Kennedy vs Johnson in the Third World

[Jim DiEugenio]

http://www.ctka.net/2014_reviews/rakove.html

Another good book about Kennedy's Third World revolutionary policy and how LBJ screwed it all up

Good research by the author and a shame it had to wait for so long.

[Albert Doyle]

There's a series of classified letters between JFK and Ben Gurion where JFK was also trying to keep Israel from getting nukes. This is accurately covered in Piper's controversial book Final Judgment.

Johnson initiated a policy where JFK's engagement investment in non-aligned countries morphed into the grotesquely lopsided US aid to Israel. It seems obvious that US used CIA type psy-ops to replace JFK's policy with backing of "God's chosen people". This is typically how CIA creeps in and hides its true face behind a mask of unquestionable credibility and almost occult-like approval of the highest order. The USS Liberty incident is a prime example of the methods of this alliance that is shuffled under the rug.

[Drew Phipps]

Truly, to my mind, there are only three foreign powers which, as the way events went, could believably been involved in the JFK assassination. I exclude the USSR only because a) had they been involved, (or even had foreknowledge) the missiles would have been in the air before the echoes of the shots died away, and b) in JFK, they had a President they could "work with," or "blackmail," with his non-public concessions of US missiles in Turkey, and his non-public promise not to invade Cuba. Cuba obviously had a motive, in that the CIA had tried (and would try again) to assassinate Castro, and Castro was crazy enough to order it. Vietnam had a motive, and Madame Nhu had publicly committed herself to vengeance for the deaths of the Diem brothers, for which the US does bear a shameful part of the blame. The only other nation with a credible motive was Israel, and their drive to acquire nukes, and Kennedy's attempts to stop it. And that, frankly, is terrifying. Anyone have any good reading concerning Johnson's pre-assassination contacts with Israel?

[Jim DiEugenio]

IMO, none of those countries were formally involved in JFK's murder.

The point of Rakove's book is how Kennedy's foreign policy so much altered the USA relations with these countries to such an extensive degree.

That people involved in the old regime, decided that he was changing things too fast. ANd it has to stop.

And did it ever. Thanks to old Cold Warrior Lyndon.

WHat I like about the two books is that they finally take us away from the total concentration on Cuba and Vietnam. Kennedy's foreign policy was much bigger than that. And what was at stake was even more than that. To reduce it to just Vietnam and CUba is reductive of who he was and what was on the line for the Power Elite.

[Dawn Meredith]

Truly, to my mind, there are only three foreign powers which, as the way events went, could believably been involved in the JFK assassination. I exclude the USSR only because a) had they been involved, (or even had foreknowledge) the missiles would have been in the air before the echoes of the shots died away, and b) in JFK, they had a President they could "work with," or "blackmail," with his non-public concessions of US missiles in Turkey, and his non-public promise not to invade Cuba. Cuba obviously had a motive, in that the CIA had tried (and would try again) to assassinate Castro, and Castro was crazy enough to order it. Vietnam had a motive, and Madame Nhu had publicly committed herself to vengeance for the deaths of the Diem brothers, for which the US does bear a shameful part of the blame. The only other nation with a credible motive was Israel, and their drive to acquire nukes, and Kennedy's attempts to stop it. And that, frankly, is terrifying. Anyone have any good reading concerning Johnson's pre-assassination contacts with Israel?

Drew the idea that Russia or Cuba was involved has long been proven wrong. JFK was in peace talks with both leaders. Read JFK and the Unspeakable to learn about Russia. And a book from the 80's by British Author Anthony Summers details JFK and Castro's plans. (I am sure there are many others that detail all of this as well. But those are the first two that come to mind).
You can actually find this information on the net too.
I have not read Piper's book.

Dawn

[Dawn Meredith]

http://www.ctka.net/2014_reviews/rakove.html

Another good book about Kennedy's Third World revolutionary policy and how LBJ screwed it all up

Good research by the author and a shame it had to wait for so long.

Another terrific review Jim. When I hear the ignorant attempt to say JFK and Johnson had the same foreign policy I hardly know where to begin to correct this false notion.

Dawn

[Drew Phipps]

I said "could" and I'm talking about motives here. I never said "was involved." If you believe that a group of US conspirators sought to change foreign policy by linking the assassination with a foreign country, they would have to pin the tail on a credible donkey. Which leaves, to my mind, only three "straw men": Cuba, Vietnam, and Israel. We did get a war after all (Vietnam), but it wasn't the war the US military wanted (Cuba). The fact that the assassination did not, in fact, get successfully blamed on any straw man, means either a) that there wasn't any advance plot (whose aim was to influence US foreign policy), or b) that the plotters' purpose got "hijacked" by a separate group with a different agenda.

[Albert Doyle]

Piper makes the same mistake as mafia-did-it and Johnson mastermind authors by trying to say Israel sponsored the assassination. Any look at the assassination would see it was a domestic job with CIA and military members being the strong facilitators. Piper's like Nelson. In his zeal to pin it on Israel he goes out and uncovers a Mossad/mob/CIA underground that stretched to the Mediterranean and more importantly Swiss banks. CIA was clever enough to exploit the sympathies and interests of this cabal for its post-assassination political landscape knowing that, like Viet Nam, zionism was something it could piggyback its agenda on to distract Americans from the coup it had just committed in order to acheive it. I don't see what the fuss is all about. Drago's model still holds. Angleton was CIA liaison to Israel. He was also smuggling nuke parts behind Kennedy's back and undermining his negotiations with Israel (Ask Vanunu). When the plotters pushed the button on JFK this covert relationship became policy under Johnson. Viet Nam was the CIA's baby but so was Israel. Contrary to Truman's complaint, CIA was now making foreign policy and doing so by assassination and subversion of democracy.

The most important part of Final Judgment is the exposure of the underground Swiss bank network where mob and drug proceeds were laundered for covert use. CIA exploited the heroin trade from SE Asia through the French Connection and later cocaine from the Americas.

[Tracy Riddle]

National boundaries matter less and less all the time, especially to the global elites and their international criminal-financial-intelligence networks.

JENSENYou are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars!, Reichmarks, rubles, rin, pounds and shekels! (Network script, 1976)

[Jim Hargrove]

From the additional foreign policy stuff that has come out in the last decades (Douglass, etc.) it is remarkable how many people in the MIC must have distrusted JFK, to put it mildly. It is hard to imagine how different the U.S. might be today had Kennedy served out his term(s). His assassination, and the others during the 1960s, look more and more like real turning points in our history. Since only progressives were targeted, you have to wonder if all the killings were connected, somehow, or at least I do.