From Washington Straight

With only two dissenting votes recorded (New York’s Republican John Lindsay and Democrat William Fitts Ryan) the House of Representatives rammed through the Cunningham Amendment to the postal rate increase bill on Tuesday, January 23. The amendment, which bans the use of the U.S. mails for the transmission of Communist propaganda coming into the U.S. from Communist bloc nations, was bitterly opposed by the Kennedy Administration but House Democrats recognized the fact that a vote against it was, in effect, a vote cast against their chances of re-election next November. Thus the all but unanimous vote for the amendment.

Within hours, the Liberal Establishment moved into action. Washington Post editorials, in both the Post itself and on its TV outlet WTOP, blasted the House for its action. Other Liberal papers quickly followed suit. In his news conference, President Kennedy deplored the passage of Rep. Glenn Cunningham’s anti-Communist amendment on the grounds that it might well cause the Russians and their slave states to retaliate by refusing to handle U.S. mail going into Soviet-bloc nations.

Featured Tags

Manage following

John F. Kennedy

Congress

House of Representatives

With only two dissenting votes recorded (New York’s Republican John Lindsay and Democrat William Fitts Ryan) the House of Representatives rammed through the Cunningham Amendment to the postal rate increase bill on Tuesday, January 23. The amendment, which bans the use of the U.S. mails for the transmission of Communist propaganda coming into the U.S. from Communist bloc nations, was bitterly opposed by the Kennedy Administration but House Democrats recognized the fact that a vote against it was, in effect, a vote cast against their chances of re-election next November. Thus the all but unanimous vote for the amendment.

Within hours, the Liberal Establishment moved into action. Washington Post editorials, in both the Post itself and on its TV outlet WTOP, blasted the House for its action. Other Liberal papers quickly followed suit. In his news conference, President Kennedy deplored the passage of Rep. Glenn Cunningham’s anti-Communist amendment on the grounds that it might well cause the Russians and their slave states to retaliate by refusing to handle U.S. mail going into Soviet-bloc nations.