Deep Politics Timeline

[Tracy Riddle]

• 7/1967 Polls showed that only 45% of the public approved of the Warren Court's performance.
  
• 7/1967 New Yorker's correspondent Jonathan Schell described the destruction of Vietnamese villages and relocation of peasants in "The Village of Ben Suc."
  
• 7/1967 Edward Jay Epstein article "Manchester Unexpurgated" in Commentary, July 1967. Manchester's original draft of his book, then entitled "Death of a Lancer," came close to blaming LBJ for the assassination. In his original manuscript which somehow fell into Epstein's hands while he was researching his own book on the Warren Commission, "Inquest," Manchester described Lyndon E. Johnson as "a chameleon who constantly changes loyalties"; "a capon" and "a crafty schemer who has a gaunt, hunted look about him,", among other well-placed barbs. The unexpurgated version also described Johnson as a full-fledged hypomaniac," and "the crafty seducer with six nimble hands who can persuade a woman to surrender her favors in the course of a long conversation confined to obscure words. No woman, even a lady, can discern his intentions until the critical moment." More importantly still, the unedited manuscript, according to Epstein, conveyed "the notion that Johnson, the successor, was somehow responsible for the death of his predecessor." "This concept," Epstein wrote, "gave the original melodrama much of its thrust and such structural coherence as it had." "The shattering fact of the assassination," the Lancer version states, "is that a Texas murder has made a Texan President." In his original draft, Manchester also quoted Kenneth O'Donnell, one of the late President's closest aides, as exclaiming: "They did it. I always knew they'd do It. You couldn't expect anything else from them. They finally made it." Then Manchester is quoted as commenting: "He didn't specify who 'they' were. It was unnecessary. They were Texans, Johnsonians ..." Now it is an acknowledged and uncontested fact that Manchester, in his research for this book, drew heavily on inside information supplied to him by the inner circle of the Kennedy Clan. Jackie Kennedy, at one ten-hour sitting, poured out her heart to the "official historian" and confided to him many intimate details not available from any other source. Robert Kennedy and many former aides of the President also talked freely to the author of "Death of a Lancer. It is a certainty, therefore, that the unflattering description of Johnson, as contained in the unexpurgated version, and the dire implications of the "shattering fact ... that a Texas murder has made a Texan President," were conveyed to Manchester by the Kennedys themselves. That the family subsequently moved heaven and earth to stop publication of their own outpourings to Manchester cannot alter the fact that they did give vent, in their conversations with the "official historian," to the darkest suspicions about that "crafty schemer," Lyndon B. Johnson nor can it detract in the least from the authenticity of these disclosures. That Epstein's "Manchester Unexpurgated" is based on a genuine copy of the unedited first draft has been candidly acknowledged both by the author and his publisher. Manchester, in a published statement, called Epstein's technique "equivalent to digging in a reporter's waste-basket" and added, "If someone offers to show me Epstein's first draft of his book on the Warren Commission I would refuse, because it would be unethical and a violation of his common law copyright." Manchester's righteous indignation is misplaced in the case. Epstein may have used unethical, or even unlawful means In securing this material, but he has nevertheless rendered a great service to historical truth while Manchester himself has trampled it shamefully underfoot in his published version. Evan Thomas, editor of Harper & Row, publishers of "The Death of a President," also confirmed the accuracy of Epstein's materiel in a statement issued, on July 5, 1967. Manchester's original draft was edited almost out of recognition by several teams of censors working on behalf of the Kennedy family. The first of these teams consisted of the Robert Kennedy advisers John Siegenthaler and Edwin Guthman who spent almost four months, with editor Evan Thomas expurgating the Lancer version. Latter, after Look magazine had acquired the serial rights, one of Robert Kennedy's closest aides, Richard Goodwin, went over the galleys with a fine comb, assisted by the historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
  
• 7/2/1967 Israelis and Egyptians exhange fire across the Suez Canal.
  
• 7/4/1967 The Freedom of Information and Privacy Act (FOIA) goes into effect, one year after it was signed into law.
  
• 7/4/1967 Roger Craig is fired from the Dallas Sherriff's Department. Craig claims he saw Lee Harvey Oswald run from TSBD and get into Rambler station wagon. Some say his firing is due to his unyielding position on the assassination.
  
• 7/5/1967 In an interim decision, Lt. Col. Yerushalmi decides that as a "prima facie" fact, IDF Navy Commander Lunz (see 1100 8 June entry) may have committed an offense of negligence. The hearing was adjourned. Thereafter, as an accused, Lunz called three witnesses, made a statement under oath and produced five exhibits. [IDF Preliminary Judicial Inquiry, p. 8.]
  
• 7/6/1967 State Dept announced dispatch of three cargo planes and a small group of paratroopers to the Congo to help Mobutu quell an uprising by white mercenaries and Katangese gendarmes. Sen. Russell Long attacked the intervention three days later: "where we have no commitments and where we have no vital interests…Vietnam started out with a not much larger force than that. It can swell and it will swell if a few of our forces are killed. We should have enough sense to keep our people out of situations like this."
  
• 7/7-8/1967 In Saigon, McNamara, Katzenbach and Wheeler were given an optimistic briefing by Westmoreland and Ellsworth Bunker. Westmoreland asked McNamara for more troops.
  
• 7/7/1967 Nigerian troops invade Biafra to end attempted secession.
  
• 7/7/1967 Congressional Joint Economic committee estimates the war will cost $4-$6 billion more in '67 than the $20.3 billion requested by Johnson.
  
• 7/7/1967 Egypt's leading newspaper, Al Ahram, stated American officials had admitted that Israel got intelligence information from the Liberty. [UPI dispatch, Washington Post, July 8, 1967, p. A7.]
  
