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JFK admired Hitler

Captain_Swoop said:
A lot of people admired Hitler before the war. He seemingly performed an economic miracle and was transforming German society.

It's easy to look back now and condemn them.
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It seems that JFK was in keeping with much of his time. A favourite charge leveled by HUAC under Mccarthy was of "premature antifascism" the reasoning being that if you opposed European fascism before the war then you by default supported comunism
 
brodski said:
It seems that JFK was in keeping with much of his time. A favourite charge leveled by HUAC under Mccarthy was of "premature antifascism" the reasoning being that if you opposed European fascism before the war then you by default supported comunism
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I don't think we need to take Senator McCarthy as our guide in these matters! My problem is that Hitler at once abolished the democratic machinery which had elected him, and started to imprison and abuse dissidents, or even harmless democrats, within days of his accession. He then, long before the outbreak of war, evicted Jews from civil society and plundered them mercilessly. He liquidated all other political parties, even the most peaceful ones. And he hid none of this, unlike Stalin, but gloried in it. Another thing he had in common with Stalin, who may have imitated him in this regard, was a pervasive and absurd personality cult. Not attractive either.
 
HUAC was immensely popular for a time and reflected a large segment of the public mood. As wrong headed as support for Hitler was, it was not unusual for the time.
 
brodski said:
HUAC was immensely popular for a time and reflected a large segment of the public mood. As wrong headed as support for Hitler was, it was not unusual for the time.
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Indeed. I'm arguing that it was wrong headed, not that it was particularly unusual. I further say that its frequency doesn't excuse it.
 
brodski said:
As wrong headed as support for Hitler was, it was not unusual for the time.
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Or several times after. Remember, the Thatcher government held General Pinochet in high regard, despite his early years being a very close reflection of Hitler's.
 
Craig B said:
The main source - by far! - of delusions among "progressives" at that time was Stalin's Soviet Union, perceived not as a tyrant state, but as the mode of self-organisation of workers and peasants.
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It is important to remember that the favorable impression that the Soviet Union was having on many in the US wasn't because of some self delusion process but because the US was in the midst of what seemed like the failure of the capitalist system and the Soviet Union was doing a very good job of controlling what information came out of the Soviet Union. Americans saw mostly bad national economic news in the morning paper and only good economic news from the USSR.
 
brodski said:
It seems that JFK was in keeping with much of his time. A favourite charge leveled by HUAC under Mccarthy was of "premature antifascism" the reasoning being that if you opposed European fascism before the war then you by default supported comunism
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FYI, Senator McCarthy had nothing to do with HUAC. (The H stands for "House ".)
 
If any of you come to St. Loser I'll take you to see a Nazi medal, replete with swastikas, presented to Charles Lindbergh. One of the many awards, bongs and kudos he got in his travels around the world. If that makes him a Nazi then the Legion of Honor makes him a Frenchman.
 
Oh no! A politically involved 20-year old formed opinions that he that he was not so proud of as he matured in life!

I wonder if that's ever happened before?
 
Hitler lived in Berlin.

JFK said, "Ich bin ein Berliner."

Case closed.
 
paiute said:
It is important to remember that the favorable impression that the Soviet Union was having on many in the US wasn't because of some self delusion process but because the US was in the midst of what seemed like the failure of the capitalist system and the Soviet Union was doing a very good job of controlling what information came out of the Soviet Union. Americans saw mostly bad national economic news in the morning paper and only good economic news from the USSR.
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Yes, but this "controlling" enabled the delusion (which I did not describe as 'self delusion') to take hold so strongly, so that the 'progressive' perception of the USSR was completely at odds with the facts. The willingness of people to be deceived arose from the image of capitalist failure and Soviet successes that you describe.
 
applecorped said:
“At first glance, one could get the impression that Kennedy endorsed fascism and even admired Hitler,” Spiegel writes."




JFK - a never ending source of fail
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How do you know Spiegel isn't the source of "fail"? Or, as Gawdzilla points out, your reading of Spiegel?

"At first glance, once could get the impression that" usually implies that that impression isn't accurate.
 
Ha'aretz is normally a credible source but I wonder about this one. I searched for the supposed quote from Spiegel on Google and the only results were for the Israeli paper or people citing it. I searched the English and German sites of the magazine for hitler kennedy and got no applicable hits then searched hitler kennedy lubrich and go no hits.
 
I seem to recall hearing of JFK's admiration for certain aspects of Nazi Germany (Health care?) years ago, in freakin' Sweden of all places. I can't imagine any of this is news.
 
Hitler would have been a pretty cool guy if he wasn't a genocidal racist who started a war.
 
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