Friday, December 1, 1961: Fallout shelter sign

A press release issued on this date by the Department of Defense:

The National Fallout Shelter Sign will be a familiar sight in communities all over the United States next year. It will mark buildings and other facilities as areas where 50 or more persons can be sheltered from radioactive fallout resulting from a nuclear attack. The sign will be used only to mark Federally-approved buildings surveyed by architect-engineer firms under conract to the Department of Defense. The color combination, yellow and black, is considered as the most easily identified attention getter by psychologists in the graphic arts industry. The sign can be seen and recognized at distances up to 200 feet. The shelter symbol on the sign is a black circle set against a yellow rectangular background. Inside the circle, three yellow triangles are arranged in geometric pattern with the apex of the triangles pointing down. Below the fallout symbol, lettered in yellow against black, are the words FALLOUT SHELTER in plain block letters. Yellow directional arrows are located directly underneath the lettering which will indicate the location of the shelter.

"An Indelible Cold War Symbol: The Complete History of the Fallout Shelter Sign" (from conelrad.blogspot.com): @

* Signs page from Civil Defense Museum: @

* Signs page from Health Physics Instrumentation Museum Collection (Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Tennessee): @

* "Protection Factor 100" (1963 Office of Civil Defense film about National Fallout Shelter Survey Program): @

* "September 1961: Fallout shelters" (blog entry): @

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Friday, November 24, 1961: SAC-NORAD communication failure

From www.mentalfloss.com:

On November 24, 1961, all communication links between the U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC) and the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) suddenly went dead, cutting cutting off the SAC from three early warning stations in England, Greenland and Alaska. The communication breakdown made no sense, though. After all, a widespread, total failure of all communication circuits was considered impossible, because the network included so many redundant systems that it should have been failsafe. The only alternative explanation was that a full-scale Soviet nuclear first strike had occurred. As a result, all SAC bases were put on alert, and B-52 bomber crews warmed up their engines and moved their planes onto runways, awaiting orders to counterattack the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons. Luckily, those orders were never given. It was discovered that the circuits were not in fact redundant because they all ran through one relay station in Colorado, where a single motor had overheated and caused the entire system to fail.

* Entry from "The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents and Nuclear Weapons" (book by Scott Douglas Sagan): @

* Entry from "Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-Fire Format" (entry by Alan F. Phillips, book by Russell Kick): @

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Wednesday, November 1, 1961: Women Strike for Peace

Thousands of women throughout the United States demonstrate in protest against nuclear weapons. The rallies were organized by Women Strike for Peace, founded by Bella Abzug and Dagmar Wilson. WSP's guiding statement, adopted in 1962:

"We are women of all races, creeds and political persuasions. We are dedicated to the purpose of complete and general disarmament. We demand that nuclear tests be banned forever, that the arms race end and the world abolish all weapons of destruction under United Nations safeguards. We cherish the right and accept the responsibility to act to influence the course of goverment for peace. ... We join with women throughout the world to challenge the right of any nation or group of nations to hold the power of life and death over the world."

* Official website: @

* "Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s" (book by Amy Swerdlow): @

* "Peace as a Women's Issue: A History of the U.S. Movement for World Peace and Women's Rights" (book by Harriet Hyman Alonso): @

* Video footage: @

* "U.S. Women Parade in Bid to End Arms Race" (The Age newspaper, Melbourne, Australia, November 3, 1961): @

* "Jackie and Nina Plead for Peace" (responses from Jacqueline Kennedy and Nina Khrushchev; Miami News, November 15, 1961): @

* Slideshow of 1962 protest at Nevada Test Site: @

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October 30, 1961: Tsar Bomba

From Cornell University Library: Tsar Bomba ("King Bomb" in Russian) is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detected. Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT. However, the bomb yield was reduced to 50 megatons to reduce nuclear fallout. The attempt was successful, as it was one of the cleanest nuclear bombs ever detonated. Only one bomb of this type was ever built and it was tested on October 30, 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya archipeloago. Weighing 27 tons, the bomb was so large (26 ft long and 6.6 ft in diameter) that the bomber that carried it had to have its bomb bay doors and fuselage fuel tanks removed. The bomb was attached to a 1,760-lb. fall-retardation parachute, which gave the release and observer planes time to fly about 28 miles from ground zero. The fireball, about 5 miles in diameter, was prevented from touching the ground by the shockwave, but nearly reached the 6.5 mile altitude of the deploying bomber.

