Deep Politics Timeline

[Tracy Riddle]

• 3/1965 Analysis by former FBI agent. "When the FBI blunders it just makes another movie." Ramparts, After J. Edgar, Who?, William Turner, p. 66
  
• 3/1965 DEATH of a PRESIDENT: The ESTABLISHED FACTS by LORD DEVLIN Atlantic Monthly, March 1965, pages 112118
  
• 3/1 and 15/1965 Supreme Court rulings strike down the film-censorship laws in Maryland and New York; this causes an increase in demands for a movie ratings system.
  
• 3/1/1965 NY Times reported, "American commanders in Saigon were instructed to prepare for a continuing aerial offensive, but publicly and with announcements. Ambassador Maxwell D. Taylor argued for silence, but was overruled by the argument that clandestine raids would be politically unpopular in the United States."
  
• 3/2/1965 Operation Rolling Thunder, sustained bombing of the North, begins. 160 US aircraft launched from carriers in the South China Sea and air bases in South Vietnam hit an ammo depot at Xombang and a naval base at Quangkhe, both in the North. LBJ sent Army Chief of Staff Harold Johnson to Saigon to appraise the situation.
  
• 3/3/1965 RFK argued with Bernard Fensterwald, counsel for the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure, about informants. RFK defended their value in exposing criminal activity.
  
• 3/3/1965 More than 30 US planes from Danang bomb unspecified targest in Eastern Laos. (JFK & LBJ 265)
  
• 3/3/1965 NY Times: "The Administration described today's air strikes against North Vietnam as part of a continuing' effort to resist aggression and made no attempt, as in the past, to relate them to particular provocations."
  
• 3/4/1965 Hoover told the House Subcommittee on Appropriations that the FBI was now keeping tabs on 14 KKK-type groups. "During the past year there has been a marked increase in Klan membership." He named Robert Shelton's United Klans as the largest group, followed by Sam Bowers' White Knights in Mississippi.
  
• 3/5/1965 A Freedom School and library were burned to the ground by the KKK in Indianola, Mississippi.
  
• 3/6/1965 Bundy told LBJ that McNamara felt that the possibility of a negotiated settlement must always be kept in mind.
  
• 3/7/1965 525 marchers protesting lack of voting rights in Selma, Alabama, are attacked by 200 state troopers using nightsticks, tear gas and whips. The march from Selma to Montgomery begins as planned. The day will later be known as "Bloody Sunday." One of the marchers wounded is SNCC chairman John Lewis, who is hospitalized with a fractured skull.
  
• 3/7/1965 Lady Bird wrote, "I am counting the months until March 1968, when, like Truman, it will be possible to say, I don't want this office, this responsibility, any longer, even if you want me.'...In talking about the Vietnam situation, Lyndon summed it up quite simply, I can't get out. I can't finish it with what I have got. So what the hell can I do?'" (White House Diary 248)
  
• 3/8/1965 The first American uniformed combat units (3,500 from the Third Marine regiment) came ashore in Vietnam to defend Da Nang air base. Vietnamese girls were there to garland the Marines with leis. Westmoreland had requested them, though Max Taylor was opposed to it. By April 1965, fully 25,000 uniformed American kids, most still teenagers barely out of high school, will be slogging through the rice paddies of Vietnam. By the end of the year, U.S. troop strength will have surged to 200,000.
  
• 3/8/1965 THE STATE OF TEXAS vs. JACK RUBENSTEIN -- Hearing before Judge Brown on defense motion for sanity hearing. Defense counsel files motions to disqualify Judge Brown, for change of venue, for Ruby's right to choose his own attorneys, and for an extension to prepare for a pretrial conference and sanity hearing. Judge Brown overrules each motion. Jack Ruby's lawyers file motions to disqualify Judge Brown and for a change of venue.
  
• 3/1965 In March 1965 (some sources say September), Ruby conducted a brief televised news conference in which he stated: "Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts of what occurred, my motives. The people who had so much to gain, and had such an ulterior motive for putting me in the position I'm in, will never let the true facts come above board to the world." When asked by a reporter, "Are these people in very high positions Jack?", he responded "Yes."
  
