Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 227

Most Famous Woodstock Band Missing...at Woodstock

One of the mysteries of the Woodstock movie and three-record soundtrack was: Where were The Band and Janis Joplin?  Rumor had it that their performances were so weak they had to be cut.  Nonsense, as it turned out: Their famously cranky manager, Albert Grossman, simply wouldn't allow it due to the usual money issues...For years The Band numbers remained hidden, especially on decent quality video, but finally "The Weight" and "Tears of Rage"  emerged.  I envy you if the latter is your first Richard Manuel experience.  Joplin here.  Plus: my novel related to The Band and Big Pink.

Taking Stock of Woodstock

The most famous, if not largest and best, music festival ever "went down" (as we used to say)  44 years ago this weekend, from Havens to Hendrix.  I was old enough and interested enough--I'd recently trekked to Toronto for a smaller fest--but had to work at my local newspaper, my summer job during college.  I remember pulling wire copy off the machines and rushing it to my editors for updates about traffic halted on the New York Thruway, bad weather, drug overdoses and public nudity.  But then, you've probably seen the movie.

My new e-book about my encounters with one of the youth "icons" of that day, Kurt Vonnegut, was just published yesterday, so let's relate how he sized up the festival about twenty years later in a PBS panel.  Note: He doesn't mention it, but one of the infamous incidents that weekend featured Peter Townsend of The Who  smacking Abbie Hoffman with his guitar when Abbie got up on stage to make a political statement.

BEN WATTENBERG: Kurt Vonnegut, you were one of the cultural icons at that time -- like it or not.

VONNEGUT: I never showed myself to my people. [Laughter.]

I had four kids who were the proper age to go to Woodstock, and they simply were not interested, although they were pacifists and outraged at the government and so forth. They were attracted to peace marches, to sit-ins, to teach-ins and political demonstrations.

And we were talking just in the Green Room about how much I miss Abbie Hoffman. He was a great man, he was a useful man for focusing attention on the outrages, many outrages, many injustices and nuttinesses in our society. And Woodstock did none of that, I guess.  As you said, it was politically useless....Well, an important movement was going on in the universities, in the coffee houses, among intelligent people prepared to do political work. And so concerts really had nothing to do with it.

But it seems after the fact, an awful lot of important, devoted thinking has come out of the '60s relative to rescuing the planet, to questioning authority on military adventures, and so forth.

Morris Dickstein, author of The Gates of Eden, responded that Woodstock "didn't really represent all of the '60s. It represented those strands of the counter-culture rather than the political side of the '60s, but it had its own politics because it took place in the context of the war, so all those days of peace and love amid chaos and disorganization really was a way of acting out a kind of lifestyle protest against the wars, assassinations and the whole violent side of the '60s that tends to get stressed more in media stereotypes."

But Dickstein added: "Woodstock represented a failed utopianism that very easily got commercialized and I think very easily got turned into style. You know, what happened -- I mean the people who were in their own way protesting the war and other things at Woodstock were acting out a criticism not by going to the ballot box, but by the way they dressed, the clothes they wore, various kinds of mores that got the label 'lifestyle' later on. And the counterculture -- unlike the New Left, the counterculture was very amenable to being turned into something that could easily be commercialized.

But Jim Miller, who has written histories of the Left as well as reviewed records for Rolling Stone, replied: "I think I really disagree with you. I think actually Iwould put it almost the other way around, that the New Left, which I've written a book about, I think ultimately isn't that important politically, and it didn't have that great an impact, except indirectly by sparking a middle class peace movement.

"The counter-culture, precisely because it was picked up and shoved into the marketplace, spread the ethos of the '60s in the early '70s, and in the process of what you're, I think, denigrating as style or fashion, actually changed the culture and changed it. It changed sexual mores, it changed attitudes towards authority, it changed a sense of what was permissible to experiment with, what limits could be toyed with. What drove them home in American culture was the marketing through rock and roll, among other things, through film, of a certain fantasy of freedom that to me has connections, say, with early progressive Bohemians. But it becomes a mass artifact."

