Reclaiming Parkland

First topic message reminder :

Jim DiEugenio requested that I post the cover to his new book "Reclaiming Parkland" on the forum. Looks pretty nice to me.

Hasan Yusuf wrote:

James DiEugenio wrote:I told her Stone was re-releasing JFK next month and she thought that was a great opportunity to do another one.

Look forward to seeing you back on the show, Jim.

All jokes aside, if the first interview is any guide, the second should be a cracker -- and it would be great if it generated interest with other talk show hosts looking to have guest leading up to the 50th.

Greg, unfortunately she's married.

If she wasn't, now.....

I mean its not often you find a TV host that smart and informed.  SHe has written for the New York Times and Huffpo.

Just watched the interview, Jim. Fabulous scope & depth on your part as to WC appearance vs. conspiracy reality that gets avoided in the Parkland film script. Alison Hope Weiner is sharp & informed and kept the conversation dynamic & fluid. A+ all the way.

Thanks Richard.

Many of these people do not even read the book you send them or the manuscript.

She read the manuscript, and then had the book at her studio.

Also really enjoyed the tangent discussion you got into about Marshall Zhukov and how WWII was really won on the Russian Front. Which gets omitted from nearly every US history discussion of that war, since they focus on D-Day, the Battle of Britain, etc. And this kind of home-team history fosters the patriotism of guys like Tom Hanks.

I had a similar discussion with my girlfriend a couple weeks ago, but didn't have your handy command of percentages- 80% of the Wehrmacht were deployed in Operation Barbarossa, 90% of Germany's army casualties were in Russia. And she has a masters, but was surprised to learn that WWII was essentially Germany vs. Russia. So Hanks' understanding- a Saving Private Ryan perspective on US war hstory- is very commonplace.

That Nazi vs. Bolshevik tension would have been a big problem had JFK's proposal for a joint US-USSR space program ever got off the launch pad. Wernher von Braun, Arthur Rudolph, Kurt Debus, and hordes of other Paperclip scientists, sharing their technological secrets with the Russkies? I think some serious friction would have resulted. And this was realized by NASA chief James Webb and other bigwig military-industrialist technocrats. Probably why a September 18, 1963 White House meeting with Webb- 2 days before JFK's joint lunar mission proposal at the UN- is not yet declassified.

All very true and cogent, Richard. 

The "Soviets defeated Hitler" perspective is presented in the first episode of Oliver Stone's Untold History, by the way.  He also pretty much says that it was Truman and Churchill who were responsible for the Cold War.  I know that the series is somewhat uneven, but I certainly can agree with this take on WWII and its aftermath.

Albert Rossi wrote:All very true and cogent, Richard. 

The "Soviets defeated Hitler" perspective is presented in the first episode of Oliver Stone's Untold History, by the way.  He also pretty much says that it was Truman and Churchill who were responsible for the Cold War.  I know that the series is somewhat uneven, but I certainly can agree with this take on WWII and its aftermath.

I know this is getting off topic, but since I have not seen the series, can I ask if he tackled the Korean skirmish, and if so, what his take on it was?

The Korean POW issue is at the very heart of the making of the Oswald legend. I have also come to certain conclusions of my own about who started the war and why...

To be frank, I have only viewed the first couple of episodes, and I don't recall that Korea is treated there.  I've been planning to watch the rest, but haven't had the chance.  They are all available here, I think:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzqro8_the-untold-history-of-the-united-states-ep01_school?search_algo=2

Also, I recommend JimD's review of the book:

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/01/01/how-america-became-an-empire/
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/01/11/americas-bloody-price-for-power/

As far as I recall, Oliver and Peter did not really get into the genesis of the Korean War that much.  Which is hotly disputed.

Its really something though about the whole Russian/German issue.  On her You Tube channel,she excerpted that segment on Hanks and his view of history, and that is really raising a ruckus, especially that part where I talk about how the war was won in Russia.  People think that is un American or something.

Not at all.  I am just assigning credit to where it belongs.  The USSR took on by far the largest brunt of the German war machine. If that force had been in Europe at the time, Eisenhower could never have invaded either Italy or France with any degree of success.  The combination of Panzer tanks and the Luftwaffe would have stopped the amphibious assault at Normandy.  

But both of these segments had been largely depleted by 1944 by the failure of Barbarossa.

But you don't get any of that with Hanks and his favorite historian Ambrose.

Thank you Albert & Jim.

Wrt WWII, I think a football analogy is in order. Don't know much about American football, but no matter the type - they all have one thing in common - players whose position in the team is non-glamorous, but requires all the hard work for little recognition. Without them doing their job, the glamor guys (quarterbacks in your game?)can't shine in one or two little plays and take all the glory. 

I look forward to seeing seeing your opinions on my Korean War section of the book.

Joseph McBride started a thread over at ED: "RECLAIMING PARKLAND by James DiEugenio." Highly positive review.
 
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=20536

Great review, Jim, congrats.  The keynote seems to be "devastating".  Indeed.

Thanks Al.

Hey, if DVP is up in arms, I did my job.

I told Joe, anytime I get compared with Sylvia Meagher, that makes my day.

Hasan has posted a review of Jim's book.

Great job, Hasan!

http://www.ctka.net/reviews/reclaiming_parkland.html

Albert Rossi wrote:Hasan has posted a review of Jim's book.

Great job, Hasan!

http://www.ctka.net/reviews/reclaiming_parkland.html

Thanks, Albert.

Jim,

Have you had any push back at all from Hanks et al since the books publication?

Lee

No I have not.  I really wish he did say something.

But no, nothing.

James DiEugenio wrote:No I have not.  I really wish he did say something.

But no, nothing.

Ignoring you is their only viable option.

James DiEugenio wrote:No I have not.  I really wish he did say something.

But no, nothing.

Can you honestly blame Hanks for his silence, Jim? I mean, you left him with so much egg to wipe off his face, he's probably buried his head in the sand.

Hasan Yusuf wrote:

James DiEugenio wrote:No I have not.  I really wish he did say something.

But no, nothing.

Can you honestly blame Hanks for his silence, Jim? I mean, you left him with so much egg to wipe off his face, he's probably buried his head in the sand.

It would be a huge mistake for them to take Jim on. He is on the right side of the argument, so why draw attention to him when they are the ones who are the darlings of the MSM, and hog all the newsprint and airwaves?

greg parker wrote:It would be a huge mistake for them to take Jim on. He is on the right side of the argument, so why draw attention to him when they are the ones who are the darlings of the MSM, and hog all the newsprint and airwaves?

Excellent point, Greg.

Just curious, but has anyone else here read all of Reclaiming Parkland? Maybe we could get a discussion going on it.

I'd struggle to find time to read the ingredients list on the side of an egg carton right now, Hasan.

I'm on page 237 and I only got it Wednesday!

Superb book in every sense.

But I've really gotta go back to reading that awful Howard Willens book so I can write my review.

By the way, Oliver really likes it a lot.

Because it goes after Bugliosi I think.

Someone told me on his Facebook page he lists it second to the Douglass book.

And martin, when you get done, go to Hasan's review, because at the end, there is a link to the expurgated pages.  They cut about 55 pages out.  And they are all good.  They eliminated the whole chapter on Mexico City which I thought was one of the best chapters in the book.