50 Years Ago Today

[Albert Doyle]

The purpose of the cowardly CIA assassination of Jack Kennedy was carried out when 3500 Marines landed in Viet Nam:




http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio.../24411209/

[Herbert Blenner]

The purpose of the cowardly CIA assassination of Jack Kennedy was carried out when 3500 Marines landed in Viet Nam:




http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio.../24411209/

The shift in foreign policy following the assassination of President Kennedy was abrupt and violent.
In July of 1964, Congressman and Warren Commissioner Gerald R. Ford was among a group of Republicans who proposed that the United States take over operational command of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam commonly known as South Vietnam.

http://hdblenner.com/temps/070164.gif

This suggestion came one month before David attacked Goliath in the Gulf of Tonkin.
In both cases, David prevailed.

[Jim Hargrove]

The purpose of the cowardly CIA assassination of Jack Kennedy was carried out when 3500 Marines landed in Viet Nam:


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio.../24411209/

The clearest and most obvious evidence from 1963 suggests, to me at least, that the Agency-led coup d'etat was designed to provoke an invasion of Cuba, with the Vietnamese adventure simply a bonus. But what Jim DiEugenio and a few others have shown is that the attempted foreign policy reversals started during the Kennedy Administration were even more widespread than previously imagined. That the MIC surely felt betrayed by JFK in 1963 seems impossible to deny today.

[Herbert Blenner]

The purpose of the cowardly CIA assassination of Jack Kennedy was carried out when 3500 Marines landed in Viet Nam:


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio.../24411209/

The clearest and most obvious evidence from 1963 suggests, to me at least, that the Agency-led coup d'etat was designed to provoke an invasion of Cuba, with the Vietnamese adventure simply a bonus. But what Jim DiEugenio and a few others have shown is that the attempted foreign policy reversals started during the Kennedy Administration were even more widespread than previously imagined. That the MIC surely felt betrayed by JFK in 1963 seems impossible to deny today.

Source: Warren Commission Testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine on March 19, 1964 - 3H, 8

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/w..._0008b.htm

Mrs. PAINE. When he was not present?
Mr. JENNER. That is right.
Mrs. PAINE. My recollection is that he was present most of the weekend. He went out to buy groceries, came in with a cheery call to his two girls, saying, "Tabutchski," which means girls, the Russian word for girls, as he came in the
door. It was more like Harvey than I had seen him before. He remembered this time. I saw him reading a pocketbook.
Mr. JENNER. The Commission is interested in his readings. To the best of your ability to recall, tell us. You noticed it now, of course.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes. I don't recall the title of it. I do recall that I loaned him a pocketbook at one point. I can't even recall what it was about. But I might if I saw it.

[Albert Doyle]

They probably got cold feet with Cuba when they realized it would probably incur nuclear war. Who knows, somewhere there could have been a decision that the favorable window had lapsed so an open front against communism created in the Asian geographical equivalent to Cuba, Viet Nam, which was located right at the southern foot of communist Asia, just like Cuba was at the foot of the US, was a better alternative. The commies had stuck it to us with Cuba and we stuck it right back to them with Viet Nam.

[Tracy Riddle]

They probably got cold feet with Cuba when they realized it would probably incur nuclear war. Who knows, somewhere there could have been a decision that the favorable window had lapsed so an open front against communism created in the Asian geographical equivalent to Cuba, Viet Nam, which was located right at the southern foot of communist Asia, just like Cuba was at the foot of the US, was a better alternative. The commies had stuck it to us with Cuba and we stuck it right back to them with Viet Nam.

It's pretty clear that the plotters wanted to create a "communist conspiracy" that killed JFK, so they could start a war. The rest of the Establishment said, "Nope. Lone nut. Case closed. We will have some small-scale wars like Vietnam, but no nuclear conflict with the Soviets."

[Drew Phipps]

Albert seems to be suggesting that the Armed Forces carried out the assassination then changed their mind about the ensuing war. I wonder why, after succeeding in the coup, the plotters wouldn't get what they wanted.


Tracy seems to be suggesting that the plotters were farther removed from foreign policy decisions than the "Establishment." That phrase (when capitalized) usually refers to moneyed interests centered in the northeastern part of the US, commonly believed to control a) the economy and b) the political process. Do you then agree Tracy, that the plotters were military? Or have I misunderstood the use of the word establishment in this context?

[Albert Doyle]

It's not like there isn't serious evidence to back it up. It think we have a good idea of who influenced the assassination in terms of CIA and their counterparts like LeMay and Lansdale. Seems like a regressive question. I don't see too many personnel coming forward at Bethesda and the one brave one who did, Pitzer, got wacked mob-style by your bright shining government.


The killers took Viet Nam as a prize. They were going to prove to the dead president the rightness of what he was trying to prevent. It was sheer poetic justice that it blew up in their faces. And sheer tragedy to those Americans they killed.



Come and get me you Swiftboat cowards...

[Drew Phipps]

I just think that from a military point of view, (i.e. application of force, logistics) Cuba is a better fight to pick than far-off Vietnam. You really can't justify Vietnam in terms of strategic value unless you really really really believe in the domino theory; or, you just can't field an army without the opium profits from SE Asia.

[Albert Doyle]

I suggest you read this site a little more.


There's good evidence Johnson and Bundy tweeked the NSAMs just before JFK's killing in order to make it appear Kennedy reversed on Viet Nam shortly before his death and intended escalation.


Greg Burnham did some excellent work on this.