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From International Socialist Review, Vol.23 No.1, Winter 1962, pp.15-18.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
AT THE close of the 1960 election campaign, a small item appeared on the front page of the New York Times. An “authoritative source” announced, “The Pentagon is expanding its plans to develop bacteriological and chemical weapons for use in limited war situations.
“According to an authoritative source, plans call for the use of the weapons in ‘brushfire’ hostilities, short of all-out nuclear warfare, in an effort to achieve conquest without destruction of life and property ...
“The Air Force budget for the fiscal year beginning next July 1, now being prepared, will call for the first time for equipping airplanes with nozzles and sprays to deliver ‘nonlethal’ blows against military installations and population centers, the source said.” (Nov. 2, 1960).
At the time this item appeared a battle was raging in the United Nations over Cuban charges that the United States was preparing an invasion of its tiny island neighbor. James J. Wadsworth, representing the US, denounced these charges as “monstrous distortions and downright falsehood.” (N.Y. Times, Nov. 2, 1960)
Subsequent events, of course, demonstrated conclusively that Foreign Minister Roa of Cuba spoke the truth and that Wadsworth was either not informed enough to answer the charges or he was lying.
There is probably no way for the average American to know if the Air Force actually equipped its planes with nozzles for use of chemical and bacteriological weapons or if the release in the N.Y. Times was just designed to frighten Cubans, and any other people interested, with the thought that they could be beaten simply by being put into a mass state of vomiting or sleep.
The idea seems to come straight out of science fiction where some occupants of another planet with a superior technology take over the earth by slipping into the human unconscious mind. But if our real world is taking on the character of science fiction, perhaps we can use our imaginations to see a little more of the reality of American politics.
Let’s imagine that Cuba had an air-force equipped with nozzles and chemical weapons. Let’s imagine that the weapon selected for its big neighbor on the continent was a truth gas that compelled all candidates in election campaigns to tell the whole truth – and furthermore, that this wonderful gas gave its inhaler the knowledge of what he would do when elected to office. About a year has gone by since Kennedy was elected, so it will be easy now to imagine what his campaign speeches would have been like if such a “truth” gas had hit his nostrils.
“In the beginning is the word,” quoted Mr. Kennedy, Jan. 1, 1960, in the opening statement of his book, The Strategy Of Peace. And he continued,
“Surely, then, the first duty of an officer in a democratic government is to uphold the integrity of words used in public debate; and to do this by himself using them in ways where they will stand as one with the things they are meant to represent.”
From the Bible to the American political scene. That’s a pretty good start. But if Kennedy had been hit with our imaginary “truth” gas, he would have added:
“When I am President of the United States, Mr. Roa will again charge us with preparing an invasion of his country. I shall denounce this as a lie. My appointee in the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, will also denounce this charge as a lie and he will back his stand by quoting me as saying, ‘I wish to make it clear also that we would be opposed to the use of our territory for mounting an offensive against any foreign government.’
“BUT in a matter of days the world will know that I and the CIA, using Cuban exiles, equipped, trained and financed by the United States organized the invasion. In doing this, I will of course violate my country’s pledge to respect and defend the ‘right of self-determination of nations’ and I shall violate the laws of my country (my brother, Bobby, will then be the Attorney General, and he will list these violations) . Cuban sands will soak up human blood and Castro will shame my country before the world by exposing our role in discussions with captured invaders on national television broadcasts. All this is what I mean when I promise to ‘uphold the integrity of words used in public debate.’”
The dominant theme of Kennedy’s election campaign, however, was not integrity, but peace. He undoubtedly won the support of the largest of the minority groups of American voters by virtue of his speeches on the need for peace. One of his major campaign weapons was his book, The Strategy for Peace. On this issue he voiced some of the yearnings of the American people for an end to the incessant threat of war.
The New York Times, Sept. 15, 1960, reported on Kennedy’s visit to New York City: “Hitting hard at every stop, the Democratic Presidential nominee called for a ‘march toward peace to replace the drift toward war.’” On the same day the N.Y. Times reported that Kennedy told 2,500, mostly women, that “his program would take the United States far on the pathway to peace.”
On Sept. 7, 1960, in Portland, Oregon, Kennedy assailed Eisenhower’s foreign policy. Many peoples, Kennedy said, sincerely wonder
“how strongly America desires peace ... They are afraid of diplomatic policies that teeter on the brink of war. They are dismayed that our negotiators have no solid plans for disarmament. And they are discouraged by a philosophy that puts its faith in swapping threats with the Russians. For they know it can lead in only one direction – to mankind’s final war.”
Kennedy likened the Administration’s “massive retaliation” defense system to “a fire department that can put out a fire only by blowing up houses.”
