"I BELIEVE IT!"

JFK SAYS HE BELIEVES IN THE DOMINO THEORY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On September 9, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was asked during an interview if he believed in the Domino Theory which held that if one nation in Southeast Asia fell to the Communists then others would follow.

The question came up during a television interview conducted in the Oval Office by NBC newsmen Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.

In answering the question, JFK said...

"I believe it.  I think that the struggle is close enough.  China is so large...if South Vietnam (falls) it would (show) the wave of the future in Southeast Asia (is) Communism."

 

JFK+50 TOP TEN POSTS #3

JFK+50 TOP POST #3

Knoxville, Tennessee (JFK+50) Today we continue a review of the ten most popular posts of our JFK+50 blog since we began in November 2010.  This review will include updates and revisions of the original posts. 

Thanks to all our visitors worldwide.

IKE DISCUSSES "FALLING DOMINO" EFFECT 

April 7, 2011, Washington, D.C.(JFK+50) At his news conference fifty-seven years ago today, April 7, 1954,  at the White House, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said the impending fall of French Indo-China to the communists could create a "falling domino effect" in Southeast Asia.

Communist Vietnamese nationalists under Ho Chi Minh were on the verge of victory over the French in Vietnam.

President Eisenhower said:

"You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences."*

One month later, the French lost the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and North Vietnam was created as a communist state.  South Vietnam remained free. 

Later presidents including John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon believed in the so-called "domino theory" and used it to justify increases in American military involvement in Southeast Asia.

            The "Falling Domino" Theory


DAG HAMMARSKJOLD ELECTED UN SECRETARY GENERAL

April 7, 2011, New York City (JFK+50) Fifty-eight years ago today, April 7, 1953, the son of a former prime minister of Sweden, Dag Hammarskjold was elected secretary-general of the United Nations.

Hammarskjold served as UN Secretary-General until his accidental death in September 1961. Having been re-elected in 1957, he directed the UN peace keeping role in a civil war in the Congo. He was en route to the Congo when his plane crashed.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize.

      Grave marker of Dag Hammarskjold
       Photo by Conny Odengrund (2006)


JFK WANTS TO HELP PRESERVE EGYPTIAN TEMPLES

April 7, 2011, Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty years ago today, April 7, 1961, President John F. Kennedy sent a letter to Congress recommending the United States participate in a UNESCO campaign to preserve ancient temples and monuments in the Nile Valley of Egypt.

The campaign was designed to save sites threatened by construction of the Aswan Dam.

In his letter, President Kennedy suggests that this effort is...

 "in the best interests of the United States as well as of Egypt."

In 1965, Mrs. John F.Kennedy arranged to have Egypt's Temple of Dendur brought to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Temple of Dendur

Metropolitan Museum

New York City

Photo by Roner Perry (2006)

MAYOR DAILY'S RE-ELECTION GOOD FOR JFK

April 7, 2011, Chicago, Illinois (JFK+50) Political observers around the nation have observed forty-eight years ago this week that Mayor Richard J. Daley's re-election as Mayor of Chicago was a good sign for President John F. Kennedy in his bid for re-election as President of the United States in 1964.

Mayor Daley had been instrumental in JFK's success in Chicago in 1960 and his narrow victory in Illinois.

      President Kennedy with Mayor Daley


JFK+50 NOTE

The original post titled "IKE DISCUSSES FALLING DOMINO EFFECT" has received more than 23,000 hits since April 7, 2011.

SWIM TO OLASANA

PT 109 CREW SWAM TO OLASANA 71 YEARS AGO 

Olasana, South Pacific (JFK+50) After having made the long swim from the wreckage of PT109 to Plum Pudding Island,  Lt. j.g. John F. Kennedy and his surviving crewmen swam to Olasana Island seventy-one years ago today, August 4, 1943.

Short on food and coconut milk, Lt. Kennedy ordered his crew to swim to the island closer to Ferguson Passage in hopes of being rescued.

Olasana is located one and three quarters of a mile southwest of Plum Pudding.

