Topics
Understanding our world and that of our enemies
Armed Forces Radio Service
After WWII, the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) employed mobile radio vans and commandeered Japanese stations on the mainland, Korea, the Marianas, and the Ryukyus. After the Korean War broke out, broadcasts to Korea from Japan were transmitted from the Far...
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Man from Planet X, The Thing & Day the Earth Stood Still
Meanwhile, on the home front the public was fascinated by outer space. https://youtu.be/K6iF5sINVns https://youtu.be/05-qogh7GA0
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Battles of Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge
By the summer of 1951, the Korean War had reached a stalemate a few miles north of the 38th parallel where UN and Communist forces clashed in several relatively small but bloody battles. The Battle of Bloody Ridge from mid-August to early September 1951 was an attempt...
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Dragnet – Danger Ahead
Dun Da dun dun ~ Walter Schumann's ominous, four-note introduction to the TV show Dragnet was recognized by most Americans in the 1950s to signify "danger ahead." Dragnet was an American television series, based on the radio series of the same name, both created...
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United Nations Forces in the Korean War
https://youtu.be/YBSAsvbTT3g Sixteen UN nations supplied fighting units and five sent military hospitals and field ambulances. Australia was one of the very first to contribute military personnel from all three services. The single largest UN contributor was the...
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Cost of Living 1951
https://youtu.be/WLmJaT9XeDA House: $7,300Average income: $3,515Ford car: $1424-$22538.3 cu. ft. General Electric refrigerator: $330Milk: $.92Gas: $.20Bread $.16Postage stamp: $.031 lb. of buttered peanut brittle: $.2514 oz. can of Hershey’s Syrup: $.17Sliced Bacon:...
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Korean War Armistice Talks Begin
https://youtu.be/Znm5Xf7Xrlw In July 1951, peace talks began between the U.N. and North Korea in the village of Kaesong (later moved to nearby Panmunjon), just north of the future Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The desire to secure more territory and unresolved...
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Ernie Kovacs Popular TV Comedian
https://youtu.be/U2AWAZ0gojY Ernest Edward Kovacs (1919 – 1962, was a popular American TV comedian, actor, and writer. Often spontaneous, his zany comedy style influenced numerous TV comedy programs for years after his death. Frequently his slapstick humor...
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Family Bomb Shelters for Atomic Attack
https://youtu.be/8UW0LgiHFQQ As Cold War tension regarding the threat of Soviet nuclear attack rose in the 1950s, children learned to duck and cover under their school desks and many families across the country built fallout shelters in their basements and...
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Did The U.S. Deploy Bioweapons During the Korean War?
https://youtu.be/Y4ALYK8c5Yg A 1950s report published in Peking by an international commission concluded that the U.S. used bioweapons on North Korea. The report raised doubts about claims that captured Americans were brainwashed into confessing the use of such...
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The Caine Mutiny Wins The Pulitzer Prize
The Caine Mutiny, a novel by Herman Wouk, won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize. Derived from Wouk's personal experiences aboard destroyer-minesweepers in the Pacific during WWII, the novel deals with the moral and ethical decisions made at sea by a...
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First H-Bomb Test on Eniwetok Atoll
https://youtu.be/oR3_7A_rQD0 In January 1950, President Harry Truman, despite strong reservations of the Atomic Energy Commission, made the controversial decision to intensify research and production of thermonuclear weapons. On May 12th, 1951, the United States,...
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Rosenbergs sentenced to death for espionage
https://youtu.be/5iUyF3YttgA Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and brought to trial on March 6, 1951; On March 29 they were found guilty, and on April 5,1951 the couple was sentenced to death. https://youtu.be/7lfJC5bx3Us...
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UNIVAC – First Commercial Computer Built
https://youtu.be/kignGE77l_I The UNIVAC I was the first American computer designed to provide fast execution of relatively simple arithmetic and data transport operations for commercial purposes, as opposed to the complex numerical calculations required of scientific...
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Korean War Draft Age Lowered From 21 to 18 Years
https://youtu.be/vEji28QamlM With WWII already begun in Europe and Asia, Congress narrowly passed the first peacetime draft in U.S. history. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act into law in September 1940. All males of ages...
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Dennis the Menace Comic Strip
eBay Dennis the Menace debuted in 1951 as a daily, syndicated newspaper comic strip that was originally created, written, and illustrated by Hank Ketcham. Today the strip is written and drawn by Ketcham's former assistants, Marcus Hamilton,...
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Chinese PLA and UN Forces Ping-Pong Back & Forth
https://youtu.be/ygEm0sIZF8M May 16, 1951 - Chinese Communist Forces launch a second offensive in Korea and gain up to 20 miles of territory. May 21, 1951 - The U.S. Eighth Army counterattacks to drive the Communist Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea....
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The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
https://youtu.be/aVEwfJ4s8kc There is no movie - This is a School project by Mickofferson The Catcher in the Rye written by the enigmatic recluse J.D. Salinger was first published in serial form in the New Yorker magazine in 1945–1946, then as a novel in 1951....
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President Truman Relieves Gen MacArthur of Command
https://youtu.be/U7Siq4eFS-8 With the UN military situation in Korea improving in early 1951, President Harry S. Truman was contemplating offering a peace negotiation to Communist China. However, in late March 1951 General Douglas MacArthur independently challenged...
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Commonwealth Forces in Battle of Kapyong
In April 1951 UN forces fought the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army at the Battle of Kapyong in one of the most famous actions fought by the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian armies in the Korean War. In the battle, occurring during...
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Literature During the Korean War
Together with the Foot Soldiers 步兵과 더부러 Yu Ch’ihwan (1951) The pen we carry to fight should, like grenades, field artillery, flame throwers and the atomic bomb become a new weapon Ch’oe Sangdŏk (1901-1971) "After WWII Korean writers searched for a new...
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Chinese Ground Offensive Spring 1951
https://youtu.be/zswdDufm8b0 Excellent summary of Combat Activities In Korea, 20 April Through 20 May 1951 In April 1951 the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army (PVA) launched the first phase of its Spring Offensive with three field armies totaling 700,000 men against the...
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Chinese Spring Offensive Air War
https://youtu.be/HNgrTVzYDHA The Air Plan After their New Years' offensive, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army high command decided to use the People's Air Force in support of future ground operations. In preparation for this move, an air-ground training...
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Victor Borge Danish Pianist & Comedian
Victor Borge (born Børge Rosenbaum) was a Danish conductor and pianist whose comic renditions of piano concerts were widely popular in the United States and Europe. Born to two concert musicians, Rosenbaum was a child prodigy pianist. After classical...
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Operation Ripper – Fourth Battle of Seoul
https://youtu.be/FV-uy5rXDCk With the UN Operation Ripper in March 1951, Seoul changed hands for the 4th time. Following the 8-day, late February offensive of Operation Killer that pushed PVA/KPA forces north of the Han River, Operation Ripper was intended...
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