Tyrosine is a supplement that may help improve alertness, attention, and focus. Depending on the dose, it may help boost physical and mental performance. But, not all research is conclusive, and there may be side effects.
Tyrosine produces important brain chemicals that help nerve cells communicate and may even regulate mood.
Despite these benefits, supplementing with tyrosine can have side effects and interact with medications.
This article tells you all you need to know about tyrosine, including its benefits, side effects, and recommended dosages.
Tyrosine is an amino acid that is naturally produced in the body from another amino acid called phenylalanine.
It’s found in many foods, especially in cheese, where it was first discovered. In fact, “tyros” means “cheese” in Greek.
It is also found in chicken, turkey, fish, dairy products and most other high-protein foods.
Tyrosine helps make several important substances, including:
Dopamine: Dopamine regulates your reward and pleasure centers. This important brain chemical is also important for memory and motor skills.
Adrenaline and noradrenaline: These hormones are responsible for the fight-or-flight response to stressful situations. They prepare the body to “fight” or “flee” from a perceived attack or harm.
Thyroid hormones: Thyroid hormones are produced by the thyroid gland and primarily responsible for regulating metabolism.
Melanin: This pigment gives your skin, hair and eyes their color. Dark-skinned people have more melanin in their skin than light-skinned people.
It’s also available as a dietary supplement. You can purchase it alone or blended with other ingredients, such as in a pre-workout supplement.
Supplementing with tyrosine is thought to increase levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine, adrenaline and norepinephrine.
By increasing these neurotransmitters, it may help improve memory and performance in stressful situations.
Stress is something that everyone experiences.
This stress can negatively affect your reasoning, memory, attention and knowledge by decreasing neurotransmitters.
For example, rodents who were exposed to cold (an environmental stressor) had impaired memory due to a decline in neurotransmitters.
However, when these rodents were given a tyrosine supplement, the decline in neurotransmitters was reversed and their memory was restored.
While rodent data does not necessarily translate to humans, human studies have found similar results.
In one study in 22 women, tyrosine significantly improved working memory during a mentally demanding task, compared to a placebo. Working memory plays an important role in concentration and following instructions.
In a similar study, 22 participants were given either a tyrosine supplement or placebo before completing a test used to measure cognitive flexibility. Compared to the placebo, tyrosine was found to improve cognitive flexibility.
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to switch between tasks or thoughts. The quicker a person can switch tasks, the greater their cognitive flexibility.
Additionally, supplementing with tyrosine has been shown to benefit those who are sleep deprived. A single dose of it helped people who lost a night’s sleep stay alert for three hours longer than they otherwise would.
What’s more, two reviews concluded that supplementing with tyrosine can reverse mental decline and improve cognition in short-term, stressful or mentally demanding situations.
And while tyrosine may provide cognitive benefits, no evidence has suggested that it enhances physical performance in humans.
Lastly, no research suggests that supplementing with tyrosine in the absence of a stressor can improve mental performance. In other words, it won’t increase your brainpower.
Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare genetic condition caused by a defect in the gene that helps create the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase.
Your body uses this enzyme to convert phenylalanine into tyrosine, which is used to create neurotransmitters.
However, without this enzyme, your body cannot break down phenylalanine, causing it to build up in the body.
The primary way to treat PKU is to follow a special diet that limits foods containing phenylalanine.
However, because tyrosine is made from phenylalanine, people with PKU can become deficient in tyrosine, which can contribute to behavioral problems.
Supplementing with tyrosine may be a viable option for alleviating these symptoms, but the evidence is mixed.
In one review, researchers investigated the effects of tyrosine supplementation alongside or in place of a phenylalanine-restricted diet on intelligence, growth, nutritional status, mortality rates and quality of life.
The researchers analyzed two studies including 47 people but found no difference between supplementing with tyrosine and a placebo.
A review of three studies including 56 people also found no significant differences between supplementing with tyrosine and a placebo on the outcomes measured.
The researchers concluded that no recommendations could be made about whether tyrosine supplements are effective for the treatment of PKU.
Tyrosine has also been said to help with depression.
Depression is thought to occur when the neurotransmitters in your brain become unbalanced. Antidepressants are commonly prescribed to help realign and balance them.
Because tyrosine can increase the production of neurotransmitters, it’s claimed to act as an antidepressant.
However, early research doesn’t support this claim.
In one study, 65 people with depression received either 100 mg/kg of tyrosine, 2.5 mg/kg of a common antidepressant or a placebo each day for four weeks. Tyrosine was found to have no antidepressant effects.
Depression is a complex and varied disorder. This is likely why a food supplement like tyrosine is ineffective at combating its symptoms.
Nevertheless, depressed individuals with low levels of dopamine, adrenaline or noradrenaline may benefit from supplementing with tyrosine.
In fact, one study among individuals with dopamine-deficient depression noted that tyrosine provided clinically significant benefits.
Dopamine-dependent depression is characterized by low energy and a lack of motivation.
Until more research is available, the current evidence does not support supplementing with tyrosine to treat symptoms of depression.
Tyrosine is “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) by the Food and Drug Administration.
It has been supplemented safely at a dose of 68 mg per pound (150 mg per kg) of body weight per day for up to three months.
While tyrosine is safe for most people, it can cause side effects and interact with medications.
Tyramine is an amino acid that helps regulate blood pressure and is produced by the breakdown of tyrosine.
Tyramine accumulates in foods when tyrosine and phenylalanine are converted to tyramine by an enzyme in microorganisms.
Cheeses like cheddar and blue cheese, cured or smoked meats, soy products and beer contain high levels of tyramine.
Antidepressant medications known as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) block the enzyme monoamine oxidase, which breaks down excess tyramine in the body.
Combining MAOIs with high-tyramine foods can increase blood pressure to a dangerous level.
However, it is unknown if supplementing with tyrosine may lead to a buildup of tyramine in the body, so caution is necessary for those taking MAOIs.
The thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) help regulate growth and metabolism in the body.
It’s important that T3 and T4 levels are neither too high nor too low.
Supplementing with tyrosine may influence these hormones.
This is because tyrosine is a building block for the thyroid hormones, so supplementing with it might raise their levels too high.
Therefore, people who are taking thyroid medications or have an overactive thyroid should be cautious when supplementing with tyrosine.
Levodopa (L-dopa) is a medication commonly used to treat Parkinson’s disease.
In the body, L-dopa and tyrosine compete for absorption in the small intestine, which can interfere with the drug’s effectiveness.
Thus, doses of these two drugs should be separated by several hours to avoid this.
Interestingly, tyrosine is being investigated for alleviating some of the symptoms associated with cognitive decline in older adults.
As a supplement, tyrosine is available as a free-form amino acid or N-acetyl L-tyrosine (NALT).
NALT is more water-soluble than its free-form counterpart, but it has a low conversion rate to tyrosine in the body.
This means that you would need a larger dose of NALT than tyrosine to get the same effect, making the free-form the preferred choice.
Tyrosine is commonly taken in doses of 500–2,000 mg 30–60 minutes before exercise, even though its benefits on exercise performance remains inconclusive.
It does seem to be effective for preserving mental performance during physically stressful situations or periods of sleep deprivation when taken in doses ranging from 45–68 mg per pound (100–150 mg per kg) of body weight.
This would be 7–10 grams for a 150-pound (68.2-kg) person.
These higher doses may cause gastrointestinal upset and be split into two separate doses, taken 30 and 60 minutes prior to a stressful event.
Tyrosine is a popular dietary supplement used for a variety of reasons.
In the body, it’s used to make neurotransmitters, which tend to decrease under periods of stressful or mentally demanding situations.
There is good evidence that supplementing with tyrosine replenishes these important neurotransmitters and improves mental function, compared to a placebo.
Supplementing with it has been shown to be safe, even in high doses, but has the potential to interact with certain medications, warranting caution.
While tyrosine has many benefits, their significance remains unclear until more evidence is available.
Anders Bodelsen’s Freezing Down (1969, trans. 1971) is a harrowing collision of SF tropes and the emotional landscape of Scandinavian noir. Bodelsen, “primarily associated with 1960s New-Realism in Danish literature,” might be best known to English-speaking audiences for writing the source material for the 1978 heist film The Silent Partner, starring Christopher Plummer and Elliott Gould.
Freezing Down, Bodelsen’s lone SF work, is an icy and complex (despite its brief length) speculation on the promise of immortality.
