Selverstone on Kennedy, Vietnam, and Iraq

Friend of dcat, Marc Selverstone, has this piece on JFK and Vietnam, but also on drawing conclusions for Iraq in today's Boston Globe.

Here is an excerpt:

Do the Kennedy tapes offer useful lessons for the current war in Iraq? Insofar as they provide analogues not only to America's entrance but also to its exit from both conflicts, we would do well to recall Kennedy's motives for his phased withdrawal from Vietnam: increased pressure on the client government to institute political, economic, and military reforms; a tangible response to dovish critics of his policy at home; and -- perhaps -- the rudiments of a full withdrawal he had every intention of completing.

Yet we cannot know conclusively how Kennedy would have responded to the altered conditions in the Vietnam of 1964 and 1965. Given his many conflicting statements on Vietnam, all we can say, by virtue of his own words on the subject, is that he would have crossed that bridge when -- and only when -- he came upon it.

Great job, Marc.