21-09-2013, 05:13 PM
Thanks to Jan for pointing me to this thread.
All interested parties should be aware of a possible motive for leaking/publishing the original Guardian story: promotion of the new Man from U.N.C.L.E. film, with a plot that reportedly revolves around "lost" nukes and WMD proliferation.
Even if such is the case, of course, the event itself is a matter of record.
As for the near disaster's psychological and spiritual impacts on JFK, we can but speculate, albeit in an informed and open-minded fashion. (By the way, the "when" of JFK's awareness is beside the point, so let's not get sidetracked on that question.)
I laugh out loud at those who maintain that the president's intellectual growth and spiritual evolution had reached their collective end point long before he held public office -- that the mind and spirit of John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been in some sort of lock box for decades.
Such a point of view insults and demeans the man.
Where is wisdom or courage to be found in the person of an ideologue?
What worth is to be found in an unexamined life?
Name just one hero who emerged from his or her quest unchanged by it.
My informed speculation is that this event, along with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Missile Crisis, the death of his two-day-old son*, and other events to which we are not privy had profound and lasting intellectual and impacts on JFK in his totality.
__________________________________________________________
*George Michael Evica and I had many discussions centering on evident-to-the-public changes in JFK's behavior -- toward his wife and others -- in the wake of the passing of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy.
All interested parties should be aware of a possible motive for leaking/publishing the original Guardian story: promotion of the new Man from U.N.C.L.E. film, with a plot that reportedly revolves around "lost" nukes and WMD proliferation.
Even if such is the case, of course, the event itself is a matter of record.
As for the near disaster's psychological and spiritual impacts on JFK, we can but speculate, albeit in an informed and open-minded fashion. (By the way, the "when" of JFK's awareness is beside the point, so let's not get sidetracked on that question.)
I laugh out loud at those who maintain that the president's intellectual growth and spiritual evolution had reached their collective end point long before he held public office -- that the mind and spirit of John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been in some sort of lock box for decades.
Such a point of view insults and demeans the man.
Where is wisdom or courage to be found in the person of an ideologue?
What worth is to be found in an unexamined life?
Name just one hero who emerged from his or her quest unchanged by it.
My informed speculation is that this event, along with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Missile Crisis, the death of his two-day-old son*, and other events to which we are not privy had profound and lasting intellectual and impacts on JFK in his totality.
__________________________________________________________
*George Michael Evica and I had many discussions centering on evident-to-the-public changes in JFK's behavior -- toward his wife and others -- in the wake of the passing of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy.
Charles Drago
Co-Founder, Deep Politics Forum
If an individual, through either his own volition or events over which he had no control, found himself taking up residence in a country undefined by flags or physical borders, he could be assured of one immediate and abiding consequence: He was on his own, and solitude and loneliness would probably be his companions unto the grave.
-- James Lee Burke, Rain Gods
You can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity.
-- Graham Greene
Co-Founder, Deep Politics Forum
If an individual, through either his own volition or events over which he had no control, found himself taking up residence in a country undefined by flags or physical borders, he could be assured of one immediate and abiding consequence: He was on his own, and solitude and loneliness would probably be his companions unto the grave.
-- James Lee Burke, Rain Gods
You can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity.
-- Graham Greene