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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-MJH-01
In this interview Hillenbrand discusses President John F. Kennedy [JFK] entering office amid the Berlin crisis; working as the Director of the Office of German Affairs with JFK; the Berlin Task Force and the Ambassadorial Group; JFK's attitude towards the German problem and German reactions to the Kennedy Administration; the State Department and Germany; the 1961 Vienna talks with Nikita S. Khrushchev; the erection of the Berlin Wall and the crisis it generated; the Kennedy Administration's reaction and response to the Berlin Wall; talks with Russia over Berlin and the Wall; the press "leaks crisis" on the Germany problem; JFK's working style and approach to problems, according to Hillenbrand; the impact of the Cuban Missile Crisis on the Berlin talks; JFK's German policy and relationship with German leaders; and what JFK accomplished related to Germany, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-HAB-02
Brown discusses his job description; the factors that went into his, Robert S. McNamara’s, and John F. Kennedy’s decision making about whether or not a particular weapons system should be developed, and the Nike Zeus and Nike X missile systems, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-ROWK-05
In this interview Komer discusses working with McGeorge Bundy; the “inner circle” of the Bundy State Department; Komer’s major contacts; the intelligence system; the power and responsibilities of the State Department; how Bundy screened what President John F. Kennedy [JFK] would see; relations with other key officials; Robert F. Kennedy and foreign policy issues; the Bundy State Department and White House staff; the “little State Department” in the White House; the bureaucratic role of the State Department; U.S. foreign policy in Asia; relations with key U.S. Ambassadors; handling Arab-Israeli issues; domestic pressures of American-Jewish community on JFK; Arabists in the Kennedy Administration; working with Myer Feldman on Israeli issues; the United States, Saudi Arabia, and oil; filling the power vacuum left by the British; dealing with Congress on foreign aid matters; counterinsurgency; and looking back at programs during the Kennedy Administration, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-03
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses the 1962 steel crisis; some major issues and accomplishments of John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] presidency; choosing the U.S. Ambassador to Russia; foreign aid and treaties; the military coup in Peru; the space race during the Kennedy Administration; the 1962 congressional and gubernatorial campaigns; JFK’s dinner for the Nobel Prize winners; the Polaris submarines; problems with the New York Herald Tribune; New York politics; various pieces of federal legislation, 1961–1963; the Dominican Republic; Department of Justice investigations under RFK; the difficulties of being Attorney General; congressional issues in early 1963; the Vietnam War escalation in 1963; American support of the coup in Vietnam; Henry Cabot Lodge as the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam; the prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion; American actions in Cuba; unemployment and civil rights; RFK’s meeting with James Baldwin; JFK’s trips to the South and speeches on civil rights; the nuclear test ban treaty; and JFK’s trip to Ireland and Rome, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-01
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses beginning John F. Kennedy's [JFK] presidential Administration with no political obligations; carefully picking Cabinet members, specifically Secretaries of State, Defense, and Treasury; RFK’s decision on what role to play in JFK’s Administration; JFK’s unhappiness with Dean Rusk as Secretary of State; JFK’s advisers and other presidential appointments; Cabinet meetings; Department of Justice organization under RFK; the first 100 days of the Kennedy Administration; the role of the Vice President, according to RFK; JFK’s relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson and why JFK put Johnson on the ticket in 1960; what JFK was most concerned with as President; domestic programs versus foreign affairs in the Kennedy Administration; Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.’s role during JFK’s presidency; the Bay of Pigs, the aftermath, and its effect on JFK; how JFK approached problems as President; dealing with Georgi Bolshakov; negotiating with the Soviet Union in Vienna, over Laos and Cuba, etc.; JFK’s relationship with foreign heads of state; State Department staff and U.S. Ambassadors; the military coup in Vietnam; the Berlin crisis of the summer of 1961 and the Berlin Wall; RFK’s 1961 trip to the Ivory Coast; and Soviet and American nuclear testing, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-EMZ-01
Zuckert discusses his relationship with Robert S. McNamara and both of their transitions into the Kennedy Administration. He discusses his role as Secretary of the Air Force, McNamara’s as Secretary of Defense, and the immediate concerns regarding nuclear weapons at the beginning of John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] presidency, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-AY-03
Yarmolinsky discusses his assistance in the SKYBOLT affair and Robert S. McNamara’s handling of it. He also discusses how McNamara dealt with the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-AY-02
Yarmolinsky discusses his role in converting the Civil Defense program into the Department of Defense. He discusses the Kennedy Administration’s concern for nuclear war, Robert S. McNamara’s involvement, and McNamara’s position regarding nuclear war, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-SLP-01
Pittman discusses Administration support for civil defense programs and the construction of federally funded community fallout shelters, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-JKR-01
In this interview Ruina discusses the Nike-Zeus antiballistic-missile-missiles; briefing President John F. Kennedy [JFK] on the Nike-Zeus missiles; JFK’s comprehension of the briefing material and the type of questions he asked; Project Defender; the background and organization of the Advanced Research Projects Agency; the leadership and organization of the Department of Defense; interactions with Robert S. McNamara; competition between the military and the Defense Department on research and development and for resources and congressional funds; the period of new, advanced—but not always useful—technology; and Project AGILE and counterinsurgency efforts in Vietnam, among other issues.
