July 28, 1961 - The Senate approved overwhelmingly today President Kennedy's request for more weapons and troops to cope with Soviet pressure in Berlin and elsewhere. The House is expected to act Monday. There were no dissenting votes on the two principal measures - to buy nearly $1 billion worth of additional arms, ammunition and other equipment and to increase the armed forces to include a million-man Army. "In my opinion, the American people still have the will to fight and will assemble the means to fight," Sen. Richard B. Russell (pictured next to President Kennedy) told the Senate. "If forced into it, we will see through to victory. The Soviets could not make a more tragic error than to mistake the perhaps too great tolerance of the American people for cowardice. Kaiser Wilhelm and Hitler made that mistake."
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