04-05-2011, 10:14 AM
Farrell starts with a most dubious assumption - i. e., there was a Texas machine, and LBJ controlled it.
Actually, Texas politically was divided in many different ways, and when it came to getting Texas to vote for a JFK-LBJ ticket in the '64 election, Governor John Connally was essential to get on board if it was to happen. Connally had resigned as Navy Secretary from the Kennedy administration because of its alleged softness on communism, especially Castro's Cuba right next door.
It was Connally who pressured JFK to come to Texas on November 20, 1963 if he ever hoped to carry the state in the election, and helped persuade the President to ride through Dallas in an open limosine when Richard Nixon's antics about being under threat - apparently by LHO as Robert Baskin had implied in the DMN when the alleged Missile Crisis was resuming a month earlier - the day before the assassination at the Bottlers' Convention, just across from the Trade Mart where Kennedy would be speaking the fatal day, proved to be untrue. This resulted in the President's SS detail being most relieved about the threats to him, and celebrating a bit during the early hours at Fort Worth.
For good measure, the DMN had a story about "Guard Not For Nixon" on the morning of the assassination, and advertised it on the upper right hand corner of the front page.
With this set-up of the President - and LBJ's SS people were not taken in by the ruse - it was hardly surprising that it went off like clockwork except for Connally being apparently killed too in the process. Remember his belated reaction to being hit: "Oh, no, no, no. They are going to kill us all."
On the fatal day, it was Nixon, Connally and their cronies who controlled the Texas machine.
Actually, Texas politically was divided in many different ways, and when it came to getting Texas to vote for a JFK-LBJ ticket in the '64 election, Governor John Connally was essential to get on board if it was to happen. Connally had resigned as Navy Secretary from the Kennedy administration because of its alleged softness on communism, especially Castro's Cuba right next door.
It was Connally who pressured JFK to come to Texas on November 20, 1963 if he ever hoped to carry the state in the election, and helped persuade the President to ride through Dallas in an open limosine when Richard Nixon's antics about being under threat - apparently by LHO as Robert Baskin had implied in the DMN when the alleged Missile Crisis was resuming a month earlier - the day before the assassination at the Bottlers' Convention, just across from the Trade Mart where Kennedy would be speaking the fatal day, proved to be untrue. This resulted in the President's SS detail being most relieved about the threats to him, and celebrating a bit during the early hours at Fort Worth.
For good measure, the DMN had a story about "Guard Not For Nixon" on the morning of the assassination, and advertised it on the upper right hand corner of the front page.
With this set-up of the President - and LBJ's SS people were not taken in by the ruse - it was hardly surprising that it went off like clockwork except for Connally being apparently killed too in the process. Remember his belated reaction to being hit: "Oh, no, no, no. They are going to kill us all."
On the fatal day, it was Nixon, Connally and their cronies who controlled the Texas machine.