The anniversary of JFKs assassination is this week. Here is one historians thoughts, from the Wall Street Journal. Quote: The facts are that President Kennedy was a martyr in the Cold War struggle against communism. The assassin was a communist and not a bigot or a right-winger. Oswald defected from the U.S. to the Soviet Union in 1959, vowing when he did so that he could no longer live under a capitalist system. He returned to the U.S. with his Russian wife in 1962, disappointed with life under Soviet communism but without giving up his Marxist beliefs or his hatred of the U.S. By 1963, Oswald had transferred his political allegiance to Castros communist regime in Cuba. In April 1963, Oswald attempted to shoot Edwin Walker, a retired U.S. Army general, as he sat at a desk in his dining room. Walker was the head of the Dallas chapter of the John Birch Society and a figure then in the news because of his opposition to school integration and his demand that the Castro regime be overthrown. The rifle Oswald used in the attempt at Walkers life was the one he used to shoot Kennedy…. The assassins motives for shooting Kennedy were undoubtedly linked to a wish to interfere with the presidents campaign to overthrow Castros government…. The JFK assassination was an event in the Cold War, but it was interpreted by Americas liberal leadership as an event in the civil-rights crusade. This interpretation sowed endless confusion about the motives of the assassin and the meaning of the event. The vacuum of meaning was filled by a host of conspiracy theories claiming that JFK was a victim of plots orchestrated by right-wing groups. The widespread feeling that disreputable elements in American culture contributed to Kennedys death—fed by liberal media figures and politicians—encouraged an anti-American attitude that was a pronounced aspect of the radical and countercultural movements of the 1960s. In the process, the real assassin, his political coloration and likely motives were airbrushed from history.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 07:51:36 +0000
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