07-07-2011, 08:48 AM
I am going to poke my neck out a little bit but before anyone takes a hack at it, let me offer a few caveats.
First, I don't pretend to be a serious, deep, long-term reader, researcher or investigator of Jack Kennedy or his Presidency or his assassination (or, for that matter, much of anything).
Second, I admit and preface the thoughts I am about to express with the prior acknowledgement that, in many ways, I am out of my league. I do like to read a lot, akin to rummaging around; once in a while, I dig a little deeper. Having just read most of this thread from start to finish, having read JFKU, "A Certain Arrogance", and having recently begun a deep foray into the topic of secret societies, I would like to disagree with the idea that JFK's "secret societies" speech was solely about communism. I'll admit at this point I don't have much ammunition with which to fight the battle.
But the thoughts I will express are these:
1) Keep the subject and one's minds open.
2) Recognize that JFK, for all his puerile goofiness and charm at any early age, was a pretty smart fellow. [Gosh, we're still studying the cognitive arts to understand how the human persona knows what it knows.]
3) Acknowledge that JFK attended Choate.
4) Acknowledge that Skull and Bones was invested, one might say infested, with many, many wealthy, elite graduates of elite preparatory schools, most of which were built on a foundation of Protestantism.
5) Ask yourself (and look deeply for evidence -- I just did a scan of the 'net for an hour) about JFK's familial milieu as a Catholic, and the bias against Catholics that existed at that time.
6) Recognize his father's quest to fit into that elite society; despite his wealth and his position, and his ability rub elbows with them, did he still feel an outcast, and did he transmit this to his son?
7) Read Millegan and Sutton on Skull and Bones and spend enough time perusing the membership lists to appreciate that many of the Knights of Chapter 322 went back to prep school as teachers, headmasters, etc., as well as into schools, churches, pulpits, colleges and universities, as well as other basic social institutions. Avery Dulles graduated from Choate a year after Kennedy did. The attitudes of the Dulles milieu toward religion have been noted.
8) Ask yourself about the degree of comfort JFK did or did not feel with regard to his schooling at Canterbury and Choate (where are the sources?!), recognizing that he perhaps did not have the grades to get into Yale, but that nevertheless he had attended the same school and the same types of schools that served as feeder institutions to S&B, and that he may have felt some animosity for a variety of reasons, perhaps adolescent, perhaps carried into manhood.
9) Recognize that he grew up in New England, and may have been exposed to some of the early literature, history and apprehension there since 1790 about the Bavarian Illuminati.
10) Recognize that "In 1939 [while his father was the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (the United Kingdom) in London], Kennedy toured Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Czechoslovakia and Germany before returning to London on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland." Are there any writings, journals, correspondence or history from this time? Yes, of course, he wrote his thesis on appeasement which became "Why England Slept" when he returned. Is it possible that he learned, read, or otherwise absorbed the European historical aura and literature of secret societies, or gleaned some larger sense of the forces at work there?
11) Given that JFK "rubbed elbows" (and I use that term very loosely and without definitive evidence of proximal relationship) with people who went on to serve inside intelligence agencies, publications, cultural institutions and who came from wealth which was dominantly in support of Republican dominance; given that his father [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy,_Sr] was a banker and stockbroker and the first Chairman* of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1934-35) and that the Skull and Bones crowd -- even if he didn't know them for their having been tapped -- was "trading with the enemy"; given that his dad said "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US]."[6] [Boston Globe, 11/10/40], that his Dad was allied with McCarthy, that his dad had controversial views on Jews, that his dad-- according to Wikipedia but without attribution -- "was invested as a knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta", and that his dad had an affair with Claire Booth Luce [Henry's wife]**: Did he perhaps reflect on some of this at one time or another but fail to express it then in ways and language we'd recognize today?
In summary, I don't think the question is closed.
* "After Franklin Roosevelt called Joe to Washington, D.C. to clean up the securities industry, somebody asked FDR why he had tapped such a crook. "Takes one to catch one," replied Roosevelt.[23] Kennedy's reforming work as SEC Chairman was widely praised on all sides, as investors realized the SEC was protecting their interests. His knowledge of the financial markets equipped him to identify areas requiring the attention of regulators. One of the crucial reforms was the requirement for companies to regularly file financial statements with the SEC, which broke what some saw as an information monopoly maintained by the Morgan banking family."
