Nelson's LBJ Mastermind book

[Jim DiEugenio]

Two points:

1. The generally accepted notion of what the word 'mastermind' means in this context is that LBJ was the originating intelligence behind the plot, that is Johnson thought up the scheme, and he then controlled the apparatus.

Now, between what CD has quoted, and from what Joseph Green wrote in his review, this is what Nelson is saying. I mean, Nelson says that Johnson arranged for the body to be taken abruptly out of Parkland, so that the Lifton body alteration scheme could be done on AF One--or wherever. He then says that LBJ controlled the cover up of both the FBI and WC afterwards.

Now, he does say that LBJ had accessories. But that is just it: they were accessories to him. He was the man in charge.


2. Now, let us go to my point about Reynolds. There are many people in this discussion who have studied this case for many, many years. And we have devoted our time to it and sometimes have originated new ideas or concepts about it. And most of us would say that LBJ was, at the very least, in on the cover up from just about the first moment. In fact, he may have been told by his friend Allen Dulles in advance of what would happen. Dulles may have served as an emissary to be sure LBJ knew what was happening.

But to say that LBJ created and then controlled a plot as byzantine and as devilishly clever as this one; where many people think--including myself--that the cover up was built into the conspiracy, well that is just a tough one to swallow.

I mean where is the precedent for it in LBJ's career? If you follow the phone calls LBJ made in the aftermath, it seems pretty clear that he himself was catching up to what had happened. (Although I am sure that Nelson would argue he was just play acting.)

Further, where does Nelson provide the proof for his thesis? There is a difference between just making associations, and providing evidence or proof for conspiratorial acts. (BTW, this is one of the beefs I have had with Peter Scott's work.)

Example: when David Ferrie, on the night of the 23rd, starts visiting his former CAP colleagues to find that picture of him and Oswald, that is evidence of a conspiratorial nexus.

Example 2: When James Angleton segregates the Oswald file after he leaves New Orleans, so that no one can associate what he allegedly does in Mexico City with what he did as an agent provocateur in the Crescent City, that is evidence of a conspiratorial nexus in advance of the assassination.

Example 3: When David Phillips sends the Mexico City transcripts to Langley to himself under an assumed name, and these transcripts are not recognized by the original transcribers--the Tarasoffs--and some are then missing--that is evidence of a conspiratorial nexus in advance of the murder.

Now, what has Nelson produced in his long book that compares with any of this?

If he has, Fetzer has not mentioned it.