Writing
From Charles Keller's unfinished book:
TOONS OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE 1978 — 1988, THE REAGAN-CARTER ERA, By Charles Keller
Text by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny
THE “REAGAN REVOLUTION” ELECTION OF 1980
By the end of the 1970s, the United States economy was experiencing serious difficulties. Under President Carter unemployment climbed to over 7.5 percent, and inflation topped 13 percent a year. From 1973 to 1981, real income dropped an average of 2 percent a year. Job loss was particularly great in basic industry, which underwent a dismantling that the writers Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison called “de-industrialization.”1 These economic problems were a major factor in Ronald Reagan’s defeat of Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Fueled by a tremendous infusion of corporate money, including $25 million from oil interests in the southwest, conservative Republicans scored unprecedented gains in Congressional races. For the first time, since President Eisenhower, the Republicans won control of the Senate. Conservative Republican candidates added Senate seats in the traditionally Democratic states of Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina, and Republicans defeated such liberal Democrats as Frank Church in Idaho, Birch Bayh in Indiana, and Gaylord Nelson in Wisconsin. In the House, which the Democrats had controlled since 1955, the Republicans gained thirty-four seats. Keller captured this seismic shift in “Further to the right, fellas, further to the right!” (picture #1).
1. Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison, ‘The De-industrialization of America’ (New York: Basic Books, 1982).
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
Two years into Carter’s administration, massive demonstrations led by Islamic fundamentalists and leftwing students shook Iran. On September 8, 1978, the Shah’s troops killed hundreds of demonstrators. The next day, Carter called the Shah to express his support. Meanwhile Carter bolstered the staff of the American embassy with dozens of specialists to help the Shah stay in power.1
In early 1979, the popular uprising succeeded, and the Shah fled. Inflaming already intense anti-American feelings in Iran, Carter permitted the Shah to enter the U.S. In response, on November 4,1979, Iranian students seized the American embassy. For over four hundred days, the students held fifty-two Americans hostage. In April 1980, Carter sent six Hercules C130 transport planes and nine helicopters on a secret mission to rescue the hostages. After a helicopter crashed into one of the transport planes and eight soldiers died, Carter had to abort the mission.2 The ludicrous futility of American armed might in this operation was the subject of Keller’s cartoon, “Rescue Mission”(picture 3).
1. Zinn, 560-561; Wittner, 151-153; Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism (Boston: South End Press, 1979), 13-14, 45, 292-293.
2. “On This Day 25 April: 1980: Tehran Hostage Rescue Mission Fails,” http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid 2503000/2503899.stm (March 18, 2004).
DEMOCRACY, CHILEAN-STYLE
When Keller sketched “Pinochet: Here’s another supporter for the Regime,” (picture 5) General Augusto Pinochet, the fascist general backed by Nixon and Kissinger, had been in power seven years. On September 11, 1973, he had led the coup against the democratically elected government of Chilean President Salvador Allende, a Socialist.
In 1980 Chile was in the news again. The Yes (Si) vote coerced from the hapless, battered Chilean voter in the Keller cartoon referred to the new constitution, “approved” by voters under Pinochet’s iron rule. Early in its reign, the fascist junta appointed a Constitutional Commission to come up with a new Constitution to deflect international criticism of the regime. In 1980, the upshot was a document tailor-made to fit Pinochet. The new constitution provided that he would remain in office until 1989 or possibly 1997. This was not Pinochet’s first ploy to win a veneer of constitutionality. He had been named “President” of the Junta in 1973, and “President of the Republic” by decree in 1976.
From September 1973 on, Pinochet wallowed in the blood of Chile’s democrats. According to the Washington Post1, the Chilean military, aided by the CIA crushed its opponents in days. The fascist regime carried out raids, executions, “disappearances” and the arrest and torture of thousands of Chilean citizens — establishing a state of terror for years to come. The victims of the persecution included indigenous peoples, the Catholic Church, and the rural community. Trade unions, Allende government officials and political parties of the leftfared worst. More people were killed in the four months following the coup than in any other year of the dictatorship. According to Amnesty International and the U.N. Human Rights Commission, 250,000 people were detained for political reasons during this period.
