Today is the fiftieth anniversary of JFK's TV address in which he announced to the nation the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. His announcement came roughly in the middle of what liberal hagiographers of JFK have called the "Thirteen Days in October." We all know what happened and I won't waste your time going over it.
It was the closest that the world has come to nuclear war, and the JFK fan club is full of praise for their man's coolness under fire and his Gary Cooper-type "toughness" with the bombastic Khrushchev.
Yeah, yeah, sure . . . if you want to believe the liberals go ahead.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was, in fact, the classic leftist screw up that risked global disaster, produced a fifty-year disaster for the Cuban people, and ended up being twisted into political gain for a not very competent President of the USA. There would have been no October 1962 "crisis" had it not been for JFK's betrayal of the Cuban freedom fighters in April 1961. Had JFK carried out the Eisenhower plan instead of allowing the freedom fighters to be killed and captured, Castro would have been gone, there would have been no Soviet presence in Cuba, no October Missile Crisis, and very likely no wars in Central America.
In other words, if JFK had kept his word all of this could have been avoided.
Back to reading the media's praise of the young JFK . . .
Not to cut too fine a line, but whenever the scion of Hyannis Port vacationed in Palm Desert I was part of his local protection detail. What a degrading and demeaning assignment. Absolute filth going on in our presence, without shame. No wonder the Secret Service crews become amoral..
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder about the Bay of Pigs.
ReplyDeleteWhen people laud President Kennedy's strength against the Soviets, I recall that the crisis was caused by his weakness.
We got the Cuban missile crisis as a result of weakness.
Wikipedia: Vienna Summit
President John F. Kennedy met with Nikita Khrushchev against the advice of his staff.
Quoting the NYTimes:
At the conclusion of the meeting,
Paul Nitze, the assistant secretary of defense, said the meeting was “just a disaster.” Khrushchev’s aide, after the first day, said the American president seemed “very inexperienced, even immature.” Khrushchev agreed, noting that the youthful Kennedy was “too intelligent and too weak.” The Soviet leader left Vienna elated — and with a very low opinion of the leader of the free world.
via http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/opinion/22thrall.html?_r=0
OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS
Kennedy Talked, Khrushchev Triumphed
By NATHAN THRALL and JESSE JAMES WILKINS
Published: May 22, 2008
Had Kennedy not been assassinated, his presidency would've been wrecked by the Silly 'Sixties. While I can't gloat at his death or at Egyptian mobs chanting "Obama, Obama, we are all Osama"--unlike Lefties who think that the shoes thrown at Bush weren't aimed at them, too--I concur that Kennedy's presidency was overrated.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that he laid the ground work for vietnam. For the underinformed, kennedy was made aware of an assiassiantion against the the then preisident of vietnam. instead of speaking with his aides who were experts on the facts on the ground he went on his own and threw an ally under the bus (why does that spund familiar?). this lead to vietnam getting worse just when it had been getting better.
ReplyDeletesorry for the spelling errors.
Delete49erDweet, thanks for that data point. Any lingering respect I had for the vile, treasonous JFK disappeared when I found that he was a prime mover behind the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which little brother Ted championed in JFK's memory.
ReplyDeleteFunny how so many adored him. Was it on looks alone? Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that the Soviets built the Berlin Wall beginnig in August 1961. Kennedy could have bulldozed it from the start but didn't act confirming his weakness in Russian eyes.
ReplyDeleteDo you seriously believe that so soon after WWII and the Korea War the U.S. population would have been eager to take a chance on another war against a major nuclear power?
DeleteWe may look back and snigger at the people who watched Duck And Cover films, knew where the Civil Defense shelters were in the city downtowns in which they worked, and sometimes even built their own backyard bomb shelters but they understood they were living in a dangerous world that might go off at any moment.
Some of us who were alive back then haven't forgotten how frightening those years were. And we're thankful that a washed-up actor and a Polish priest put an end to the Soviet empire without anyone being nuked.