Larouche Online Almanac

Published: Tuesday, May 4, 2004

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Volume 3, Issue Number 18
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LaRouche International Webcast:
The 'LaRouche Doctrine' Is the Key to Peace

Here is a transcript of Lyndon LaRouche's opening remarks to an international webcast, broadcast from Washington, D.C. on April 30.

This is going to be very hard stuff, and it has to go out. And it will go out naturally over the web network, because we're at a very serious point of crisis, and virtually no one who is in ostensibly leading positions as a candidate, or incumbent President, or so forth, in the United States, is qualified at all, even to think about what's in front of us, let alone deal with it.

Kerry, who's a guy I don't dislike, he's got certain qualifications, but he's frankly been a disaster on the issue of Southwest Asia, the Iraq crisis, and on the economy. President Bush? I don't know where he is. I don't think he knows where he is sometimes, even where he's sitting.

And we have a mess.

...more



Credit: Stuart Lewis/EIRNS

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I Was a Guest at Belshazzar's Feast
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
The moment came, among the estimated several thousand guests gathered there, during a moment of the scheduled events which immediately preceded President George Bush's short address, when I suddenly realized what I was actually experiencing. At that moment, remembered music flowed into my mind: Robert Schumann's Opus 57 setting of Heinrich Heine's "Belshazzar's Feast."

It was the din which did it....
...more

Economic reports

U.S. Economic News

World Economic News

World and Nation-state

United States

Ibero-America

Europe

Russia and the CIS

Southwest Asia

Asia

Africa


...

May 3-9, 1803

Meriwether Lewis Prepares to Lead the Corps of Discovery

www.stjosephmuseum.org

On May 7, 1803, Meriwether Lewis left Lancaster, Pennsylvania and headed for Philadelphia. He was halfway through his mission to equip the Corps of Discovery for its journey to the Pacific, and to become skilled in the scientific techniques he would need to ensure the success of the expedition. His route led from President Jefferson's White House through Harpers Ferry, the new Federal Arsenal founded in 1796, and then north to Lancaster, which had served as the "Workshop of the American Revolution," and was a center of science and technology, second only to Philadelphia.

President Jefferson had written to many of his friends in the American Philosophical Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, to promote American scientific development, asking them to assist Lewis. Lewis in turn, during the course of his preparations for the unknown conditions ahead, showed himself to be a very skilled planner. He developed improvements in technology which were useful not only to the expedition, but also to the new nation.

Meriwether Lewis had not been chosen to lead the expedition to the Pacific because he was President Jefferson's secretary, on the contrary, he was chosen by Jefferson to be his secretary because, as Jefferson wrote to Lewis' commanding officer, he needed someone who possessed a knowledge of both the Army and the "Western Country." Jefferson, on becoming President, pulled Lewis out of the Army and into the White House because he already intended to implement the long-planned expedition up the Missouri River to the Pacific.

Lewis had joined the Virginia Militia at the age of 20 in 1794, in response to President Washington's call for troops to quell the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania. In May of the next year, he transferred into the regular U.S. Army, serving in Gen. Anthony Wayne's American Legion in the Northwest Territory. He was present at the Treaty of Greenville, which made peace with the Midwest Indian tribes, thus forcing the British Army to at last withdraw from their base at Detroit, as was stipulated 10 years earlier, at the end of America's War for Independence. The British had kept their Indian allies in front of Detroit as a screen, claiming that they could not give up the post because no American had come to claim it.

Anthony Wayne considered Meriwether Lewis to be one of his most promising young officers, and regularly sent him on difficult missions from the new American post at Detroit through the wilderness to Pittsburgh and back. While serving under Wayne, Lewis was transferred into the Chosen Rifle Company of sharpshooters, under the command of his future fast friend and expedition co-leader, William Clark. In 1797, Lewis commanded an infantry company which was stationed at Fort Pickering on the Chickasaw Bluffs, overlooking the Mississippi. There, in Cherokee country, Lewis continued to study Indian customs and languages, as he had done earlier in the land of the Wyandot and Shawnee.

In 1800, he was promoted to captain, and appointed regimental paymaster. Far from being a sedentary assignment, the position required regular tours of small frontier garrisons located in the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia. On one such trip, Lewis gained valuable experience by taking a 21-foot keelboat and a dugout canoe down the Ohio River. By the time President Jefferson's Feb. 23, 1801 letter, asking Lewis to come to the White House, arrived at Detroit, Lewis was indeed familiar with both the Army and the "Western Country."

