Posted on 07/20/2005 6:41:14 PM PDT by CHARLITE
"A more vital piece of U.S. history would be hard to find," gushed the Boston Globe last week about a new item in the Kennedy Library and Museum, a map of Cuba. The Library obtained it from the estate of Robert L. White, a collector who had earlier received it from JFK's late secretary, Evelyn Lincoln.
"This map bears the marks of history," continues the Globe story, "a series of X marks in black ink, crosshatched east and west of Havana by President John F. Kennedy, and two foreboding words scrawled above them: 'missile sites.' This map was used by Kennedy during a Cabinet briefing on the morning of Oct. 16, 1962, as CIA officials described the evidence discovered by spy planes ... a priceless artifact."
Equally priceless was the record of irresponsibility, arrogance and stupidity that preceded that "discovery" by the U-2 spy plane, not to mention the bumbling, treachery and deceit that followed it. Camelot's toady press and court scribes rose to the occasion, however. So the official version still prevails in the MSM (mainstream media) and Hollywood (exemplified by the movie "Thirteen Days"). "This map takes me right to that moment, when he was trying to digest that information," enthused Kennedy Museum curator Frank Rigg in the Boston Globe story. "Who knows what was going through his mind–
I can guess: "Whoops!" Because all of two days before Kennedy unfurled that map, on the October 14 edition of the TV program "Issues and Answers," a disdainful McGeorge Bundy (JFK's National Security Advisor) made himself very clear on national TV. "Refugee rumors," he called the eyewitness reports from Cuban exiles about those very missiles - reports that they'd been giving the State Department and CIA for months by then, after risking their lives to obtain them. "Nothing in Cuba presents a threat to the United States," continued Bundy, barely masking his scorn. "There's no likelihood that the Soviets or Cubans would try and install an offensive capability in Cuba." ("Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant," p. 28)
Kennedy himself sounded off the following day: "There's fifty-odd-thousand Cuban refugees in this country," he sneered, "all living for the day when we go to war with Cuba. They're the ones putting out this kind of stuff."
I'll gladly donate another artifact to the Kennedy Museum, to be displayed adjacent to that map: a HUGE pot labeled "Crow Gumbo: Meal served in Camelot headquarters October 16, 1962."
"'These precious artifacts belong to the American people," said Deborah Leff, Kennedy Library director. But not everyone thought the American people should be privy to every Missile Crisis artifact. "We can't say anything public about this agreement," said Robert F. Kennedy to Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin when closing the deal that ended the so-called crisis. "It would be too much of a political embarrassment for us."
Kennedy's secret deal with Khrushchev forbade any liberation of Cuba, not just by the U.S. but also by any other group or nation in the Western Hemisphere. Indeed, it was up to the U.S. to prevent any such liberation attempts. The Best and Brightest not only pulled the rug from under Cuba's freedom fighters, they also sanctioned the 40,000 Soviet troops and KGB goons already in Cuba coaching and aiding Castro's butchery of those freedom fighters.
Richard Nixon summed up the Missile Crisis "resolution" best: "First we goofed an invasion [the previous year's Bay of Pigs] - now we give the Soviets squatters' rights in our backyard."
Joint Chiefs member General Curtis LeMay slammed his fist on his desk and bellowed, "The biggest defeat in U.S. history!
Admiral Anderson, in charge of the naval "blockade" against Cuba, got the news of the "resolution" and shouted, "We've been had!"
In his memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev himself clarified the matter. "It would have been ridiculous for us to go to war over Cuba - for a country 12,000 miles away. For us, war was unthinkable. [So much for all the media and Hollywood hype of those peril-filled "Thirteen Days."] We ended up getting exactly what we'd wanted all along, security for Fidel Castro's regime and American missiles removed from Turkey. Until today the U.S. has complied with her promise not to interfere with Castro and not to allow anyone else to interfere with Castro [italics mine]. After Kennedy's death, his successor Lyndon Johnson assured us that he would keep the promise not to invade Cuba."
JFK's "dreary account of mismanagement, timidity and indecision," as Eisenhower described his handling of the Bay of Pigs invasion a year earlier, emboldened the Soviets to install nuclear missiles in Cuba in the first place.
After the "resolution," some of the very Cuban freedom fighters who had smuggled out intelligence on the Soviet missiles found themselves stranded in a Cuba swarming with Soviet soldiers. Dozens of these young heroes huddled in Mangrove swamps along Cuba's coast, dodging Castro patrols and waiting for their scheduled "exfiltration" by motorboats back to the U.S.
Their wait was vain. Their mission accomplished, their evidence to the New Frontiersmen about weapons of mass destruction 90 miles away and hosted by the most pathologically anti-American regime in history delivered, these heroes promptly fell through the cracks of the Kennedy-Khrushchev deal. They were expendable.
"Let's be careful not to let any of these Cuban refugees upset the deal" were JFK's words to his attorney general brother on the night of October 28, 1962. So the scheduled boat runs to the Cuban coast by the infiltrators' comrades to carry them back were canceled. Suddenly these runs were impediments to Camelot's delicate diplomacy.
Meanwhile, back in Cuba's mangroves, "Alto! ... Who Goes there? Gun bolts slam and the shooting starts. Several of these (now) irksome "Cuban refugees" - completely abandoned - now died in suicidal firefights against Castro's troops. Several more were captured, tortured and finally bound to the stake in front of the blood- and bone-flecked paredon (firing-squad wall). "VIVA CUBA LIBRE! " they yelled.
