JFK and the Neocons-- Two New DiEugenio Essays

[Ron Bulman]

23 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

I am going to get to what a neocon is in this essay.

It will be complete and accurate.

And I will show how they disavowed and buried Kennedy's foreign policy until today it might as well be in a museum.

The first two articles are great.  I'm not well read on the beginnings of the Cold War and find that period interesting as it relates to US involvement in the Vietnam war.  Vietnam was so much a part of my coming of age, in the news, the protests, turning 18 in October 1974 I still have a draft card.  The backstory of how we got there is fascinating, that it really started with the death of Roosevelt.

In that vein, I think I probably first heard the term Domino Theory somewhere in the early to mid 1970's.  I thought I'd read somewhere in the last 30 or so years that Eisenhower had first used it.

I was surprised to find this while reading The Brothers by Stephen Kinzer.

"Eisenhower wished to crush Ho-to keep him from power at all costs, destroy his popularity - without using military force.  "In certain areas at least, we cannot afford to let Moscow gain another bit of territory," Eisenhower told one National Security Council meeting.  "Dien Bien Phu may be just such a critical point."

"Foster and Allen decided to try the same brotherly combination that had succeeded in Iran and Guatemala.  One would orchestrate political and diplomatic pressure on Ho while the other launched a covert war."

"Foster launched his part of the campaign with a speech to the Overseas Press Club in New York on March 29, 1954.  His central challenge was to explain to Americans why they must resist Ho.  The answer was what he called the "domino theory."   

[James DiEugenio]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

Jim - this is incredible and much needed work. Amazing thing is that no one wants to actually discuss your well articulated and researched points. The second essay really hits home, and I’m really looking forward to the next two installments. 

Thanks William.  And i agree, the content of the two essays is pretty much being ignored.

Yet, theTruman split from FDR and JFK's return to FDR is what those two are about.

Can you imagine spending a year researching and writing a speech like Kennedy did on Algeria?

And then getting blasted for it.  When in fact you were utterly correct?

[James DiEugenio]

Ron:

In his 1957 speech JFK really gave it to Ike and Foster Dulles about Dien Bien Phu.

He said something like, has everyone forgotten what happened three years ago?

Do we really want to be on the wrong side of history again?

[Benjamin Cole]

6 hours ago, Michael Griffith said:

Just shaking my head. Pitiful. Sad. But, just what one would expect from a Fletcher Prouty devotee: so now Israel is to blame for/was behind the creation of the neocons. Unreal. 

I read a joke on "X."

"Instead of QAnon, now we have Jew-Anon. All problems link back to the Jews." 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Benjamin Cole

[James DiEugenio]

Can anyone show me where I mentioned Israel in those two essays?

[Paul Brancato]

9 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Thanks William.  And i agree, the content of the two essays is pretty much being ignored.

Yet, theTruman split from FDR and JFK's return to FDR is what those two are about.

Can you imagine spending a year researching and writing a speech like Kennedy did on Algeria?

And then getting blasted for it.  When in fact you were utterly correct?

Jim - do you have a link to the 1957 Algeria speech, filmed or text?

[Jean Ceulemans]

27 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Jim - do you have a link to the 1957 Algeria speech, filmed or text?

https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/united-states-senate-imperialism-19570702

[Benjamin Cole]

7 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Can anyone show me where I mentioned Israel in those two essays?

JD-

You never did.

One of moderators hijacked your thread with comments about Israel. 

I enjoyed your excellent essays.

I will somewhat take issue with you, perhaps on a side note. 

I wonder if the neo-con movement has somewhat petered out in the present day. And times have changed. 

There is a great deal of complexity presently. It is true that globalist capitalism/enterprise is aligned with the West.

But the West is also the home of liberal democracies. 

Sure, leading into WWII, Smedley Butler and all that. But the US military and other militaries of the free world also beat the Imperial Japanese and helped beat the Nazis (Russians beat the Nazis, mostly). The US military was on the right side. 

Then after WWII, we see many excesses again by DC globalists. We see Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Now a new stage.

I cannot say I see any good in Putin, Xi, North Korea, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, Tehran, Afghanistan. Many nations or leaderships are rotten to the bone, and it is not the West's fault.

The colonialism days are over and good riddance. Now, a new era. 

Now...I deeply believe Western liberal democracies are worth fighting for, and oppressive illiberal autocracies and theocracies are poison or worse. 

The US military may again be on the right side of history, in many spots, such as Ukraine and the Mideast, or Taiwan. 

Just IMHO. 

 

 

Edited 15 hours ago by Benjamin Cole

[James DiEugenio]

Jean:

Thanks for that link to the Algeria speech.

We found out while making JFK Revisited, there is no film of it.

There is only a short film of Kennedy speaking some of the speech in his office.  I think he anticipated there would be no film of it.

But man was there a reaction.  138 editorials and columns, 2-1 negative. 

And even Acheson and Stevenson attacked him. I like the touch about Jackie yelling at Acheson at Penn Central.

[W. Niederhut]

2 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

JD-

You never did.

One of moderators hijacked your thread with comments about Israel.

 

 

The Neocons are the topic of the thread, Ben.

Jim is writing about the origins of the Straussian movement following JFK's death.

I merely commented, topically, on the movement's most famous role in world history, beginning in the late 1990s-- the Project for a New American Century.

But it looks like the historical facts that were discussed (above) about the history of the Neocon movement and the Project for a New American Century sailed right over your head.

Your failure to grasp the facts about Neocon history and PNAC is consistent with your latest tropes from X-Twitter that disparage accurate historiography about Israel and modern world history.

We can add these to similar misleading, anhistorical tropes that you have championed here since joining the Education Forum-- e.g., "Patriot Purge," "Scrum," "Stop-the-Steal," and "No Collusion."

You, obviously, know how to pick 'em.

Edited 13 hours ago by W. Niederhut

[Paul Brancato]

8 hours ago, Jean Ceulemans said:

https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/united-states-senate-imperialism-19570702

Thank you. A statesman unlike any we’ve had since. 

[James DiEugenio]

I agree Paul.

Can you imagine working on that speech for about a year, and having his wife translate articles from the French and Spanish?  Going all the way back to Roosevelt and his thoughts on the Middle East?

What is remarkable about that speech is thinking back to the time frame it was made in: The hotbed of the Cold War and Foster Dulles condemning the whole idea of neutrality in the Third World.

Kennedy got pilloried for making it.

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

I agree Paul.

Can you imagine working on that speech for about a year, and having his wife translate articles from the French and Spanish?  Going all the way back to Roosevelt and his thoughts on the Middle East?

What is remarkable about that speech is thinking back to the time frame it was made in: The hotbed of the Cold War and Foster Dulles condemning the whole idea of neutrality in the Third World.

Kennedy got pilloried for making it.

Yet he wondered about his efforts as a result of the criticism afterwards and called dad.  Who said you will be proven right, which he was.  Made the cover of Time Magazine for it.