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

[Jim DiEugenio]

268. With Bolo, he is always moving the goalposts

Just trace this whole thing, you will see what I mean.

In the last one, you used two people, Forrestal and Bundy. If I had replied to Forrestal, you would have said I missed Bundy, the man who is much more important in the Big Picture. So I replied to Bundy explaining how Kennedy had decided to go through McNamara on the withdrawal plan.

You want to deny that plan so now you say, Well what about Forrestal. But you forget, its through Dallek on the quote.

All you have to know about Dallek is this: In over 1100 pages of text,in two books, there is no index entry for Edmund Gullion. Today, for someone like me, for any Kennedy biography, that means: game, set, match. Not worth reading. And Dallek's failings are multiplied by not using the ARRB declassified docs.

Because in Goldstein, Forrestal makes clear what Kennedy's reason for the review was. He told Forrestal, we have a 100 to 1 shot of winning. Uh, do you think he was going to stay with those odds? See, Kennedy was very disappointed that he had to ride herd to get everyone on board for NSAM 263. He was now going to review everything about how we got involved in the quagmire, including how the coup cable got sent. This would get everyone more adept at what he was thinking, not just McNamara.

That key point also touches on the briefing book you now drag in versus the declassified documents. The ARRB docs have no mention in them of any victory at all. Just withdrawal. Why?

Because McNamara supervised the meeting and he was Kennedy's point man on the issue up to that time. Clearly, JFK wanted to change that.

This will be my last post here. I am spread to thin as it is. And its the fiftieth. Its a shame that a really good idea for a forum is partly vitiated by a couple of let us say, faux Democrats. But that is the way the Web turned out.

Meanwhile keep up the good work Octafish and others. Very much appreciated.