Thank God Jack Kennedy was President way back when.

[Octafish]

One thing that really makes my blood boil is to hear people say:

"Thank God George Bush was president on September 11."

Without going into specifics of that inanity,

We the People truly should be grateful for who was President from Jan. 20, 1961 to Nov. 22, 1963:



And Thank God it wasn't Nixon. The reason?

President Kennedy worked to keep the peace for the entire time he was in office, as the record shows. Had Nixon been in office, in my opinion, there's a good chance most of the world would still be radioactive.

Had Nixon been president in 1961, do you think he'd have used the Bay of Pigs as a pretext for invading Cuba? Kennedy didn't, even though he'd been assured by DCI Allen Dulles and JCS Chairman Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer the anti-Castroite invasion would work without U.S. military intervention. As in the Cuban Missile crisis the next year, Kennedy said, "No," understanding the Soviets would retaliate in Berlin, a situation that could quickly escalate into World War III.

Had Nixon been president in 1962, do you think he'd have said, "No," to spymaster Dulles and the Joint Chiefs when they counseled a pre-emptive nuclear war on the Soviet Union? Lemnitzer, USAF head Curtis LeMay and the rest of the JCS actually submitted such a plan, which stated the best time to launch would be late 1963. Kennedy walked out of the meeting, ordering everyone to shut their wugs about it.

Had Nixon been president in 1963, do you think we'd have negotiated a limited nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviets? The guy threatened the Vietnamese with nuclear annihilation, a plan first proposed by the Joint Chiefs in Eisenhower administration.

When Nixon did eventually took office in 1969, the record shows he and his cronies did all they could in the service of War, Inc. For that, We the People must pray for Divine Forgiveness.

That's all hypothetical on the part of Nixon, as he wasn't president from 1961-1963, of course. Kennedy was. And the nation stayed at peace -- thank God or luck or whatever.

EDIT: Durn HTML

[HopeHoops]

1. Kennedy wouldn't have continued to read "My Pet Goat".

The only way I can explain people who think Bush was a great president is that they are actually bigger dumbfucks than Bush - and THAT is saying something!

[Octafish]

7. After Ike had heart problems, Nixon became CIA White House 'Action Officer'

From The Taking of America 1-2-3

How It All Began - The U-2 and the Bay of Pigs

Same happened after Reagan survived Hinckley. Afterward, people close to him said he suffered "memory loss," "was never the same," etc. Meanwhile Poppy bush ran War Inc. and Murder Inc. for Empire.

[H2O Man]

2. If one considers

the consequences of having either of the two men (total:4) who served before or after President Kennedy in office at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it is evident that JFK was the right man at the right time.

Recommended.

[Octafish]

8. JFK resisted the pressure to go to war.

When DCI Allen Dulles, the Joint Chiefs, national security advisor McGeorge Bundy counseled war, Kennedy stood his ground -- an extraordinary backbone, considering the president's youth. Here's another example of pressure from the Joint Chiefs, Operation NORTHWOODS:

The Terrorist Attacks Planned by the American Joint Chief of Staff against its Population

PS: Speaking of brave young people, yours is an extraordinary family, my Friend. Great to read you, H20 Man!

[lonestarnot]

3. Peace Octafish!

K & R

[Octafish]

10. Peace to you and yours, lonestarnot!

It's a sad day, this. Our country is mired in two Vietnams.

JFK understood the problem:

In 1963, JFK ordered a complete withdrawal from Vietnam

Thank you for caring, my Friend!

[saltpoint]

4. The case Republicans then and now made against Jack Kennedy wasn't

much of a case.

It lacked focus and persuasion, not least.

The case against Nixon's entire career, by contrast, is very strong.

Paranoia in politics seems as if it would invariably be disastrous, or potentially disatrous. If that is true, Nixon's career is its poster child.

