RECOVERED HISTORY

HOW CONGRESS HELPED TO END THE VIETNAM WAR

JULIAN ZELIZER, AMERICAN PROSPECT - In 1972, [Sen. Frank] Church [of
Idaho] and Senator Clifford Case of New Jersey were able to push through
the Senate an amendment to foreign-aid legislation that would end
funding for all U.S. military operations in Southeast Asia except for
withdrawal (subject to the release of all prisoners of war). Senate
passage of the legislation, with the amendment, marked the first time
that either chamber had passed a provision establishing a cutoff of
funds for continuing the war. Though House and Senate conferees failed
to reach an agreement on the measure, the support for the amendment was
seen by the administration as another sign that antiwar forces were
gaining strength. . .

During the final negotiations with the Vietnamese over ending the war,
culminating with the 1972 Christmas Bombings and the Paris Peace Accords
in January 1973, the president knew that he only had a limited amount of
time before Congress finally used the power of the purse to bring the
war to an end -- regardless of what the administration wanted. Indeed,
to make certain that the president could not reverse course, in June
1973 Congress passed legislation that included an amendment sponsored by
Church and Case to prohibit the use of more funds in Southeast Asia
after August 15. Sixty-four senators voted in favor. When the House
assented, its vote marked the first time that chamber had agreed to cut
off funds, too.

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=12438

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FATE MAGAZINE

WEBLOSKY - I used to read "Fate Magazine" when I was a kid. I really dug
the illustrations on the covers through the fifties. . . I accidentally
discovered a web site for "Fate." It has a bunch of the old covers where
they're selling back issues, and they have posters and trading cards. It
looks like they're still publishing, and they've gone back to the cool
illustrated covers. The magazine itself is a collection of stories about
ghosts, UFOs, and other paranormal phenomena and Forteana.

http://weblogsky.com/2007/01/fate.html

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ORIGINS OF 'MICHAEL ROW YOUR BOAT ASHORE'

TONY SALETAN - In 1954, I was searching for good singable work songs to
use as folksong-leader at Shaker Village Work Camp in New Lebanon, NY
(near the Massachusetts border). I selected a song of that name,
collected by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim
Garrison, and published in their book, "Slave songs of the United
States" in 1867 (New York: A. Simpson). It was in a little-used (very
dusty) copy at Widener Library of Harvard University. I judged that the
tune was very singable, added some harmony (a guitar accompaniment) and
thought the one-word chorus would be an easy hit with the teens (it
was). But a typical original verse consisted of one line repeated once,
and I thought a rhyme would be more interesting to the teen-agers at
Shaker Village Work Camp, where I introduced it. So I adapted
traditional African-American couplets in place of the original verses.
That summer I taught it to Pete Seeger, who sang it with the Weavers,
and later a pop group made a recording of it which became a hit." - Tony
Saletan

http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/michaelr.htm

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