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Thursday, April 7, 2011

IKE DISCUSSES "FALLING DOMINO" EFFECT

April 7, 1954


IKE DISCUSSES "FALLING DOMINO" EFFECT 


At his news conference today at the White House, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said the impending fall of French Indo-China to the communists could create a "falling domino" effect in Southeast Asia.


Communist Vietnamese nationalists under Ho Chi Minh are on the verge of victory over the French in Vietnam.


President Eisenhower said:


"You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences."*


*A month later, the French lost the Battle of Dien Bien Phu & North Vietnam was created as a communist state.  South Vietnam remained free.  Both JFK & LBJ believed in the "domino theory" & used it to justify increases in US military involvement in Southeast Asia.



            The "Falling Domino" Theory


April 7, 1953


DAG HAMMARSKJOLD UN SECRETARY GENERAL


Son of a former prime minister of Sweden, Dag Hammarskjold was elected secretary-general of the United Nations today.*


*Hammarskjold served as UN Secretary-General until his accidental death in September 1961.  Having been re-elected in 1957, he directed the UN peace keeping role in a civil war in the Congo. He was en route to the Congo when his plane crashed.  He was awarded the Noble Prize.




      Grave marker of Dag Hammarskjold
       Photo by Conny Odengrund (2006)


April 7, 1961


JFK WANTS TO HELP PRESERVE EGYPTIAN TEMPLES


President Kennedy sent a letter to Congress today recommending the United States participate in a UNESCO campaign to preserve ancient temples & monuments in the Nile Valley of Egypt.


The campaign is designed to save sites threatened by construction of the Aswan Dam.


In his letter, JFK suggests that this effort is "in the best interests of the United States" as well as of Egypt.*


*Mrs. Kennedy arranged in 1965 to have Egypt's Temple of Dendur brought to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.




      The Temple of Dendur
      Metropolitan Museum
      New York City
     Photo by Roner Perry (2006)


April 7, 1963


MAYOR DAILY'S RE-ELECTION GOOD FOR JFK


Political observers around the nation have observed this week that Mayor Richard J. Daley's re-election as Mayor of Chicago is a good sign for President Kennedy in his bid for re-election as President of the United States in 1964.*


*Mayor Daley was instrumental in JFK's success in Chicago in 1960 & his narrow victory in Illinois.




      President Kennedy with Mayor Daley


April 7, 1945


BATTLESHIP "YAMATO" IS HISTORY


The "Yamato", one of the largest & most powerful battleships ever constructed, was sunk today off the coast of Okinawa.


The 72,800 ton battleship with a compliment of 9 eighteen inch guns & a crew of nearly 2500 was hit by at least 11 torpedoes & 8 bombs dropped on her by American airplanes.


The "Yamato", which went into service just after the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941, was the flagship of the Japanese Pacific Fleet.




           "Yamato" under construction