* Summary (from wired.com): @

* Summary and videos (from nuclearweaponarchive.org): @

* "Moscow's Biggest Bomb" (from Cold War International History Project, page 3): @

* Map of blast site (from Corbis Images): @

* Newspaper front pages: @ and @

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Friday-Saturday, October 27-28, 1961: Standoff in Berlin

For 16 tense hours, tanks from the United States and the Soviet Union face off on either side of the Berlin Wall, at the Friedrichstrasse crossing point (also known as Checkpoint Charlie). Tensions had escalated over the past several days over the issue of Allied access to the Soviet sector. In the end, neither side was willing to take the next military step, though all the tanks were fully armed. After back-channel negotiations, Soviet tanks pulled back first, followed by the Americans.

* Summary from U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center: @

* Summary from Frederick Kempe, author of "Berlin 1961": @

* Summary from The Atlantic Times (monthly newspaper in Germany): @

* Summary and CNN video (from www.liveleak.com): @

* Footage from www.britishpathe.com: @

* "Berlin crisis: The standoff at Checkpoint Charlie" (from The Guardian newspaper; click on photo with story for explanation): @

* Checkpoint Charlie (from berlin.de): @

* "Kennedy and the Berlin Wall" (book by W.R. Smyser): @

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Saturday, October 14, 1961: Operation Sky Shield II

Military forces from the United States, Canada and England conduct the second in a series of tests of North American air defenses. From United Press International:

A mock but mighty aerial war flared high in the skies over the North American continent today. At noon hundreds of jet interceptor planes began screaming aloft from runways in the United States and Canada. Antiaircraft missile launchers pointed toward targets, although they fired no actual missiles. Jet bombers headed down from near the polar regions. They flew far aloft or hugged the terrain to escape radar detection, over routes Soviet pilots likely would take in strikes toward targets.

From noon to midnight no airline, no civilian plane would be airborne while the air maneuvers soared above over 14 million square miles of the continent and its seaward environs.

Gen. Laurence S. Kuter, chief of the North American Air Defense Command -- a combined organization of U.S. and Canadian defense systems -- directed the defenders from his headquarters at Colorado Springs, Colo. He announced the start of exercise Sky Shield II at noon, EST. ... Kuter declared that this operation involving hundreds of fighter planes and B52 and B47 bombers of the Strategic Air Command was "not a contest" between offensive and defensive forces. The position of the bombers will be known at all times.

It would be the largest and longest such flight stoppage until the attacks of September 11, 2001.

(The photo, from the New York Journal American newspaper, shows a TWA plane on public display that day.)

* Summary (from Mitchell Gallery of Flight): @

* "The Day Nobody Flew" (Air & Space magazine, 2006): @

* "This Is Only a Test" (Air & Space magazine, 2002): @

* Newsreel: @

* "U.S. Air Defense to Test Muscle in Sky Shield II" (The Leader-Herald, October 11): @

* "Defense: Testing the Shield" (Time magazine, 1961): @

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Tuesday, October 10, 1961: 'Catch-22'

The darkly comic novel about the lunacy of war is published by Simon and Schuster. Written by Joseph Heller, himself a World War II veteran, it introduces the concept-word "Catch-22" into the language. "Catch-22" is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule."

As described in the book:

"Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to, but if he didn't want to, he was sane and had to."

* "What is Catch-22? And Why Does the Book Matter?" (from BBC): @

* "Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22' " ("Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations"): @

* "Just One Catch: A Biography of Joseph Heller" (book by Tracy Daugherty): @

* "Yossarian Slept Here: When Joseph Heller Was Dad, the Apthorp Was Home, and Life Was a Catch-22" (book by Erica Heller): @

* "The War for 'Catch-22' " (Vanity Fair, August 2011): @

* Joseph Heller Collection, Brandeis University Libraries: @

* "Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22' Manuscript and Correspondence (also from Brandeis): @

* Various cover images: @

* Time magazine review (October 27): @

* New York Times article on 25th anniversary (1986): @

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Monday, September 25, 1961: Green Berets