• 7/7/1967 The following article was written for The Associated Press by Micha Limor, described as an Israeli naval reservist who was serving on one of the torpedo boats that attacked the United States communications ship Liberty off the Sinai coast on June 8. Other accounts describe Limor as an Israeli journalist. Whatever Limor is, he does not appear to have been a witness to the attack as he claims. Not only does he describe things that did not happen, such as circling the ship several times before firing torpedoes, he claims to have hit the ""left"" (port) side with his torpedo. The torpedo struck the ""right"" (starboard) side of the ship, instantly killing 25 men. Limor tells us that the ship flew no flag. Not so. An oversize American flag flew throughout the attack. The torpedomen examined that flag from less than 50 feet away, then continued firing from close range on anything that moved. Limor tells us that the boatmen offered help. He does not mention that the offer came more than two hours after after the torpedo explosion. NYT: TEL AVIV, July 6--The torpedos were ready for firing when our three Israeli torpedo boats zeroed in on the gray ship moving slowly on a south-easterly course off El Arish. At that tense moment, not one of us on those torpedo boats could have suspected that this was the beginning of an incident that was to cause a long international wrangle. On June 8, the sun was already high in the sky when we received notification of an unidentified vessel some 12 miles off El Arish susoected of being an enemy craft. Within moments, the face of our torpedo boat changed. Sailors took their positions, engines were revved up, and in five minutes we were moving out in formation, torpedo boat, after torpedo boat, toward the deep sea. We spotted the objective once on the radar screen. She was moving on a steady course, southeast at about 10 knots. We sailed toward the objective at an increased speed, looking at her through binoculars in an effort to identify the vessel. Two of our planes flew over our heads a few minutes afterward. We saw them circle the ship several times, and then dive into the attack. They spat two rockets into the gray ship, and plumes of smoke rose from her. Then the two jets headed away toward the coast. About 2,000 yards from the ship, a strange spectacle met our eyes. The high masts and the many weird antenna showed that this was a warship. The side of the vessel was blotted out by smoke, and apart from three numbers along her side, which meant nothing to us, we could not discern a thing. We could see no flag on the mast, nor was anyone to be seen on the decks and bridge. We spent several minutes trying to contact the ship and demanding identification. We tried by radio and by heliograph, in accordance with internationally accepted means. But she gave no answer. It also seemed that she had managed to control the fires and continued on a stable course. It was decided to pass by her in battle formation and demand identification by firing across her bow. So we moved past at a tremendous speed, firing across the empty bridge and the bow. Suddenly, a sailor appeared in view and started firing at us with a heavy nachine gun from the bridge. We took the challenge and directed cannon fire against him. A moment later he fell together with the machine gun. Thus there was no doubt that we were faced by the enemy. The prolonged refusal to identify herself, the absence of any flag, the shooting at usm and above all, the weird contraptions on the ship left us without doubt. We wanted to make the ship surrender without sinking her. Once again we circled the vessel in battle formation, firing again and again. This had no effect. No one appeared. No one reacted. The shells caused little damage to the hull and the ship proceeded on her way. You could almost hear the men's teeth grinding aboard our boat. Nothing can annoy a torpedo boat crew more than being completely ignored, The order was given to prepare for a torpedo attack. We drew up along the left side of the ship and advanced at full battle speed. Just as in dozens of training exercises we reached the right angle and range--and let go. We thought only a miracle would save the ship. One of the torpedos hit amidships. There followed an enormous explosion and a huge water spout. And then fires broke out and the ship leaned sideways as if about to sink. We watched for survivors, as is customary, whether friend or enemy. But no one appeared on deck. Suddenly, something fell into the sea. One of our boats approached and picking it up from the waters, found it to be a rubber lifeboat with the lettering ""U.S. Navy."" That was the very first sign of identification. A moment later there arrived on the scene the helicopter that was to have picked up prisoners. He hovered over the ship and then signaled us: ""They are raising the American flag."" It was crystal clear we had hit friends. Dozens of shells, rockets and torpedoes were needed to drag a sign of identity from them, said one of my seamen who, like the rest of his mates, was bitterly upset at this turn of events. He was right. The showing of the Stars and Stripes at the first stage would have prevented all that happened subsequently. We received orders directly from the officer commanding the navy to give all necessary help. So we approached the Liberty and offered help through a loudspeaker, Then an officer appeared for the first time on the bridge and screamed, ""Go to hell!"" Learning they did not need aid, we left. And the Liberty returned to her regular operations. It seemed any other ship would have sunk. It was only later that we learned how many casualties had been caused by our torpedoes."
  
• 7/10/1967 One of the very last cases reported to Project Bluebook that was labelled as unidentified occurred in Meridian, Mississippi. Philip Lanning was driving south of town, on the evening of July 10, 1967, when his car coasted to a stop and the radio faded. Lanning got out and started to look at the car engine, when an enormous object flew over his head about 3 hundred feet in the air. The object was silent and moving to the east. Lanning thought the object was about the crash. Just before the object reached a group of nearby trees, it tilted upward, turned right and then accelerated at great speed straight up into the low-flying clouds. The object was described as being 'like a cymbal on a drum set and was a dirty metallic gray in colour on the underside'. He saw no portholes or hatches and said that it appeared to the size of house. Lanning wasn't sure who would be interested in the report, but he felt that it should be sent to someone in the US Government, so he forwarded it to a friend in Navel Intelligence. The Air Force eventually received it and began an investigation. They were impressed with Lanning as a witness as he was a former military officer who had received a great deal of training. After, extensive research and interviews the Air Force were forced to label this sighting as unidentified. This was one of the very last reports in Bluebook to receive that tag.
  
