Virtual JFK, Actual Johnson

[davidswanson]

The new film "Virtual JFK" is marketed as the story of the Vietnam War had John F. Kennedy not been killed. I expected a fantasy account of what might have been, and this led me to expect the following problem with the story: If Kennedy was killed because he would not fight a war in Vietnam, then supposing him to have survived Dallas would simply have left him in danger of assassination at each ongoing instant in the drama. We would have had to constantly fantasize Kennedy back to life through the course of such a movie.

But "Virtual JFK" actually consists of a review of the evidence from Kennedy's actions before he died and of the situation that confronted Lyndon Johnson as president, thereby making the case that had Kennedy lived we would not have seen a full-scale war in Vietnam. The film argues that in six instances Kennedy faced intense pressure to launch wars, and that in each instance he refused. The six were: the Bay of Pigs, Laos, Berlin, Vietnam, Cuba again, and Berlin again. Kennedy's top advisors, representatives of the permanent government, spokesmen for the military industrial complex then closer to its infancy, all urged him in the strongest terms at these moments to fight. They told him he had no other choice.

Yet Kennedy made a different choice. And as he did so, he remained popular with the public, if not with his own subordinates. In contrast, when Johnson opted to obey the war mongers, his popularity plummeted so hard that he was unable to run for election to another term. Kennedy is remembered as our hippest, coolest, most macho president, perhaps in part because of his looks, because he was killed, or because -- like Clinton -- he had a lot of sex. But he also struck one as having nerve and courage when he spoke, and it may be that he did, and it may be that he used those qualities to stand up to the war machine as much as to ride in its front seat (we know that he did plenty of that as well).

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern warned this week that President Barack Obama fears the CIA. Obama is in some ways a "virtual JFK." His brand is built on his looks, his speech, his youth, his cry for change and a bright future. But Obama's behavior in relation to the CIA and the war machine parallels Johnson's, not Kennedy's. Obama has granted these people immunity for crimes, agreed to cement in place criminal policies of rendition and preventive detention, and to maintain the power to torture while choosing not to use it. He has maintained the war in Iraq while escalating those in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and left the door open and the pressure building for an attack on Iran. Were Obama to die today, no movie like "Virtual JFK" could be made to suggest that he had an established habit of avoiding war.

That doesn't mean that he can't develop that habit if we compel him to. And the moral responsibility that we all have to compel him to may very well involve putting his life at risk. Of course, his life is already at risk from gun-toting racist yahoos. And of course, he sends tens of thousands of young men and women to kill and risk death for no good reason, and each of them has a life and loved ones just as he does. Still, it cannot be taken lightly that we are asking someone to risk his life. We must consider what we are doing and how. I'm inclined to recommend the following course:

First, end these wars by compelling the House of Representatives to cease funding them. Nobody is going to assassinate 218 congress members. Obama cannot fight unfunded wars. And we will never avoid wars if we leave the power to begin and end them in the hands of presidents.

Second, work to expose the history of and end the ongoing existence of the CIA. Expand criminal investigations to include all those complicit in crimes, regardless of their august rank and privilege. And, again, work through Congress to impeach, subpoena, and move the matter forward.

Third, replace Joe Biden as vice president with someone possessing the backbone and integrity to fight for peace and the rule of law.

Fourth, build immediately the massive opposition to wars in the Middle East that eventually ended the war in Vietnam.

Fifth, encourage President Obama to think about how Kennedy and Johnson are remembered in very different ways by the people of the nation they both left behind, each having stayed but a few moments on earth, but each having taken a very different approach toward the lives and deaths of their fellow human beings.

[ddeclue]

1. These historical analogies are problematic at best...

for instance consider that Johnson was far more effective than Obama has been in passing difficult legislation.

Also consider that in the matter of the Vietnam War, Johnson escalated that war far above anything that the other 5 Presidents involved in that war did and far far above anything that Obama has done.

In Iraq Obama has de-escalated and moved towards a goal of exit.

In Afghanistan, he wants to escalate significantly but that is far from a done deal.

I don't really know that these comparisons to the 1960's are really all that close.

[davidswanson]

3. obama's also black

and not from texas

and was elected

i didn't say obama was johnson

i said that in terms of standing up to the war machine he is like johnson, and not like kennedy

[Stardust]

2. Would that we lived in your world, David. Sigh. K&R nt

[anonymous171]

4. Kennedy was a slimy politician, but is remembered as a saint.

Which is bad because I like my politicians slimy.

