Rethinking Camelot
JFK, the Vietnam War, and US Political Culture
Chomsky, Noam
Publisher: Black Rose Books, Montreal, Canada
Year Published: 1993
Pages: 172pp ISBN: 1-895431-72-7
Resource Type: Book
Cx Number: CX7028
Chomsky analyzes the Kennedy Administration's policy on the Vietnam War and compares the US Administrations of Presidents Kennedy and Reagan.
Abstract:
Rethinking Camelot features a thorough analysis of President John F. Kennedy's role in the US invasion of Vietnam which counters the myths in which JFK is seen as a 'shining knight promising peace'.
Chomsky calls the American war on Indochina a 'classic case of costly over-reach'. He theorizes that the long-term result may be a shift to a 'tri-polar' global economy, where power is divided between Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Chomsky argues that understanding U.S. institutions and political culture are key to defining U.S. behaviour during the Vietnam War. In Indochina, the United States portrayed themselves as acting in defense of democratic ideals. This overriding myth allowed an intellectual culture to develop that was marked by 'self acclaim for unspeakable atrocities.'
Analyzing the ways in which the 'masters of mankind' exert their hegemony, he compares the similarities of the European merchant-warriors of old and the current organizational entities of the IMF, World Bank, and G7.
According to Chomsky, states are not moral agents and those who attribute to them ideals and principles are merely misleading themselves and others.
[Abstract by Vei Chong]
Table of Contents
Introduction: Contours and Context
1. From Terror to Aggression
2. Interpretations
Notes
Bibliography
Subject Headings
