LBJ SAYS TO SOUTH VIETNAM: HELP IS ON THE WAY!
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson today announced that the US government is preparing to give the South Vietnamese government assistance in their battle against the North Vietnamese communists.
LBJ revealed a special task force has been established to address South Vietnam's problems & to recommend how the US government may help solve them.
According to the VP, the US will send health experts to deal with sanitation & public health issues as well as an economic team to determine the financial needs of the South Vietnamese.
LBJ & SV President Nguyen van Thieu
(1968)
June 9, 1962
TED KENNEDY ENDORSED FOR US SENATE
The younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, won the endorsement today of the Massachusetts Democratic Convention for the United States Senate.
Ted Kennedy will run for the nomination in the state Democratic primary in September.
If Ted wins the nomination & wins the general election, there will be 3 Kennedy brothers in Washington, D.C.: The President, the Attorney General & a Massachusetts Senator.
The Kennedy Brothers
June 9, 1963
JFK VISITS HAWAII
President John F. Kennedy is in the Hawaiian Islands today where he laid a wreath at the Arizona Memorial & addressed the US Conference of Mayors at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel.
In his address, JFK called for actions on the part of cities to stop racism.
Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel
Honolulu, Hawaii
June 9, 1964
CIA GIVES AN ANSWER TO LBJ'S QUESTION ABOUT THE DOMINO THEORY
The Central Intelligence Agency responded today to President Lyndon B. Johnson's question, "Would the rest of Southeast Asia necessarily fall if Laos & South Vietnam came under North Vietnamese control?"
The CIA's answer challenges the argument known as the "Domino Theory" that if one nation in SE Asia falls to communism, they all will fall (like a row of dominoes).
The agency told LBJ that the only nation likely to fall in such a scenario posed by LBJ's question would be Cambodia.
The CIA says that while the fall of South Vietnam & Laos would be a blow to American interests in the region, it is likely the Philippines & Japan would deter further communist aggression or expansion.
Illustration of the Domino Theory
Beao (2011)
June 9, 1966
RFK VISITS SOWETO IN SOUTH AFRICA
Robert F. Kennedy visited Soweto, a poor black section of Johannesburg, South Africa today.
He later gave an address at the University of Witwatersand.
RFK urged that the power of reason be used to end racial discrimination & called for more open communication between South Africa & other countries.
Slums of Soweto (2005)
Photo by Matt-80
June 9, 1968
NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING FOR BOBBY
Today, by virtue of a proclamation issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson, is to be a national day of mourning for New York Senator Robert Francis Kennedy.
RFK died as the result of being shot after his victory in the California Democratic Primary.
June 9, 1954
JOSEPH WELCH CONFRONTS SENATOR McCARTHY
Special Counsel for the US Army, Joseph Welch, confronted Senator Joseph McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings today in Washington, D.C.
The confrontation came following McCarthy's charge that Welch's young legal assistant, Fred Fisher, was a member of an organization that was a "legal arm of the communist party".
Welch, who was devastated by the charge, said to McCarthy:
"Until this moment, I think I never gaged your cruelty or your recklessness. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last."*
*McCarthy was censured by the US Senate in December 1954.
Joseph Welch Confronts Joe McCarthy
June 9, 1928
CHARLES KINGSFORD SMITH COMPLETES 1ST TRANS-PACIFIC FLIGHT
Aviator Charles Kingsford Smith completed today the 1st trans-Pacific flight.
Charles Kingsford Smith
He landed in Brisbane after a 7400 mile flight.
His aircraft is a Fokker Tri-motor monoplane named "The Southern Cross".
The Southern Cross
Smith was born in Hamilton, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1897.
He narrowly escaped death by drowning on Bondi Beach in 1907.*
*Smith died on November 8, 1935 when he crashed into the sea off the coast of Burma.
The major airport of Sydney, located in Mascot, is named the Kingsford Smith International Airport in his honor.
