title: Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and U.S. Political Culture (Borgo Literary Guides; 1)
author:  Noam Chomsky 
description: Veteran critic/activist Chomsky ( Deterring Democracy ) analyzes the issue most prominently posed in Oliver Stone's film JFK : was President Kennedy a secret dove whose assassination extinguished a chance to end the Vietnam War? Those willing to follow Chomsky's dry, prosecutorial style will find strong arguments against Kennedy mythologists. He provides context for the Vietnam War with a history of U.S. "economic warfare" against "lesser breeds" and the roots of world inequality. Then, he analyzes the record of planning the war from 1961 to 1964. He notes that studies of the Vietnamese countryside showed overwhelming sympathy for the Vietcong, leading the U.S. to choose escalated violence. One of Kennedy's trusted, dovish advisors described the president in September 1963 as supporting the war, and Chomsky calls the record on this issue consistent. Shortly after the assassination, Kennedy doves supported Johnson's Vietnam policies, but changed their stance--and their historical memory--after the 1968 Tet Offensive. Chomsky suggests that fascination with Camelot, like support for H. Ross Perot, indicates a desire to project heroism in a time of cultural malaise. <br />Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: History / Politics
  "Chomsky is a global phenomenon . . . 
  he may be the most widely read 
  American voice on foreign policy on 
  the planet."
  —The New York Times Book Review
  “[Rethinking Camelot provides] strong 
  arguments against Kennedy 
  mythologists.” 
  —Publishers Weekly
  “An interesting work not only for the 
  history it explores, but also as a 
  study of how various individuals and 
  groups write and interpret history.”
  —Choice
  Noam Chomsky is widely regarded 
  as one of the foremost critics of 
  U.S. foreign policy in the world. 
  He has published numerous 
  groundbreaking books, articles, 
  and essays on global politics, 
  history, and linguistics. Among his 
  recent books are Masters of Mankind 
  and Hopes and Prospects. This book 
  is part of a collection of twelve new 
  editions (from Haymarket Books) of 
  Chomsky’s classic works.
  Rethinking Camelot is a thorough analysis of John F. Kennedy's 
  role in the U.S. invasion of Vietnam and a probing reflection on 
  the elite political culture that a