The Kennedy’s knew what they were doing. All they had to offer the international community was the “status quo” of American hegemony.
Excerpt from The Kennedy Brothers: The Rise and Fall of Jack and Bobby:
Along the way of their 25,000-mile trip in the fall of 1951, Bobby dutifully kept a journal in his cramped handwriting. The conclusion he and his brother reached was that nationalism was the determinant force of the age, stronger than either communism or capitalism, and that the United States was aligning itself with reactionary forces through second-rate diplomatic representation. They felt the the bipolar approach to containing communism wouldn’t work because it usually mean association with discredited local despots or the embattled colonials powers. In country after country they visited, terrorism, putsches, full-scale civil warfare, seemed hours or even a few city bocks away. Two days after meeting with Pakistani leader Liaquant Ali Khan, he was murdered. In India, Prime Minister Nehru warned them over dinner, between longing glances at their sister Pat, that the French and their Western supporters were, as Bobby wrote, “pouring money ‘ arms down a bottomless hole.” “We have only status quo to offer these people. Commies can offer change.”
Thanks for reading,
Notes:
Richard D. Mahoney, The Kennedy Brothers: The Rise and Fall of Jack and Bobby, Arcade, 2011