Re: [Marxism] conspiracy: credulous left of today

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Charles wrote:
> The key class issue in the Kennedy assassination is that it was most likely
> a hardline coup d'etat against Kennedy for failure and weakness in the Cuban
> missile crisis ( Cuban rev was not overthrown) and especially the Nuclear
> Test Ban treaty with the Soviets. The front line of the class struggle in
> the period was the Cold War. Ergo...

This is fresh on my mind since I just submitted a review of Max Frankel's
book on the Cuban missile crisis to the URPE journal. In reality, the USA
came away as the big winner in the crisis. Russia removed its missiles,
while outdated US missiles were removed from Turkey. Plus, the fact that
this unequal exchange was taking place was suppressed in the mass media.
JFK came away the conquering hero, while Khruschchev reputedly was ousted
for placating imperialism.

Assassination is an extreme measure. It is a symptom of extreme political
divisions in the ruling class, but the two parties were more united in
general political perspectives in the late 1950s and early 60s than they
have been up till now. Keep in mind that JFK attacked Nixon from the right
as being too soft on Communism in 1960. He was doing the same thing that
JFKerry was doing last year when he lambasted Bush for not making a
sufficient investment in Iraq to win the war.

You really need to go back and read the speeches of bourgeois politicians
of the period. They were more united than divided. On domestic policies,
the Democrats were seen as somewhat more progressive on civil rights but in
many ways JFK was doing nothing except continuing along the path
established by Eisenhower.

Generally speaking, the ruling class prefers to avoid conspiracies of this
type. For the past 200 years of bourgeois politics in the USA, nearly all
assassination attempts--successful or not--are carried out by fanatics with
little connection to bourgeois parties.

There is one exception, however. I speak of John Wilkes Booth who was
simply acting on the thwarted desires of the plantocracy. In other words,
there was a class basis for his violence. Those who would attribute such a
motive for the likes of Lee Harvey Oswald are stretching things in my opinion.


Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org


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