Nelson's LBJ Mastermind book

[James H. Fetzer]

Charles seems to derive more pleasure from restating his position endlessly than do I. My position has been defined here more than once and I stand by everything I have said about this. Lyndon Johnson had been nurturing his plan for years for the obvious reason that, as he well knew, he was not a personally attractive or charismatic personality. He was a genius at the manipulation of others and bending them to his will. But he well knew that his only access route to the presidency he coveted was to be in the position to assume the presidency after its occupant was removed. He set about implementing this plan with great skill and pursued it with enormous vigor and ultimate success with the help of his many friends, including Speaker Rayburn and J. Egar. What I cannot abide from anyone here, including especially Charles Drago, is this completely unjustified and intellectually dishonest slamming of a brilliant book, which is beautifully written, copiously documented, and--to any rational mind!--ultimately convincing. Charles vicious and unwarranted attacks on the book and its author are irresponsible and unwarranted. They are disgusting and discredit him, not Phil Nelson, whom I admire for the excellence of his research, even if he is unable to affect some of those here whose actions, in my opinion, are as corrupt and dishonest as those of Vincent Bugliosi in his assault on conspiracy research. In my opinion, Charles owes Phil and the whole forum an apology for the excess of his attacks, which have gone far beyond the boundaries of civil discourse and obviously violate the principles that are supposed to govern exchanges on this, the Deep Politics forum.

This has become a hangup over semantics.

I agree that words ought to always be used with great precision.

However, an argument over whether LBJ was a "mastermind" or a
"pivotal player" or an "essential part" is significant only in a slight
degree in describing the activity of a vile corrupt villainous criminal.

It is like arguing who was worse...John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy,
the Son of Sam, Charlie Manson, or the guy who shoots a 7-11 clerk
during a robbery.

Truth is, I think we all agree, that the plot was a conspiracy involving
many such people, and each played an important role, but none was
entirely responsible for all actions. A large group killed Caesar, including
Brutus.

Jack

I appreciate your thoughts here, Jack. But please consider the negative impact of Nelson's "mastermind" assertion in terms of its elevation of LBJ to Sponsor status.

Do you agree with Nelson that:

"[The conspiracy] was all according to the grand play -- a masterpiece of design and execution -- which had been developed over a period of nearly four years by the most brilliant, and evil, political force the country had ever seen: Lyndon Baines ('Bull') Johnson[.]" [emphasis in original] [p. 576]

and

"More than any other person, [LBJ] had the means, motive, and opportunity to have been the singular key conspirator-instigator and the mastermind of the operation." [emphasis added] [p. 668]

Or do you repudiate this outburst of comic book-level disinformation?

This goes beyond semantics, I'm afraid.

Nelson, knowingly or otherwise, is giving aid and comfort to the enemy and otherwise reinforcing the coverup when he bestows Sponsorship status on LBJ.

Charles