Comment on A monolithic and ruthless conspiracy: What was John F. Kennedy referring to?
ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 1 week agoIf he was talking about nothing more than the Soviet Union, why didn’t he simply say ‘we are opposed around the world by the Soviet Union’? Seems like a very complicated way of saying Soviet Union. And no, the schools I went to didn’t teach about covert global conspiracies, the likes of which John F. Kennedy was clearly warning us against here.
CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net 1 week ago
You’re not going to like this answer but he didn’t say Soviet Union because he didn’t need to. Everybody understood that ‘communism’ was ‘THE Global Conspiracy’ ever since McCarthyism took of.
Check out A conspiracy so immense : the world of Joe McCarthy by David Oshinsky to learn a little of what the attitude of the time was like.
ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Thanks, apology accepted. Thanks also for the link, saved it.
In his entire speech, he never mentions Russia in any form. Meanwhile, he does refer to some enemy in plural form, that is advancing from around the globe, i.e. “those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe”, and “this nation’s foes”, etc. He also warned against religious involvement in politics in a different speech, which I think has gone mostly ignored at our own peril. People scoff at religion if they themselves aren’t religious, ignoring the fact that the leaders of the world are mostly very religious people (whether sincere in their religion or not). I mention this because I suspect these two were somehow connected in JFK’s mind.
For the sake of objectivity and truth, I’m trying to take into account my lack of any firsthand perspective. I just honestly cannot see how he was talking about the Soviet Union alone when I read what he said and how he said it. It honestly seems to me he had to be talking about something far greater.