• 7/10/1967 FBI memo from DeLoach to Tolson; DeLoach reported his conversation with Marvin Watson about the administration's concern about individuals in the civil rights and anti-war movements being linked to Communists. LBJ suggested leaking derogatory information to the media and possibly holding HUAC hearings on them.
  
• 7/11/1967 US Government submits to the Israeli Government a corrected copy of its 10 June Diplomatic Note. It contains details learned as a result of the US Naval Court of Inquiry. [State Department Liberty file: Memorandum for the Secretary, July 11, 1967.]
  
• 7/12-17/1967: Newark, NJ riot: it covered 10 square miles, left 26 dead, 1,397 arrested. It began when police beat up a black man after a traffic arrest. The governor's commission would find that the police used "excessive and unjustified force" to put down the riot; cops and National Guardsmen vandalized black businesses and indiscriminately shot at blacks.
  
• 7/12/1967 LBJ complained to McNamara, "Are we going to be able to win this goddamned war?"
  
• 7/13/1967 James Earl Ray may have participated, possibly with his brothers, in the $27,000 robbery of the Bank of Alton, Illinois.
  
• 7/13/1967 FBI memo about JFK assassination researcher Harold Weisberg, who had made a FOIA request for an FBI press release. The memo called his books "vitriolic and diabolical" and recommended that "no acknowledgment should be made" to his request. (Never Again 10)
  
• 7/14/1967 Secretary of State Rusk testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Questions were not only asked by the Chairman, Senator Fulbright, regarding receiving the complete transcript of the Naval Court of Inquiry on a confidential basis but also a full report of the Liberty attack. The transcript of the Senate hearing states: "The information referred to is classified and in the committee files." [Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Ninetieth Congress, First Session on S. 1872, A Bill to Amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as Amended, and For Other Purposes. June 12, July 14 and 26, 1967. US Government Printing Office, Washington: 1967, pp. 233-234; State Department Liberty file: July 24, 1967 letter from Secretary Rusk to Secretary McNamara.]
  
• 7/15/1967 NBC-TV gave Jim Garrison a half-hour of response time; he did not respond directly to their charges but instead accused the mass media of "thought control....as long as I am alive, no one is going to stop me from seeing that you obtain the full truth, and nothing less than the full truth, and no fairy tales." Garrison stated flatly that Oswald had worked for the CIA. "The people of this country do not have to be protected from the truth. This country was not built on the idea that a handful of nobles, whether located in our federal agencies in Washington, D.C., or in news agencies in New York, should decide what was good for the people to know and what they should not know. This is a totalitarian concept which presumes that the leaders of our federal government and the men in control of the powerful press media constitute a special elite which by virtue of their nobility and their brilliance empower them to think for the people." He stated that JFK was killed by people connected with the CIA because he was trying to end the Cold War.
  
• 7/16/1967 The most widespread rail strike in US history begins as members of the AFL-CIO's International Association of Machinists go out on strike, idling 600,000 railroad employees.
  
• 7/17/1967 LBJ signs bill for injunction to end rail strike.
  