KENNEDY, the candidate, was astutely aware of the growing concern, in this country as well as elsewhere, for the radioactive contamination that increases with the nuclear weapons race. (At that time there was a “de facto“ ban on nuclear tests due to Russia’s unilateral ban on tests – violated only by France). Kennedy promised his audiences that he would provide the leadership that would end the menace of radioactive fallout.
At UCLA, Nov. 2, 1959, he said,
“... no problem in a world full of problems calls for greater leadership and vision – than the control of nuclear weapons, the utter destruction which would result from their use in war, and the radioactive pollution of our atmosphere by their continued testing in peacetime.”
In Portland, Oregon, Aug. 1, 1959, he said,
“There is no serious scientific barrier to international agreement – despite increasing difficulties in problems of inspection and implementation. The only difficult barriers now are political and diplomatic. If we could mobilize the same talents and energy and resources to meet this challenge that we did to split the atom in the first place, then we should be able to persuade friend and foe alike that continued neglect of this problem will make the world a loser ...”
It is safe to presume that a few at least in his audience, worried about the Strontium 90 accumulating in their bones, vowed to pull the cord in secret polling places and vote for the “political and diplomatic” leadership that would mobilize the needed “talents and energy and resources” to end radioactive fall-out.
But if our imaginary truth gas had hit the candidate, this is what his listeners might have heard:
“Within a year, my ‘new frontier’ will begin to take shape. For most of you this will mean, not progress west, nor east, nor up into space where a Russian will be first to travel. Our frontier will be down – under the ground. The big question Americans will discuss will be how deep to dig, what to store, and if Christian morals permit shooting a neighbor or his children if they should come to you for shelter.”
As a candidate Kennedy created the image of a man who was deeply sensitive to the sufferings of Americans less fortunate than himself. He promised aid to the aged, who could be utterly ruined by the soaring costs of doctors, medicines and hospitals; to the unemployed, condemned to idleness and poverty in this richest of all lands; to those Americans who, because of race or religion or national origins, were daily robbed of their dignity as human beings, discriminated against, segregated and even submitted to terror in this land of “free” men and women.
To an estimated audience of 4,000 older citizens who had gathered hopefully in New York City, Kennedy appeared and promised (N.Y. Times, Sept. 15, 1960) “that if elected he and a Democratic Congress would put through a medical care program that would be part of the Social Security system.”
In Detroit, on Sept. 5, 1960, Kennedy eloquently ridiculed the Republican slogan, “You never had it so good.” He replied with a show of feeling,
“But let them tell that to the four million people who are out of work, to the three million Americans who must work part time. Let them tell that to those who farm our farms in our depressed areas, in our deserted textile and coal towns.
“Let them try to tell it to the five million men and women in the richest country on earth who live on a surplus food diet of $20 a month ...”
In a television broadcast in Texas on Sept. 12, 1960, Kennedy included in his list of important issues,
“... the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctors’ bills, the families forced to give up their farms ... These are the real issues which should decide this campaign.”
And on Sept. 2, 1960, the N.Y. Times reported,
“Mr. Kennedy centered his news conference on the civil rights issue and a promise to put the power of the White House, if he is elected, behind a fight to get the broadly liberal Democratic plank passed early in the next Congress ...”
Kennedy was no novice as a capitalist politician. He was aware that many voters have become cynical about campaign promises over the years. So part of Kennedy’s campaign strategy was to put before the voters the image of a man who not only made promises, but one who had the energy, the youth and the determination to keep his promises.
The N.Y. Times, Sept. 10, 1960, reported Kennedy’s promise in Los Angeles that
“he would not content himself with drafting programs and transmitting them to Congress, ... but would actively fight for their enactment, taking his case to the people if Congress was slow in acting.”
He spoke of the crucial period in a new administration – its first 90 days. In this context, on domestic issues, he told an audience in Washington,
“... the next President of the United States must be prepared in the first three months of his office to send to the Congress messages that will deal with wiping out poverty here in the United States, which will deal with the problem of full employment ...”
Kennedy, the candidate, appeared to meet all needs. He was sensitive; he cared about the welfare of the American people; he thought something should be done about it; and he was ready to go to extreme measures to see that some thing was done about it. But if Kennedy had taken a whiff of our imaginary truth gas, this is what he would have told his attentive and hopeful audiences:
TO THE aged and ill:
“Many of you may survive my first year in office as President. But you will not get any help from my administration for your monstrous medical bills. What savings you may have toward a pleasant and secure retirement will continue to disappear if you get ill. But do not give up. After my first year in office has passed, I shall solemnly extend my promise to my second year in office. For some of you, this help, if it comes, will come too late. This is most regrettable. But there are more important things for the President to do.”
