Wednesday, April 12, 1961

April 12, 1961

At around noon, JFK was photographed in the Oval Office with William O. Cooper, National Commander of Disabled American Veterans.

JFK and William Cooper – April 12, 1961 (photo courtesy JFK Library)

JFK holds a press conference whose main objective from the Kennedy administration’s viewpoint was to discuss the launching of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space the day before.

Yuri Gagarin touring in Sweden after his space flight (photo courtesy Wikepedia)

During this session, when Kennedy was asked to comment on a story in The New York Times about a pending military operation in Cuba, he side-stepped the issue by saying that the U.S. military would not be involved in combat actions in Cuba.

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