[Octafish]

11. Nixon's plumber E Howard Hunt tried to blame JFK for Diem assassination.

Corporate McPravda and Amerikan Akademika seem to have missed the story:

An excerpt from the book JFK The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy by L. Fletcher Prouty

Birch Lane Press, 1992 - hard cover, 1st edition


EXCERPT…

One of the most important narratives of this event was written by Edward G. Lansdale in his autobiography In the Midst of Wars. Few Americans, if any, knew Ngo Dinh Diem and the situation in Vietnam from 1954-68 better than Ed Lansdale. He wrote:

As the prisons filled up with political opponents, as the older nationalist parties went underground, with the body politics fractured, Communist political cadre became active throughout South Vietnam, recruiting followers for action against a government held together mainly by the Can Lao elite rather than by popular support. The reaped whirlwind finally arrived in November 1963, when the nationalist opposition erupted violently, imprisoning many of the Can Loa and killing Diem, Nhu, and others. It was heartbreaking to be an onlooker to this tragic bit of history.

It was some time before the news became known that Diem had fled to Cholon and been captured and killed there. This news was flashed around the world; this was the story that everyone heard. The public never heard of the planned flight to Europe that the Kennedy administration had arranged for him.

Thus it was that the file of routine cable traffic between Washington and Saigon eventually became known with the release and publication of the Pentagon Papers. This is how it happened that Howard Hunt was able to locate certain top-level messages to and from the White House and Ambassador Lodge in Saigon that contained information referring to "highest authority"--the cable traffic code for President Kennedy.

None of these messages contained any reference to a plot to kill President Diem and his brother or came even close to it. Concealed within these messages were carefully worded phrases that gave Ambassador Lodge the information he needed in order to direct all participants into action and to begin the careful removal of the two brothers to Europe by commercial aircraft.

According to information that came out during the Watergate hearings, those files that had been forged to smear President Kennedy were put in Hunt's White House safe, where they remained until discovered by investigators later.

SNIP…

There is much about this episode that has become important upon review. There are those who have been so violently opposed to Jack Kennedy and all that he stood for that they have stooped to all kinds of sordid activities to smear him while he was alive, to attack his brother Bobby while he was still alive, and to hound Sen. Edward Kennedy to this day. Nixon's gratuitous reference to Kennedy's "complicity in the murder of Diem" after a decade of silence on that subject speaks for itself. The efforts of Howard Hunt and Chuck Colson (both employees of the White House at the time) to dig up old files in order to besmirch the memory of President Kennedy provide another example.

CONTINUED...

http://www.maebrussell.com/Articles%20and%20Notes/Pentagon%20Papers.html

More on the "Who" part of the story:

Who changed the coup into the murder of Diem, Nhu and a Catholic priest?

From The Secret History of the CIA by Joseph Trento

Who changed the coup into the murder of Diem, Nhu and a Catholic priest accompanying them? To this day, nothing has been found in government archives tying the killings to either John or Robert Kennedy. So how did the tools and talents developed by Bill Harvey for ZR/RIFLE and Operation MONGOOSE get exported to Vietnam? Kennedy immediately ordered (William R.) Corson to find out what had happened and who was responsible. The answer he came up with: “On instructions from Averell Harriman…. The orders that ended in the deaths of Diem and his brother originated with Harriman and were carried out by Henry Cabot Lodge’s own military assistant.”

Having served as ambassador to Moscow and governor of New York, W. Averell Harriman was in the middle of a long public career. In 1960, President-elect Kennedy appointed him ambassador-at-large, to operate “with the full confidence of the president and an intimate knowledge of all aspects of United States policy.” By 1963, according to Corson, Harriman was running “Vietnam without consulting the president or the attorney general.”

The president had begun to suspect that not everyone on his national security team was loyal. As Corson put it, “Kenny O’Donnell (JFK’s appointments secretary) was convinced that McGeorge Bundy, the national security advisor, was taking orders from Ambassador Averell Harriman and not the president. He was especially worried about Michael Forrestal, a young man on the White House staff who handled liaison on Vietnam with Harriman.”

