JFK wasn't quite that noble. He was mostly thinking about himself.
Why JFK picked Viet Nam. I believe it happened this way.
James "Scotty" Reston revealed this in 1966 IIRC.
The hapless Kennedy was savaged by Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961, especially over being chicken at the Bay of Pigs. So badly did JFK represent his Country that he asked for one more chance, a personal meeting with Khrushchev with only the two of them and two interpreters. JFK agreed to meet with Reston first after the meeting. This account is from, "Scotty," by John F. Stacks.
'How was it?' Reston asked casually.
'Worst thing in my life. He savaged me,' Kennedy responded. The president seemed to Reston to be almost in shock, repeating himself and speaking with astonishing candor to the journalist. 'Not the usual bullshit,' Reston wrote in his notepad. 'There is a look a man has when he has to tell the truth.' Kennedy went on to say that to counter the battering by Khrushchev, which he attributed to the Soviet leader's underestimation of Kennedy's resolve, the United States would have to stand more firmly against the Soviets' demands in Berlin and against the mounting Communist insurgency in South Vietnam. Reston wrote later that he was 'speechless' when Kennedy mentioned Vietnam, since that troubled country was at that point nowhere near the heart of the Cold War conflict and, in Reston's estimation, did not carry much weight in the superpower tug-of-war. Ever afterward, Kennedy's remark to Reston was seen by historians and by Reston himself as the moment marking the beginning of America's long slide into the tragedy of Vietnam." [End excerpt]
Yes sir, the JFK people took tens of thousands of Americans into war with the same "resolve" as they had at the Bay of Pigs.
Then LBJ took over caring more about his "Great Society" plans than any thing else including war -- fight the war but it must not in any way hinder getting his "Great Society." Lie, lie, lie whatever it takes. (see McMaster's. "Dereliction of Duty")
Not knowing this in 1961-62 I actually believed that Africa would be the place we'd confront the U.S.S.R.'s wars of liberation.
“JFK wasn’t quite that noble. He was mostly thinking about himself.”
Noble? I’ve seen enough to put that word away when talking about nearly every politician, especially on the conservative side.
Liberals/Socialists...many of them actually fight for their principles and will do anything to win.
No. Kennedy was not the Liberal Socialist view of Camelot. He was the opposite. But he came from a different set of values than our present day Dem/Socialist/Communists.
He saw the Berlin Wall, Vietnam, and Cuba as good vs. evil fights. He knew the coercive nature of Khrushchev’s Soviet Russia. He saw the brute for of it up close and personal.
At the same time little brother Bobby was in now way, ideologically, like his older brother, and eventual killer and Socialist Teddy.
Care to trade two Clintons and an Obama for a John Kennedy. I’d give my left peanut for that trade.