Perle, Wolfowitz and........Scoop Jackson?!

[Dover]

Perle, Wolfowitz and other leading neocons were once Dems?!

I highly recommend the following article that just appeared in the Guardian. VERY informative. Did you know that several leading neocons were students of Scoop Jackson?! Why him? Well what's so interesting is that he was was very active within the defense industry, particularly with Boeing, and apparently....JINSA. As I said in a previous post in LBN, I feel like I'm circling something important here but can't quite put my finger on it....or perhaps it's all just new to me while others here would find this old news.

Interested? Read on - first the Guardian article and then some info on Scoop Jackson and JINSA:

Vision of the neocons stays fixed on making hard choices

Oliver Burkeman in Washington
Tuesday September 23, 2003
The Guardian

Every Tuesday morning during the Iraq war Washington's opinion-makers and journalists knew there was only one place to be: at the "black-coffee briefings" held at the American Enterprise Institute, a fortress-like building on M and 17th streets, opposite the main offices of the National Geographic magazine.
Technically, AEI is a thinktank. More than that, though, it is the headquarters of the intellectual movement known as neoconservatism. Its staff includes famous names such as Richard Perle, Irving Kristol and Newt Gingrich. The magazine Weekly Standard, the neocon bible, is published at the same address...>

..MORE..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1047725,00.html


Some info on Scoop Jackson:

Twin Towers of Power (Jackson and Magnuson)

SCOOP AND MAGGIE -- THE NAMES SEEM INSEPARABLE, AS FAMILIAR AND COMFORTABLE TOGETHER AS OTHER FAMOUS PAIRS OF THE 1960S LIKE HUNTLEY AND BRINKLEY, OR EVEN BATMAN AND ROBIN. But Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson and Warren G. "Maggie" Magnuson gained their national recognition as skillful politicians who made enduring contributions at all levels of American government...

..snip..

...SCOOP JACKSON WAS A LEADING CONTENDER TO BECOME JOHN KENNEDY'S RUNNING MATE in 1960. But when Jackson lost to Lyndon Johnson, he accepted the Democratic Party chairmanship, rising in stature as he helped Kennedy to his narrow election victory.
Magnuson also took part, heading the campaign in 13 Western states. Kennedy later repaid him, coming to Seattle for a testimonial dinner honoring Maggie's 25 years in Congress and kicking off his 1962 Senate run. Nearly 3,000 guests heard Kennedy joke, "He sends messages to the rostrum, and when he is asked, 'What is it?' he replies, 'It's nothing important.' And Grand Coulee Dam is built."
Although Maggie was not really responsible for Grand Coulee, he and Scoop could take credit for bringing Washington one out of every six dollars in public-works appropriations, though the state ranked only 23rd in population. Several dams, a Grand Coulee powerhouse as well as numerous highway and irrigation projects were just part of the Magnuson-Jackson pork barrel. Many national programs the senators supported also had strong Washington state benefits -- from an oceanographic bill bringing the UW millions in research money to the law setting a 12-mile limit to protect coastal fisheries.

Friendship with Democratic presidents added to the national stature Magnuson and Jackson earned while in the Senate. A new drydock at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton,left, and a dual-purpose reactor at the Hanford nuclear reservation, right, were two of the defense projects the pair supported to benefit Washington.

But the dynamic duo probably had greatest success during the 1960s in bringing home defense contracts, expanding the area's shipyards and military installations, but most notably the local aircraft industry. Although Jackson always cringed when called "the senator from Boeing," Seattle's premier company benefitted substantially from both Scoop's and Maggie's efforts. In 1965, 80 percent of Boeing's contracts were military.
The Washington delegation's political power was never more in evidence than during the bitter Senate fight over the Supersonic Transport, the SST. Annual attempts to stop government support for SST development -- a huge portion of which went to Boeing -- were turned back by Scoop and Maggie, prompting an opponent, Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire, to conclude: "There are just two strong, persuasive reasons for the SST" -- Scoop and Maggie.
Yet even their consummate political skills could not save the SST, which was finally grounded in 1971. Scoop and Maggie responded in character, obtaining an extension of unemployment benefits for states such as Washington facing serious economic problems.
The partnership could easily have been fractured by Jackson's campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 and 1976 and by his hawkish position on Vietnam, which Magnuson clearly opposed. Yet throughout their careers the two senators continued to support each other in promoting state interests.
In a changing world, those efforts often meant protecting the region's environment from the very development the pair had earlier championed. Whether sponsoring legislation for a North Cascades National Park or ensuring that supertankers could not pollute Puget Sound, Scoop and Maggie kept the benefits rolling into Washington..>

