Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
March 6, 2018
Hello All – While our government is now engaged in wars in a half-dozen countries, its supporting role in the war in Yemen is the most appalling. The lack of dissent in Congress and in the country is a national disgrace. Bombing by Saudi Arabia – critically assisted by the United States – has resulted in thousands of deaths, and starvation and disease have killed thousands more.
Therefore, the Resolution that will soon be discussed in the US Senate, which would have the power to end the US role in this terrible war, is of great importance. Introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders and some other Senators, the Resolution attempts to enforce the War Powers Act of 1973, which limits a president's ability to launch a war without the approval of Congress. While President's Bush, Obama, and now Trump have all claimed that the Authorization to Use Military Force, passed soon after 9/11, authorized whatever war they wanted to fight, there is no conceivable link between 9/11 and military action in Yemen. Already last year, the House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution saying that US military support for Saudi action in Yemen was not authorized. If the Senate supports the Sanders' Resolution, the president would have 30 days to end US involvement in the Yemen war. (You can read more about the Resolution and the horrible situation in Yemen here and here. There are also two good articles on Yemen linked just below.)
Please, please – take a few minutes to speak up for peace. This is the first real opportunity since 9/11 to engage Congress in opposing one of our many wars. The first step is to call 1-833-STOP-WAR (aka 1-833-786-7927). Then, enter your zip code when prompted. This will connect to Senator Schumer's office. Say something like, "Hello, my name is ______ and I am a constituent from New York I ask Senator Schumer to support the Sanders-Lee resolution to end the U.S. war on Yemen. The war has never been authorized by Congress. I don't believe the U.S. should be involved in an unauthorized war against people who are sick and starving. Please support the Sanders-Lee resolution. Thank you." Then press "1" again to be connected to Senator Gillibrand. Ask her also to support the Sanders-Lee resolution.
Weather permitting, CFOW's rally/vigil next Saturday will focus on the war in Yemen and support for the Sanders Resolution. Please join us at the VFW Plaza, Warburton and Spring St., from noon to 1 p.m. to inform people about this important issue. Thanks.
The Student Uprising
On March 14, the one-month anniversary of the mass killing in Parkland, Florida, students at many schools will be "walk-out" for 17 minutes, one minute for each student killed. You can see a list of schools planning a walk-out here. (So far, Farragut Middle School in Hastings and the high schools in Ardsley and Irvington are on the list.)
On Saturday, March 24th, there will be demonstrations in Washington, DC, NYC, and many other cities. Project SHARE in Hastings is organizing buses for high school students and parents. They are trying to raise $20,000 for this project. You can make a contribution via GoFundMe here. The Facebook page for the NYC demo is here.
Students Aren't Waiting for March or April. They're Protesting Now," [a good overview of what's happening across the USA], from The Nation; and Belle Chesler, "High School Students: The Canaries in the Coal Mine of American Disaster," from Tom Dispatch. Useful reading on gun stuff includes Chris Hedges, "Guns and Liberty," TruthDig; Rob Cox, "Gun Lobby Meets Match With Economic Protests" Popular Resistance; and Matt Vasilogambros, "Gun Laws Since Sandy Hook Have Favored The Gun Lobby" Pew Trusts.
The West Virginia Teachers' Strike
The West Virginia teachers' strike not only fights back against a great injustice, but it may give some much-needed energy to the US labor movement. For some insights into what's happening and what it all means, check out this I'm a Coal Miner's Daughter and a West Virginia Teacher. Here's Why I'm on Strike," from the PBS News Hour; and Michelle Goldberg's op-ed in The New York Times, "The Teachers Revolt in West Virginia" [Link]. To support the teachers on strike, you can contribute $$ on this GoFundMe site ($316K raised so far). To get into the right frame of mind, check out Pete Seeger and "Talking Union"!
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – CFOW holds a vigil/rally each Saturday at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring) from 12 to 1 p.m. Our rally next week will focus (probably!) on the Saudi-US war in Yemen. Everyone invited; please join us!
