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.
But what's more interesting is why Kennedy got the nod from Chicago in the first place. Because of his good looks, I suppose.
So is there any truth in the supposed deal between Jack and Sam to keep Bobby on a short leash?
Viva El Cuba Libre!
Actually, there is. And there was a deal between Sam and daddy
Joe, BEFORE the election, to that same tune.
If it's the same deal Sam and Chuck wrote about, I'm thinking it failed big time. Sounds like an interesting topic for another thread.
Yes, it would be an interesting thread topic for chat. :-)
I just finished reading the book:
Rising Tide
The untold story of the Russian Submarines that fought the cold war
Gary Weir & Walter Boyne
2003
http://www.risingtidebook.com
Rising Tide tells the Soviet side of these secret operations. Drawing on newly available
archives as well as interviews with a dozen former Soviet Commanders
It’s a little one-sided at times. But the US Navy not about to open there files to conform
some of the clams. But it seemed very convenient that they could stumble across a US missile boat on patrol to trail it.
Also in Chapter Four: The Cuban Missile Crisis.
Gives a good account of the Subs that were there.
LOL That’s a good one!
Also add to that. His use of the so called “ Missile Gap”
Ike gave JFK a secret briefing to show him it was a myth. And extracted a promise not to use the issue.
What’s the first thing JFK did on the TV debate with Nixon. Brings up the "Missile gap" the Republicans let happen. Nixon could not respond with out breaching security on the U-2 flights, Corona photos. (1st spy satellites) & other sources.
Ask any space geek. And they will tell you. Von Braun was ready to launch a satellite in 1956 And the rocket that was used. was put into storage by Von Braun over a year before.
As a matter of fact. the Pentagon sent a General to inspect his rockets before launch. To insure Von Braun could not go “ Vell how did that happen”
Much has been said about not wanting the Germans to be first. And I do think that was part of it. But I think a much bigger part was Ike let the USSR be first. And let them set the precedent of flying a man-made satellite over other countries airspace.
I propose a new "invasion" of Cuba. Move the Hollywood 'elite'ist down there. Then fire a massive torpedo and sink the whole mess. (Yes, I know it is impossible.. Hollywood elites will not move to a socialist country!)
You counted coup with that one.
And who's to say that Vietnam may not have cost the lives of 50,000 brave American's?!
Kerry, who is actually quite a doofus, thankfully does nothing. And he is very cheap about staff. May it please Our Lord that Ted would better follow his example.
remember the bumper sticker,
Fiscally, of course. Heh.
'remember the bumper sticker,
KERRY: Just Like Ted, without the dead girl in the car.'
I LIKE IT!!!
gotta get someone to actually do that up.....can we turn it around for the 2006 campaign, and say
"TEDDY and Kerry; drive 'em to drink or drive them into the drink".
How would Illinois have delivered Nixon the presidency?
Take away those votes from Kennedy and give them to Nixon, and the vote is still 276-246 in favor of Kennedy, with 15 more Southern votes floating out there which at the time went to Harry Byrd.
Even if those Byrd votes went to Nixon, it still wouldn't be enough.
You forgot Texas, also delivered by LBJ for Jack.
LOL!
Thanks for the correction. I didn't even bother to check the facts on that one. I just blurted out something I read one day on the Free Republic. Just goes to show you can't believe everything you read on the Internet.
Oh well. It was still fun to insult Jack Effin Krap's followers, who even until this late day cannot seem to just moveon.org.
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