• 7/18/1967 President Johnson receives from his National Security Advisor W. W. Rostow the "so called Clifford report" from the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board Chairman Clark Clifford. Rostow's cover memo states: Herewith Clark Clifford's brief but definitive analysis of the attack on the Liberty. It is based on the study of literally thousands of pages of evidence. The bottom-line conclusion from Clifford's investigation was: a. The information thus far available does not reflect that the Israeli high command made a premeditated attack on a ship known to be American. [LBJ Library: SC No. 07445/67 ("Clifford Report"); Clifford, Counsel to the President: A Memoir, pp. 445-447.] The Clark Clifford Report to Lyndon Johnson: "On the afternoon of June 8 (2:05 p.m., Israeli time), the USS Liberty while in international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean suffered an attack by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats. When attacked the Liberty was approximately 15.5 nautical miles north of Sinai and was traveling in a westerly direction at a speed of five knots. The initial attack consisted of five or six straffing runs by jet aircraft and was followed twenty-four minutes later with an attack by three motor torpedo boats. The attack was executed with complete surprise, remarkable efficiency, devastating accuracy and deeply tragic results. Israel's explanation of the attack is summarized as follows: a. The attack was an "innocent mistake--no criminal negligence was involved." b. Israel's Navy and Air Force had received a number of reports that El Arish was being shelled from the sea. These reports were later determined to be erroneous but, at the time they were received, they were accepted at face value by Israeli Naval and Air Force headquarters. C. Israeli officers who knew the Liberty had been identified earlier the same day did not connect her with the unidentified ships said to be shelling El Arish (and apparently the fact that a U. S. flag vessel was in the area was not communicated to subordinate elements of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)). d. A second "mistaken report" -- that the Liberty was steaming at thirty knots--was received by the IDF. When the Liberty was identified on the morning of June 8, the IDF determined from Janes Fighting Ships that the Liberty's maximum speed was eighteen knots. The second "mistaken report" led to the conclusion that the earlier identification of the Liberty was erroneous and that the vessel allegedly traveling at thirty knots was an enemy ship. e. ZDF standing orders provided that any ships in the area cruising at speeds above twenty knots may be brought under attack without further identification. Thus the air attack was launched. f. A third mistake" resulted in the execution of the second (motor torpedo boat) stage of the attack. This third error of the IDF was its mistaken identification of the Liberty as the Egyptian supply ship El Quseir. g. Immediately following the air attack, serious doubts began to arise concerning the true identity of the ship, but these doubts were not communicated to the commanding officer of the motor torpedo boats before he launched the second stage of the attack. h. Prior to launching the torpedo attack one of the Israeli boats sent an "A-A" signal (meaning "what is your identity?") to the Liberty. The Liberty, instead of identifying herself, responded with an "A-A" signal. Officers on the Israeli boats interpreted the return signal as an evasion and concluded that the vessel in question was Egyptian, whereupon the torpedos were launched. i. The Liberty acted with lack of care by approaching excessively close to shore in an area which was a scene of war, without advising the Israeli authorities of its presence and without identifying itself elaborately. The Liberty tried to hide its presence and its identity both before it was discovered and after having been attacked. Our Findings of Fact: Based upon a thorough review of all information on the incident which has become available thus far, I wish to submit the following findings of fact: a. At all times prior to, during, and following the attack, the Liberty was in international waters where she had every right to be. As a noncombatant neutral vessel she maintained the impartial attitude of neutrality at all times prior to the attack. b. Prior to the attack no inquiry was made by the Israeli Government as to whether there were U.S. flag vessels in the general area of the Eastern Mediterranean adjoining Israel and the United Arab Republic. c. The weather was clear and calm in the area at the time of attack and throughout the preceding hours of June . Visibility was excellent. d. At all times prior to the attack the Liberty was flying her normal size American flag (five feet by eight feet) at the masthead. The flag was shot down during the air attack and was replaced by a second American flag (seven feet by thirteen feet) five minutes prior to the attack by motor torpedo boats. The Liberty did not endeavor to hide her identity or her presence in international waters at any time prior to or during the attack. e. The Liberty's U.S. Navy distinguishing letters and number were printed clearly on her bow. The Liberty's number was painted clearly in English on her stern. (Egyptian naval ships such as the El Quseir, with which the Liberty was allegedly confused, carry their names in Arabic script.) f. The ship's configuration and her standard markings were clearly sufficient for reconnaissance aircraft and waterborne vessels to identify her correctly as the noncombatant ship Liberty. g. At the time she was attacked, the Liberty was making only five knots. Her maximum capability is eighteen knots, a fact which had been ascertained by IDF personnel when she was identified on the morning of June 8. h. Prior to the torpedo attack the Liberty neither received nor dispatched an "A-A" signal. The Israeli claim that the Liberty transmitted an "A-A'1 signal prior to the torpedo attack is demonstrably false. The Liberty's signal light capability was totally destroyed in the air attack which occurred some twenty minutes before the torpedo boats appeared on the scene. Intermittently prior to the attack Liberty personnel observed a flashing light coming from the center boat. The first intelligible signal received by the Liberty was an offer of help following the torpedo attack. i. The Liberty was reconnoitered by aircraft of unidentified nationality on three separate occasions prior to the attack--5 hours and 13 minutes before the attack, 3 hours and 7 minutes before the attack, and 2 hours and 37 minutes before the attack. Personnel on the Liberty, who observed and in some instances photographed the reconnaissance aircraft, were unable to identify them fully. Positive evidence concerning their nationality is still lacking, however, there are several grounds for assuming they were Israeli: (1) when the aircraft orbited the Liberty on three separate occasions the Arab-Israeli war was in its fourth day, the Egyptian Air Force had been substantially destroyed, and the Israeli Air Force was in effective control of the air space in the area; (2) [ ---- excised ----] received information from a reliable and sensitive Israeli source reporting that he had listened to IDF air-to-ground transmissions on the morning of June 8 indicating Israeli aircraft sighting of a vessel flying the U.S. flag; (3) in the course of advancing its explanation for the attack, the Israeli Government acknowledged that the Liberty had been identified by IDF officers early on the morning of June 8. 3. [ --- excised --- ] shortly after the torpedo attack, the Israelis began to have doubts as to the identity of the vessel and efforts were intensified to verify its identification. Ten minutes after the torpedo attack an Israeli ground controller still believed it to be Egyptian. Identification attempts continued, and forty-five minutes after the torpedo attack, helicopters were checking the masts, flag and bow number of the Liberty. By this time, there appears to have been no question in Israeli minds as to what had happened. The weight of the evidence is that the Israeli attacking force originally believed their target was Egyptian. Conclusions: Based upon a thorough review of all information on the incident which has become available thus far, I wish to submit the following conclusions: a. The information thus far available does not reflect that the Israeli high command made a premeditated attack on a ship known to be American. b. The evidence at hand does not support the theory that the highest echelons of the Israeli Government were aware of the Liberty's true identity or of the fact that an attack on her was taking place. To disprove such a theory would necessitate a degree of access to Israeli personnel and information which in all likelihood can never be achieved. c. That the Liberty could have been mistaken for the Egyptian supply ship El Quseir is unbelievable. El Quseir has one-fourth the displacement of the Liberty, roughly half the beam, is 180 feet shorter, and is very differently configured. The Liberty's unusual antenna array and hull markings should have been visible to low-flying aircraft and torpedo boats. In the heat of battle the Liberty was able to identify one of the attacking torpedo boats as Israeli and to ascertain its hull number. In the same circumstances, trained Israeli naval personnel should have been able easily to see and identify the larger hull markings on the Liberty. d. The best interpretation from available facts is that there were gross and inexcusable failures in the command and control of subordinate Israeli naval and air elements. One element of the Israeli air force knew the location and identification of the Liberty around 9:00 a.m. and did not launch an attack. Yet, hours later, apparently a different IDF element made the decision to attack the same vessel that earlier flights had identified and refrained from attacking. e. There is no justification for the failure of the IDF-With the otherwise outstanding efficiency which it demonstrated in the course of the war--to ensure prompt alerting of all appropriate elements of the IDF of the fact that a U.S. ship was in the area. There was ample time to accomplish such alerting because the Liberty had been identified as a U.S. flag vessel five hours before the attack took place. f. The unprovoked attack on the Liberty constitutes a flagrant act of gross negligence for which the Israeli Government should be held completely responsible, and the Israeli military personnel involved should be punished.
  