• 3/8/1965 Supreme Court ruled unanimously in the Seeger case to give a broad interpretation to conscientious objector status.
  
• 3/8/1965 US air attack on North Vietnamese border village of Cobai.
  
• 3/8/1965 In March 1965, several men and women in Alabama tested President Lyndon Johnson's legendary political skills. Martin Luther King, Hosea Williams, Amelia Boynton, John Lewis, and hundreds of other activists exposed the brutality of white supremacy in Selma, while Governor George Wallace was orchestrating his own responses in Montgomery. As the president struggled to satisfy the demonstrators' demands for voting rights, the notoriously brutal Al Lingo of the state police and Sheriff Jim Clark of Dallas County (where Selma was the county seat) and the arch-segregationist Governor Wallace made the balancing act even more difficult. In particular, over a two week period, Wallace retreated on his word, made inflammatory statements, and blamed the President for problems. For Johnson, the struggle began in earnest on March 8one day after the infamous "Bloody Sunday" march where Alabama law enforcement officials brutally attacked non-violent civil rights marchers on Selma's Edmund Pettis Bridge. President Johnson recognized the need to contact Wallace to resolve whether another march to Montgomery could actually take place. Nicholas Katzenbach, his attorney general, admitted the problem of getting through to Wallace. Wallace's "till the bitter end" philosophy would soon come into play in Selma. Knowing what they were up against, the President, Katzenbach, and Ellington took precautions to record their conversations with Wallace.
  
• 3/9/1965 Rev. James Reeb, a Unitarian minister from Boston, was staying in Selma. This evening, he and a friend were accosted by four white men who beat them with clubs and lead pipes. Reeb fell into a coma.
  
• 3/10/1965 With Ellington's promise to help reach Wallace, President Johnson and Katzenbach quickly sought a policy to let the marchers continue to Montgomery safely. One complicating factor occurred on March 9, referred to by some as "turnaround Tuesday," as the Rev. Dr. King ended a follow-up demonstration by turning around at the Pettus bridge to avoid marching without federal judicial approval. That evening, a white Unitarian Minister from Boston was attacked by white thugs, dying a day later. The Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that the march could carry on the set route, and Buford Ellington transmitted the message to Wallace. President Johnson, believing that the limited conditions of the march combined with the cajoling by Ellington would satisfy Wallace, congratulated Katzenbach on their successful policy.
  
• 3/11/1965 Rev. James J. Reeb of Boston died in Selma, Alabama after being beaten 3/9 by four white segregationists. 4/13 three men would be indicted for killing him.
  
• 3/11/1965 Civil rights marchers, posing as tourists, walked into the White House and staged a sit-in on the ground floor.
  
• 3/12/1965 The judge in Jack Ruby's case, Joe Brown, wrote a letter to the managing editor of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, stating that he had about 190 pages of his book, Dallas, Ruby and the Law, completed. When this information was made public, Brown removed himself from the case. (Ruby-Oswald Affair 87)
  
• 3/14/1965 LBJ, speaking off the cuff to a group of southern officials in Nashville, said that satellite reconnaissance alone produced enough hard intelligence to justify spending ten times the $35 billion the US already invested in space programs.
  
• 3/14 and 3/15/1965 Tiger Island naval base and ammo dump at Phuqui were bombed by the US; US air attack on Phuqui, 100 miles south of Hanoi.
  
• 3/14/1965 NY Times: "The President acknowledged that in the last five weeks there had been a change in American tactics and in some instances in strategy. He was referring to strikes by American planes against Communist targets in North and South Vietnam..."
  
• 3/15/1965 LBJ, in an inspiring speech, asked Congress for a bill to guarantee blacks the right to vote. President Johnson addressed Congress, calling for passage of the voting rights act. The speech cam one week after a gathering in Selma, AL led to deadly violence when African-Americans preparing to march to Montgomery were attacked by police. A white Unitarian Minister from Boston, James J. Reeb, was killed.
  