** Is there information on this? Who initiated it? How did it come about?
First, I don't pretend to be a serious, deep, long-term reader, researcher or investigator of Jack Kennedy or his Presidency or his assassination (or, for that matter, much of anything).
Second, I admit and preface the thoughts I am about to express with the prior acknowledgement that, in many ways, I am out of my league. I do like to read a lot, akin to rummaging around; once in a while, I dig a little deeper. Having just read most of this thread from start to finish, having read JFKU, "A Certain Arrogance", and having recently begun a deep foray into the topic of secret societies, I would like to disagree with the idea that JFK's "secret societies" speech was solely about communism. I'll admit at this point I don't have much ammunition with which to fight the battle.
But the thoughts I will express are these:
1) Keep the subject and one's minds open.
2) Recognize that JFK, for all his puerile goofiness and charm at any early age, was a pretty smart fellow. [Gosh, we're still studying the cognitive arts to understand how the human persona knows what it knows.]
3) Acknowledge that JFK attended Choate.
4) Acknowledge that Skull and Bones was invested, one might say infested, with many, many wealthy, elite graduates of elite preparatory schools, most of which were built on a foundation of Protestantism.
5) Ask yourself (and look deeply for evidence -- I just did a scan of the 'net for an hour) about JFK's familial milieu as a Catholic, and the bias against Catholics that existed at that time.
6) Recognize his father's quest to fit into that elite society; despite his wealth and his position, and his ability rub elbows with them, did he still feel an outcast, and did he transmit this to his son?
7) Read Millegan and Sutton on Skull and Bones and spend enough time perusing the membership lists to appreciate that many of the Knights of Chapter 322 went back to prep school as teachers, headmasters, etc., as well as into schools, churches, pulpits, colleges and universities, as well as other basic social institutions. Avery Dulles graduated from Choate a year after Kennedy did. The attitudes of the Dulles milieu toward religion have been noted.
8) Ask yourself about the degree of comfort JFK did or did not feel with regard to his schooling at Canterbury and Choate (where are the sources?!), recognizing that he perhaps did not have the grades to get into Yale, but that nevertheless he had attended the same school and the same types of schools that served as feeder institutions to S&B, and that he may have felt some animosity for a variety of reasons, perhaps adolescent, perhaps carried into manhood.
9) Recognize that he grew up in New England, and may have been exposed to some of the early literature, history and apprehension there since 1790 about the Bavarian Illuminati.
10) Recognize that "In 1939 [while his father was the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (the United Kingdom) in London], Kennedy toured Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Czechoslovakia and Germany before returning to London on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland." Are there any writings, journals, correspondence or history from this time? Yes, of course, he wrote his thesis on appeasement which became "Why England Slept" when he returned. Is it possible that he learned, read, or otherwise absorbed the European historical aura and literature of secret societies, or gleaned some larger sense of the forces at work there?
11) Given that JFK "rubbed elbows" (and I use that term very loosely and without definitive evidence of proximal relationship) with people who went on to serve inside intelligence agencies, publications, cultural institutions and who came from wealth which was dominantly in support of Republican dominance; given that his father [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy,_Sr] was a banker and stockbroker and the first Chairman* of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1934-35) and that the Skull and Bones crowd -- even if he didn't know them for their having been tapped -- was "trading with the enemy"; given that his dad said "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US]."[6] [Boston Globe, 11/10/40], that his Dad was allied with McCarthy, that his dad had controversial views on Jews, that his dad-- according to Wikipedia but without attribution -- "was invested as a knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta", and that his dad had an affair with Claire Booth Luce [Henry's wife]**: Did he perhaps reflect on some of this at one time or another but fail to express it then in ways and language we'd recognize today?
In summary, I don't think the question is closed.
* "After Franklin Roosevelt called Joe to Washington, D.C. to clean up the securities industry, somebody asked FDR why he had tapped such a crook. "Takes one to catch one," replied Roosevelt.[23] Kennedy's reforming work as SEC Chairman was widely praised on all sides, as investors realized the SEC was protecting their interests. His knowledge of the financial markets equipped him to identify areas requiring the attention of regulators. One of the crucial reforms was the requirement for companies to regularly file financial statements with the SEC, which broke what some saw as an information monopoly maintained by the Morgan banking family."
** Is there information on this? Who initiated it? How did it come about?
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"