06-01-2009, 04:21 PM
Myra and Dawn,
To address your most salient points:
MB -- The strategy might as easily have been to await JFK's removal from office via resignation in the wake of public exposure of what to LBJ and associates would have been Kennedy's well-known sexual and medical "infirmities."
MB -- In a report by HSCA investigator Mark Flanagan on his telephone interview with Godfrey McHugh, one finds the following:
"During [the flight from Dallas to D.C. on 11/22/63], McHugh began looking for Johnson to discuss the situation. The pilot told McHugh that Johnson had already boarded Air Force I. McHugh had encountered difficulty in locating Johnson but finally discovered him alone, 'hiding in the toilet in the bedroom compartment and muttering, "Conspiracy, conspiracy, they're after all of us."' McHugh then attempted to calm Johnson."
This is consistent with behavior observed during the motorcade -- including actions prior to the shooting.
We also look to Johnson's additional talk of conspiracy in which he names as probable sponsors either Texas oil people, Castro, the mob, or intelligence agents/agencies. I hear messages being sent.
As for the swearing-in photos: that ole pole cat knew when to slap on a smile for the photogs.
DM -- LBJ is either a Sponsor or he's not. Can't have it both ways.
He's not.
To be clear, I hold Lyndon Baines Johnson to be a co-conspirator in the murder of JFK. But I do NOT identify him as a Sponsor, or prime mover, of the assassination.
As for your "who had the most to lose/gain at the time?" question, I strongly disagree with the answer you proffer. How can we weigh anyone's appreciation of imminent loss except subjectively? LBJ stood to lose his freedom and thus, by definition, his political office. Those who profited -- economically and spiritually -- from the Cold War had at risk their fortunes (in the broadest meaning) and those of their families for untold genrations to come. Passionately anti-Castro Cubans risked losing their homeland. Rabid patriots saw their country in peril.
To address your most salient points:
MB -- The strategy might as easily have been to await JFK's removal from office via resignation in the wake of public exposure of what to LBJ and associates would have been Kennedy's well-known sexual and medical "infirmities."
MB -- In a report by HSCA investigator Mark Flanagan on his telephone interview with Godfrey McHugh, one finds the following:
"During [the flight from Dallas to D.C. on 11/22/63], McHugh began looking for Johnson to discuss the situation. The pilot told McHugh that Johnson had already boarded Air Force I. McHugh had encountered difficulty in locating Johnson but finally discovered him alone, 'hiding in the toilet in the bedroom compartment and muttering, "Conspiracy, conspiracy, they're after all of us."' McHugh then attempted to calm Johnson."
This is consistent with behavior observed during the motorcade -- including actions prior to the shooting.
We also look to Johnson's additional talk of conspiracy in which he names as probable sponsors either Texas oil people, Castro, the mob, or intelligence agents/agencies. I hear messages being sent.
As for the swearing-in photos: that ole pole cat knew when to slap on a smile for the photogs.
DM -- LBJ is either a Sponsor or he's not. Can't have it both ways.
He's not.
To be clear, I hold Lyndon Baines Johnson to be a co-conspirator in the murder of JFK. But I do NOT identify him as a Sponsor, or prime mover, of the assassination.
As for your "who had the most to lose/gain at the time?" question, I strongly disagree with the answer you proffer. How can we weigh anyone's appreciation of imminent loss except subjectively? LBJ stood to lose his freedom and thus, by definition, his political office. Those who profited -- economically and spiritually -- from the Cold War had at risk their fortunes (in the broadest meaning) and those of their families for untold genrations to come. Passionately anti-Castro Cubans risked losing their homeland. Rabid patriots saw their country in peril.