Word: vinson
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Hardly had his appointment been announced when he declared: "We must have a treaty navy second to none. The United States must cease leading the disarmament movement by example." He pushed the Vinson Bill authorizing construction of 101 new ships at a cost of half a billion dollars; he upped the Navy's enlisted personnel to 100,000, authorized the creation of aerial landing facilities on Guam, Midway and Wake Islands, threatened to fortify all trans-Pacific naval bases if Japan won parity with the U. S. By the end of 1935 he could say: "I am pleased...
...reasons Cinemactress Helen Vinson gave last December for suing Fred Perry for divorce was his insisting that she sit through all his tennis matches. Last week, after Tennist Perry had been trounced three times in a row by Donald Budge on their first joint professional tour, Miss Vinson withdrew suit, rejoined her husband...
...expansion of twelve naval bases, ten in the Pacific, two in the Atlantic. The lot would cost only $51,500,000 (to be appropriated later), but the forward sweep of the national defense program was momentarily halted by one little phrase: "And Guam, $5,000,000." Chairman Carl Vinson of the Naval Affairs Committee was rudely surprised to find that this was a fighting phrase. Debate over it raged hot and angrily for three days. During the fight, the Congress and the country clarified some of their ideas on national defense...
Franklin Roosevelt quickly disowned personal responsibility for a fortified Guam. He simply conferred with Chairman Vinson of the House Naval Affairs Committee, let that gentleman introduce a bill authorizing $5,000,000 to dredge the harbor at Apra, make the island usable for planes. His real purpose was clarified by his secretariat, which approvingly referred to Columnist Walter Lippmann: "Congress should authorize the fortification of Guam, and then the State Department should invite the Japanese to discuss the question." (A U. S. threat to fortify Guam helped to win Japan's agreement to the 5-5-3 naval ratio...
...Vinson Bill also would take $39,000,000 from the Navy's share of Franklin Roosevelt's $552,000,000 Rearmament program (TIME, Jan. 23) to start construction on improvement of eleven other bases given priority by the Hepburn Board. In addition to extending a defensive half-circle from Alaska to Guam to Samoa around the Navy's present westernmost major stronghold at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, these would include a new base in the Caribbean at Puerto Rico, expansion of aviation facilities at Jacksonville and Pensacola, Fla. Companion Army measures would allot $62,000,000 to strengthen...