Forty Days in Spring: 1970
- Episode aired Oct 23, 1986
- 1h
YOUR RATING
Topics: anti-war protests, Kent State shootings, invasion of Cambodia, Boeing 747, Future Shock by Alvin Toffler, Love Story by Erich Segal, midi skirts, Black Panthers, Apollo 13, 1st Earth... Read allTopics: anti-war protests, Kent State shootings, invasion of Cambodia, Boeing 747, Future Shock by Alvin Toffler, Love Story by Erich Segal, midi skirts, Black Panthers, Apollo 13, 1st Earth Day, Patton, M*A*S*H, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, The Beatles break up.Topics: anti-war protests, Kent State shootings, invasion of Cambodia, Boeing 747, Future Shock by Alvin Toffler, Love Story by Erich Segal, midi skirts, Black Panthers, Apollo 13, 1st Earth Day, Patton, M*A*S*H, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, The Beatles break up.
Photos
Jules Bergman
- Self - ABC News Correspondent
- (archive footage)
Glen Campbell
- Self
- (archive footage)
Fred Haise
- Self - American astronaut
- (as Fred W Haise Jr)
Jesse Jackson
- Self
- (archive footage)
Janis Joplin
- Self
- (archive footage)
Jim Lovell
- Self - American astronaut
- (as James A. Lovell Jr)
Ronald Reagan
- Self - Governor of California
- (archive footage)
The Temptations
- Themselves
- (archive footage)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Featured review
Our World: Forty Days of Spring; 1970
This episode is about revolutions, some violent, some non-violent. It was an angry time with much anger directed at the war in Vietnam. There were about five million soldiers fighting and some forty thousand having died. There were soldiers, however, who were tired of the both the war and the protests which they felt gave aid to the enemy. Sam Brown was a coordinator of the Moritorium movement. Their plan was to shut down the country one day a month as a protest to the war. President Nixon referred to the protests as violence in the name of peace. He asked people to show their support for the war and the country. A group of workers, hard-hats, organized and marched in support, as Nixon had asked. Sending troops into Cambodia caused a reaction at Kent State in Ohio. The National Guard, was called in to restore order. When it was all over, four students were dead and nine were wounded. Larry Shafer, then a sergeant with the Ohio National Guard, Barry Levine, and Joe Lewis recount the event.
In Madison, Wisconsin, Karl Armstrong and his brother were showing their anger by bombing an ordinance plant, destroying an ROTC building, and planned to blow up a dam. Armstrong reflects on his actions.
The FBI became involved with state and local police to overcome the anti-war activities through domestic spying and infiltration John Erlichman's perception was that there was no objection to overcoming the protesters, but the methods being used were wrong. Howard Pointer, a policeman, was an infiltrator who spoke of his undercover activities. One of his assignments was to spy on Jesse Jackson's Operation Breadbasket in Chicago. Another was Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Movement, a social and political group which happened to carry guns. Seale comments that if he had been convicted after his arrest, the Panthers would rise up and cause extensive trouble. The Weathermen made the news when a bomb they were building in a New York City townhouse exploded, three were killed. The remaining supporters went underground. Bernadine Dorn issued a declaration of war, the first communication from the underground, in which she stated that protests and marches didn't do it, violence is the only way.
There was a loud non-violent revolution organized by Dennis Hayes, Earth Day. This was a war in the name of the environment, and directed against pollution. New York's Fifth Avenue was closed down for two hours for the Earth Day march, for which tens of thousands showed up. It is estimated that some 30 million people around the country participated in Earth day. A much more quiet revolution arose when Marcian (Ted) Hoff and his team produced the microchip which has changed the whole computer industry. Hoff said the microchip brought the large, very expensive computer out of its "ivory tower" and made it available to every one, as we all now well know.
This episode has a lengthy story about the flight of Apollo 13, which was intended to be a manned trip to the moon...the third manned mission. All did not go well. The explosion of an oxygen tank in the service module destroyed the power supply and blew the side off the module. The crew was forced to move into the Lunar Explorer Module (LEM) and use it as a life boat so they could conserve whatever power and oxygen they could for the command module. They had to fly around the back side of the moon, where there is no radio communication, in order to head back to earth. It was necessary to make manual steering corrections for proper alignment. The LEM was not designed to return to earth but was to be left on the moon. So the crew had to re-energize the command module so they could get back in and then jettison the LEM. They didn't know if the batteries were frozen or if the circuits would crack as they warmed up. For a time, radio communication was intermittent and full of static. Then there was the problem of reentry: was the heat shield in tact; would their trajectory be correct...if too steep, they would burn up on reentry, if too shallow, they would skip off and head back into space. There was nothing they could do if it wasn't done correctly. They did do it correctly and made it home safely. Although technically a failure, the mission was a tremendous success. Commander Jim Lovell and others describes the situation.