From www.military.com: During World War II, U.S. Army Special Forces personnel wore a variety of headgear during their operations as members of special operations units. Those who served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Europe often adopted whatever headgear their French or Belgian Resistance compatriots wore. This was often a beret, since many of the OSS teams served in France. The beret, worn in a variety of styles and colors, even showed up on OSS personnel in the Far East. Many of the first members of the U.S. Army 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), formed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in June 1952, were veterans of the OSS. Berets of various types and colors began being worn unofficially as early as 1954 on the unit's field exercises in Germany and at Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall, North Carolina. The color green was favored because it was reminiscent of the World War II British Commando-type beret that had been adopted by the Commandos on 24 October 1942. After testing in 1955, the 77th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg specified, still unofficially that its soldiers wear a beret of Canadian Army design in rifle green. Special Forces personnel in Europe in the 10th Special Forces Group (A) simultaneously adopted a green beret, even wearing it publicly with the Army Class A uniform, despite the lack of official approval. Special Forces troopers first wore the green beret publicly at Fort Bragg during a retirement parade in 1955. In 1957, however, the Fort Bragg post commander banned the wearing of the beret. This ban was reversed on 25 September 1961 by DA (Department of the Army) Message 578636, which authorized the green beret as the official Army headgear to be worn by Special Forces. The first official wearing of the newly authorized green beret was at a Special Forces demonstration staged for President John F. Kennedy at Fort Bragg on 12 October 1961.

From www.specialoperations.com: (Kennedy) sent word to the Special Warfare Center commander, Brigadier General William P. Yarborough, for all Special Forces soldiers to wear their berets for the event. President Kennedy felt that since they had a special mission, Special Forces should have something to set them apart from the rest. Even before the presidential request, hoever, the Department of the Army had acquiesced and teletyped a message to the Center authorizing the beret as a part of the Special Forces uniform. ... Gen. Yarborough wore his green beret to greet the commander-in-chief. The president remarked, "Those are nice. How do you like the green beret?" General Yarborough replied: "They're fine, sir. We've wanted them a long time."

A message from President Kennedy to General Yarborough later that day stated: "My congratulations to you personally for your part in the presentation today ... The challenge of this old but new form of operations is a real one and I know that you and the members of your command will carry on for us and the free world in a manner which is both worthy and inspiring. I am sure that the green beret will be a mark of distinction in the trying times ahead."

In an April 11, 1962, White House memorandum for the United States Army, President Kennedy showed his continued support for the Special Forces, calling the green beret "a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom."

* "A Short History of the Use of Berets in the U.S. Army" (from www.army.mil): @

* "Distinctive Beret Uniform History of U.S. Armed Services" (by retired Air Force Master Sergeant John Cassidy): @

* Special Operations Forces history (from www.soc.mil): @

* "Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia" (Department of the Army): @

* "Special Forces Qualification Course" (from www.baseops.net): @

* Airborne & Special Operations Museum (Fayetteville, North Carolina): @

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Wednesday, September 13, 1961: SIOP-62

President Kennedy is briefed by the U.S. military on how a nuclear war might be carried out.

From "JFK's First-Strike Plan" (The Atlantic magazine, October 2001): "U.S. military policy at the time called for 'massive retaliation' in the event of general war -- shooting off all our nuclear weapons against every target in the Soviet Union, China and parts of Eastern Europe, no matter how limited the cause of the war might be. This single integrated operational plan -- or SIOP, as the military called it -- was so tightly woven into the logistics and training of the U.S. Strategic Air Command that it would be impossible to launch a smaller-scale nuclear attack even if the President wanted to. The problem with this SIOP, in the view of many defense analysts, was that if the United States unleashed the full attack against the USSR, the Soviets would initiate a retaliatory strike once they saw the attack coming, ultimately killing tens of millions of Americans. ... SIOP-62, as the plan was known, called for sending in the full arsenal of the Strategic Air Command, -- 2,258 missiles and bombers carrying a total of 3,423 nuclear weapons -- against 1,077 'military and urban-industrial targets' throughout the 'Sino-Soviet Bloc.' "

Kennedy was not satisifed with the plan, preferring more options than just all-out war. That would be reflected in SIOP-63.

