General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Justice for JFK [View all]allrevvedup
(408 posts)and while Chomsky is not your average RW water carrier, he's still a RW water carrier. Chomsky's role in the disinformation economy is to attack from the left, or more accurately the "left," as his idea of dissent is as disingenuous and misleading as the rest his reality bubble. Yes he talks a good game, and he can fool all of the people some of the time, but if you want to know the truth, there's a lie in bite: he's always covering up, changing the subject, distorting by omission, shifting the blame or as with JFK just plain lying. I'm sorry I'm not as diplomatic as Octafish, or as informed, so do please read his links, especially the second one, which is short and lays out Chomsky's "gatekeeper" function succinctly.
Meanwhile if you want an accurate account of Kennedy's foreign policy I'd strongly recommend the Douglass book PeacePatriot describes above. With respect to Vietnam here's a short post that uses the same sources you cited (the Cronkite interview and the Kaiser book) along with several others to make a different and far more accurate representation of JFK's policy:
"The Vietnam War and the Assassination of JFK," by John Simkin, Posted 03 March 2006 (excerpt):
{snip}
Kennedy met with Robert McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor on 2nd October, 1963. Kennedy told McNamara to announce to the press the immediate withdrawal of one thousand soldiers from Vietnam. Kennedy added that he would probably withdraw all American forces from Vietnam by the end of 1965. When McNamara was leaving the meeting to talk to the white house reporters, Kennedy called to him: And tell them that means all of the helicopter pilots too. In his statement to the press McNamara softened the Presidents views by stating that in his judgment the major part of the U.S. military task in Vietnam could be completed by the end of 1965. (27)
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6274
p.s. the Chomsky links I was referring are in post #57 of this thread.