[20th CENTURY NEWSREELS PRAGUE SPRING]

Year Published: 1960s

Description: These short newsreels were created by Off Network Productions, a New York company created by producer and media magnate Gerald Bartell, using an archive compiled by Merton Koplin. The company distributed these films to TV stations around the United States, where they were used as fillers, and to present historical events and personalities to the public. Bartell referred to the films as a "visual encyclopedia". 0:00 – Film 1330. Circa 1970, an Egyptian cab driver claims Russia supplies arms because Egypt was attacked by Israel, argues Israel should withdraw from occupied territories per the UN, and says Jews may live peacefully in Egypt if they abandon expansionist ambitions. 1:58 Film 1331. Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms. 4:00 – Film 1334 National Guard at the Capitol Building after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 1968. Federal troops were deployed to protect government buildings and quell riots that broke out in Washington, D.C. following King's assassination on April 4, 1968. 4:30. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson makes comments on the MLK assassination and riots. 5:10 Film 1341 A member of the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives expresses hope that the cessation of bombing of North Vietnam, could lead to a ceasefire. On March 31, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the halt of bombing of North Vietnam and the start of peace talks in Paris. 6:05 U.S. military personnel discuss the effects of the halt of the bombing from their perspective. 6:46 Film 1343: A Roman Catholic Bishop on Birth Control, 1968. A Bishop discusses Pope Paul's position on birth control, known as Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. A religious scholar or theologian critiques the birth-control encyclical,. 8:06 Film 1344: 1968. A Black pastor emphasizes that poor communities—especially Black communities—must hear all sides of the birth-control debate and priests must address the issue openly and fully. 9:11 Film 1354: French fashion figure Pierre Balmain explains in 1968 that despite recent political unrest in Paris, everyday life has returned to normal, and the French fashion industry remains stable, resilient, and globally influential. 11:07 Film 1347: World's First Heart Plant Performed The world's first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by surgeon Christiaan Barnard on December 3, 1967, in Cape Town, South Africa. The surgery involved transplanting a heart from a 25-year-old woman, Denise Darvall, who had suffered a fatal brain injury, into Louis Washkansky, a 53-year-old man dying of heart failure. Washkansky lived for 18 days after the operation, and his new heart functioned normally until his death from pneumonia. Here, Barnard describes his heartbreak at the death of the patient. 11:45 –Edward "Ted" Kennedy delivers the closing remarks during Robert Kennedy's public memorial service in 1968. His eulogy honors his deceased brother as loving, wise, joyful, and morally driven, remembering him as a man who fought injustice, eased suffering, and sought peace. 13:45 Film 1356: End of Teacher's Strike in New York City. Exterior of Madison Square Garden. A teacher explains that a recent strike brought little financial gain but highlighted community tensions; she wishes more funding had gone to disadvantaged schools to improve programs and reduce class sizes. The 1968 New York City teachers' strike was a months-long confrontation between the new community-controlled school board in the largely black Ocean Hill–Brownsville neighborhoods of Brooklyn and New York City's United Federation of Teachers. It escalated to a citywide strike in September of that year, shutting down the public schools for 36 days. 14:58 Film 1358: Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazi 1968

