Friday, October 11, 1963: 'Report of the President's Commission on the Status of Women'

President Kennedy was handed an 86-page report Friday crammed with statistics to argue that women still are not getting an equal break with men, despite laws saying they should.
     The 13 women and 11 men -- including five cabinet officers -- who worked 22 months as the Commission on the Status of Women said women especially are not getting a fair break with men in matters and jobs and equal pay.
     They attributed this to foot-dragging by federal and state governments and failure of women to plug hard enough for full equality -- and to vote.
     The president said the report represents a legacy of the late Eleanor Roosevelt, the commission's first chairman. This was the 79th anniversary of Mrs. Roosevelt's birth.
     Kennedy said something must be done to make it easier for working women to "use their powers and develop their talent" while maintaining a home and protecting the welfare of their children.
     The unanimous report contained 24 major recommendations and many minor ones, most of which were not new. Included was a recommendation that federal tax deductions for child-care expenses of working mothers be increased.
     Telling the women they are not blameless in the matter, the commission said they outnumber men in the U.S. by about 3,750,000. Yet their failure to vote makes them a political minority.
     -- The Associated Press
     -- Photo of Kennedy and Mrs. Roosevelt from February 12, 1962, during president's meeting with commission members (from JFK Library)
* Full text of report (from Hathi Trust Digital Library): @

* Summary from Encyclopedia Britannica: @
* "The President's Commission on the Status of Women" (from the book "On Account of Sex: The Politics of Women's Issues, 1945-1968," Cynthia Harrison, 1988): @
* Audio of Kennedy's remarks at presentation of final report (from JFK Library): @

* Kennedy-Roosevelt audio (April 18, 1962): @
* Related materials from JFK Library: @
* Executive order establishing the commission (December 14, 1961; from American Presidency Project): @

* "Equality for Women Urged in US Report" (Milwaukee Journal, October 11): @
* "Women to Work for Equal Break" (Milwaukee Sentinel, October 12 -- on World of Women page): @ 
* "Whatever Happened to Women's Rights" (The Atlantic magazine, March 1964): @ 

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Thursday, October 10, 1963: Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

WASHINGTON -- The nuclear test ban treaty banning all but underground explosions formally went into effect today with ratification ceremonies in Washington, London and Moscow.
     Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin and British Ambassador Sir David Ormsby Gore exchanged ratification documents and expressed hope for further measures to ease the cold war.
     Similar ceremonies took place in Moscow and London.
-- United Press International

Photo from August 5 signing in Moscow. Original caption: "Seated to sign three-nation nuclear test ban in the Kremlin's St. Catherine's Hall on August 5th are (left to right): US Secretary of State Dean Rusk; Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko; and British Foreign Secretary Lord Home. To right behind Gromyko is Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev; then (right to left) United Nations Secretary General U Thant; Adlai Stevenson, US ambassador to the UN; Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.); unidentified man with glasses; Senator William Fulbright (D-Ark.); and Senator George Aiken (R-Vt.)." Photo from Corbis Images.

* PDF of treaty (from National Archives): @ 
* Summary and text (from U.S. Department of State): @ 
* President Kennedy's address to nation (July 26): @ 
* Summary from JFK Library: @ 
* Summary from Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State: @ 
* Summary from atomicarchive.com: @ 
* Summary from history.com: @ 
* "The Limited Test Ban Treaty -- 50 years Later" (from National Security Archive): @ 
* "Ending Nuclear Testing" (from United Nations): @ 
* "Test Ban Treaty Signed in Moscow; Leaders Rejoice" (New York Times, August 6, 1963): @ 
* Newsreel (Moscow signing): @ 
* Newsreel (Kennedy signing): @  

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Saturday, October 5, 1963: Vietnam

President Kennedy approves the withdrawal of 1,000 military advisers from Vietnam, where some 16,000 are serving. (The decision has since generated considerable speculation about what policy Kennedy might have pursued in Vietnam had he not been assassinated.)

* Summary from World History Project: @

* Summary from Mary Ferrell Foundation: @

* Memorandum from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Taylor) and the Secretary of Defense (McNamara) to the President (October 2, 1963, from "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963," U.S. State Department): @

* Record of Action No. 2472, Taken at the 519th Meeting of the National Security Council (October 2, from FRUS): @

* Memorandum for the Files of a Conference With the President (October 5, from FRUS): @

* National Security Action Memorandum No. 263 (October 11, from FRUS): @

* White House tapes of withdrawal discussions (from Miller Center, University of Virginia): @

* "Mac Finds Out What's Gone Wrong: Big U.S. Team Probes the Climactic Mess in Vietnam" (Life magazine, October 11, 1963, page 22): @

* "Going to Withdraw from Vietnam?" (from mcadams.posc.mu.edu): @

* "Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam" (Gordon M. Goldstein, 2008): @ 

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Monday, September 2, 1963: 'CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite'

CBS becomes the first U.S. network with a half-hour nightly news show, as its broadcast with Walter Cronkite expands from 15 minutes. (NBC would follow suit a week later.) The first show includes segments from Cronkite's interview with President Kennedy that day.

