During the administration of President John F. Kennedy , Smith argued that the United States should use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union . This led Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to call Smith " the devil in disguise of a woman " whose position exceeded " all records of savagery . " Smith later replied , " Mr. Khrushchev is n't really mad at me . I am not that important . He is angry because American officials have grown more firm since my speech . " The morning after Kennedy 's assassination in November 1963 , she went into the Senate chamber before it convened and laid a rose on the desk Kennedy had occupied as a Senator . A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee , she supported the Vietnam War but opposed the deployment of the Sentinel anti-ballistic missile
assassination
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Margaret Chase Smith