A forgotten masterpiece.
Brief Analysis/Summary
1973. Bruno is an editor. He’s constantly on the phone with his writers plying them with plots and themes, “he was the man with the most ideas” (5). He doesn’t write himself, but he has grand plans! He’s single. One day he meets a dancer named Jenny, who seems like one of his characters, distant, remote…. Ostensibly to gather ideas, he arrives at her house and discusses her goals, her desires, her drive for her art. While Bruno never implements his plans, Jenny gives all for hers. There’s a connection but Bruno cannot communicate his secret–his incurable illness and decision to wake up in another time through the process of “freezing down.”
1995. Bruno, after doctors discover a cure for his illness, emerges from his icy interlude, without his own kidneys. A new world order promises greatness, but beneath the veneer of immortality and progress, the limbs propping up humankind have rotted. Those that want immortality are forced to work to pay for their treatments. Those who decide to live out their natural lives, try whatever means possible to forget that death i.e. a preventable moment in life, is near. Not all are happy. Bruno observes agitators interrupting the infrequent flow of cars, only owned by doctors, outside the hospital. Bruno discovers a world where his talents seem useless, and Jenny, still alive but in a state of “freezing down,” has decades to wait until her own injuries can be cured. Bruno decides to re-enter his frozen state.
2022. The language has changed. The agitators grow in strength, but what they’re agitating for remains elusive. Connections are increasingly impossible to achieve—the anti-aging processes appear to introduce senility. Communication is fragmented and the events of the world outside of the hospital, a windowless environment of flickering lights, remains unknown: ‘Who ruled the world outside this building he was in? […] Did people read in this world?” (165). Bruno meets a thawed Jenny. Brunno tries to make connections. Jenny tries to dance: “Why does she keep falling?” (167). Bruno’s body deteriorates as restorative processes are interrupted by power cuts.
Freezing Down ends in a grotesque danse macabre of physical and intellectual decay. Immortality as an act of fragmentation….
Final Thoughts
Freezing Down is an unnerving exercise in physical and mental discomfort. A particular scene exemplifies my point. In 2022, the following tableau unfolds: Bruno, missing hair and fingernails, finally meets Jenny, recently thawed with a new spine installed. The hospital lights flicker in and out. A newly “young” Dr. Ackermann, who originally froze Bruno, periodically interrupts the emotion-drenched exchange, bewildered at the hospital’s flickering lights: “‘Don’t ask me […] No one tells me anything nowadays” (152). The poignant and aching moment is littered with Ackermann’s repetitive comments about Bruno’s missing body parts, and the candle in his pocket in case the lights go out… Ackermann confesses that “[He’s] long since given up trying to understand” (158).
Adding to the growing nightmare, Bodelsen deploys spatial constriction in each successive age. In 1973, Bruno moves in and out of the hospital if he needs to before the final countdown to his procedure. In 1995, only as his depression grows do the doctors move him to a new location as therapy. In 2022, the hospital no longer has windows, and the outside world is a great unknown.
Bruno’s increasingly restrictive perspective through which he views the world, is foreshadowed by the dominate image that begins and ends and is referenced throughout the text:
“[Bruno] wants to look at the thermometer outside the window, but he cannot because of the ice crystals. Still only half awake, he remembers how as a child he had put a coin on the radiator and then pressed it against the ice crystals to give himself a little hole he could peep through, out into a dark winter’s morning like this”.
And as time progresses, it becomes more and more difficult to see through the ice. The ice is no longer a barrier but a tomb. Bodelsen’s prose is characterized by an intensity made more and more unnerving as the ability to communicate and connect decays. Bodies might be resurrected in the semblance of earlier vitality but the future is not full of hope, the future is an alien landscape.
Ronald Reagan is known as the movie junkie president. He was, after all, an actor before getting into politics. But do you know who watched even more movies than Reagan while in office? Jimmy Carter. And Carter only served a single term.
After painstakingly going through the President’s daily journal, which outlined his tasks for each day, I’ve made a list of every movie Carter watched while in office from January 20, 1977 until January 20, 1981. And man, he really did watch a lot of films.
Part of my fascination with the movies that presidents watch is just cheap voyeurism. But the other part is an earnest belief that popular culture influences things in the real world. President Nixon was obsessed with the film Patton during the Vietnam War. President Reagan urged Congress to take computer security seriously after seeing War Games in 1983.
So what can we glean from the list I’ve compiled of President Carter’s viewing habits? Well, he certainly watched the major movies of his time that dealt with energy concerns like 1979’s nuclear-phobic The China Syndrome. He was also screening plenty of war films. The former president hosted an early private White House screening of Apocalypse Now with director Francis Ford Coppola and about 75 other people on May 10, 1979. It wasn’t released in theaters until August.
But it wasn’t all modern gloom and doom. Jimmy and the First Lady, Rosalynn, watched plenty of Westerns like Shane and A Fistful of Dollars. And they’d watch a goofy comedy now and again. (Animal House, Airplane, Caddyshack and Meatballs are all on the list). They even watched some films that might be considered horror, like the 1978 film Magic or the 1980 movie The Changeling. And they watched plenty of Humphrey Bogart movies.
It seems like Carter would watch anything and everything, with over 400 movies screened at the White House and Camp David while he was in office. Some of the screenings were private affairs with just the President and First Lady. Other times a movie was that night’s entertainment for guests at the White House. An April 30, 1979 screening of the Ingmar Bergman film Autumn Sonata notes that there were “approximately 48 members of the White House staff” on hand to watch.
In one of the most interesting screenings I came across, Carter watched Star Wars with Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, on February 4, 1978 at Camp David. That meeting was actually a secret strategy session for peace in the Middle East that would pave the way for the historic Camp David Accords in September of 1978 between Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
Do I think movies had a direct impact on President Carter’s decision making? Of course not. After he watched Alien in June of 1979 I doubt it had any affect on public policy. But the media we consume do matter. And the list shows that there were screenings that reflected the political and business climate of the Cold War. For instance, President Carter watched the 1979 Soviet spy thriller Avalanche Express with a large group of Congressmen. And in 1980 he watched a movie called The Formula about a conspiracy by the oil companies to keep secret a revolutionary synthetic fuel that would put them out of business.
The list below was compiled by combing through Carter’s public daily agendas, and I believe I’ve found most of the movies he watched while in office. But if you do your own research and find more, please let me know. The movies are in the order that he watched them and include links to his full agenda for that particular day. So, for instance, if you’re curious what President Carter was doing before he watched The Cat From Outer Space on November 18, 1978, you can click through and see. (He had dinner with his family and talked with his Assistant of Communications Gerald Rafshoon.)
Sometimes President Carter watched movies immediately when they hit theaters. For instance, he watched The Empire Strikes Back five days after it had been released. Other times, there didn’t appear to be much urgency. The first movie Carter saw in the White House theater? All the President’s Men. The night after he lost his re-election campaign to Ronald Reagan he watched the 1967 film The Bandits.
President Carter had a reputation as a bit of a prude, given his deeply religious background. He once told Playboy magazine that he had lust in his heart, and this itself was a sin. But he watched plenty of films with risque material for the time, including stuff like Hardcore and Midnight Cowboy, the first X-rated movie to be screened in the White House.
Although perhaps there was some guilt/atonement built in to some of these screenings. For instance, on January 25, 1980 Jimmy watched the sex comedy 10 starring Bo Derek with members of his staff. The following day Jimmy watched a movie called Jesus with the First Lady.
I’ve done my best compiling the list below but if it was unclear which version of a film that Carter may have watched, I’ve included all possible dates up to that point. For instance the agenda notes that Carter watched A Star is Born but doesn’t specify which one. It was made three times, in 1937, 1954, and 1976. We can probably assume that he watched the most recent one, but you never know!
And yes, I have freedom of information requests out for Bill Clinton, the first Bush and George W. The last of which I got an update for recently. They said I can expect the list in 46 months. No joke. But at least you can see President Reagan’s list here. [Update: Here’s Nixon’s list as well.]
Looking at the movie viewing habits of a given president may not provide profound insights about their policies. But it does give us a unique lens through which to see how a president fit into, or even fought against, mainstream American culture during their time in the White House.