Photo of Cronkite and Kennedy in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, from JFK Library.
* Portions of telecast: @

* JFK interview (includes outtakes): @

* Transcript of televised portion of interview (from JFK Library): @
* Earlier post on Cronkite (April 16, 1962): @ 

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Friday, August 30, 1963: U.S.-Soviet hotline

    The historic "hot line" between Washington and Moscow is open for business -- business that officials hope will never come.
     Now a tinkle of a bell in the White House or Kremlin -- at either end of the emergency communications system -- may signal the next world crisis.
     But it may also keep nervous fingers from pressing the buttons that would launch nuclear war.
     Completion of the circuits, made possible by a U.S. Soviet agreement to create machinery for forestalling war, was announced laconically Friday night by the Pentagon.
     "The direct communications link between Washington and Moscow is now operational," said a one-sentence announcement.
     The land-line and radio system is, under the terms of the agreement signed in Geneva last June 20, "for use in time of emergency."
     It would be used when the two chiefs of state needed to confer directly and quickly because of an incident, accidental or authorized, which otherwise would bring on nuclear war.
     In urging adoption of the system, President Kennedy cited dangerous delays in communications between Russia and the United States during the anxious days of the Cuban crisis.
     Administration officials said the line will not be used for ordinary communications between Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev or between the foreign offices of the two nations. Those communications will continue to use normal embassy channels.

     The ringing of the bell, part of an elaborate system of sounding and receiving Teletype machines, is the alert that a message is coming.

     The telegraphic tickers will stand ready from now on, day and night.

     Attendants, all carefully selected and screened for security, watch and listen. At least one of the attendants on duty at any time will be bilingual, able to read and wrote both Russian and English.

     -- The Associated Press

The photo is from the National Cryptologic Museum (links: @ and @). The caption reads in part: "The original Washington-to-Moscow Hotline was a one-time tape/teletype system for which the Soviets and Americans exchanged compatible equipment. This East German teletypewriter, made by Gerdlewerk, Karl-Marx-Stadt, was donated to the MCM by a former U.S. Army officer who had been in charge of the Pentagon end of the link."

* "Memorandum of Understanding Between The United States of America and The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Link" (from U.S. Department of State): @

* " 'Hot Line' Opened by U.S. and Soviet to Cut Attack Risk" (New York Times, August 31, 1963): @ 
* "There Never Was Such a Thing as a Red Phone in the White House" (Smithsonian magazine, June 2013): @

* Entry from Top Level Telecommunications blog: @

* Entry from www.cryptomuseum.com: @

* "The Washington-Moscow Hotline: A Compilation of Extracts" (website by Jerry Proc): @ 

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Wednesday, August 28, 1963: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

     More than 200,000 Americans, most of them black but many of them white, demonstrated here today for a full and speedy program of civil rights and equal job opportunities.

     It was the greatest assembly for a redress of grievances that this capital has ever seen.
     One hundred years and 240 days after Abraham Lincoln enjoined the emancipated slaves to "abstain from all violence" and "labor faithfully for reasonable wages," this vast throng proclaimed in march and song and through the speeches of their leaders that they were still waiting for the freedom and the jobs.
     There was no violence to mar the demonstration. In fact, at times there was an air of hootenanny about it as groups of schoolchildren clapped hands and swung into the familiar freedom songs.
     But if the crowd was good-natured, the underlying tone was one of dead seriousness. The emphasis was on "freedom" and "now." At the same time the leaders emphasized, paradoxically but realistically, that the struggle was just beginning.
     -- New York Times (link to front page below)
     -- Aerial photo from Associated Press; Lincoln photo from New York World-Telegram and Sun
    

-- Summaries and links

* National Museum of American History: @

* Federal Highway Administration: @

* Civil Rights Digital Library: @

* Civil Rights Movement Veterans: @
* PBS: @

* NPR: @
* 50th Anniversary March on Washington website: @

* "One Dream" (Time magazine): @

-- Printed materials
* Program (from Wright State University Libraries): @ and @

* Final organization plans (from Tulane University Digital Library): @
* "An Appeal By The March Leaders" (from Social Welfare History Project): @
* Other materials (from crmvet.org): @
* Other materials (from Library of Congress): @

-- Videos

* Universal Newsreel: @ 

* Same newsreel as above, with different narration: @
* U.S. Information Agency: @

