[Peace-discuss] The Kennedys' fake liberalism, then and now

[C. G. Estabrook]

[I met Carl Oglesby a couple of times and liked him.  He used to refer to his 
own "bad politics," by which he meant that he was tempted to think that there 
vestiges of true liberalism in JFK. He was I think the more deceived, but he 
wasn't stupid.  I have what I think must be one of the few extant copies of his 
book on US politics in the '60s, "The Yankee and Cowboy War." --CGE]


	February 2 / 3, 2008
	Carl Oglesby's War
	Ravens in the Storm
	By RON JACOBS

Carl Oglesby was once the president of the original Students for a Democratic 
Society (SDS). Before that he was working for a defense contractor. His last 
project with the company was to develop a method of delivering Agent Orange so 
that it would cover the Vietnamese jungle (and the humans therein) with the 
chemical as thoroughly and cheaply as possible. He was typical of his 
generation. He was a political liberal, was married, and believed in his work. 
Then a moment of cognitive dissonance occurred when John F. Kennedy was murdered 
and his company refused to lower the flag to half-mast until ordered to do so by 
the corporate headquarters. Something clicked in Oglesby's brain and he suddenly 
realized that there were fellow citizens that did not like even the mild 
liberalism of JFK. These citizens, he realized, enjoyed profiting from war and 
saw their mission to save the world from anyone and anything that opposed US 
capitalism. A year later, Oglesby was a member of SDS. Not long afterwards, he 
had quit his job and began traveling around the country speaking and recruiting 
for the organization.

For the next five or so years, Carl Oglesby devoted a good portion of his life 
to SDS and opposing the war in Vietnam. His opposition was based on his belief 
that the war was contrary to the ideals of the country he lived in. This belief 
was common among many of the war's opponents who believed it to be a mistake. 
Oglesby took it a step further, however, and realized that the war was more than 
a mistake. He concluded that it was systemic. From there he began to organize. 
His work took him to southern Vietnam on a factfinding tour, Paris for a War 
Crimes Tribunal, and even to Cuba. In between, he lived in several cities in the 
United States and met hundreds of people from many walks of life.

Recently, his memoirs of the period, titled Ravens In the Storm, were published 
by Scribners. The book is an interesting read that chronicles Oglesby's 
political life during the period and his opinions of the organization and the 
greater movement that he worked in. For those who were involved with SDS and 
other New Left organizations during the 1960s and early 1970s, there will be 
moments when you find yourself disagreeing with Oglesby's impressions. There 
will also be times when you find yourself in total agreement. No matter what, 
the book is an honest and insightful chronicle of the time and its politics. 
Oglesby was always a presence. His brand of politics was what former Vice 
President Spiro Agnew might have characterized as radical-liberal. He was never 
a Marxist but Marxism informed his analysis.

The book opens with an innocence that is slowly lost as the war grinds on and 
the repression against the movement against it intensifies. By the end of 1968, 
Oglesby finds himself isolated from the very organization he helped build. His 
continued belief that there was still room for dialog with members of the war 
establishment was met with scorn and disdain by most of the rest of the SDS 
leadership and he was drummed out of the organization. This belief does seem 
almost naïve by that time, given the murders of Martin Luther King, Jr. and 
Bobby Kennedy earlier that year. To Oglesby, however, the alternative of a 
Marxist-Leninist revolution being offered by his comrades-among them many future 
Weathermen-was unreal and based on frustration and anger, not on a clear 
assessment of the political reality. To his credit, he acknowledges that he 
misread the true intentions of the counterintelligence programs (Cointelpro) 
being used against SDS. He thought they were merely collecting data, not trying 
to destroy the group. The future Weathermembers and many others knew better, 
even though their response was apparently just as wrong as Oglesby's diagnosis.

Like many former SDS members, including some former leaders of the Weather 
Underground, Oglesby blames Weather as much as he blames Cointelpro for the 
demise of SDS. Although I personally believe this explanation ignores the role 
of history and replaces that role with personalities, I must admit that Oglesby 
does the best to make a case for his position. One can still hear the bitterness 
he felt at his dismissal by the leadership cadre and his disdain for their 
politics and arrogance. To his credit, there is little vindictiveness on these 
pages, just what remains of the bitterness. The story of the demise of SDS will 
always be one that provokes spirited discussion. However, there is no longer any 
need to take a side in the argument. Instead, we should learn from that episode 
and the rest of SDS's history. Ravens In the Storm is a valuable and interesting 
addition to that history from an important member.

Ravens In the Storm is a book about the battles against the evils of war, racism 
and US imperialism. It is also about the internal battles of an organization 
that formed to fight those evils. Heartfelt and impassioned, the story Oglesby 
tells on these pages is instructive and hopeful. It is also occasionally tragic. 
The quixotic struggle of a generation of US residents to end a terrible, immoral 
war has always been a good tale that should inspire. Mr. Oglesby's version does 
not fail. In fact, it excels. His ultimately even-handed description of the rise 
and fall of SDS has it all-innocence, anger, paranoia, police repression, 
friendships made and friendships unmade. Those who were there can read it, 
remember and learn. Those who weren't can read it and learn.

[Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather 
Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill 
Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's collection on music, art and sex, Serpents 
in the Garden. His first novel, Short Order Frame Up, is published by Mainstay 
Press. He can be reached at: rjacobs3625 at charter.net]

http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs02022008.html

C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> I'm astonished that anyone can look at the Kennedys with the advantage of
> distance and see them as anything other than what they were -- arriviste
> apparatchiks of an oppressive American empire.  They made great efforts to
> hide what they were of course, but they're clear in hindsight.
> 
> The vicious JFK administration "got this country  moving again" by
> substantially increasing the crimes of the Eisenhower admin -- which had an
> impressive list of its own, including Iran and Guatemala.
> 
> JFK began with a massive tax cut for the rich and then started a war -- far
> more murderous than Iraq -- based on fear and lies.  His admin launched
> subversive military operations around the world ("Green Berets"), installed
> death squads in Latin America, and was willing to blow up the world in order
> to stop the USSR from doing in Cuba, defensively, what the US was doing
> offensively around the world.  Luckily Khrushchev's good sense and the
> bravery of a Russian naval commander saved the world from Kennedy's madness.
> (Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov: see
> <www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB75/>.)
> 
> Those crimes are being celebrated again, and Mike Taibbi points out one
> contemporary parallel:
> 
> http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/12502
> 
> <excerpt>
> 
> There's no denying the clear difference in the two campaign styles. In Barack
> Obama versus Hillary Clinton, we've basically got Kennedy-Nixon redux, and I
> mean that in the most negative possible sense for both of them -- a pair of
> superficial, posturing conservatives selling highly similar political
> packages using different emotional strategies. Obama is selling free trade
> and employer-based health care and an unclear Iraqi exit strategy using
> looks, charisma and optimism, while Hillary is selling much the same using
> hard, cold reality, "prose not poetry," managerial competence over "vision."
> 
> <end excerpt>
> 
> But it's much worse than that.  --CGE