For more on my new e-book, Vonnegut and Me, go here. 

Simmons Removes 'Sex Tape'

Russell Simmons, bowing to the outrage, finally took down, and apologized for, that Harriet Tubman "sex video."  Naturally it lives on at You Tube.  Simmons had early hailed it on Twitter as the funniest thing "ever."

My New Book: 'Vonnegut and Me'

Just published today, "Vonnegut and Me:  Conversations and Close Encounters of the Weird Kind" (Sinclair Books),  e-book only, just $2.99.  For Kindle, iPad, PCs and Mac, etc.  Here's the write-up.
***
Kurt Vonnegut, six years after his passing, remains one of the most popular and influential novelists of the past half-century. Now Greg Mitchell, award-winning author and magazine writer--and a Vonnegut fan going back to Cat's Cradle--recounts for the first time in book form his "conversations and close encounters of the weird kind" with the novelist starting in 1970, just after Vonnegut first reached a mass audience with his classic Slaughterhouse-Five.

It's an insightful, unique and often very funny profile of the artist as he confronts unexpected fame and fortune. Vonnegut hailed one of Mitchell's pieces about him as "daring and imaginative...I admire you terrifically as a writer."

Mitchell quotes extensively from his interviews with Vonnegut, and from letters the novelist sent him over the years. It's all vintage Vonnegut: on war and pacifism, drugs and booze, writing and the difficulties in writing, his many young fans--and growing old himself. Hard truths and "benign lies." Nixon and Bush.  Dresden and Nagasaki.  With plenty of dark humor along the way.

Included in its entirety is one of the most acclaimed profiles of Vonnegut: Mitchell's 1974 cover story for the legendary Crawdaddy magazine. Mitchell, the first to write under the byline of Vonnegut's most famous creation, Kilgore Trout, combined quotes from his actual interview with Vonnegut with a wild fictional reunion of the novelist's other recurring characters one day in New York--a tribute to his greatest work (and cleverest lines). Vonnegut's response: "Against all odds, hey presto, you made the chips all fit together in the same machine. Nice, nice, very nice."

Early on, Vonnegut informed Mitchell: "I have decided that I have been stupid about life, have been unnecessarily unhappy for too long, and it is too early to give any reports on my belated to pursuit of happiness." This cogent and witty book, Vonnegut and Me, shows and tells part of what happened in that pursuit from 1970 to the novelist's death in 2007 (so it goes).
__
Greg Mitchell has written more than a dozen books, including "The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California" (winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize), "Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady" (a New York Times Notable Book) and with Robert Jay Lifton, "Hiroshima in America." He writes daily for the The Nation and he is the former editor of Editor & Publisher. His most recent books include "Atomic Cover-up," "Hollywood Bomb" and a pair of books related to WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning.

Bradley Manning Agonistes

He surprised some supporters today with an "apology" and admission that he could have tried other channels today in court as the sentencing segment continues.  Still, one had to recognize that the judge he was pleading with could send him away for only, say, three years, maybe, 30.  Below that:  WikiLeaks' response.

His full statement, now transcribed:
by Freedom of the Press Foundation’s stenographer
 
First, your honour I want to start off with an apology. I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I ‘m sorry that they hurt the United States.

At the time of my decisions, as you know, I was dealing with a lot of issues, issues that are ongoing and continuing to effect me. Although a considerable difficulty in my life, these issues are not an excuse for my actions.

I understood what I was doing, and decisions I made. However I did not fully appreciate the broader effects of my actions.

Those factors are clear to me now, through both self-refection during my confinement in various forms, and through the merits and sentecing testimony that I have seen here.

I am sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions. When I made these decisions I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people.

The last few years have been a learning experience. I look back at my decisions and wonder how on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better […] on decisions of those with the proper authority.

In retrospect I should have worked more aggressively inside the system, as we discussed during the […] statement, I had options and I should have used these options.

Unfortunately, I can’t go back and change things.  I can only go forward. I want to go forward. Before I can do that, I understand that I must pay a price for my decisions and actions.

