Comment on Do political assassinations generally help or harm the cause of the person that was assassinated?
chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 year ago
It depends on the context and the motivation. The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, for instance, I’d argue was a success – it halted any momentum the reconciliation movement had at the time, and led to the situation we’re in today. Would talks have broken down anyway? Who’s to say.
By contrast, the assassination of JFK, though the purpose is unknown, allowed Johnson to galvanise his party in support of a raft of measures.
specialseaweed@kbin.social 1 year ago
There is no question that the assassination of Rabin was a "success". The assassin had a political objective that was met completely.
chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 year ago
True; my only question is whether it was inevitable that peace talks would have broken down anyway, and all the assassination did was slightly hasten the collapse. It’s like the question of whether the assassination of Ferdinand caused WWI. No-one would argue that it wasn’t the trigger, but in the counterfactual case tensions were so high that a conflict was really inevitable.