JFK in Memoriam on 11/22

[James DiEugenio]

Ever since the Douglass book came out, most people who follow this issue value Kennedy's American University speech as his finest hour.  For example there is that book Two Days in June which shows how that speech and his civil rights speech were made within about 24 hours of each other.  Which is an amazing achievement in and of itself.

But as I have researched Kennedy's foreign policy at length and in depth, not just the most commonly examined areas e.g. Cuba and VIetnam, the speech I think that is really Kennedy at his best is the 1957 Algeria speech.  He made this as a rather youthful first term senator.  One who was up for reelection the next year.  In it, he took on not just Eisenhower and Nixon, but his own party over the issue of support for France in their bloody and dirty war against the rebel movement in Algeria.  JFK had been on this general issue issue for about five years already and he had talked about it at length ever since his meeting with Edmund Gullion in Saigon in 1951.  He had made speeches on it which had actually been scorned by the likes of Stevenson and Humphrey, the alleged liberal icons of the party.  But with France, at this time, he found the perfect time and setting to really strike a harpoon into the Cold War paralysis that had afflicted both parties about the role of communism vs nationalism in the Third World.

After he made the speech, he got pummeled by those in his own party, and he got really hammered in the press.  In fact he called his father and told him that he thought he had made a mistake since the editorials were running two to one against him.  His pop told him, you wait, this will turn around because that war is not going away.  And as it continues, people will see you were right.  Which is what happened.  And when JFK got elected, the Algerian crisis was settled in his second year.  But further, he went after colonialsim all over Africa, like Angola and Mozambique and Congo.  Anyway if you have not read this fine speech, please do, I just wish a voice actor would do it vocally,  and after you are done ask yourself the last time a politician talked like this:

https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/JFK-Speeches/United-States-Senate-Imperialism_19570702.aspx

[Barry Keane]

JFK is even more impressive that I thought, thanks for this James

[Dan Doyle]

Appreciate your work, Jim.  Thanks

 

[James DiEugenio]

Welcome.

By the way, Kennedy also went after the Soviets for their influence over Eastern Europe. And he wanted to build up trade with eastern European countries.  One of the target nations was Poland.

When he died there were movie demonstrations in Poland over his death.  Bugliosi got on CSPAN and mentioned this.  He then said it must have been some kind of personal mannerisms that appealed to the Poles.

LOL.  Good work Vince. Twenty years and that is what you come up with.

[Ramon F. Herrera]

2 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

When [JFK] died there were movie demonstrations in Poland over his death.  Bugliosi got on CSPAN and mentioned this.  He then said it must have been some kind of personal mannerisms that appealed to the Poles.

LOL.  Good work Vince. Twenty years and that is what you come up with.

I am surprised that Bugliosi did not come up with the better explanation: The Poles are very Catholic. After GWB named the reaction to 9/11 "a crusade" (label immediately withdrawn) Poland provided a relatively large number of soldiers:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=Main+religion+in+Poland&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participants_in_Operation_Enduring_Freedom#Poland

As any self-respecting, traditional Italian, Bugliosi was also Catholic.  He deserved a lot of penance for all the lies in his book.

 

[Michael Walton]

Jim D can explain this far better than I can, but I think it's equally important to remember that as president, Kennedy was reaching out to the Soviets to have better relations, as well as with Cuba.  He even ordered a NSM for NASA to consider going to the moon or having space travel with Russia.

I do have one question though - does anyone have any thoughts as to why, during that time, his administration was to continue to carry out Operation Mongoose?  I can't get my head around why he'd be making these type of overtures to America's so-called enemies while causing disruption in Cuba.  The only thing I can think of is perhaps he was trying to appease the right-wing anti-Castro clique of the government.