• 3/15/1965 Harold Johnson told LBJ that more ground troops for security in the South, and an expanded air campaign were needed. He estimated that it could take half a million US soldiers five years to win the war. This estimate shocked LBJ and McNamara. (In Retrospect 177)
  
• 3/15/1965 Journalist Ted Szulc later writes that today "In Havana the thread between Fidel Castro and Che [Guevara] is broken forever, and Che is never seen [in public] again -- except two and a half years from now in Bolivia, South America. What occurs today continues to be a mystery."
  
• 3/16/1965 Black and white demonstrators are beaten by sheriff's deputies and police on horseback in Montgomery.
  
• 3/17/1965 Westmoreland asked for another marine battalion to defend Da Nang.
  
• 3/17/1965 MLK and his followers won a federal court order from Judge Franke Johnson allowing them to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Robert McNamara urged LBJ to federalize the state national guard to protect the marchers, because George Wallace wasn't going to do anything about preventing violence. LBJ initially refused, saying he would like to see Wallace hurt politically if there was any violence, but McNamara finally convinced him. (In Retrospect 177-8)
  
• 3/18/1965 Unfortunately, George Wallace's tendency to go back on his word caught up with President Johnson sooner than he had thought. The two met for almost three hours in a tense Oval Office setting on March 13, then emerged for a press conference. Two days later, Johnson delivered his powerful "American Promise" speech before Congress and the American public, calling for strong voting rights legislation and promising "we shall overcome. On March 18, in Alabama, a federal judge ruled that a march to Montgomery could proceed, thereby ensuring that the long-awaited response to Bloody Sundy would finally occur. For Johnson, the triumph was not yet complete. He recorded a conversation with Wallace where he pressed the governor to follow through on preserving law and order. As the conversation progressed, Wallace repeated his insistence that the President ensure an orderly march, while President Johnson continually told him to call up his own state National Guard.
  
• 3/18/1965 Vokshod II piloted by Belyayev while Alexei Leonov became the first man to walk in space. Some charged that the Soviets faked the entire incident. (Russia's Space Hoax, Lloyd Mallan, 1966)
  