[avaistheone1]

14. How on earth was Kennedy a slimy politician? I don't think you have any idea what you are talking

about. Kennedy inspired more than a generation to do great things like do get involved in public service, the Peace Corps, NASA moon program etc.

[anonymous171]

15. Yes. But the political strategies and tactics he employed were anything but saintly.

Kennedy pulled all sorts of shit in order to get elected.

[mother earth]

5. While I don't agree with all of your statements, it is

incredibly right on in your first two suggestions,

"First, end these wars by compelling the House of Representatives to cease funding them. Nobody is going to assassinate 218 congress members. Obama cannot fight unfunded wars. And we will never avoid wars if we leave the power to begin and end them in the hands of presidents.

Second, work to expose the history of and end the ongoing existence of the CIA. Expand criminal investigations to include all those complicit in crimes, regardless of their august rank and privilege. And, again, work through Congress to impeach, subpoena, and move the matter forward."

I have always found it troubling that the CIA seems to run the world, they've not only meddled in global events covertly, it is the very nature of their existence to operate without having to be accountable to anyone. It is further troubling that two Kennedy brothers were assassinated during the years of very questionable building up of the military complex. I am beyond disgust that any government sponsored agency continues unchecked and in the shadows to this day. I'm afraid we've barely begun to understand the vast nature of misdeeds they may be responsible for in "our name".
It's a travesty that between corporate interests and shadow "gov't" tentacles, the people of this country are not represented, nor are we a consideration for the power beyond the presidency, beyond the government branches set up to protect us from hijacking democracy and covert manipulation.

There is absolutely no question in my mind that the avoidance of making the Bush administration accountable is thanks to the incredible power of Bush Sr via the CIA. Isn't he the only former president who continues to get daily updates? There is something inherently wrong that we continue down this road and absolutely nothing is done to reign in this rogue entity.

Unprecedented crimes have been committed under the previous administration, unprecedented lies and disinformation have been a way of governing and not one person has been held accountable.

As for peace and rule of law, we are witnessing its absence and still there is little outrage. It's no mere consequence we were left in financial ruin at this period in time.

(Edited to K & R very inciteful observations. Thank you, DS, wake up the real sleeping giant, please!)

[bertman]

6. Recced.

[midnight]

7. David these recommendations I happened to be in agreement

with you about. No. three is curious. What is our Vice President doing?

[Time for change]

8. I often wonder to what extent JFK's fate influences Obama's actions

and possibly Carter and Clinton as well.

Certainly any president with a good awareness of history would have to at least have that in the back of his mind while contemplating matters of war and peace.

[guitar man]

12. yep

Bill Hicks may well be right

" when you win, you go into this smoky room with the twelve industrialist, capitalist scumfucks that got you in there, and this little screen comes down... and it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before, which looks suspiciously off the grassy knoll.... And then the screen comes up, the lights come on, and they say to the new president, 'Any questions?"

:(

[On the Road]

9. I Have Always Been Skeptical of Claims

that Kennedy would have ended the Vietnam war. He ran on a militaristic cold-war platform and was certainly not a pacifist in office.

He did, however, avoid major conflicts when it would have been convenient to do so.

I think Obama will do the same. No reason to think he would ever start the kind of wars Bush did, but neither is he going to withdraw without a stable transition and let the chip falls where they may.

There are actually probably a lot of parallels in Obama and Kennedy's approach to foreign policy.

[Octafish]

10. Fortune Teller

Good health, big-time wealth and a long life come to those who favor war.

Two of my 2-cents on the subject:

JFK Would NEVER Have Fallen for Phony INTEL!

Vietnam and Iraq Wars Started by Same People

Thank you, Mr. Swanson, for another outstanding essay.

[jakeXT]

11. kick

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. .

:kick:

[Wizard777]

16. Once the War started JFK would have been Okay. There would be no other danger of assassination -

until it came time to stop the war and all that quick easy money from the war profiteering. That's what got Lincoln killed. He signed a war profiteering act to stop the war profiteering that was preventing the close of the civil war. He had to stop the war profiteering to stop the war. It was shortly after that he was assassinated.