Pop Quiz answer!
No links today! Sorry, folk - I had a rough week. I hurt my back picking up the child (and not the heavier one - I'm just getting old) and then I had a sore throat and a bit of a fever, so I was miserable and aching for about three days and just didn't feel like surfing the web. I found a few fun things, so we'll see about next week.
The answer to my pop quiz was, of course, John F. Kennedy. You scamps are so darned smart! I suppose I shouldn't have given any choices or given better ones, but I wasn't trying to stump you too much. I read this quote in the June 2006 issue of History Today. JFK wrote this in 1945 (or possibly 1946 - he was 28 at the time) while touring Germany after the war ended. It's a strange quote, because even though his father and several others in the State Department wanted a closer relationship with Nazi Germany in the 1930s as a bulwark against Communism, it seems unbelievable that Kennedy could not have known about what Hitler did in pursuit of his "boundless ambition for his country." Anti-Communists in the 1930s and 1940s could argue that Hitler did good things for Germany and just happened to be on the wrong side, but once you know the extent of the Holocaust I just can't believe anyone could defend him. That wacky JFK!
Of course, JFK was an ardent anti-Communist. He tried to kill Castro more than once, sanctioned the assassination of President Diem in South Vietnam, and increased the troop size in Southeast Asia to block the Communist threat. But this is still a weird quote.
Thanks for playing, everyone! Pictures tomorrow, and then it's Top Ten week. I will explain all!
The answer to my pop quiz was, of course, John F. Kennedy. You scamps are so darned smart! I suppose I shouldn't have given any choices or given better ones, but I wasn't trying to stump you too much. I read this quote in the June 2006 issue of History Today. JFK wrote this in 1945 (or possibly 1946 - he was 28 at the time) while touring Germany after the war ended. It's a strange quote, because even though his father and several others in the State Department wanted a closer relationship with Nazi Germany in the 1930s as a bulwark against Communism, it seems unbelievable that Kennedy could not have known about what Hitler did in pursuit of his "boundless ambition for his country." Anti-Communists in the 1930s and 1940s could argue that Hitler did good things for Germany and just happened to be on the wrong side, but once you know the extent of the Holocaust I just can't believe anyone could defend him. That wacky JFK!
Of course, JFK was an ardent anti-Communist. He tried to kill Castro more than once, sanctioned the assassination of President Diem in South Vietnam, and increased the troop size in Southeast Asia to block the Communist threat. But this is still a weird quote.
Thanks for playing, everyone! Pictures tomorrow, and then it's Top Ten week. I will explain all!
posted by Greg | 7:30 PM
2 Comments:
I look forward to yr top ten week. the poem you mentioned to me, Lepanto, was excellent.
I think it was anti-semitism, not anti-Communism, that motivated some Americans (like the young JFK) to admire Hitler in the 1930's and 40's. Therefore, Holocaust is unlikely to have changed their mind... What ultimately did change their mind was the fact that Israel became a reliable US ally. They hated Jews who were helpless and persecuted. But they learned to admire Jews who were winning every war against their Arab neighbors...
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