05-05-2011, 07:13 AM
In Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, Peter Dale Scott tried to make out that LBJ was responsible for the shift in American policy regarding the Vietnam War after the Dallas assassination, thanks to what "the boys in the woodwork", apparently led by General Lionel McGarr and Colonel Howard Burris, advised President Diem in May 1961 from LBJ about accepting American combat troops for training purposes in South Vietnam - what John Newman had discused in his JFK and Vietnam. (p. 30ff.) Then there was mention of what was agreed to at the Honolulu conference two days before the JFK assassination which the Vice President did not attend.
LBJ is clearly being made the fallguy for what other personnel, particularly in American military intelligence, were plotting. At least Scott pretty much undercut his whole case by citing what Newman had repeated from Kenny O'Donnell's book where LBJ said to the war-mongering Joint Chiefs a month after the Dallas assassination: "Just get me elected, and then you can have your war." (Quoted from p. 32)
Now DiEugenio is reviving the case against LBJ, claiming that it is all in David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest if you just read between the lines, and make up your own references. Of course, the Vice President was the last person that David had in mind when he wrote the book, as I well know from my acquaintance with him over the years. His mother and the mother of my wife were the best of friends.
What DiEugenio should be asking first is why Halberstam never discussed the assassination of JFK, not even in situations and dinners where he and I were present. He certainly heard my claims about Nixon-Connally, Helms, Harvey, Haig, the Joint Chiefs, et al. being behind it, but he never made an attempt to correct or agree with me. He didn't want to hear anything about it.
Why? Because he knew that JFK had taken the hit in Dallas so that Castro could be eliminated too as its fallguy, thanks to more plotting by the guys in the woodwork, but with the wounding of Connally - most likely accidental because of the failure of Richard Cain to test fire the rifle so that it shot straight in Dealey Plaza - the showdown with Havana was no longer possible, making Vietnam again the battleground. This left David with no story to tell, and LBJ with a terrible mess to clean up.
Little wonder that he quit after he got elected in 1964 when the Joint Chiefs et al. arranged their war at his expense. He just didn't want the terrible job anymore.
LBJ is clearly being made the fallguy for what other personnel, particularly in American military intelligence, were plotting. At least Scott pretty much undercut his whole case by citing what Newman had repeated from Kenny O'Donnell's book where LBJ said to the war-mongering Joint Chiefs a month after the Dallas assassination: "Just get me elected, and then you can have your war." (Quoted from p. 32)
Now DiEugenio is reviving the case against LBJ, claiming that it is all in David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest if you just read between the lines, and make up your own references. Of course, the Vice President was the last person that David had in mind when he wrote the book, as I well know from my acquaintance with him over the years. His mother and the mother of my wife were the best of friends.
What DiEugenio should be asking first is why Halberstam never discussed the assassination of JFK, not even in situations and dinners where he and I were present. He certainly heard my claims about Nixon-Connally, Helms, Harvey, Haig, the Joint Chiefs, et al. being behind it, but he never made an attempt to correct or agree with me. He didn't want to hear anything about it.
Why? Because he knew that JFK had taken the hit in Dallas so that Castro could be eliminated too as its fallguy, thanks to more plotting by the guys in the woodwork, but with the wounding of Connally - most likely accidental because of the failure of Richard Cain to test fire the rifle so that it shot straight in Dealey Plaza - the showdown with Havana was no longer possible, making Vietnam again the battleground. This left David with no story to tell, and LBJ with a terrible mess to clean up.
Little wonder that he quit after he got elected in 1964 when the Joint Chiefs et al. arranged their war at his expense. He just didn't want the terrible job anymore.