Retro Raunch Revisit

This month marks the 70th anniversary of the publication debut of FOR MEN ONLY magazine (1954). FOR MEN ONLY first began as a men's action/adventure digest laregely centering on war tales of daring & danger. The introduction of more adult-oriented material making way for later nude women started in Oct 1969, while the full transition to triple xxx came in Feb 1974. All of 1979 was a single-year-only hiatus that saw no issues released and the final print issue was Jan 1981.


MAY 1954 ON THE WORLD STAGE The French barbed wire fortress of Dien Bien Phu in Indonchina fell to overwhelming hordes of Communist Viet Minh attackers today, ending an epic 57-day siege. It was the Viet Minh's biggest victory in their 7yrs of fighting. The end of the brave & harrowing defense against overwhelming odds was announced officially in Paris where Premier Joseph Laniel speaking in the National Assembly gave the shocking news to the French public. Only the isolated artillery post, "position Isabelle," located three miles south of the main fort still held out. The end came after a savage 20hr battle of violent & ceaseless combat in which the Communist rebel troops used 20,000 men to give France its worst military defeat since World War II. The Paris announcement by Laniel said the fortress was conquered when the Viet Minh, who had been surrounding it nearly two months overran its central defenses. The Reds (armed heavily by Russia and China) stormed the command post of garrison commander Brig. Gen. Christian de Castries, but only after the proud & hawk-nosed hero of Dien Bien Phu had ordered his own artillery to shell his command post if the Communists took it. The French military press chief at Saigon (in the south) said Dien Bien Phu had its mission, while in Hanoi (in the north) a press officer pronounced the eulogy & benediction on one of history's heroic military stands by a handful of tormented and gallent men. He said, "Dien Bien Phu has fulfilled the mission which was assigned to it by the High Command." The fate of the estimated 9,000-man garrison, including its wounded piled up in underground shelters, and the lone nurse & only woman, Genevieve de Galard Terraube, in its underground medical stations, was not immediately known. The French had appealed in vain for a truce to permit the evacuation of their injured. Another 2,000 men were at "position Isabelle" which now was at mercy of the full 40,000-man force of the Reds. The French estimated that about half the total Communist strength was used in the final assault on Dien Bien Phu, and that while the Communists had not attacked the isolated "Isabelle" position" recently, it could not hope to hold out against the full force now certain to be thrown against it. Communist "human avalanches" delivered the coup de grace against the pitifully outnumbered defenders (estimated at 6-1) in an attack that began at 10PM that saw post after post of the fortress overrun in rapid succession by battalion after battalion of the Reds. Even as they first began moving into positions right up to the edge of barricades for the siege, De Castries had called for bombers to block & break up the enemy movements. Five posts alone were overwhelmed on one side of the fortress while another was routed on the opposite perimeter. Just before the defeat was announced, French headquarters said the Reds had thrust their deadly pincers within 800 yards of a junction directly in the center of the flaming fortress. In Washington, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in speaking about an armistice (if on honorable terms) that could result in peace talks in Geneva to fully bring the Indochina War to an end, said he would be gravely concerned about a full Communist takeover leading to further aggression and a resumption of hostilities whose repercussions could see a Red advance in Southeast Asia. Dulles paid tribute to the French guardians over their "staggering losses" and spelled out the American attitude, adding the possibility of involving serious commitment as full partners in the particpation & use of future armed force if necessary to protect vital interests. Although he called this a basis for what "would be a real contribution to the cause of peace," he added that present conditions however do not warrant a need for the intervention of American soldiers. President Eisenhower has repeatedly emphasized he would not take military action without the support of Congress.