Ongoing – CFOW stalwart Elisa Zazzera manages Hastings' "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA). The CSA partners with an upstate farm to provide fresh vegetables each Wednesday. Highly recommended. To learn more about this, and/or to sign up for the next growing season, go here.
Today! – The "pro-Israel" organization AIPAC is meeting in Washington, DC, and will be lobbying Congress on several items, including support for the Israel Anti-Boycott Act. CFOW is among the Westchester organizations that have supported the BDS movement in support of Palestinian rights. If you agree that Americans should have the right to boycott whatever they want, even including Israel, please call Congress via 202-224-3121. Speak esp. to Senator Gillibrand's office. Just say that you oppose the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, and ask her/her staff to vote against it.
Saturday, March 10th – The Westchester Coalition Against Islamophobia and other organizations will present a forum on "Defending Constitutional Rights: Religious Freedom and Police Accountability" at the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester, 7 Saxon Wood Rd., in White Plains, starting at 2 p.m. Speakers will include Omar T. Mohammedi, President of the Association of Muslim American Lawyers, and Jon Moscow, writer and community activist with the NY Coalition against Islamophobia and Jewish Voice for Peace – Northern NJ. [NB The snow date is Sunday, March 11th at 2 p.m.]
CFOW Nuts and Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's tax cut legislation are often targeted, depending on current events. We meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. If you would like to make a financial contribution to our work, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Rewards!
March is Women's History Month, and so for the Rewards in this newsletter we have two great documentary films produced by women and the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1970s. First up is
Best Wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
STOP THE WAR IN YEMEN!
This Opportunity to End the US-Backed Carnage in Yemen Must Be Seized
By
---- The news hook is great news: for the first time, senators of both parties, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), are challenging the U.S. role in the Saudi-UAE war against Yemen. It's good news because the U.S. involvement—from selling hundreds of millions of dollars of lethal weapons to sending U.S. pilots flying U.S. planes to conduct in-air refueling for the warplanes to make the bombing more efficient—is illegal, unconstitutional, and unconscionable. … The war raging in Yemen began in March 2015. From the beginning it has been a very one-sided war—more a slaughter than a war—in which warplanes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue to bomb civilian targets across the impoverished country. The result is what the United Nations has identified as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today—with more than 10,000 civilians killed by January 2017 when the UN largely stopped counting. Two-thirds of those have been killed by the U.S. backed air strikes. More than 20 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. Yemen now faces the world's worst cholera epidemic that has killed at least 2,000 people and sickened over 1 million. Millions more have been displaced, and large parts of the country's infrastructure lie in ruins. Every ten minutes, a child under five dies from disease or starvation or both. [Read More]
Senators Bernie Sanders, Mike Lee, and Chris Murphy Invoke the War Powers Act to End US Involvement in Yemen
By James Carden, The Nation [March 1, 2018]
---- The three-year, Saudi-UAE-led war on Yemen has, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, resulted in what is currently "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world." The blockade on imports to Yemen has, according to a senior UN official, brought 8.4 million Yemenis "a step away from famine," while UNICEF reports that Yemeni children are dying at the rate of one every ten minutes from preventable diseases. … yet, despite calls from the White House and the international community for an end to the savage war on Yemen, the United States has continued to lend military support to the Saudi-UAE effort. In addition to providing intelligence and aerial-refueling to Saudi bombers, the US military, according to NBC News, "drastically stepped up its air campaign in Yemen" during the course of 2017, "conducting more than six times as many airstrikes as in 2016, according to data from U.S. Central Command." But yesterday's announcement by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Utah Republican Mike Lee that they, along with Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy, have introduced a joint resolution calling for an end to the unauthorized US participation in the Saudi/UAE-led war shows signs that Congress is beginning to resist continued US involvement. [Read More]