• 3/18-19/1965 THE STATE OF TEXAS vs. JACK RUBENSTEIN -- Hearing before United States District Court in Dallas on defense counsel's petition to place jurisdiction of Jack Ruby under the district. Judge Davidson denies petition but returns case to the Administrative Judge of the Dallas Court instead of Judge Brown. Jack Ruby's attorneys made an appearance in the United States District Court in Dallas, with Judge T. Whitfield Davidson presiding, seeking a writ of habeas corpus in order to insure that control of Ruby's whereabouts remain under the jurisdiction of the Federal Court and the Federal Marshall. Opposing arguments were also heard from the State, represented by Bill Alexander. The following afternoon Judge Davidson called a further hearing on the matter, As required by law, Ruby himself was brought before the judge, but none of Ruby's attorneys were prepared to attend. Ruby took advantage of the opportunity to speak without his attorneys present, interrupting the proceedings to make an unexpected appeal to the judge. "Your Honor, may I say something? I don't have any counsel here, your Honor, and I wish the courtesy of the Court to give me a chance to take the stand . . ." Attorney Joe Tonahill was on hand, and, although he was not formally representing Ruby at the time, was allowed to preface Ruby's statements with some remarks. Tonahill sought to inform the Court that psychiatrist L. J. West had sworn an affidavit stating that "Jack Ruby was insane, and highly susceptible to delusions and suspicions, and a complete paranoid." Dr. West had demonstrated, Tonahill said, that Ruby's condition necessitated the presence of an attorney to represent him. He also insisted that Ruby's mental illness was primarily responsible for his own removal from Ruby's defense team. Judge Davidson allowed Ruby to speak, however. "I will permit him to stand where he is," without requiring Ruby to be sworn in, "and he may give the Court any statement he may care to give." Ruby wasted no time whatsoever. "This is the most tragic thing in the history of the world," he announced. "One of the most tragic conspiracies in the world," he declared. "I will get on the stand and speak with tears in my heart because of such a terrible conspiracy which is combined against me." What Mr. Tonahill has said is a total lie [Ruby continued]. That goes from the contract I signed, I never did sign a contract with him. It has been a conspiracy between him and the District Attorney, [attorney] Phil Burleson and Joe Tonahill, to convince the public that Jack Ruby is insane. Now, your Honor, you have had many a person appear before you pleading their case. If I am a person who sounds insane at this time, then the rest of the world is crazy. I say this with choking in my heart and tears in my eyes. The most tragic thing happened that Sunday morning when I went down that ramp. I happened to be there for a purpose which is going to be the most tragic thing that ever happened in this world. . . . [Lengthy description of Ruby's succession of attorneys omitted.] At 10:15, I left my apartment, and the story was out that this person [Oswald] was supposed to leave the jail at ten AM. I received a call from a young girl [Karen Carlin, one of Ruby's strippers] who wanted some money. [Because Ruby had closed his club for the weekend, out of respect for the slain President, Carlin was unable to pay her rent.](1) I went to the Western Union, which was coincidental, and prior to that, I will admit [I'd read] a letter [that] was written to Caroline [Kennedy -- actually an editorial in the November 24, 1963, edition of the Dallas Times Herald] which broke my heart. This letter was written to Caroline telling her how awfully sorry I [sic] was for her. And another situation [in another article], there was something about a trial [Mrs. Kennedy expected to return to Dallas for Oswald's trial]. Don't ask me what took place, and that triggered me off that Sunday morning. I accepted the call at 10:15 and went down to the Western Union and parked my car across the street, and took off to transact my business. . . . At 11:17 I walked, I don't say it was premeditated, but never prior to Sunday morning, I never made up my mind what to do. From 11:17 until later, I was guilty of a homicide. Which must be the most perfect conspiracy in the history of the world that a man was going to accept a call and came from his apartment down to the Western Union. If it had been three seconds later I would have missed this particular person [Oswald]. I guess God was against me. I left the Western Union and it took about three and a half minutes to go to the bottom of the ramp. I didn't conspire or sneak in to do these things, I am telling you. If they had said, 'Jack, are you going down now?' that would make some conspiracy on me. I left the Western Union and it was a fraction of a second until that tragic act happened. Now, it seems all these circumstances were against me. I had a great emotional feeling for our beloved President and Mrs. Kennedy, or I never would have been involved in this tragic crime, that was completely reverse from what my emotional feeling was. Ruby returned to the subject of his numerous attorneys and how he felt they had mistreated him and mishandled his defense. As far as Joe Tonahill is concerned, he doesn't care what happens to me, nor does Phil Burleson, and I am not saying this just to make the headlines, I am not remembering this from rehearsal, I am speaking word-for-word, that I know what took place. And I am like the stupid idiot, that loved this country so much, and I felt so sorry for Mrs. Kennedy when she was standing on that plane with blood on her dress, and they were bringing the casket back with our beloved President, and now I am going to [go] down in history as the most despicable person that ever lived. If I am able to use this little oratory on you, as I am doing, if I have that capability, looking at you and telling this courtroom a slight fraction of a lie then I am a genius. Thank you. (Elmer Gertz, Moment of Madness: The People vs. Jack Ruby (Chicago: Follett Publishing Co., 1968), pp. 174-189.)
  
• Unknown dated in 1965: Jack Ruby appeared in court to ask for a change of counsel and removal to federal jurisdiction. He told the court that while he was in jail, a guard became friendly with him and got him to talk about "me being involved in sending four guns to a friend of mine in 1959, during peacetime, and my association with Cuba, and this particular man, Mr. McWillie…" He denied conspiring with anyone to get into the basement. "I had a great emotional feeling for our beloved President and Mrs. Kennedy…it is strange that a person like Harvey Oswald, who never worked a day in his life…is able to secure a job in a bookstore weeks prior to the anticipated arrival of our beloved President." He again worried that he was being implicated in the plot to kill JFK. He was then seen briefly on TV (CBS telecast); Sylvia Meagher jotted down notes as she watched on TV in New York: "...complete conspiracy...and the assassination too...if you knew the facts you would be amazed," Ruby said. He told reporters that he was perfectly sane and in good health. (Accessories After the Fact 453)
  
• 3/19-5/13/1965 US and South Vietnamese air raids increased in numbers and intensity.
  