Once I pay that price, I hope to one day live in a manner that I haven’t been able to in the past.  I want to be a better person, to go to college, to get a degree and to have a meaningful relationship with my sister with my sister’s family and my family.

I want to be a positive influence in their lives, just as my Aunt Deborah has been to me. I have flaws and issues that I have to deal with, but I know that I can and will be a better person.

I hope that you can give me the opportunity to prove, not through words, but through conduct, that I am a good person and that I can return to productive place in society.  Thank you, Your Honor.
 **
Just posted at the WikiLeaks site:

Today Bradley Manning reportedly made a statement of remorse in a sentencing hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland. Manning’s statement comes towards the end of a court martial trial pursued with unprecedented prosecutorial zeal.

Since his arrest, Mr. Manning has been an emblem of courage and endurance in the face of adversity. He has resisted extraordinary pressure. He has been held in solitary confinement, stripped naked and subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment by the United States government. His constitutional right to a speedy trial has been ignored. He has sat for three years in pretrial detention, while the government assembled 141 witnesses and withheld thousands of documents from his lawyers.

The government has denied him the right to conduct a basic whistleblower defense. It overcharged him until he faced over a century in prison and barred all but a handful of his witnesses. He was denied the right at trial to argue that no harm was caused by his alleged actions. His defence team was pre-emptively banned from describing his intent or showing that his actions harmed no one.

Despite these obstacles, Mr. Manning and his defense team have fought at every step. Last month, he was eventually convicted of charges carrying up to 90 years of prison time. The US government admitted that his actions did not physically harm a single person, and he was acquitted of "aiding the enemy." His convictions solely relate to his alleged decision to inform the public of war crimes and systematic injustice.

But Mr. Manning’s options have run out. The only currency this military court will take is Bradley Manning’s humiliation. In light of this, Mr. Manning’s forced decision to apologise to the US government in the hope of shaving a decade or more off his sentence must be regarded with compassion and understanding.

Mr. Manning’s apology is a statement extorted from him under the overbearing weight of the United States military justice system. It took three years and millions of dollars to extract two minutes of tactical remorse from this brave soldier.

Bradley Manning’s apology was extracted by force, but in a just court the US government would be apologizing to Bradley Manning. As over 100,000 signatories of his Nobel Peace Prize nomination attest, Bradley Manning has changed the world for the better. He remains a symbol of courage and humanitarian resistance.

Mr. Manning’s apology shows that as far as his sentencing is concerned there are still decades to play for. Public pressure on Bradley Manning’s military court must intensify in these final days before the sentencing decision against him is made

WikiLeaks continues to support Bradley Manning, and will continue to campaign for his unconditional release.

Free Bradley Manning.

Bug Up My Ass

My new piece at The Nation: Think NSA snooping bad? What about when the FBI bugged my bedroom?  Or: "Bug Up My Ass."

Death of an "Outlaw"

First Cowboy Jack Clement, and not Tompall Glaser has passed away in recent days.  With Waylon and Willie he boosted the Outlaw brand in the mid-'70s, but I also know him as co-author of great song by Gram Parson, "Streets of Baltimore."  Here in obscure video, with Emmylou, in 1973 from show I was at:

Nuclear Missile System Fails Another Safety Test

Just out from AP.  And you wonder why I keep writing about the legacy of Hiroshima.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Air Force unit that operates one-third of the nation's land-based nuclear missiles has failed a safety and security inspection, marking the second major setback this year for a force charged with the military's most sensitive mission, the general in charge of the nuclear air force told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. James M. Kowalski, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said a team of "relatively low-ranking" airmen failed one exercise as part of a broader inspection, which began last week and ended Tuesday. He said that for security reasons he could not be specific about the team or the exercise.

ICBM wings undergo multiple types of inspections. The one at Malmstrom was a "surety" inspection, which the Pentagon defines as "nuclear weapon system safety, security and control." The point is to ensure that no nuclear weapon is accidentally, inadvertently or deliberately armed or launched without presidential authority.