• 7/21/1967 IDF Preliminary Judicial Inquiry completed by Lt. Col. Yerushalmi. To the seven counts brought by the Chief Military Prosecutor, Yerushalmi declared (in closing): "... whoever peruses the ample evidence presented to me, may conceivably draw some lesson regarding the relations between the two arms of the Israel Defence Forces, which were involved in the incident, and the operational procedures in times of war, particularly between the different branches of the Navy but all this is certainly not within the scope of my inquiry. Yet I have not discovered any deviation from the standard of reasonable conduct which would justify the committal of anyone for trial. In view of what has been said above, I hold, that there is no sufficient amount of prima facie evidence, justifying committing anyone for trial. [IDF Preliminary Judicial Inquiry, 21 July 1967, pp. 18-19.]
  
• 7/23/1967 Westmoreland stated in Saigon, "We have made steady progress for the last two years, and especially in the last six months." (The Experts Speak)
  
• 7/23/1967 CIA's Desmond FitzGerald, David Atlee Phillips's former Agency boss, chief of the Cuban task force who personally organized at least three attempts to assassinate Castro, collapses on tennis court and dies.
  
• 7/23-30/1967 Detroit race riots, mostly by black militants, doing great damage; all month there had been race riots in major cities. In Detroit, 41 or 43 were left dead, over 2000 injured, 5000 arrested, 1,700 stores looted by blacks and whites, and 5000 homeless from 1,442 fires. It began when police arrested 73 blacks in a raid on an after-hours club. 7/24 LBJ called in federal troops.
  
• 7/24/1967 Colonel Shamgar, IDF Military Advocate General, endorses the Preliminary Judicial Inquiry findings. [IDF MAG Report, 24 July 1967.]
  
• 7/26/1967 Defense Secretary McNamara testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. In a wide-ranging exchange between a number of senators and McNamara, he states: "In the case of the attack on the Liberty, it was the conclusion of the investigatory body headed by an admiral of the Navy in whom we have great confidence that the attack was not intentional." As well as: "The attackers, so far as we could tell, had not recognized the ship and in any event, had not recognized it as a U.S. ship. "Beyond that, as best we can tell, there were inadequate communications between the aircraft and/or ships reconnoitering and the attacking vessels. I think it is an inexcusable weak military performance." [see 14 July for source; pp.266-270.]
  
• 7/26/1967 H. Rap Brown, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, is arrested on charges on inciting a riot in Cambridge, Maryland. Brown had told an audience to "burn this city down."
  
• 7/28/1967 The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission after its chair, Governor Otto Kerner, Jr. of Illinois, was an 11-member commission established by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the causes of the 1967 race riots in the United States and to provide recommendations for the future. Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the commission on July 28, 1967, while rioting was still underway in Detroit, Michigan. Mounting civil unrest since 1965 had stemmed riots in the black neighborhoods of major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles (Watts Riot of 1965), Chicago (Division Street Riots of 1966), and Newark (1967 Newark riots).[1] In his remarks upon signing the order establishing the Commission, Johnson asked for answers to three basic questions about the riots: "What happened? Why did it happen? What can be done to prevent it from happening again and again?"
  
• 7/29/1967 Liberty, temporarily repaired, returns to the US, docking at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base near Norfolk, VA. Her Captain, Commander McGonagle, partakes in a press conference aboard ship. [Virginian-Pilot, July 30, 1967.]
  
• 7/29/1967 Fire broke out on the flight deck of the carrier Forrestal as aircraft were being readied for launch over Vietnam. Flames engulfed the fantail and spread below decks touching off bombs and ammunition. The fires burned for eight hours until heroic efforts of crew members brought them under control. Damage to aircraft and the ship was severe. The final casualty count was 132 dead, two missing and presumed dead, and 62 injured. 29 planes were wrecked.
  
• 7/30/1967 Polls showed a large drop in public approval for LBJ's handling of the war. Lady Bird: "Our own decision, our hope, our determination, is to leave when this term ends. But how to tell it to the world and when - in the fall, as John Connally suggested?" (White House Diary)
  
• 8/1967 Averell Harriman and McNamara agreed that only a coalition government in Vietnam would end the war. (In Retrospect 300)
  
• 8/1967 Chairman Fulbright introduced his Foreign Relations Committee's "national commitments resolution": "it is the sense of the Senate that a national commitment of the United States to a foreign power necessarily and exclusively results from affirmative action taken by the Executive and Legislative branches of the United States government through means of a treaty, convention, or other legislative instrumentality specifically intended to give effect to such a commitment." Hawkish Sen. Richard Russell was the first to speak for it on the floor.
  
• 8/1967 Jim Garrison met with Richard Billings to discuss the mob rumors; Garrison claims that Billings asked him about some obscure Louisiana racketeer that the D.A. had never heard of, though Billings says that the man he asked Garrison about was Carlos Marcello, "and Garrison replied he had never met the man." Blakey and Billings charge that while Garrison cracked down on minor racketeers, he avoided Marcello's operations.
  
• 8/1967 LBJ told reporters: "On instructions of ours we assassinated Diem and then, by God, I walked into it. It was too late and we went through one government after another." (Washington Post 6/23/1974)
  
• 8/3/1967 Administration announces it is sending 45,000-50,000 more troops to Vietnam, bringing the total to 525,000 by mid-1968.
  
• 8/3/1967 CIA Director Richard Helms establishes a new Special Operations Group hidden within the Plans Department's counterintelligence division to monitor the peace movement within the United States.
  
