From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Carl Remick wrote:[I just saw this bio of Castro on the PBS American Experience series. I think there is little chance the show will endanger whatever remains of PBS's federal funding.]
As propaganda, it was totally ineffective. For propaganda to work, you have to give the impression of impartiality. That is why the NY Times is more effective than the NY Post. This show was like reading the editorial page of the NY Post, but PBS viewers are into the NY Times.
My favorite comment in the film (below) was made by James G. Blight, international relations professor at Brown, on the lesson of nonintervention that JFK supposedly learned from the Cuban Missile Crisis. I particularly like this phrase: "OK, you got to do a little something with the covert operations and Bobby, my brother, will handle that." That "a little something" might rate as the greatest Elastic Clause since Article 1, Section 8, Subsection 18 of the US Constitution. From the show transcript:
"JAMES BLIGHT: Kennedy took one look at Cuba after the missile crisis and said I'm out of here. I don't want to mess with these -- look it almost got us blown up. Let's -- OK, you got to do a little something with the covert operations and Bobby, my brother, will handle that. But no more messing around so that the Soviets come in here. I don't want this island on my chart anymore."
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/filmmore/pt.html>
BTW, the film somehow neglected to mention that the US had 15 Jupiter IRBMs based in Turkey, 150 miles from the USSR, at the time that Bay of Pigs impresario JFK was huffing and puffing about the outrage of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Johnny, we knew ye all too well ;-)
Carl
