TC, honestly. I ran to your blog today because you usually inform me why I am feeling the way I do (in this case, so kind of glad about Gen Milley as a force for opposition against former and his gang)
Thank you for this military lesson. I have seen all the Kirk Douglas movies mentioned, always fan of his roles, but never knew the backstories. You are an important voice to me TC. I am the forever glass half full fighter… ingrained after working in public education for decades. I can hardly abide the “wring one’s hands and fold” people. I prefer your dose of informed reality to check my sensibilities and direct my crafted protest in the right direction.
Kennedy had read the book and wanted the picture made, to the extent of arranging to be up in Cape Cod when the riot in front of the White House was being shot. He's also known to have seen both "Lonely Are the Brave" and "Spartacus."
Yeah, JFK's favorable comments about "Spartacus" were very helpful at the time when the Blacklist Boogeymen were going after Douglas for having hired Dalton Trumbo to write the screenplay and for giving him named credit. Trumbo also wrote "Lonely Are The Brave" from the novel "The Brave Cowboy" by Edward Abbey (later founder of Earth First!). I'm not surprised he was in favor of the movie, since he was the president all the military coup people had in mind.
There must be something in the air this weekend. Here's what Charlie Pierce wrote in his morning e-mail today, regarding "Seven Days in May":
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy personally arranged for director John Frankenheimer to shoot location scenes at the White House for Frankenheimer’s film version of Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey’s wildly popular political thriller, Seven Days In May, in which a charismatic general leads the Joint Chiefs in a military plot to overthrow the government. Kennedy wasn’t just a film buff. He had lost his trust not only in many of his intelligence officials, but also in many of his own military chieftains—most notably, Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay. In fact, it had been an interview with LeMay in which LeMay called Kennedy a coward for his handling of the Bay of Pigs fiasco that had sparked the idea for Seven Days In May in the mind of Knebel, a veteran Washington columnist. It’s no accident that the leader of the plot in the novel is an Air Force general. It seems pretty clear that JFK, who never lived to see the film, was sending a message to those elements in his government that he did not trust.
TC, honestly. I ran to your blog today because you usually inform me why I am feeling the way I do (in this case, so kind of glad about Gen Milley as a force for opposition against former and his gang)
Thank you for this military lesson. I have seen all the Kirk Douglas movies mentioned, always fan of his roles, but never knew the backstories. You are an important voice to me TC. I am the forever glass half full fighter… ingrained after working in public education for decades. I can hardly abide the “wring one’s hands and fold” people. I prefer your dose of informed reality to check my sensibilities and direct my crafted protest in the right direction.
Have brought a few readers to you.
I’m marching!
Kennedy had read the book and wanted the picture made, to the extent of arranging to be up in Cape Cod when the riot in front of the White House was being shot. He's also known to have seen both "Lonely Are the Brave" and "Spartacus."
Yeah, JFK's favorable comments about "Spartacus" were very helpful at the time when the Blacklist Boogeymen were going after Douglas for having hired Dalton Trumbo to write the screenplay and for giving him named credit. Trumbo also wrote "Lonely Are The Brave" from the novel "The Brave Cowboy" by Edward Abbey (later founder of Earth First!). I'm not surprised he was in favor of the movie, since he was the president all the military coup people had in mind.
Thanks for the Edward Abbey reference. That’s a book of his I did not know about.
It's a very "Edward Abbey" kind of story.
There must be something in the air this weekend. Here's what Charlie Pierce wrote in his morning e-mail today, regarding "Seven Days in May":
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy personally arranged for director John Frankenheimer to shoot location scenes at the White House for Frankenheimer’s film version of Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey’s wildly popular political thriller, Seven Days In May, in which a charismatic general leads the Joint Chiefs in a military plot to overthrow the government. Kennedy wasn’t just a film buff. He had lost his trust not only in many of his intelligence officials, but also in many of his own military chieftains—most notably, Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay. In fact, it had been an interview with LeMay in which LeMay called Kennedy a coward for his handling of the Bay of Pigs fiasco that had sparked the idea for Seven Days In May in the mind of Knebel, a veteran Washington columnist. It’s no accident that the leader of the plot in the novel is an Air Force general. It seems pretty clear that JFK, who never lived to see the film, was sending a message to those elements in his government that he did not trust.