Humberto Fontova: President Bush Is No JFK, Thank God
[Humberto Fontova is author of Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, a Conservative Book Club Main Selection.]
Kim Jong-il's atomic blast has some conservative pundits reminiscing fondly over JFK. His response to Khrushchev and Castro exactly 44 Octobers ago, we're now given to understand, was positively Pattonesque.
"Now that's deterrence," writes Charles Krauthammer in a syndicated column hailing JFK's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The column calls for "Kennedy-esque clarity" from President Bush and has been variously titled "Follow Kennedy's Lead to Deter North Korea," "We could use Kennedy's Clarity" and "It's Time for Real Deterrence."
An article in National Review by Andrew McCarthy says "hear, hear" to Krauthammer. "It would be better for President Bush to emulate the Kennedy strategy," writes McCarthy, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The U.S. message to Kim, he stresses should be no-nonsense and "Kennedy-Clear"
"Kennedy reacted brilliantly and well and solved the problem," gushed Dick Morris to a nodding and receptive Sean Hannity on "Hannity & Colmes" last week.
Let's hand it to Fidel Castro. During his 47 years in the catbird seat, his cultivation and employment of "useful idiots" can only be described as an art. Lenin coined the term, but Castro became the virtuoso at sniffing them out, flattering them, then flummoxing them.
Not that Krauthammer, Hannity, Morris and McCarthy qualify as useful idiots. Far from it, and that's precisely the impressive part. Castro and his Western media and academic acolytes, by sheer repetition (as Joseph Goebbels famously prescribed), have planted and nurtured so many myths about the Cuban Revolution and its illustrious leader that these monopolize the discussions and literature on the subject.
The above pundits, I'd imagine, scoff at the usual humbug regarding Cuba: the exquisite health care and education, blah, blah. And they know full well of the Castro regime's disastrous rule and cruelty. But they've apparently swallowed the Missile Crisis portion of the legend, which isn't surprising. As Churchill said to his ministers, "History will be very good to us, because I intend to write most of it."
Ditto Camelot, staffed with its scribbling professors and feted by its fawning flock of footservants and supplicants from the Beltway media. Richard Nixon's rise to the White House transformed this Beltway press corps much as the rise of a full moon transformed Lon Chaney. Nowadays many of those same nattering nabobs complain that FOX toadies to the Bush administration. Pots and kettles come quickly to mind.
Perhaps a refresher on conservative reaction to JFK's Missile Crisis "resolution" is in order.
"We've been had!" yelled then Navy chief George Anderson upon hearing on October 26, 1962 how JFK "solved" the Missile Crisis. Admiral Anderson was the man in charge of the "blockade" against Cuba.
"The biggest defeat in our nation's history!" bellowed Air Force chief Curtis LeMay while whacking his fist on his desk.
"We missed the big boat," Said General Maxwell Taylor after learning the details of the deal with Khrushchev.
"Kennedy pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory, " wrote Richard Nixon, "then gave the Soviets squatters' rights in our backyard."
"It's a public relations fable that Khrushchev quailed before Kennedy," wrote Alexander Haig. "The legend of the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation invented by Kennedy's men paid a handsome political dividend. But so much that happened was obscured by stage-management designed to divert public attention from embarrassing facts. The Kennedy-Khrushchev deal was a deplorable error resulting in political havoc and human suffering through the Americas."
Even Democrats despaired. "This nation lacks leadership," said Dean Acheson, the Democratic elder statesman who Kennedy consulted on the matter. "The meetings were repetitive and without direction. Most members of Kennedy's team had no military or diplomatic experience whatsoever. The sessions were a waste of time."
But not for the Soviets. "We ended up getting exactly what we'd wanted all along," admitted Nikita Khrushchev, "security for Fidel Castro's regime and American missiles removed from Turkey. Until today the U.S. has complied with her promise not to interfere with Castro and not to allow anyone else to interfere with Castro. After Kennedy's death, his successor Lyndon Johnson assured us that he would keep the promise not to invade Cuba."
And the Kennedy team brainstorming sessions were certainly no waste of time for the primary beneficiary. "Many concessions were made by the Americans about which not a word has been said," disclosed Fidel Castro. "Perhaps one day they'll be made public."
"We can't say anything public about this agreement.... It would be too much of a political embarrassment for us." That's Robert F Kennedy to Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin when closing the deal that ended the so-called crisis.
