Re: JFK Talking to Ambassador Lodge Regarding the Anti-Ngo Coup

On Sunday, March 21, 2021 at 4:04:47 PM UTC-4, John Corbett wrote:
> On Sunday, March 21, 2021 at 1:01:52 PM UTC-4, Steve M. Galbraith wrote: 
> > On Sunday, March 21, 2021 at 7:33:27 AM UTC-4, x wrote: 
> > > I hadn't heard this conversation before. One of the 
> > > things about that's "new" is, JFK apparently acknowledged 
> > > in August '63 and Nhu would be killed if a coup occurred. 
> > > 
> > > http://fullmeasure.news/news/shows/jfk-vietnam?fbclid=IwAR0ztmFtO2u0oOZBhsHdraqJCYBSrEVCg0JiUSTGBEySOqb4CGRKD7yEQjY 
> > Whether he knew they would be killed or not I'm very skeptical that he was 
> > shocked by it. The fact that Lodge refused to intervene - was a passive 
> > spectator - indicates to me that it apparently wasn't much of a concern. 
> > 
> > Maxwell Taylor, the then Chairman of JCS who would later be named 
> > ambassador to South Vietnam by LBJ, said this about the coup: "There was 
> > the memory of Diệm to haunt those of us who were aware of the 
> > circumstances of his downfall. By our complicity, we Americans were 
> > responsible for the plight in which the South Vietnamese found 
> > themselves". 
> > 
> > As Colin Powell said about Iraq, "If you break it you own it." Once JFK 
> > "broke" the government our involvement deepened considerably - morally, 
> > politically, militarily. This situation what LBJ inherited. He gets blamed 
> > for almost all of it while JFK gets a pass. History isn't fair but neither 
> > is life.
> I wonder who his message about being shocked was aimed at. Maybe he was 
> saying it to soothe his own conscience, trying to convince himself he 
> couldn't have seen that coming.

In a private conversation, Kennedy allegedly said that President Sukarno 
of Indonesia should be "liquidated." Make of that what you will....this 
reminds me somewhat of Jimmy Carter providing material aid to rebels in 
Afghanistan, six months before the Soviet Union invaded. Carter's national 
security advisor told him that this might increase the likelihood of the 
Russians coming in, yet Carter expressed surprise anyway.