Pardon me? How did JFK 'blow' the Cuban missile crises?

Vito wrote:
He let Kruchev bluff him into pulling back our own bases in Turkey and
elsewhere.
According to Kruchev (years later of course) that's exactly what he
wanted and the whole thing was a bluff to get it. He'd never have gone
to war over Castro because the US had a sizable first strike capability
at the time.

Oh yeah, right.... and Kruschev always tells the truth, 100%... here is a fine
how-de-do, in order to smear a US President you accept Communist propaganda...
that's really 'conservative' isn't it.



Huh. Did Ike have a 'plan' in Viet Nam, ...

Actually, a very good one. Ho worked for us during WW2 and became Prime
Minister of all Vietnam after that war. When the French tried to return
he had Japanese troops, placed under his temporary command by the treaty
signed aboard Missouri, inter them and send them home. But the Japs
left, the French returned and Ho's pleas that we take over a we did in
the Philippines went unanswered. So he whipped the frogs himself, but
then didn't know what to do. He knew that people in western democracies
lived better than folks under communism but commies had helped him when
we wouldn't.

So far, an interesting mix of near-truth and total fantasy. Ho Chi Mihn (an
alias, the man's real name is believed to be Ngyen Ai Quoc) did not 'become
Prime Minister of all Vietnam.' No such office then or now. His command of th
elargest & best armed insurgent group put him in position to assume power. He
never worked for us. Some of the Vietnamese insurgent groups worked with the
OSS and returned downed fliers during WW2. But the Communist insurgents never
coopoerated with the Allies reliably, in fact they executed a couple of US and
British personnel, and turned over some others to the Japanese. It was a very
hit-or-miss thing.

Another fabrication is that the Japanese forces remaining in Vietnam after VJ
Day were placed under Ho's command. They were under the British overall, and
kept their own officers. They were never ever given orders by Vietnamese, nor
would they have accepted such.


His buddy Ike proposed a solution: temporarily split the
country, communist north and capitalist south, then after a few years (5
IIRC) let the people decide in a reunifying election.

Ahem. That was a UN plan, not Ike's.


.... Ike's scheme was
to pour so much $$$ into the south, as we were doing in Germany, that
capitalism would easily win. Unfortunately the Diems set up a
dictatorship (vs a democracy) in the south that had majority Buddhists
lighting themselves off and diverted all the US aid $$ to their own
Swiss bank accounts and by the time anybody noticed JFK was president.

Another mix of near-truth and bizarre fantasy. If you can read, I suggest you
start with a good history text on SE Asia.



.... So now you know why the US military never won the Vietnam war.

There are several reasons why we didn't win (it was pretty close to a tie,
actually, but what is that worth?)


Ever hear about SEAL 1 and the Tonkin Gulf Incident?

umm, yes. What about it?



Yep. But was that enough to justify shooting him?

If you made a list of all the people you would NOT want ****ed at you at
that time you'd find that JFK had crapped on all of them. He was Irish
Mafia. He screwed up the plan to put the mob back in charge of Cuba, and
got a bunch of CIA types killed. He P'd off the KKK. He tried to fire J
Edgar. Etc. Would you want the *old* CIA, Mafia, KKK and FBI all wishing
you dead?

If I were President (which I don't want to be) I'd tread somewhat lightly here
but most of these people (especially Hoover and the KKK) *ought* to have been
stomped & flushed.


The other day, somebody shoved a farcical hatchet piece on JFK at me. It
basically said that the whole PT-109 incident was fictional and was a
deliberate attempt by the Navy to boost JFK's future political career.

That's sad. He f'd up and got his boat ran over

It's a Navy captains job to put his ship & crew in danger. To call the PT-109
collision a ****-up shows a lack of understanding what goes on out there.
Granted, it was not a stellar performance in attack maneuvering....

but then he performed
heroically to save what he could of the situation. Give him that, and
the space program and the end of Jim Crow.

Agreed. Plus all that other stuff.

DSK