It is the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's first Presidential year... 1961.
"On the night of 16-17 April 1961, when the relatively young President needed the advice of the armed forces as the Bay of Pigs invasion was turning into an unmitigated fiasco, the tension between President Kennedy and Admiral Burke was palpable.
As told by Admiral Burke’s biographer, the late E.B. Potter, in the early-morning hours of 17 April, President Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, in white tie and tails, along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Lyman Lemnitzer and Admiral Burke, in dress uniforms with medals, left the East Room, where the annual Congressional Reception had just concluded, headed for the Oval Office.
There, Richard M. Bissell of the CIA informed President Kennedy that although the situation was bad, it "could still take a favorable turn if the President would authorize sending in aircraft from the carrier."
"Burke concurred," wrote Potter. "Let me take two jets and shoot down the enemy aircraft," he urged. But President Kennedy said "No," and reminded them that he had said "over and over again" that he would not commit U.S. forces to combat. Apparently, he did not want the world to find out what it already knew, that the whole expedition had been conceived, planned, and armed by the United States.
According to Potter, "Burke suggested sending in a destroyer. Whereupon Kennedy explodes. ‘Burke.’ He snapped, ‘I don’t want the United States involved in this.’ ‘All in all, Mr. President,’ Burke snapped back, ‘but we are involved."’
All in all, not a pleasant exchange.
Admiral Burke continued as Chief of Naval Operations for three-and-a-half more months. On 1 August 1961, having completed an unprecedented third term, he relinquished his office to Admiral George W. Anderson. The change of command took place at the U.S. Naval Academy, where Admiral Burke had begun his naval service 42 years earlier."
If it is not simply ignored, it will be interesting to see how the 21st century American media report on the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion. This Republican Party inspired debacle that festered and grew in the anticipation that Richard Nixon would be President of the United States in 1961, introduces to the world stage all the main players in the eventual assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.
If anyone is still interesting in the who and the why President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas, I won't say look no further than, but I will say start by looking at the above exchange from E.B. Potter's biography of Admiral Burke and at the Taylor Commission.
Here are two interesting links about the 50th anniversary of Bay of Pigs invasion:
Eisenhower’s trip to Latin America gave birth to Bay of Pigs secret plan
and
Honor the men who risked all in dark days of 1961
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