PT-109 Collision

Solomon Islands 1943 EN Philg88

Wikipedia Foundation

www.wikimedia.org

They began their swim at noon with JFK again towing the badly burned "Pappy" McMahon.

Robert J. Donovan, in his book PT 109, John F. Kennedy in World War II,  describes the severity of McMahon's condition...

"It broke Kennedy's heart to look at him.  Scabs forming over his burned eyelids made it difficult for him to see.  The palms of his hands were swollen to a thickness of three inches.  They were cracked...and he could look deeply into his own flesh." 

The weary swimmers arrived at an islet west of Cross Island at 3 in the afternoon. 

 According on Donovan...

"The eleven survivors gathered in the trees behind the curved beach on the southeastern tip of Olasana, whence they could look straight across another half-mile of water to Naru Island bordering Ferguson Passage."

The decision was made to stay in the spot and not risk exploring the island which was twice as large as Plum Pudding.

The water in Ferguson Passage was too cold that evening for anyone to attempt to swim out to seek help.  

SOURCE

"PT109, John F. Kennedy in World War II," by Robert J. Donovan, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1961, 2001.

IKE WARNED OF BAD SITUATION IN ASIA

Seattle, Washington (JFK+50) President Dwight D. Eisenhower, speaking before the Governors Conference meeting here in Seattle sixty-one years ago today, August 4, 1953,warned that the situation in Asia was "ominous for the United States".

The President also said that the defense of French Indochina was a necessity to prevent a communist takeover.

Mr. Eisenhower's speech marked the origin of the Domino Theory which held that if one nation in Southeast Asia fell to the communists, all the other nations of the region would fall as well, like a set of dominoes.

JESSE OWENS WINS OLYMPIC LONG JUMP

Berlin, Germany (JFK+50) African-American athlete Jessie Owens won a gold medal here in Berlin at the Summer Olympic Games seventy-eight years ago today, August 4, 1936.

Owens, who was a graduate of Ohio State University, won the long jump at 26 feet, 5 and one-half inches which set an Olympic record.

Known as "the Buckeye Bullet", Jesse Owens set a record that was to stand for 24 years.  At Ohio State, he won 8 individual NCAA championships.

Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama in 1913 and died at the age of 66 in Tuscon, Arizona in 1980.

Jesse Owens is quoted as saying...

"I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible.  From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up."

Jesse Owens Wins Gold Medal

August 4, 1936

German National Archive Photo

JFK AND CREW SWIM TO OLASANA

August 4, 2013

JFK AND CREW SWAM TO OLASANA 70 YEARS AGO 

Olasana, South Pacific (JFK+50) After having made the long swim from the wreckage of the PT109 to Plum Pudding Island,  Lt. j.g. John F. Kennedy and his surviving crew swam to Olasana Island 70 years ago, August 4, 1943.

Short on food and coconut milk, Lt. Kennedy ordered his crew to swim to the island closer to Ferguson Passage in hopes of being rescued.

Olasana is located one and three quarters of a mile southwest of Plum Pudding.

They began their swim at noon with JFK again towing the badly burned "Pappy" McMahon.

Robert J. Donovan describes the severity of McMahon's condition...

"It broke Kennedy's heart to look at him.  Scabs forming over his burned eyelids made it difficult for him to see.  The palms of his hands were swollen to a thickness of three inches.  They were cracked...and he could look deeply into his own flesh." 

The weary swimmers arrived at an islet west of Cross Island at 3 in the afternoon. 

 According on Donovan...

"The eleven survivors gathered in the trees behind the curved beach on the southeastern tip of Olasana, whence they could look straight across another half-mile of water to Naru Island bordering Ferguson Passage."

The decision was made to stay in the spot and not risk exploring the island which was twice as large as Plum Pudding.

The water in Ferguson Passage was too cold that evening for anyone to attempt to swim out to seek help.  


SOURCE

"PT109, John F. Kennedy in World War II," by Robert J. Donovan, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1961, 2001.

         
               Adult PT109 Tee Shirt
  For Sale at the Kennedy Library
                      $19.95 (2011)

IKE WARNED OF BAD SITUATION IN ASIA

Seattle, Washington (JFK+50) President Dwight D. Eisenhower, speaking before the Governors Conference meeting here in Seattle 60 years ago today, warned that the situation in Asia was "ominous for the United States".

