I was flipping through the channels tonight, and I saw former Secretary of Health Education & Welfare Joseph A. Califano on C-SPAN with Brian Lamb for Booknotes. Since I'm a good Nixonite and am usually on the prowl for any dirt on the Kennedys, I thought that this might be interesting to watch.
In the course of the interview, Mr. Lamb got around to the subject of John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro. During this segment, Mr. Califano mentioned that it was his belief that, "Castro's people got to Kennedy first". This is, of course, an interesting theory.
I have no real truck with the hordes of conspiracy theorists, and I really don't care about the Warren Commission or anything connected to it. Oswald capped him and it's too late now to do anything about it if he didn't act alone; end of story. Mr. Califano noted that Castro had been the target of multiple attempts by November of 1963, and also that Castro had probably taken note of the recent coup against the Republic of Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem. Thus, Califano said, Castro would have tried even harder to get Kennedy because he, Castro, knew that JFK was serious about killing people.
After some garbled talk about Lee Harvey Oswald--peh---Messrs. Lamb and Califano moved on, with an aside about Califano being assigned to some secret working group that was tasked with eliminating Castro. He also noted that Robert F. Kennedy, who led that group, was wracked with guilt later due to the fact that he thought his actions might have spurred Castro to act against the President.
Interesting stuff. If it were ever proven, I suppose it's a cause for war, but I'm not sure splattering Cuba in 2004 is really worth the effort.
Califano also noted that he advised Alexander Haig during Watergate that if he, Califano, were Nixon, he would burn the infamous White House tapes. This advice was given prior to the subpoena of the tapes, which led to further trouble for Nixon. I had to temper that amusement with irritation, because Califano also spent time advising Democrats (Well, duh. --Ed.) on who to get for the staff of the House Committee covering the issue.
Anyways, Califano's got a new book out dubbed Inside: A Private and Public Life. It covers one of the more interesting periods in American history, namely the post-war period from ~1960 forward, and I'll probably wind up buying it. For the Booknotes page on the broadcast, see here.
In summation and having listened to Mr. Califano for most of the broadcast, I think I would like to have seen his Washington. Aside from replacing Democrats at the helm of state, I think I would have enjoyed it more than what we have now.
Posted by Country Pundit at May 23, 2004 11:35 AM