"This unit fumbled on this exercise," Kowalski said by telephone from his headquarters at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., adding that this did not call into question the safety or control of nuclear weapons at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.

"The team did not demonstrate the right procedures," he said, and as a result was rated a failure. To elaborate "could reveal a potential vulnerability" in the force, Kowalski said.

In a written statement on its website, Kowalski's command said there had been "tactical-level errors" in the snap exercise, revealing "discrepancies."

The 'Archduke' Still Reigns

Never a mistake to listen to this, ever, no matter the day or time of day.  This may be one of my favorite versions of "The Archduke," which is saying something.   Pianist Jeremy Denk, who I interviewed for my Beethoven book, and knows a thing or two about all this, calls this movement his favorite music in the world--"the holiest of holies."

First Reporter to Reach Hiroshima Exposed 'The Atomic Plague'

On September 2, 1945,  Australian war reporter Wilfred Burchett left Tokyo by train, intent on reaching distant Hiroshima before any of his journalistic colleagues, who were banned from taking such a trip by the American occupation chief, Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Burchett, who had written dispatches glorifying the firebombing of Japanese cities, was just looking for a scoop. The following morning he encountered what he would describe as a “death-stricken alien planet.” He noticed a dank, sulfurous smell as he was taken directly to one of the few hospitals left standing. Its director felt certain that radiation sickness, far from being merely “propaganda” as the United States was claiming, was very real. One in five patients was developing purple skin bruises, white cell counts had plunged for many, some were also losing their hair or simply expiring without any known injuries.

The reporter pulled out his typewriter and, sitting on a chunk of rubble near the hypocenter of the blast, composed his historic article, detailing the new disease, and commenting, “I write these facts as dispassionately as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the world.”

This part of the story is, by now, pretty well known. What happened next is not: the real beginning of the decades of suppression I detail in my new book and ebook, Atomic Cover-Up .

As Burchett was finishing his story, a group of journalists arrived on an Air Force plane, with a censor in tow. Included were the celebrated Bill Lawrence of the New York Times and Homer Bigart of the New York Herald-Tribune. Burchett told them to forget about the rubble, “the story is in the hospitals.”

They were not happy to find Burchett already there and with a finished article. He asked them to carry the story back to Tokyo and transmit it to his paper. They refused. Burchett managed to transmit his story to a colleague in Tokyo, who sneaked it past the censors, and it ran on September 5 on the front page of the London Daily Express, under the headline the atomic plague.

Articles written by the American reporters who had landed in Hiroshima gave no evidence that they had visited the hospitals. Yet Lawrence, years later in his memoirs, revealed, “We talked with dying Japanese in the hospitals.” Were those stories censored by MacArthur’s people? Lawrence also disclosed that MacArthur was “hopping mad” about the press junket and cut off supplies of gasoline to planes that might make another journo trip possible. Then he ordered all American reporters out of Tokyo to a closely watched enclave in Yokohama.

Meanwhile, the first American reporter to reach Nagasaki, George Weller, had found a similar “plague” in that city, but made the mistake of filing his stories directly through MacArthur’s office. All of the pieces would be spiked, only appearing for the first time in 2005.

But the story doesn’t end there. Back in Tokyo, General Thomas Farrell, who was directing the post-bomb official studies, held a press conference and categorically denied reports of (a) 70,000 to 100,000 killed in the atomic cities and (b) any kind of lingering radiation sickness. Suddenly Wilfred Burchett showed up, ill and unwashed, and told Farrell he was sadly misinformed. Farrell replied that Burchett had “fallen victim to Japanese propaganda.”

When the briefing broke up, Burchett was taken to a hospital, where it was discovered that his white blood cell count was below normal. Then, on leaving the hospital a few days later, he discovered that his camera containing film shot in Hiroshima was missing—and that MacArthur had ordered him expelled from Japan.

For much more on censorship and suppression of words and images in the decades that followed, see my book Atomic Cover-Up. .