* "New Evidence on the Origins of Overkill" (from National Security Archive): @

* "The Creation of SIOP-62: More Evidence on the Origins of Overkill (from National Security Archive): @

* "History of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff: Preparation of SIOP-62" (from National Security Archive): @

* "History of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff: Preparation of SIOP-63" (from National Security Archive): @

* Excerpt from "President Kennedy: Profile of Power" (book by Richard Reeves): @

* "JFK's First-Strike Option" (The Atlantic magazine, October 2001): @

* "Constraining Overkill: Contending Approaches to Nuclear Strategy, 1955-1965" (from Naval Historical Center): @

* "Strategic Air Planning and Berlin" (memo to Gen. Maxwell Taylor): @

* "Doomsday Delayed: USAF Strategic Weapons Doctrine and SIOP-62" (book by John H. Rubel): @

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Thursday-Friday, August 31-September 1, 1961: Soviet nuclear testing

* August 31: Citing the Berlin crisis and France's nuclear testing, the Soviet Union announces to the world that it is ending its three-year moratorium on testing and will detonate a nuclear weapon the next day. (Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had informed the Soviet nuclear community on July 10 of his decision.)

* September 1: A 16-kiloton device is detonated at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in central Asia.

Time magazine cover from September 8.

* "Early record on text moratoriums" (from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1986): @

* Excerpt from "The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and is Proliferation": @

* Excerpt from "President Kennedy: Profile of Power": @

* atomicarchive.com: @

* Semipalatinsk website: @

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August 1961: Berlin Wall (a photo timeline)

* Saturday, August 12, 1961: East German leader Walter Ulbricht signs the order authorizing the closing of the border with West Germany. On that day, a wife passes her son to her husband, who is standing in West Berlin. (Original caption and photo sequence: @)

* August 13: At 2 a.m. local time, the wall begins as a barbed-wire fence. (BBC story: @; account in The Guardian newspaper: @)

* August 14: Brandenburg Gate is closed. In this photo from late August, West Berlin police look across the East-West border. (Short history of Brandenburg Gate: @)

* August 15: East German soldier Conrad Schumann defects to the West by hopping over the barbed wire (More on Schumann: @ ; footage of defection: @)

* August 17: The United States, Britain and France issue their first formal protest to the Soviet Union. At left, the front page of the Bild Zeitung newspaper from August 16. The headline reads, "The West does NOTHING!" (August 17 protest by U.S. and Soviet reply the following day: @)

* August 18: The barbed-wire barrier is augmented by concrete blocks. (Facts and figures, including layout of fortications: @)

* August 20: From Stars and Stripes: "West Berliners cheer as a 1,500-man U.S. Army convoy from the 1st Battle Group rolls past the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church. The troops were sent to join the 11,000-man garrison already in the beleaguered city by President John F. Kennedy in a show of solidarity." (The convoy went 110 miles through East German territory, starting near Mannheim and traveling along the autobahn.)

* August 22: The first death, as Ida Seikmann dies from injuries suffered when she jumped from her third-floor apartment window. The photo is of a monument put up in her honor. (More on Seikmann: @ and @)

* August 24: Günter Liftin is shot dead while trying to escape East Berlin by swimming across the Spree Canal. (More on Liftin: @)

* August 26: All crossing points closed for West Berlin citizens. From The New York Times: "The East Germans began issuing permits for West Berliners to visit East Berlin at two West Berlin stations of the Communist-operated elevated railway. The permits were handed out at the ticket offices until West Berlin police told the Communists to close them. ... The Allied commandants supported the action of the West Berlin city authorities. It was understood that the action would create hardships for some West Berliners, but the authorities decided to accept this rather than permit the East Germans to get in a thin wedge of sovereignty on West Berlin territory."

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Thursday, August 10, 1961: Herbicides in Vietnam

Aerial spraying of herbicides is first tested in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). It is the beginning of what would become a much larger U.S. effort, code-named Operation Ranch Hand, that would officially start in January 1962. Its aim: to clear away trees and other vegetation that provided cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, and to destroy enemy food supplies.

