Rethinking Camelot
This book is an analysis of John F. Kennedy's role in the U.S. invasion of Vietnam and a reflection of the elite political culture that allowed and encouraged the Cold War. --From publisher's description.
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- Noam Chomsky is 91. Holy crap.
My favourite Chomsky thing is the very short shrift he gives to conspiracy theorists.
e.g. Rethinking Camelot, his book about JFK - https://zcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/zbooks/htdocs/chomsky/r... - the thesis being that JFK was really no different to any other president at that time - the idea he was radical being a kindof post-hoc reconstruction - and hence there was absolutely no reason for anyone to want to bump him off.
A methodological point is perhaps worth mention. Suppose that we were to concoct a theory about historical events at random, while permitting ourselves to assume arbitrary forms of deceit and falsification. Then in the vast documentary record, we are sure to find scattered hints and other debris that could be made to conform to the theory, while counter-evidence is nullified. By that method, one can "prove" virtually anything. For example, we can prove that JFK never intended to withdraw any troops, citing the elusiveness of NSAM 263 and his unwillingness to commit himself to the withdrawal recommended by his war managers. Or we can prove that the attempt to assassinate Reagan was carried out by dark forces (Alexander Haig, the CIA, etc.). After all, Reagan had backed away from using US forces directly in Central America (unlike JFK in Vietnam); he was cozying up to the Chicoms; he had already given intimations of the anti-nuclear passion that led him to offer to give away the store at Rejkjavik and to join forces with the arch-fiend Gorbachev, whose perestroika was a transparent plot to entrap us; his associates were planning off-the-shelf international operations, bypassing intelligence and the Pentagon. Obviously, he has to go. Or suppose there had been an attempt to assassinate LBJ in late 1964, when he was refusing the call of the military to stand up to the Commies in Vietnam, pursuing Great Society and civil rights programs with a zeal well beyond Kennedy, and about to defeat a real alternative, Barry Goldwater. Nothing is easier than to construct a high-level conspiracy to get rid of this "radical reformer." The task is only facilitated by a search for nuances and variations of phrasing in the mountains of documents, usually committee jobs put together hastily with many compromises.
This is not the way to learn about the world.
- Best thing anyone interested in this to read is Rethinking Camelot by Noam Chomsky. Full text is online.[1]
Without giving too much away, it's not about the assassination. It's about JFK's actual record, which calls into question the whole enterprise of liberal hero-worship and destroys the basis upon which most CIA conspiracy theories are premised. There is no motive for the CIA to assassinate JFK. Vietnam was his war, he was a fanatical supporter of terrorism, and brought us closer to nuclear war than any other president.
[1] https://zcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/zbooks/htdocs/chomsky/r...