What else did 1970 have for us? ***Alvin Toffler's book Future Shock said that the world would become faster and cause more social change. ***The Beatles broke up. Paul McCartney said the reason was that the game changed from a music game to a money game. ***Sesame Street was banned in Mississippe because it added blacks to the show to help teach young kids to live in harmony. ***Love Story was the #1 best seller. ***Julian Bond was elected first black mayor in Atlanta in 100 years. ***The Nicks beat the Lakers for the Basketball championship. ***An F-111 cost $16 million. ***A bill was introduced to make the Daisy the National Flower. President Nixon rejected a meeting by nine black congressmen to discuss problems concerning blacks. ***China launched its first satellite. ***M*A*S*H was banned from all military installations although it won top award at the Cannes Film Festival. ***Congress enacted tougher air quality standards, and the Interior Department banned DDT. ***A pound of Long Island potatoes cost nine cents. ***Labor leader Walter Reuther and entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee died.
In Madison, Wisconsin, Karl Armstrong and his brother were showing their anger by bombing an ordinance plant, destroying an ROTC building, and planned to blow up a dam. Armstrong reflects on his actions.
The FBI became involved with state and local police to overcome the anti-war activities through domestic spying and infiltration John Erlichman's perception was that there was no objection to overcoming the protesters, but the methods being used were wrong. Howard Pointer, a policeman, was an infiltrator who spoke of his undercover activities. One of his assignments was to spy on Jesse Jackson's Operation Breadbasket in Chicago. Another was Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Movement, a social and political group which happened to carry guns. Seale comments that if he had been convicted after his arrest, the Panthers would rise up and cause extensive trouble. The Weathermen made the news when a bomb they were building in a New York City townhouse exploded, three were killed. The remaining supporters went underground. Bernadine Dorn issued a declaration of war, the first communication from the underground, in which she stated that protests and marches didn't do it, violence is the only way.
There was a loud non-violent revolution organized by Dennis Hayes, Earth Day. This was a war in the name of the environment, and directed against pollution. New York's Fifth Avenue was closed down for two hours for the Earth Day march, for which tens of thousands showed up. It is estimated that some 30 million people around the country participated in Earth day. A much more quiet revolution arose when Marcian (Ted) Hoff and his team produced the microchip which has changed the whole computer industry. Hoff said the microchip brought the large, very expensive computer out of its "ivory tower" and made it available to every one, as we all now well know.
This episode has a lengthy story about the flight of Apollo 13, which was intended to be a manned trip to the moon...the third manned mission. All did not go well. The explosion of an oxygen tank in the service module destroyed the power supply and blew the side off the module. The crew was forced to move into the Lunar Explorer Module (LEM) and use it as a life boat so they could conserve whatever power and oxygen they could for the command module. They had to fly around the back side of the moon, where there is no radio communication, in order to head back to earth. It was necessary to make manual steering corrections for proper alignment. The LEM was not designed to return to earth but was to be left on the moon. So the crew had to re-energize the command module so they could get back in and then jettison the LEM. They didn't know if the batteries were frozen or if the circuits would crack as they warmed up. For a time, radio communication was intermittent and full of static. Then there was the problem of reentry: was the heat shield in tact; would their trajectory be correct...if too steep, they would burn up on reentry, if too shallow, they would skip off and head back into space. There was nothing they could do if it wasn't done correctly. They did do it correctly and made it home safely. Although technically a failure, the mission was a tremendous success. Commander Jim Lovell and others describes the situation.
What else did 1970 have for us? ***Alvin Toffler's book Future Shock said that the world would become faster and cause more social change. ***The Beatles broke up. Paul McCartney said the reason was that the game changed from a music game to a money game. ***Sesame Street was banned in Mississippe because it added blacks to the show to help teach young kids to live in harmony. ***Love Story was the #1 best seller. ***Julian Bond was elected first black mayor in Atlanta in 100 years. ***The Nicks beat the Lakers for the Basketball championship. ***An F-111 cost $16 million. ***A bill was introduced to make the Daisy the National Flower. President Nixon rejected a meeting by nine black congressmen to discuss problems concerning blacks. ***China launched its first satellite. ***M*A*S*H was banned from all military installations although it won top award at the Cannes Film Festival. ***Congress enacted tougher air quality standards, and the Interior Department banned DDT. ***A pound of Long Island potatoes cost nine cents. ***Labor leader Walter Reuther and entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee died.
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