At the heart of the murders was the sudden and strange recall of Sagon Station Chief Jocko Richardson and his replacement by a no-name team barely known to history. The key member was a Special Operations Army officer, John Michael Dunn, who took his orders, not from the normal CIA hierarchy but from Harriman and Forrestal.

According to Corson, “John Michael Dunn was known to be in touch with the coup plotters,” although Dunn’s role has never been made public. Corson believes that Richardson was removed so that Dunn, assigned to Ambassador Lodtge for “special operations,” could act without hindrance.

SOURCE:

“The Secret History of the CIA.” Joseph Trento. 2001, Prima Publishing. pp. 334-335.

Thank you for caring, saltpoint! Very much appreciate you today.

[saltpoint]

13. Hi, Octafish. That is potent info, and you are quite right -- the

mainstream media (then and now) seem terribly selective in what gets covered and what does not.

And in the broader landscape this Democratic voter is powerfully homesick for JFK.

[WillyT]

5. Hear, Hear !!!

:applause:

:kick:

[Octafish]

12. JCS recommended we launch an all-out nuclear sneak attack in 'late 1963.'

It is incredible, my Friend!

TOP SECRET EYES ONLY

Notes on National Security Council Meeting July 20, 1961

General Hickey, Chairman of the Net Evaluation Subcommittee, presented the annual report of his group. General Lemnitzer stated that the assumption of this year's study was a surprise attack in late 1963, preceded by a period of heightened tensions.

After the presentation by General Hickey and by the various members of the Subcommittee, the President asked if there had ever been made an assessment of damage results to the U.S.S.R which would be incurred by a preemptive attack. General Lemnitzer stated that such studies had been made and that he would bring them over and discuss them personally with the President. In recalling General Hickey's opening statement that these studies have been made since 1957, the President asked for an appraisal of the trend in the effectiveness of the attack. General Lemnitzer replied that he would also discuss this with the President.

Since the basic assumption of this year's presentation was an attack in late 1963, the President asked about probable effects in the winter of 1962. Mr. Dulles observed that the attack would be much less effective since there would be considerably fewer missiles involved. General Lemnitzer added a word of caution about accepting the precise findings of the Committee since these findings were based upon certain assumptions which themselves might not be valid.

The President posed the question as to the period of time necessary for citizens to remain in shelters following an attack. A member of the Subcommittee replied that no specific period of time could be cited due to the variables involved, but generally speaking, a period of two weeks should be expected.

The President directed that no member in attendance at the meeting disclose even the subject of the meeting.

Declassified: June, 1993

SOURCE w LOTS OF BACKGROUND:

http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Essay_-_Did_the_US_Military_Plan_a_Nuclear_First_Strike_for_1963#The_Burris_Memorandum

The truth can be a powerful thing only when We the People know it.

[me b zola]

6. K&R

[Octafish]

14. Nixon on Ted Kennedy: 'If he gets shot, that's too damn bad.'

Tricky Dick wanted to keep tabs on Ted Kennedy, but he didn't want to protect him.

Nixon Dug Deep for Dirt on Kennedy

President Richard Nixon considered Ted Kennedy such a threat that he tried to catch Kennedy cheating on his wife, even ordering aides to recruit Secret Service agents to spill secrets on the senator's behavior.

"Do you have anybody in the Secret Service that you can get to?" Nixon asked his aide John Ehrlichman in a stark series of Oval Office conversations about Kennedy before the 1972 election. "Yeah, yeah," Ehrlichman replied.

"Plant one," Nixon said. "Plant two guys on him. This could be very useful."

Nixon made clear that the Secret Service protection afforded Kennedy before the 1972 election would be rescinded after. Then, said the president, "If he gets shot, it's too damn bad." His aides disdainfully referred to Kennedy supporters as "super swinger jet set types."

CONTINUED...