• 3/20/1965 JCS pushed for another marine division and an army division for offensive operations in Vietnam.
  
• 3/21/1965 A young Lynchburg, Virginia preacher, Jerry Falwell, denounced the mixing of religion and politics in a noted sermon, "Ministers and Marches." He said, "Nowhere are we commissioned to reform the externals [in society]. We are not told to wage war against bootleggers, liquor stores, gamblers, murderers, prostitutes, racketeers, prejudiced persons or institutions, or any other existing evil as such...our only purpose on this earth is to know Christ and to make Him known...Preachers are not called to be politicians but soul-winners." He also questioned "the sincerity and nonviolent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mr. James Farmer and others, who are known to have left-wing positions. It is very obvious that the communists, as they do in all parts of the world, are taking advantage of a tense situation in our land, and are exploiting every incident to bring about violence and bloodshed." Falwell would later repudiate this sermon, even calling it a "false prophecy."
  
• 3/21/1965 An 80-car Klan motorcade drove along Highway 80 in Selma yelling obscenities at the marchers.
  
• 3/21-24/1965 MLK marches with 25,000 followers from Selma to Montgomery, gathering voter-registration support for blacks. Violence was kept to a minimum. LBJ had federalized the state national guard and sent 2200 troops to protect the demonstrators.
  
• 3/23/1965 Gemini 3 mission: three-orbit flight by Grissom and Young; the orbit was altered three times, demonstrating for the first time that a manned aircraft could change course. It splashed down in the Atlantic; the astronauts were recovered by the carrier Intrepid.
  
• 3/23/1965 Edward Jay Epstein interviewed WC staffer Norman Redlich. Redlich said that "To say that they [JFK and Connally] were hit by separate bullets is synonymous with saying that there were two assassins."
  
• 3/24/1965 Edward Jay Epstein interviewed WC staffer Melvin Eisenberg.
  
• 3/24/1965 First teach-in protest against the war held at the University of Michigan. A faculty group had planned a one-day moratorium during which professors would speak on the war instead of teaching. They decided to have an all-night meeting instead; more than 3000 students attended.
  
• 3/25/1965 This evening four Klansmen in Montgomery saw Viola Liuzzo driving with a black teenage boy, LeRoy Moton, in the front seat. She was returning from the rally in Selma They were shocked by the sight of a white woman with a black man and began following her. A skilled driver, she kept ahead of them, with the cars reaching 100mph. Finally, the pursuing car pulled up alongside and the Klansmen opened fire with .38 revolvers. Viola was hit in the head with two bullets and killed; Moton survived. But one of the men in the car, Gary T. Rowe, was an FBI informant. Mar 26 In an FBI memo (not declassified until 20 years later), Hoover recounted a private talk with LBJ: "I stated [Jim Liuzzo] doesn't have too good a background and the woman [Viola] had indications of needle marks in her arms where she had been taking dope; that she was sitting very, very close to the Negro in the car; that it had the appearance of a necking party." But the Alabama coroner's report said nothing about needle marks on her arms. (The Fiery Cross p352) Hoover's innuendoes were leaked by FBI agents to local police and the press in the South, and her moral character soon came to be the prime topic of conversation. Many thought she shouldn't have left her children at home while she was gallavanting around with civil rights activists. The resulting trial of the three Klansmen resulted in a hung jury, and the men were treated like local heroes.
  
• 3/26/1965 On or about this day, LBJ went on national TV: "We will not be intimidated by the terrorists of the Ku Klux Klan any more than by the terrorists of the Viet Cong. My father fought them in Texas. I have fought them all my life, because I believe them to threaten the peace of every community where they exist. I shall continued to fight them because I know their loyalty is not to the United States but to a hooded society of bigots…If Klansmen hear my voice today, let it be both an appeal and a warning to get out of the Klan now and return to decent society before it is too late."
  
