Obama's 'Missile Crisis' - Democratic Underground

denem

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Fri Nov-13-09 11:39 AM
Original message

Obama's 'Missile Crisis'

Edited on Fri Nov-13-09 12:32 PM by denem

November, 1961.

Army General Maxwell Taylor is proposing to dispatch combat troops to Vietnam.

Under Secretary of State, George Ball "(Mr. President) within five years we’ll have three hundred thousand men in the paddies and jungles (of Vietnam) and never find them again..."

"Well, George, you're supposed one of the smartest guys in town, but you're crazier than hell. That just isn’t going to happen." John F. Kennedy.

There were 1,500 'advisers' in Vietnam at the time. My cousin was drafted in 1969. 1,500 troops. Blink. Must be cigarette smoke or something. Palin doesn't blink.

October 26, 1962.

A day in the life of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Soviet Premier Khrushchev has offered to dismantle the nuclear capable missiles stationed in Cuba on the condition Cuba is not invaded, in exchange for the United States withdrawing their missiles in Turkey.

U2 fights, getting pictures of the sites, are being shot down day after day. This day is one of those days.

General Taylor reports that the JCS wants an air strike no later than Monday morning unless there is irrefutable evidence that the missiles are being dismantled. (14:08)

RFK responds, "Gosh, I'm surprised!" resulting in a great deal of laughter. (14:36)

McNamara recommends more surveillance flights Monday morning with proper cover. If attacked, he insists, "we must attack back." (18:45)

News arrives that a U-2 has been shot down and the pilot killed. "This is much of an escalation by them, isn't it?," JFK concludes. How can we put more U-2 pilots over Cuba, he asks, unless "we take out all the SAM sites." (30:09)

JFK reopens the discussion of trading the missiles in Turkey. McNamara insists that the case should be made that this is not so much a trade as a way of preventing a Soviet military attack on a NATO member nation. (52:58)

McNamara says that if reconnaissance flights are fired upon tomorrow that means air strikes and "almost certainly an invasion." (59:03)

(Apparently JFK is no longer in the room at this point in the discussion.)

Vice President Lyndon Johnson responds: "If you're willing to give up your missiles in Turkey - why don't you...make the trade there and save all the invasion, lives and everything else?" (1:02:10)

George Ball also argues for making the trade openly with the USSR to avoid "enormous casualties and a great, great risk of escalation." (1:03:35)

McNamara: "Max (General Taylor) is going back to work out the surveillance plan for tomorrow with the Chiefs as to how much cover we need and so on. We're just going to get shot up sure as hell. There's no question about it. We're going to have to go in and shoot." (1:07:15)

McCone responds: "I'd take these Turkish things out right now" but also tell Khrushchev firmly that if they fire at our planes again "in we come." (1:08:22)

McNamara denounces Khrushchev Oct 26 letter: "Hell, that's no offer. There's not a damned thing in it that's an offer. You read that message carefully. He didn't propose to take the missiles out....It's twelve pages of fluff." (1:09:30)

LBJ questions the value of the surveillance flights: "I've been afraid of these damned flyers ever since they mentioned them...some crazy Russian captain...might just pull a trigger. Looks like we 're playing Fourth of July over there. I'm scared of that and I don't see what you get for that photograph. ...

Psychologically you scare them. Well hell, its like the fellow always telling me in Congress, 'Go on and put the monkey on his back.' Every time I tried to put a monkey on somebody's else's back, I got one. If you're going to try to psychologically scare them...you're liable to get your bottom shot at." (1:33:00)
http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the Kennedy Administration's finest moment. JFK and RFK bunted every ball, each constantly misguided recommendation, from the Defense Secretary and the JCS. They were critical, concentrated and correct.

13 months later, JFK was dead, and Lyndon Johnson, the man who had asked "why don't you... save all the invasion, lives and everything else?", made the critical error of keeping on Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense.

November 2009.

The JCS wants 40,000 more troops minimum, and is prepared to leak to press. "Gosh, I'm surprised!", but there's no laughter.

This is Obama's 'Missile Crisis', a time for fearlessness, when the advice of the JCS and Secretary Gates, is just that, advice. The Kennedy Administration took their eyes off the ball in Vietnam. In '62, with McNamara and Taylor running the show, Agent Orange was falling on the jungles of Vietnam.

Not this time. Over to you Mr. President.