US posts pictures of Radhakrishnan’s 1963 visit on his birthday 

The US embassy in India on Thursday marked the birth anniversary of former Indian President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan by posting pictures of his June 1963 visit to the US.

Radhakrishnan had met President John F Kennedy.   

The visit had come just six months after the Indo-China war in October-November, 1962. It was also at a time when India was not anchored with the USSR.

The Embassy used a quote of Radhakrishnan and posted pictures on X saying, “Books are the means by which we build bridges between cultures.”

Inspiring quote by former Indian President, the embassy said, referring to his birth anniversary today celebrated as Teacher’s Day.

After the June 1963 visit, the US and India had issued a joint statement that spoke about how to ‘thwart’ the designs of China.

A Joint Statement issued in June 1963 said, “The President of India spoke of the determination of the government and the people of India to preserve India's territorial integrity.”

“They agreed that their two countries share a mutual defensive concern to thwart the designs of Chinese aggression against the sub-continent.”

Kennedy reiterated the deep interest of his government and the people of the US to reassure Radhakrishnan that India “could count on the warm sympathy and effective assistance of the United States in its development and defence”.

The June 1963 visit is described by John F Kennedy library as a ‘Philosopher's Journey: President Radhakrishnan’.

Radhakrishnan had met President John F Kennedy at the White House, visited the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) site in Cape Canaveral, Florida. He had also visited Los Angeles, New York City and the United Nations (UN) headquarters. He was in Colorado -- to review the management of water resources.

This was around the time the Bhakra Dam had been completed, and a canal system originating from its waters would aid the Green Revolution launched in the late 1960s.