27-06-2017, 03:11 AM
Thanks for this Jim. I read a lot of left-leaning blogs and often see articles or comments that disparage Kennedy using the Chomsky/Cockburn line. I didn't know about the Pol Pot and Holocaust denial stuff concerning Chomsky.
There seems to be very little recognition of how JFK was fighting the national security establishment on third world nationalism, military intervention in SE Asia and the Cold War in general. They still have an image of Kennedy as an unrepentant cold warrior and even blame him for stuff like Agent Orange which Kennedy did authorize as a selective and carefully controlled joint program of defoliant operations in Vietnam starting with the clearance of key routes and proceed thereafter to food denial only if the most careful basis of resettlement and alternative food supply has been created. The program was not widely expanded until the escalation of the war under LBJ in 1965. And the contamination of Agent Orange with dioxin was not even known until 1969 (same link as above). Yet, I have seen Kennedy blamed for this time and time again on left-leaning blogs.
Another sore point is the missile gap, which Kennedy did (to his later regret) emphasize in his campaign. But he was hardly the only one to believe it was true or to use it for political purposes. No one ever seems to acknowledge that Eisenhower and Dulles kept secret the fact that the US had a big advantage in missiles and other strategic sources because they didn't want to reveal how they knew that (U2 overflights and the first spy satellites).
And yeah, Democracy Now thinks the Chomsky is an irrefutable source on, well, everything. That's one of the reasons I rarely listen to it anymore although I must point out that I did once hear Amy Goodman ask Oliver Stone who killed JFK. So there's that.
There seems to be very little recognition of how JFK was fighting the national security establishment on third world nationalism, military intervention in SE Asia and the Cold War in general. They still have an image of Kennedy as an unrepentant cold warrior and even blame him for stuff like Agent Orange which Kennedy did authorize as a selective and carefully controlled joint program of defoliant operations in Vietnam starting with the clearance of key routes and proceed thereafter to food denial only if the most careful basis of resettlement and alternative food supply has been created. The program was not widely expanded until the escalation of the war under LBJ in 1965. And the contamination of Agent Orange with dioxin was not even known until 1969 (same link as above). Yet, I have seen Kennedy blamed for this time and time again on left-leaning blogs.
Another sore point is the missile gap, which Kennedy did (to his later regret) emphasize in his campaign. But he was hardly the only one to believe it was true or to use it for political purposes. No one ever seems to acknowledge that Eisenhower and Dulles kept secret the fact that the US had a big advantage in missiles and other strategic sources because they didn't want to reveal how they knew that (U2 overflights and the first spy satellites).
And yeah, Democracy Now thinks the Chomsky is an irrefutable source on, well, everything. That's one of the reasons I rarely listen to it anymore although I must point out that I did once hear Amy Goodman ask Oliver Stone who killed JFK. So there's that.