This is not directed towards anyone in particular, but is merely my thoughts on the matter: there is a difference between history and conspiracy theory. (Warning: long, professorial, boring post ahead.) History is what were fairly certain actually happened, based on eyewitnesses, deduction, and what facts are available. History can change--we learn new facts every day, and sometimes historians get it wrong. (For instance, everyone thought the Maine was blown up by a mine, either planted by the Spanish or the Cubans. Turns out it was likely a coal dust explosion that set off the magazine.) Theres absolutely nothing wrong with asking questions over whether or not something did or did not happen. A conspiracy theory is based on something that a group of people want to be true. The most famous conspiracies of our time is that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor, JFK was killed by a cabal of people, and 9/11 was perpetrated by our own government. These are also just asking questions, and again, nothing wrong with that. Lets take the JFK theory as an example, or one of them--Oliver Stones favorite, that Kennedy was killed by the CIA because he was planning on withdrawing from Vietnam. But heres where the theory falters: JFK had no intention of withdrawing from Vietnam. Looking at numbers, Kennedy *increased* troop levels during his time in office. He turned a blind eye to Diems assassination because the CIA assured him that Diems successor would be more competent (and therefore better equipped to fight communism). His opinion towards communism was that it should be fought, not retreated from--this was the man who was willing to risk nuclear war with the USSR rather than back down from Khrushchev. Kennedy was a veteran who knew how wars should be fought; had he not been killed, its very likely he wouldve approved a massive airstrike on Vietnam in 1965, which wouldve shortened the war (not won it, necessarily, but certainly shortened it). The CIA had no reason to kill a man for doing exactly what they wanted him to do. So that theory collapses under scrutiny. Now if youre a historian, thats where you stop. The CIA wouldnt have killed JFK because he was not pulling out of Vietnam. Cuba didnt (Castro didnt have the resources), the military didnt (Kennedy was popular with the military), the Mafia didnt (they hated Bobby Kennedy, not JFK), Russia didnt (Khrushchev was not about to risk the wrath of a vengeful USA capable of nuking Moscow with no warning). Occams Razor thus applies: JFK was killed because Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone Marxist nut who happened to be an expert marksman. If youre a conspiracy theorist, you dont stop there...because thats not what you *want* to believe. Oliver Stone would say I dont care, I believe Kennedy was killed by the CIA, and dammit, thats what happened! Never mind the fact that Stone himself could not replicate the infamous puff of smoke on the grassy knoll without a smoke machine. Never mind that several commissions, government and otherwise, did prove that a trained marksman could fire three shots in the allotted time. Stone wants to believe, because in his mind, a great man like JFK could not be struck down by a lone gunman. It HAD to be a conspiracy, because great men cant die like that. Stone also wants to believe that the horror of Vietnam couldve been avoided if only a great man had stood athwart history and yelled Stop!--forgetting the fact that the Vietnam War was largely a creation of Kennedy himself. If you catch yourself in a position of forcing history into the box you want it to be in, you are no longer asking questions or being a historian--youre being revisionist, which is the cardinal sin of studying history. I would love to believe that we won in Vietnam, but the sad fact is that we didnt, and no amount of wishful thinking will change that. We can, however, study what went wrong so it doesnt happen again--which is what studying history is all about. In the words of the immortal philosopher Wilford Brimley: Thank you for your time. Have a good day.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:31:48 +0000
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