Potpourri

This page contains some various and unusual pieces of information, most of which is confirmed as fact. If you have something to add, send it to us and we'll see if we can upload it.

• Pledge of Allegiance -- Rumor has it that the U.S. Congress added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance during the 1950s in order to combat atheism (belief in no god), which at the time was associated with Communism since Communism promoted atheism.
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• Gummy Bears -- It is rumored that Gummy Bears began as an East German plot to disrupt the classrooms of America with the hyperactive children eating sugary Gummy Bears.
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• Ho Chi Minh Trail Plans -- Several silly plans were proposed to stop North Vietnam's trail into South Vietnam. One was Project Pigeon, in which trained pigeons carrying small explosives were to attack North Vietnamese vehicles. In tests, however, they attacked American vehicles just as often. Another plan from someone in the CIA was to drop millions of six-packs of Budweiser beer along the trail. He hoped that the North Vietnamese soldiers would get drunk enough to walk out into the open where they could easily be shot.
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• Disneyland Denied -- When Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States, he wanted to go to Disneyland while he was in Los Angeles for the day. He was told that he could not be let in for security reasons. Click HERE for more info.
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• Stalin Quotes -- "May free, independent, democratic Poland live and prosper!"; "Imposing socialism on Poland is like placing a saddle on a cow."
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• Khrushchev at the United Nations -- At a United Nations meeting in 1960, when Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev heard speeches he did not like, he "pounded his desk with his fists, shouted insults at speakers, and stood up and shook his finger menacingly at delegates." (Patterson, The Oxford 50th Anniversary Book of the United Nations) At one point, he removed his shoe and used it to bang his desk.