To the unemployed, Kennedy would sniff our truth gas and say,
“After my first year in office, most of you will still be without jobs. Unemployment will decrease less than 1% of the civilian labor force. And this despite a successful effort to get the biggest military budget passed in peacetime history. And despite the fact that I shall take off their jobs over 100,000 reservists and put them back in the army to show the Russians that we mean business in the Berlin crisis. I shall attend the AFL-CIO Convention in December of 1961 and express my continued concern. But my Administration will pit its full strength against any attempt to find jobs for the unemployed by introducing a shorter work week or a shorter working day without a cut in pay. That might spread the jobs that still exist, but it would cut into profits. We who get profits wouldn’t like that.
“I shall especially express concern for the one million or more youths who can’t find jobs. American youth is in a bad way. And they are the ones who must do the fighting in the wars we are preparing. In December of 1961 I shall urge the youth to become ‘fit.’ I shall point out that ‘To get two soldiers, the United States Army must call up seven men. Of the five rejected, three are turned down for physical reasons and two for mental disability ... and the rejection rate is increasing each year.’ But I won’t give them a chance to work. Nor will I subsidize athletic activities – that would be socialistic. But I will continue to pass out surplus government food – it’s too expensive to store, anyway – and I shall extend unemployment compensation payments, which may not save a worker’s house, or the fund for the kids’ education, but will keep him off the dole. And I shall pass legislation to make loans available for the development of industry in depressed areas. That’s the free enterprise way.”
To those who are fighting for freedom in America, Kennedy would sniff the truth gas and say,
“Although ‘freedom’ is a word I use almost every time I open my mouth, when I am President of this country, the filibuster in Congress will continue to tie my hands. That will prevent me from delivering my promises on civil rights, as it prevented those who went before me. Brave youth will continue to risk their lives for freedom in the South. They will continue to be beaten bloody and put in jail. Their fight will continue to make gains, but I will be too busy with important affairs of state to join them in their struggle, or take their case ‘to the American people.’
“As for those civil liberties that constitute the basis of the freedom that’s always on my lips – the right to form political parties and run candidates freely for public office – these liberties will be seriously impaired in the first year of my Administration. It will be my job to enforce laws passed previously to outlaw the Communist Party. If we succeed – and we shall try – it will be the first time any political party has been legislated out of existence. That will be quite a ‘first’ for any administration.
“As far as the law is concerned, all a political party in power will have to do is to claim that a rival party is controlled by a foreign government. Even if this is denied – even if it can’t be proved – that party can be forced to register its members as agents of a foreign government or go to jail. It’s not enough that the capitalists own all the means of communication – daily papers, television, radio – it’s not enough that we can afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in one election compaign to get our candidates elected – we also must persecute one of the small working class parties in opposition.
“Russia may be emptying its prisons of political prisoners, but US prisons will continue to fill up with those who are jailed for opinions, for opposition to those in power. This may be confusing to some when we talk about risking human existence for freedom. But then, that’s because they really don’t understand what kind of freedom I, and millionaires like me, are talking about – the freedom to invest our capital and take our profits anywhere in the world.”
But no truth gas existed in the 1960 election campaign. Kennedy successfully created the image of a man of peace, concerned primarily with human welfare. And he became the President of the United States.
Does this mean that Kennedy was just a cheap liar – deceiving the electorate with the usual empty campaign promises in order to fullfill a personal ambition?
The matter is not that simple. To understand Kennedy both as a candidate and as President, it is necessary to begin with the self-evident fact that he is a capitalist politician. He probably believes that peace, full-employment and broad economic progress can be realized under capitalism. The deception of the voters was also a self-deception.
Kennedy, like most historically conscious proponents of capitalism, sees an ideal economic system – one that has overcome its recurrent and incessant crises through wise government guidance, thus permitting continuous enrichment of the deserving few without the impoverishment of the majority. In this thinking there are big blind spots born of self-interest.
It is clear that since the great depression, the government has succeeded in maintaining a relatively steady rate of economic growth. To the liberal capitalist the cyclical problems of capitalism have been solved. But there is the equally obvious fact that it took World War II and a continuous war economy ever since to maintain that growth. The capitalist crisis merely changed its form. From a permanent depression America moved to a permanent war economy from which there is no escape except back to the permanent depression.
However, the subsidization of capitalist economy through militarism is not a solution. It requires that the capitalist state borrow on the future labor of society for its holding operation today – at a continuously increasing rate. And even so, the crisis asserts itself through inflation which has quantitative limits beyond which monetary and class stability are both impossible.