The President also said that the defense of French Indochina was a necessity to prevent a communist takeover.

Mr. Eisenhower's speech marked the origin of the Domino Theory which held that if one nation in Southeast Asia fell to the communists, all the other nations of the region would fall as well, like a set of dominoes.

FRANK FAMILY ARRESTED IN HOLLAND

Amsterdam, Holland (JFK+50) The family of Otto Frank*, including his daughters Anne** and Margot, who had been in hiding here in Amsterdam, was arrested 69 years ago today by the Gestapo.

The Franks were to be transported within the next several weeks to Auschwitz in Poland.

Anne Frank had received a notebook for her 13th birthday in 1942 in which she began writing her diary.  She wrote of her dream to become an actress and later a journalist.  

In her 1st entry, Anne wrote...

"I hope I will be able to confide everything to you...and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support."

Although protected from the Nazis in her hiding place, the discomfort of confinement was difficult.

Anne wrote on October 29, 1943...

"Outside, you don't hear a single bird, and a deathly, oppressive silence hangs over the house...I wander from room to room...and feel like a songbird whose wings have been ripped off and who keeps hurling itself against the bars of its dark cage."

While Anne began writing in the notebook she was given on her birthday, she filled that one up and used other notebooks until her last entry of August 1st, 1944.

Anne's diary was published in the Netherlands under the title "Het Ashterhuis" or "The Secret" in 1947.  It was later published in the UK and USA in 1952 as "Anne Frank:  The Diary of a Young Girl."


SOURCE

About.com, Education, 20th Century History, by Jennifer Rosenberg, www.history190ss.about.com/

                   Anne Frank Statue
                          Amsterdam
             Photo by Hide-sp (2008)


*Otto Frank (1889-1980) was born in Frankfurt and served as an officer in WWI.  He worked in the family banking business until the early 1930s, then moved his family to Holland and started a spice company.

**Anne Frank (1929-2945) was born in Frankfurt.  She died just a few weeks before the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by the British.

Memorial to Anne and Margot Frank
         Bergen-Belsen, Germany
        Photo by Arne List (2003)

JESSE OWENS WINS OLYMPIC LONG JUMP

Berlin, Germany (JFK+50) African-American athlete Jessie Owens won a gold medal here in Berlin at the Summer Olympic Games 77 years ago today, August 4, 1936.

Owens, who was a graduate of Ohio State University, won the long jump.

His jump of 26 feet, 5 and one-half inches set an Olympic record.

Known as "the Buckeye Bullet", Jesse Owens set a record that was to stand for 24 years.  

At Ohio State, he won 8 individual NCAA championships.

Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama in 1913.  He died at the age of 66 in Tuscon, Arizona in 1980.

Jesse Owens is quoted as saying...

"I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible.  From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up."

       Jesse Owens Wins Gold Medal
                    August 4, 1936
     German National Archive Photo

JFK IS A BELIEVER IN THE DOMINO THEORY

September 9, 1963


JFK IS A BELIEVER IN THE DOMINO THEORY


Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy today was asked if he believes in the "Domino Theory" which holds that if one nation in Southeast Asia falls to the communists, the others will follow.


JFK was asked the question during an interview conducted by NBC-TV newsmen Chet Huntley & David Brinkley to be aired tonight on the Huntley-Brinkley Report.


The President responded:


"I believe it. I think that the struggle is close enough.  China is so large....that if South Vietnam (falls) it would give the impression that the wave of the future in Southeast Asia (is) communism.  So I believe it."


As to the role of the United States in the struggle in Vietnam, JFK said:


"I think we should stay.  We should use our influence as effectively as we can, but we should not withdraw."

September 9, 1961


US TO SEND 40,000 TROOPS TO EUROPE


Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced today that the United States is sending 40,000 regular U.S. Army troops to Europe.


This will bring the total American force in Europe to nearly  300,000.


Most of the troops will be sent to Germany.


