GENERAL CLAY MEETS WITH JFK AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On January 7, 1962, General Lucius Clay*, JFK's adviser on Berlin, met with the President in the Oval Office at the White House.
The General had given the order to implement the Berlin Airlift** of 1948-1949 which succeeded in the survival of the Soviet blockade. He became known as "the father of the Berlin Airlift."
General Clay served as JFK's Berlin adviser until May 1962. The General was with President Kennedy during JFK's visit to West Berlin in June 1963 and was on the podium when the "Ich Bien Ein Berliner" speech was made.
In the spring of 1962, General Clay said that if West Berlin ever fell to the communists "it will mean the end of the free world."
*Lucius Dubignon Clay (1898-1978) was born in Marietta, Georgia & graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1918. LDC supervised the building of Denison Dam & in 1940-1941 construction of 450 airports serving as the foundation of the American civil aviation network. During WWII, the General was Eisenhower's Deputy & after the war was military governor of occupied Germany.
**Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949 was the response by the U.S. & U.K. after the U.S.S.R. blocked rail, road & water access to West Berlin. Food & fuel was transported from Allied air bases in West Germany to West Berlin until the Soviets lifted the blockade.
SOURCES
"General Lucius D. Clay-The President's Man," by Richard F. Weingroff, Highway History, Federal Highway Administration, www.fhwa.dot.gov/
"The Berlin Airlift, 1948-49," Office of the Historian, Department of State, www.history.state.gov/
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