IS IT TIME FOR A HEART-TO-HEART TALK WITH STROM?
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On Valentine's, February 14, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was asked by a White House reporter...
"Mr. President, this being Valentine's Day, sir, do you think it might be a good idea if you would call Senator Strom Thurmond* of South Carolina down to the White House for a heart-to-heart talk about the whole disagreement over the censorship of the military speeches and what he calls your defeatist foreign policy?"
President Kennedy's response was received with laughter by the press corps...
"Well, I think that that meeting should be probably prepared at a lower level..."
Earlier, in September, Senator Thurmond sent the following telegram to President Kennedy...
"Both you and the Attorney General have indicated that troops would not be used against a sovereign state...(but) new reports (are saying) that you are preparing to use force to enroll James Meredith at the University of Mississippi against the right of the state....to control its own educational system. (This) is most shocking and disturbing..."
*Strom Thurmond (1902-2003) was born in Edgefield, SC. He graduated from Clemson University in 1923 and was admitted to the bar in 1930. ST served in the army during WWII and served as SC governor from 1947-1951.
In 1948, he was the presidential nominee of the States Rights or Dixiecrat party. ST completed his political career in the US Senate from 1956-2003.
SOURCES
"A Malevolent Forrest Gump," by Michael O'Donnell, Washington Monthly, September/October 2012
"Integrating Ole Miss, a Civil Rights Milestone," www.microsites.jfklibrary.org/
"Thurmond on the Kennedy assassination," December 1963, www.mirc.sc./
Senator Strom Thurmond
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On Valentine's, February 14, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was asked by a White House reporter...
"Mr. President, this being Valentine's Day, sir, do you think it might be a good idea if you would call Senator Strom Thurmond* of South Carolina down to the White House for a heart-to-heart talk about the whole disagreement over the censorship of the military speeches and what he calls your defeatist foreign policy?"
President Kennedy's response was received with laughter by the press corps...
"Well, I think that that meeting should be probably prepared at a lower level..."
Earlier, in September, Senator Thurmond sent the following telegram to President Kennedy...
"Both you and the Attorney General have indicated that troops would not be used against a sovereign state...(but) new reports (are saying) that you are preparing to use force to enroll James Meredith at the University of Mississippi against the right of the state....to control its own educational system. (This) is most shocking and disturbing..."
*Strom Thurmond (1902-2003) was born in Edgefield, SC. He graduated from Clemson University in 1923 and was admitted to the bar in 1930. ST served in the army during WWII and served as SC governor from 1947-1951.
In 1948, he was the presidential nominee of the States Rights or Dixiecrat party. ST completed his political career in the US Senate from 1956-2003.
SOURCES
"A Malevolent Forrest Gump," by Michael O'Donnell, Washington Monthly, September/October 2012
"Integrating Ole Miss, a Civil Rights Milestone," www.microsites.jfklibrary.org/
"Thurmond on the Kennedy assassination," December 1963, www.mirc.sc./
Senator Strom Thurmond
August 8, 1961
