RFK Jr: "The fragility of (JFK's) control over the military" Ellsberg: "Virtually a coup atmosphere"

<snip>

"My father was not exaggerating to Dobrynin the fragility of White House control over the military. During the 13 days, the president's hold on power became increasingly tenuous as spooks and generals, apoplectic at JFK's reluctance to attack Cuba, engaged in dozens of acts of insubordination designed to trigger a nuclear exchange. CIA spymaster William Harvey screamed at the president and my father during a White House meeting: "We wouldn't be in such trouble now if you guys had some balls in the Bay of Pigs."

"Defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who years later leaked the Pentagon Papers, reported, "There was virtually a coup atmosphere in Pentagon circles." Incensed brass were in a state of disbelief at what they considered bald treason by the president. Spoiling for a war to end all wars, Gen. Curtis LeMay, the man who pioneered the use of napalm against civilians in Tokyo during World War II, found consolation by allowing himself to believe all was not lost. "Why don't we go in there and make a strike on Monday anyway?" LeMay said, as he watched the crisis subside.

<snip>

"He understood the perils to our Constitution from a national-security state and mistrusted zealots and ideologues. He thought other nations ought to fight their own civil wars and choose their own governments and not ask the U.S. to do it for them. Yet the world he imagined and fought for has receded so far below the horizon that it's no longer even part of the permissible narrative inside the Beltway or in the mainstream press. Critics who endeavor to debate the survival of American democracy within the national-security state risk marginalization as crackpots and kooks. His greatest, most heroic aspirations for a peaceful, demilitarized foreign policy are the forbidden debates of the modern political era."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/john-f-kennedys-vision-of-peace-20131120

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22 replies	Author	Time	Post
RFK Jr: "The fragility of (JFK's) control over the military" Ellsberg: "Virtually a coup atmosphere" (Original post)	villager	Nov 2013	OP
K & R !!!	WillyT	Nov 2013	#1
Just a whole lot more "coincidence" for us to dismiss!	villager	Nov 2013	#2
Anytime villager, Anytime... And Might I Say...	WillyT	Nov 2013	#5
And then two more "lone nuts" also just "happened" to benefit that same MIC	villager	Nov 2013	#14
Whether a military/MIC/CIA/RW/SC coup has occurred is found in the pudding each has been cooking	indepat	Nov 2013	#3
K&R K&R K&R	newfie11	Nov 2013	#4
This was the 'Grassy Knoll ' and We were warned	orpupilofnature57	Nov 2013	#6
Yes We Were...	WillyT	Nov 2013	#7
Rivetting. A lot of history filled in with this writing.	northoftheborder	Nov 2013	#8
Yep... And One Has To Wonder If There Would Have Been A Country Now...	WillyT	Nov 2013	#9
Less secretive .	orpupilofnature57	Nov 2013	#10
chilling	northoftheborder	Nov 2013	#11
Rec	progressoid	Nov 2013	#12
K&R	emsimon33	Nov 2013	#13
Message auto-removed	Name removed	Nov 2013	#15
Annual US military spending: $653,110,000,000. That's $1.2 million per minute. AFSC	toby jo	Nov 2013	#16
General Curtis Lemay's open hostility towards JFK is on tape.	MinM	Nov 2013	#17
nytimes: Enemies, Abroad and at Home	MinM	Dec 2013	#22
Wait, what?	Doctor_J	Nov 2013	#18
And it happened exactly the way we were told it happened by those in power!	villager	Nov 2013	#19
Kicked and recommended.	Uncle Joe	Nov 2013	#20
Operation Northwoods is all you need to know:	blkmusclmachine	Nov 2013	#21