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Revisionist of the mythology, perhaps, but certainly not of the history, with one exception.
Will, in particular, is uncharacteristically accurate in this column. If it were a scholarly paper he could have given solid cites to the documentary record, including the tapes JFK had installed in the White House.
Fettman (who I've never read before) errs rather seriously, in his zeal to debunk "conspiracy theorists". In 1963 JFK signed an Executive Order that would have severely limited US deployments to Vietnam, which was nullified by a Johnson EO shortly after he took power. If you're interested, search the appropriate sections of ratical.org.
Part of the JFK myth that no conservative would touch, of course, is that of JFK as a dedicated "liberal". Kennedy campaigned against on tax cuts and militaristic fear (the "missile gap", etc). Throughout his Congressional career, JFK was one of the fiercest red-baiters in either House, as the Congressional Record shows, and his knee-jerk anti-communism continued until his death. The assassination plans of Operation Mongoose, run by his brother, begat the fantastic Operation Northwoods...which some folks out on the margins think was finally carried out on 9/11/01, as a "Pearl Harbor" to firmly establish a replacement for the old commie boogieman, and a justification for continued growth of what Eisenhower warned against: the military-industrial-congressional complex. But I digress...
JFK's income tax cut on the highest rates was the largest in our history at the time. So was his capital gains tax cut, which remained the biggest cut in that tax until Bill Clinton reduced it by almost 25%.
If you've got any solid documentary historical references that refute any of this, I'd love to read them.
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