Edwin Meese III, senior aide to Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign, makes a surprise appearance at a Heritage Foundation dinner honoring the team chairmen and co-chairmen working on the “Mandate for Leadership” project, demonstrating direct coordination between the Reagan …
Archbishop Oscar Romero is assassinated on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in San Salvador, marking a symbolic beginning of U.S. support for El Salvador’s death squad government during a brutal 12-year civil war. A single gunman fires directly into Romero’s heart from the chapel …
Ronald ReaganRoberto D'AubuissonOscar Romeroforeign-policyhuman-rightsdeath-squadscentral-americareagan-administration
During his 1976 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan regularly told the story of a Chicago ‘welfare queen’ to attack social programs using racially coded language. At a campaign speech in Gilford, New Hampshire, Reagan declared: ‘In Chicago, they found a woman who holds the record. …
Ronald ReaganLinda Taylorracial-politicsdog-whistle-politicswelfare-policyrepublican-partysocial-safety-net+1 more
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Amendments of 1965 into law at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, creating Medicare and Medicaid with former President Harry Truman at his side. The legislation provides federal health insurance for Americans over 65 …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonPresident Harry S. TrumanAmerican Medical AssociationRonald ReaganWilbur Millshealthcareinstitutional-capturecorporate-resistancelobbyingpropaganda
The King-Anderson bill, President Kennedy’s Medicare proposal introduced by Representative Cecil King and Senator Clinton Anderson, is defeated in committee despite strong public support after intense lobbying by the American Medical Association, corporate healthcare interests, and …
Cecil R. KingClinton AndersonJohn F. KennedyWilbur MillsHarry Byrd+4 moremedicarehealthcarelobbyingamacorporate-opposition+2 more
The American Medical Association launches Operation Coffee Cup in 1961, funding a sophisticated astroturf campaign to defeat Medicare by distributing a long-play record featuring a young Ronald Reagan outlining the dangers of “socialized medicine” to the Women’s Auxiliary of the …
American Medical AssociationRonald ReaganLoyal DavisWomen's Auxiliary of the AMAhealthcare-profiteeringastroturfingamaronald-reaganmedicare-opposition+2 more
The House Un-American Activities Committee opens its first postwar hearings on October 20, 1947, investigating alleged Communist influence in Hollywood with Chairman J. Parnell Thomas presiding and Robert E. Stripling serving as chief counsel. Drawing upon lists provided in The Hollywood Reporter, …
House Un-American Activities CommitteeJ. Parnell ThomasRobert E. StriplingWalt DisneyJack L. Warner+8 morehuachollywood-blacklistmccarthyismred-scarecorporate-complicity+1 more