Wordless Wednesday: JFK's Hold on Qatar

John F. Kennedy's connection to Qatar, the small, peninsular nation in the shape of a powerful antenna flanking the Arab Peninsula (the antenna that beams Al Jazeera to the world), would appear to be nothing more than the direct Qatar Airways flights that daily connect Doha, the Qatari capital, to JFK Airport in Queens, N.Y.

But twice in the 1960s (in November 1964 and July 1966) Qatar issued a set of commemorative stamps honoring JFK. There seems to have been no reason other than the country's affection for the man--an affection shared by many Arab and Middle Eastern countries for the assassinated president, and the sort of affection not seen since in that region for any American president. What had JFK done to deserve it? Nothing, as far as Qatar was concerned. Kennedy never visited the country, never even mentioned it a single time in his three years as president (judging from a check of his public papers at the wonderful American Presidency Papers).

That as also the time when small nations like Qatar celebrated the Apollo space missions and American astronauts--back when it wasn't yet a political reflex to snub the United States. Maybe Barack Obama's election will cause Qatar to start issuing stamps commemorative of American achievements again (needless to say without, as in JFK's case, the intercession of an assassin's bullets).