What’s the Halloween Massacre?

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The Halloween Massacre, as far as American politics is concerned, refers to the reorganization of former President Gerald Ford’s cabinet until November 4, 1975. President Ford replaced several key members of his cabinet including his National Security Advisor, director of Central Intelligence, and the Secretary of Defense. The Halloween Massacre can also refer to a brief but violent part of the Angolan civil war in which tens of thousands of people were estimated to have been killed. As a generic term, it can also refer to a popular urban legend in which a person is said to have predicted a series of violent deaths on Halloween night.

When “Halloween Massacre” is used in reference to American politics, it typically refers to the events that led to the firing of several key members of former President Gerald Ford’s cabinet in 1975. Major changes included the firing of Henry Kissinger as a national Security Advisor, even though Kissinger remained Secretary of State, the firing of William Colas Director of Central Intelligence and the firing of James Schlesinger as Secretary of Defense. Col was offered a position as a representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but he declined the offer.

General Brent Scowcroft took over as National Security Advisor, and future President George HW Bush became Director of Central Intelligence. Then Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld took over as Secretary of Defense, and future Vice President Richard Cheney moved on to replace him as Chief of Staff. Many historians regard Rumsfeld and Cheney as the architects of this power shift, and often point to the two manipulating President Ford to make the changes. The term “Halloween Massacre” is often seen as a reference to the “Saturday Night Massacre,” which refers to former President Richard Nixon’s major firings of key staff members during the Watergate scandal.

Halloween Massacre can also refer to a major outbreak of violence during the Angolan Civil War in the African country of Angola, sometimes called the Three Day War, between October 30, 1992 and November 1, 1992. Following hotly contested elections and before of a follow-up election that would have resulted in political control, the two major parties turned to violence. Many prominent leaders within one party were assassinated in the Halloween massacre, and some estimates put the death toll as high as 40,000 on both sides.

The term Halloween massacre can also refer to a major urban legend that has managed to spread and come back for decades. In most versions of the story, a famous psychic makes a prediction on television or radio that a violent series of mass murders will occur on the campus of a major college or university on Halloween night. There is, of course, no such prediction, and yet every year the legend manages to return and once again strike fear into the students of many colleges. The legend is believed to have started or been influenced by the violent murders committed by Richard Speck on a college campus in 1968, and has been in popular circulation ever since.

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