DIANE KEPLY

On this day in 1991, Associated Press correspondent Terry
Anderson (center) was released after nearly seven years of
captivity in Lebanon.

Terry A. Anderson turned 72 in October.

TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, on a slope below Arlington House, where an eternal
flame (below) was lit by his widow to forever mark the grave.    

Jacqueline Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy walk away from the president’s casket after lighting the Eternal Flame.

John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame at Arlington National Cemetery
after its 2013 renovation.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)

President John F. Kennedy decided to increase military aid to South Vietnam without committing U.S. combat troops.

Kennedy was concerned at the advances being made by the communist Viet
Cong, but did not want to become involved in a land war in Vietnam. He
hoped that the military aid would be sufficient to strengthen the Saigon
government and its armed forces against the Viet Cong. Ultimately it was
not, and Kennedy ended up sending additional support in the form of U.S.
military advisors and American helicopter units. By the time of his
assassination in 1963, there were 16,000 U.S. soldiers in South
Vietnam.

U.S. adviser training Montagnard’s at a fortified camp near Buon Me Thout in central Vietnam.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC. on this day in 1982, after a march to its site by thousands
of Vietnam War veterans. About two years later the Three
Soldiers statue was dedicated.