Foreign Relations: Diplomacy by Television

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Seated in a cushioned wicker chair on his Hyannis Port lawn, the President of the U.S. submitted to a taped television interview by CBS's Walter Cronkite. Beforehand, presidential aides had suggested that Cronkite ask questions about the crisis in South Viet Nam. He did—and President Kennedy was ready with some remarkable replies.

The South Vietnamese government of President Ngo Dinh Diem, said Kennedy, has "gotten out of touch with the people. The repressions against the Buddhists, we felt, were very unwise. Now, all we can do is to make it very...