Ultra-Liberal CTers Are Outraged Over New Book on JFK and Vietnam

[Benjamin Cole]

AI version:

Historian Ken Hughes from the Miller Center has used newly unclassified historical evidence and secret White House recordings to reveal President John F. Kennedy's direct, hidden role in the 1963 coup against South Vietnamese President Ngô Đěnh Diệm.Key

Research Findings

The Green Light: Newly examined audio recordings show that JFK gave U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. a functional "green light" to move forward with replacing Diệm, challenging the long-held myth that Lodge acted entirely on his own.

Outcome: The tapes and documentation indicate that while the Kennedy administration did not explicitly order an execution, Washington officials and JFK were well aware that a military coup could result in the assassination of Diệm and his brother.

Political Motives: Hughes's research highlights that Kennedy’s primary objective in backing a change in leadership was to secure a stable pro-American government and avoid losing Vietnam ahead of the 1964 presidential election.

[Tom Scully]

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/31468-cardinal-spellman-and-jfks-vietnam-war/page/6/#comment-571501

There is actually nothing new in Cheevers' "revelations". This book, in 2013, presented a day by day account of that critical leadup.

Right wing extremists never quit In this thread, Trump and his sycophant supporters (Rubio ?) are posting crocodile tears for Diem and his brother.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/JFK_s_Last_Hundred_Days/ixNDi6w2FnIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=ON+TUESDAY,+HE+SUGGESTED+ASKING+LODGE+AND+GENERAL+HARKINS,+THE+COMMANDER&pg=RA1-PA42&printsec=frontcover
JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the ...
Thurston Clarke · 2013
",,,On Tuesday (Aug. 27, 1963) , he suggested asking Lodge and General Harkins , the commander of the U.S. military assistance program ..."

And yes, JFK is quoted asking Lodge if he thinks Madam Nhu is a lesbian.

[Michael T. Griffith]

McMasters..... Ultra-Liberal?

Huh? No, I didn't say McMaster is an ultra-liberal. I'm not sure how you got that from my OP. McMaster has praised the book, as I mention in the OP.

The claim that Kennedy ordered a full withdrawal, not to mention the claim that he planned to unconditionally withdraw after the election, has been debunked every which way and is rejected by the vast majority of scholars all across the spectrum. Even most liberal historians reject the claim.

This is a prime example of the refusal of ultra-liberal JFKA researchers to listen to fact and reason.

I devote an entire chapter in A Comforting Lie to debunking the JFK-full-withdrawl myth. The far-left assertion that JFK planned on unconditionally withdrawing from Vietnam, i.e., even if it meant losing the war and allowing North Vietnam to conquer South Vietnam, is even more inexcusable and erroneous.

Dr. Marc Selverstone's 2022 book The Kennedy Withdrawal proves, among other things, that the JFK White House tapes do not contain one syllable from JFK or RFK to the effect that JFK had any intention of pulling out of Vietnam after the election. In fact, RFK specifically rejected this claim in his April 1964 oral history interview.
 

[Tom Scully]

Huh? No, I didn't say McMaster is an ultra-liberal. I'm not sure how you got that from my OP. McMaster has praised the book, as I mention in the OP.

The claim that Kennedy ordered a full withdrawal, not to mention the claim that he planned to unconditionally withdraw after the election, has been debunked every which way and is rejected by the vast majority of scholars all across the spectrum. Even most liberal historians reject the claim.

This is a prime example of the refusal of ultra-liberal JFKA researchers to listen to fact and reason.

I devote an entire chapter in A Comforting Lie to debunking the JFK-full-withdrawl myth. The far-left assertion that JFK planned on unconditionally withdrawing from Vietnam, i.e., even if it meant losing the war and allowing North Vietnam to conquer South Vietnam, is even more inexcusable and erroneous.

Dr. Marc Selverstone's 2022 book The Kennedy Withdrawal proves, among other things, that the JFK White House tapes do not contain one syllable from JFK or RFK to the effect that JFK had any intention of pulling out of Vietnam after the election. In fact, RFK specifically rejected this claim in his April 1964 oral history interview.

Your opinions fly in the face of the actual historical record.

Withdrawal was the policy on the day JFK died.

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d167

....And,

https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-JFK-Vietnam-Kennedy-Lived/dp/0742557006
Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived

Tackling head-on the most controversial and debated "what if" in U.S. foreign policy, this provocative work explores what President John F. Kennedy would have done in Vietnam had he not been assassinated in 1963. Drawing on a wealth of recently declassified documents, frank oral testimony of White House officials from both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and the analysis of top historians, this book presents compelling evidence that JFK was ready to end U.S. involvement well before the conflict escalated. With vivid immediacy, readers will feel they are in the president's war room as the debates raged that forever changed the course of American history—and continue to affect us profoundly as the shadows of Vietnam stretch into Iraq.