• 3/26/1965 An FBI memo (not declassified until 20 years later), Hoover recounted a private talk with LBJ: "I stated [Jim Liuzzo] doesn't have too good a background and the woman [Viola] had indications of needle marks in her arms where she had been taking dope; that she was sitting very, very close to the Negro in the car; that it had the appearance of a necking party." But the Alabama coroner's report said nothing about needle marks on her arms. (The Fiery Cross p352) Hoover's innuendoes were leaked by FBI agents to local police and the press in the South, and her moral character soon came to be the prime topic of conversation. Many thought she shouldn't have left her children at home while she was gallavanting around with civil rights activists. The resulting trial of the three Klansmen resulted in a hung jury, and the men were treated like local heroes.
  
• 3/27/1965 Thomas Hale Howard, attorney, dies of a heart attack in Dallas. He is 48 years old. Howard is the attorney who advised Ruby to say that he shot LHO "to prevent Jackie Kennedy from having to return to Dallas." Howard was also the first attorney to represent Jack Ruby. According to Mark Lane, Howard met with Jack Ruby's roommate George Senator and two members of the press at Ruby's apartment on the evening of November 24, hours after Ruby shot Oswald. What was discussed at the meeting is unknown. None of the three men Senator met with will live past this year.
  
• 3/28/1965 De Gaulle assassination attempt.
  
• 3/29/1965 Edward Jay Epstein interviewed WC chief counsel J. Lee Rankin.
  
• 3/30/1965 Katzenbach directed that Hoover's "bugs" could be initiated only with the same authorization procedures as wiretaps. He no longer wanted Hoover to tap or bug without getting permission from the Attorney General. (Church report)
  
• 4/1965 The House appropriated $50,000 for an investigation of the KKK by HUAC. Membes of the subcommittee: liberal Charles Weltner, red-hunter Edwin Willis of Louisiana, segregationist Joe Pool from Texas, and civil rights opponents John Buchanan of Alabama and John Ashbrook of Ohio.
  
• 4/1/1965 LBJ met with McNamara, Rusk and Bundy; decided to grant Westmoreland and Sharp their troop requests, but not the Joint Chiefs' request; he also decided to allow US troops to engage in active combat. But he kept the decision secret.
  
• 4/2/1965 In an NSC meeting, McCone urged a greatly expanded bombing program; he felt Hanoi's behavior could be changed by bombing alone. (In Retrospect 180) Over the years to come, millions of tons of bombs, missiles, rockets, incendiary devices and chemical warfare agents will be dumped on the people of Vietnam in what can only be described as one of the worst crimes against humanity ever perpetrated on this planet.
  
• 4/5/1965 Earl Warren wrote a letter to Katzenbach urging that JFK-related documents be declassified before the 75-year time limit, by letting the agencies involved review the documents and decide which ones could be released. The White House and other involved agencies approved of the plan, except for the CIA, which urged that the 75-year seal be kept and perhaps extended. (Hurt, Reasonable Doubt p433)
  
• 4/6/1965 The CIA told Johnson that Hanoi had sent a NVA battalion into the central highlands near Da Nang. The JCS wanted to send in two more brigades.
  
• 4/6/1965 NASA launches Early Bird', the first commercial space satellite (this one for telecommunications).
  
• 4/6/1965 NSAM 328 put in writing LBJ's decision to US troops to conduct offensive operations in South Vietnam. Again he emphasized that "premature publicity be avoided by all possible precautions...minimize any appearance of sudden changes in policy...The president's desire is that these movements and changes should be understood as being gradual and wholly consistent with existing policy."
  
• 4/7/1965 LBJ made a speech at Johns Hopkins where he offered a billion-dollar Southeast Asia aid package (a Mekong Delta TVA) if the North Vietnamese will participate in "unconditional discussions." But he also stressed that the US would not withdraw, "and we must be prepared for a long continued conflict." He explained, "We fight because we must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny...North Vietnam has attacked the independent nation of South Vietnam...Over this war - and all Asia - is another reality: the deepening shadow of Communist China...We are there because we have a promise to keep...We are also there to strengthen world order...To leave Vietnam to its fate would shake the confidence of all these people in the value of an American commitment...To withdraw from one battlefield means only to prepare for the next...We want nothing for ourselves...We will not withdraw, either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement...The central lesson of our time is that the appetite of aggression is never satisfied...No nation need ever fear that we desire their land, or to impose their will, or to dictate their institutions...But we dream of an end to war." Hanoi quickly responded with their "Four Points" peace plan, calling for an end to all foreign involvement in Vietnam, as well as Viet Cong participation in a Saigon government. Max Taylor cabled Washington that he didn't think more troops should be sent in: "It shows a far greater willingness to get into the ground war than I had discerned in Washington during my recent trip."
  
