20-08-2016, 01:23 AM
The problem with what you are arguing is that it is contravened by the written evidence in the record, plus the testimony of those on scene, at CIA and in the WH. It is very hard to swallow what you are saying for those reasons.
As per the second question about military aid and why did we just not invade Cuba, this is something that I have thought about for a long time. I have come to the conclusion that if Nixon would have won the election, we would have invaded Cuba. In fact he himself admitted this. If it would have happened under Eisenhower, I also think he would have invaded.
When you focus on Kennedy's overall foreign policy, and the formulation of his ideas about communism and the Third World, and you really study that subject, then you see this question as a gestalt query not as an instance.
Kennedy's ideas on this were that the USA could help those in the Third World who wanted to be helped in order to resist communism. But the USA could not in and of itself do the fighting for them. We could supply aid, and weapons and advisers. But being sensitive to the what Europeans and the USA had done in the past to developing nations, he was not going to let America under his stewardship repeat that sorry record. How else does one explain his African policy, specifically the Congo, where he was for Lumumba and against the Belgians and the British. How else does one explain his Indonesia policy, where he made the Dutch surrender West Irian, maybe the wealthiest island in the world, to Sukarno?
How else does one explain Vietnam? He refused to send in troops in the fall of 1961 when almost everyone in the room was pushing him to do so. Once he committed more advisors, that was it. Kennedy felt we should help South Vietnam with weapons, supplies, and money and advisors, but not combat troops. Having fulfilled that limited commitment, he was pulling out at the time of his death.
In Cuba, he passed up two opportunities to invade the island. During the Bay of Pigs, and during the Missile Crisis. In the first instance, with Zapata collapsing, Kennedy was the only one resisting invasion. In the second instance, it came down to him and his brother. Johnson wanted an invasion. Towards the end, even McNamara did. If you can believe it, Fulbright also.
After years of studying this pattern, that is what I have come up with. Kennedy followed the Truman Doctrine, which every president did since after the war. But he followed it only in its strictest form and its original design.
As per the second question about military aid and why did we just not invade Cuba, this is something that I have thought about for a long time. I have come to the conclusion that if Nixon would have won the election, we would have invaded Cuba. In fact he himself admitted this. If it would have happened under Eisenhower, I also think he would have invaded.
When you focus on Kennedy's overall foreign policy, and the formulation of his ideas about communism and the Third World, and you really study that subject, then you see this question as a gestalt query not as an instance.
Kennedy's ideas on this were that the USA could help those in the Third World who wanted to be helped in order to resist communism. But the USA could not in and of itself do the fighting for them. We could supply aid, and weapons and advisers. But being sensitive to the what Europeans and the USA had done in the past to developing nations, he was not going to let America under his stewardship repeat that sorry record. How else does one explain his African policy, specifically the Congo, where he was for Lumumba and against the Belgians and the British. How else does one explain his Indonesia policy, where he made the Dutch surrender West Irian, maybe the wealthiest island in the world, to Sukarno?
How else does one explain Vietnam? He refused to send in troops in the fall of 1961 when almost everyone in the room was pushing him to do so. Once he committed more advisors, that was it. Kennedy felt we should help South Vietnam with weapons, supplies, and money and advisors, but not combat troops. Having fulfilled that limited commitment, he was pulling out at the time of his death.
In Cuba, he passed up two opportunities to invade the island. During the Bay of Pigs, and during the Missile Crisis. In the first instance, with Zapata collapsing, Kennedy was the only one resisting invasion. In the second instance, it came down to him and his brother. Johnson wanted an invasion. Towards the end, even McNamara did. If you can believe it, Fulbright also.
After years of studying this pattern, that is what I have come up with. Kennedy followed the Truman Doctrine, which every president did since after the war. But he followed it only in its strictest form and its original design.