(All above quotes are fully documented in "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant.")...
Read entire article at NewsMax.com
Kim Jong-il's atomic blast has some conservative pundits reminiscing fondly over JFK. His response to Khrushchev and Castro exactly 44 Octobers ago, we're now given to understand, was positively Pattonesque.
"Now that's deterrence," writes Charles Krauthammer in a syndicated column hailing JFK's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The column calls for "Kennedy-esque clarity" from President Bush and has been variously titled "Follow Kennedy's Lead to Deter North Korea," "We could use Kennedy's Clarity" and "It's Time for Real Deterrence."
An article in National Review by Andrew McCarthy says "hear, hear" to Krauthammer. "It would be better for President Bush to emulate the Kennedy strategy," writes McCarthy, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The U.S. message to Kim, he stresses should be no-nonsense and "Kennedy-Clear"
"Kennedy reacted brilliantly and well and solved the problem," gushed Dick Morris to a nodding and receptive Sean Hannity on "Hannity & Colmes" last week.
Let's hand it to Fidel Castro. During his 47 years in the catbird seat, his cultivation and employment of "useful idiots" can only be described as an art. Lenin coined the term, but Castro became the virtuoso at sniffing them out, flattering them, then flummoxing them.
Not that Krauthammer, Hannity, Morris and McCarthy qualify as useful idiots. Far from it, and that's precisely the impressive part. Castro and his Western media and academic acolytes, by sheer repetition (as Joseph Goebbels famously prescribed), have planted and nurtured so many myths about the Cuban Revolution and its illustrious leader that these monopolize the discussions and literature on the subject.
The above pundits, I'd imagine, scoff at the usual humbug regarding Cuba: the exquisite health care and education, blah, blah. And they know full well of the Castro regime's disastrous rule and cruelty. But they've apparently swallowed the Missile Crisis portion of the legend, which isn't surprising. As Churchill said to his ministers, "History will be very good to us, because I intend to write most of it."
Ditto Camelot, staffed with its scribbling professors and feted by its fawning flock of footservants and supplicants from the Beltway media. Richard Nixon's rise to the White House transformed this Beltway press corps much as the rise of a full moon transformed Lon Chaney. Nowadays many of those same nattering nabobs complain that FOX toadies to the Bush administration. Pots and kettles come quickly to mind.
Perhaps a refresher on conservative reaction to JFK's Missile Crisis "resolution" is in order.
"We've been had!" yelled then Navy chief George Anderson upon hearing on October 26, 1962 how JFK "solved" the Missile Crisis. Admiral Anderson was the man in charge of the "blockade" against Cuba.
"The biggest defeat in our nation's history!" bellowed Air Force chief Curtis LeMay while whacking his fist on his desk.
"We missed the big boat," Said General Maxwell Taylor after learning the details of the deal with Khrushchev.
"Kennedy pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory, " wrote Richard Nixon, "then gave the Soviets squatters' rights in our backyard."
"It's a public relations fable that Khrushchev quailed before Kennedy," wrote Alexander Haig. "The legend of the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation invented by Kennedy's men paid a handsome political dividend. But so much that happened was obscured by stage-management designed to divert public attention from embarrassing facts. The Kennedy-Khrushchev deal was a deplorable error resulting in political havoc and human suffering through the Americas."
Even Democrats despaired. "This nation lacks leadership," said Dean Acheson, the Democratic elder statesman who Kennedy consulted on the matter. "The meetings were repetitive and without direction. Most members of Kennedy's team had no military or diplomatic experience whatsoever. The sessions were a waste of time."
But not for the Soviets. "We ended up getting exactly what we'd wanted all along," admitted Nikita Khrushchev, "security for Fidel Castro's regime and American missiles removed from Turkey. Until today the U.S. has complied with her promise not to interfere with Castro and not to allow anyone else to interfere with Castro. After Kennedy's death, his successor Lyndon Johnson assured us that he would keep the promise not to invade Cuba."
And the Kennedy team brainstorming sessions were certainly no waste of time for the primary beneficiary. "Many concessions were made by the Americans about which not a word has been said," disclosed Fidel Castro. "Perhaps one day they'll be made public."
"We can't say anything public about this agreement.... It would be too much of a political embarrassment for us." That's Robert F Kennedy to Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin when closing the deal that ended the so-called crisis.
(All above quotes are fully documented in "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant.")...