* "The March" (James Blue): @

* "The Bus" (Haskell Wexler): @
* Edith Lee-Payne: @

* Hollywood roundtable: @

* "Reflections on the 1963 March on Washington" (George Washington University, 1998): @

-- Photos
* Library of Congress (search for March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom): @
* National Archives (search for Civil Rights March on Washington): @
* Walter P. Reuther Library: @
* Life.Time.com: @
* Time LightBox: @
* Smithsonian Magazine: @

-- Speeches

* Audio and transcript of King's speech (from American Rhetoric): @

* Video: @

* Early draft of speech (from Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change): @
* Annotated version of 1963 speech in Washington (by Clayborne Carson, director, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University): @
* Post on earlier "I Have a Dream" speech (November 27, 1962): @
* "Freedom March on Washington" (from PRX; album includes other speeches from event): @
* "Two Versions of John Lewis' Speech" (from billmoyers.com): @

-- Radio
* Educational Radio Network coverage (from WGBH): @

-- Oral histories
* Smithsonian Magazine: @
* Capitol Hill History Project: @
* Robert Romer: @

-- Books / magazines / newspapers
* "The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights" (William P. Jones, 2013): @
* "Nobody Turn Me Around: A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington" (Charles Euchner, 2010): @
* "Like A Mighty Stream: The March on Washington, August 28, 1963" (Patrik Henry Bass, 2002): @

* "Memory, History and the March on Washington" (by Clayborne Carson): @
* Life magazine, August 23 (pages 4 and 63): @

* Life magazine, September 6: @

* The Crisis, October (NAACP magazine): @

* Ebony magazine, November (coverage starts on Page 29): @
* New York Times front page, August 29: @

* Washington Post front page, August 29: @
* "I Have a Dream ... / Peroration by Dr. King Sums Up A Day The Capital Will Remember"  (New York Times): @

* Associated Press, August 28: @
* Miami News, August 28: @ and August 29: @

* Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 29: @

-- President Kennedy's meeting with march leaders (August 28)

* "JFK, A. Philip Randolph and the March on Washington" (from White House Historical Association): @

* Kennedy statement (from American Presidency Project): @

* Photo (from JFK Library): @

-- Earlier post

* Plans for March on Washington (July 2, 1963): @ 

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Saturday, August 24, 1963: Cable 243

Cable 243 was a telegram sent by the U.S. State Department to Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam. It raised the possibility of the U.S. taking an active role in removing South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem from power. (The cable's origination and approval also illustrated the rift within the U.S. government over supporting Diem.)

It reads in part:

US Government cannot tolerate situation in which power lies in Nhu's hands (referring to Ngo Dinh Nhu, President Diem's brother.) Diem must be given chance to rid himself of Nhu and his coterie and replace them with best military and political personalities available. If, in spite of all of your efforts, Diem remains obdurate and refuses, then we must face the possibility that Diem himself cannot be preserved. ... We wish give Diem reasonable opportunity to remove Nhus, but if he remains obdurate, then we are prepared to accept the obvious implication that we can no longer support Diem. ... Ambassador and country team should urgently examine all possible alternative leadership and make detailed plans as to how we might bring about Diem's replacement if this should become necessary.

The cable was sent three days after raids on Buddhist pagodas in South Vietnam, part of a suppression campaign that The Pentagon Papers called "the beginning of the end" for Diem's government. (Diem would be overthrown in a coup on November 1.)

* Copy of cable (from National Security Archive): @

* "Martial Law Declared in South Viet Nam" (United Press International, August 21): @
* "Martial Law Fires Vietnam Flare-Up" (Reuters, August 21): @
* "Furious Buddhists Battle Troops" (Associated Press, August 23): @
* "Vietnam Crisis" (newsreel): @
* "Vietnam Crisis Mounts" (newsreel): @
* "Evolution of the War: The Overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, May-November 1963" (from "United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1957," aka The Pentagon Papers): @

* "Vietnam, Diem, the Buddhist Crisis" (from JFK Library): @

* "JFK and the Diem Coup" (National Security Archive): @

* "Kennedy Considered Supporting Coup in South Vietnam, August 1963" (National Security Archive): @

* Related documents, January-August 1963 (from State Department): @

* "Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in South Vietnam" (Seth Jacobs, 2006): @

* "American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson and the Origins of the Vietnam War" (David E. Kaiser, 2000): @ 
* Earlier post on "The Situation in South Vietnam" (July 10, 1963): @
* Post on Thich Quang Duc (June 11, 1963): @ 

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Wednesday, July 24, 1963: Clinton meets JFK

Bill Clinton, 16, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, shakes hands with President Kennedy during a Boys Nation reception at the White House. The pictures were taken by Arnie Sachs of Consolidated News Photos.

