Posted on 10/31/2010 12:02:31 AM PDT by Scanian
Fifty years ago, American government -- even American society -- entered into a wonderland of youth, prettiness, chic, and charisma. John Kennedy had defeated Richard Nixon in the presidential debates (or at least JFK defeated Nixon in the eyes of the millions of Americans who watched the debates -- those who heard them on the radio felt that Nixon had won). The election of 1960 was incredibly close and could have torn the country apart, except that mean-spirited Nixon (unlike Nobel Prize winner Gore) chose to concede and spare the nation a political civil war.
A glorious age was about to begin! The sophisticates and academicians -- the aristocrats of the republic -- would now guide us to a new Golden Age. John Kennedy was handsome, young, and married to a wife with movie star looks. Television was endemic in American life, and color television on large screens would very soon replace the small black-and-white television in the living room. Kennedy inspired us (or at least we were told that he inspired us over and over again), but it was hard to put one's finger on exactly what Kennedy actually did.
He quickly fumbled his meeting in quasi-summit in Vienna with Khrushchev, showing just how much less our young president knew about the world than Eisenhower, the balding older man who guided a coalition of democracies in a crusade against Hitler and then presided for eight years over a peaceful, respected America. Kennedy horribly mishandled the Bay of Pigs Invasion, leaving freedom-fighters to face Castro's Gulag so JFK would not have to face too many questions. It is ironic that the "highpoint" of Kennedy in the White House was that he brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and then "won" (which meant that we gained nothing but looked as if we did).
A lot of people think that if JFK’s life hadn’t been cut short, history would not look back on his presidency with such nostalgia. Aside from the miscues you mention, he was also planning to restore ties with Communist China during his second term. It does seem likely that Barry Goldwater could have defeated him in 1964 (Goldwater said himself that his chances of being elected president died with Kennedy).
I guess part of the reason why JFK is still remembered fondly is because his administration marked the last years of America’s innocence before the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, William Kunstler, and Bella Abzug) put an end to it.
Warts and all Nixon had his good attributes. I knew implicitly if soviet icbm’s came over the pole Nixon would launch a counter-strike. He also gave the left some of their most enduring weapons in the form of of environmental legislation. Time to quit bashing Dick Nixon. I’d take him now in a heartbeat.
The nation was turned upside down because a politician was going to jail for corruption that was beyond belief. It is well documented that the case of Henry Marshall had ties directly to Lyndon B Johnson. When Kennedy was shot, they were looking into the suicide of Marshall, he supposedly shot himself FIVE TIMES with a bolt action rifle.
LBJ’s ticket out of jail was Elm Street. He was assisted in the coup of course by the most perverted person in a high place, J Edgar Hoover.
There is no mystery anymore about the coup (it was LBJ and Hoover) BUT there will be documentary after documentary on TV in November explaining to you on the 47th anniversary of the murder that they are sure it was one man, three bullets.
This is kind of stupid, since JFK was about 180 degrees from the current Kennedys.
I think your are a little confused. Nixon was the commie-lover who reestablished ties with China, and gave them the store. Kennedy was the one who was thisclose to nuclear war with communists.
No one hates JFK more than I do, but I must point out that he inherited the Castro regime from the grossly incompetent Ike, who had been warned repeatedly that Castro was a communist and did nothing.
Kennedy’s legacy was really a mixed bag. He did endorse tax cuts, something for which conservatives can always be grateful since JFK gives us a Dem precedent for lowering rates to help the private sector; there is no evidence that he schemed to high-tail it out of Vietnam, as liberals like to argue; and he publicly confronted the Russians, which was good for “image” if nothing else-—Khrushchev didn’t really cave that much to the US in terms of useful concessions, as the article states. The article gives some examples of liberal Democrat initiatives like getting cozy with Red China. And, fact is, the “Great Society” programs passed under LBJ were really started in the JFK WH.
As a “Goldwater Kid” from ‘64, I relate very much to what Barry said about his presidential chances dying with JFK. We used to hear that from the “folks” all the time: voting Republican would “dishonor” the memory of Kennedy, whom the press treated as a martyr almost right off the bat.
Yes, his 3 years were about an end to “America’s innocence” but also considerably about Glamour and Charisma in the White House...something the tabloid “journalists” and a large chunk of the public waited years to discover again and foolishly believed they had found again in the Obamas.
A big item on Kennedy’s legacy list is the slaughter at the Bay Of Pigs.
(No, for those too young to know, the Bay Of Pigs is not the swimming pool at the DNC)
Shame on me, son of a lady who spent her childhood in Havana, not to mention THAT fiasco!
You are right about something...
Thew current generation really doesn’t either know or care to know much about Cuba and/or Cuban issues.
Nearly everything I post on the subject pretty much falls flat.
I think the whole thing has become a petty annoyance to too many people...even in Miami when the Dhimmis have been making inroads for years.