* "Operation Ranch Hand: The Air Force and Herbicides in Southeast Asia, 1961-1971" (Office of Air Force History, 1982): @

* "Ranch Hand" (Air Force magazine, 2000): @

* "The Herbicidal Warfare in Vietnam, 1961-1971" (Agent Orange & Dioxin Committee, Vietnam Veterans of America): @

* "The extent and patterns of usage of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam" (Nature magazine, 2003): @

* "Characterizing Exposure of Veterans to Agent Orange and Other Herbicides Used in Vietnam: Interim Findings and Recommendations" (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2003): @

* More links (from website on air operations in Vietnam): @

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Tuesday, July 25, 1961: Report on the Berlin Crisis

President John F. Kennedy gives a nationwide speech in which he lays out the steps the United States will take in response to the escalating tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over the fate of Berlin. Kennedy proposes an expansion in military preparedness -- boosting the number of the armed forces as well as increasing spending on both weaponry and civil defense. "So long as the Communists insist that they are preparing to end by themselves unilaterally our rights in West Berlin and our commitments to its people, we must be prepared to defend those rights and those commitments. We will at all times be ready to talk, if talk will help. But we must also be ready to resist with force, if force is used upon us. ... We seek peace, but we shall not surrender," Kennedy says, in a speech that sounds like it is preparing Americans for the possibility of war.

* Video (from jfklibrary.org): @

* Transcript (from American Presidency Project): @

* "A Kennedy speech that was weaker than it sounds" (excerpt from the book "Berlin 1961"): @

* Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (July 18): @

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Undated: ''The Manipulation of Human Behavior'

Funded in part by the U.S. government, this 1961 book summarizes various approaches to, as the editors put it, "the interrogation of an unwilling subject." From the introduction: "For this work, scientists who had done research in each of these areas were asked to review the state of relevant knowledge in their fields, to consider whether and how it might be applied by interrogators, and to evaluate the recourse available to highly motivated persons for resisting the attempted influence."

* Full text of book: @

* "Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions from Air Force Prisoners of War" (study by Albert D. Biderman, published in 1957): @

* "China Inspired Interrogations at Guantanamo" (2008 New York Times article, citing the 1957 study): @

* "The Torture Report: An Investigation into Rendition, Detention and Interrogation Under the Bush Administration" (project by American Civil Liberties Union): @

* www.torturingdemocracy.com (website and documentary): @

* www.americantorture.com (website and book): @

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Monday, July 10, 1961: 'Axis Sally'

After 12 years in prison, Mildred Gillars (aka "Axis Sally") is released from the women's reformatory in Alderson, West Virginia. During World War II, she was a radio announcer broadcasting propaganda from Berlin on behalf of Nazi Germany, "messages designed to heighten loneliness, fatigue and the futility of fighting Germany," in the words of her 1988 New York Times obituary. (Note: Rita Zucca, broadcasting from Rome, was also known as "Axis Sally.")

* Excerpts from broadcasts: @

* Stories from Charleston, W.V., newspapers (July 10-11): @ and @

* Articles from www.historynet.com: @ and @

* "Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany" (book by Richard Lucas): @

* Segments from "Talking History" radio program (scroll down to "World War II Radio Propaganda: Real and Imaginary"): @

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Friday, June 23, 1961: Antarctic Treaty

"Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only" -- so begins Article 1 of the Antarctic Treaty, which goes into effect after ratification by the 12 countries that were active in Antarctic science during the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58. (The treaty was originally signed on December 1, 1959). It goes on to say, "Freedom of scientific investigation ... shall continue" and "Any nuclear explosions in Antarctica and the disposal there of radioactive waste material shall be prohibited."

* Complete text: @

* Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty: @

* Special Antarctica issue, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, December 1970: @

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Saturday, June 3, 1961: G.I. Joe the pigeon

G.I. Joe, a pigeon credited with saving the lives of 1,000 British soldiers during World War II, dies at the Detroit Zoological Gardens. The following was written by Otto Meyer, U.S. Army (retired), former commander of the U.S. Army Pigeon Service:

The British 56th Brigade was scheduled to attack the city of Colvi Vecchia, Italy, at 10 a.m. October 18, 1943. The U.S. Air Support Command was scheduled to bomb the city to soften the entrance for the British Brigade. The Germans retreated, leaving only a small rear guard, and as a result the British troops entered the city with little resistance and occupied it ahead of schedule.

All attempts to cancel the bombings of the city, made by radio and other forms of communication, had failed. Little "G.I. Joe" was released with the important message to cancel the bombing. He flew 20 miles back to the U.S. Air Support Command base in 20 minutes, and arrived just as our planes were warming up to take off. If he had arrived a few minutes later it might have been a different story.

General Mark Clark, commanding the U.S. Fifth Army, estimated that "G.I. Joe" saved the lives of at least 1,000 of our British allies.

