JFK Conference: James DiEugenio made clear how Foreign Policy changed after November 22, 1963

[Bolo Boffin]

163. Clearly.

I just see the November 4 tape of JFK as clear evidence that he knew what was happening, knew what his administration had done to encourage it, and was taking full responsibility for it. Of course others were the primary actors, but JFK did nothing to stop them.

JFK worked for American interests with war in one hand and an outstretched hand for peace in the other. It was the only way to be a Cold War warrior. And while he stumbled in the very beginning of his term in office on that front, he quickly got his bearings on that front. If he had not drawn such a hard line in the Cuban Missile crisis, the Soviets might not have realized what a loose cannon Castro was until far too late in the game.

Hunt faking those cables was about the 1972 campaign, not about muddying the waters around a motive for JFK's murder. Making JFK order Diem's death - which he didn't - was meant to peel Catholic voters away from the Democrats according to Hunt's testimony. It was also about tying the Vietnam War directly to the Kennedy administration. Nixon couldn't have been more clear about that in the White House tapes. That way the Pentagon Papers would be seen as the Democrats' issue, not his. But Hunt couldn't find where JFK had ever ordered Diem's assassination (because he didn't). That would have been the smoking gun. So Hunt made them up. Nixon didn't pay people to come back empty handed.

So I get why people are so keen to show JFK as completely the opposite of how Hunt and Nixon tried to portray him. I do. But Kennedy did have some blood on his hands. Kennedy would be the first to say that. The evidence just was not as damning as Nixon needed it to be.

And of course you know the HSCA says Hunt was not one of the box car "tramps." So no need to go into that.