President Kennedy is in Hyannis Port today with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. 


In a joint statement, JFK & the Prime Minister expressed "deep regret" in learning that Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR has rejected their proposal to stop nuclear testing.


September 9, 1956


COURTNEY KENNEDY IS BORN IN BOSTON


Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy announced the birth today of their 5th child & 2nd daughter, Mary Courtney Kennedy.*


*Courtney Kennedy worked on the Children's Television Workshop & served as a representative for the UN Aids Foundation.


September 9, 1893


ESTHER CLEVELAND BORN AT THE WHITE HOUSE


Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President & Mrs. Grover Cleveland announced today that their 2nd child, Esther Cleveland, was born today at the White House.


Esther Cleveland is the 1st child of a President of the United States to be born in the executive mansion.


The 1st child to be born in the White House, however, was James Madison Randolph who was the grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.*


*Esther Cleveland died on June 25, 1980.

                    Esther Cleveland


September 9, 1976


CHAIRMAN MAO IS DEAD


Beijing, People's Republic of China (JFK+50) The leader of the Chinese Revolution & the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao Zedong, died today of a heart attack here in Beijing.


Mao's body will lie in state at the Great Hall of the People.*


*Mao will be buried in the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong in Beijing.

                Mausoleum of Mao
                     Beijing, PRC
    Photo by Poco a poco (2006)

LBJ SAYS TO SOUTH VIETNAM: HELP IS ON THE WAY!

June 9, 1961


LBJ SAYS TO SOUTH VIETNAM: HELP IS ON THE WAY!


Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson today announced that the US government is preparing to give the South Vietnamese government assistance in their battle against the North Vietnamese communists.


LBJ revealed a special task force has been established to address South Vietnam's problems & to recommend how the US government may help solve them.


According to the VP, the US will send health experts to deal with sanitation & public health issues as well as an economic team to determine the financial needs of the South Vietnamese.

LBJ & SV President Nguyen van Thieu 
                       (1968)


June 9, 1962


TED KENNEDY ENDORSED FOR US SENATE


The younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, won the endorsement today of the Massachusetts Democratic Convention for the United States Senate.


Ted Kennedy will run for the nomination in the state Democratic primary in September.


If  Ted wins the nomination & wins the general election, there will be 3 Kennedy brothers in Washington, D.C.:  The President, the Attorney General & a Massachusetts Senator.

             The Kennedy Brothers


June 9, 1963


JFK VISITS HAWAII


President John F. Kennedy is in the Hawaiian Islands today where he laid a wreath at the Arizona Memorial & addressed the US Conference of Mayors at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel.


In his address, JFK called for actions on the part of cities to stop racism.

         Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel
                  Honolulu, Hawaii


June 9, 1964


CIA GIVES AN ANSWER TO LBJ'S QUESTION ABOUT THE  DOMINO THEORY


The Central Intelligence Agency responded today to President Lyndon B. Johnson's question, "Would the rest of Southeast Asia necessarily fall if Laos & South Vietnam came under North Vietnamese control?"


The CIA's answer challenges the argument known as the "Domino Theory" that if one nation in SE Asia falls to communism, they all will fall (like a row of dominoes).


The agency told LBJ that the only nation likely to fall in such a scenario posed by LBJ's question would be Cambodia.


The CIA says that while the fall of South Vietnam & Laos would be a blow to American interests in the region, it is likely the Philippines & Japan would deter further communist aggression or expansion.

Illustration of the Domino Theory 
             Beao (2011)


June 9, 1966


RFK VISITS SOWETO IN SOUTH AFRICA

Robert F. Kennedy visited Soweto, a poor black section of Johannesburg, South Africa today.


He later gave an address at the University of Witwatersand.


RFK urged that the power of reason be used to end racial discrimination & called for more open communication between South Africa & other countries.

           Slums of Soweto (2005)
                Photo by Matt-80


June 9, 1968


NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING FOR BOBBY


Today, by virtue of a proclamation issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson, is to be a national day of mourning for New York Senator Robert Francis Kennedy.


RFK died as the result of being shot after his victory in the California Democratic Primary.


