Posted on 11/20/2013 6:46:51 AM PST by headsonpikes
WASHINGTON - John F. Kennedy's personal pollster came to Canada with an assumed name, the blessing of the president and a secret objective: help defeat the Diefenbaker Tories.
Canadians might be surprised by the extent to which political events in this country were shaped by the charismatic U.S. leader, famously assassinated 50 years ago this week.
Helping to elect the Pearson Liberals, for starters, who would go on to introduce a new national flag, expand the welfare state and create medicare, the old-age pension system, and the royal commission on bilingualism.
The Liberals got tactical support, with state-of-the-art polling. Diplomatic rockets rained down on their opponents. And in the heat of an election campaign, the opposition leader was invited to the White House as an honoured guest.
The perceived interference became so acute that a fuming John Diefenbaker eventually took the extraordinary step of recalling Canada's ambassador to the U.S.
That diplomatic riposte failed to stop the Diefenbaker Conservatives from disintegrating, through internal divisions and a non-confidence motion that focused specifically on relations with the U.S.
Did Kennedy play a determining role?
"I think he played a very major role in Canadian history," John English, Pearson's biographer and a one-time Liberal MP, said in an interview.
"He definitely influenced Canadian history through the 1962-63 election period. There's no doubt that his animosity to Diefenbaker made his position very difficult not only with the broader public, but within his own party."
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalnewswatch.com ...
No kidding, Ronald Reagan at the time wrote a personal letter to the vice president, describing JFK as a Marxist, and offering his services to the republican, to try and save America from the man.
I was not a fan of Reston's BTW. He was extremely powerful and IIRC he was known as the dean of journalism; but what I remember was his vicious attacks on the emerging modern conservative movement blaming us for the "climate of hate" that was responsible for Oswald killing his good friend John F. Kennedy.
Can you source that Reston may have misinterpreted what happen at Vienna? It is just your opinion, right?
Yes. Reston has a history re: conservatism. Not a good one.
But I have no evidence of him lying re: Kennedy. But, I just consider it, unconfirmed, since it was a one one one interview with nobody else present.
Absolutely my opinion that Reston’s perception may or may not be correct. We can’t say. We have to take his word for it.
Since he hated conservatives so badly, maybe he was pissed Kennedy cut taxes, at the time.
“Ronald Reagan at the time wrote a personal letter to the vice president, describing JFK as a Marxist, and offering his services to the republican, to try and save America from the man.”
Yes. But later, Reagan took that statement back and said he was pleasantly pleased to see the difference between Kennedy the candidate and Kennedy the President.
So, he admitted he was wrong.
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/24/us/mondale-says-reagan-note-compared-kennedy-to-marx.html
So, Reagan didn’t think Kennedy was a Marxist.
Let us not forget the AVRO Arrow designed in the late 1950s. A modern AVRO Arrow would be the ONLY jet fighter able to successfully combat the Sukhoi SU-35. Even then, it was better than the SU-35 in some performance categories. One SU-35 can take on two F-35s at once and win EVERY time. At 1/10 of the price per plane.
Dief the Chief was influenced by American interference even before JFK.
“One SU-35 can take on two F-35s at once and win EVERY time. At 1/10 of the price per plane.”
Can you reference a link for this. I’m not stating this is or is not the case, I’d just like to see the analysis or simulation to support the statement.
Well, lets start with the performance specs.
http://www.uacrussia.ru/en/models/military/su-35/su-35_performance/
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/f35/f-35a-ctol-variant.html
I think that the costs per plane are on each site. And remember that Lockheed Martin always overstates and the Russians normally keep a little on the quiet side about their capabilities. Think of the AK47 (Russian machined versus Chinese stamped receivers) versus that fragile .22 caliber Faberge egg called the M-16.
http://www.avroarrow.org/AvroArrow/AvroArrowSpecs.html
for a comparison. (psst - the top speed was leaked at twice the Mach 1.98)
Elsewhere in Canada today: "Vancouver has banned the doorknob. Is the rest of Canada next?." Fear of communicable diseases?
Hey democrat fantasy boy.
