John F. Kennedy was our one, radical president

[DerekG]

My inclination is to usually bristle when people fawn over presidents, even Democratic ones. I feel it's my duty to tell people that Jimmy Carter was *not* a "human rights" president; likewise, the old "Clinton presided over 8 years of peace and prosperity" is a complete falsehood, and should be eschewed as quickly as possible.

Yet oddly enough, I will defend John F. Kennedy. I'm dismayed to see leftist authors like Chomsky, Vidal and Alexander Cockburn try to paint him as just another imperialist president, especially when history reveals to us a man who began as yet another establishment tool, but evolved into the *only* president who stood as a threat to the military-industrial complex. We must look past his early failures--spouting the "missile gap" BS and his complicity in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Oliver Stone was correct: something was going on in his presidency that was absolutely unprecedented.

No, Kennedy was not Eugene Debs. But, by perusing the following, could anyone deny that JFK had at least some semblance of courage and vision--unique from his two predecessors and slew of successors? Could anyone deny that he was an enemy to the Right, and perhaps there were reasons why he was taken from us?


-His apprehension about sending in forces in Vietnam, and NSAM #263
-His offers for reapproachment with Fidel Castro in November '63
-His willingness to go against his advisors during the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as in establishing the nuclear test ban treaty
-His moral disgust with Operation Northwoods
-His speech at the American University, which eschewed many Cold War attitudes by claiming that Russians were, in fact, human beings(!!)

-His confrontation with U.S. Steel over price increases
-His trust-busting campaign against General Electric
-His attack on the oil-depletion allowance