FUEGO!! yelled the firing squad captain. "Cause of death was internal hemorrhaging caused by firearm projectiles" read the official death certificates delivered by Castro's government to thousands of ashen-faced families.
After the Missile Crisis "resolution," the U.S. Coast Guard and even the British navy (when some intrepid exile freedom fighters moved their operation to the Bahamas) shielded Castro from exile attacks. In the Florida Keys and Bahamas they were arresting and disarming the very exiles the CIA had been training and arming the month before.
Much of his fame in the Third World, on college campuses (especially among faculties) and in Europe stems from the fable of Castro "defying" a superpower. In fact, he survived because of a sweetheart deal that allowed him to hide behind the skirts of two superpowers.
But don't look for details of this deal in the Kennedy Library and Museum.
I did not think that it was a big deal at the time. Castro was more or less a hero to the left here and to many in the MSM. There would be no war -- especially nukes -- over Cuba.
"When New fork Times columnist James Reston asked Kennedy following the [1961] Vienna summit, 'How was it?', Kennedy responded 'Worst thing in my life. He savaged me,' and he added, 'I think I know why he treated me like this. He thinks because of the Bay of Pigs... I had no guts.'"
[End quote]
"He" being Khrushchev was right. Kennedy got us into Viet Nam (it was either that or Berlin) to try to prove that he had "guts." Krushchev was just pushing the empty suit he'd humiliated in Vienna.
The MSM helped make it look and sound dramatic, though.
Kennedy was a "great" president solely because he was telegenic and it was the beginning of TV.
I've looked for your "summer" in June, July and August so far...which weekend do you hold it?
No, I am saying that the secret deal that JFK made with Khruschev to remove missiles from Turkey, once it was revealed, was universally described as obsolete by the JFK administration and the MSM/History toadies, as if we were giving up nothing to those Russkie dupes.
No one ever asks: "Couldn't the obsolete missiles have been upgraded?" or "Isn't Turkey located in advantageously for U.S. missile deployment?" No, the U.S. Turkey missile concession is dismissed as if nothing by all MSM sources, and in identical language. All to further lionize the only modern Democrat President that they can possibly tout.
Here's another little jewel from that era that continues to be a curse to our country and which we have LBJ to thank for:
Krusty humiliated jack even further when he propped up the Berlin Wall. Jack just stood there and did nothing.
The Massachusetts electorate must have some sort of disease. Maybe it's the water? Gargan, whom you reference in your post, also could have saved that girl's life. Three Massachusetts lawyers sat around for 9 hours before reporting the accident. Unforgiveable.
thanks for clarifying; they had to be as good as scuds.
The real story about JFK was he was drugged out imbecile who allowed the Soviet Union to station themselves 90 miles from our coastline.
Sorry you missed it. Flies wasn't too bad. Fall starts this week, and due to the warmer-than-usual-weather, may last as long as mid-August. Could use a hand with potatoes.
there may be real danger for the Democrats pitting Teddy against an articulate pro-lifer on live t.v.
... ping...
Wow! Thanks for the media's spin on the Turkey missle concessions.
The clintons can only envy poppa Joe for his ability to buy off the press for his son jack.
oh, it's the weekend you chase off the mosquitoes and let the flies take over. (Actually, I enjoyed my stay there about a month ago despite highs in the 40's that week)
Not exactly nothing.
For some reason -- no one knows why (the drugs?) -- President Kennedy went to the Western part of Berlin and told the citizens there that he was a doughnut.
Camelot's toady press and court scribes rose to the occasion, however.
JFK's "dreary account of mismanagement, timidity and indecision," as Eisenhower described his handling of the Bay of Pigs invasion a year earlier, emboldened the Soviets to install nuclear missiles in Cuba in the first place.
After the "resolution," some of the very Cuban freedom fighters who had smuggled out intelligence on the Soviet missiles found themselves stranded in a Cuba swarming with Soviet soldiers. Dozens of these young heroes huddled in Mangrove swamps along Cuba's coast, dodging Castro patrols and waiting for their scheduled "exfiltration" by motorboats back to the U.S.
Their wait was vain. Their mission accomplished, their evidence to the New Frontiersmen about weapons of mass destruction 90 miles away and hosted by the most pathologically anti-American regime in history delivered, these heroes promptly fell through the cracks of the Kennedy-Khrushchev deal. They were expendable.
"Let's be careful not to let any of these Cuban refugees upset the deal" were JFK's words to his attorney general brother on the night of October 28, 1962. So the scheduled boat runs to the Cuban coast by the infiltrators' comrades to carry them back were canceled. Suddenly these runs were impediments to Camelot's delicate diplomacy.
who paid for Patricia Bowman's outing? (undoubtedly confirmed by Rove, by the way.)
Use plenty of sunscreen and try to move about slowly. These heat waves can take you unawares when you ain't used to it.
By the way, if you head about 100 mile west of the Bush house, you'll find tropical weather, which is why we moved the Somalis over to there. Our state PR Department has been selling the cool myth for 135 years, so do your best to keep it going. Ocean side is cool. Woods is hot
Whoever payed for it must've had some of poppa joe's money in the form of a trust fund.
Oh, I thought it would show JFK scribbling in the margins of the map..."sell out the Cuban freedom fighters and deny them air cover" and "cut deal with Soviets and pretend to be tough".
To give him his due, he looks better than he has in years, so much so that when he falls off the wagon, you can now tell right away! I also receive the distinct impression he loathes Kerry. I reckon he imagines that had it not been for Chappaquiddick, it would be he running for President!
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