Friday, June 15, 2012

Anti-Holidays

I nominate Anarcho-Freudian Slip day, in honor of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's infamous slip of the tongue at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. There, in the midst of a police riot, his subconscious emitted the awful truth: "The policeman is not here to create disorder. The policeman is here to preserve disorder."

While the Convention ran from August 26 to 29, 1968, Daley actually uttered the words on September 9 (http://chicago68.com/c68chron.html). (Hat tip, Nicholas Strakon!) So that's where it'll go on the Anti-Holiday Calendar of The Last Ditch.

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President Harry Truman issued the Truman Doctrine on March 12, 1947. Bribery of non-aligned nations would thereafter become part of U.S. strategy to contain the Soviets.

Greece and Turkey were dominoes on the verge of falling at the time. As Wisegeek.com (www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-truman-doctrine.htm) wisely if geekily notes, "The Truman Doctrine was established to give aid to both countries, to help them fight off foreign influence, despite the fact that it would be just another form of foreign influence" (emphasis added).

I seem to recall the Great Communicator mouthing similarly delicious ironies after he'd sent U.S. Marines to join Italian and French counterparts in Lebanon in 1982. The multinational peacekeeping force, he said, would protect the Lebanese from foreign influence. Remarkable.

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