On March 15, 1803, after extensive discussions with Jefferson, Lewis left Washington for Harpers Ferry. He had already designed what he called an "iron canoe," which would be used when the Missouri River narrowed to the point that the larger wooden boat he designed for the early part of the trip could no longer be used. Lewis had to stay a month in Harpers Ferry supervising the canoe's construction and conducting experiments. He wrote triumphantly to Jefferson that the canoe's folding ribs of wrought iron weighed only 44 pounds, making it very easy to carry over portages; but that those same ribs, covered with animal hides, would float 1,770 pounds of cargo and crew. When finished, the ribs were packed in waterproof canvas and shipped to Pittsburgh. They were not unpacked until needed at the Great Falls of the Missouri River in June 1805.

Except for powdered soup, Lewis planned to take no extensive food supplies on the expedition, so the Corps would have to live off their hunting ability. The firearms they took with them were, therefore, crucial, and Lewis made sure that they were of top quality and of differing types, so that if one model could not stand up under rough conditions, another two or three might. Although the Army regularly used muskets, Lewis had the advantage of having used rifles in his sharpshooter company. He ordered a hybrid type from the Harpers Ferry Arsenal, which was like the famed Pennsylvania rifle, but with a shorter barrel. It became, with only two minor modifications, Model 1803, the first regulation rifle for the U.S. Army.

Lewis also helped develop a creative way to carry the large amount of gunpowder that his men would need. He had his 176 pounds of gunpowder put up in 52 water-tight lead canisters which could be melted down and molded into exactly the right number of rifle balls required by the amount of powder in each canister. Preparing even for the eventuality of running out of powder, Lewis purchased, with money from his own pocket, one of the new air rifles, which had just come on the market.

Once work on other aspects of the expedition's gear was well underway at Harpers Ferry, Lewis made his way to Lancaster, Pa., where he was to be trained in surveying and mapmaking. Lancaster had been an early center of research and development, into both the long rifle and the steamboat. William Henry, a close collaborator of Benjamin Franklin, had excelled in both, and had trained young Robert Fulton, who was now in France conducting his steamboat experiments. Less than a year after the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis, in September 1806, Fulton would make his first successful steamboat run up the Hudson. And by 1811, a Fulton-designed steamboat, built by Nicholas Roosevelt in Pittsburgh, would be sailing on the western waters explored by Lewis and Clark.

In Lancaster, Lewis bought a number of Pennsylvania long rifles, and worked with Andrew Ellicott, one of America's leading astronomers and mathematicians, who had also collaborated with William Henry. After serving in the American Revolution, Ellicott had helped to run the western part of the Mason-Dixon line. He also served on the commission to locate the northern and western boundaries of Pennsylvania, and, later, ran the southwestern border of New York State. He then succeeded Pierre L'Enfant as surveyor of the national capital at Washington, D.C.

...more

In Depth Coverage From Executive Intelligence Review
Links to articles from Executive Intelligence Review*.
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Historical Perspective:

Dien Bien Phu: The French Empire Dies in Vietnam
by Gail G. Billington

Fifty years ago, for 55 days, from March 13 to May 8, 1954, a small town in Northeast Vietnam was the scene of a battle between the forces of the French colonial occupying power and those of the pro-independence Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh and his senior general, Vo Nguyen Giap. The stage for the battle was ... Dien Bien Phu... The battle ... would go down in history books as one of the decisive battles of the 20th Century, and the lessons learned, as well as those not learned from that bitter engagement, would reshape the military posture of the world’s major powers.


Feature:

No Peace Plan Works Without Lyndon LaRouche
by Nancy Spannaus

No one but Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche has the intellectual or emotional qualifications to push through a workable peace plan for Iraq, and Southwest Asia. Therefore, if the U.S. population, in particular, wants to avoid a New Dark Age, people had better begin to turn to LaRouche now, because he is their 'last shot.'

Interview: Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
'LaRouche Doctrine' Is the Key To Peace in Southwest Asia

Democratic Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche gave this videotaped interview to Hussein Askary, Arabic correspondent for EIR, on April 24, 2004. The interview is currently in production as a DVD, in both English and Arabic, and will be available soon from the LaRouche in 2004 campaign committee.

Book Review
America's Turn From Republic to Empire
by Carl Osgood

Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic
by Chalmers Johnson
New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004
381 pages, Hardbound, $25
'American leaders now like to compare themselves to imperial Romans, even though they do not know much Roman history,' writes Chalmers Johnson in his new book Sorrows of Empire. 'The main lesson for the United States ought to be how the Roman Republic evolved into an empire, in the process destroying its system of elections for its two consuls (its chief executives), rendering the Roman senate impotent, ending forever the occasional popular assemblies and legislative comitia that were the heart of republican life, and ushering in permanent military dictatorship.'