1. “Pinochet’s Chile,” Washington Post, 2000 (http://wwM5washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/pinochet/overview.htm) Pinochet: “Here’s another supporterfor the regime.” Collection: Library of Congress, Washington, DC
GUNS AND BUTTER
Between 1981 and 1984, Reagan added about $181 billion to the military budget, a record increase, while cutting the budget for social programs, education, environmental protection, and occupational safety and health. In a speech on November 22,1982, Reagan called for the production and deployment of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) known as the MX, which he claimed was necessary to bring about peace and disarma ment.1 The cartoon, “...and the beauty of it is—nobody wins!” (picture 13) dealt with the Reagan’s reckless gambling with the future. Another,” “The Emperor’s Nuke Clothes,” (picture 7) skewered the media’s complicity in selling Reagan’s saber-rattling as peace gestures. Two cartoons, “We’ve got a new ‘Program for Youth,’ fella,—Carry my Bag!” (picture 11) and “I’m elderly too, you know.” contrasted Reagan’s extravagance toward the military with his stinginess toward the poor, the young, and the aged. Another cartoon, “Hey, watch where you’re going—sleepwalkers!” sided Congress’ reluctance to give Reagan all the money he wanted for the MX missile.
1. “Hall of Reverence: Ronald Reagan Speech: MX Missile Proposal, November 22,1982,” www.geocities.com/sentryusa2000/HOREV_MX_Missile.htin (March 12, 2004).The Emperors nuke clothes
RAMBO RON
In 1979, the year before Ronald Reagan was elected president, Nicaraguan revolutionaries known as the Sandinistas overthrew the corrupt dictatorship of the Somosa family that had ruled that country with U.S. backing since the 1930s. Though Sandinistas, aided by thousands of American volunteers, were improving the country’s education, housing, and health care, Reagan denounced the revolution and tried to overturn it. The U.S. supported counter revolutionaries known as the Contras, former members of Somoza’s national guard that conducted armed raids against government facilities and Sandinista supporters from bases in Honduras. In a truly Orwellian twist, Reagan called Nicaragua a “terrorist” state that was seeking to “build a Libya on our doorstep.” In 1986, by the way, Reagan had ordered the bombing of the headquarters of Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi in Tripoli, killing members of his immediate family. At the same time, the Reagan administration secretly funneled millions of dollars of aid to the Contras, some of it from arms sales to Iran. This operation occurred in violation of the Boland Amendment of 1984 that specifically outlawed government aid to the Contras. Newspaper exposure of the “Iran-Contra Affair” resulted in a Congressional investigation, the indictment of officials in the administration, and nearly the downfall of Reagan himself.
In “We’ve got to save the world from terrorism!” (picture 9), Keller pictured President Reagan as “Rambo Ron,” a reference to the 1985 film “Rambo: First Blood II,” in which Sylvester Stallone played an army special operations veteran sent to rescue POWs in Vietnam. A Variety reviewer called the film a “risible production [with] comic book heroics,” while another reviewer described it as jingoistic crap.”1 These labels fit the policy as well as the film.
1. Michael Marshall Smith, “First Blood,” VideoVista Monthly VHS & DVD Review http://areas.or.cr/Eindice.htm (March 16, 2004).We ve got to save the world from terrorism.” Collection: Library of Congress, Washington, DC
IRAN-CONTRA SCANDAL
The cartoon, “...Ahem!” (picture 15) also referred to the Iran-Contra scandal. The cartoon drew a comparison between the Iran-Contra scandal and both the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon and the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that led to President Lyndon Johnson’s undoing. In August 1964, Johnson made a misleading claim that North Vietnamese had attacked an American ship in the Tonkin Gulf. In response, Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf resolution authorizing the President to take “all necessary measures” to repel aggression. With this resolution as justification, Johnson escalated American involvement in the War in Vietnam, which in turn made him so unpopular that in 1968 he was forced to abjure re-election. The cartoon contained two other references. The arms for Savimbi, referred to Jonas Savimbi, the murderous head of the counter-revolutionary guerrillas in Angola called UNITA, that the CIA was funding. The worried man at the door was George Schultz, the Secretary of State (1982-89), who had opposed the idea of selling arms to Iran.
