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A nugget on C. D. Jackson - Joseph McBride - 03-05-2016
I am reading JERZY KOSINSKI: A BIOGRAPHY (1996), an excellent book by James Park Sloan about the enigmatic Polish émigré novelist
best known for his great novel THE PAINTED
BIRD. The biography deals with the allegations that Kosinski had CIA connections.
The author mentions work Kosinski did early in his time in the US (including two anti-Communist books) that
had U.S. government funding, possibly including CIA involvement, but the author
does not believe Kosinski was an actual agent. Kosinski did some scriptwriting for the United States Information Agency,
the government's official propaganda arm, but was rejected
in his application for full-time USIA employment for security
reasons. He also wrote scripts for Radio Free Europe, which was sponsored by the CIA. (A personal note: When I was the principal writer
of the USIA worldwide TV special in tribute to the Solidarity
Movement, LET POLAND BE POLAND [1982], I proposed
that we put Kosinski on the program but was turned
down on the grounds that the harsh portrait of Polish peasantry
in THE PAINTED BIRD had made him deeply
unpopular in Poland. I didn't know any of his U.S. government connections at the time.
I had tried, with Kosinski's blessing, to get a film made of THE PAINTED
BIRD, but everyone I approached in Hollywood said it was impossible
to make a Holocaust film. This was years before SCHINDLER'S LIST was made.)
In the course of the biography's discussion of Kosinski's U.S. government ties, something emerged
about C. D. Jackson, who, as readers of this Forum well know,
was the publisher of Life who bought the Zapruder film
and kept it under lock and key. Jackson had extensive
intelligence connections and was described by Carl Bernstein
in his famous 1977 Rolling Stone article on the CIA penetration of the media
as having been "For many years, [Henry] Luce's personal emissary to the CIA."
Jackson, a general and an OSS veteran, had been President Eisenhower's advisor on psychological warfare. He had been in charge
of Life since 1960 and worked for Time, Inc., off and on from 1931
until his untimely death in September 1964, just nine days before the
publication of the Warren Report.
Kosinski's U.S. government-backed book THE FUTURE IS OURS, COMRADE: CONVERSATIONS
WITH THE RUSSIANS (1960), published
under the pseudoname of Joseph Novak, was published by Doubleday. The editor of
the book was Adam Yarmolinsky. Sloan writes that Yarmolinsky's "sole connection
with the book's origin was Frank Gibney, then a correspondent for Life magazine.
When Gibney brought him the manuscript, Yarmolinsky circulated it among friends
at the CIA, asking their opinion on its authenticity. They responded that it appeared to be authentic.
"At Life Frank Gibney's beat included Eastern Europe, and especially Eastern European
defectors, so he had excellent access and contacts at the CIA. When they had a defector
they wished to publicize, the CIA contacted Gibney's boss, C. D. Jackson, or sometimes
Gibney himself, and Gibney generally wrote the story. He had been allowed unusual
access to CIA archives as editor of THE PENKOVSKY PAPERS, the (supposed) papers
of an American agent in the Soviet Union. . . ." (p. 111)
This indication of a special operational interest by Jackson in defectors -- including those from what
was known as "the Soviet bloc" -- might shed further light on how he and the Luce
organization dealt with Oswald and the assassination.
A nugget on C. D. Jackson - Tracy Riddle - 03-05-2016
Joseph, you are aware that THE PAINTED BIRD was originally presented as autobiographical, and only later admitted to be fiction (or a hoax according to Norman Finkelstein)? A depressingly common phenomenon in Holocaust literature for some reason.
https://books.google.com/books?id=VuRh9Oz_Cj4C&pg=PT51&lpg=PT51&dq=kosinski+painted+bird+hoax&source=bl&ots=MRx_EOpTry&sig=2Ju9ez-uGBDTBHzAMZEAcHskC3g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIroSSg77MAhUBWmMKHW6yC5gQ6AEIVTAJ#v=onepage&q=kosinski%20painted%20bird%20hoax&f=false
By some accounts, C.D. Jackson was one of the first to arrive at Buchenwald with an Army Psychological Ops unit to film a presentation of human skin lampshades and other dubious artifacts that most Holocaust scholars don't accept as real anymore. The Holocaust, like everything else, has been exploited for propaganda and political purposes.
A nugget on C. D. Jackson - Albert Doyle - 03-05-2016
Tracy Riddle Wrote:Joseph, you are aware that THE PAINTED BIRD was originally presented as autobiographical, and only later admitted to be fiction (or a hoax according to Norman Finkelstein)? A depressingly common phenomenon in Holocaust literature for some reason.
By some accounts, C.D. Jackson was one of the first to arrive at Buchenwald with an Army Psychological Ops unit to film a presentation of human skin lampshades and other dubious artifacts that most Holocaust scholars don't accept as real anymore. The Holocaust, like everything else, has been exploited for propaganda and political purposes.
Finkelstein is worth reading because he's a jew whose parents were victims of the holocaust who takes exception to bs being gotten away with over the holocaust because he resents the sanctity of the holocaust being taken advantage of. I read 'The Holocaust Industry' that was about Swiss banks being blackmailed by Holocaust reparations blackmailers in cooperation with the Clinton administration. It turns out the Swiss were not really guilty of the charges of screwing holocaust victims out of their bank accounts in cooperation with the Nazis but were forced to pay massive reparations at the threat of economic sanctions by the US. It turns out the Swiss actually did honor their holocaust victim accounts and were falsely accused. Finkelstein showed the holocaust organizations that screwed the Swiss didn't give the money to indigent holocaust survivors, they kept it for themselves thus "The Holocaust Industry". This was a predatory lobby taking advantage of the holocaust and seeking to force sanctions from anyone who could be associated with it guilty or not. The US being a credit-taking accomplice with the muscle to force this blackmailing.
