15-06-2018, 05:22 PM
I just finished reading the in-depth review of the CNN Kennedy series by Mr. Jim DiEugenio.
It shows that people like Mr. DiEugenio (and other JFK experts) could have been consulted for a better over-all analysis of the lives of JFK and RFK. The only thing I would add about my impressions of the 6 part series would be:
1. The series failed to be honest about the Kennedy's and McCarthy. I don't think McCarthy was mentioned. The crime-busting nature of the Congressional experience is bogus. RFK worked for the McCarthy Committee for around 7 years. The McCarthy Committee morphed into the McClellan Committee, but the latter was chartered to investigate Communists in the Labor movement, so it was still part of the anti-Communist crusade in the McCarthy tradition. The Hoffa and Giancana stuff was minor grand-standing, in my opinion.
2. JFK really didn't do much of anything in the Senate. In the book "JFK In The Senate", by Shaw, there were only two things JFK did: first, he was involved in a project to honor certain famous Senators in history (big deal!) second, he helped rescue and pass the Landrum-Griffin Labor Bill (an anti-Union bill for the most part).
3. Failure to mention Vietnam would be a major failing. I agree, I don't remember anything about Vietnam in the series. But the failure to mention McCarthy was equally egregious.
4. Apparently, the portrayal of the Kennedy children as "soldiers" belonging to the parents JPK and Rose Kennedy was more accurate than I ever realized. The series quoted someone who described Rose Kennedy as a "battle axe". Wow.
5. By far the most important new thing to me was the marriage and death of Kathleen Kennedy. She married a Protestant English Lord who was killed in the War just weeks after the marriage. Then she remarried another English Protestant Lord. And just weeks later, they both were killed in a plane crash. CNN amazingly reported that Rose felt her daughter's death was DIVINE RETRIBUTION.
This is an example of how one sentence is more tell-tale than the whole rest of the series put together. To my (suspicious) mind, this reporting was pregnant with this question: if Rose thought her daughter's death was divine retribution for marrying outside the faith, did she do anything to help God's "divine retribution" along?
We know the one daughter Rosemary was sacrificed as a "soldier" in the Kennedy cause with criminal lobotomy which rendered her a vegetable. Did Rose arrange for Kathleen's Protestant husband to be sent to the front and put in harm's way? In my opinion, this was the suggestion of the series. And the death of Kathleen and her second Protestant husband in a plane crash weeks later---was this helped along in some way? (That's just what the series implied in my opinion)
The Kennedy parents, if you believe this series, just looked at their children a soldiers who would be sent into battle to die like all soldiers. That apparently accounts for why so many were injured or died violently. The parents were enablers. Their parents were giving them bad advice and encouraged them in risking their lives and health. This happened time after time.
6. As far as the philosophical position of JFK and RFK, to me the record is clear: they both were Catholic anti-Communist super-activists right up until 1959. Then JFK, meeting with liberals like John Kenneth Galbraith and friends, changed his stripes and stabbed the militant Catholic anti-Communist movement in the back. And that's what got him killed (in a nut-shell).
Mr. DiEugenio, in my opinion, may be the best analyst of contemporary history in the US. He has the advantage of being outside the mainstream globalist, propaganda filled-media.
I do think, however, that Mr. DiEugenio puts slightly too much emphasis on JFK's actions vis-a-vis Africa, India and Indonesia and too little emphasis on JFK's NATO, Germany and Berlin policy. But this is, I admit, splitting hairs.
Overall, an excellent review of an important media event, the CNN Kennedy Dynasty Series.
James Lateer
It shows that people like Mr. DiEugenio (and other JFK experts) could have been consulted for a better over-all analysis of the lives of JFK and RFK. The only thing I would add about my impressions of the 6 part series would be:
1. The series failed to be honest about the Kennedy's and McCarthy. I don't think McCarthy was mentioned. The crime-busting nature of the Congressional experience is bogus. RFK worked for the McCarthy Committee for around 7 years. The McCarthy Committee morphed into the McClellan Committee, but the latter was chartered to investigate Communists in the Labor movement, so it was still part of the anti-Communist crusade in the McCarthy tradition. The Hoffa and Giancana stuff was minor grand-standing, in my opinion.
2. JFK really didn't do much of anything in the Senate. In the book "JFK In The Senate", by Shaw, there were only two things JFK did: first, he was involved in a project to honor certain famous Senators in history (big deal!) second, he helped rescue and pass the Landrum-Griffin Labor Bill (an anti-Union bill for the most part).
3. Failure to mention Vietnam would be a major failing. I agree, I don't remember anything about Vietnam in the series. But the failure to mention McCarthy was equally egregious.
4. Apparently, the portrayal of the Kennedy children as "soldiers" belonging to the parents JPK and Rose Kennedy was more accurate than I ever realized. The series quoted someone who described Rose Kennedy as a "battle axe". Wow.
5. By far the most important new thing to me was the marriage and death of Kathleen Kennedy. She married a Protestant English Lord who was killed in the War just weeks after the marriage. Then she remarried another English Protestant Lord. And just weeks later, they both were killed in a plane crash. CNN amazingly reported that Rose felt her daughter's death was DIVINE RETRIBUTION.
This is an example of how one sentence is more tell-tale than the whole rest of the series put together. To my (suspicious) mind, this reporting was pregnant with this question: if Rose thought her daughter's death was divine retribution for marrying outside the faith, did she do anything to help God's "divine retribution" along?
We know the one daughter Rosemary was sacrificed as a "soldier" in the Kennedy cause with criminal lobotomy which rendered her a vegetable. Did Rose arrange for Kathleen's Protestant husband to be sent to the front and put in harm's way? In my opinion, this was the suggestion of the series. And the death of Kathleen and her second Protestant husband in a plane crash weeks later---was this helped along in some way? (That's just what the series implied in my opinion)
The Kennedy parents, if you believe this series, just looked at their children a soldiers who would be sent into battle to die like all soldiers. That apparently accounts for why so many were injured or died violently. The parents were enablers. Their parents were giving them bad advice and encouraged them in risking their lives and health. This happened time after time.
6. As far as the philosophical position of JFK and RFK, to me the record is clear: they both were Catholic anti-Communist super-activists right up until 1959. Then JFK, meeting with liberals like John Kenneth Galbraith and friends, changed his stripes and stabbed the militant Catholic anti-Communist movement in the back. And that's what got him killed (in a nut-shell).
Mr. DiEugenio, in my opinion, may be the best analyst of contemporary history in the US. He has the advantage of being outside the mainstream globalist, propaganda filled-media.
I do think, however, that Mr. DiEugenio puts slightly too much emphasis on JFK's actions vis-a-vis Africa, India and Indonesia and too little emphasis on JFK's NATO, Germany and Berlin policy. But this is, I admit, splitting hairs.
Overall, an excellent review of an important media event, the CNN Kennedy Dynasty Series.
James Lateer