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It was LBJ who escalated and prolonged the war. No one knows for sure, but probably Kennedy would have tried to end it. He didn't need the money from war profits--he didn't need money from anyone and he cared about the country. He made mistakes at first but he was getting on track. Of course his personal life was a total mess. But other than that, he did set a good example and inspired all of us to do our part to help the country. And he was truly for the poor even though he came from a rich background.
LJB was a real total sleaze. Kennedy didn't want him as VP but it was one of those things people do to get elected. LBJ has his mistresses too, and even an illegitimate child.
It was LBJ we were protesting against in the late 60s, wanting to stop the war. But the war went on and on--no one even knew what we were really fighting for. Probably so that the special military interests could make money, for one thing.
Alternative facts! Well, except that JFK didn't like LBJ. No president pursues war to personally enrich himself!
Of course it was LBJ we were protesting. He's the one who was president. The policies after JFK's death were Johnson's. The Vietnam war was supposed to be a war against communism.
It was certainly a different time when JFK was prez. His indiscretions were known by and hidden by the press. Such a thing would not be protected in today's 24 hr news cycle. And he too had his enemies, as we know. Those who wanted the Vietnam war and the build-up of the military industrial complex hated JFK, who wanted no part of a war. He had enemies in the CIA and FBI and certain countries (Cuba, Russia).
He was beloved by many though, seen as someone who had a real calling to serve, brilliant, visionary, inspiring, and committed. He well understood the many complex issues in the world. My mother said when he was assassinated she cried for 3 days. To this day she has no desire to watch any anniversary special of his assassination, no movies about it; she said living through it once was bad enough.
It was certainly a different time when JFK was prez. His indiscretions were known by and hidden by the press. Such a thing would not be protected in today's 24 hr news cycle. And he too had his enemies, as we know. Those who wanted the Vietnam war and the build-up of the military industrial complex hated JFK, who wanted no part of a war. He had enemies in the CIA and FBI and certain countries (Cuba, Russia).
He was beloved by many though, seen as someone who had a real calling to serve, brilliant, visionary, inspiring, and committed. He well understood the many complex issues in the world. My mother said when he was assassinated she cried for 3 days. To this day she has no desire to watch any anniversary special of his assassination, no movies about it; she said living through it once was bad enough.
I was just 10 years old when JFK was killed. I remember the sense of shock that went round the world. My father was just horrified. I asked him why he had been murdered, and my dad couldn't tell me why. He just shook his head from side to side.
Looking back now, I think JFK had greatness in him. I couldn't care less about his womanising. He was a man of his time. I feel after winning in 1964, we would have seen his greatness bloom. There has not been a politician to touch him since his death. We sure could do with him today.
To feel the true loss of JFK, I think you had to be alive when he was President. His sudden death haunts us still.
Last edited by English Dave; 05-29-2017 at 11:57 PM..
It was certainly a different time when JFK was prez. His indiscretions were known by and hidden by the press. Such a thing would not be protected in today's 24 hr news cycle. And he too had his enemies, as we know. Those who wanted the Vietnam war and the build-up of the military industrial complex hated JFK, who wanted no part of a war. He had enemies in the CIA and FBI and certain countries (Cuba, Russia).
He was beloved by many though, seen as someone who had a real calling to serve, brilliant, visionary, inspiring, and committed. He well understood the many complex issues in the world. My mother said when he was assassinated she cried for 3 days. To this day she has no desire to watch any anniversary special of his assassination, no movies about it; she said living through it once was bad enough.
CIA,FBI,Mafia,Cuban nationals killed him but it's still a tribute that he stood up for what he believed in. He understood the world and national issues of the time.
While I don't idolize him, he still was one of the last presidents who cared about us and dared to follow through with what he believed. The day he was killed, it was like time froze. I still can't stand to watch anything about it on tv. And the country started to come apart after his death.
It's now a century since the birth of John F. Kennedy's birth, and when I heard that on the radio, I couldn't help contrasting, with a pang, JFK and Trump.
Like Trump, JKF came from wealth, and even similarly had some corruption in his family. But his presidency was a model of grace and classiness in comparison.
First, of course, there was Kennedy's physical grace, his jauntiness, in comparison with Trump's lumbering stance. Then there was the grace of Kennedy's speech. Not only was he articulate, unlike Trump, but he had a kind of confidence - the kind that comes from knowledge and experience, not bluster. Unlike Trump, there was no vulgarity to his public speech. He would never have uttered the crude and insulting remarks that Trump has done - in fact, Kennedy even spoke decently of people like Nixon. And Kennedy had a sense of humor. Kennedy's witty remarks, often off-the-cuff, are often quoted. Trump's rare attempts at humor seem to only be insults.
Trump has never had any version of what most of us would consider a job, where you are answerable to someone else above you, which has given him the outlook of a dictator. Kennedy, despite his wealth, had been in the military and service in Congress and the Senate, where he was answerable to higher-ups. So he never showed quite the insufferable arrogance of Trump. Although both Trump and Kennedy came from money, there was nothing greedy about Kennedy. He had no fixation on money. And he certainly didn't brag about it. If anything, sometimes he poked fun at the family money, like his famous quip about his father being unwilling to pay for a landslide.
Unlike Trump, Kennedy had endearing family relationships. Of course, he was also a philanderer, but he had the decency to keep that private. Publicly, he was not only happy to express pride at his wife's culture and eruption (both lacking in Melania), but at a time when men often didn't have close relations with their children, he set aside time even in the White House for his, and they clearly delighted in each other. In contrast, you can see even with Barron, that there's not much of a relationship there.
What else? Well, Kennedy was a voracious reader, and was well-versed about many things, including history. Being human, he must have sometimes said dumb things, but I've never heard of any, nor have I ever heard of Kennedy blatantly lying for the purposes of self-inflation.
And, maybe above all, even in some very scary times, he managed to mostly convey a kind of cheer, of optimism - and maybe that's what drew so many people to him.
Meaningless gibberish. He really, really looks Presidential, right? pffft Who cares except for the posers. It's always about policy.
It was certainly a different time when JFK was prez. His indiscretions were known by and hidden by the press. Such a thing would not be protected in today's 24 hr news cycle. And he too had his enemies, as we know. Those who wanted the Vietnam war and the build-up of the military industrial complex hated JFK, who wanted no part of a war. He had enemies in the CIA and FBI and certain countries (Cuba, Russia).
He was beloved by many though, seen as someone who had a real calling to serve, brilliant, visionary, inspiring, and committed. He well understood the many complex issues in the world. My mother said when he was assassinated she cried for 3 days. To this day she has no desire to watch any anniversary special of his assassination, no movies about it; she said living through it once was bad enough.
If he hated war, why didn't he bring the troops home like Nixon finally did?
Just had advisors?
By November 1963, there were 16,000 American military personnel in South Vietnam, up from Eisenhower's 900 advisors
America backing regime change yet again
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was in contact with generals planning to remove Diệm. They were told that the United States would not oppose such a move nor punish the generals by cutting off aid. President Diệm was overthrown and executed, along with his brother, on 2 November 1963. When he was informed, Maxwell Taylor remembered that Kennedy "rushed from the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face." He had not anticipated Diệm's murder. The U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, invited the coup leaders to the embassy and congratulated them. Ambassador Lodge informed Kennedy that "the prospects now are for a shorter war". Kennedy wrote Lodge a letter congratulating him for "a fine job"
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