Life
magazine were also beaten. Some white students left the school, cheered by the mob. The howling mob outside and attacks from white students inside resulted in the Negro students being taken out of the school by police a few hours later.

Ike Orders Army
to Little Rock
by S. Stuart Taylor LITTLE ROCK, ARK.
24 September 1957 (INS)

   President Eisenhower today ordered U.S. Army airborne troops to Little Rock to restore order after yesterday’s violence at Central High School. The nine students finally started school. The president stated that the federal troops would not leave until Faubus complied with court orders to enforce integration.

Further Attacks
on Vice-President
by S. Stuart Taylor WITH THE VICE-PRESIDENT CARACAS, VENEZUELA
13 May 1958 (INS)

   Vice-President Richard M. Nixon’s goodwill tour of Latin America was further beset by strife as Mr. Nixon’s limousine today was attacked by a mob. We are told that President Eisenhower has dispatched a thousand marines to Caribbean bases and has challenged the Venezuelan government’s ability to protect the vice-president. Today’s attack follows the one in Lima, Peru, a few days ago, in which university students threw eggs, stones, and epithets at Mr. Nixon. He was spat upon and shouted down though he tried unsuccessfully to win over his attackers by argument. Some sources attribute these attacks to Communist instigation, but others cite the effect of the U.S. recession on Latin America and on general U.S. indifference to Latin American concerns.

New French Premier
de Gaulle Tours Algeria
by S. Stuart Taylor BÔNE, ALGERIA
6 June 1958 (INS)

   New French premier Charles de Gaulle returned to Paris today after a three-day visit to troubled Algeria, in which he announced that all Algerians, including Moslems of both sexes, would be completely French, forming one electorate. While Premier de Gaulle was received with cheers, the FLN
(Front de la
Liberation Nationale)
is not expected to give up the call for independence. The FLN is the voice of the Moslems in rebellion and was responsible last year for the massacre of 302 villagers at Melouza, as well as for an ongoing campaign of bombings and violent attacks in Algeria and in France.

   The inability to resolve French problems in Algeria was the primary factor in bringing de Gaulle to power, ending the fourth republic. De Gaulle was the leader of Free France in World War II. He accepted leadership June 1 on the condition that he, not the French assembly, would have full power to reform France’s constitution.

Alaska Wins Statehood
at Last
by S. Stuart Taylor WASHINGTON, D.C.
7 July 1958 (INS)

   Today Alaska, the territory dubbed “Seward’s Folly,” became the forty-ninth state of the Union and the first noncontiguous state. The U.S. thought so little of the region after purchasing it from Russia that for seventeen years the territory had no government at all. It wasn’t until gold was discovered in the Klondike River, just across the Alaska-Canadian border in 1896, that Americans took an interest in Alaska. At the behest of some of the sixty thousand Americans who went looking for gold, congressional representatives back home finally began writing some legislation for Alaska.

   The admission of Alaska opens the door for another noncontiguous territory, Hawaii, which has also sought statehood for many years.

Marines Land in Lebanon
by S. Stuart Taylor BEIRUT, LEBANON
15 July 1958 (INS)

   Marine units attached to the U.S. Sixth Fleet, on duty in the Mediterranean Sea, have landed in Lebanon in response to the Lebanese government’s request to the U.S. for protection. Lebanese president Camille Chamoun has long come under criticism from Arab nations for his more and more open alignment with the U.S. Rebellion broke out in April. UN observers did not substantiate Chamoun’s charge that massive military intervention by the new UAR (United Arab Republic, formerly Egypt and Syria) was taking place, so the Lebanese government appealed to the U.S. for military aid on the grounds that the country is being threatened by foreign intervention.

   At this time no predictions are forthcoming as to how long the U.S. troops will be here.

Khrushchev in Talks
with Ike
by S. Stuart Taylor CAMP DAVID, MD.
27 September 1959 (AP)

   Today is the last day of the history-making visit of Russian premier Nikita S. Khrushchev to the United States. President Eisenhower and the Soviet leader are holding talks at Camp David, focusing on disarmament. President Eisenhower has been invited to visit the Soviet Union next year. Mr. Khrushchev also withdrew his ultimatum that the Allies get out of Berlin. Sources say the talks have gone much better than expected in light of the Soviet premier’s behavior earlier in the trip.

   Highlights of Mr. Khrushchev’s antics include the mocking “gift” of a model of the Soviet’s latest space success, a lunar rocket launched recently. In a speech to the UN, Khrushchev was outrageous, boastful, and condescending, proposing the elimination of all weapons—nuclear and conventional—in four years.

   His transcontinental tour in the company of UN ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge was also not without incident. Mr. Khrushchev was upset that he wasn’t permitted to go to Disneyland, for security reasons.

   The administration hopes that these talks are the beginning of a new spirit in Soviet-American relations.

Ike Concluding “Personal
Diplomacy” Tour
in Paris Talks
by S. Stuart Taylor WITH THE PRESIDENT PARIS, FRANCE
19 December 1959 (AP)

   President Eisenhower begins talks today with French, British, and West German leaders. The president is nearing the end of his 22,000-mile goodwill tour of eleven nations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The president announced he will suggest a series of summit meetings between the Western powers and will urge that Premier Khrushchev of the Soviet Union be invited.

   The president stated before the tour that he believes in personal diplomacy—that his goal was to promote international understanding that the U.S. wants “to search out methods by which peace in the world can be assured with justice for everybody.”

   It appears by his enthusiastic welcome in India as the “prince of peace” and the warm receptions he received elsewhere that perhaps that goal was in some measure achieved. But will the tour result in concrete progress in international relations? The president has one more year in office to find out.