"IT REMADE THE PRESIDENCY ITSELF...EXPANDING COMMAND & CONTROL"

WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM: A RESULT OF THE BAY OF PIGS

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50)  Jim Rasenberger writes that the White House Situation Room*, created in May 1961, was a direct result of the Bay of Pigs.
The space was chosen by newly appointed National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy**.  It had been a bowling alley located under the West Wing.

Bundy insisted that President John F. Kennedy needed "to commit to regular time slots for national security meetings" and recommended the new Situation Room.  The meetings were intended to provide the president with "more of the raw data" during a crisis to make "more informed and better decisions."

Rasenberger writes...

"It remade the presidency itself, asserting and expanding the command and control of the chief executive."

*White House Situation Room, a.k.a. John F. Kennedy Conference Room, is a 5,525 sq. ft. intelligence management room located in the White House basement.  It was built in May 1961 and remodeled in 2006-07.  The WHSR is equipped with secure communications and hidden audio/video systems.

**McGeorge Bundy (1919-1996) was born in Boston, MA to a prosperous Republican family.  He graduated from Yale (1940) & served as an intelligence officer in WWII.  After the war, he became a professor of government at Harvard & Dean of Faculty of Arts & Sciences in 1953.

 SOURCE

"Brilliant Disaster:  JFK, Castro and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs," by Jim Rasenberger, Scribner, New York, 2011.

White House Situation Room

Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

May 18, 2007

Photo by David Bohrer

CHINA MIGHT RETURN TO THE ATTACK ON INDIA

McGEORGE BUNDY ISSUES MEMO ON NATIONAL SECURITY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On February 26, 1963, McGeorge Bundy*, President John F. Kennedy's national security adviser, issued National Security Action Memorandum # 223.

The memo began by stating that the President had reviewed the report of the National Security Council's Under Secretaries Committee and in response was directing an analysis of the possibility that China "might return to the attack on India at any time this spring".  

Mr. Bundy advised that although "intelligence requirements are essential," the President wanted a "political and military appraisal as well."  The memo was addressed to the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

*McGeorge "Mac" Bundy (1919-1996) was born in Boston & attended Groton & Yale Universities before serving as a Harvard University dean.  After leaving the White House in 1965, MB was president of the Ford Foundation & history professor at NY University.

SOURCE

"McGeorge Bundy Dies at 77; Top Adviser in Vietnam Era", by John Kifner, September 17, 1996, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com

NSM #223

John F. Kennedy Library Image

NATIONAL SECURITY MEMORANDUM 328

WHITE HOUSE NSM 328 PUT U.S. FORCES ON THE OFFENSIVE IN VIETNAM 50 YEARS AGO TODAY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty years ago today, April 6, 1965,  National Security adviser McGeorge Bundy issued, on behalf of President Lyndon B. Johnson, National Security Memorandum 328.

The memo, drafted and signed by Bundy, is titled "Presidential Decisions in Regard to Vietnam," and was, at the time, labeled TOP SECRET.

Mr. Bundy began by saying that President Johnson had "made the following decisions" on April 1, 1965.

They included a 41 point program of "non-military actions submitted by Ambassador Taylor," an "urgent exploration of...suggestions for covert...actions submitted by the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and a repeat of earlier approval of a 21 point program of military actions," including an 18,000-20,000 increase in support forces as well as the continuation of Operation Rolling Thunder.

The memo represented a shift in policy in that previously all American military operations in South Vietnam had been defensive in nature.

It is well known that while John F. Kennedy substantially increased America's commitment to South Vietnam, he did not send U.S. combat troops in the traditional sense. Lyndon B. Johnson did.

Gordon M. Goldstein quotes McGeorge Bundy's take on the difference in attitude toward Vietnam by the two presidents for which he worked...

"There was a dramatic difference between Kennedy and Johnson on the question of Vietnam.  Kennedy didn't want to be dumb.  Johnson didn't want to be a coward."

McGeorge Bundy served in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations as National Security Adviser (1961-1966).

SOURCE

"Lessons in Disaster:  McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam," by Gordon M. Goldstein, Time Books, 2013.

