Phorum.com.gr

1. The Cuban Missile Crisis almost caused a US military coup

The Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff insisted to President Kennedy that a preemptive surgical strike of Cuba was the only way to respond to the Soviet Union’s placement of missiles in Cuba.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara instead proposed the idea of a US Navy “quarantine” of the island. (US officials avoided using the word “blockade” because it’s an overt act of war.)

The Joint Chiefs “were not at all happy with this,” says Robert Pastor, director of the Center for North American Studies at American University in Washington. These Pentagon officials “were prepared to go to war if the Soviets had not accepted the withdrawal of the missiles.”

US officials later learned that had the US military invaded Cuba, the Soviets were prepared to launch tactical nuclear weapons at the US, adds Dr. Pastor, who was national security adviser on Latin America in the late ’70s and McNamara’s son-in-law.

Robert Kennedy recalled in his memoirs that “the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were unanimous in railing for immediate military action” and “forcefully presented their view that the blockade would not be effective.”

Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay in particular “strongly argued with the president that a military attack was essential,” according to the Robert Kennedy memoirs.

The memoirs also say that the State Department proceeded with preparations “for a crash program on civil government in Cuba to be established after the invasion and occupation of the country” and that McNamara reported the military’s conclusion that “we should expect very heavy casualties in the invasion.”

President Kennedy ultimately decided on a blockade.

During negotiations with the Soviets, however, Robert Kennedy warned them that “there were indeed people in the Pentagon that would take action if Kennedy did not – that there could be a military coup,” Pastor says, adding that Robert Kennedy “wasn’t bluffing.”

After the crisis, McNamara went to the president and said, “We need to replace LeMay and [Chief of Naval Operations Adm. George Whelan] Anderson. They were both insubordinate, and we need to send a clear message on that,” Pastor says. “Bob McNamara told me this personally.”

The president told McNamara that for political reasons, he could only publicly discipline one person and told McNamara to choose. McNamara picked Anderson, whom Kennedy then nominated to be ambassador to Portugal.

Robert Kennedy for his part reflected on the president’s discussion with the US military leaders in his memoirs. “Like all meetings of this kind, certain statements were made as accepted truisms which I, at least, thought were of questionable validity. One member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for example, argued that we could use nuclear weapons, on the basis that our adversaries would use theirs against us in an attack,” he recalled.

“I thought, as I listened, of the many times that I had heard the military take positions which, if wrong, had the advantage that no one would be around at the end to know.”

πατησιωτης έγραψε: 18 Απρ 2021, 00:12 Αυτό δεν ήταν όμως πραξικόπημα.Μοιάζει με όσα έγιναν στον πόλεμο της Κορέας όπου ο Μακ Άρθουρ ήθελε να εισβάλει στην Κίνα και να χρησιμοποιήσει και ατομική βόμβα και τον απέλυσε ο Τρούμαν.
Για να γίνει σε οποιαδήποτε χώρα κάτι παρόμοιο απαιτείται συνωμοτική ομάδα αξιωματικών με σχέδιο ως ελάχιστη προυπόθεση.Κατόπιν απαιτούνται και πολλά άλλα και βεβαίως να μην υπάρχουν όπλα στη χώρα σε ποσότητες που να μπορεί να προβληθεί αντίσταση,κάτι που δεν συμβαίνει στην Αμερική όπου υπάρχουν εκατομμύρια όπλα στα χέρια ιδιωτών.

Dwarven Blacksmith έγραψε: 18 Απρ 2021, 00:45Ακόμα και στην περίπτωση πού θέτεις πιο πάνω, έστω ότι οι στρατηγοί γράφουν τον Πρόεδρο στα παπάρια τους και παίρνουν μια πρωτοβουλία. Αυτό δε σημαίνει πραξικόπημα. Έφεραν τον Πρόεδρο προ τετελεσμένων και θα έχει κάποιες συνέπειες, αλλά δεν πάει να πει ότι επειδή βομβάρδισαν χωρίς εντολή θέλουν να αποφασίζουν και για το ασφαλιστικό.

Dwarven Blacksmith έγραψε: 18 Απρ 2021, 00:12 Ακόμα και μια δικτατορία πρέπει να λαμβάνει υπόψιν της το πλαίσιο το οποίο τη δημιούργησε. Ένα εθνικό αφήγημα δεν αλλάζει από τη μια στιγμή στην άλλη. Οι Αμερικανοί έχουν μάθει να αγαπάνε τη δημοκρατία ότι κι αν σημαίνει αυτό στην πράξη. Επομένως στις ΗΠΑ που ξέρουμε, η δικτατορία θα έπρεπε είτε να έχει εκλεγεί δημοκρατικά και να έχει επεκτείνει τον έλεγχο σε όλους τους αρμούς, είτε να διατείνεται ότι είναι προσωρινή και να προγραμματίσει άμεσα εκλογές μετά την οποία έκτακτη ανάγκη.