Carter is sworn into office January 20, 1977
All the President’s Men (1976) – January 22, 1977 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – January 28, 1977 Network (1976) – February 5, 1977 Rocky (1976) – February 19, 1977 The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)- February 25, 1977 Bambi (1942)- February 26, 1977 The Godfather (1972) – March 3, 1977 The Magic Christian (1969) – March 5, 1977 Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976) – March 12, 1977 Casablanca (1942) and Young Frankenstein (1974) – March 25, 1977 The Bad News Bears (1976) – March 26, 1977 The Shootist (1976) – March 27, 1977 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) – April 2, 1977 Harry and Tonto (1974) – April 7, 1977 Nashville (1975) – April 22, 1977 Chinatown (1974) – April 26, 1977 Blazing Saddles (1974) – April 28, 1977 Lucky Lady (1975) – April 29, 1977 Annie Hall (1977)- May 13, 1977 African Queen (1951) – May 13, 1977 The Last Tycoon (1976) – May 14, 1977 The Island of Allah (1956) and Herbie Rides Again (1974) – May 21, 1977 Paper Moon (1973) and The Hungry Planet – June 4, 1977 Zorro (1940 or 1975?) and The Hungry Planet – June 9, 1977 The French Connection (1971) – June 12, 1977 Star Wars (1977)- June 17, 1977 Tomahawk (1951) and Right on Course? – June 17, 1977 True Grit (1979)- June 18, 1977 Silver Streak (1976) – June 24, 1977 Rocky (1976) – June 25, 1977 The Caine Mutiny (1954) – June 27, 1977 Camelot (1967) – June 30, 1977 The Cassandra Crossing (1976) – July 1, 1977 Silent Movie (1976) – July 2, 1977 The Littlest Horse Thieves (1976) The Late Show (1977) and Star Wars (1977)- July 3, 1977 MacArthur (1977) – July 6, 1977 Islands in the Stream (1977) – July 10, 1977 The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) – July 15, 1977 Logan’s Run (1976) and Ecuador? – July 16, 1977 Jaws (1975) – July 22, 1977 Music Man (1962) – July 23, 1977 A Star is Born (1937, 1954, or 1976?) – July 29, 1977 The Deep (1977) – July 31, 1977 American Graffiti (1973) and Bridge On the River Kwai (1957) – August 2, 1977 Smokey and the Bandit (1977) – August 12, 1977 The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) – August 15, 1977 Orca (1977) – August 16, 1977 The Rescuers (1977) – August 17, 1977 The Sting (1973)- August 18, 1977 Harry and Walter Go To New York (1976) – August 20, 1977 High Noon (1952) – August 27, 1977 Gnome Mobile (1967) – August 30, 1977 That’s Entertainment (1974) – August 31, 1977 Ode to Huck Finn? – September 2, 1977 Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) The Pink Panther (1963) – September 3, 1977 2001: A Space Odyssey – September 4, 1977 Tentacles (1977) – September 5, 1977 Cabaret (1972) – September 9, 1977 What’s Up Doc? (1972) – September 11, 1977 W.C. Fields and Me (1977) – September 16, 1977 The Man Who Would Be King (1975) – September 17, 1977 Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) – September 18, 1977 The Longest Yard (1974) – September 21, 1977 Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) – September 23, 1977 Sounder (1972) – September 26, 1977 One on One (1977) – September 30, 1977 The Amazing Dobermans (1976) – October 1, 1977 Citizen Kane (1941) – December 3, 1977 Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and the Maltese Falcon (1941) – October 6, 1977 Rooster Cogburn (1977) – October 7, 1977 The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) – October 8, 1977 The Hustler (1961) – October 15, 1977 The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) – October 18, 1977 Frankenstein (1931) – October 19, 1977 The Bears and I (1974) – October 20, 1977 On the Waterfront (1954) – October 23, 1977 The Wind and the Lion (1975) – October 26, 1977 Three Days of the Condor (1975) – October 28, 1977 Murder by Death (1976) – October 29, 1977 Fiddler on the Roof (1971) – November 4, 1977 The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) – November 9, 1977 Man With the Golden Gun (1974) – November 10, 1977 Island at the Top of the World (1974) – November 11, 1977 The Turning Point (1977) – November 13, 1977 Black and White in Color (1976) – November 16, 1977 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) – November 19, 1977 Goodbye Columbus (1969) – November 22, 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – November 23, 1977 Oh God (1977) – November 24, 1977 The Eagle Has Landed (1976) – November 25, 1977 Bound For Glory (1976) – November 26, 1977 Citizen Kane (1941) – December 3, 1977 Funny Girl (1968) – December 8, 1977 A Bridge Too Far (1977) – December 9, 1977 The Goodbye Girl (1977) – December 10, 1977 New York, New York (1977) – December 12, 1977 The Maltese Falcon (1941) – December 19, 1977 Live and Let Die (1973) – December 26, 1977 Midnight Cowboy (1969) – December 27, 1977
1978
Love in the Afternoon (1957) — January 7, 1978 The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1976) — January 8, 1978 Breakheart Pass (1975) — January 10, 1978 The Graduate (1967) — January 12, 1978 Roman Holiday (1953) — January 24, 1978 Best Years of Our Lives (1946) — January 25, 1978 Julia (1977) and A Town Called Plains — January 27, 1978 Semi-Tough (1977) — January 28, 1978 Sabrina (1954) — January 30, 1978 King Kong (1976) — January 31, 1978 Star Wars (1977) — February 4, 1978 It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) — February 6, 1978 Papillon (1973) — February 9, 1978 Citizens Band (1977) — February 14, 1978 Jeremiah Johnson (1972) — February 15, 1978 Wait Until Dark (1967) — February 16, 1978 The Big Sleep (1946) — February 18, 1978 High Anxiety (1977) — February 20, 1978 Airport ‘77 (1977) — February 21, 1978 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) — February 23, 1978 The Twelve Chairs (1970) — February 25, 1978 Unconquered (1947) — February 27, 1978 The Guns of Navarone (1961) — March 1, 1978 Gray Lady Down (1978) — March 2, 1978 Kid Galahad (1962) — March 8, 1978 She Done Him Wrong (1933) — March 11, 1978 Reap the Wind Wild (1942) — March 12, 1978 (mislabeled as Keep the Wind Wild in the daily diary?) The Roaring Twenties (1939) — March 13, 1978 South Pacific (1958) — March 22, 1978 A Touch of Class (1973) — March 26, 1978 Cactus Flower (1969) — April 4, 1978 The World’s Greatest Lover (1977) — April 5, 1978 Horse Feathers (1932) — April 11, 1978 Georgy Girl (1966) — April 13, 1978 Annie Hall (1977) — April 16, 1978 Tin Star (1957) — April 19, 1978 In Harm’s Way (1965) — April 20, 1978 For Pete’s Sake (1974) — April 22, 1978 Come Back Little Sheba (1952) — April 24, 1978 Operation Petticoat (1959) — April 27, 1978 The Apartment (1960) — May 6, 1978 Born Yesterday (1950) — May 8, 1978 Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957) — May 10, 1978 One, Two, Three (1961)— May 15, 1978 Key Largo (1948) — May 16, 1978 Bend of the River (1952) — May 18, 1978 Dial M for Murder (1954) — May 19, 1978 Patton (1970) — May 22, 1978 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) — May 27, 1978 Life with Father (1947) — May 28, 1978 Cool Hand Luke (1967) — May 31, 1978 Gunga Din (1939) — June 1, 1978 President’s Lady (1953) — June 6, 1978 Life of Emile Zola (1937) — June 7, 1978 Red River (1948) — June 12, 1978 Cowboy (1958) — June 14, 1978 To Have and Have Not (1944) — June 17, 1978 Topkapi (1964) — June 22, 1978 To Catch a Thief (1955) — June 24, 1978 Teacher’s Pet (1958) — June 25, 1978 Pete and Tillie (1972) — June 26, 1978 Cheap Detective (1978) — June 28, 1978 Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) — June 29, 1978 From Here to Eternity (1953) — July 18, 1978 Heaven Can Wait (1978) — July 20, 1978 Casey’s Shadow (1978) — July 23, 1978 Marty (1955) — August 1, 1978 West Side Story (1961) — August 5, 1978 Diamonds Are Forever (1971) — August 6, 1978 Hooper (1978) — August 14, 1978 Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) — August 16, 1978 Magnificent Yankee (1950) — August 30, 1978 Hang ‘Em High (1968) — September 4, 1978 Shane (1953) — September 6, 1978 Sleuth (1972) — September 8, 1978 My Darling Clementine (1946) — September 9, 1978 Save the Tiger (1973) — September 10, 1978 New Voyager (1942) — September 12, 1978 Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) — September 14, 1978 The