11-01-2014, 02:00 PM
From JFK and the Unspeakable:
In fact Averell Harriman sabotaged Kennedy's proposal for a mutual deescalation
with North Vietnam. In response to the president's order to wire
such instructions to Galbraith, Harriman " struck the language on deescalation
from the message with a heavy pencil line , " as scholar Gareth
Porter discovered by examining Harriman's papers. Harriman dictated
instructions to his colleague Edward Rice for a telegram to Galbraith that
instead " changed the mutual de-escalation approach into a threat of U.S.
escalation of the war if the North Vietnamese refused to accept U.S. terms, "
thereby subverting Kennedy's purpose. 130
When Rice tried to re-introduce Kennedy's peaceful initiative into the
telegram, Harriman intervened. He again crossed out the de-escalation proposal,
then " simply killed the telegram altogether. " l31 As a result of Harriman's
obstruction, Galbraith never did receive JFK's mutual de-escalation
proposal to North Vietnam. 132
...
Averell Harriman, for example, who had been the president's trusted test ban
negotiator in Moscow, was now doing everything he could with Hilsman
and Forrestal (and the CIA's Helms behind the scenes) to push through with
Lodge the Saigon coup they had manipulated Kennedy into supporting in
the first place .
In fact Averell Harriman sabotaged Kennedy's proposal for a mutual deescalation
with North Vietnam. In response to the president's order to wire
such instructions to Galbraith, Harriman " struck the language on deescalation
from the message with a heavy pencil line , " as scholar Gareth
Porter discovered by examining Harriman's papers. Harriman dictated
instructions to his colleague Edward Rice for a telegram to Galbraith that
instead " changed the mutual de-escalation approach into a threat of U.S.
escalation of the war if the North Vietnamese refused to accept U.S. terms, "
thereby subverting Kennedy's purpose. 130
When Rice tried to re-introduce Kennedy's peaceful initiative into the
telegram, Harriman intervened. He again crossed out the de-escalation proposal,
then " simply killed the telegram altogether. " l31 As a result of Harriman's
obstruction, Galbraith never did receive JFK's mutual de-escalation
proposal to North Vietnam. 132
...
Averell Harriman, for example, who had been the president's trusted test ban
negotiator in Moscow, was now doing everything he could with Hilsman
and Forrestal (and the CIA's Helms behind the scenes) to push through with
Lodge the Saigon coup they had manipulated Kennedy into supporting in
the first place .