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/centennial/september/towers.html

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January 8, 2002 in JINSA Events, Meetings and Programs : The Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson Distinguished Service Award

2001 Jackson Award Honors Service Secretaries

http://www.jinsa.org/articles/articles.html/function/view/categoryid/1366/documentid/1376/history/3,2166,1366,1376

On October 25, JINSA hosted more than 600 guests drawn from the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, the diplomatic and defense communities to pay tribute to Navy Secretary Gordon R. England, Air Force Secretary Dr. James G. Roche, and Army Secretary Thomas E. White, as they were each presented with JINSA's Henry M. ÒScoop" Jackson Distinguished Service Award. Presenting the awards was Mr. Rudy De Leon, Senior Vice President of the Boeing Company's Washington, D.C. Operations. Boeing was this year's event Major Corporate Sponsor.

Each year, JINSA honors leaders who, throughout their careers, have honored the tradition of the late Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson. As Secretary White noted, "JINSA was organized in part to perpetuate his legacy and we can feel his spirit here tonight. Senator Jackson inspired American's with his dedication to a strong U.S. defense posture and his abiding interest in helping oppressed peoples." In a letter to this year's recipients, Mrs. Helen Jackson wrote that "It is gratifying to know that as the three of you perform your vital tasks on behalf of our nation at this particularly critical time, you are embodying the ideas of my late husband, a strong national defense and close ties with Israel."...>>

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JACKSON BIO - http://www.hmjackson.org/bio.html

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ON EDIT - Well after a bit more internet searching it seems this subject is not so new after all. Here is an article by Jackson's son in response to an article on this same subject by Roger Morris:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/118074_jacksonreply.html

Tracing the war in Iraq to Scoop Jackson is sheer nonsense

By PETER JACKSON
GUEST COLUMNIST

I was startled to learn from Roger Morris' April 6 Focus article that the Depression-era voters of Snohomish County bear much of the blame (or the credit) for booting Saddam...>>

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/118074_jacksonreply.html

[teryang]

1. Tracing the war to Jackson is a red herring

The historical significance of the Jackson constellation of political influence has more to do with the historic alliance of defense, defense contractors, and the Israeli lobby in dominating American priorities to the detriment of the national interests of the United States of America.

Eisenhower was right. These interests need to be keep in check. They will drag the country into political, economic and military diasters like the Korean conflict, Vietnam, and Iraq. Now they are totally unchecked and building coercive, subversive and unconstitutional means to prevent the emergence of meaningful checks on their deadly and destructive activities in the future. Patriot Acts, "homeland" security, and unaccountable electronic voting systems are their Machiavellian tools.

Of course, the elements left out of the extreme rightist equation are the energy, banking, and corporate interests who support the war to guarantee their plutocracy forever while dismantling the government of the people as we know it. The military industrial complex allied with Israel cannot operate unchecked without their support.

[HazMat]

2. the neocons are "right wing trotskyists"

instead of socialism, the neocons are driven to conquer the world using capitalist democracy.

Neoconservatism can be traced back to 1930s NYC. They were well educated children of Jewish immigrants, and subscribed to the trotskyist school of socialism. Over time their views shifted to the right , but empire building remained at the heart of their beliefs. Reagan's presidency made their transition to the GOP complete.

I doubt their support for Jackson means he was also a neocon. He was a Democrat who was also strong on defense, like JFK. The neocons were trying to pull the Democratic Party in their direction, but they lost out and defected to Reagan's GOP.