1500 Troops

Today:

Obama Deploys Up to 1,500 More Troops to Iraq

President Barack Obama on Friday authorized the deployment of up to 1,500 more troops to Iraq in an expansion of the American fight against ISIS militants, the Pentagon said.

If all 1,500 are deployed, it would almost double the American presence in Iraq. The troops will serve in a non-combat role, expanding the U.S. mission of training and advising Iraqi forces, the Pentagon said.

That will include helping Iraqi forces in the highly volatile section of Anbar Province mostly under ISIS control, sources told NBC News.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel recommended the additional troops, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.

U.S. Central Command will also establish centers to train 12 Iraqi brigades, nine from the Iraqi army and three from the Kurdish security forces, the Pentagon said.

Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif. and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, gave a qualified welcome to reports that Obama was planning to ask for more money for the fight.

“I remain concerned that the president’s strategy to defeat ISIL is insufficient,” he said, using another acronym for ISIS. “I would urge the president to reconsider his strategy and clearly explain how this additional funding supports a new direction. Such clarity is more likely to find swift congressional approval.”

here:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/obama-deploys-1-500-more-troops-iraq-n243736

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Back then:

50 Years Later: Learning From The Bay Of Pigs
April 17, 2011 1:59 PM ET

Fifty years ago Sunday, a brigade of around 1,500 CIA-trained soldiers stormed the beach in Cuba's Bay of Pigs. It was the opening phase of a secret mission to overthrow Fidel Castro and, President John F. Kennedy hoped, halt the spread of communism throughout the world.

Things did not go as planned.

"I think the thing that you have to keep in mind when you ask yourself, 'How did this ever happen?' is the extraordinary fear of communism in the late 50s and early 60s," writer Jim Rasenberger tells NPR's Noah Adams.

In his new book, The Brilliant Disaster, Rasenberger suggests the debacle marked the start of the Vietnam era — before which, "it would have been a fairly skeptical or cynical American who doubted he lived in a country run by competent men, engaged in worthwhile enterprises."

more here:
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/17/135444482/50-years-later-learning-from-the-bay-of-pigs

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U.S. President John F. Kennedy visits West Berlin (June 26, 1963)

As a symbolic gesture of support, John F. Kennedy had sent his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, to Berlin after the Wall was built in August 1961. At the time, he had also ordered 1,500 troops to travel the Autobahn from West Germany to Berlin to reinforce the U.S. garrison already stationed there. In June 1963, the President made a personal visit to the city. On the occasion of Kennedy’s visit, East German border guards suspended large panels of red cloth from the Brandenburg Gate and mounted an English-language propaganda poster directly in front of it. The poster maintained that the denazification and demilitarization of Germany that had been called for in Yalta and Potsdam had only occurred in the GDR. After Kennedy had his photograph taken with West Berlin mayor Willy Brandt and Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in front of the Wall, he delivered his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech before Schöneberg City Hall. Photo by Will McBride.

here:
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=2352