Jesse Ventura's JFK Conspiracy Program

[James H. Fetzer]

In Charles' language of SPONSORS/FACILITATORS/MECHANICS, all that I have intended by the use of the term "mastermind" is that LBJ was the crucial facilitator, that he had links to all of the forces opposed to JFK, that his burning ambition to become president drove him to engage in the removal of the final obstacle to attaining that pinnacle of attainment after which he had grasped his entire life, and that without LBJ's complicity, which even extended to making sure "all the arrangements" were in place for the assassination, it could not have taken place. He would become the President of the United States and, without his involvement, the plotters would not have thought twice about committing this monstrous crime. He was the one person whose engagement was indispensable to its taking place. Everyone else was "replaceable", even Lee Oswald, except for LBJ. He, after all, was the person who would decide whether the full powers of the government would be unleashed to uncover and expose those responsible. The principal reason Bobby was taken out, after all, is that he had declared he would do exactly that! I would like to believe that this explains my position, which, alas, has not been adequately appreciated by some whom I admire, who have imposed a different meaning than the one I had intended. I hope this clarified the matter and leaves no doubt in anyone's mind by what I and, I have no doubt, Phillip Nelson, whom I have interviewed, have meant by the use of the term "mastermind", which is entirely accurate with regard to what he and I intended.

Thank you, Peter, for your cogent and powerfully stated assessment of LBJ's relative position in the power structure that struck John.

The "Mastermind" book -- which I'm reading -- so far has offered absolutely NOTHING to persuade anyone with intimate familiarity with the evidence in the JFK case in particular and 20th century deep polititics in general that Johnson was anything other than a Facilitator of a conspiracy whose Sponsors were so far above his pay scale as to be as invisible to him as the dark side of the moon.

The author, Phillip Nelson, does offer cogent analyses of LBJ's facilitation efforts. And then repeatedly he makes the leap to "mastermind" without providing a scintilla of evidence to support the charge.

Noel Twyman, the deservedly respected author of Bloody Treason, is quoted on Nelson's website thusly:

"This book is very comprehensive about Lyndon Johnson as related to the JFK assassination. Nelson strips away the restraints and tells all that is known about the criminal character of LBJ. He plunges fearlessly into 'the unspeakable' about him. Nelson deliberately avoids going into scientific and forensic detail, without compromising his story. It is a well written book, easy to read, and exhaustive in its summations of the scores of other writers on this profoundly disturbing time in history."

Noel and I stand in near-total agreement. Alas, Nelson does not come close to telling us "all that is known" about LBJ's involvement in the assassination -- even as he repeatedly tell us more than is known -- and Noel does not see fit to comment on the "mastermind" claim, let alone define "mastermind" in this context.

Also quoted by Nelson is this passage by Jim Fetzer:

"Brilliant and pivotal, bringing coherence to our understanding . . . From first chapter to last, this is a beautifully written, intellectually captivating, and ultimately persuasive account of the role of LBJ in the assassination of JFK."

Alas, Nelson is absolutely incoherent whenever he makes the "mastermind" charge -- one that he leaps to without a shard of supporting evidence. Regarding his work's central conceit, Nelson persuades no one except those predisposed to avoiding the terrible truth revealed by LBJ's role not as "mastermind" of the hit but rather/only as faithful retainer to the true Sponsors of JFK's murder.

Folks, as we near the 50th anniversary of the death of our last president, we shall see paraded before us a platoon of False Sponsors. Prior to the ascendency of LBJ in that role, we were given E. Howard Hunt's deathbed "confession." Anyone care to wager who the next patsy will be?

(It looks like the Leonardo DiCaprio adaptation of Legacy of Secrecy will resurrect the Mob-did-it False Sponsor tale. One waits breathlessly for the endorsers of Nelson to jump on Leo's bandwagon.)

Make no mistake: Both EHH and LBJ conspired to kill John Fitzgerald Kennedy. But neither of them can be placed on the Sponsor level.

One is left mystified by Nelson's lamebrained "mastermind" charge. Why go there?

Here's one possible answer: The best way to bestow historical absolution upon LBJ is to inflate his role in the JFK assassination to the degree of absurdity. Thus all evidence for his complicity in the conspiracy will be flushed down history's toilet along with the patently absurd "mastermind" charge.

Another disastrous side effect of the "Mastermind" endorsements: its boosters' favorable comparison of Nelson's disinformation volume to James Douglass's utterly superb, incisive, and sound JFK and the Unspeakable.

It is Phillip Nelson's JFK: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination that is in all respects unspeakable -- in the Douglass sense of the word.