The realities of the capitalist crisis are confronted by Kennedy as President. Peace, full-employment and other de-sireable objectives have to be pursued, not directly but through the assuring of markets and profits to the capitalists, leaving human welfare to appear, if it will, as a by-product.
Basically a capitalist politician, Kennedy also is the son of a millionaire. The profit system has been very good to him. He never knew the poverty, hunger and insecurity that most of the human race knows or has known at some time. He is confident to the point of arrogance. He is rash. He is anxious for quick victories, impatient and accustomed to getting what he wants. He is petulant when frustrated. And as President, he is dangerous for he is fighting for a cause that can’t be won.
The real Kennedy pierced through the “image” in the first crisis of his Administration. After his criminal and stupid attempt to carry out the plans for an invasion of Cuba, he spoke to American editors gathered in Washington. He spoke quite frankly of the “sobering” lessons of the Cuban fiasco. His final words, spoken with evident emotion, were, “Let me then make clear as the President of the United States that I am determined upon our system’s survival and success, regardless of the cost and regardless of the peril.”
In this peroration, he dropped his usual use of the diplomatic, euphemistic term “freedom,” and made his meaning amply clear with the brass-knuckle term “system,” i.e., capitalism.
Kennedy’s real occupation in the White House was revealed in his speech to the National Association of Manufacturers on Dec. 6, 1961. Here the President and the millionaire were merged into one. He was at ease. He spoke well, permitting himself impromptu departures from a prepared text. And he was far more frank than older, more experienced men like Franklin D. Roosevelt would ever have permitted themselves to be.
The burden of this speech dealt with the immediate critical problems of capitalist economy. Kennedy talked about the “payments balance” between the US and the rest of the world, especially Europe. He pointed out that US businessmen now own about $45 billion in capital invested abroad. In 1960 the “long-term outward flow of capital funds was $1,700 million. The return was $2,300 million.” So far so good – for US Big Business.
But the American people, with their tax money, spend annually about $3 billion abroad for military bases designed to protect this capital and keep the profits rolling into the pockets of the American rich. As a result of this and other factors, the US has suffered a payments deficit of nearly $4 billion a year, with a net loss in US gold reserves of $5 billion over a 4-year period. (Let no one propose to look for a solution of the US “payments problem” to the underdeveloped sector of world economy. The “take” from there of $1,300 million for an investment of $200 million is already so “balanced” to the US benefit that revolution is now the problem. It is better to deal with a potential than an actual revolution.)
Kennedy proposes to change tax and trade policies in order to stop, or slow the flow of capital to Europe. And he proposes to soften the blow that will be dealt European economy by having the US workers and small businessmen (those who lacked enough capital to get on the European gravy train) share the blow by submitting to direct competition with lower European costs of production.
It also “happens” that Kennedy’s proposals answer the immediate problems of US capital in Europe. US industrialists moved into Europe after World War II on an unprecedented scale, and asserted their domination by unifying Europe into the European Economic Community. But this expansion and growth within Europe is reaching its apex. There is no longer room for all “to make an honest buck.” Competition is growing acute and Europe, under US domination, must once again expand outward. Where? Kennedy’s answer: to the United States.
Cars produced in Europe by General Motors, for example, will then compete with cars produced in the US by General Motors. General Motors is the winner, no matter what the outcome. The ultimate effect of this competition will be to lower the wage differential between the two continents.
Having conquered Europe economically, US industrialists hope to conquer the US, using its lower labor costs in Europe as the battering ram.
Certainly Kennedy’s program contains “risks,” “sacrifices” and requires “courage.” If he succeeds in stopping or even slowing the flow of capital to Europe, the stabilization of capitalism in Europe will be disrupted. And there the working class is powerfully organized as an independent political force. At the same time, class relations in the US will be disrupted.
The immediate peril that Kennedy confronts therefore, is that the axis of the world revolution will shift back from the undeveloped areas of the world to the industrial heart of world capitalism, the US and Europe. He hopes that class-collaborationist control of both labor movements can be maintained. But in any event, the gamble must be made.
Kennedy will have some more “sobering” experiences in the period ahead. He will learn that the American working class will not take kindly to a lowering of its living standards. He will be reminded that the American workers have never been defeated in struggle. He will discover that Amercan labor is not dead – it has been only sleeping. Kennedy will need much more than a monolithic and servile press. He will need more than admonitions “to be calm.” And his pleas for sacrifice will not be welcomed by those who lack Kennedy’s stake in the system.
NOT the “Communists” but the capitalist crisis itself is preparing to draw onto the world scene the powerful revolutionary forces of Europe and the United States. The embattled poor in the rest of the world will soon find an ally worthy of their own heroism. Their victory, and all humanity’s, will thus be assured.
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