  • Interview: Steve Robinson
    'They're Saving Money on the Backs
    Of the Returning Combat Soldiers'
    Steve Robinson, a retired U.S. Army Ranger and veteran of both the first Gulf War and the 1991 'Operation Provide Comfort' in northern Iraq, is the Executive Director of the National Gulf War Resource Center (www.ngwrc.org), an advocate for veterans and military families. He was interviewed by Carl Osgood on April 21.
  • VA Losing the Ability To Care 'For Him Who Has Borne the Battle'
    by Linda Everett

    As U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan continues, the number of new veterans needing medical care and other services through the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) facilities, eascalates. As of December 2003, some 10,000 new veterans from U.S. military actions in Iraq were being treated by the VA. ... How prepared is the nation to care for them and for the nearly 27 million other veterans of World War II, the Korea, Vietnam, and (first) Gulf Wars—who together represent 13% of the population?
  • 'CARES': Wartime Rationing, Not Wartime Care
    The VA rationing plan euphemistically called CARES (Capital Realignment for Enhanced Services) has as its alleged goal, to assess veteran healthcare needs and to 'enhance' delivery of healthcare services in the geographic areas most populated by a shifting veteran popula- tion in the decades to come.

Science and Technology:

Lessons of Chernobyl: Nuclear Power Is Safe
by Zbigniew Jaworowski, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.

A nuclear scientist looks back at the notorious April 1986 accident and its effects, with particular reference to thyroid cancer.


Economics:

Enron, Parmalat, Shell Oil: Who Will Be Next?
by Lothar Komp

'Shell shock' has hit the British Isles. The almost 100-year-old British-Dutch oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell, with 115,000 workers worldwide and an annual turnover of 35 billion euros, has had to acknowledge, in a series of reports, that it has pulled the wool over the eyes of its shareholders and creditors for years.


International:

Can We Learn the Lessons From the Genocide in Rwanda?
by Uwe Friesecke

The world is commemorating the horrible end-phase of the war in Rwanda, ten years ago, when hundreds of thousands of Rwandans lost their lives. The United Nations, the Rwandan government, and many so-called experts have defined as genocide only the events between April and July of 1994, and insist that the discussion be limited to what happened inside the government-controlled area of Rwanda during that period.

Former Diplomats Warn: Blair, Bush To Fail
by Mary and Mark Burdman

Fifty-two former ambassadors and other high-level former senior diplomatic officials of the United Kingdom, have written a harshly critical open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, to express their 'deepening concern' about the policies Blair is following in 'the Arab-Israeli problem,' and in Iraq, 'in close co-operation with the United States.' The ambassadors warn that 'there is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure.'

Iraq 'On-the-Ground' Reality Is Demanding LaRouche Doctrine
by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach

After a disastrous April in Iraq, in which the U.S.-led occupying Coalition killed thousands of Iraqis and lost hundreds of its own soldiers without achieving any objective, Coalition government officials and their allies were growing desperate to transfer some image of 'sovereignty' to 'the Iraqis.' But only one really workable approach was on the table: the LaRouche Doctrine—including an immediate announcement of withdrawal of occupying forces—outlined by Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche...

Australian LaRouche Forces Battle Against a Synarchist Police State
by Allen Douglas

The Liberal Party government of Prime Minister John Howard has in recent years transformed Australia, juridically, into a near-replica of Nazi Germany. Police state laws have been passed, of a magnitude and at a tempo far surpassing any nominal concern with 'terrorism,' while dissidents in the nagovernment tion's intelligence agencies have been purged. Concentration camps in the desert have been established—although only illegal immigrants have thus far been interned—and police have carried out dead-of-night raids against members of the nation's substantial Muslim population. A climate of fear is setting in, resembling the 'Red Scares' era in the United States...

Turmoil On Southwest Asia's Northeast Flank
by Rachel Douglas

LaRouche put a point on the matter in his April 24 interview with Hussein Askary:: 'If someone is to destabilize Transcaucasia, including the problems between Azerbaijan and Armenia and Iran, then you could not possibly maintain a secure Middle East security policy.'


National:

Pennsylvania Primary Inspires Fight To Bring In LaRouche
by Phil Valenti and Nancy Spannaus

...[W]hile the population was engaged by the LaRouche in dialogue over the crucial leadership role of the candidate, the endorsement of LaRouche for President by Pennsylvania State Rep. Harold James (D-Phila) directly challenged the Democratic Party's corrupt decision to try to exclude the only FDR Democrat from the political process. ...

California Moves Against Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Machines
by Edward Spannaus

In a major blow against the touch-screen voting swindle—a scam which many fear will be used to steal the November Presidential election—California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on April 30 barred the use of Diebold touch-screen voting machines in four counties, and asked the state's Attorney General to pursue criminal and civil proceedings against Diebold, citing its 'fraudulent actions.' Shelley also decertified all touchscreen systems in the state until additional security measures are put in place.

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LaRouche: `The Immortality of Martin Luther King'

Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

speaks to the Martin Luther King Day Prayer Breakfast in Talladega County, Alabama on Jan. 19, 2004

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