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DULLES ANNOUNCES POLICY OF MASSIVE NUCLEAR RETALIATION

New York City (JFK+50) On January 12, 1954, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, addressing the Council of Foreign Relations here in New York, announced the policy of "massive (nuclear) retaliation."

It was President Dwight D. Eisenhower's decision that nuclear weapons of the United States would be the "primary means" of defense against communism.

According to Dimitrious Machairas, the policy was intended as a "deterrent strategy based on the threat of a direct, unrestrained nuclear response of massive strike in case of communist aggression."

Machairas writes....

"Nuclear weapons could now be produced faster and in larger quantities and the variety had increased revealing a broader range of possible uses."

With the Soviets having "conventional superiority," this policy was seen by the Eisenhower administration as "the most efficient solution to the complex problem at hand."

JFK+50

One of the advantages of this policy was that it was a less costly alternative to attempting to match Soviet conventional military strength.

SOURCES

"NAM 215," JFK+50, January 12, 2011, www.jfk50.blogspot.com/

"Why Did the U.S. Adopt the Strategy of Massive Retaliation?," by Dimitrious Machairas, Military Strategy Magazine, www.militarystrategymagazine.com/

John Foster Dulles

November 1949

Bettman Archive 

U.S. Senate

DULLES INITIATED THE IDEA OF MASSIVE RETALIATION & BRINKSMANSHIP

IKE'S STATE SECRETARY DIES

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On May 24, 1959, the man who served as Secretary of State for most of Dwight D. Eisenhower's two terms, John Foster Dulles*, died at Walter Reed Army Hospital here in the Nation's Capital.  Secretary Dulles passed on after a three year battle with colon cancer.

Dulles is considered to be the main architect of Eisenhower's foreign policy during the cold war.  He initiated the idea of massive retaliation and brinksmanship, threatening the Soviets with the use of nuclear weapons.

John Foster Dulles was the first Secretary of State to be directly accessible to the media and the first to hold a State Department press conference.

Mr. Dulles' funeral service would be held at the National Cathedral and his remains interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

*John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) was the son of a Presbyterian missionary.  His grandfather, John Watson Foster, was President Benjamin Harrison's Secretary of State.  

JFD graduated from Princeton University & attended George Washington University Law School.  JFD served 4 months as US Senator from New York in 1949 before being Eisenhower's Secretary of State from 1953-1959.  JFD forged a close relationship between the State Department & CIA.

SOURCE

"Biographies of the Secretaries of State:  John Foster Dulles (1888-1959). Office of the Historian, www.history.state.gov/

John Foster Dulles

US Senator (R-NY) 1949

THE DETERRENT OF MASSIVE RETALIATORY POWER

IKE COMMITS TO NUCLEAR POWER AS PRIMARY DEFENSE

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On January 12, 1954,  President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, announced a policy of "massive (nuclear) retaliation".  The Secretary said that the government of the United States of America would henceforth protect its allies through the..."deterrent of massive retaliatory power". 

President Eisenhower had decided that America's nuclear arsenal should be the "primary means" of defense against the communist world.  Having been elected in 1952 and almost a year into his Presidency, Eisenhower believed the United States had not been pro-active against communist expansion while President Harry S Truman had served during the first years of the Cold War.

The former Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces in World War II also believed  that the nuclear deterrent would be a less costly means of defense. 

Eisenhower and Dulles

DEDICATION OF DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

WASHINGTON'S DULLES AIRPORT DEDICATED 52 YEARS AGO TODAY

Chantilly, Virginia (JFK+50) Fifty-two years ago today, November 17, 1962, President John F. Kennedy dedicated one of the most modern airports in the world, Dulles International*.

The airport, named in honor of former President Eisenhower's Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, was the first facility in the nation designed for commercial jets.

Washington Dulles International Airport at Dusk

August 30, 2011

Photo by Joe Ravi

CC-BY-SA3.0

The airport, which is located 26 miles from downtown Washington, was the result of the Washington Airport Act of 1950, amended in 1958.  Construction began on September 2, 1958.

The main terminal of Dulles, designed by Eero Saarinen, a Finnish-American architect, is adorned with a white, concave roof which rises high on one end.   The design was honored by the American Institute of Architects in 1966. 