Candidate (1972) — September 21, 1978 Mildred Pierce (1945) — September 24, 1978 Paint Your Wagon (1969) — September 28, 1978 The Mouse That Roared (1959) — September 29, 1978 Coming Home (1978) — October 3, 1978 Garden of Evil (1954) — October 6, 1978 Johnny Belinda (1948) — October 9, 1978 Boys from Brazil (1978) — October 10, 1978 A Wedding (1978) — October 11, 1978 Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) — October 12, 1978 Days of Heaven (1978) — October 13, 1978 Tennessee Johnson (1942) — October 14, 1978 Jezebel (1938) — October 17, 1978 From Russia With Love (1963) — October 18, 1978 For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) — October 25, 1978 Mrs. Miniver (1942) — October 27, 1978 Wilson (1944) — November 1, 1978 The Cat From Outer Space (1978) — November 8, 1978 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) — November 9, 1978 Animal House (1978) — November 10, 1978 The Last Hurrah (1958) — November 11, 1978 Lost Horizon (1937 or 1973?) — November 12, 1978 Dodge City (1939) — November 15, 1978 Children of Sanchez (1978) — November 16, 1978 Separate Tables (1958) — November 20, 1978 Dangerous (1935) — November 28, 1978 Force 10 From Navarone (1978) — November 29, 1978 Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956) — November 30, 1978 Elmer Gantry (1960) — December 1, 1978 Northwest Mounted Police (1940) — December 4, 1978 East of Eden (1955) — December 9, 1978 Superman (1978) — December 10, 1978 A Thousand Clowns (1965) — December 14, 1978 A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) — December 21, 1978
1979
Gold Rush (1925) — January 2, 1979 Lord of the Rings (1978) — January 12, 1979 California Suite (1978) — January 13, 1979 Grand Hotel (1932) — January 15, 1979 Heiress (1949) — January 16, 1979 Zorba the Greek (1964) — January 18, 1979 Sergeant York (1941) — January 24, 1979 Stalag 17 (1953) — January 25, 1979 The VIPs (1963) — January 30, 1979 The Devil’s Disciple (1959) — February 23, 1979 Every Which Way But Loose (1978) — February 24, 1979 Magic (1978) — February 25, 1979 Darling (1965) — February 28, 1979 All About Eve (1950) — March 6, 1979 The Rare Breed (1966) — March 14, 1979 The Red Badge of Courage (1951) — March 20, 1979 The Bells of St. Mary (1945) — March 21, 1979 Ice Castles (1978) — March 23, 1979 Hair (1979) — March 28, 1979 Same Time Next Year (1978) — March 29, 1979 The Last Picture Show (1971) — April 4, 1979 Viva Max (1969) — April 9, 1979 Lone Star (1952) — April 10, 1979 Rebel Without a Cause (1955) — April 13, 1979 Bullitt (1968) — April 14, 1979 Enemy Below (1957) — April 26, 1979 Captains Courageous (1937) — April 27, 1979 Autumn Sonata (1978) — April 30, 1979 Manhattan (1979) — May 6, 1979 Apocalypse Now (1979) — May 10, 1979 Beau Geste (1939) — May 17, 1979 The Road to Bali (1952) — May 19, 1979 Manhattan (1979) — May 23, 1979 Phantom of the Opera (1925, 1943, or 1962?) — May 24, 1979 A Very Big Withdraw (1979) — May 25, 1979 Dixie (1943) and Prisoner of Zenda (1979) — May 26, 1979 Friendly Persuasion (1956) — May 27, 1979 Dear Inspector (1977) — June 1, 1979 Fahrenheit 451 (1966) — June 3, 1979 You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939) — June 4, 1979 Alien (1979) — June 13, 1979 The Kentuckian (1955) — June 19, 1979 The China Syndrome (1979) — June 20, 1979 My Little Chickadee (1940) — June 22, 1979 The In-Laws (1979) — July 14, 1979 The Robe (1953) — July 17, 1979 Rocky II (1979) — July 18, 1979 To Each His Own (1946) — July 20, 1979 The In-Laws (1979) — July 23, 1979 The Angel and the Badman (1947) — July 24, 1979 The Jazz Singer (1927 or 1980?) — July 26, 1979 Blue Skies (1946) — August 2, 1979 Meatballs (1979) — August 3, 1979 Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) — August 4, 1979 Break-Out (1975) — August 7, 1979 Escape to Athena (1979) — August 13, 1979 For A Few Dollars More (1965) — August 14, 1979 3:10 to Yuma (1957) — August 15, 1979 Don Juan (1926 or 1948?) — August 24, 1979 North Dallas Forty (1979) — August 25, 1979 Dracula (1979) — August 26, 1979 Lost and Found (1979) — August 27, 1979 Ride the High Country (1962) — August 28, 1979 The Horse Soldiers (1959) — September 4, 1979 Avalanche Express (1979) — September 5, 1979 Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) — September 6, 1979 St. Louis Blues (1958) — September 9, 1979 The Misfits (1961) — September 14, 1979 Lost Horizon (1937 or 1973?) — September 15, 1979 Bonjour Tristesse (1958) — September 16, 1979 Two Years Before the Mast (1946) — September 18, 1979 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) — September 20, 1979 Inherit the Wind (1960) — September 21, 1979 Miracle on 34th Street (1947) — September 24, 1979 Time After Time (1979) — September 29, 1979 The King and I (1956) — October 4, 1979 Torn Curtain (1966) — October 5, 1979 10 (1979) — October 6, 1979 The Gunfighter (1950) — October 11, 1979 Gorgeous Hussy (1936) — October 16, 1979 Sheep Man (1958) — October 20, 1979 The Onion Field (1979) — October 21, 1979 Shenandoah (1965) — October 22, 1979 Legends of Frank Woods (1977) — October 27, 1979 MacKenna’s Gold (1969) — October 30, 1979 Thunderball (1965) — November 2, 1979 Sahara (1943) — November 4, 1979 Running (1979) — November 9, 1979 Big Country (1958) — November 11, 1979 If I Had a Million (1932) — November 16, 1979 Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) — November 17, 1979 An American in Paris (1951) — November 19, 1979 Bloodline (1979) — November 20, 1979 Hanover Street (1979) — November 21, 1979 Anne of a Thousand Days (1969) — November 22, 1979 Spencer’s Mountain (1963) — November 23, 1979 Julius Caesar (1953) — November 24, 1979 The Picture Show Man (1977) — November 30, 1979 Bus Stop (1956) — December 1, 1979 Mary Queen of Scots (1971) — December 3, 1979 Star Trek (1979) — December 12, 1979 MASH (1970) — December 15, 1979 The Black Hole (1979) — December 18, 1979 Kramer vs Kramer (1979) — December 21, 1979 The Electric Horseman (1979) — December 22, 1979 The Rose (1979) — December 23, 1979 Chapter Two (1979) — December 24, 1979 The Black Stallion — December 25, 1979 Going in Style (1979) — December 26, 1979 Advise and Consent (1962) — December 27, 1979 The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) — December 29, 1979 Luv (1967) — December 30, 1979
1980
The Good Earth (1937) — January 9, 1980 Being There (1979) — January 14, 1980 The Bank Dick (1940) — January 16, 1980 The European (1979) — January 18, 1980 Harper (1966) — January 19, 1980 10 (1979) — January 25, 1980 Jesus (1979) — January 26, 1980 The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) — January 29, 1980 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) — February 2, 1980 Rio Grande (1950) — February 3, 1980 A Little Romance (1979) — February 8, 1980 All That Jazz (1979) — February 10, 1980 Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) — February 12, 1980 Night of the Iguana (1964) — February 16, 1980 Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) — February 18, 1980 Broken Lance (1954) — February 19, 1980 Agatha (1979) — February 23, 1980 Fedora (1978) — February 27, 1980 The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) — February 29, 1980 My Brilliant Career (1979) — March 1, 1980 Barry Lyndon (1975) — March 2, 1980 Arabesque (1966) — March 7, 1980 Scalp Hunters (1968) — March 15, 1980 Hide in Plain Sight (1980) — March 22, 1980 Watch on the Rhine (1943) — March 21, 1980 The Petrified Forest (1936) — March 23, 1980 Mr. 880 (1950) — March 24, 1980 Cinderella Liberty (1973) — March 28, 1980 The Paper Chase (1973) — March 29, 1980 Simon (1980) — April 1, 1980 Oklahoma Crude (1973) — April 3, 1980 The Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner Movie — April 4, 1980 When Time Ran Out (1980) — April 5, 1980 Five Easy Pieces (1970) and They Came to Cordura (1959) — April 6, 1980 High Society (1956) — April 11, 1980 The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) — April 12, 1980 The Human Factor (1979) — April 13, 1980 Baltimore Bullet (1980) — April 19, 1980 The Undefeated (1969) — April 20, 1980 Klute (1971) — April 25, 1980 Ffolkes (1979) — April 26, 1980 Laura (1944) — April 27, 1980 Barefoot Contessa (1954) — May 