Reagan meant what he said about JFK in his private letter to the vice president, when he labelled him a Marxist and wanted to switch parties, and to campaign for Nixon, which he did.
In the 1984 presidential campaign, when the media and the democrat candidate went after your sainted God figure, of course Reagan played it down, there is nothing to be gained for a GOP presidential candidate to tell the truth about your democrat hero, now that you guys are insisting on super status for the incompetent, depraved boob.
So democrat man, Reagan new exactly what he was mailing to the vice president of the United States with his inner thoughts.
That’s all useful info, but I’m more interested in the sensors and avionics suites, since the F35 isn’t a dogfighter but a BVR fighter in air to air.
In air-air, I think those characteristics are more germane to the F22 Raptor, where I think we have an advantage.
Do you know of any simulations or studies by think tanks? The only one I’ve reviewed is the RAND sim, where they tested AirSeaBattle vs. China in the South China Sea and in a worst case scenario. The assumptions were worst case for the US, where all fighting Within Visual Range, and they swamped us with quantity vs both the Raptor and 35 and Superhornets.
Im sure there are others out there, but I haven’t found them.
I provide you the link, showing Reagan took his comments back. I realize you don’t have the capacity to reason on a basic level, so I suggest you have somebody read that link to you.
I await my cookies sweetie.
And I prefer them hot out of the oven.
Reagan was ambushed in his 1984 prsidential campaign when his hand written letter to the vice president surfaced, and was immediately provided to the Mondale campaign to use against Reagan, and here you are, playing the little democrat troll on the same thing.
We conservatives know what Reagan believed, and we trust that he went on to fight for Nixon, and then Goldwater because he knew what JFK was. We trust his hand written personal thoughts, over a campaign response to an ambush using a sainted post assassination, mythical figure.
"Mr. Mondale's deputy press secretary, said the campaign learned about the letter last Wednesday from a hand-writing expert who was doing research on Mr. Nixon's pre-Presidential papers at a branch of the Los Angeles Federal Archives in Laguna-Niguel, Calif. He said the campaign had the letter by Saturday."
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/24/us/mondale-says-reagan-note-compared-kennedy-to-marx.html
Learn reading comprehension.
Reagan didn’t pull punches, if he meant it, he would have admitted it. Kennedy didn’t govern as a Marxist.
You see Marxists don’t cut taxes.
You call me a troll...I’ve been here longer than you...you are a simple minded little girl.
Go bake some cookies.
Son, we are going to be crushed. Even Canada finds the F-35 unpalatable. We had better have one hell of a backup, and a full flock of pilots ready to go. We are going to lose every dogfight situation.
I just spent some time on Google. It’s depressing. The situation is worse than I had realized. We cannot hold ourselves in the air in dogfight situations against the SU-35. We need one hell of a backup and the F-22 only gets us partially there. We need to go to Canada and grovel and ask them please to kindly resurrect the AVRO. There is nothing else in the US defense pipeline.
The plan is to have ten times more Lightnings than Raptors. Somebody seems to think 187 Raptors are enough or air dominance and then the Lightning has clear path for attack role.
That seems like cutting the quantity dangerously close to me.
Seems to me we should have 350-400 Raptors just in case. From what I’ve read Raptors enjoy a 280 to 1 kill ratio over enemy aircraft...which basically means it always wins, excepting human error.
I don’t like that quality/quantity mix....unless they believe we have something that is near ready, that is better.
The whole Raptor Lightning saga is really interesting, but air dominance is too critical to really enjoy the saga.
No, Reagan was not going to let the ambush of his true thoughts on JFK, in a handwritten letter, cost him reelection, only a troll would claim that candidate Reagan would call the dead and martyred JFK a Marxist again during the 1984 campaign.
Only a DU troll would hijack this thread as you did, and be so insane as to label the incompetent and deadly disastrous JFK, a foreign policy genius and denigrate Reagan on foreign policy.
It takes a true space case to think like you do, as a democrat fan boy and propagandist.
You are emotionally overwrought.
And you a liar just like Obama...a liar is a liar.
Bearing false witness, you must be atheist.
Yes it is much better, PLD! I was just joking... no need to be so sensitive. Sheesh....
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