CARLATA BRADLEY
1952
Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996)
Gene Kelly starred in, choreographed, and, with Stanley Donen,
co-directed some of the most well-regarded musical films of the
1940s and 1950s.
Kelly’s health declined steadily in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In July 1994, he suffered a stroke and stayed in Ronald Reagan
UCLA Medical Center hospital for seven weeks. In early 1995, he
had another stroke which made him severely disabled. Kelly died
on February 2, 1996.
1949
On January 10, 1967, during his State of the Union speech,
President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress for more
money to support the Vietnam War.
Lyndon’s War, a war he actually inherited from President
John F. Kennedy, had achieved nothing by 1967. The North
Vietnamese use of guerrilla warfare tactics resulted in
approximately 14,000 American troops killed in action by
early 1967.
Hundreds of U.S. planes had been shot down, leaving Air
Force personnel in enemy POW camps. Although the enemy
also suffered heavy casualties, they did not show any signs
of giving up.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973)
At a news conference in 1969, President Richard Nixon said
the Vietnam War is coming to a “conclusion as a result of
the plan that we have instituted.”
Nixon had announced at a conference in Midway in June that
the United States would be following a new program he termed “Vietnamization.”
Under the provisions of this program, South Vietnamese forces
would be built up so they could assume more responsibility
for the war. As the South Vietnamese forces became more
capable, U.S. forces would be withdrawn from combat and
returned to the United States.
In his speech, Nixon pointed out that he had already ordered
the withdrawal of 60,000 U.S. troops.