2, 1980 Kramer vs Kramer (1979) — May 3, 1980 The Black Marble (1980) — May 4, 1980 The Jerk (1979) — May 5, 1980 Bronco Billy (1980) — May 9, 1980 A Fistful of Dollars (1964) — May 10, 1980 Anastasia (1956) — May 12, 1980 Splendor in the Grass (1961) — May 13, 1980 The Devil at Four O’Clock (1961) — May 15, 1980 Strangers on a Train (1951) — May 16, 1980 The Last Married Couple in America (1980) — May 17, 1980 Silent Partner (1978) — May 20, 1980 Blue Lagoon (1980) — May 23, 1980 Fastest Gun Alive (1956) — May 24, 1980 The Man Who Loved Women (1977) — May 25, 1980 The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — May 26, 1980 Cass Timberlane (1947) — May 30, 1980 The Final Countdown (1980) — May 31, 1980 All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) — June 5, 1980 In Praise of Older Women (1978) — June 6, 1980 The Shining (1980) — June 7, 1980 The Long Riders (1980) — June 13, 1980 Brubaker (1980) — June 27, 1980 Urban Cowboy (1980) — June 28, 1980 Nothing Personal (1980) — June 29, 1980 The Searchers (1956) — July 11, 1980 A Fine Madness (1966) — July 12, 1980 Little Miss Marker (1980) — July 13, 1980 Flower Drum Song (1961) — July 18, 1980 The Big Red One (1980) – July 25, 1980 Dressed to Kill (1980) – August 8, 1980 Touch of Love (1969) – August 17, 1980 Hopscotch (1980) — August 18, 1980 The Changeling (1980) — August 21, 1980 The Lady Vanishes (1938) — August 22, 1980 The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980) — August 26, 1980 The Hunter (1980) — August 29, 1980 Caddyshack (1980) — August 30, 1980 The Flim Flam Man (1967) — September 2, 1980 Fame (1980) — September 5, 1980 Robin and Marian (1976) — September 8, 1980 The Great Santini (1979) — September 6, 1980 Mountain Men (1980) — September 12, 1980 Diamond Head (1962) — September 24, 1980 Resurrection (1980) — September 26, 1980 Oh God Book II (1980) — September 27, 1980 Ordinary People (1980) — October 11, 1980 My Bodyguard (1980) — October 17, 1980 Gloria (1980) — October 18, 1980 The Stunt Man (1980) — October 26, 1980 The Bandits (1967) — November 5, 1980 The First Deadly Sin (1980) — November 7, 1980 Loving Couples (1980) — November 8, 1980 The Brothers Karamazov — November 9, 1980 Goldfinger (1964) — November 11, 1980 Airplane (1980) — November 12, 1980 Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1955) — November 13, 1980 A Change of Seasons (1980) — November 15, 1980 Many Rivers to Cross (1955) — November 17, 1980 It’s My Turn (1980) — November 18, 1980 [Film unknown] — November 19, 1980 The Blues Brothers (1980) — November 20, 1980 Tribute (1980) — November 22, 1980 Nine to Five (1980) — November 26, 1980 Any Which Way You Can (1980) — November 27, 1980 Stir Crazy (1980) — November 28, 1980 The Island (1980) — November 29, 1980 Tribute (1980) — December 3, 1980 Irma La Douce (1963) —December 4, 1980 It Seems Like Old Times (1980) — December 5, 1980 It’s Grit (True Grit?) and Raging Bull (1980) — December 6, 1980 The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976) — December 10, 1980 The Competition (1980) — December 12, 1980 Kagemusha (1980) — December 13, 1980 Private Benjamin (1980) — December 19, 1980 The Formula (1980) — December 20, 1980 Two Rode Together (1961) — December 31, 1980
1981
The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) — January 2, 1981 Popeye (1980) — January 3, 1981 Fools’ Parade (1971) — January 5, 1981
As the U.S. declares a new government in Venezuela, we look back at how the Reagan administration promoted human rights violations in Guatemala, including genocide inflicted on Indian villages, as the late Robert Parry reported on Feb. 21, 2013.
Soon after taking office in 1981, President Ronald Reagan’s national security team agreed to supply military aid to the brutal right-wing regime in Guatemala to pursue the goal of exterminating not only “Marxist guerrillas” but their “civilian support mechanisms,” according to a newly disclosed document from the National Archives.
Over the next several years, the military assistance from the Reagan administration helped the Guatemalan army do just that, engaging in the slaughter of some 100,000 people, including what a truth commission deemed genocide against the Mayan Indians in the northern highlands.
Recently discovered documents at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, also reveal that Reagan’s White House was reaching out to Israel in a scheme to circumvent congressional restrictions on military equipment for the Guatemalan military.
In 1983, national security aide Oliver North (who later became a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal) reported in a memo that Reagan’s Deputy National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane (another key Iran-Contra figure) was approaching Israel over how to deliver 10 UH-1H helicopters to Guatemala to give the army greater mobility in its counterinsurgency war.
According to these documents that I found at the Reagan library and other records declassified in the late 1990s it’s also clear that Reagan and his administration were well aware of the butchery underway in Guatemala and elsewhere in Central America.
The relaxed attitude toward the Guatemalan regime’s brutality took shape in spring 1981 as Reagan’s State Department “advised our Central American embassies that it has been studying ways to restore a closer, cooperative relationship with Guatemala,” according to a White House “Situation Room Checklist” dated April 8, 1981.
The document added: “State believes a number of changes have occurred which could make Guatemalan leaders more receptive to a new U.S. initiative: the Guatemalans view the new administration as more sympathetic to their problems [and] they are less suspect of the U.S. role in El Salvador,” where the Reagan administration was expanding support for another right-wing regime infamous for slaughtering its political opponents, including Catholic clergy.
“State has concluded that any attempt to reestablish a dialogue would require some initial, condition-free demonstration of our goodwill. However, this could not include military sales which would provoke serious U.S. public and congressional criticism. State will undertake a series of confidence building measures, free of preconditions, which minimize potential conflict with existing legislation,” which then barred military assistance to Guatemala because of its long record of human rights crimes.
The “checklist” added that the State Department “has also decided that the administration should engage the Guatemalan government at the highest level in a dialogue on our bilateral relations and the initiatives we can take together to improve them. Secretary [of State Alexander] Haig has designated [retired] General Vernon Walters as his personal emissary to initiate this process with President [Fernando Romeo] Lucas [Garcia].
“If Lucas is prepared to give assurances that he will take steps to halt government involvement in the indiscriminate killing of political opponents and to foster a climate conducive to a viable electoral process, the U.S. will be prepared to approve some military sales immediately.”
But the operative word in that paragraph was “indiscriminate.” The Reagan administration expressed no problem with killing civilians if they were considered supporters of the guerrillas who had been fighting against the country’s ruling oligarchs and generals since the 1950s when the CIA organized the overthrow of Guatemala’s reformist President Jacobo Arbenz.
Sparing the ‘Non Politicized’
The distinction was spelled out in “Talking Points” for Walters to deliver in a face-to-face meeting with General Lucas and his senior advisers. As edited inside the White House in April 1981, the “Talking Points” read:
“The President and Secretary Haig have designated me as [their] personal emissary to discuss bilateral relations on an urgent basis.
“Both the President and the Secretary recognize that your country is engaged in a war with Marxist guerrillas. We are deeply concerned about externally supported Marxist subversion in Guatemala and other countries in the region. As you are aware, we have already taken steps to assist Honduras and El Salvador resist this aggression.
