1968
Bloodiest year of the war ends


The bloodiest year of the war comes to an end. At year’s end, 536,040 American servicemen were stationed in Vietnam, an increase of over 50,000 from 1967.

Estimates from Headquarters U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam indicated that 181,150 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese were killed during the year. However, Allied losses were also up: 27,915 South Vietnamese, 14,584 Americans (a 56 percent increase over 1967), and 979 South Koreans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Thais were reported killed during 1968. Since January 1961, more than 31,000 U.S. servicemen had been killed in Vietnam and over 200,000 U.S. personnel had been wounded.

Contributing to the high casualty number was the Tet Offensive launched by the communists. Conducted in the early weeks of the year, it was a crushing military defeat for the communists, but the size and scope of the attacks caught the American and South Vietnamese allies completely by surprise. The early reporting of a smashing communist victory went largely uncorrected in the media and this led to a psychological victory for the communists. The heavy U.S. casualties incurred during the offensive coupled with the disillusionment over the earlier overly optimistic reports of progress in the war accelerated the growing disenchantment with President Johnson’s conduct of the war. Johnson, frustrated with his inability to reach a solution in Vietnam, announced on March 31, 1968, that he would neither seek nor accept the Democratic nomination for president. Johnson’s announcement did not dampen the wave of antiwar protests that climaxed with the bloody confrontation between protesters and police outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
I do remember this as i lost many good friends there!!

2009
Rare Bugatti found in British garage


On this day in 2009, media outlets report that a rare unrestored 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe has been found in the garage of a British doctor. A month later, on February 7, the car sold at a Paris auction for some $4.4 million.

The black two-seater, one of just 17 57S Atalante Coupes ever made by Bugatti, had been owned by English orthopedic surgeon Harold Carr since 1955. Carr, who died in 2007, reportedly had kept the rare vehicle parked in his garage since the early 1960s and hadn’t driven it in five decades. The car was built in May 1937 and originally owned by Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon, the 5th Earl Howe. Curzon was also the first president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club and a winner of the 24 Hour Le Mans race.

When it was built, the 57S Atalante Coupe was capable of reaching speeds of more than 120 miles per hour at a time when the average car couldn’t do more than 50 miles per hour. It was also notable for its low-slung frame and V-shaped radiator and featured pig-skin upholstery. At the time of the auction, Carr’s car was said to be in good condition and had 26,284 miles on its odometer.

The Bugatti car company was founded in 1909 by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti (1881-1947) in present-day Molsheim, France, and became known for producing expensive, cutting-edge sports cars and racing cars. From the time of its founding until the 1940s, the company built fewer than 8,000 cars. Following the death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947, the company went into decline and changed hands several times. In 1998, Volkswagen bought the rights to build cars under the Bugatti name. In 2009, the company introduced the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, a sports car convertible which was capable of speeds of some 253 miles per hour and carried a price tag of more than $2 million. The Veyron could reach 60 mph is under 2.5 seconds.

1969
All-time Formula One champ born


Michael Schumacher, who won a record seven Formula One (F1) world championships, is born on January 3, 1969, near Cologne, Germany. In a 16-year Formula One career that began in the early 1990s, Schumacher’s numerous F1 accomplishments also included records for most Grand Prix victories (91), most pole positions (68; the most favorable place to start a race, the pole position is awarded to the driver with the fastest qualifying time for the race) and most career points (1,369; an F1 driver earns points based on where he places in a race).

Schumacher, who was a championship kart racer growing up in Germany, made his Formula One debut in 1991 and won his first race the following year, at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix. (Individual F1 events are known as Grand Prix races.) Traditionally based in Europe, Formula One, which has been referred to as the world’s richest sport because it costs so much money to participate in, is an elite level of racing in which competitors drive single-seat, open-wheeled vehicles capable of speeds surpassing 230 mph. These cars are typically built by large automakers, known in the racing world as constructors, including Porsche, Ferrari and Toyota. Today, Formula One events are held around the world, with drivers competing for teams that have corporate sponsorship. Formula One racing is governed by the Fédération International de l’Automobile (FIA), which in 1950 named its inaugural world championship driver, Giuseppe Farina of Italy. (In 1958, the FIA awarded its first constructor championship, to the British carmaker Vanwall.)

When he collected his first Formula One world championship in 1994, Schumacher became the first German driver to ever do so. He went on to claim the title again in 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. With his sixth championship title in 2003, Schumacher broke the record of Argentine driver Juan Manuel Fangio (1911-1995), who won five world titles in the 1950s.

Though he was one of the most talented and highest-paid drivers in recent F1 history, Schumacher, who drove for the Benetton racing team from 1992 to 1995 and Ferrari from 1996 to 2006, was not without controversy. On various occasions, he was accused of bending the rules and unsportsmanlike behavior, including aggressive driving that resulted in collisions with his competitors.

After competing in the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, Schumacher retired from F1 racing at the age of 37.

Somehow you are obligated to be a left wing sympathizer as a young person. A few avoid this, but most have this phase with some red –ism, at least where I live. When you are young, you have ideals, and the –isms fit your romantic dreams of a just society and a just world. As life moves on, your ideals shrink or modify and your –ism views fade. For those hard core -ism people, the disappointment when the falsehood dawns on them is profound. Doris Lessing, a Nobel laureate, has dealt with this in many of her books. Many of these people really suffer mentally and struggle with their convictions, because the theories of their intellect and intelligence sooner or later will clash with some reality or another.
Hungarian born Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon " is worthwhile. An event like the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, definitely shaped Koestler, who got busy organising anti-Soviet meetings and protests.

When I hear about Alger Hiss and the McCarthy era I’m always flabbergasted.
Why was the USA so scared?
And of what was they scared?
When you look back on those years, do you find this fear and the way it manifested itself justified?

I cannot think of this without remembering the movie ’The Way We Were’
He said: ”You never give up , do you?”
She said: ”You never give in , do you?”
He was wimpish most of the time.
She was on fire most of the time.

That was quotations from other people, GeraldRube.
I would like your and your countrymen's views.

On another note, I came across this statue to commemorate 'The Victims of Communism' in Washington, D. C.
To be honest it caught me completely unprepared.
I stared a while, and couldn't make up my mind as to what to think meeting such a memorial.
I still have not made up my mind.