Michael Vincent Forrestal was one of the leading aides to McGeorge Bundy, the National Security Advisor of President John F Kennedy.
15 Facts About Michael Forrestal
2.
Michael Forrestal's father served as Secretary of the Navy before becoming the first Secretary of Defense in 1947.
3.
Michael Forrestal received a commission in the United States Navy, and was appointed an assistant naval attache in Moscow under W Averell Harriman, the Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
4.
Michael Forrestal later served as secretary of the Quadripartite Naval Directorate, part of the post-World War II Allied Control Council that administered Berlin.
5.
From 1962 to 1965 Michael Forrestal was a member of the senior staff of the National Security Council, where he specialized in Asian affairs and participated in the deliberations and decisions that led to increased US military presence in Vietnam.
6.
President Kennedy was on vacation, when Michael Forrestal telephoned seeking to expedite the process with the commander-in-chief's verbal approval.
7.
Kennedy asked them to "wait until Monday" when all the key figures would be in Washington, but Michael Forrestal said that Harriman and Hilsman wanted to get the cable "out right away".
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Roswell Gilpatric 8.
Kennedy thus told Michael Forrestal to get another high-ranking official to "get it cleared".
9.
Michael Forrestal phoned Roswell Gilpatric in the evening and told him that both Kennedy and Rusk had already approved.
10.
Michael Forrestal then told Kennedy that he had gained the support of Kennedy's inner circle, so the president told him to send the message.
11.
Michael Forrestal later claimed that the message was reflective of Forrestal and Hilsman's "well-known compulsion" to remove Diem.
12.
Michael Forrestal was a longtime trustee of Phillips Exeter Academy and served as the board's president.
13.
Michael Forrestal died in New York City on January 11,1989.
14.
Michael Forrestal suffered an aneurysm while chairing a meeting of the Lincoln Center board of trustees.
15.
Michael Forrestal was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, near the graves of his parents and his brother Peter.