Dean's out!

[MarkDel]

You guys are technically telling the truth about JFK, but you are "spinning" a little bit.

FACTS

Eisenhower did send in US Military advisers, but at the end of his Presidency, there were exactly 780 advisers in Vietnam....look it up. And in the 1950's, then Senator John Kennedy was a STRONG supporter of sending help to Vietnam to prop up the Diem Government.

At the time of Kennedy's death, there were over 17,000 "advisers" in Vietnam. Kennedy has escalated the situation there significantly. Kennedy had long been telling advisers, who did not agree with him, that Vietnam would NEVER go Communist, like Cuba, on his watch.

This idea that JFK would not have gotten us involved in a war in Vietnam are at best speculative, and at worse, delusional. Left wing spin by people who sought to make JFK a Liberal martyr after his death as they romanticized his existence to a ludicrous level.

If you go back and look at what actually took place from 1954 to 1963, you are likely to reach a different conclusion. It is in fact my contention that Kennedy would not have fought the same "kind of war" that LBJ fought, but he would have fought the war nonetheless. And in my opinion, he would have done so wit FAR greater success than Johnson. Kennedy would never have done anything as stupid as sending several hundred thousand troops into the theater without letting them ATTACK the Communist positions in the North!!! LBJ fought a silly defensive war that sacrificed troops while achieving no objectives...it was in essence a war of attrition and JFK would never have been that stupid. What he would have done was continue widespread use of the Special Forces, combined with Nixon-style aerial bombing. And JFK would have had the popularity in this country to actually threaten the use of tactical nuclear weapons...and if you think that's far fetched, you need to study his behavior in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[MarkDel]

JFK,

You do realize of course, that under Kennedy, the term "advisors" was given new meaning to include Green Berets and other Special Forces that were not there under Eisenhower?

[MarkDel]

JFK,

Also, Dallek will reach the "Kennedy was a dove" conclusion that Liberals, and seemingly all Baby Boomers, like to popularize. It's weird, Dallek actually presents all of this evidence to the contrary, yet STILL reaches the conclusion that Kennedy would have pulled out of Vietnam...good scholarship...poor analysis.

Check out this link from Harvard about Dallek's book:

http://www.hpronline.org/news/2003/12/07/BooksAndArts/An.Unfinished.War-578472.shtml

[MarkDel]

Yes, when it first came out. It's a good book, well researched and well written. Pretty unbiased at most times. But I disagree with some of his ultimate conclusions.

[MarkDel]

No, where can I find that?