Photograph folder
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-1962-10-29-A
ST15
Photograph folder
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-1962-03-23-B
KN13
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-GTS-01
This interview focuses on the debate over nuclear weapons testing during John F. Kennedy’s term in office, international conflict during the Cold War, and the relationship between the Kennedy administration and scientists, among other topics.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C20722
President John F. Kennedy visits the Lawrence Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. L-R: Director of the Lawrence Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, Dr. Edwin M. McMillan; Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Glenn T. Seaborg; President Kennedy; Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara; Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Dr. Harold Brown. Berkeley, California.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C20714
President John F. Kennedy visits the Lawrence Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. L-R: Director of the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory, Dr. John S. Foster, Jr.; Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Glenn T. Seaborg (in back); President Kennedy; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara; Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Dr. Harold Brown (behind Secretary McNamara); White House Secret Service agent, Bob Lilley. Berkeley, California.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C20687
President John F. Kennedy visits the Lawrence Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. L-R: Director of the Lawrence Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, Dr. Edwin M. McMillan; Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Glenn T. Seaborg; President Kennedy; co-founder of the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory, Dr. Edward Teller; Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara. Berkeley, California.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-M27-5-62
President John F. Kennedy speaks with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (right) in the West Wing Colonnade outside the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. President Kennedy met with Secretary McNamara and other members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) that day regarding the crisis in Cuba.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-M27-4-62
President John F. Kennedy speaks with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (right) in the West Wing Colonnade outside the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. President Kennedy met with Secretary McNamara and other members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) that day regarding the crisis in Cuba.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-M27-3-62
President John F. Kennedy speaks with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (right) in the West Wing Colonnade outside the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. President Kennedy met with Secretary McNamara and other members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) that day regarding the crisis in Cuba.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-M27-2-62
Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (left), Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Paul Nitze (partially hidden), and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor leave the White House after meeting with President John F. Kennedy and other members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) regarding the crisis in Cuba. West Wing Colonnade, White House, Washington, D.C.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-M27-1-62
President John F. Kennedy speaks with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (right) in the West Wing Colonnade outside the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. President Kennedy met with Secretary McNamara and other members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) that day regarding the crisis in Cuba.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-A26-8-62
President John F. Kennedy (left) speaks with members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) in the West Wing Colonnade outside the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. (L-R) President Kennedy, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor, and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. The President met with members of the EXCOMM that day regarding the crisis in Cuba.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-A26-7-62
President John F. Kennedy (left) speaks with members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) in the West Wing Colonnade outside the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. (L-R) President Kennedy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Paul Nitze (mostly hidden behind the President), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor, and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. The President met with members of the EXCOMM that day regarding the crisis in Cuba.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-A26-6-62
President John F. Kennedy speaks with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (right) in the West Wing Colonnade outside the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. President Kennedy met with Secretary McNamara and other members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) that day regarding the crisis in Cuba.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-A26-3-62
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Paul Nitze (left), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor, and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (right) leave the White House after meeting with President John F. Kennedy and other members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) regarding the crisis in Cuba. West Wing Colonnade, White House, Washington, D.C.