• 8/9-25 or 29/1967 closed hearings held by Senate Preparedness Subcommittee on the conduct of the war; chaired by John Stennis, it also included Stuart Symington, Henry Jackson, Howard Cannon, Robert Byrd, Margaret Chase Smith, Strom Thurmond and Jack Miller (R-Iowa), who took a hard-line on air power. They were furious when the JCS told them that McNamara had recommended to LBJ not to increase the bombing. A parade of military brass testified, each advocating greatly expanded bombing, and assured the committee that the air war was effective. They complained of meddling by civilians in Washington in their prosecution of the war. 8/25 McNamara testified and explained how ineffective the bombing was at stopping infiltration or slowing the North's war effort. Sen. Cannon blasted him for not giving the JCS everything they had asked for. McNamara replied, "the Constitution gives the responsibility of Commander-in-Chief to a civilian, the President, and I am sure it didn't intend that he would exercise that by following blindly the recommendations of his military advisers." Thurmond accused him of "placating the Communists...appeasing the Communists." The subcommittee's unanimous report strongly criticized McNamara's handling of the war.
  
• 8/13/1967 The Daughters of the American Revolution refuse to allow Joan Baez to perform at Constitution Hall, Washington because of her anti-war views.
  
• 8/13/1967 Lady Bird: "I think the most frustrated I've been lately is reading a speech that Senator Fulbright made in which he indicated that the country is damned because we are spending so much in Vietnam instead of spending it here to take care of the poor and underprivileged - this from a man who has never voted for any Civil Rights measure and who even voted against Medicare..." (White House Diary)
  
• 8/13/1967 Arthur Penn's film Bonnie and Clyde was released. It was immediately panned by American film critics; only a rookie reviewer, Roger Ebert, praised it, calling it "a milestone in the history of American movies, a work of truth and brilliance" and predicting "years from now it is quite possible that `Bonnie and Clyde' will be seen as the definitive film of the 1960s."
  
• 8/14/1967 When Dean Andrews repeated his statement that he didn't know Shaw to a New Orleans grand jury, he was convicted of three counts of perjury on this date. The evening of the conviction, Andrews' lawyer spoke with an ABC-TV reporter; the reporter asked him "How come Dean had to go to jail like a criminal?" He later commented that Andrews (who had just been convicted) had "allegedly" lied to a grand jury. (Citizen's Dissent 143) CBS didn't even report the conviction that night, though Walter Cronkite had expressed skepticism about Garrison's actions.
  
• 8/16/1967 On the Today show, Sen. John Tower (R-Texas) defended the Vietnam war while Democratic Sen. Joe Clark attacked it.
  
• 8/17/1967 Katzenbach testified before Fulbright's committee.
  
• 8/18/1967 LBJ held a televised press conference. "We stated then, and we repeat now, we did not think the [Tonkin] resolution was necessary to do what we did and what we are doing. Be we thought it was desirable." Johnson stated that the Senate could repeal the resolution if they no longer agreed with the conduct of the war.
  
• 8/21/1967 Katzenbach testified again before Fulbright's committee. He gave fuzzy, ambiguous responses to questions about whether the Tonkin resolution gave LBJ the authority to wage war. He began to argue about the definition of war. Sen. Hickenlooper: Do you consider we are at war today in Vietnam? Katzenbach: Will you tell me in what sense you mean the word Sen. Hickenlooper: I am not defining a sense. Finally, he admitted that he felt Johnson could have done what he did in Vietnam without the Tonkin resolution.
  
• 8/21/1967 Earl Warren privately told Drew Pearson that Gerald Ford hadn't wanted to agree with the Warren Report's conclusions: "Ford wanted to go off on a tangent following a communist plot" with Castro being the responsible party. Ford also didn't like the report's criticism of the FBI for failing to warn the SS about Oswald. The language in the Report saying that no evidence of a conspiracy had been found was intended as a compromise. (Chief Justice p427)
  
• 8/21/1967 Returning to the US from Montreal, James Earl Ray met with his brother Jerry in Chicago en route to Birmingham. Ray's story told to William Pepper: "One of these waterside taverns was the Neptune Bar at 121 West Commissioner's Street. Here in August 1967 he met the shadowy character Raul, who Ray insists was to coordinate and direct his activity from that day through April 4, 1968. The meeting at the Neptune was the first of eight or ten. Eventually, Ray told Raul that he needed identification and passage out of the country. Raul replied that he might be able to help if Ray would help with some smuggling schemes at the U.S. border. Ray had no way of contacting Raul at this time. They simply made arrangements to get together, usually at the Neptune. (Over the years, Ray's description of Raul has varied slightly, but he has basically described him as being of Latin extraction, weighing between 145 and 150 pounds, about 5'9" tall, and having dark hair with a reddish tint.) Eventually discarding the idea of finding a guarantor, Ray resumed meeting with Raul and tentatively agreed to help smuggle some unspecified contraband across the border from Windsor to Detroit. Raul promised him travel papers and money for this service. Ray said he expected to receive only a small payment for the operation, but he never negotiated or even asked about his fee. This was typical of Ray's behavior throughout. He didn't believe he was in a position to ask questions -- he was being paid to follow instructions. Ray was told by Raul that if he decided to become further involved he would have to move to Alabama, where Raul would buy him a car, pay his living expenses, and give him a fee. In return, Ray would be expected to help Raul in another smuggling operation, this time across the Mexican border. Shortly afterward he met Raul at Windsor, and in two separate trips smuggled two sets of packages across the border to Detroit. He thought the first trip was a dry run to test him. On the second trip he was stopped at customs, but the inspector was interrupted by his superior and sent elsewhere. The second official discontinued the search and simply had him pay the $4.50 duty for a television set he had declared. When he got to Detroit, Raul nervously asked why he had been delayed. Ray showed him the receipt from the customs officer. Raul gave him about $1,500 and a New Orleans telephone number where a message could be left. He told Ray that if he would continue to cooperate, he would eventually obtain not only travel documents but more money as well. Raul told Ray to get rid of his old car and go to Mobile, Alabama, where they would meet at a place to be decided. Ray said that he convinced Raul to go to Birmingham instead because it was a larger city and Ray thought he'd be more anonymous there. Raul. said that he would send a general delivery letter to Birmingham with instructions on where and when to meet. Some time after his arrival in Birmingham, Ray picked up a general delivery letter from Raul that instructed him to go to the Starlight Lounge the same evening. There Raul reminded Ray that he was going to need a reliable car. Ray saw an advertisement in the paper for a used Mustang, and Raul gave him $2,000 in cash to buy it. After this, Raul asked him to buy some photography equipment. He also gave Ray a new number in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which he could call for instructions as a backup to the New Orleans number. Raul gave him $1,000 for the photography equipment and his living expenses, and at Raul's request Ray gave him a set of keys to the Mustang. He ordered the photography equipment by mail from a Chicago firm but didn't understand why Raul wanted it. Ray had previously received his driver's license and a set of Alabama tags under the name of Eric S. Galt. He kept the old Rayns license in a rented safe deposit box at a local bank, along with some of the cash Raul had given him and a pistol he had bought through a classified ad two or three weeks after he arrived in Birmingham.
  
