Retro Raunch Revisit

This month marks the 55th anniversay of the publication debut of PENTHOUSE magazine (UK 1965), and while publisher Bob Guccione began the magazine in Britain, the first American issue didn't appear until September 1969. Both versions were among the first skin mags to show female genitalia & pubic hair. The final UK print issue was Dec 2011.


MARCH 1965 ON THE WORLD STAGE Two battalions of US Marines both redeployed from Okinawa and numbering 3,500 combat troops and 3,000 Navy Seebees, have landed by sea & air in South Vietnam to guard the strategic Da Nang air base, about 80 miles from the North Vietnamese border. Viet Cong guerrillas fired at the American transport planes carrying many of the troops but apparently the only result was a bullet hole in the wing of a C130 aircraft. No Marines were hurt. South Vietnamese government soldiers have been engaged in flushing out the VC guerrillas in the area to make the region around Da Nang as safe as possible for the incoming US forces to come ashore. But the Marine deployment around the air base could soon lead to the first ground fighting between American combat units and Communist guerrillas in Vietnam. American military men have been serving as advisers to the South Vietnamese Army and Marine outfits in the field. Even with some of the in-country American presence extending back to atleast a small command structure numbering a handful of individuals beginning in 1955, until now, there have been no American ground fighting formations in South Vietnam. Spokesmen for the American military mission in Saigon said the Marines would remain under American control, but their duties would be assigned after consultation with South Vietnamese military officers. This comes one day after the South Vietnamese Armed Forces Council announced it was withdrawing from politics to concentrate on winning the war against their northern enemy led by Ho Chi Minh, the longtime nationalist revolutionary, former Prime Minister, current President, communist party Chairman, and leader of the People's Army of Vietnam. He was also founder of the Viet Minh independence movement that originally was created to resist Japanese occupation during WWII and culminated in the defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 that saw the end of French colonial rule in what was then called Indochina. The addition of the two battalions sent to the embattled southeast Asian nation is said to bring American military strength up to nearly 23,000 personnel, and follows the bombings of targets in North Vietnam by US Air Force jets & Navy planes in what was described as "a spectacular success."

SEPTEMBER 1969 ON THE WORLD STAGE King Idris I of Libya has been deposed in what appears to have been a bloodless coup. A 12-member group of young military officers identified as the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council have seized power and declared the country a new republic bringing an end to traditional monarchy. But the King, who is in poor health and in Turkey for medical treatment, has dismissed the coup as "unimportant" while his heir & nephew, Crown Prince Hassan broadcast on radio that evening to announce his "voluntary abdication from serving as the acting ruler" in the King's absence. Hassan declared his support for the new regime and called on Libyan citizens to support the new government. According to reports from the capital, Tripoli, troops & tanks converged on the city in the early hours of the morning and within two hours had taken key positions and the royal palace, while military and security headquarters were surrounded by 5AM. All communications with the outside world were cut and a curfew was imposed. As the military junta have renamed the country the Libyan Arab Republic, news of the takeover came as a surprise to the British Government but officials said it would not harm Britain's good relations with Libya. Egypt and Iraq have announced recognition of the new regime. The LRCC has issued a statement declaring the aim of the revolution is "unity, freedom and socialism" and intend on naming a new cabinet with a new Prime Minster, as well as a new Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces who is believed to be LRCC member, 27yr old Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The LRCC however, also gave a warning that any attempt to overthrow the revolutionaries would be "crushed ruthlessly & decisively". The coup appears to have been led by an Army officer named Colonel Saad ed-din Bushweir but it isn't clear whether he has any political backing. King Idris had conducted recent purges against Palestinians, Jordanians, Lebanese and Syrians, and also tried to purge the country of Baathists for conspiring against the state. Britain presently is involved in extensive engineering projects in Libya and is also the country's biggest supplier of arms. The United States also has a large airfield in Libya and there is future concern of whether British & American military bases will have their leases renewed in which refusal could see them turned over to Libyan control.