Saturday, November 11, 2023
Alan J. Levine, Possibly America’s Last Great Living Historian, on british Historian Max Hastings’ Book on the Cuban Missile Crisis
[“Alan J. Levine’s The Soviets’ Greatest Gambit: The Cuban Missile Crisis; an Exclusive Review for WEJB/NSU, by David in TN.”]
By David in TN
saturday, november 11, 2023 at 5:10:00 p.m. est
In the November issue of Chronicles magazine, our friend Alan J. Levine reviewed https://chroniclesmagazine.org/featured/muddling-the-missile-crisis/>british historian Max Hastings’ book on the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“Max Hastings has never been a great historian. But his earlier works were at least adequate. He rarely strays from the path of orthodoxy—whatever that happens to be at the moment—and rarely uncovers a major previously unknown fact. And if he ever had an original insight, it died of loneliness. His writing is often diffuse, his books ridden with small errors. Despite his carelessness, he is at least not an ideologue or a liar, which nowadays is something to be grateful for. And he usually gets the tune right, even if he sometimes plays the wrong notes.”
Levine says this book is a sharp drop from “his previously middling standards.” Hastings plays to the myth of JFK as a great president. He also rates Defense secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy as “The Best and Brightest,” despite their failure in Vietnam.
Hastings blames the United States for Latin America’s failures.
“Unsurprisingly, Hastings revives the old leftist claim that Castro was ‘driven’ into the arms of the Soviets by American enmity.” Castro was actually a late Stalinist who considered the Cuban communists ineffectual. Hastings is realistic about Khrushchev and Castro’s behavior during the crisis.
Levine concludes: “Hastings simplifying assumptions and lack of curiosity lead to the comforting conclusion that the missiles posed merely a political threat, not a life-or-death strategic one. Hastings thinks most Americans, if not JFK himself, were hysterical during the crisis. Angry and determined—more determined than JFK himself—would be a more accurate description of the common attitude. Hastings condescendingly and ahistorically informs us that American overreaction, not an existential crisis, was the real menace. Believe that if you can.”
Also in the november issue, Alan J. Levine gives his “frank assessment of Kennedy.” We’ll examine that around november 22.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I guess the next "missile crisis" will be in the Middle East--at least to start.
Stay tuned.
--GRA
Max is and still not a historian. Is a journalist.
Cuba was a relatively prosperous Latin nation prior to Fidel. Lots of Castilian Spanish [Fidel was Castilian Spanish] with a much less number of mulatto.
Fidel became a lackey of the Soviet and had to do the biding of the Kremlin to stay in power. Moscow called the shots and not Fidel.
Alan J. Levine, America's Last Great Living Historian, wrote (https://chroniclesmagazine.org/society-culture/john-f-kennedy-remembered-without-tears/).
The essay is in the November Chronicles Magazine, titled:
"John F. Kennedy Remembered Without Tears"
"On this anniversary, the media will probably continue to prop up the legends of the 1960s, especially those concerning JFK. Once again, the old stories will be trotted out, with perhaps a few modifications, to cover certain embarrassing matters that have become too public. JFK will be presented as a glamorous war hero, unmatched orator, an author and devotee of the arts and intellectual pursuits, the man who got us to the moon, furthered civil rights and liberal causes. He'll be portrayed as the victor in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the greatest crisis of the Cold War, and the man who saved the world from nuclear war almost single-handedly, except for the help of his brother, against the reckless advice of most of his advisers. finally, to many, JFK is the man who would have saved us from Vietnam, if only he had lived."
"All these mythmaking portraits were marshalled by veterans of his administration, such as former White House Counsel Ted Sorensen and the historian and former White House Special Assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr. They have been repeated to this day, notably in Mark K. Updegrove's recent book, Incomparable Grace (2022) which is far from the most extreme example of Kennedy worship."
"Despite all this adulation, the real JFK was a man who can only be described with a four letter word: Fake."
"Of all American presidents, JFK's reputation for honesty and nobility is the most fraudulent. Kennedy was something fortunately rare in a modern democratic country, at least until recently; a man whose WHOLE LIFE was a lie, whose reputation has so little basis in truth that it requires explanation."
David In TN: The previous time Mr. Levine wrote on this subject he didn't use the term "until recently." Now he does. As he continued, Mr. Levine gives the explanation.
Post a Comment