JFK: What we know now that we didn't know then

[James H. Fetzer]

Phil,

Lyndon was not photogenic and, in the age of television, would have had a hard time reaching the top. He forced his way onto the ticket, later explaining that he was "a gambling man" and had discovered one in four occupants of the office did not live to the end of their terms. LBJ was ANYTHING BUT a "gambling man" who only acted on certainties. Have you read Phil's book? I have nothing but scorn for those who denigrate his research, which is thorough, meticulous, and compelling. During our two hour interview, by the way, I specifically invited him to explain his use of the term, "mastermind". In my opinion, he has it exactly right--and we have abundant corroborating evidence from Madeleine, Billy Sol, Barr and E. Howard Hunt. How anyone can casually dismiss the incriminating testimony of those who knew him best--"up close and personal"--is simply beyond me. Check out two interviews.

Jim

E. Howard Hunt in Bond of Secrecy places LBJ at the top of the organizational chart. I posit this is a deathbed deflection by a career Company man.

Lyndon Baines Johnson announced April 23, 1963, that John F. Kennedy would have lunch in Dallas later in the year, but this did not require a mastermind.

The organization was officially established in 1947, and strengthened in 1949. This did not require Lyndon Johnson.

When Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex he was shaken to the core.

Kennedy fired Dulles for the lies involving the Bay of Pigs invasion. And what did Dulles do:

After the Bay of Pigs, Hunt became a personal assistant to Allen Dulles.[SUP][7][/SUP]Tad Szulc states that Hunt was asked to assist Dulles in writing a book, The Craft of Intelligence, that Dulles wrote following his involuntary retirement as CIA head in 1961.[SUP][8][/SUP] The book was published in 1963.

I don't think they were parsing paragraphs.

It was Angleton and the Mexico City crew who manipulated Oswald's file and legend.

Johnson was compromised and open to the bidding of others. In naming Helms DCI he was merely acknowledging the status quo post-1961, Helms not McCone being the sword and shield of CIA.

Johnson fretted and strutted his five years upon the stage and March 1968 the bully backed out.

The following month intelligence took down King; in June, Bobby. In November, Nixon ascendant.

The supposed heavy hitters of the assassination according to some: Hoover, Johnson, Nixon.

Helms sent Hunt, Sturgis, McCord et al to bring down Nixon with Watergate.

In 72 Hoover has his heart attack. In 73, Johnson, his. In 74 Nixon resigns August 8 and I suggest the minutes of tape too dangerous to transcribe concerned Nixon's knowledge of CIA guilt in the assassination of JFK as Haldeman writes in his book.

Ford names GHWBush DCI Jan 76 and the cleanup in the runup to the HSCA proceeds apace.

Mark Lane is lovely in his Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK. To be sure it was not the CIA which was shattered into a thousand pieces and scattered to the winds but JFK's head.

Truman December 22, 1963 in the Washington Post sought to Limit CIA to Intelligence but we're in Afghanistan.

Regimes fall, heads of state are murdered, not because of Landslide Lyndon but because of the Sword and Shield of the National Security State.

The temporary occupants of the various posts are terra-cotta warriors not masterminds.

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