RFK Jr: The fragility of (JFKs) control over the military Ellsberg: Virtually a coup atmosphere Last edited Mon Nov 25, 2013, 10:46 PM - Edit history (1) My father was not exaggerating to Dobrynin the fragility of White House control over the military. During the 13 days, the presidents hold on power became increasingly tenuous as spooks and generals, apoplectic at JFKs reluctance to attack Cuba, engaged in dozens of acts of insubordination designed to trigger a nuclear exchange. CIA spymaster William Harvey screamed at the president and my father during a White House meeting: We wouldnt be in such trouble now if you guys had some balls in the Bay of Pigs. Defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who years later leaked the Pentagon Papers, reported, There was virtually a coup atmosphere in Pentagon circles. Incensed brass were in a state of disbelief at what they considered bald treason by the president. Spoiling for a war to end all wars, Gen. Curtis LeMay, the man who pioneered the use of napalm against civilians in Tokyo during World War II, found consolation by allowing himself to believe all was not lost. Why dont we go in there and make a strike on Monday anyway? LeMay said, as he watched the crisis subside. He understood the perils to our Constitution from a national-security state and mistrusted zealots and ideologues. He thought other nations ought to fight their own civil wars and choose their own governments and not ask the U.S. to do it for them. Yet the world he imagined and fought for has receded so far below the horizon that its no longer even part of the permissible narrative inside the Beltway or in the mainstream press. Critics who endeavor to debate the survival of American democracy within the national-security state risk marginalization as crackpots and kooks. His greatest, most heroic aspirations for a peaceful, demilitarized foreign policy are the forbidden debates of the modern political era. rollingstone/politics/news/john-f-kennedys-vision-of-peace-20131120 9
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 23:34:36 +0000
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