13-06-2014, 03:12 AM
Over at EF, Pat Speer just posted some segments from Howard Willens' diary of his service on the WC. These deal with the Secret Service and are interesting on their own. AMong other things, the WC worked at covering up all the important info about their horrific failure.
I just talked about Willens on Len's show tonight. Just how bad he was and how he was essentially a bag man for Katzenbach and made sure that the Commission was made up mostly of business lawyers not criminal lawyers, and also once the Senior Counsel started leaving, he brought in freshly minted law school graduates to finish the biographies of RUby and Oswald.
But in this diary entry, Willens slips up and reveal something I have always believed, but which he now certifies as a guy on the administrative stuff with a close up view of the workings of the WC.
Late in the day I reviewed with Mr. Rankin the current
status of the work of the Commission and he reported to me the result
of the Commission meeting that day. He said that there was a split on the
Commission as to the question of giving to the FBI the responsibility
for the protection of the President. Apparently at least Congressman
Ford and Mr. Dulles felt that PRS is not adequate to do the job. The
two remaining members of the Commission, The Chief Justice and
Mr. McCloy disagreed on this issue. According to Mr. Rankin,
Mr. McCloy was drafting some language which he hoped would
bridge the gap and which he would bring to the next Commission
meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, the 26th.
That bolded part is devastating. Note, after naming Ford and Dulles, he says "The two remaining members of the Commission, the Chief Justice and Mr. McCloy..."
In other words, as far as he was concerned, Russell, Boggs and Cooper weren't really on the Commission.
Except that they were. But to Willens ,who was an administrator, and Katzenbach's appendage, they really did not exist.
This is what I have always thought to be the case: the Wall Street/Washington group, I call it the Troika--Dulles, Ford, and McCloy-- essentially ran things. Warren was neutered early on by the combination of LBJ intimidating him, and the Troika vetoing his first choice for Chief Counsel,Olney. But the Troika needed to run things by the figurehead Warren, before doing what they wished.
Hard to believe Willens does not know the significance of this. But thanks Howard for letting the cat out of the bag. See, this is why those three kept on defending the WR until they died. While first Russell, in 1968, and then Cooper and Boggs a bit later, denounced it. If you recall, Boggs was really vituperative and said Hoover lied his eyes out to the Commission about everything. Which, of course, he did.
Well, we now, 50 years later, have certification from the horse's mouth about the WC being a mirage of seven men. It was really three, and they were three of the worst characters in American history at that time. And they proved it further by what they did here.
I just talked about Willens on Len's show tonight. Just how bad he was and how he was essentially a bag man for Katzenbach and made sure that the Commission was made up mostly of business lawyers not criminal lawyers, and also once the Senior Counsel started leaving, he brought in freshly minted law school graduates to finish the biographies of RUby and Oswald.
But in this diary entry, Willens slips up and reveal something I have always believed, but which he now certifies as a guy on the administrative stuff with a close up view of the workings of the WC.
Late in the day I reviewed with Mr. Rankin the current
status of the work of the Commission and he reported to me the result
of the Commission meeting that day. He said that there was a split on the
Commission as to the question of giving to the FBI the responsibility
for the protection of the President. Apparently at least Congressman
Ford and Mr. Dulles felt that PRS is not adequate to do the job. The
two remaining members of the Commission, The Chief Justice and
Mr. McCloy disagreed on this issue. According to Mr. Rankin,
Mr. McCloy was drafting some language which he hoped would
bridge the gap and which he would bring to the next Commission
meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, the 26th.
That bolded part is devastating. Note, after naming Ford and Dulles, he says "The two remaining members of the Commission, the Chief Justice and Mr. McCloy..."
In other words, as far as he was concerned, Russell, Boggs and Cooper weren't really on the Commission.
Except that they were. But to Willens ,who was an administrator, and Katzenbach's appendage, they really did not exist.
This is what I have always thought to be the case: the Wall Street/Washington group, I call it the Troika--Dulles, Ford, and McCloy-- essentially ran things. Warren was neutered early on by the combination of LBJ intimidating him, and the Troika vetoing his first choice for Chief Counsel,Olney. But the Troika needed to run things by the figurehead Warren, before doing what they wished.
Hard to believe Willens does not know the significance of this. But thanks Howard for letting the cat out of the bag. See, this is why those three kept on defending the WR until they died. While first Russell, in 1968, and then Cooper and Boggs a bit later, denounced it. If you recall, Boggs was really vituperative and said Hoover lied his eyes out to the Commission about everything. Which, of course, he did.
Well, we now, 50 years later, have certification from the horse's mouth about the WC being a mirage of seven men. It was really three, and they were three of the worst characters in American history at that time. And they proved it further by what they did here.