Andrew Sullivan, on JFK:
It’s worth acknowledging that, whatever his rhetoric, Kennedy wasn’t so good at transparency either. And, if anything, he was more reckless in foreign policy than his rich-kid, daddy’s boy successor, George W. Bush.
JFK was more reckless in foreign policy than GWB? What is Sullivan talking about? I really don’t know.
Yes, the Bay of Pigs was a disaster, and the Cuban Missile Crisis was surely a dangerous confrontation. But can anyone imagine George W., in the same position, agreeing to remove missiles from Turkey? I can hear him saying, “Bring it on!” The possible consequences then–imminent nuclear annihilation–were far more grave than what we face today; giving Sullivan the benefit of the doubt, perhaps you can say it takes less effort to be deemed reckless under a looming nuclear threat. But even the most negative reviews of JFK’s foreign policy place it squarely in the mainstream of American post-WWII anti-communism.
Unquestionably, Kennedy deserves significant blame for starting us down the long path to ignominy in Indochina. But, as more than one observer lately has pointed out, the strategic importance of the Middle East today dwarfs that of Southeast Asia in the 1960s, making the regional upheaval, disarray, and instability caused by our Iraq adventure much more of a direct threat to U.S. national interests than the misadventure in Vietnam. Nor am I sure Kennedy’s Vietnam policy is fairly called reckless. Misguided, perhaps. But not reckless.
So I’m at a loss as to how anyone could judge JFK to be more reckless in foreign policy than GWB. What am I missing?