• 8/22/1967 LBJ meets with the Shah of Iran in Washington. LBJ praised him for his measures against illiteracy and a booming economy, "progress without violence and without any bloodshed..."
  
• 8/23/1967 Rothermel memo to H.L. Hunt; he reported that Life magazine would soon publish an article attacking Garrison and trying to link him to Carlos Marcello. "In addition, Life will try to show that Bobby Kennedy and the Kennedy family are opposed to Garrison's probe." (Texas Rich 241)
  
• 8/25/1967 George Lincoln Rockwell, head of the American Nazi Party, was assassinated in Virginia by one of his own followers. Near his Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, he was shot and killed in ambush by a sniper. On June 28, 1967, the first attempt was made on Rockwell's life. Returning from shopping, he drove into the party barracks' driveway on Wilson Boulevard and found it blocked by a felled tree and brush. Rockwell assumed that it was another prank by local teens. As a young boy cleared the obstruction, two shots were fired at Rockwell from behind one of the swastika-embossed brick driveway pillars. One of the shots ricocheted off the car, right next to his head. Leaping from the car, Rockwell pursued the would-be assassin. On June 30, Rockwell petitioned the Arlington County Circuit Court for a gun permit. No action was ever taken on his request. On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was killed by gunshots while leaving the Econowash laundromat at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center in the 6000 block of Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Virginia.[19] Two bullets crashed through his 1958 Chevrolet's windshield, and it slowly rolled backwards to a stop. Rockwell staggered out of the front passenger side door of the car, pointed towards the shopping center roof, and then collapsed face up on the pavement. The gunman ran along the shopping center roof and jumped to the ground in the rear. A shop owner and a customer briefly gave chase, but were unable to get a clear look at the fleeing figure. Other customers called the Arlington County police and checked Rockwell for a pulse. He had none; the one bullet that struck him had ripped through several major arteries just above his heart. The internal bleeding was so heavy that Rockwell died in two minutes. A half hour later, at a bus stop about a half-mile away,[21] John Patler, a former member of Rockwell's group, was arrested as the suspected murderer by a passing patrolman familiar with the Arlington Nazis.[20] Later that day, after hearing of his son's death, Rockwell's 78-year-old father commented laconically, "I am not surprised at all. I've expected it for quite some time." Matt Koehl, the number two man in the NSWPP, moved to establish legal control over Rockwell's body and all NSWPP assets. At the time of his death, the NSWPP had approximately 300 active members nationwide, and perhaps 3,000 financial supporters. Although Rockwell's parents wanted a private burial in Maine, they did not feel up to a public fight with the Nazis for his body. On August 27, an NSWPP spokesman reported that Federal officials had given verbal approval to a planned military burial of Rockwell at Culpeper National Cemetery, as an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces. On August 29, several dozen NSWPP troopers and about 100 party supporters formed a procession and drove the 65 miles from Arlington to Culpeper. At the cemetery gates they were met by General Carl C. Turner and 60 MPs who had been rushed in from Vint Hill to enforce the U.S. Army's burial protocol. They were backed by dozens of police from various jurisdictions. No mourners bearing Nazi insignia would be allowed into the cemetery. The NSWPP troopers refused to remove their uniforms, which led to a day-long standoff. They unsuccessfully tried to force their way into the cemetery three separate times. Several arrests resulted. With daylight fading, General Turner declared that Rockwell could not be buried until the NSWPP made a new request to the Pentagon and agreed to follow protocol. The Nazis returned to Arlington with Rockwell's body. Plans were made to bury Rockwell in Spotsylvania County, but they fell apart when local Jewish organizations protested. Fearing that Arlington County officials might seize the body, the ANP had Rockwell cremated the next morning, and a memorial service was held that afternoon at party headquarters. On February 8, 1968, the NSWPP filed suit to obtain a Nazi burial for Rockwell's remains at any National Cemetery. On March 15, 1969, a Federal district judge upheld the Army Secretary's ruling that Rockwell was ineligible for a burial with full military honors in a national cemetery. Today Rockwell's ashes reside next to those of Savitri Devi in the memorial room of New Order headquarters in New Berlin, Wisconsin. Following psychiatric evaluation, John Patler was judged competent to stand trial. He pleaded not guilty at his preliminary hearing to the charge of first degree homicide. His trial began on November 27 amid tight security at the Arlington County Courthouse. On December 15, Patler was found guilty and released on bond to await sentencing. On February 23, 1968, Patler was sentenced to 20 years in prison, at that time the least amount possible for a first degree murder conviction. The Virginia Circuit Court postponed imprisonment[citation needed] pending his appeal. On November 30, 1970, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld Patler's conviction and 20-year sentence for slaying Rockwell, and ordered him to begin serving his sentence. On May 16, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected Patler's appeal based on claims of witness contamination. In August 1975, Patler was paroled from the Pulaski correctional unit after serving less than four years of his sentence. Judge Charles S. Russell, who had presided over Patler's murder trial, wrote a lengthy letter to the parole board supporting Patler's release, the only time he did so in his career. The following year Patler violated the terms of his parole and was returned to prison for an additional six years. On December 30, 1977 Patler petitioned the Henry County Circuit Court to change his surname back to its original form, Patsalos. After serving out the remainder of his sentence, John Patsalos returned to the New York City area. The exact reason for Rockwell's murder is still a matter of debate. Patler's nasty feud with Rockwell and a family history of violence weighed against him at the trial. Despite being convicted of the crime, Patler has always maintained his innocence. The case against him was largely circumstantial and key evidence against him (e.g., whether he possessed the murder weapon at the time of the killing) was disputed by defense witnesses. The small strip mall where Rockwell was killed is still called the Dominion Hills Shopping Center, although it has since been refurbished and the laundromat replaced by a dry cleaners. After his death, admirers of Rockwell painted a white swastika on the blacktop surface of the parking lot, marking the exact spot where he died. Several attempts by the property owners were made to obliterate the emblem with a square patch of black paint, but the white swastika would always surreptitiously reappear, usually on or near the anniversary of Rockwell's death. It remained visible, off and on, well into the 1980s, until the NSWPP renamed itself New Order and moved their headquarters to Wisconsin. Since then the parking lot has been resurfaced and the swastika never replaced, however the spot where his body lay can be approximated today by using a crime scene photograph that appears on page 323 of William H. Schmaltz's biography of Rockwell. On August 27, 2007, the 40th anniversary of the assassination, a group of unidentified, non-uniformed Rockwell admirers appeared at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center to conduct a brief ceremony and lay a wreath. They carried a plain white banner with black and red lettering that bore the symbolic slogan "Lincoln Rockwell Lives!".
  