The President called the new airport "a distinct ornament of a great country and a great governmental system and said...

"This building...symbolizes the aspirations of the United States in the 1950s and 1960s".

Notables in attendance of the dedication was former President Eisenhower and members of the Dulles family.

*Dulles International Airport (IAD), located in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties in Virginia, services 22.6 million passengers a year.  It offers 81 non-stop domestic flights and 48 non-stop international flights.

SOURCE

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, www.metwashairports.com

Jennifer Leigh White

Dulles International Airport

Photo by John White (2011)

JOHN FOSTER DULLES

JOHN FOSTER DULLES DIED 55 YEARS AGO 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) The man who served as Secretary of State for most of Dwight D. Eisenhower's two terms, John Foster Dulles*, died 55 years ago today, May 24, 1959, at Walter Reed Army Hospital here in the Nation's Capital.

Secretary Dulles passed on after a three year battle with colon cancer.

Dulles is considered to be the main architect of Eisenhower's foreign policy during the cold war.

He initiated the idea of massive retaliation and brinksmanship.  That is, threatening the Soviets with the use of nuclear weapons.

John Foster Dulles

US Senator (R-NY) 1949

*John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) was the son of a Presbyterian missionary.  He graduated from Princeton University and attended George Washington University Law School.

Dulles served 4 months as US Senator from New York in 1949 before being Eisenhower's Secretary of State from 1953-1959.

Dulles' funeral service was held at the National Cathedral and his remains were interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

FIRST TELEGRAPH MESSAGE SENT 170 YEARS AGO TODAY

Baltimore, Maryland (JFK+50) American inventor Samuel Finley Breese Morse* sent the 1st telegraph message 170 years ago today, May 24, 1844, from here in Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C.

     
           Samuel F.B. Morse
      Inventor of the Telegraph
 Photo by Matthew Brady (1866)

The text of the message, a quote from the book of Numbers in the Holy Bible, was suggested to Morse by Annie Ellsworth, the daughter of the commissioner of patents.

The message was:  

          "What hath God wrought?"

       Morse Plaque in Washington, D.C.
                Photo by DB King

In sending this first message, Morse effectively established the world's first telegraph line.

*Samuel Morse relied upon the contributions of Alfred Vail (1807-1859) machinist and inventor who helped develop and commercialize the telegraph between 1837 and 1844.

Alfred Vail took charge of building and managing Morse's early telegraph lines but his name remains largely unknown because it was excluded from the original patent.

The US Army base in Eatontown, NY, Camp Vail, is named in his honor.

Alfred Vail

JFK+50 NOTE:

A couple of things relating to JFK come to mind in regard to the telegraph.  

When JFK addressed the nation after being elected President, he said he had received a "wire" of congratulations from Vice-President Richard Nixon and proceeded to read the message.

 Also, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, was at the Western Union Telegraph Office just down the street from the Dallas Police Station "wiring" money to one of his employees minutes before he shot Oswald.

           

DULLES CONDEMNS COMMUNIST INFLUENCE

JOHN FOSTER DULLES CALLED FOR CONDEMNATION OF COMMUNIST INFLUENCE 60 YEARS AGO TODAY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, speaking before the 10th Inter-American Conference sixty years ago today, March 4, 1954, warned that international communism was making inroads into the Western Hemisphere and called for Latin American nations to condemn this danger.

The State Secretary said that there was not one country in this hemisphere which had not been...

"penetrated by....international communism acting under orders from Moscow."

In response, the conference passed a resolution to condemn international communism.

Eisenhower and Dulles

RONALD REAGAN AND NANCY DAVIS MARRY 62 YEARS AGO TODAY

Los Angeles, California (JFK+50) Movie actor and future president of the United States Ronald Wilson Reagan married actress Nancy Davis 62 years ago today, March 4, 1952, at the Little Brown Church in the Valley here in Los Angeles.

Mr. Reagan was serving as the president of the Screen Actors Guild at the time of the wedding.  

It had been reported that Miss Davis met Mr. Reagan as she was in the process of seeking to have her name removed from Senator Joe McCarthy's "blacklist" of possible communist sympathizers.

Nancy Reagan would one day say:

 "My life really began when I married my husband (Ronnie)".

