laboration was resented by General De Gaulle of France, who saw it as proof that Britain was not sufficiently European. Within a month De Gaulle had vetoed UK membership of the EEC, see 14/1/1963.
5/12/1962, US diplomat Dean Acheson said Britain was 'played out'.
5/11/1962, In the US, elections left Democrats in control of both Houses.
22/12/1961, James Davis became the first US casualty of the war in Vietnam.
18/10/1961. A work by Henri Matisse attracted big crowds in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Only after 116,000 people had seen it over 46 days did someone notice it was hung upside-down.
5/9/1961, The USA announced it would resume underground nuclear tests.
11/5/1961, US President Kennedy sent 400 Special Forces troops to conduct covert anti-Communist operations in North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
5/6/1961, The US Supreme Court ruled that the Communist Party must register as a foreign-dominated organisation. On 17/6/1961 the US Communist Party refused to comply with this ruling.
1/3/1961, US President Kennedy formed the Peace Corps, a group of volunteers to work in less-developed countries.
1960, Click here for map of USA global defence strategy 1960
21/8/1960, David B Steinman, US bridge engineer, died aged 74.
15/7/1960, In Los Angeles, Kennedy accepted the Democratic Party nomination for President.
12/7/1960, President Khrushchev of the USSR asserted that the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 was no longer valid; this would legitimate Soviet interference in the Caribbean. On 14/7/1960 the US confirmed that the Monroe Doctrine was still in operation.
24/5/1960, The USA launched the Midas-2 satellite. Weighing over 2.5 tonnes, its purpose was to test the feasibility of a satellite system to give early warning of any ballistic missile attack on the USA.
17/2/1960, Martin Luther King was arrested in the USA.
19/1/1960, President Eisenhower of the USA signed a Treaty of Mutual Co-operation and Security with Japan in Washington. This confirmed Japan as an integral member of the anti-Communist alliance.
16/11/1959. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music opened on Broadway, New York.
16/10/1959, George Marshall, US soldier and politician who formulated the Marshall Plan to aid post-War Europe, died in Washington DC.
9/6/1959. The USA launched its first ballistic missile submarine, the George Washington.
24/5/1959, John Foster Dulles (born 1888), US Secretary of State until his resignation due to ill-health in April 1959, died from cancer. He was chief spokesperson for US President Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. He believed in a robust ‘brinkmanship’ approach to Soviet threats, reinforcing NATO and creating SEATO. He did not get on with UK Prime Minister Anthony Eden, disagreeing in particular with the UK’s policy over Suez. He opposed the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt in late 1956, and sometimes failed to anticipate Arab nationalist reactions to external intervention.
4/11/1958, In the USA, Democrats won the mid-term elections, gaining 62 seats in the Senate (Republicans 34 seats). The Democrats gained 281 seats in the House of Representatives (Republicans 153 seats).
31/5/1958, The Kremlin and Washington agreed to hold talks on a ban on atmospheric atom bomb tests.
3/5/1958, President Eisenhower proposed a demilitarised Antarctic.
24/3/1958. Elvis Presley was sworn in as a US private. He was paid $78 as a regular. He had been given a 60-day deferment to make the film ‘King Creole’.
18/10/1957, Queen Elizabeth II met US President Eisenhower; the first visit by a British monarch to the White House.
30/8/1957, US senator Strom Thurmond spoke for 24hrs 27m against civil rights.
31/5/1957, American playwright Arthur Miller was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to name other writers as communists. Miller confessed his own communist sympathies but said his conscience would not let him finger others; the judge praised his motives but he could still face a year in jail.
7/5/1957 Eliot Ness, the FBI agent who headed the investigation of Al Capone in Chicago, died.
2/5/1957. Senator