• 8/25/1967 Memo from J. Edgar Hoover to all offices: "COUNTERINTELLIGENCE PROGRAM BLACK NATIONALIST - HATE GROUPS INTERNAL SECURITY" - [...] The purpose of this new counterintelligence endeavor is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or OTHERWISE NEUTRALIZE [emphasis added] the activities of black nationalist hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership, and supporters, and to counter their propensity for violence and civil disorder. The activities of all such groups of intelligence interest to the Bureau must be followed on a continuous basis so we will be in a position to promptly take advantage of all opportunities for counterintelligence and inspire action in instances where circumstances warrant. The pernicious background of such groups, their duplicity, and devious maneuvers must be exposed to public scrutiny where such publicity will have a neutralizing effect. Efforts of the various groups to consolidate their forces or to recruit new or youthful adherents must be frustrated. NO OPPORTUNITY SHOULD BE MISSED TO EXPLOIT THROUGH COUNTERINTELLIGENCE TECHNIQUES THE ORGANIZATIONAL AND PERSONAL CONFLICTS OF THE LEADERSHIPS OF THE GROUPS AND WHERE POSSIBLE AN EFFORT SHOULD BE MADE TO CAPITALIZE UPON EXISTING CONFLICTS BETWEEN COMPETING BLACK NATIONALIST ORGANIZATIONS. [emphasis added] When an opportunity is apparent to disrupt or NEUTRALIZE [emphasis added] black nationalist, hate-type organizations through the cooperation of established local news media contacts or through such contact with sources available to the Seat of Government [Hoover's office]*, in every instance careful attention must be given to the proposal to insure the targetted group is disrupted, ridiculed, or discredited through the publicity and not merely publicized... You are also cautioned that the nature of this new endeavor is such that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THE EXISTENCE OF THE PROGRAM BE MADE KNOWN OUTSIDE THE BUREAU [emphasis added] and appropriate within office security should be afforded to sensitive operations and techniques considered under the program. No counterintelligence action under this program may be initiated by the field without specific prior Bureau authorization. [Emphasis in orig.]
  
• 8/26/1967 The following is from a typewritten document in the Assassination Archives and Research Center in Washington, DC. It is dated August 26, 1967, and has the handwritten notation (presumably by AARC personnel) "Bud Finsterwald's notes." Notes on interview with Jim Garrison, District Attorney, New Orleans 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. at Criminal Courts Building, New Orleans. Also present part time: Louis IVON, Garrison's Chief Investigator. Garrison was extremely interested in our wiretap investigation. Feels strict legislation is very necessary. Says he only uses it against "guys like Sheridan." Feels his office and home phones are tapped by the Bureau but doesn't care.
  
• 8/28/1967 U.S. News & World Report: New Negro Threat August 28, 1967 U.S. News & World Report reports that Dr. King plans on using "civil disobedience on a massive scale," including marches, sit-ins and boycotts in "riot-torn" Northern cities.
  
• 8/28/1967 James Earl Ray buys a white Mustang in Birmingham, Alabama using the name Eric S. Galt.
  
• 8/30/1967 Senate approves Thurgood Marshall's appointment to Supreme Court; he is the first black justice.