June 9, 1954


JOSEPH WELCH CONFRONTS SENATOR McCARTHY


Special Counsel for the US Army, Joseph Welch, confronted Senator Joseph McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings today in Washington, D.C.


The confrontation came following McCarthy's charge that Welch's young legal assistant, Fred Fisher, was a member of an organization that was a "legal arm of the communist party".


Welch, who was devastated by the charge, said to McCarthy:


"Until this moment, I think I never gaged your cruelty or your recklessness.  Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last."*


*McCarthy was censured by the US Senate in December 1954.

Joseph Welch Confronts Joe McCarthy


June 9, 1928


CHARLES KINGSFORD SMITH COMPLETES 1ST TRANS-PACIFIC FLIGHT


Aviator Charles Kingsford Smith completed today the 1st trans-Pacific flight.

            Charles Kingsford Smith


He landed in Brisbane after a 7400 mile flight.


His aircraft is a Fokker Tri-motor monoplane named "The Southern Cross".

              The Southern Cross


Smith was born in Hamilton, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1897.


He narrowly escaped death by drowning on Bondi Beach in 1907.*


*Smith died on November 8, 1935 when he crashed into the sea off the coast of Burma.


The major airport of Sydney, located in Mascot, is named the Kingsford Smith International Airport in his honor.

IKE DISCUSSES "FALLING DOMINO" EFFECT

April 7, 1954


IKE DISCUSSES "FALLING DOMINO" EFFECT 


At his news conference today at the White House, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said the impending fall of French Indo-China to the communists could create a "falling domino" effect in Southeast Asia.


Communist Vietnamese nationalists under Ho Chi Minh are on the verge of victory over the French in Vietnam.


President Eisenhower said:


"You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences."*


*A month later, the French lost the Battle of Dien Bien Phu & North Vietnam was created as a communist state.  South Vietnam remained free.  Both JFK & LBJ believed in the "domino theory" & used it to justify increases in US military involvement in Southeast Asia.

            The "Falling Domino" Theory


April 7, 1953


DAG HAMMARSKJOLD UN SECRETARY GENERAL


Son of a former prime minister of Sweden, Dag Hammarskjold was elected secretary-general of the United Nations today.*


*Hammarskjold served as UN Secretary-General until his accidental death in September 1961.  Having been re-elected in 1957, he directed the UN peace keeping role in a civil war in the Congo. He was en route to the Congo when his plane crashed.  He was awarded the Noble Prize.

      Grave marker of Dag Hammarskjold
       Photo by Conny Odengrund (2006)


April 7, 1961


JFK WANTS TO HELP PRESERVE EGYPTIAN TEMPLES


President Kennedy sent a letter to Congress today recommending the United States participate in a UNESCO campaign to preserve ancient temples & monuments in the Nile Valley of Egypt.


The campaign is designed to save sites threatened by construction of the Aswan Dam.


In his letter, JFK suggests that this effort is "in the best interests of the United States" as well as of Egypt.*


*Mrs. Kennedy arranged in 1965 to have Egypt's Temple of Dendur brought to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

      The Temple of Dendur
      Metropolitan Museum
      New York City
     Photo by Roner Perry (2006)


April 7, 1963


MAYOR DAILY'S RE-ELECTION GOOD FOR JFK


Political observers around the nation have observed this week that Mayor Richard J. Daley's re-election as Mayor of Chicago is a good sign for President Kennedy in his bid for re-election as President of the United States in 1964.*


*Mayor Daley was instrumental in JFK's success in Chicago in 1960 & his narrow victory in Illinois.

      President Kennedy with Mayor Daley


April 7, 1945


BATTLESHIP "YAMATO" IS HISTORY


The "Yamato", one of the largest & most powerful battleships ever constructed, was sunk today off the coast of Okinawa.


The 72,800 ton battleship with a compliment of 9 eighteen inch guns & a crew of nearly 2500 was hit by at least 11 torpedoes & 8 bombs dropped on her by American airplanes.


The "Yamato", which went into service just after the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941, was the flagship of the Japanese Pacific Fleet.

           "Yamato" under construction