John F. Kennedy promised little girl that Soviets would not kill Santa

In 1961 JFK reassured an 8-year-old girl that Santa would not be killed if USSR tested a nuclear bomb at the North Pole.

A portrait of former president John F. Kennedy hangs in the White House. Picture: AP

In the throes of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was planning to test a massive nuclear bomb in the Arctic Circle.

But in a letter to then president John F. Kennedy, a young Michigan girl was most concerned about the North Pole’s most famous resident.

“Please stop the Russians from bombing the North Pole,” eight-year-old Michelle Rochon, of Marine City, pleaded. “Because they will kill Santa Claus.”

Kennedy’s brief, but reassuring response to Rochon is part of a trove of archival materials being featured this month at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

“You must not worry about Santa Claus,” he wrote on October 28, 1961. “I talked with him yesterday and he is fine. He will be making his rounds again this Christmas.” Kennedy also told Rochon that he shared her concern about the ­Soviet Union’s test, “not only for the North Pole but for countries throughout the world; not only for Santa Claus but for people throughout the world.”

Photos of the Kennedys celebrating Christmas in the White House and copies of the family’s Christmas cards are among the other holiday keepsakes being highlighted in a seasonal display in the library’s lobby. Rochon, who now goes by the last name Phillips, told The Boston Globe in 2014 that she never thought the letters would resonate the way it did back then, when it turned her into something of a national sensation. “I was just worried about Santa Claus,” she said.

The Soviets, meanwhile, made good on their threat to bomb the North Pole. Two days after ­Kennedy wrote his letter, they dropped the “King of Bombs,” as it was dubbed in Russian. Reportedly 1570 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, it shattere­d windows as far away as Norway and Finland.

It is still considered the most powerful man-made explosive ever detonated. Kennedy and other world leaders were quick to denounce the bomb test. None of the officials statements, however, addressed Santa’s fate.

AP