Chomsky, Cuba and JFK

[Ivan De Mey]

In his most recent article "The Long, Shameful History of American Terrorism" Noam Chomsky tries to put JFK's Cuba policy in the same league as Ronald Reagan's terrorist campaign against Nicaragua:

"In Cuba, after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, President John F. Kennedy launched a murderous and destructive campaign to bring "the terrors of the earth" to Cuba -- the words of Kennedy's close associate, the historian Arthur Schlesinger, in his semiofficial biography of Robert Kennedy, who was assigned responsibility for the terrorist war.

The atrocities against Cuba were severe. The plans were for the terrorism to culminate in an uprising in October 1962, which would lead to a U.S. invasion. By now, scholarship recognizes that this was one reason why Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev placed missiles in Cuba, initiating a crisis that came perilously close to nuclear war. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara later conceded that if he had been a Cuban leader, he "might have expected a U.S. invasion."
American terrorist attacks against Cuba continued for more than 30 years. The cost to Cubans was of course harsh. The accounts of the victims, hardly ever heard in the U.S., were reported in detail for the first time in a study by Canadian scholar Keith Bolender, Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba, in 2010."

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20141103.htm

Chomsky's article is based on New York Times piece from 15 October "CIA Study of Covert Aid Fueled Skepticism About Helping Syrian Rebels." According to Chomsky the Times based it's story an a "CIA review of recent U.S. covert operations to determine their effectiveness".


I wonder: of all their evil covert activities, why did the CIA pick out Operation Mongoose to include in their review? Or is that just Chomsky?

[Scott Kaiser]

American terrorist attacks against Cuba continued for more than 30 years.

I've got news for you, the Kennedy's who refuse to go through with Operation Northwoods, including breaking them up, and imprisoning or jailing some of these men didn't stop them from pursuing what they loved most, "Freedom for the Cuban people".

I am personally aware of some recent circumstances that I would never discuss or drop names on a public forum, but lets just say I knew it wouldn't work, and would end up in arrests, and it did.

Do you really think that the Kennedy administration including Robert Kennedy who was at the helm of the U.S. Justice department was going to get these Cubans to stop and desist? Not Kennedy, LBJ or Nixon could stop them, they are like a virus and once it spreads there is no stopping them.

Nixon thought he could, "I'll show Helms who's boss", but who got the last laugh?

No need for me to tell you that what you think has continued on for more than 30 years, is still going on to this very day. Until the old-timers truly pass away, they will not stop recruiting younger men who are interested in getting their names written in the history books.

I should know.

Now, there are lots of folks who don't care about Cuba anymore, but there are also folks who want their property back from Fidel and Raul because their property meant something to them, if I could, I would put a bullet in Fidel's and Raul's head to liberate the Cuban people that have lived in bondage these 50 plus years.

The problem is, it has become away of life for them, but everyday someone, somewhere, gets arrested in Cuba because they speak against the revolution, well, I'll tell you what, that wasn't a revolution, that was a coup Fidel planned all along without anyone knowing he would become the dictator of Cuba, because he has no other place to go.

[Ivan De Mey]

I wonder: of all their evil covert activities, why did the CIA pick out Operation Mongoose to include in their review? Or is that just Chomsky?

I've had the time to read the New York Times article, and operation Mongoose isn't even mentioned in it, only the Bay of Pigs Operation. Typical for Chomsky, he tries to put the blame for a CIA operation on Kennedy, and doesn't even mention Operation Mongoose was practically terminated by Kennedy in mid-63.