FEATURED ESSAYS
The New Blacklist
By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone [March 5, 2018]
---- Russiagate may have been aimed at Trump to start, but it's become a way of targeting all dissent. If you don't think that the endgame to all of this lunacy is a world where every America-critical movement from Black Lives Matter to Our Revolution to the Green Party is ultimately swept up in the collusion narrative along with Donald Trump and his alt-right minions, you haven't been paying attention. That's because #Russiagate, from the start, was framed as an indictment not just of one potentially traitorous Trump, but all alternative politics in general. The story has evolved to seem less like a single focused investigation and more like the broad institutional response to a spate of shocking election results, targeting the beliefs of discontented Americans across the political spectrum. … If you don't think that the endgame to all of this lunacy is a world where every America-critical movement from Black Lives Matter to Our Revolution to the Green Party is ultimately swept up in the collusion narrative along with Donald Trump and his alt-right minions, you haven't been paying attention. That's because #Russiagate, from the start, was framed as an indictment not just of one potentially traitorous Trump, but all alternative politics in general. [Read More]
For more on "Russiagate" – Peter Van Buren, "What Mueller Has and What He's Missing," February 28, 2018] [Link]; Daniel Lazare, "The Mueller Indictments: The Day the Music Died," The Intercept [February 24, 2018] [Link]; and Mark Mazzetti, et al., "Mueller's Focus on Adviser to U.A.E. Indicates Broader Inquiry,"
The Right to Travel to Seek Work Is the Right to Survive
March 1, 2018]
---- Eighty years ago, many photographers were political activists and saw their work intimately connected to worker strikes, political revolution or the movements for indigenous people's rights. Today, what was an obvious link is often viewed as a dangerous conflict of interest. Photographers must be objective and neutral, the word goes, and stand at a distance from the reality they record. But I believe our work gains visual and emotional power from its closeness to the movements we document. We are not "objective" but partisan -- documenting social reality is part of the movement for social change. Can photographers be participants in the social events they document? As a documentary photographer and journalist, I don't claim to be an unbiased observer. I'm on the side of immigrant workers and unions in the United States and share their struggle for rights and a decent life. I take the side of people in Mexico trying to find alternatives for democratic political change. If the work I do helps to strengthen these movements, it will have served a good purpose. … For over a decade I've worked with the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations, a Mexican migrant organization, California Rural Legal Assistance and Familias Unidas por la Justicia to document this contradiction. Our project, which led to this book, shows extreme poverty, the complete lack of housing for many people and the systematic exploitation of immigrant labor in the fields. But through the photographs and accompanying oral histories, migrants also analyze their situation and demand respect for their culture, basic rights and greater social equality. [Read More]
Gun Crazy: Life and Times in the Warfare State
---- The recent death of British actress Peggy Cummins, at age 92, prompted my quick return to her 1950 film noir classic Gun Crazy – a movie that still resonates with historical and cultural force. Regarded as something of a transcendent work, Gun Crazy with its fugitive lovers on the run (Cummins being described as a "female Dillinger") would actually turn out to be far less transgressive than generally believed when the picture was first released. Cummins' passing occurred just before the most recent episode of mass killings in Broward County, Florida. …In tapping deeply into the American psyche, Gun Crazy would come to symbolize a dark postwar fascination with armed violence that ultimately extended far beyond what its creative figures – Lewis, Kantor, Trumbo, Cummins, Dall – could have foreseen. The film (and later incarnations) would parallel a U.S history of continuous military interventions, massive gun and arms industry, lucrative international weapons trade, and media culture saturated with guns, crime, and every imaginable type of violence. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
Could Trump's Fragile Ego spark Korean or Iran War?
