Thursday, November 20, 1947

November 20, 1947

JFK made a speech in Congress supporting a $227 million dollar aid package to Italy. He maintained that Italy was in danger from an “onslaught of the communist minority” and that Italy was “the initial battleground in the communist drive to capture Western Europe.”

Kennedy had a long and well-documented hatred of the communist philosophy, but this speech was also calculated to appeal to the large Italian voting bloc in Massachusetts as he was beginning steps to position himself for statewide office.

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