Even though this is true you can point it out and it has no effect. And you'll be punished for it. Finkelstein discussed several books that turned out to be frauds that were sanctimoniously praised by the lobby.
I also read Finkelstein's 'Beyond Chutzpah' that showed Alan Dershowitz is another favored writer who openly lied, defrauded source references, and wrote an entirely biased and inaccurate account of Israel and its existence in his book 'The Case For Israel'. Finkelstein showed that the US media lauds these pro-Israel books without any critical vetting and that most of what Dershowitz wrote in the book was false or misleadingly skewed. Books like The Case For Israel are of course lauded and praised by the usual pro-Israel public no matter what their content.
They say Israel is the "Middle East's only democracy". When Finkelstein visited Israel he was promptly jailed at the airport. He was then deported.
A nugget on C. D. Jackson - Magda Hassan - 03-05-2016
Solidarity being another of the Colour Revolutions so beloved by the CIA
A nugget on C. D. Jackson - Joseph McBride - 03-05-2016
Tracy Riddle Wrote:Joseph, you are aware that THE PAINTED BIRD was originally presented as autobiographical, and only later admitted to be fiction (or a hoax according to Norman Finkelstein)? A depressingly common phenomenon in Holocaust literature for some reason.
https://books.google.com/books?id=VuRh9Oz_Cj4C&pg=PT51&lpg=PT51&dq=kosinski+painted+bird+hoax&source=bl&ots=MRx_EOpTry&sig=2Ju9ez-uGBDTBHzAMZEAcHskC3g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIroSSg77MAhUBWmMKHW6yC5gQ6AEIVTAJ#v=onepage&q=kosinski%20painted%20bird%20hoax&f=false
By some accounts, C.D. Jackson was one of the first to arrive at Buchenwald with an Army Psychological Ops unit to film a presentation of human skin lampshades and other dubious artifacts that most Holocaust scholars don't accept as real anymore. The Holocaust, like everything else, has been exploited for propaganda and political purposes.
****
Yes, there was long confusion generated by Kosinski about the supposedly autobiographical nature of his book and much controversy about that.
The biography by Sloan discusses internal debate at the publishing house about how to present
it. It nevertheless is a great novel. And it could make a great film. Kosinski apparently appropriated
some of Roman Polanski's childhood experiences for the book. Polanski could direct the film but maybe
would not. Spielberg offered him SCHINDLER'S LIST, but he said it was too close (even for him), since
he had escaped the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto. Polanski later did THE PIANIST, however.
A nugget on C. D. Jackson - R.K. Locke - 03-05-2016
I've only skimmed this thread so I'm not sure if it has been mentioned but Koznski was supposed to be at the famous dinner at Roman Polanski's house shortly before RFK was assassinated.
A nugget on C. D. Jackson - Joseph McBride - 03-05-2016
R.K. Locke Wrote:I've only skimmed this thread so I'm not sure if it has been mentioned but Koznski was supposed to be at the famous dinner at Roman Polanski's house shortly before RFK was assassinated.
Kosinski was one of many people who claimed
he had been invited to the Polanski house before
the 1969 murders and narrowly missed being
there at the time. The dinner you may be thinking
of was at John Frankenheimer's house in 1968, where
RFK was staying with his family before he was shot.
Polanski and Sharon Tate were there, but not Kosinski.
A nugget on C. D. Jackson - Joseph McBride - 03-05-2016
Magda Hassan Wrote:Solidarity being another of the Colour Revolutions so beloved by the CIA
Solidarity was a movement I thought was a good idea and still do.
A nugget on C. D. Jackson - R.K. Locke - 03-05-2016
"KosiÅ„ski was friends with Roman Polanski, with whom he attended the National Film School in Åódź, and said he narrowly missed being at Polanski and Sharon Tate's house on the night Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's followers in 1969, due to lost luggage. His novel Blind Date discussed the Manson murders.[4] KosiÅ„ski was also friends with Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger. He introduced the couple."
Kosinski also wrote (many would say plagiarized) the book Being There, which was the basis for the classic Peter Sellers film of the same name. The finale of the movie is interesting:
Peter Sellers was also, of course, in the TV movie A Carol for Another Christmas, written by Rod Serling and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the co-writer of Citizen Kaneand uncle of RFK's press secretary Frank Mankiewicz.
A nugget on C. D. Jackson - R.K. Locke - 03-05-2016
Joseph McBride Wrote:R.K. Locke Wrote:I've only skimmed this thread so I'm not sure if it has been mentioned but Koznski was supposed to be at the famous dinner at Roman Polanski's house shortly before RFK was assassinated.
Kosinski was one of many people who claimed
he had been invited to the Polanski house before
the 1969 murders and narrowly missed being
there at the time. The dinner you may be thinking
of was at John Frankenheimer's house in 1968, where
RFK was staying with his family before he was shot.
Polanski and Sharon Tate were there, but not Kosinski.
Yes, you're correct. See my other post above this one.