Complete Record: These short newsreels were created by Off Network Productions, a New York company created by producer and media magnate Gerald Bartell, using an archive compiled by Merton Koplin. The company distributed these films to TV stations around the United States, where they were used as fillers, and to present historical events and personalities to the public. Bartell referred to the films as a "visual encyclopedia". 0:00 – Film 1330. Circa 1970, an Egyptian cab driver claims Russia supplies arms because Egypt was attacked by Israel, argues Israel should withdraw from occupied territories per the UN, and says Jews may live peacefully in Egypt if they abandon expansionist ambitions. 1:58 Film 1331. Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms. 4:00 – Film 1334 National Guard at the Capitol Building after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 1968. Federal troops were deployed to protect government buildings and quell riots that broke out in Washington, D.C. following King's assassination on April 4, 1968. 4:30. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson makes comments on the MLK assassination and riots. 5:10 Film 1341 A member of the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives expresses hope that the cessation of bombing of North Vietnam, could lead to a ceasefire. On March 31, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the halt of bombing of North Vietnam and the start of peace talks in Paris. 6:05 U.S. military personnel discuss the effects of the halt of the bombing from their perspective. 6:46 Film 1343: A Roman Catholic Bishop on Birth Control, 1968. A Bishop discusses Pope Paul's position on birth control, known as Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. A religious scholar or theologian critiques the birth-control encyclical,. 8:06 Film 1344: 1968. A Black pastor emphasizes that poor communities—especially Black communities—must hear all sides of the birth-control debate and priests must address the issue openly and fully. 9:11 Film 1354: French fashion figure Pierre Balmain explains in 1968 that despite recent political unrest in Paris, everyday life has returned to normal, and the French fashion industry remains stable, resilient, and globally influential. 11:07 Film 1347: World's First Heart Plant Performed The world's first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by surgeon Christiaan Barnard on December 3, 1967, in Cape Town, South Africa. The surgery involved transplanting a heart from a 25-year-old woman, Denise Darvall, who had suffered a fatal brain injury, into Louis Washkansky, a 53-year-old man dying of heart failure. Washkansky lived for 18 days after the operation, and his new heart functioned normally until his death from pneumonia. Here, Barnard describes his heartbreak at the death of the patient. 11:45 –Edward "Ted" Kennedy delivers the closing remarks during Robert Kennedy's public memorial service in 1968. His eulogy honors his deceased brother as loving, wise, joyful, and morally driven, remembering him as a man who fought injustice, eased suffering, and sought peace. 13:45 Film 1356: End of Teacher's Strike in New York City. Exterior of Madison Square Garden. A teacher explains that a recent strike brought little financial gain but highlighted community tensions; she wishes more funding had gone to disadvantaged schools to improve programs and reduce class sizes. The 1968 New York City teachers' strike was a months-long confrontation between the new community-controlled school board in the largely black Ocean Hill–Brownsville neighborhoods of Brooklyn and New York City's United Federation of Teachers. It escalated to a citywide strike in September of that year, shutting down the public schools for 36 days. 14:58 Film 1358: Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazi 1968