By Bandy X. Lee and Jeffrey D. Sachs, Project Syndicate [February 26, 2018]
---- When Donald Trump took office early last year, many pundits believed that he would settle into his presidency and pivot to normality. But a large number of America's mental health experts didn't see it that way. They warned that Trump evidently suffers from a mental impairment that would worsen under pressure, possibly leading him to launch a war, even a nuclear war. And now, with the dangers of a Trump-led war with North Korea or Iran rising, the world needs to head off America's president before it's too late. In the view of many professional psychologists and psychiatrists, Trump is not merely a bully, a showman, and a liar; he is more likely a mentally impaired individual who is impulsive, aggressive, and relentlessly driven to manipulate and blame others. These professionals have called for an urgent, independent evaluation of Trump's mental capacity that goes far beyond the simple cognitive screen that he received earlier this year when undergoing a physical examination at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. [Read More]
Afghanistan's President Offers Taliban Talks 'Without Preconditions'
By Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com [
---- Following the Taliban having made two very public offers of peace talks in the past two weeks, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has issued his own statement offering to enter into talks with the Taliban insurgency "without preconditions." Ghani offered to recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate part of the political process, and said he didn't want to pre-judge anyone who was willing to come to the table to discuss reaching a settlement to end the Afghan War. What those talks will look like, or if they even happen, is another matter, as the US has recently ruled out any talks with the Taliban, and seems to be positioning itself as opposed to diplomatic efforts. The UN endorsed Ghani's comments, however, and there is a suggestion that other Western countries are open to the idea of a peace process. This may isolate the US, and raise questions whether the US can prevent peace unilaterally. Meanwhile, former President Hamid Karzai also chimed in, suggesting that Russia should be approached to play a role as a peacemaker in the country. He envisions Russia, a regional power with its own history of failed engagement in the country, as another potential partner for peace. [Read More] Also useful/interesting about the war in Afghanistan – Kathy Kelly, "Teen Solidarity Against the Merchants of Death," Voices in the Wilderness [March 3, 2018] [Link][.
North Korea Is Willing to Discuss Giving Up Nuclear Weapons, South Says
---- North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, has told South Korean envoys that his country is willing to begin negotiations with the United States on abandoning its nuclear weapons and that it would suspend all nuclear and missile tests while it is engaged in such talks, South Korean officials said on Tuesday. During the envoys' two-day visit to Pyongyang, the North's capital, which ended on Tuesday, the two Koreas also agreed to hold a summit meeting between Mr. Kim and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea on the countries' border in late April, Mr. Moon's office said in a statement. "The North Korean side clearly stated its willingness to denuclearize," the statement said. "It made it clear that it would have no reason to keep nuclear weapons if the military threat to the North was eliminated and its security guaranteed." If the statement is corroborated by North Korea, it would be the first time Mr. Kim has indicated that his government is willing to discuss giving up nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees from the United States. Until now, North Korea has said its nuclear weapons were not for bargaining away. … American officials have repeatedly said they can start negotiations with the North only if it agrees to discuss denuclearizing. They have also insisted that the North first take some actions that would convince them of its sincerity. [Read More]
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHAOS
The Assault on Environmental Protest
By Maggie Ellinger-Locke and Vera Eidelman, The Hill [March 2, 2018]
---- More than 50 state bills that would criminalize protest, deter political participation, and curtail freedom of association have been introduced across the country in the past two years. These bills are a direct reaction from politicians and corporations to the tactics of some of the most effective protesters in recent history, including Black Lives Matter and the water protectors challenging construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. If they succeed, these legislative moves will suppress dissent and undercut marginalized groups voicing concerns that disrupt current power dynamics. [Read More]
The Arctic Heats Up in the Dead of winter
, Counterpunch [March 6, 2018]
