[Letter] 1963 April 10, Washington [to] Francis E. Walter, Georgetown Hospital, Washington, D.C. / [Kennedy].

The letter is typed on official White House letterhead. See also Kennedy's official White House biography (http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jk35.html) and a guide to research collections of his papers (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=K000107), as well as Walter's biography and a guide to research collections of his papers (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000108). See also additional letters in the collection to Walter, as well as additional letters from Churchill on the matter of American citizenship which he accepted in 1963.

Kennedy sends Walter the pen used to sign the House Resolution 4374 making Churchill an honorary citizen. Calling the Act a "direct result" of Walter's involvement, Kennedy regrets that illness kept Walter from attending the ceremony and hopes that he will soon recover his health. At the time this Act was signed, Churchill had successfully led the British as prime minister to victory as part of the Allied forces of World War II for which he was honored by 37 orders, decorations, and medals as well as honorary degrees and the Nobel prize for literature in 1953. In addition to military service as a young man in Cuba, India, and Africa, Churchill filled cabinet, civil service, and administrative positions in the Colonial Office, the Home Office, the cabinet, and as Lord of the Admiralty and Member of Parliament; in 1921 he participated in negotiations with Michael Collins over the Irish Free State. The letter's recipient, Congressman Walter, was chairman of the Committee on Un-American Activities. Walter also served in World War II and as a Representative from Pennsylvania in the seventy-third and fifteen succeeding Congresses, serving from 1933 until his death May 31, 1963, not long after this letter was written.