21-02-2012, 12:48 AM
Edwin,
That famous wink by Congressman Albert Thomas was probably nothing more than a symbol of friendship and support at a time of grave crisis for a man who was about to face the horrendous task in calming and reassuring the American people and the rest of the world that law and order would be restored and the government would carry on with the prinicples of the Democratic Party and the promises made by the Kennedy administration. One reason for this Texas trip was to help Albert Thomas in his campaign, as well as to begin preparing for the 1964 campaigns. I don't think there was anything more sinister than the wink being a gesture of support for Johnson.
There are many people in the JFK assassination reseaerch community who believe that Lyndon Johnson was behind, of heavily involved in, the assassination of John Kennedy. He was a Democratic Party man, a genuine and loyal supporter of civil rights for minorities and also for women. In 1957 when a civil rights bill was being considered in the US Senate and he was the Majority Leader, the senators, mostly Democrats were bickering amongst themselves about what to put in the bill. Johnson was getting impatient with their indecision and anxious to bring it on the floor for a vote. He told them all, "Just give them vote." I interpret this as meaning to trust the minorities to use their voting power to erase the inequities under which they had to live in so many of our Southern states. That 1957 bill did not pass the Congress, nor did the 1960 version, and during the Kennedy presidency the Civil Rights Bill lagged in committee, creating more frustration for Johnson. As you may know, Johnson's efforts to pass that legislation into law were heroic in 1964. After that, he corrected the exemption of women for coverage by the Act in employment by colleges and universities under the anti-discrimination section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by enacting an Executive Order ensuring that women and men of different religions, ethnicity, race, cultures of origin would not be denied the right to be employed, even in the higher centers of learnng in this country.
Lyndon Johnson had been selected by Joseph Kennedy, the father of John Kennedy, as a potential presidential candidate and he offered to fund his presidential camoaign, but only if he let John Kennedy run as hs Vice-President. This occurred during the 1956 campaign. Johnson had suffered a very bad heart attack in 1955, and I'm not sure how much of a role this played in his response to Joe Kennedy. Lyndon Johnson politely refused Joe Kennedy's offer, and this infuriated Bobby Kennedy who took it as an insult to the Kennedy family. This was, I think, the beginning of Bobby and Lyndon's differences.
A book, THE 31ST OF MARCH, by Horace Busby will give you a very close-up view of Lyndon Johnson. Busby was one of his speech writers and a confiidant of Johnson. The title refers to the date (3-31-68) of the speech given by Johnson when he announced he would not run for prsident in 1968. However, you will learn from reading this book that Johnson, a year before in 1967, had asked Busby to write such a speech that Johnson had thought of giving after his State of the Union Address in 1967. With the speech in his pocket, Johnson decided to not do so, and waited until two weeks after Bobby Kennedy finally announced on March 16, 1968, that he was running for president after a year of indecision.. I had the feeling that Johnson, despite their differeces, wanted to be sure that Bobby was in the race, there being only one other democrat, Gene McCarthy, a rather floaty sort of politician. The torch lit by John Kennedy was being given to his brother.
Adele
That famous wink by Congressman Albert Thomas was probably nothing more than a symbol of friendship and support at a time of grave crisis for a man who was about to face the horrendous task in calming and reassuring the American people and the rest of the world that law and order would be restored and the government would carry on with the prinicples of the Democratic Party and the promises made by the Kennedy administration. One reason for this Texas trip was to help Albert Thomas in his campaign, as well as to begin preparing for the 1964 campaigns. I don't think there was anything more sinister than the wink being a gesture of support for Johnson.
There are many people in the JFK assassination reseaerch community who believe that Lyndon Johnson was behind, of heavily involved in, the assassination of John Kennedy. He was a Democratic Party man, a genuine and loyal supporter of civil rights for minorities and also for women. In 1957 when a civil rights bill was being considered in the US Senate and he was the Majority Leader, the senators, mostly Democrats were bickering amongst themselves about what to put in the bill. Johnson was getting impatient with their indecision and anxious to bring it on the floor for a vote. He told them all, "Just give them vote." I interpret this as meaning to trust the minorities to use their voting power to erase the inequities under which they had to live in so many of our Southern states. That 1957 bill did not pass the Congress, nor did the 1960 version, and during the Kennedy presidency the Civil Rights Bill lagged in committee, creating more frustration for Johnson. As you may know, Johnson's efforts to pass that legislation into law were heroic in 1964. After that, he corrected the exemption of women for coverage by the Act in employment by colleges and universities under the anti-discrimination section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by enacting an Executive Order ensuring that women and men of different religions, ethnicity, race, cultures of origin would not be denied the right to be employed, even in the higher centers of learnng in this country.
Lyndon Johnson had been selected by Joseph Kennedy, the father of John Kennedy, as a potential presidential candidate and he offered to fund his presidential camoaign, but only if he let John Kennedy run as hs Vice-President. This occurred during the 1956 campaign. Johnson had suffered a very bad heart attack in 1955, and I'm not sure how much of a role this played in his response to Joe Kennedy. Lyndon Johnson politely refused Joe Kennedy's offer, and this infuriated Bobby Kennedy who took it as an insult to the Kennedy family. This was, I think, the beginning of Bobby and Lyndon's differences.
A book, THE 31ST OF MARCH, by Horace Busby will give you a very close-up view of Lyndon Johnson. Busby was one of his speech writers and a confiidant of Johnson. The title refers to the date (3-31-68) of the speech given by Johnson when he announced he would not run for prsident in 1968. However, you will learn from reading this book that Johnson, a year before in 1967, had asked Busby to write such a speech that Johnson had thought of giving after his State of the Union Address in 1967. With the speech in his pocket, Johnson decided to not do so, and waited until two weeks after Bobby Kennedy finally announced on March 16, 1968, that he was running for president after a year of indecision.. I had the feeling that Johnson, despite their differeces, wanted to be sure that Bobby was in the race, there being only one other democrat, Gene McCarthy, a rather floaty sort of politician. The torch lit by John Kennedy was being given to his brother.
Adele