“The Secretary has sent me here to see if we can work out a way to provide material assistance to your government. We have minimized negative public statements by US officials on the situation in Guatemala. We have arranged for the Commerce Department to take steps that will permit the sale of $3 million worth of military trucks and Jeeps to the Guatemalan army.
“With your concurrence, we propose to provide you and any officers you might designate an intelligence briefing on regional developments from our perspective. Our desire, however, is to go substantially beyond the steps I have just outlined. We wish to reestablish our traditional military supply and training relationship as soon as possible.
“As we are both aware, this has not yet been feasible because of our internal political and legal constraints relating to the use by some elements of your security forces of deliberate and indiscriminate killing of persons not involved with the guerrilla forces or their civilian support mechanisms. I am not referring here to the regrettable but inevitable death of innocents though error in combat situations, but to what appears to us a calculated use of terror to immobilize non politicized people or potential opponents.
“If you could give me your assurance that you will take steps to halt official involvement in the killing of persons not involved with the guerrilla forces or their civilian support mechanism we would be in a much stronger position to defend successfully with the Congress a decision to begin to resume our military supply relationship with your government.”
In other words, though the “talking points” were framed as an appeal to reduce the “indiscriminate” slaughter of “non politicized people,” they amounted to an acceptance of scorched-earth tactics against people involved with the guerrillas and “their civilian support mechanism.” The way that played out in Guatemala as in nearby El Salvador was the massacring of peasants in regions considered sympathetic to leftist insurgents.
Cables on Killings
As reflected in the “Talking Points” and as confirmed by other U.S. government documents from that time period, the Reagan administration was well aware that the Guatemalan military was engaged in mass killings of Guatemalan civilians.
According to one “secret” cable also from April 1981, and declassified in the 1990s, the CIA was confirming Guatemalan government massacres even as Reagan was moving to loosen the military aid ban. On April 17, 1981, a CIA cable described an army massacre at Cocob, near Nebaj in the Ixil Indian territory, because the population was believed to support leftist guerrillas.
A CIA source reported that “the social population appeared to fully support the guerrillas” and “the soldiers were forced to fire at anything that moved.” The CIA cable added that “the Guatemalan authorities admitted that ‘many civilians’ were killed in Cocob, many of whom undoubtedly were non-combatants.” [Many of the Guatemalan documents declassified in the 1990s can be found at the National Security Archive’s Web site.]
In May 1981, despite these ongoing atrocities, Reagan dispatched Walters to tell the Guatemalan leaders that the new U.S. administration wanted to lift the human rights embargoes on military equipment that former President Jimmy Carter and Congress had imposed.
In essence, Walters was giving a green light to Guatemala to continue the practice of slaughtering guerrillas and their civilian supporters, a counterinsurgency strategy that was practiced during some of the darkest days of the Vietnam War in such infamous incidents as the My Lai massacre.
The “Talking Points” also put the Reagan administration in line with the fiercely anti-communist regimes elsewhere in Latin America, where right-wing “death squads” operated with impunity liquidating not only armed guerrillas but civilians who were judged sympathetic to left-wing causes like demanding greater economic equality and social justice.
In the 1970s, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and other South American countries even banded together in a cross-border assassination program that hunted down leftist and other political opponents around the world, including inside the United States.
Called “Operation Condor,” the wave of assassinations reached Washington D.C. on Sept. 21, 1976, when Chilean intelligence assets exploded a car bomb killing former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and American co-worker Ronni Moffitt as they drove down Massachusetts Avenue through an area known as Embassy Row.
The original cover story for the assassination plot had been a meeting at the CIA with Vernon Walters, who was then deputy CIA director under CIA Director George H.W. Bush. Walters also had served as U.S. military attache to Brazil at the time of a right-wing military coup in 1964.
Reagan again turned to Walters in 1981 to serve as the President’s ambassador-at-large. One of his key roles was coordinating with right-wing governments across Latin America in their escalating wars against leftist insurgencies.
Right-Wing Butchery
Despite his aw shucks style, Reagan found virtually every anticommunist action justified, no matter how brutal. From his eight years in the White House, there is no historical indication that he was morally troubled by the bloodbath and even genocide that occurred in Central America while he was shipping hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to the implicated forces.
The death toll was staggering, an estimated 70,000 or more political killings in El Salvador, possibly 20,000 slain from the Contra war in Nicaragua, about 200 political “disappearances” in Honduras and some 100,000 people eliminated during a resurgence of political violence in Guatemala. The one consistent element in these slaughters was the overarching Cold War rationalization, emanating in large part from Ronald Reagan’s White House.
Despite their frequent claims to the contrary, the evidence is now overwhelming that Reagan and his advisers had a clear understanding of the extraordinary brutality going on in Guatemala and elsewhere, based on their own internal documents. As they prepared to ship military equipment to Guatemala, White House officials knew that the Guatemalan military was engaged in massacres of the Mayans and other perceived enemies.
According to a State Department cable on Oct. 5, 1981, when Guatemalan leaders met again with Walters, they left no doubt about their plans. The cable said Gen. Lucas “made clear that his government will continue as before, that the repression will continue. He reiterated his belief that the repression is working and that the guerrilla threat will be successfully routed.”
Human rights groups saw the same picture. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission released a report on Oct. 15, 1981, blaming the Guatemalan government for “thousands of illegal executions.” [Washington Post, Oct. 16, 1981]
But the Reagan administration was set on whitewashing the ugly scene. A State Department “white paper,” released in December 1981, blamed the violence on leftist “extremist groups” and their “terrorist methods” prompted and supported by Cuba’s Fidel Castro.
What the documents from the Reagan library now make clear is that the administration was not simply struggling ineffectively to rein in these massacres as the U.S. press corps typically reported but was fully onboard with the slaughter of people who were part of the guerrillas’ “civilian support mechanisms.”
More Massacres
U.S. intelligence agencies continued to pick up evidence of these government-sponsored massacres. One CIA report in February 1982 described an army sweep through the so-called Ixil Triangle in central El Quiche province.
“The commanding officers of the units involved have been instructed to destroy all towns and villages which are cooperating with the Guerrilla Army of the Poor [the EGP] and eliminate all sources of resistance,” the report said. “Since the operation began, several villages have been burned to the ground, and a large number of guerrillas and collaborators have been killed.”
The CIA report explained the army’s modus operandi: “When an army patrol meets resistance and takes fire from a town or village, it is assumed that the entire town is hostile and it is subsequently destroyed.” When the army encountered an empty village, it was “assumed to have been supporting the EGP, and it is destroyed. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of refugees in the hills with no homes to return to.
“The army high command is highly pleased with the initial results of the sweep operation, and believes that it will be successful in destroying the major EGP support area and will be able to drive the EGP out of the Ixil Triangle. The well documented belief by the army that the entire Ixil Indian population is pro-EGP has created a situation in which the army can be expected to give no quarter to combatants and non-combatants alike.”
On Feb. 2, 1982, Richard Childress, another of Reagan’s national security aides, wrote a “secret” memo to his colleagues summing up this reality on the ground:
“As we move ahead on our approach to Latin America, we need to consciously address the unique problems posed by Guatemala. Possessed of some of the worst human rights records in the region, it presents a policy dilemma for us. The abysmal human rights record makes it, in its present form, unworthy of USG [U.S. government] support.
“Beset by a continuous insurgency for at least 15 years, the current leadership is completely committed to a ruthless and unyielding program of suppression. Hardly a soldier could be found that has not killed a ‘guerrilla.’”
The Rise of Rios Montt
However, Reagan remained committed to supplying military hardware to Guatemala’s brutal regime. So, the administration welcomed Gen. Efrain Rios Montt’s March 1982 overthrow of the thoroughly bloodstained Gen. Lucas.
An avowed fundamentalist Christian, Rios Montt impressed Official Washington where the Reagan administration immediately revved up its propaganda machinery to hype the new dictator’s “born-again” status as proof of his deep respect for human life. Reagan hailed him as “a man of great personal integrity.”
By July 1982, however, Rios Montt had begun a new scorched-earth campaign called his “rifles and beans” policy. The slogan meant that pacified Indians would get “beans,” while all others could expect to be the target of army “rifles.” In October, Rios Montt secretly gave carte blanche to the feared “Archivos” intelligence unit to expand “death squad” operations. Based at the Presidential Palace, the “Archivos” masterminded many of Guatemala’s most notorious assassinations.
