Keep the Faith Veteran CIA Analyst Tells Consortium News Bob Parry| An Insider's Exposé of Robert Gates

Ray McGovern, a veteran CIA analyst writes about the truth for Consortiumnews, edited by veteran news man Robert Parry who quit the mainstream media to found an independent media web site.

McGovern wrote this message about Discouragement from the perspective of having enlisted with the military in 1962 during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. Despite his discouragement following the Kennedy assassination and the resulting escalation of the war in Vietnam, Ray McGovern has kept the faith.

He regularly comments on the misjudgments of the Pentagon elite and the media. He remembers Kennedy as the ultimate profile in courage when he faced down the Joint Chiefs of Staff to avoid nuclear war, which was much more difficult than dealing with Khrushchev. Read this excerpt from McGovern's letter to Robert Parry and click on Consortiumnews to read the rest of the story. In this letter, McGovern outlines why Robert Parry's web site is unique and why it deserves financial support. .......26Dems Editorial comment.

Ray McGovern's Letter to Bob Parry

By Ray McGovern
December 7, 2009

At the end of a year that began with such hope, I am struck at how easy it would be to be discouraged.

For me, the temptation to discouragement is almost as strong as it was when other dreams were shattered on Nov. 22, 1963 — the dreams of so many, like me, who were drawn to Washington to see what we might do for our country.

Most of the colleagues who began CIA’s Junior Officer Trainee Program with me earlier in 1963 had been feeling privileged to serve under such a President.

The year before, as an infantry officer at Fort Benning during the Cuban missile crisis in the fall of 1962, I had skin in that game, as they say. And now it is abundantly clear that we were spared war with the U.S.S.R. only because President John Kennedy set the example of a new Profile in Courage.

Yes, he stood up to Khruschchev, but his greatest test was facing down the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I think President Barack Obama is as intelligent as John Kennedy was, but lacks Kennedy’s self-confidence and — let’s just say it — guts.

But in fairness, Kennedy had one HUGE thing going for him — a Fourth Estate, a national press corps that was still doing a fair-to-middling job of informing the American public and had yet to be corrupted by the TV stardom and easy wealth that would come to journalists who position themselves well.

I now have a lot of gray in my hair — and enough years in Washington to point out, as I do in virtually every lecture, that the biggest sea change I have witnessed since arriving here in town 47 years ago is the reality that WE NO LONGER HAVE, IN ANY REAL SENSE, A FREE MEDIA.

Read the rest of the story here.