Re: [Marxism] "sink the Maine again, or something"

[andrew pollack <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

Good timing, Louis, because here's the flip side to the story which
proves in its own way how maniacal and deceitful our ruling class is.
Gary Hart reviewed Eric Alterman's book on lying presidents:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E1D61538F933A25753C1A9
629C8B63
and this week Alterman wrote a letter complaining about how Hart
pooh-poohed his claim that it was actually lying. He used as an example
how Kennedy insisted on denying that he agreed to pull missiles aimed at
the Soviet Union out of Turkey in exchange for Soviet missiles being
pulled outof Cuba, and Alterman insisted correctly that this was a
big-time lie with a clear purpose:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/books/review/letters-final.html
The bbc by the way has a simple and apparently truthful recounting of the
process:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/monarchs_leaders/kennedy_cuban_missile
_06.shtml
In it Kennedy comes off as both rational -- telling his advisers the
Soviets had logic on their side in making this demand -- and deceitful in
insisting the public not know.

I remember the first time I heard about the Turkey part of the story
thinking, geez, who knew? And why did the Soviets let them keep the
missiles there so long?

Now here's the moral of this story: once in a blue moon I'm reminded
Turkey was part of the deal, and say to myself, "Next discussion about US
foreign policy where it's relevant I can use this as an example of how
imperialism acts as the aggressor, taking the first offensive step, and
blames the victim for defending himself." And just as surely when the
time comes around I forget the example because it's buried so deep.


On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 20:45:32 -0500 Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> (You might recall that my initial comments on Max Frankel's new book
> on
> the Cuban missile crisis were based on a NY Times book review that
> made
> the case for JFK's multilateralism as opposed to Bush's adventurism.
>
> Supposedly, his handling of the 1962 crisis is an object lesson for
> how
> to do foreign policy right. Furthermore, Kerry's presidency would
> have
> returned us to the days of the JFK "wise men" and away from the
> cowboy
> unilateralism of the yahoo Dubya. Now that I have immersed myself in
>
> Frankel's book, I am astonished to discover how truly deranged and
> dangerous the JFK White House was. His advisers included Curtis
> LeMay
> and Dean Acheson who advocated that the US launch a surprise air
> attack
> on Cuba consisting of 401 sorties. Bobby Kennedy's attitude toward
> this
> proposal makes Donald Rumsfeld look like Phil Donohue by
> comparison.)
>
> Max Frankel:
>
> McNamara's blockade idea was gaining favor, but there was as yet no
>
> limit on the kind of action the Kennedy brothers were willing to
> examine. If the choice was to attack, the president still preferred
> a
> surgical strike at the missiles alone, but he told the chiefs to
> plan
> also for a full-scale invasion. Robert Kennedy even strained to find
> a
> pretext for invasion. He toyed with the thought of staging a fake
> attack
> on the American naval base at Guantanamo or staging another ship
> disaster in Havana?"sink the Maine again, or something." He remarked
>
> with satisfaction that an invasion would get rid of Castro as well
> as
> the missiles.
>
> These were attitudes brought over from a separate high-level meeting
>
> that day in which Robert Kennedy had complained about the slow pace
> of
> sabotage and subversion against Cuba under Operation Mongoose. But
> his
> wild mood shifts were surely confusing to the conferees as they tried
> to
> discern the direction of the president's thinking. Only that
> morning, at
> the first ExCom meeting, Bobby had scribbled a note to Ted Sorensen
>
> saying, "I now know how Tojo felt when he was planning Pearl
> Harbor."
>
> --
> Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
>
>
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>

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