The U.S. embassy was soon hearing more accounts of the army conducting Indian massacres. On Oct, 21, 1982, one cable described how three embassy officers tried to check out some of these reports but ran into bad weather and canceled the inspection. Still, the cable put the best possible spin on the situation. Though unable to check out the massacre reports, the embassy officials did “reach the conclusion that the army is completely up front about allowing us to check alleged massacre sites and to speak with whomever we wish.”
The next day, the embassy fired off its analysis (which the Reagan administration knew to be contradicted by the facts) that the Guatemalan government was the victim of a communist-inspired “disinformation campaign.” Dated Oct. 22, 1982, the analysis concluded “that a concerted disinformation campaign is being waged in the U.S. against the Guatemalan government by groups supporting the communist insurgency in Guatemala.”
The Reagan administration’s disingenuous report claimed that “conscientious human rights and church organizations,” including Amnesty International, had been duped by the communists and “may not fully appreciate that they are being utilized. The campaign’s object is simple: to deny the Guatemalan army the weapons and equipment needed from the U.S. to defeat the guerrillas.
“If those promoting such disinformation can convince the Congress, through the usual opinion-makers, the media, church and human rights groups, that the present GOG [government of Guatemala] is guilty of gross human rights violations they know that the Congress will refuse Guatemala the military assistance it needs. Those backing the communist insurgency are betting on an application, or rather misapplication, of human rights policy so as to damage the GOG and assist themselves.”
Hailing the Dictator
Reagan personally joined this P.R. campaign seeking to discredit human rights investigators and others who were reporting accurately on human rights crimes that the administration knew, all too well, were true. On Dec. 4, 1982, after meeting with Rios Montt, Reagan hailed the general as “totally dedicated to democracy” and added that Rios Montt’s government had been “getting a bum rap” on human rights. Reagan discounted the mounting reports of hundreds of Maya villages being eradicated.
On Jan. 6, 1983, Rios Montt was informed that the United States would resume military sales to Guatemala. The dictator expressed his thanks, according to a cable from the U.S. Embassy, “saying that he had been convinced that the USG had never abandoned Guatemala. He commented that the guerrillas in country and its propaganda machine abroad would now launch concerted attacks on both governments.”
On Jan. 7, 1983, Reagan formally lifted the ban on military aid to Guatemala and authorized the sale of $6 million in military hardware. Approval covered spare parts for UH-1H helicopters and A-37 aircraft used in counterinsurgency operations. Radios, batteries and battery charges were also in the package.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government’s cover-up of the Guatemalan bloodshed continued. State Department spokesman John Hughes said political violence in Guatemalan cities had “declined dramatically” and that rural conditions had improved too.
In February 1983, however, a secret CIA cable noted a rise in “suspect right-wing violence” with kidnappings of students and teachers. Bodies of victims were appearing in ditches and gullies. CIA sources traced these political murders to Rios Montt’s order to the “Archivos” in October to “apprehend, hold, interrogate and dispose of suspected guerrillas as they saw fit.”
Despite these grisly facts on the ground, the annual State Department human rights survey praised the supposedly improved human rights situation in Guatemala. “The overall conduct of the armed forces had improved by late in the year” 1982, the report stated.
A different picture, far closer to the secret information held by the U.S. government, was coming from independent human rights investigators. On March 17, 1983, Americas Watch condemned the Guatemalan army for human rights atrocities against the Indian population.
New York attorney Stephen L. Kass said these findings included proof that the government carried out “virtually indiscriminate murder of men, women and children of any farm regarded by the army as possibly supportive of guerrilla insurgents.”
Rural women suspected of guerrilla sympathies were raped before execution, Kass said, adding that children were “thrown into burning homes. They are thrown in the air and speared with bayonets. We heard many, many stories of children being picked up by the ankles and swung against poles so their heads are destroyed.” [AP, March 17, 1983]
Involving Israel
Publicly, senior Reagan officials continued to put on a happy face. In June 1983, special envoy Richard B. Stone praised “positive changes” in Rios Montt’s government, and Rios Montt pressed the United States for 10 UH-1H helicopters and six naval patrol boats, all the better to hunt guerrillas and their sympathizers.
Since Guatemala lacked the U.S. Foreign Military Sales credits or the cash to buy the helicopters, Reagan’s national security team looked for unconventional ways to arrange the delivery of the equipment that would give the Guatemalan army greater access to mountainous areas where guerrillas and their civilian supporters were hiding.
On Aug. 1, 1983, National Security Council aides Oliver North and Alfonso Sapia-Bosch reported to National Security Advisor William P. Clark that his deputy Robert “Bud” McFarlane was planning to exploit his Israeli channels to secure the helicopters for Guatemala. [For more on McFarlanes’s Israeli channels, see Consortium News “How Neocons Messed Up the Mideast.“]
“With regard to the loan of ten helicopters, it is [our] understanding that Bud will take this up with the Israelis,” wrote North and Sapia-Bosch. “There are expectations that they would be forthcoming. Another possibility is to have an exercise with the Guatemalans. We would then use US mechanics and Guatemalan parts to bring their helicopters up to snuff.”
However, more political changes were afoot in Guatemala. Rios Montt’s vengeful Christian fundamentalism had hurtled so out of control, even by Guatemalan standards, that Gen. Oscar Mejia Victores seized power in another coup on Aug. 8, 1983.
Despite the power shift, Guatemalan security forces continued to murder with impunity, finally going so far that even the U.S. Embassy objected. When three Guatemalans working for the U.S. Agency for International Development were slain in November 1983, U.S. Ambassador Frederic Chapin suspected that “Archivos” hit squads were sending a message to the United States to back off even mild pressure for human rights.
In late November, in a brief show of displeasure, the administration postponed the sale of $2 million in helicopter spare parts. The next month, however, Reagan sent the spare parts anyway. In 1984, Reagan succeeded, too, in pressuring Congress to approve $300,000 in military training for the Guatemalan army.
By mid-1984, Chapin, who had grown bitter about the army’s stubborn brutality, was gone, replaced by a far-right political appointee named Alberto Piedra, who was all for increased military assistance to Guatemala. In January 1985, Americas Watch issued a report observing that Reagan’s State Department “is apparently more concerned with improving Guatemala’s image than in improving its human rights.”
According to now declassified U.S. records, the Guatemalan reality included torture out of the Middle Ages. A Defense Intelligence Agency cable reported that the Guatemalan military used an air base in Retalhuleu during the mid-1980s as a center for coordinating the counterinsurgency campaign in southwest Guatemala.
At the base, pits were filled with water to hold captured suspects. “Reportedly there were cages over the pits and the water level was such that the individuals held within them were forced to hold on to the bars in order to keep their heads above water and avoid drowning,” the DIA report stated. Later, the pits were filled with concrete to eliminate the evidence.
The Guatemalan military used the Pacific Ocean as another dumping spot for political victims, according to the DIA report. Bodies of insurgents tortured to death and of live prisoners marked for “disappearance” were loaded on planes that flown out over the ocean where the soldiers would shove the victims into the water.
Regional Slaughter
Guatemala, of course, was not the only Central American country where Reagan and his administration supported brutal counterinsurgency operations, and then sought to cover up the bloody facts.
Reagan’s attempted falsification of the historical record was a hallmark of the conflicts in El Salvador and Nicaragua as well. In one case, Reagan personally lashed out at an individual human rights investigator named Reed Brody, a New York lawyer who had collected affidavits from more than 100 witnesses to atrocities carried out by the U.S.-supported Contra rebels in Nicaragua fighting to overthrow the country’s leftist Sandinista government.
Angered by the revelations about his pet “freedom-fighters,” Reagan denounced Brody in a speech on April 15, 1985. The President called Brody “one of dictator [Daniel] Ortega’s supporters, a sympathizer who has openly embraced Sandinismo.”
Privately, Reagan had a far more accurate understanding of the true nature of the Contras. At one point in the Contra war, Reagan turned to CIA official Duane Clarridge and demanded that the Contras be used to destroy some Soviet-supplied helicopters that had arrived in Nicaragua. In his memoir, Clarridge recalled that “President Reagan pulled me aside and asked, ‘Dewey, can’t you get those vandals of yours to do this job.’” [See Clarridge’s A Spy for All Seasons.]
It was not until 1999, a decade after Ronald Reagan left office, that the shocking scope of the grisly reality about the atrocities in Guatemala was revealed by a truth commission that drew heavily on documents that President Bill Clinton had ordered declassified.
