"IT WILL MEAN THE END OF THE FREE WORLD"

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/

 

 

General Lucius D. Clay

1949

U.S. Army Photo

JACQUELINE BOUVIER & JFK ARE ENGAGED

June 24, 1953


JACQUELINE BOUVIER & JFK ARE ENGAGED


Hugh & Janet (Bouvier) Auchincloss of Hammersmith Farm & McLean, Virginia announced the engagement of Auchincloss's daughter, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, to Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy today.


Miss Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929 in East Hampton, New York.  Jackie attended Vassar College, the Sorbonne in Paris & is a graduate of George Washington University.


The young couple were introduced at a Georgetown dinner party hosted by mutual friend & newspaperman Charles Bartlett.*


*At the time they met, Jackie was the "Inquiring Camera Girl" for the Washington Times-Herald.


The marriage will take place on September 12, 1953 at St. Mary's Church in Newport, R.I.

           Jacqueline Bouvier
         Inquiring Camera Girl


June 24, 1962


SHRIVER SAYS PEACE CORPS WILL HAVE 5000 VOLUNTEERS


JFK's Peace Corps Director, Sargent Shriver, announced today that the program is expected to have 5000 volunteers in training or in the field by the end of the year.*


*Shriver was JFK's brother-in-law.  He once said that the reason he was picked was because the program was not expected to succeed & it would be much easier to fire a relative than a political friend.

                      Sargent Shriver
                Peace Corps Director
         Photo by Rowland Scherman
                 JFK Library Photo


June 24, 1963


JFK & ADENAUER HOLD TALKS IN WEST GERMANY


President John F. Kennedy & German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer held talks today in West Germany.


The two world leaders & their aides discussed disarmament, NATO, & a European-American alliance.


The talks took place at the Palais Schaumburg.


Later at the Villa Hammerschmidt, the official residence of the President of Germany located in Bonn, JFK attended a ceremony for the German peace corps.


JFK said:


"Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintained their neutrality.  This is a moral crisis.  This is an opportunity & I am confident that the German youth &...the older citizens...will lay a seed which will bring a rich harvest for all in later days."


June 24, 1963


BYRON DE LA BECK INDICTED FOR EVERS MURDER


White supremacist Byron de la Beckwith was indicted today for the murder of Medgar Evers.*


*2 trials in 1964 ended in mistrials.  It will take another 30 years for Beckwith to be convicted & imprisoned for the murder of the Mississippi civil rights leaders.  


In 1994, new evidence proved that Beckwith had bragged about his role in the murder at a KKK rally.

Byron de la Beckwith

June 24, 1970

KENNEDY MEMORIAL DEDICATED IN DALLAS

At the site of the assassination of the 35th President of the United States, a memorial to John Fitzgerald Kennedy was dedicated today.

The memorial, designed by Philip Johnson, is an "open tomb" symbolic of the freedom of JFK's spirit.

A marker at the memorial reads:

"The joy & excitement of JFK's life belongs to all men.  So did the pain & sorrow of his death."

                    JFK Memorial

                    Dallas, Texas

          Photo by Jim Bower (2007)

June 24, 1970

SENATE VOTES TO REPEAL GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION

The United States Senate voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution today.

The resolution gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the power "to take all necessary measures" to defend Southeast Asia.

The resolution was originally requested by LBJ after the report that 2 US destroyers were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnamese patrol boats.

The Senate passed the repeal in hopes of limiting President Nixon's war powers.

June 24, 1948

SOVIETS BLOCK ALL LAND ROUTES TO WEST BERLIN

The Soviet Union today blocked all road & rail traffic in & out of West Berlin.

The action, following the collapse 2 days ago of talks between the Soviets, Americans & Brit,  is obviously intended to force West Berlin to surrender & make all of Berlin communist.

*The US response will be a massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin.  After the failure of the blockade, the Soviets ended it on May 12, 1949.

              Berlin Airlift Memorial

        Photo by Ingrid Strauch (2002)