The Newlyweds

March 4, 1952

Los Angeles, California

FDR'S FIRST OF FOUR INAUGURALS 81 YEARS AGO

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York was sworn in 81 years ago today, March 4, 1933, by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes as President of the United States on the East Front of the United States Capitol here in Washington.

This was to be the last inauguration held on the previously prescribed date of March 4.  By the 20th amendment, all future scheduled inaugurations would be held on January 20th.

Standing in the rain on a gloomy day in an equally gloomy economic period of our nation's history, Mr. Roosevelt placed his hand on the Roosevelt family Dutch Bible published in 1686.  It was the oldest Bible ever to be used in a Presidential inauguration.

FDR gave his stirring Inaugural Address in a commanding, confident voice.

The President said:  

"The only thing we have to fear is....fear itself.  Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror...."

Most banks in the United States had been closed permanently with the people's savings lost. 

More than 25% of the work force was unemployed and without support from the government.  Industrial production was down 50% from 1929.

  FDR and Eleanor in Inaugural Parade

LINCOLN'S FIRST INAUGURATION 153 YEARS AGO TODAY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was sworn in 153 years ago today, March 4, 1861, as the 16th President of the United States.

Lincoln, who won an electoral majority in the 1860 election but did not carry a single Southern state, promised that his government would not interfere with slavery where it already existed.

He did say, however, that he opposed secession and seizure of United States property.

President Lincoln went on to state that he firmly intend to "hold, occupy and possess" its property and collect its taxes."

The President said:

"In your hands....is the momentous issue of civil war.  The government will not assail you.  You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors."

Lincoln Inauguration

MASSIVE RETALIATION POLICY

DULLES ANNOUNCES MASSIVE RETALIATION POLICY 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Sixty years ago today, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, announced a policy of "massive (nuclear) retaliation".

The Secretary said that the government of the United States of America would henceforth protect its allies through the...

 "deterrent of massive retaliatory power". 

President Eisenhower had decided that America's nuclear arsenal should be the "primary means" of defense against the communist world.

Having been elected in 1952 and almost a year into his Presidency, Eisenhower believed the United States had not been pro-active against communist expansion while President Harry S Truman had served during the first years of the Cold War.

The former Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces in World War II also believed  that the nuclear deterrent would be a less costly means of defense. 

Eisenhower and Dulles

JFK SIGNS NAM#215 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-one years ago today, January 12, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed National Action Memorandum Number 215. 

The memorandum, which is now declassified and in the public domain, reflected United States government policy on the inclusion of tactical nuclear weapons.

The memo states...

 "Our priority will be to establish a United States/United Kingdom force..."

The memo also stated that arrangements for the multilateral management of this force would include representatives of the government of West Germany. 

LBJ MAKES COMMITMENT TO SOUTH VIETNAM

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President Lyndon B. Johnson committed the United States to staying in South Vietnam 48 years ago today, January 12, 1966.

The President justified this decision on the basis of national security, principles of democracy and national sovereignty.

At the beginning of 1965, the number of United States military advisers in South Vietnam had reached 200,000.

Draft quotas had doubled. 

By the year's end, there were 400,000 American military personnel in the Southeast Asian nation.

BIG FOUR MEETS 

Paris, France (JFK+50) Leaders of the "Big Four" countries began meeting here in Paris 95 years ago today, January 12, 1919 to work out a peace treaty at the end of the First World War.

The "Big Four" representatives included...

Georges Clemenceau of France
David Lloyd George of Britain
Vittorio Orlando of Italy 
Woodrow Wilson of the United States

Breaking with traditional diplomacy, German representatives were not invited to this preliminary round of talks.  

The meetings also excluded representatives from smaller as well as neutral nations.


FIRST WOMAN ELECTED TO SENATE

Little Rock, Arkansas (JFK+50) Eighty-two years ago today, January 12, 1932, the first woman became a Senator of the United States by special election.

Ophelia Wyatt Caraway,  an Arkansas Democrat, was born near Bakerville, Tennessee.  

Mrs. Caraway had first been appointed to fill the vacant seat left by her husband's death.  

Senator Caraway would be re-elected in 1938 and  in 1944, she was appointed to serve on the Federal Emergency Compensation Commission by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.