On Feb. 25, 1999, the Historical Clarification Commission estimated that the 34-year civil war had claimed the lives of some 200,000 people with the most savage bloodletting occurring in the 1980s. The panel estimated that the army was responsible for 93 percent of the killings and leftist guerrillas for three percent. Four percent were listed as unresolved.
The report documented that in the 1980s, the army committed 626 massacres against Mayan villages. “The massacres that eliminated entire Mayan villages are neither perfidious allegations nor figments of the imagination, but an authentic chapter in Guatemala’s history,” the commission concluded.
The army “completely exterminated Mayan communities, destroyed their livestock and crops,” the report said. In the northern highlands, the report termed the slaughter “genocide.” [Washington Post, Feb. 26, 1999]
Besides carrying out murder and “disappearances,” the army routinely engaged in torture and rape. “The rape of women, during torture or before being murdered, was a common practice” by the military and paramilitary forces, the report found.
American Blame
The report added that the “government of the United States, through various agencies including the CIA, provided direct and indirect support for some [of these] state operations.” The report concluded that the U.S. government also gave money and training to a Guatemalan military that committed “acts of genocide” against the Mayans.
“Believing that the ends justified everything, the military and the state security forces blindly pursued the anticommunist struggle, without respect for any legal principles or the most elemental ethical and religious values, and in this way, completely lost any semblance of human morals,” said the commission chairman, Christian Tomuschat, a German jurist.
“Within the framework of the counterinsurgency operations carried out between 1981 and 1983, in certain regions of the country agents of the Guatemalan state committed acts of genocide against groups of the Mayan people,” Tomuschat added. [NYT, Feb. 26, 1999]
The report did not single out culpable individuals either in Guatemala or the United States. But the American official most directly responsible for renewing U.S. military aid to Guatemala and encouraging its government during the 1980s was Ronald Reagan.
The major U.S. newspapers covered the truth commission’s report though only fleetingly. The New York Times made it the lead story the next day. The Washington Post played it inside on page A19. Both cited the troubling role of the CIA and other U.S. government agencies in the Guatemalan tragedy. But, again, no U.S. official was held accountable by name.
On March 1, 1999, the Washington Post’s neoconservative editorial board addressed the findings but did not confront them, except to blame President Carter for having cut off military aid to Guatemala in the 1970s, thus supposedly preventing the United States from curbing Guatemala’s horrific human rights conduct.
The editorial argued that the arms embargo removed “what minimal restraint even a feeble American presence supplied.” The editorial made no reference to the substantial evidence that Reagan’s resumption of military aid in the 1980s made the Guatemalan army more efficient in its slaughter of its enemies, armed and unarmed. With no apparent sense of irony, the Post editorial ended by stating: “We need our own truth commission” though there was no follow-up of that idea.
During a visit to Central America, on March 10, 1999, President Bill Clinton apologized for the past U.S. support of right-wing regimes in Guatemala dating back to 1954. “For the United States, it is important that I state clearly that support for military forces and intelligence units which engaged in violence and widespread repression was wrong, and the United States must not repeat that mistake,” Clinton said. [Washington Post, March 11, 1999]
However, back in Washington, there was no interest, let alone determination, to hold anyone accountable for aiding and abetting the butchery. The story of the Guatemalan genocide and the Reagan administration’s complicity quickly disappeared into the great American memory hole.
For human rights crimes in the Balkans and in Africa, the United States demanded international tribunals to arrest and to try violators and their political patrons for war crimes. In Iraq, President George W. Bush celebrated the trial and execution of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for politically motivated killings.
Rios Montt (who died on April 1, 2018 at 91), after years of evading justice under various amnesties, was finally indicted and put on trial. (He was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2013, but a higher court, filled with political allies, overturned his conviction.)
Yet, even as Latin America’s struggling democracies have made tentative moves toward holding some of their worst human rights abusers accountable, no substantive discussion has occurred in the United States about facing up to the horrendous record of the 1980s and Reagan’s guilt.
Rather than a debate about Reagan as a war criminal who assisted genocide, the former president is honored as a conservative icon with his name attached to Washington National Airport and scores of other public sites. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews has gushed over Reagan as “one of the all-time greats,” and Democrats (including Barack Obama) regularly praise Reagan in comparison to modern right-wing Republicans.
When the U.S. news media does briefly acknowledge the barbarities of the 1980s in Central America, it is in the context of how those little countries are bravely facing up to their violent pasts. There is never any suggestion that the United States had a big hand in it and should follow suit.
Not only are we over-explaining the exam on YOU, but I’m going to demonstrate on ME how a lot of these tests work: percussion, where the stethoscope goes, anatomical guides to muscles and structures, that sort of thing. It’s a full body exam with the added bonus of showing you what a lot of it would look like on you.
Welcome to Your Exam: 00:00 Chest Palpation: 00:38 Percussing the Chest: 02:40 Listening to the Heart & Lungs: 04:35 Abdominal Exam: 10:39 Palpating Muscles & Joints in the Face: 14:43 Sinus Percussion: 17:45 Skin Inspection: 19:59 Palpating & Auscultating Temporal Pulse: 21:27 Eye Exam: 23:19 Ear Exam with Palpation & Otoscope: 27:26 Nose, Mouth, & Throat: 33:15 Neck Exam: 37:16 Examining Your Extremities: 42:33 Wrapping Up: 46:12
West Pender Street is a key artery in Downtown Vancouver, running parallel to East Pender Street but situated closer to the central business district. It’s a hub for commerce, education, and historical architecture, blending Vancouver’s modern growth with its rich past.
West Pender Street stretches through the heart of Downtown Vancouver, west of Main Street, where East Pender Street transitions into Chinatown. It runs roughly east-west, connecting key areas of the city’s financial and cultural districts.
West Pender Street is near major landmarks like the Vancouver Lookout (at 555 West Hastings Street, just a block south), Gastown to the northeast, and the waterfront along Burrard Inlet to the north. It’s also close to transit hubs like Waterfront Station, making it highly accessible.
One of the standout features on West Pender Street is the London Building, located at 626 West Pender Street. This heritage structure, built in 1912 during Vancouver’s pre-Great War building boom, is a fine example of Edwardian-style commercial architecture. Designed by the architectural firm Somervell & Putnam, the building features an embellished cornice, decorative coursing, medallions at the upper levels, and a richly ornamented iron storefront at street level. Constructed for the London and British North American Company, it reflects Vancouver’s early 20th-century growth as a commercial hub. The building is 113 years old as of 2025, blending historical charm with modern amenities. Today, the London Building houses the West Pender Campus of University Canada West (UCW), a private university offering business and technology-focused programs.
West Pender Street is dotted with other historic buildings, such as The Permanent (at 330 West Pender Street), a former bank turned event space built in 1907. These structures highlight the area’s role in Vancouver’s early development as a financial center.
University Canada West’s West Pender Campus is located in the London Building. This campus is strategically positioned for students. Many of the world’s biggest companies have offices within walking distance, providing students with access to a network of prospective employers in Vancouver’s financial district. The campus offers an inspiring setting, combining the historic ambiance of the London Building with modern facilities for education.
West Pender Street is part of Vancouver’s central business district, with numerous office buildings, including 905 West Pender Street. This reflects the street’s role as a commercial hub, attracting businesses, law firms, and tech companies.
West Pender Street balances historical architecture with modern development. While buildings like the London Building evoke the past, the area is bustling with contemporary office towers, cafes, and restaurants catering to professionals and students. The street is close to cultural attractions. The Permanent is a heritage event space that hosts private events, weddings, and cultural gatherings, adding a social vibrancy to the area. A short walk from West Pender Street takes you to Gastown (known for its cobblestone streets and Victorian buildings), the Vancouver Lookout, and the waterfront at Canada Place. West Pender Street is highly walkable, with wide sidewalks and proximity to public transit options like the SkyTrain (Waterfront Station) and bus routes. It’s also bike-friendly, aligning with Vancouver’s emphasis on sustainable transport.
The street’s central location means it’s often on the route for parades, festivals, and markets, such as the Vancouver Christmas Market or Pride Parade, which pass through nearby areas. Given its proximity to corporate offices, West Pender Street is a hotspot for professional events, networking meetups, and industry conferences. West Pender Street is generally safe, being in the bustling financial district. However, as with any urban area, it’s wise to stay aware, especially in the evenings, given its proximity to the Downtown Eastside, which faces social challenges.
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