From Clinton's autobiography "My Life" (2004): 

     President Kennedy walked out of the Oval Office into the bright sunshine and made some brief remarks, complimenting our work, especially our support for civil rights. After accepting a Boys Nation T-shirt, Kennedy walked down the steps and began shaking hands. I was in the front, and being bigger and a bigger supporter of the President's than most of the others, I made sure I'd get to shake his hand even if he shook only two or three. It was an amazing moment for me, meeting the President whom I had supported in my ninth-grade class debates, and about whom I felt even more strongly after his two and a half years in office. A friend took a photo for me, and later we found film footage of the handshake in the Kennedy Library.

     Much has been made of that brief encounter and its impact on my life. My mother said she knew when I came home that I was determined to go into politics, and after I became the Democratic nominee in 1992, the film was widely pointed to as the beginning of my presidential aspirations. I'm not sure about that. I have a copy of the speech I gave to the American Legion in Hot Springs after I came home, and in it I didn't make too much of the handshake. I thought at the time I wanted to become a senator, but deep down I probably felt as Abraham Lincoln did when he wrote as a young man, "I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come."

* Video (from Clinton Foundation): @

* Kennedy's remarks (from American Presidency Project): @

* "Pres. Kennedy Compliments Delegates to Boys Nation" (Associated Press, published July 25, 1963): @

* More about Boys Nation (from American Legion website): @

* Consolidated News Photos: @

* Arnie Sachs obituary (Washington Post, 2006): @ 

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Tuesday, June 11, 1963: The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door

ALABAMA ADMITS NEGRO STUDENTS;

WALLACE BOWS TO FEDERAL FORCE;

KENNEDY SEES 'MORAL CRISIS' IN U.S.

From The New York Times (link to full text below):

     TUSCALOOSA, Ala., June 11 -- Gov. George C. Wallace stepped aside today when confronted by federalized National Guard troops and permitted two Negroes to enroll in the University of Alabama. There was no violence.

     The Governor, flanked by state troopers, had staged a carefully planned show of defying a Federal Court desegregation order.

     Mr. Wallace refused four requests this morning from a Justice Department official that he allow Miss Vivian Malone and James A. Hood, both 20 years old to enter Foster Auditorium and register.

     This was in keeping with a campaign pledge that he would "stand in the schoolhouse door" to prevent a resumption of desegregation in Alabama's educational system.

     The official, Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Deputy Attorney General, did not press the issue by bringing the students from a waiting car to face the Governor. Instead, they were taken to their dormitories.

     However, the outcome was foreshadowed even then. Mr. Katzenbach told Mr. Wallace during the confrontation:

     "From the outset, Governor, all of us have known that the final chapter of this history will be the admission of those students."

     Units of the 31st (Dixie) Division, federalized on orders from President Kennedy, arrived on the campus four and a half hours later under the command of Brig. Gen. Henry V. Graham.

     In a voice that was scarcely audible, General Graham said that it was his "sad duty" to order the Governor to step aside.

     Mr. Wallace then read the second of two statements challenging the constituionality of court-ordered desegregation and left the auditorium with his aides for Montgomery.

     Three minutes after their departure, Mr. Hood walked into the auditorium with Federal officials to register. Miss Malone followed a minute later.

Scowling, Gov. Wallace peers through the bars of an auditorium window as he stands like a sentinel awaiting pair's arrival. (Photo and caption from Jet magazine, June 27, 1963)

Malone and Hood enroll for classes.

* Summary from Encyclopedia of Alabama: @

* New York Times story: @
* "Alabama Story: Negroes Enrolled As Governor Yields" (newsreel, from criticalpast.com): @
* NBC footage: @
* "Wallace in the Schoolhouse Door" (NPR, 2003): @

* "Statement and Proclamation of Governor George C. Wallace" (signed by Wallace; from Alabama Department of Archives and History): @

* Separate copy of speech (from Samford University Library): @
* Telegrams to and from Wallace (from Alabama Department of Archives and History): @
* "Through the Doors: Courage. Change. Progress." (from University of Alabama): @

* "A Sleight of History: University of Alabama's Foster Auditorium" (from southernspaces.org): @

* "The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation's Last Stand at the University of Alabama" (E. Culpepper Clark, 1993): @
* "A Civil Rights Milestone, June 11, 1963" (C-SPAN video, 2008): @
* Resources from Civil Rights Digital Library: @

Note: On the night of June 11, President Kennedy spoke on TV and radio about the situation in Alabama and outlined his intention to press for civil rights legislation.
* Transcript and video (from Miller Center, University of Virginia): @
* Links to draft of speech and final version (from National Archives): @
* Telegram from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Kennedy after speech (from JFK Library): @ 

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