• 4/7/65 Washington - Katzenbach and J. Edgar Hoover friendly. Katzenbach goes to see J. Edgar Hoover instead of vice versa, but J. Edgar Hoover "carefully observing the proper channels through Katzenbach for official business [with the White House]. Notes LBJ and J. Edgar Hoover retain their close relationship of two decades. AP, Joseph Mohbat
  
• 4/7/1965 NY Times: "An improvement in the morale and performance of the South Vietnamese Government and its troops has been the chief discernible result of the last month's air strikes against North Vietnam, a senior American military spokesman said today."
  
• 4/8/1965 The House voted on Medicare; it was approved 313-115.
  
• 4/9/1965 A plan to assassinate Vice President Hubert Humphrey is foiled tonight at the Jack Tar Capitol House Hotel in Baton Rouge. Undercover agent Joe Cooper discovers a Ku Klux Klan plan to kill Humphrey while he delivers a speech. Cooper immediately tips off the FBI. A trap is set by the FBI and Secret Service. Two would-be assassins are arrested before any violence takes place. By next year, Cooper will be off on his own JFK assassination investigation. Cooper will become convinced that LHO was a Naval Intelligence agent.
  
• 4/10/1965 Richard M. Helms was the overnight guest of LBJ at his ranch in Texas, along with Sen. Eugene McCarthy. McCarthy was an outspoken critic of the CIA but an admirer of Helms, but he was dismayed when Helms couldn't identify various kinds of flowers or wine vintages. He was sure James Bond could do that. (Wise, Espionage Establishment)
  
• 4/11/1965 LBJ signed the Education Bill. He also announced to the press that he had named Adm. Raborn as head of the CIA and Richard Helms as his deputy.
  
• 4/16/1965 Lady Bird wrote, "Lyndon keeps talking more and more about retiring." (White House Diary 260)
  
• 4/17/1965 Johnson told the press that US request for peace talks have met with no reply from Hanoi or Peking.
  
• 4/17/1965 An anti-war rally in Washington DC by Students for a Democratic Society.
  
• 4/19/1965 LBJ complained to reporters, "How can an American Senator or an American newspaperman or an American student tie the hands of our fellow American military men? Are they duped; are they sucked in?" (White House Diary 262)
  
• 4/20/1965 Meeting in Honolulu: McNamara, Taylor, Westmoreland, Wheeler, Sharp, Bundy and John McNaughton. McNamara agreed to a moderate increase in troops.
  
• 4/20-23/1965 Hearing before United States District Court in Jacksonville, Florida, on defense counsel's petition for a stay of Judge Davidson's order to return Jack Ruby's case to the Administrative Judge of the Dallas Court. Motion denied.
  
• 4/21/1965 William H. Orrick, head of the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department testified before the Senate that "concentration of industrial power may lead to the police state. Can anyone doubt that the prewar experience of Germany, Japan and Italy have proven the wisdom of the nation's concern over concentration of economic power?"
  
• 4/21/1965 McNamara told LBJ that more troops would be needed due to the likelihood of a Communist offensive; he urged Johnson to level with Congress about the broadening of the war, but LBJ refused. Ball, at the same meeting, urged Johnson not to send in more troops without exploring the possibility of a settlement; he replied, "All right, George, I'll give you until tomorrow to get me a settlement plan. If you can pull a rabbit out of the hat, I'm all for it." (The Past Has Another Pattern 393) Ball submitted a plan to LBJ that night, but it failed to show exactly how a non-Communist South Vietnam could be maintained. He urged free elections which would included the VC.
  