NSM 328, Page 1

Presidential Decisions

in Regard to Vietnam

April 6, 1965

LBJ Library Document

McGeorge Bundy

National Security Adviser 

1961-1966

JFK'S NSM 223

JFK NATIONAL SECURITY MEMORANDUM #223

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-two years ago today, February 26, 1963, McGeorge Bundy, JFK's national security adviser, issued National Security Memorandum # 223 in behalf of President John F. Kennedy.

The memo directed an analysis of the possibility that China "might return to the attack on India at any time this spring".  It also stated that the President needed a political and military investigation of this potentiality. 

The memo was addressed to the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

NSM #223

John F. Kennedy Library Image

WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBED

New York City (JFK+50) Twenty-two years ago today, February 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in a basement parking garage of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The bomb with 1500 pounds of explosives was traced by the FBI to the remains of a rental truck found in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Six people were killed as a result of the blast including a woman who was seven months pregnant.

The FBI investigation proved that the bomb was the work of terrorists.  The mastermind was Ramzi Yousef, an AL-Qaeda trained terrorist, who arrived in the United States on September 1, 1992.  All involved were found guilty and each was sentenced to 240 year prison terms.

LAST MARINES LEAVE BEIRUIT

Beiruit, Lebanon (JFK+50) Thirty-one years ago today, February 26, 1984, four months after President Ronald Wilson Reagan announced the United States would continue its peace-keeping efforts in Lebanon, the last of the United States Marines stationed there departed.

In 1982, a force of 800 marines were sent to Beiruit as part of a multi-national force to oversee Palestinian withdrawal from the country.

On April 18, 1983 a suicide bomber drove a truck into the United States Embassy killing 63 people, including 17  Americans.  Then on October 23 another suicide bomber drove a truck into the marine base in Beiruit killing 241 American military personnel.

GRAND TETON  BECOMES NATIONAL PARK

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 86 years ago today, February 26, 1929, President Calvin Coolidge signed a law at the White House establishing the Grant Teton National Park in Wyoming.

GRAND CANYON BECOMES NATIONAL PARK

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 96 years ago today, February 26, 1919, the Interior Department announced that the Grand Canyon would become a national park.
More than 800,000 acres had been designated for the park by President Woodrow Wilson.

Grand Canyon

Photograph by Phil Konstantin

October 10, 2007

Death of Sargent Shriver

SARGE SHRIVER, JFK's PEACE CORPS DIECTOR, DIED 3 YEARS AGO

Bethesda, Maryland (JFK+50) Three years ago today, January 18, 2011, R. Sargent Shriver, JFK's brother-in-law and director of the Peace Corps, died here in Bethesda.

Shriver, 95 years old , was a victim of Alzheimer's disease. 

Sarge was the husband of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, who died in 2009.

Mr. Shriver was also the father of former NBC reporter Maria Shriver. 

Sarge Shriver & JFK at the White House

NSAM#216 SIGNED BY BUNDY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-one years ago today, January 18, 1963, National Security Action Memorandum #216 was signed by President John F. Kennedy's national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, here at the White House in the Nation's Capital.

NSAM #216 states...

"The President requests a study be made by the Department of State, Defense and CIA of the arguments for and against: 

1. Disclosure to the Soviets of our satellite reconnaissance capability.

2. The maintenance in the hands of the American Ambassador in Moscow of suitable materials for such disclosure in the event of a crisis situation  in which there was ....a threat of nuclear war."

JFK and McGeorge Bundy

It is likely, having come so close to nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, President Kennedy was considering actions which might prevent such a scenario in the future.

COOK DISCOVERS HAWAII

236 years ago today, January 18, 1788, English explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to discover the Hawaiian Islands.

Two days later Cook landed on the island of Kauai and named the group, "The Sandwich Islands," after sponsor, John Montague, the Earl of Sandwich.

Captain James Cook

JFK's mother, Rose, told the story of how young Jack loved to read the book "Billy Whiskers" and that one day he asked her where the Sandwich Islands were located.  

When she asked why he wanted to know, he said that was where Billy Whiskers had traveled.

Billy Whiskers Children's Book