Transcription

[music] Russia is giving us to giving arms to Egypt because Russian knows that uh we were attacked by the Jews and we didn't start the war. The war was started by the Jews. Besides, there is a decision by the United Nations that the Jews has to go out from the occupied countries they took in the last war, June war. So they have to help the the Russian, they have to help us to be sure that we can get our lands. The Jews are a foreign nation. Invaded Palestine and took it from its own people. Now if they like to live with us, they can live. They used to live with us too in Egypt before 1956 war. They were more than one quarter of a million Jews living as Egyptians having all the rights that a an Egyptian has. And now still we have still about 20,000 Jews still living in in Cairo. And they are living they have their own shops. If you like if you like I can get you a taxi driver. He's working with me. He has his own taxi working in his taxi and doing like I work around the city. He he takes Egyptian fails everybody. So they are living they can live with us peacefully provided they forget their dream about having an empire and the kingdom from the Nile to Alarat River in Iraq. That's their dream. But uh that's a dream still. >> [music] >> up. [music] He >> [music] >> We all know that the roots of injustice run deep. But violence cannot redress a solitary wrong or remedy a single unfairness. Of course, all America is outraged at the assassination of an outstanding negro leader. And America is also outraged at the looting and the burning that defiles our democracy. And we just must put our shoulders together and put a stop to both. The time is here. Action must be now. >> [applause] >> I think it's a it's a very fine development. I think it it it's the first step, I believe, to the to a ceasefire and the negotiated peace of this war. And I think it'll be one of the most significant and important things for the [clears throat] for this country that could happen. This involves the lives of of many of our people, of our own young men, our men in the army, and and of course of many other people. And I think that it's far bigger than than any partisan considerations. And also whether it's coincidental or not, I don't know. coming so late, so few days before the election, I can't believe it has much significance with regard to the election, the national election. >> I do know that the men over in Vietnam, they're still there are sweating over it, because every time there's a halt in the bombing, the men over there catch it. I think what is important is what the mothers and fathers and the wives what they're going to say when they get them letters in the mail telling them that their son's been killed in action. >> It hasn't worked before and it uh I believe myself. I don't know how other people feel, but I don't think it's going to work this time. Pope Paul has decisively dealt with the questions about birth control raised in the last few years. Although the document itself is not infallible in form, it is nevertheless the authoritative teaching of the church which rests on an unbroken tradition going back to the beginning of Christianity. He acknowledges that this encyclical which has caused so much dispute is not infallible. And then he goes on to say that it is however authoritative. I think uh even you gentlemen of the press who are not theologians could sense that there is something of a problem here when a doctrine which is fallible that is possibly wrong is authoritative and that it takes a considerable amount of work for us theologians to explain just how bound people are in their consciences. If an individual discovers that this fallible doctrine is wrong and that individual is a priest, is he then expected to uh serve the truth or is he expected to serve the official position as it has been announced? We are not intending to meddle into the internal affairs of a sister church. We are concerned that the wider ministry of a an ecumenical understanding of the Christian faith be deeply understood by saying that poor people and as a black man poor people means to me predominantly black people have a chance to hear all sides of an issue as crucial as a birth control issue. It is not my intention to say that that the pope and the cardinal do not have the right and by by all means they must present what they consider to be the authentic teaching. But it is my consideration that when a pastor fulfilling his understanding of conscience and teaching in the black community that the issues must be clearly understood. French women didn't change their way of life. It's not because for one month the students have succeeded in in upsetting completely the life of Paris that the life of Paris is upset for good. It's not true. We have come back to normality. Even politically the answer of people of France was quite unexpected wasn't it for the world. >> Mhm. >> And their answer was that they wanted the kind of life that they had before. They didn't want to change. >> So if they didn't don't want to change, there's no reason why the clothes they wear should change completely. It affected our business. But most of the serious well-run houses can take that even more and still go on and live. We are not that fragile. fashion industry in France has such strong roots and the tree of of that industry is rooted so strongly in the soil of Paris and France and it's praise its branches so far away in the skies of the world that I think that it can take even more than that and still go on and live and be strong and bring its contribution to the world. He did not die from the condition that we treated him for. And um it was really heartbreaking at autopsy to see um how beautiful this heart looked. It uh was normal in size. The suture lines were all intact without any evidence of infection or clotting inside the heart. And it was really um a great disappointment for us to see that he died of pneumonia. And um the heart that we really treated him for was looked so um normal We loved him as a brother and as a father and as a son. from his parents and from his older brothers and sisters Joe and Kathleen and Jack. He received an inspiration which he passed on to all of us. He gave us strength in time of trouble, wisdom in time of uncertainty, and sharing in time of happiness. He will always be by our side. Love is not an easy feeling to put into words. nor his loyalty or trust or joy. But he was all of these. He loved life completely and he lived it intensely. My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. to be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to write it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today pray that what he was to us, what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world. Every school situation is different. In our particular school, we have a very conservative area and that um it's been more of a problem because we've half the teachers have been in and half out. And we've have also a problem with the parents and the community. And this I think this strike uh highlights the need to work closer with a community group. >> In the last three weeks that we were out on strike, we got almost no more than we were offered at the very beginning of this strike. So we certainly weren't out here in the picket lines for money. But I would like would have liked to have seen greater monies given to the disadvantaged areas to effectuate more change in our schools and better programs and smaller class sizes. Hey, hey, It's not clear. [music] Happy [music] [music] backing up. >> [music]

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