Short History of…Mount Rushmore. I’m almost certain that Donald Trump will try to get his face onto Mount Rushmore. The carvings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were commenced in 1927 and took 14 years to complete on a mountain that was regarded as sacred by the Sioux. Known as the ‘Six Grandfathers’ for the six large granite outcrops which it contains, it was supposed to be Native American land under the 1868 Treaty of Ford Lararmie, but that got torn up when the Black Hills were seized for mining. In the 1920s there was a boom of motor tourism to beauty spots, and Doane Robinson, the state historian of South Dakota, wanted a “Big” thing that people could travel to see. At first he suggested that six American west heroes should be carved into the mountain (Lewis and Clark, their expedition guide Sacagawea, Lakota chief Red Cloud,Buffalo Bill Cody, and Oglala Lakota chief Crazy Horse). But they brought in sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who suggested the four presidents instead to give it a national focus. Borglum was a passionate but pugilistic man, who had previously been engaged on a Confederate carving on Stone Mountain, Georgia, funded by the KKK, until he was sacked and the work he had already done on the carving was blasted away. There was lobbying to have $460,000 put aside for the work on Mt Rushmore, but Borglum decided to just have $250,00 from the government with the rest from private donations. He made 1:12 scale models in his studio, but the plans had to be redrafted because of the geology of the mountain and because there was a black vein running through the rock. He planned to add torsos to the bodies, but with the financial restrains of WW2, they went for just the heads. Gutzon Borglum died in 1941 and his son Lincoln took over. The sculpture ended up costing $990,000 and it opened in 1941. In 1971 the site was occupied by Native American protesters, and in 1981 a court ruled that the Sioux were owed compensation. However, they refused to take it, wanting the land instead. Fortunately it seems that the geology precludes adding any more heads, but I’m sure that that wouldn’t deter Trump.
In the Shadows of Utopia Season 2 Episode 18 A Cambodian Coup! The “Red Prince” falls Time Period Covered 1969 – 1970. In 1969, Pol Pot and his wife, and a number of CPK delegates walked to Hanoi. They wanted to continue the struggle against Sihanouk, but the Communist Party of Vietnam wanted them to give up, because Sihanouk was too useful to them. Meanwhile, there were increasing numbers of North Vietnamese troops in Cambodia attracting increased US bombing, with Sihanouk’s tacit approval. As Sihanouk headed overseas, by this time Lon Nol was head of the government and Sirik Matat, Sihanouk’s cousin, was in charge of the economy. There was increasing restlessness about the North Vietnamese presence in Cambodia. So in Sihanouk’s absence the 5000 real note was devalued, which had a large effect because 5000 reals was the denomination that the Viet Kong used to buy rice from the Cambodian farmers. Bombing of the north east region was ordered, and false protests were staged at the North Vietnamese embassy. On 11 March 1970 Sihanouk announced that he was returning to Cambodia, and Lon Nol announced that the North Vietnamese and Communist troops had to leave within 3 days. Sihanouk changed his mind and decided not to come back after all, and threatened to kill the cabinet who had been acting in his absence, accusing Sirik of bringing in the Vietnamese. A coup ensued. Lon Nol was forced to hand over control of the Army, and the Congress voted to overthrow Sihanouk. Meanwhile Sihanouk was in Moscow, and both Russia and China asked if Sihanouk would continue his support of the Communist cause. China was worried about Soviet influence and they suggested an uprising, using the Communist Party of Kampuchea as the resistance, with Vietnamese military training and arms, and Sihanouk as its ‘face’. Sihanouk was fuelled with a desire for revenge against his enemies, blaming traitors in the assembly and their US imperial masters and he called for a guerilla uprising. Pol Pot, who all of a sudden found himself in demand, accepted the offer under the names of the ‘Three Ghosts’ Khieu Samphan, Hu Nim and Hou Youn, nationalists who had been disappeared and supposedly (but not) executed by Sihanouk. Pol Pot himself stayed in the background. Was there CIA involvement? Probably the US was happy enough with Sihanouk, but they probably had contact with all sorts of people.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 