Thread by @DavidCranmerUn1

Entry Into Force of U.S.-UK Civil Air Transport Agreement - United States Department of State

The Agreement serves as the basis of United States-United Kingdom air services relations. It includes all the essential elements of Open Skies, such as state.gov/entry-into-for…

unrestricted capacity and frequency, open routes, code-sharing opportunities, a liberal charter regime, and market-determined pricing. The Agreement includes expanded “seventh-freedom” traffic rights for all-cargo services. It also includes the UK’s overseas territories and

crown dependencies under the terms of this new Agreement. The concept of "mutual aerial observation" was initially proposed to Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin at the Geneva Conference of 1955 by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower; however, the Soviets promptly rejected the

concept and it lay dormant for several years. The treaty was eventually signed as an initiative of U.S. president (and former Central Intelligence Agency Director) George H. W. Bush in 1989. Negotiated by the then-members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the agreement was signed in

Helsinki, Finland, on March 24, 1992.

This treaty is not related to civil-aviation open skies agreements. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and China did not allow airlines to enter their airspace. There were flights from Europe to Japan that refueled in Alaska. Since the

end of the Cold War, first freedom rights are almost completely universal. Lockheed Corporation originally proposed it in 1953, it was approved in 1954, and its first test flight was in 1955. It was flown during the Cold War over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Cuba. In

1960, Gary Powers was shot down in a CIA U-2A over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). On March 6, 1962, he appeared before a Senate Armed Services Select Committee hearing chaired by Senator Richard Russell Jr. which included Senators Prescott Bush,

Leverett Saltonstall, Robert Byrd, Margaret Chase Smith, John Stennis, Strom Thurmond, and Barry Goldwater.

When Lyndon Johnson arrived in the Senate, he sought guidance from knowledgeable Senate aide Bobby Baker, who advised that all senators were "equal" but Russell was the most "equal"—meaning the most powerful. Baker alleged that one of "President Kennedy's best friends and his

wingman, [lobbyist] Bill Thompson was there too, and he came over to me and he said, 'where in the hell did you get this beautiful girl?'Baker frequently mixed politics with personal business. He was one of the initiators and the treasurer of the Quorum Club, located in the

Carroll Arms Hotel adjacent to a Senate office building. President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy sail aboard the presidential yacht Honey Fitz off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida. Also on board: Princess Lee Radziwill, sister of the First Lady; Gianni

Agnelli, heir of the Fiat car company; Marella Agnelli, Italian socialite.

Gianni – as he was known to differentiate from his grandfather, with whom he shared his first name – inherited the command of Fiat and the Agnelli family assets in general in 1966, following a period in

which Fiat was temporarily "ruled" by Vittorio Valletta while Gianni was learning how his family's company worked. Prior to his marriage on 19 November 1953 to Donna Marella Caracciolo dei principi di Castagneto – a half-American, half-Neapolitan noblewoman who made a small but

significant name as a fabric designer, and a bigger name as a tastemaker[5] – Agnelli was a noted playboy whose mistresses included the socialite Pamela Harriman and even Jackie Kennedy.