51 years ago today on Nov. 14, 1963 President Kennedy held his 64th and final news conference. Eight days later he was shot and killed by a sniper in Texas. The President was asked 35 questions at the 11 a.m. event, televised live from the State Department Auditorium. Here JFK is asked about the situation in Vietnam following the Nov. 1, 1963 coup by South Vietnamese generals who overthrew President Ngo Dinh Diem (1901-63), who had been in office since 1955. The Kennedy Administration made it clear to the plotters in the days and weeks leading up to the coup that it approved of their plans to overthrow Diem. It was a critical turning point in the Vietnam War. Years of unstable South Vietnamese governments followed that led to an ever-escalating U.S. military involvement in that disastrous war which peaked with 543,000 troops in 1968. More than 58,000 American soldiers died in the Vietnam War; another 304,000 were wounded. When Kennedy was assassinated, 16,000 U.S. advisors were in South Vietnam, compared to 900 when he took office in Jan. 1961. When North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh heard the news of Diems ouster and subsequent assassination, he said, I can scarcely believe the Americans would be so stupid. youtube/watch?v=Djbqo158oaY
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 22:09:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015