Posted on 10/25/2013 10:21:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I guess not getting nuked constitutes “Victory.”
He won at the Bay of Pigs, too!
I read Humberto’s article earlier. OMG! LOL! You mean came-alot was a lie? Who’d a thunk it? Sadly, fact is stranger than fiction and even when presented with facts, the hard core libs remain in a state of denial.
As a young boy delivering newspapers during this time, my gut kept telling me that something was wrong with Kennedy, that he was handling everything wrong.
His presidency seemed to go from one mistake to another.
I don’t really care it was years ago.
My husband was preparing to be called up and he didn’t have to go.
With a couple of babies that was enough for me.
.
The day he was shot.
And how many were killed on our ships when they were told to stand down while being strafed?
Death is a good career move.
His Bay of Pigs was bigger than D-Day!
While we are rewriting history can I be King of Scots?
The loss was before the Crisis, at the failure of the Administration to recognize that Castro et. al. were going to impose a Communist regime, instead of lapping up the propaganda about a “democracy” in Cuba.
If you want to see JFK being deified at freerepublic then check out this fan boy thread.
JFK is not perfect, and neither was he the best president of the 20th century ( Reagan was IMHO ).
He made a lot of mistakes. However, let’s give credit where credit is due... HE CUT TAXES ( BY A LOT ). *THAT* is a conservative policy and I am a fan of what he did on that issue in particular.
There was no victory. They called it a victory because Kennedy was able to appease the Russians with no real consequences. And the following elections were great for the democrats.
But at the time, people were outside the White House with signs saying things like “Don’t chicken out this time, Jack!” (referring to the Bay of Pigs, where he went along with Adlai Stevenson’s promise to the Russian ambassador that we wouldn’t use air cover. And our guys literally ran out of ammunition on the beaches and were slaughtered)
Bobby Kennedy quietly pulled our missiles out of West Germany as part of the deal. The Russians saw mush and escalated in Vietnam, Central America, South America, Europe and Africa resulting in the debacle of the 70’s,
When Reagan put the missles back into West Germany and pointed them directly at the Kremlin, it was clear to the Russians that the game was over, and it was the beginning of the end. Despite the Nuclear Freeze and all that, Reagan would not be deterred and there is no more Soviet Union.
Quite the varying commentary in the responses to the post.
“Considering the U.S. nuclear superiority over the Soviets at the time of the (so-called) Missile Crisis (five thousand nuclear warheads for us, three hundred for them) it’s hard to imagine a President Nixon — much less Reagan — quaking in front of Khrushchev’s transparent ruse a la Kennedy.”
It doesn’t work like that, no matter how much this Cuban author wants it to. The Russian officers sitting on those tactical nukes actually had launch authority if we attacked.
So 5000 vs 300 becomes meaningless if 4 or 5 of those 300 hit the eastern US, and then of course THAT leads to a general exchange.
Kennedy had deep flaws, but still was FAR more conservative than any GOP candidate in the last 6 elections. Disliking his is fine, but beating him up for not starting a full out war in Cuba is deranged.
Long before the Clintons and Obamas came along the Kennedys mastered the art of spin. The Cuban Missile Crisis, in accordance with Kennedy mythology, is commonly spun as a “victory” for the US. In reality it was quid pro quo. The Soviets agreed to pull their missiles from Cuba and we agreed to pull our Jupiter missiles out of Turkey. It is nothing more than Kennedy mythology and drama to suggest we were on the brink of nuclear war.
The instant we agreed to pull our missile out of Turkey?
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