OUR MOST POPULAR POST
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) In the first few months of beginning JFK+50, we posted on February 14, 2011, "JFK Answers Valentine's Day Question." It is the most popular post on our blog. As of today, it has 30,890 hits.
At a presidential news conference held here in Washington, D.C. on February 14, 1962, a reporter asked Mr. Kennedy the following question...
"Mr. President, this being Valentine's Day, sir, do you think it might be a good idea if you would call Senator Strom Thurmond* ...down to the White House for a heart-to-heart talk about...what he calls your defeatist foreign policy?"
President Kennedy, who was known for his quick and ready wit, replied...
"Well, I think that that meeting should be probably prepared at a lower level..."
His answer was followed by hearty laughter from the White House press corps.
In September 1961, 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 & was admitted to the bar in 1930. ST served in the army during WWII & was Gov of SC (1947-1951).
In 1948, ST was nominee of the Dixiecrat party & served in the US Senate from 1956-2003. In 1964 ST became a Republican.
In 2002, ST became the oldest person to serve as a
U.S. Senator. His filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957
stands as the longest in Senate history.
SOURCES
"A Malevolent Forrest Gump," by Michael O'Donnell, Washington Monthly, September/October 2012
"Deeply Unsettling Facts About Strom Thurmond," by Michael Anderson, RANKER, www.ranker.co/
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