In November 1946, "G.I. Joe" was shipped from Fort Monmouth, N.J. to London, England, where he was cited and awarded the Dickin Medal for gallantry by the Lord Mayor of London. "G.I. Joe" is the only bird or animal in the United States to receive this high award. "G.I. Joe," a dark checker pied white flight cock, was hatched March 24, 1943, at the Pigeon Section in Algiers, Algeria, North Africa. Later he was taken to the Tunisian front, then to Bizerte, and from there to the Italian front.

After World War II, "G.I. Joe" was housed in the Churchill Loft, the U.S. Army's "Hall of Fame" at Fort Monmouth, N.J., along with 24 other pigeon heroes. In March of 1957, the remaining pigeon heroes were placed with different zoological gardens throughout the U.S.A. "G.I. Joe" was placed with the Detroit Zoological Gardens, where he died June 3, 1961 at the age of 18. "G.I. Joe" was returned, mounted and placed in the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Museum, Fort Monmouth, N.J.

* "Pigeons of War" (from American in WWII website): @

* www.pigeonsincombat.com: @

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Thursday, May 11, 1961: Vietnam

President Kennedy approves National Security Action Memorandum 52 "to prevent Communist domination of South Vietnam; to create in that country a viable and increasingly democratic society, and to initiate, on an accelerated basis, a series of mutually supporting actions of a military, political, economic, psychological and covert character." It authorizes several means to that end, including sending in 400 U.S. Special Forces soldiers and 100 military advisers to teach the South Vietnamese guerrilla-type tactics.

* Contents of memorandum (from JFK library): @

* "A Program of Action to Prevent Communist Domination of South Vietnam" (from Vietnam Task Force, May 1961): @

* "Guerrilla Warfare and Special Forces Operations" (U.S. Army publication, September 1961): @

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April: Bay of Pigs aftermath

April 20

* Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's statement on Cuba and neutrality laws: @

* U.S. President John F. Kennedy's address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors: @

* Footage of speech: @

April 21

* Footage of JFK press conference, Part 1: @

* Part 2: @

* Part 3: @ (This contains the Kennedy quote, "There's an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.")

April 22

* Letter from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to JFK: @

* JFK meets with former President Eisenhower at Camp David, Maryland (photo above). The picture would win the 1962 Pulitzer Prize in photography. The story behind the photo: @

April 24

* The White House releases a statement that reads: "President Kennedy has stated from the beginning that as President he bears sole responsibility for the events of the past few days. He has stated it on all occasions and he restates it now so that it will be understood by all. The President is strongly opposed to anyone within or without the administration attempting to shift the responsibility."

April 27

* JFK address to the American Newspaper Publishers Association: @ (also known as "The President and the Press" speech)

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Monday-Wednesday, April 17-19, 1961: Bay of Pigs

A U.S.-sponsored attempt to topple the government of Cuban leader Fidel Castro fails. An invasion force of some 1,400 Cuban exiles -- trained and financed by the CIA -- goes ashore at the Bay of Pigs. They are routed by government forces. The U.S. had hoped that the operation would spark an uprising against Castro (at lower right in photo); that, too, never takes hold.

* Summary (from americanheritage.com): @

* Summary (from Miami Herald): @

* Summary (from Kennedy library): @

* Summary (from the book "Disasters, Accidents, and Crises in American History"): @

* Letter from Khrushchev to Kennedy (April 18): @

* Letter from Kennedy to Khrushchev (April 18): @

* "Invasion at Bay of Pigs" (from historyofcuba.com): @

* "Assault Brigade 2506 and the Bay of Pigs" (from military.com): @

* "Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation" (from CIA, October 1961): @

* "Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation" (from CIA): @

* Government documents, April 17-19; start at "106 through 120": @

(from "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963 -- Volume X, Cuba, 1961-1962")

* Other links to relevant documents: @

* More from National Security Archive: @

* More from cuban-exile.com: @

* "Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History": @

* "Rebels Invade Castro's Cuba:" (newsreel, from britishpathe.com): @

* "Aftermath of the Cuban Episode" (newsreel, from britishpathe.com): @

* Battle footage (from criticalpast.com): @

* Photos (from life.com): @

* New York Times (April 18): Front page @ and article @

* Front page of San Francisco Chronicle (April 20): @

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