Nixon essentially gave us the post-modern, swelling liberal state.
You’re right, there’s no use in bashing him now, though he is a reminder of just how dangerous a Republican with that approach can be.
I ain't never been that drunk. Was the corpse missing four toes?
The Florida Cubans are one of America's most valuable assets and I am certainly not alone in my sentiments. We can and have learned a lot from those who suffered under Castro. America needs these people to help us never forget what tyranny we face without constant vigilance in protecting our rights.
“It is ironic that the “highpoint” of Kennedy in the White House was that he brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and then “won” (which meant that we gained nothing but looked as if we did).”
Actually, it was worse than that. We privately gave up actual nuclear missiles in Turkey in exchange for Soviets agreeing to dismantle their yet-to-become-operational missiles in Cuba. We also insisted that Soviets keep their mouths shut about this deal. It’s a bit like a celebrity “winning” a divorce battle by privately agreeing to pay his ex-wife $50 million but insisting she stay quiet about it as he trots around TV talk shows telling everyone who will listen how he “showed her” who was boss etc.
Of course, in the “real” Camelot, the king was being cuckolded by his wife and his best knight. The situation was quite the reverse in the Kennedy WH, where the “king” was blatantly sleeping around with all manner of cheap women (including a Mafia moll) and even occasionally sharing the spoils with his kid brother. Sordid only begins to describe his inexcusable and classless behavior. The elegant and classy “queen” meanwhile had to put up with all these shenanigans for the sake of appearances.
...”I guess part of the reason why JFK is still remembered fondly is because his administration marked the last years of America’s innocence before the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, William Kunstler, and Bella Abzug) put an end to it”...
How soon we forget the genesis of our troubles..I wonder where these four are now? Their earthly journey has been obscured by attributing the consequences of what they wrought to others. Their legacy should be trumpeted to our youth as an example of people who helped to destroy sanity in America and who helped to bring suffering and damage to our institutions and to our entire culture.
Go to the following link to read about the drugs administered to JFK..
http://www.amphetamines.com/john-kennedy.html
I believe the amphetamines and steroids given to JFK are partly responsible for his widely reported sexual exploits.
Amphetamines are not called “speed” for nothing. Just look at what meth addiction is doing to people today..What JFK received was very similar. Drug use is not being talked about in relation to those in authority over us and it should be a situation where those people are tightly controlled in respect to substance use and abuse, regardless of whether such substances are supplied by a doctor. Granted, the Kennedy men do not seem to be unusually interested in monogamy..However, the enhancement of such a temptation in a President is a terrible thing.
“However, the enhancement of such a temptation in a President is a terrible thing.”
Yes, and Kennedy was well-aware of that:
“A 1972 New York Times report quotes a doctor treating Kennedy who allegedly warned him about amphetamine use: “no President with his finger on the red button has any business taking stuff like that.”
Sadly, his political ambitions greatly exceeded any interest he might have had in doing what was right for his country (or wife). Here’s the problem I have with “drugs made me do it” explanations.
First, as you note, JFK’s philandering is a trait apparently shared by his brothers—neither of whom were taking the drugs in question (to my knowledge).
Second, if the medications literally causes one to “lose control” and be incapable of self-discipline/moral behavior, this suggests the possibility these moral boundaries weren’t very strong in the first place.
Third, if the medications are so powerful that they would cause even the most self-disciplined individual to lack the ability to stay within reasonable moral bounds, then the doctor quoted above is absolutely correct: such an individual had no business having the power to push the red button. Suppose he’d irrationally launched a nuclear strike against Japan because he still harbored ill feelings towards his PT boat being sunk by them? Would a “Gee, I’m sorry. If I hadn’t been taking these medications, that never woulda happened” excuse have mollified the public, the Japanese or world opinion?
Finally, he took testosterone, which, if anything, was the more likely culprit behind an over-active libido.
http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g35.htm
We can’t re-run history to observe the counterfactual of how JFK would have behaved were he not on medications. But what we do know given the facts in hand is that for a person in a position of such power, the way in which he and his docs handled his medications was not particularly responsible.
JFK empowered the federal employee unions.
And JFK and his brother Kennedy were instrumental in giving us the Immigration act of the 1960’s that changed the demographics of America. Now Illegals will soon be the majority , voting for democrats/socialism.
This are just 2 items off the top of my limited knowledge that are helping to destroy the United States. Camelot? Yeah to the liberal media which are just democrat activists.
The media has even conservatives believing that this JFK moron was a conservative. The media even had the audacity to say Clinton was a conservative when that hick tried to impose government healthcare on the American people.
The media always praises democrats to keep the democrat brand shinning.Look at who the media praises and demonizes and believe the opposite. The liberal mainstream media is the center of evil in the world.
The democrat party have always been socialists.Look at FDR and it's New Deal in the 1930's.
The media and the democrat party are one and the same.
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