HENRY CABOT LODGE SWORN IN AS AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH VIETNAM 50 YEARS AGO
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty years ago today, August 12, 1965, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.* was sworn in by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House as United States ambassador to South Vietnam.
At the swearing-in ceremony, LBJ said that the US would not be fighting in Vietnam if our help was "not wanted and requested."
President John F. Kennedy had originally nominated Lodge to the position. Later in the Johnson years, Mr. Lodge served as Ambassador to West Germany.
*Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (1902-1985) was born in Nahant, MA, the grandson of US Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. He graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1924 & was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1933 and the US Senate in 1936.
HCL, Jr. served with distinction in the US Army during WWII then returned to the Senate after the war. After he was narrowly defeated in an upset victory for JFK in 1952, Mr. Lodge served as UN Ambassador.
Lodge ran as Nixon's Vice-Presidential nominee in 1960 only to lose to the Kennedy-Johnson ticket.
JOE JR. KILLED 71 YEARS AGO TODAY
London (JFK+50) Seventy-one years ago today, August 12, 1944, Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the son of former US Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was killed along with his navigator over the skies of England.
Lt. Kennedy (29) and Lt. Wilford 'Bud' J. Willy (35) were aboard a PB-44 Liberator bomber filled with 21,170 pounds of explosives. They were on a mission to destroy a German V-3 launch site in northern France when a malfunction occurred.
The site they were targeting was the Fortress of Mimoyecques used by the Germans to wreak vengeance upon cities in England. The explosion came 10 minutes before the two US Navy men were to eject from their aircraft allowing it to be guided into the V-3 site by remote control.
The wreckage from the explosion landed near the village of Blythburgh in Suffolk, England.
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty years ago today, August 12, 1965, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.* was sworn in by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House as United States ambassador to South Vietnam.
At the swearing-in ceremony, LBJ said that the US would not be fighting in Vietnam if our help was "not wanted and requested."
President John F. Kennedy had originally nominated Lodge to the position. Later in the Johnson years, Mr. Lodge served as Ambassador to West Germany.
*Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (1902-1985) was born in Nahant, MA, the grandson of US Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. He graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1924 & was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1933 and the US Senate in 1936.
HCL, Jr. served with distinction in the US Army during WWII then returned to the Senate after the war. After he was narrowly defeated in an upset victory for JFK in 1952, Mr. Lodge served as UN Ambassador.
Lodge ran as Nixon's Vice-Presidential nominee in 1960 only to lose to the Kennedy-Johnson ticket.
Kennedy-Lodge Meeting
White House Oval Office
Photo by Abbie Rowe (1961)
Kennedy Library Image
JOE JR. KILLED 71 YEARS AGO TODAY
London (JFK+50) Seventy-one years ago today, August 12, 1944, Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the son of former US Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was killed along with his navigator over the skies of England.
Lt. Kennedy (29) and Lt. Wilford 'Bud' J. Willy (35) were aboard a PB-44 Liberator bomber filled with 21,170 pounds of explosives. They were on a mission to destroy a German V-3 launch site in northern France when a malfunction occurred.
The site they were targeting was the Fortress of Mimoyecques used by the Germans to wreak vengeance upon cities in England. The explosion came 10 minutes before the two US Navy men were to eject from their aircraft allowing it to be guided into the V-3 site by remote control.
The wreckage from the explosion landed near the village of Blythburgh in Suffolk, England.
Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
United States Navy