---- By the end of February 2018, large portions of the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland were open blue water, meaning no ice. But, it's wintertime, no daylight 24/7, yet no ice in areas where it's usually some meters thick! In a remarkable, mindboggling turn of events, thick ice in early February by month's end turned into wide open blue water, metaphorically equivalent to an airline passenger at 35,000 feet watching rivets pop off the fuselage. … The sea ice north of Greenland is historically the thickest, most solid ice of the North Pole. But, it's gone all of a sudden! Egads, what's happening and is it a danger signal? Answer: Probably, depending upon which scientist is consulted. Assuredly, nobody predicted loss of ice north of Greenland in the midst of winter. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Huge Organizing Effort, '40 Days of Action' Launching to Fight Poverty
By Eleanor J. Bader, AlterNet [March 4, 2018]
---- The Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the recently launched Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of three kids in a family she describes as deeply committed to improving life for the excluded and marginalized. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other peace and anti-apartheid activists were frequent guests in her home, and even as a child, Theoharis understood that religious faith—in her case, Presbyterian—had to be linked to social justice. … Her work brought her into contact with scores of activists including the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, whose Moral Mondays protests in North Carolina helped lay the groundwork for the contemporary Poor People's Campaign. That campaign kicked off on December 4, 2017, with Theoharis and Barber at the helm. The challenge is enormous. Census figures from 2016 put 12.7 percent of U.S. residents (43.1 million people) in poverty and want—living on an annual income of less than $15,060 for a single person, $30,750 for a household of four. Theoharis recently spoke to AlterNet reporter Eleanor J. Bader about the campaign and the upcoming 40 Days of Action that will begin on Mother's Day. [Read the Interview]
For Investors, Puerto Rico Is a Fantasy Blank Slate
By Yarimar Bonilla, The Nation [February 28, 2018]
---- The governor and his team stressed that their approach to the recovery was not a departure, but merely an acceleration of the austerity policies developed to address the preexisting financial crisis. They pointed to the labor-reform law passed months before Hurricane Maria as a sign of the administration's commitment to creating a business-friendly environment. The legislation stripped benefits for workers, reduced sick leave, increased probationary periods, facilitated layoffs, and lowered wages. Yet one of the entrepreneurs present at the conference, Cyril Meduña, suggested that the measures had not gone far enough and that more could be done in the wake of the storm, "now that there is more mobility." In other words, with so many Puerto Ricans leaving because of the slow recovery, lack of aid, and massive unemployment, the time might be right to further erode labor protections. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting on Puerto Rico – Rachel M. Cohen "Bernie Sanders on Puerto Rico Neglect: "Do You Think This Would Be Happening in Westchester County?" The Intercept [Matthew Goldstein, "Puerto Rico's Positive Business Slogans Can't Keep the Lights On," [Link].
It Started in Wisconsin
By Ben Manski and Sarah Manski, Jacobin Magazine [March 2018]
---- Journalists reporting on the implications of the impending Janus decision often note that recent experiences in Wisconsin offer a preview. In this, they're usually referring to the impacts of anti-union legislation signed into law in Wisconsin in 2011-2012. But we think Wisconsin offers another set of lessons as well: of how a twenty-first century mass uprising by hundreds of thousands — perhaps more than a million — working people came about in one US state, and of where that unprecedented uprising faltered. … Correcting accounts of the Wisconsin Uprising matters not only because of the truly unprecedented scale and militancy of that wave of mobilization, and not only because the uprising was largely defeated, but also because the consequences of that defeat suggest that even the most grim warnings about the potential impact of Janus v. AFSCME may be too rosy. In Wisconsin, the enactment of Act 10 in 2011 (involving annual recertification requirement and other attacks on public sector unions) and of right-to-work legislation in 2012 provide a sense of what might follow nationally from an anti-union ruling in Janus. [Read More]
For more on the US labor movement – Kevin Zeese, "Worker's National Day Of Action For Unions #UnrigTheSystem," Popular Resistance, [February 26, 2018] [Link]; and Negin Owliaei, "Building a Labor Movement for the 21st Century," Inequality [February 26, 2018] [Link].
Which Direction for the Democrats?