• 4/22/1965 Letter from Robert Kennedy to JFK's doctor George Burkley. "This will authorize you to release to my custody all of the material of President Kennedy, of which you have personal knowledge, and now being held by the Secret Service. I would appreciate it if you would accompany this material personally and turn it over for safekeeping to Mrs Evelyn Lincoln at the National Archives. I am sending a copy of this letter to Mrs Lincoln with instructions that this material is not to be released to anyone without my written permission and approval." Evelyn Lincoln's office is now in the National Archives.
  
• 4/25/1965 NYT reported that South Vietnamese PM Phan Huy Quat was opposed to the introduction of more US troops, saying it "would raise unpleasant recollections of the French Colonial War."
  
• 4/25/1965 Lady Bird Johnson honors Jackie Kennedy by naming the East Garden for her at a White House ceremony. Mrs. Kennedy does not attend.
  
• 4/26/1965 Letter from George Burkley, to Evelyn Lincoln. "In accordance with authorization dated April 22, 1965 from Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the items on the attached list relating to the autopsy of the late President John F. Kennedy are herewith transferred to the Archives for your custody, and in accordance with the instructions contained in Senator Kennedy's letter." An inventory lists microscopic tissue slides and photos of the internal chest wounds, which would later turn up missing. Secret Service transfer JFK autopsy photos, X-rays, brain, and slides to Robert Kennedy via Evelyn Lincoln. It is noted that the detailed inventory includes: 1 stainless steel container, 7 by 8 inches in diameter. It it suggested that this container may have held JFK's brain. What it known is that RFK takes possession of a brain (purportedly JFK's) at the National Archives on this date. On October 29, 1966 a second transfer occurrs when the Kennedys transfer the autopsy materials to the National Archives. Two days later, on October 31, 1966, a group of officials will meet at the Archives to open the footlocker that holds the autopsy materials. The inventory list [dated on this date] is also still inside the footlocker. It is quickly evident, however, that on October 31, 1966, six boxes of slides and the brain are missing. It will not be until August 1972 that the public first learns the brain is gone. Frank Mankiewicz, former press secretary for Robert F. Kennedy, will later recall that the brain was interred with the body at a later date. JFK's burial site will be moved and the coffin reinterred on March 14, 1967 - almost five months after the brain will be first noted to be missing, and while RFK is still alive.
  
• 4/27/1965 US carrier Boxer began an airlift in which over 1,000 men, women and children were evacuated from the Dominican Republic to Navy ships standing off shore.
  
• 4/28/1965 Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that remarks by a judge or prosecutor about a murder defendant's failure to testify violated his 5th Amendment rights. 4/28/1965 5pm Presidential meeting with advisers; LBJ debated about whether to include in his speech a warning that the DR could become "another Cuba," but it was decided not to.
  
• 4/28/1965 7:30pm LBJ briefed congressional leaders, expressing his fears that the Dominican Republic could go communist.
  
• 4/28/1965 8:40pm LBJ went on national TV to tell the public he had sent the Marines ashore in the Dominican Republic "in order to protect American lives." Johnson sent in 23,000 troops. The US press played up the familiar theme of benign US intervention to restore Latin chaos and protect Americans, supposedly the work of "Castroite extremists". 19 or 26 Americans died, 2,850 Dominicans were killed. The tidy little war was very popular in the US and "sent a message" to Castro, North Vietnam, etc. LBJ pulled together an OAS occupational force made up of Costa Rican, Salvadoran, Honduran and Nicaraguan troops; Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela refused to take part. Supposedly, ambassador Bennett called Washington from the DR to request US troops, and "was talking to us from under a desk while bullets were going through his windows and he had a thousand American men, women and children assembled in the hotel who were pleading with their president for help to preserve their lives." (LBJ's words, 6/17)
  
• 4/29/1965 US Commissioner of Education Francis Keppel announced that all public school districts must desegregate their schools by the fall of 1967.
  
• 4/30/1965 The wiretap on MLK's home was discontinued when he moved.
  
• 4/30/1965 Dean Rusk told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the US had intervened in the Dominican Republic to protect American lives. No communist threat was mentioned.