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/08/nixon-on-kennedy-if-he-gets-shot-its-too-damn-bad/

SOURCE:

http://www.nixontapes.org/emk.htm

Thanks for remembering, my Friend.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. Thank you, Octafish

for always providing perspective.

[Octafish]

19. Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency

You're welcome, my Friend. Here's another important part of President Kennedy's work toward economic justice that seems to have been forgotten by Corporate McPravda and Amerikan Akademika:

"In Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency, University of Pittsburgh Professor Donald Gibson shows that Kennedy’s progressive economic policies were bitterly opposed by the highest ranks of the American business and banking establishment," according to Daily KOS fellow NBBooks. Here are details on how President Kennedy worked to rein in these bagmen for privatized empire:

Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency Part 1

Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency Part 2

You may know how I like to point out Wall Street's role in the rise of modern feudalism.

Thank you, Blue_In_AK! Truly appreciate you caring about our country and where we are going.

PS: Really love your blog and photography! "Breathtaking" isn't the word to do it justice, "Majestic" is closer...

[Blue_In_AK]

21. Thank you so much.

It pleases me when people enjoy my photos. :)

[Faygo Kid]

15. The Kennedy Library in Boston is a must visit. I was unexpectedly moved.

12 when he was killed, but the museum evoked every memory for this Boomer.

[Octafish]

20. John F. Kennedy served as President for 1,036 days.

In that time, he kept the nation at peace and got us started to the moon and treated all Americans as equals.

That's why we give a damn, Faygo Kid.

Thank you for the heads-up on the Library. I look forward to visiting it in the near future.

PS: Did you see Stafford play today? The game was blacked out in Detroit, but I caught highlights on NFL Red Zone. Gawsh, I almost forgot Gosder Cherilus until that next-to-last play.

[EFerrari]

23. After the beautiful tribute to Teddy that John Culver did there, it's on my list

of places I must visit before I check out. Not to mention, when the Kennedys were in office, they projected family. They were my family in a funny way and I was only 6 when we lost our president. I miss them all.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=361230

[EFerrari]

16. Agreed. K&R

[Octafish]

22. CIA director Richard Helms gave Richard Nixon Bay of Pigs Info.

Remember when Haldeman brought up the "Bay of Pigs Thing" and it caused perniptions in one gentleman assassin?

CIA Did Provide Bay of Pigs Files to Nixon, Archives Says

January 7th, 2009 by Steven Aftergood
Updated below.

The Central Intelligence Agency did provide a copy of intelligence files relating to the Bay of Pigs to President Nixon in response to his request, an official of the National Archives and Records Administration said yesterday. He said that the statement to the contrary in Secrecy News on January 5, citing the new book “Family of Secrets,” was in error.

“The CIA did not refuse the Nixon administration’s request for records on the Bay of Pigs and other topics,” John Powers of the National Archives said. What happened, rather, is that “(Director of Central Intelligence Richard M.) Helms insisted that if the President wanted these records, he would only give them to the President himself.”

“There is a fascinating Oval Office taped conversation of this meeting in October 1971 that is publicly available. You can hear Helms putting the papers down on Nixon’s desk,” Mr. Powers said.

He identified the conversation as tape number 587-7 dated October 8, 1971. “Helms enters during (Ehrlichman's) briefing and they quickly change the topic, then get down to the issue of the papers.”

Mr. Powers added that the CIA papers provided by Mr. Helms to President Nixon are contained in Boxes 36 and 37 of the John D. Ehrlichman files at the Nixon Presidential Library.

CONTINUED...

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/01/cia_did_provide.html

Thank you, EFerrari. You lighten the load; and you bring true light.

[anonymous171]

17. He also cut taxes for the rich and increased the US's presence in Vietnam.

[Ishoutandscream2]

18. Could you imagine Tricky Dick or LBJ as president in October, 1962?

Yikes! Well, actually, we probably couldn't imagine because we wouldn't be here.