Democratic Party establishment, it's time to respect insurgent progressives
---- The midterm elections kick into gear today as Texas voters head to the polls for the first statewide primaries of 2018. In years past, today's races would have mattered little to a national Democratic Party that consistently fails to compete in the state. But this year feels different because, in many ways, the dynamics at play in Texas are emblematic of what is happening — for better and for worse — all over the country. On the one hand, there are genuine reasons for optimism. … Yet there is also serious cause for concern, as some Democrats seem intent on sapping that energy in an attempt to reassert control of the party. … The establishment is accustomed to winning these fights, even if doing so has caused it to lose elections in the past. But when insurgent forces are mobilized and a new progressive infrastructure is beginning to rise, Democrats should not revive a doomed strategy of excessive caution and deference to the permanent consultant class. They may well never win in Texas or other similar places by quashing the passion of those who have been roused in this past year. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting on the struggle within the Democratic Party – Robert Borosage, "Pushing for Real Change in the Democratic Party," [Link]; Tom Gallagher, "California Democrats Call for End to Seemingly Endless Afghanistan War," [Link]; and from Mondoweiss, "California Democrats buck national party– opposing bills to penalize boycotts of Israel" [Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Israel Plans a New War in Syria -- but Not for the Reasons It Claims
---- Israel has been laying the political groundwork for a military escalation in Syria since mid-2017. That's when Israeli officials began to repeat two interlinked political themes: that Iran must be prevented from establishing permanent bases and implanting its proxy forces in the Syrian Golan Heights, and that Iran is secretly building factories in Syria and Lebanon to provide Hezbollah with missiles capable of precise targeting. But the evidence suggests that the reasons publicly avowed by Israeli officials are not the real motive behind the escalation of Israel's air attacks and ground combat presence in Syria…. Israeli officials have long boasted that they have effectively deterred Hezbollah from a missile attack on Israel. But what is never discussed is the need to deter Israel's use of military force. The IDF began planning its attack on Hezbollah in detail more than a year before the 2006 campaign. One of Israel's aims in launching the attack, according to strategic analyst Edward Luttwak, who has deep ties with Israel, was to destroy enough of Hezbollah's missile force in a lightning offensive to persuade the George W. Bush administration to drop its opposition to an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites. Although Israeli officials would never admit it officially, by thwarting Israel and building an increasingly powerful arsenal of missiles, Hezbollah has established a relatively stable peace with Israel for more than a decade. [Read More]
American Christian Zionism: The Deep Background and the Current Situation
By Shalom Goldman, Informed Comment [March 5, 2018]
---- As this 'pro-Israel" stance maps on so well to Evangelical Christian Zionism it is worth examining the deep background of that now potent phenomenon. American Protestants, from the colonial period onward, had a particular interest in plans to restore the Jews to their Promised Land. … Evangelical support for Zionism was not necessarily phil-Semitic. Rather, it saw Jews and their aspiration for a Jewish state in Palestine as instrumental in hastening the second coming. Another potent factor in the heady mix of religion and politics that shaped Christian Zionism was the long standing American Protestant antipathy to Islam. … This deep background lies behind the emergence of overtly political forms of Christian Zionism in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The rise of the Christian Right and the infusion of Evangelical Christian activists and ideas into the Republican Party of the Reagan years made Christian Zionism a potent force in American life. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Why Vietnam Still Matters: JFK Should Have Known Better
---- On my most recent trip to Vietnam, as I wanted to see Kontum, Pleiku, and the Central Highlands, I decided to travel with my bicycle. On many of my rides, I turned over in my mind the often-heard speculation that President John F. Kennedy, by the time he was killed in 1963, had growing doubts about the war and would have withdrawn American advisers if he had won re-election in 1964. I would love to honor the slain president and believe that he was capable of such political miracles, but in Vietnam he was without the better angels of his nature. As I was biking around Vietnam, especially in Saigon past the sprawling grounds of the former U.S. embassy (which is now a bloated consulate, doing who-knows-what), I thought about Kennedy's long association with Vietnam and both the French and American wars. … By the mid-1950s, however, Kennedy began to change his tune, especially with the coming to power, in South Vietnam, of Ngo Dinh Diem, in what might be called a Catholic resurgence. A Cold War ally, President Diem had the support of many Kennedy family allies, including Time publisher Henry Luce, New York's Francis Cardinal Spellman, and Senator Mike Mansfield. As JFK thought more about running for vice-president and president, his favorable positions on Diem, anti-Communism, and "free Vietnam" outweighed the earlier, more critical, conclusions reached on his travels. [Read More]
