RFK Jr: "The fragility of (JFK's) control over the military" Ellsberg: "Virtually a coup atmosphere"
<snip>
"My father was not exaggerating to Dobrynin the fragility of White House control over the military. During the 13 days, the president's hold on power became increasingly tenuous as spooks and generals, apoplectic at JFK's reluctance to attack Cuba, engaged in dozens of acts of insubordination designed to trigger a nuclear exchange. CIA spymaster William Harvey screamed at the president and my father during a White House meeting: "We wouldn't be in such trouble now if you guys had some balls in the Bay of Pigs."
"Defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who years later leaked the Pentagon Papers, reported, "There was virtually a coup atmosphere in Pentagon circles." Incensed brass were in a state of disbelief at what they considered bald treason by the president. Spoiling for a war to end all wars, Gen. Curtis LeMay, the man who pioneered the use of napalm against civilians in Tokyo during World War II, found consolation by allowing himself to believe all was not lost. "Why don't we go in there and make a strike on Monday anyway?" LeMay said, as he watched the crisis subside.
<snip>
"He understood the perils to our Constitution from a national-security state and mistrusted zealots and ideologues. He thought other nations ought to fight their own civil wars and choose their own governments and not ask the U.S. to do it for them. Yet the world he imagined and fought for has receded so far below the horizon that it's no longer even part of the permissible narrative inside the Beltway or in the mainstream press. Critics who endeavor to debate the survival of American democracy within the national-security state risk marginalization as crackpots and kooks. His greatest, most heroic aspirations for a peaceful, demilitarized foreign policy are the forbidden debates of the modern political era."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/john-f-kennedys-vision-of-peace-20131120
WillyT
(72,631 posts)villager
(26,001 posts)Thanks for the K&R, WillyT!
WillyT
(72,631 posts)What a "happy coincidence" for the Military Industrial Complex, that Oswald came along at such a perfect time.
What luck, eh ???
Christ... and WE'RE the ones accused of being gullible.
Oh... and Ruby shot Oswald to spare Jackie, the nation, some shit like that.
villager
(26,001 posts)...with successfully planned killings.
And in the case of James Earl Ray, he obliged by leaving a hand-printed rifle behind, just like Oswald!
Happy happy times for our domestic right wing!
indepat
(20,899 posts)up for we the people.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)If RFK isn't trustworthy I don't know who is.
This is an eye opener coming from him.
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)northoftheborder
(7,572 posts)Only intensifies my wondering about the real story of the murder of JFK. Intensifies my admiration of the man. How different the history of this country might have been.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)And if the Generals were willing to initiate nuclear Armaggeden...
Shooting a President looks easy.
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)northoftheborder
(7,572 posts)progressoid
(49,991 posts)emsimon33
(3,128 posts)Response to villager (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
toby jo
(1,269 posts)American Friends Service Committee.
I've been thinking lately that the best route might be to actually get a general in the white house. But is there anybody left who isn't drunk and bloated on all that power? Any Eisenhowers out there?
I don't think any president who isn't military can take these guys down anymore. Either they get intimidated, or they get bit by the lust of it all.
MinM
(2,650 posts)The White House tapes disclosed a few years ago recorded General Lemay's open hostility towards JFK:
General Curtis LeMay: You're in a pretty bad fix, Mr. President.
President Kennedy: What did you say?
General Curtis LeMay: You're in a pretty bad fix.
President Kennedy: Well, maybe you haven't noticed: You're in it with me.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146309/quotes
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021414805#post12
MinM
(2,650 posts)Enemies, Abroad and at Home
JFK: A President Betrayed Recounts Kennedys Opposition
The New York Times
November 21, 2013
Excellent documentary. Makes clear the extent to which Kennedy faced serious opposition from his own military and other high national security officials.
I agree with Theodore Sorensen that JFK kept us out of at least one nuclear war during his brief time in office.
One great clip in the film: Senator Kennedy, about 1954, after a trip to Vietnam, cogently arguing why we shouldn't attempt to make a military stand there, because the opposition was basically nationalists, even if they were left of enter. Aside from all the documentation that Kennedy had no intention of putting in the merican Army, or escalating beyond "advisors," its clear that the military was chafing at the bit to escalate--and they got their wish when JFK was assassinated and Johnson became president.
DSL
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=20815
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)I heard that a dim-witted commie spy, who was a lousy shot, got a cheap rifle and managed a feat of marksmanship that the nation's top riflemen couldn't match with high-performance rifles. that the commie spy was admitted back into the country without incident after defecting to the USSR and presumably spilling secrets. And that no 1963 right winger had anything whatsoever to do with the murder.
villager
(26,001 posts)In fact, it became a kind of template for subsequent "lone nuts," who also "coincidentally" killed those who were standing in the way of those also in power.
And those killings happened exactly the way were told, too!
What, you one of those fuzzy-heads who think that asking questions... has some kind of role in a democracy!!?
Uncle Joe
(58,366 posts)Thanks for the thread, villager.