26-10-2010, 04:33 AM
i posted this on rich's forum back in 2005 the information is from gary shaw's cover-up and other books that i compiled..thanks...b:willy:
In the book by Jim Moore, "The Day The President Was Shot"..(" a well written but inaccurate book which is, essentially, the Warren Report in narrative form"...Shaw..Harris)...
Bishop tells the story of Officer Ira Gearhart who was a member of the Presidential party, carrying a metal suitcase which carried the all important electronic apparatus so that if needed the President could call, in code, a nuclear strike..He was called the Bagman , he had to remember the combination for the safe dial that opened the Bag, and stay at all times never more than a few seconds away from the President..within the bag there were various bulky packets, each having wax seals...and the signatures of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...The second contained what appeared to be gaudy pages of close text with what looked like color cartoons..more like horror comics as they had been carefully designed so that any one of Kennedy's three military aides could tell him quickly how many millions of casualties would result from Retaliation Able, Retaliation Baker, Retaliation Charlie, etc...Captain Tazwell Shepard had prepared these, what were called the Doomsday Books.......In one were cryptic numbers which would permit the President to set up a crude hot line to the Prime Minister of the U.K...and France on a four minutes notice..
Gearharts only job was to follow the President ,stick around and lug the "Bag" and of course remember the combinations...He and his ghastly burden were necessary...In Harry Truman's time, the on slot of the Cold War, it would have taken him four hours to think things through,by JFK's watch, it has been reduced to 15 minutes and was shrinking...
...Bishop relates how Gearhart becomes separated from the VIP portion of the motorcade as it raced to Parkland...and after arriving he did not know where the President was nor whom he was..The SS kept him away from the booth where LBJ had been placed...and that Johnson and Gearhart had been separated again, when LBJ raced to Love Field..." Somehow in the flight from the hospital ,the new President had overlooked the Bagman and the Major General Chester V.Clifton, who understood the coded types of retaliation..If at this time the Soviet Union had launched a millile attack , referred to in the DOD ....In Manchester's "Death of a President"....He states the advance man for the Texas trip was Warrent Officer Art Bales (Sturdy) 30yr old vet who new every executive in the Southwest Bell Telephone Co...he could bug any line from the nearest manhole or... conduit , and had all the facilities that enabled him to scramble almost any converstaion and disconnect it without notice...The President needed one clear circuit to Washington when he was out of town..at all times..which means that Bales could pull the plug more or less on any Cabinet Member ,if necessary...In the motorcades Bales would ride in the Signals control car,and he states by tradition this was the last car in the caravan , and that his companion there would be a swarthy Gearhart..When he tried to get into Minor Medicine where LBJ was waiting but he was unknown to the VPs men and was kept secluded in booth 8...until Emory Roberts saw him and identified him..when leaving Parkland, he had forced himself and his bag into a policeman's lap.....Stoughton took photographs of LBJs swearing in, and though he wished he were elsewhere he dutifully performs his duty, in one of the photos can be seen Gearhart's spectacles, identified by two tiny points of light..
When Warrant Officer Ira Gearhart was separated from Johnson, it would not necessarily have been accidentally...It could have been deliberately arranged by the military personnal at the upper level of the plot..They may not have trusted Johnson with the steel 30lb.. suitcase that held the key to a retaliatory attack, perhaps it was imperative that for the first few hours following the transfer of power, that the planners have complete control of all aspects...foreign and domestic.
It is hard to believe the United States was off guard in anyway, within the Pentagon
where total control was concentrated, the high military officials were in command,
they were aware, and prepared for any situation that might arise from foreign or
a domestic source...
In Bishop's book, it contains another revealing incident: "Officials at the Pentagon were calling the White House switchboard at the Dallas-Sheraton Hotel asking who was now in command. An Officer grabbed the phone and assured the Pentagon that Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara and the Joint Chief of Staff ' are now the President".".......Perhaps because the assassination was on a need to know basis ,the party that called was a low echelon officer who was unaware of what was happening..It was interesting that the communication officer who took the phone to announce the transfer of power was a member of the Presidential party and was fully aware of what was taking place.....
Communications of all kinds seemed to have been deemed important by those who planned and carried out the assassination..Several strange incidents that involved communications in Dallas..Washington...and abroad occurred..that day...
They of course have been attributed to coincidence , but what are the odds.?
In Dallas the police radio was immobilized at 12.29 pm Channel One of the DP radio system was rendered inoperative when someone within the dept. keyed his radio microphone button for four minutes, making it impossible for any police communication from the kill zone during the critical moments...and immediately afterward.....Channel One was reserved that day for those officers in the security of the President..From 12.29 pm till 12.33 pm the only audible sound on the police audio tape is the rumbling of a motorcycle engine...In Dallas the press telephone within the motorcade was immobilized..At 12.34 the radiophone in the press car carrying the members of the wire services was rendered inoperative, also.....In fact a fight broke out between UPI's Merriman Smith and Jack Bell of the AP.Bell finally managed to grab it after Smith has issued the initial report that shots had been fired , but to Bell's dismay, the line inexplicably went dead..
In Washington there was a crucial breakdown of communications when the telephone system ,in the capital went out at approximately 12.33..pm..It was almost an hour before full telephone service resumed ..It was explained ,that it was due to overloaded phone lines, was the Pentagon affected by this shut down??
Abroad, a teletype machine aboard a military aircraft carrying the Cabinet members to Japan began chattering the first report that shots had been fired, there was a moment of panic ,fearing an international plot, and with codes and procedures for such and emergency,Sec. of State Dean Rusk and Press Sec. Pierre Salinger attempted to contact the White House for verification..The did reach the Situation Room but were prohibited from authenticating the data because the "official code book was missing"..from it's special place aboard the plane.
After a futile search the Sec of State was forced to break procedures with coded communications ,Rusk was forced to break the code and communicate with the WH in plain English..
This was not happenstance that the President, the Vice President and six members of the Cabinet were away from the centre of power on Nov.22/63.It seems as though it was by design that Sec. of State Dean Rusk, Treasury Sec. Douglas Dillon, Interior Sec. Stewart Udall, and Labor Sec.W.W.Wirtz, as well as other administration officials like Press Sec. Salinger, were trapped on an airplane over the Pacific at such a critical time..These men perhaps thought they represented the true power of the nation but by all authority that day it belonged to the powerful military chieftans deep within the Pentagon....
As an additive....
In Hawaii on Nov. 21/63 , the day before......shortly after lunch Honolulu time , U.S.Ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge made a long distance call from the lobby of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel..Now this distinguished diplomat had acces to phones in privacy from his room or the military circuits at no cost....Yet he was seen, according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin, with a stack of quarters in his hand pitting coin after coin into a pay phone??
Mr.Lodge was in Honolulu for a nine hour summit conference on Nam with Sec. of Defence Robert McNamara ,Sec of State Dean Rusk, financial aid chief David E.Bell ,Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D.Taylor, Admiral Harry D.Felt, and General Paul D.Harkins, then the Commander of U.S.Forces in Vietnam..
Lodge was the only person of the seven member policy-making body to stay at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.....the others stayed in the military quarters.
This group of high level political and military policymakers had just decided to step-up military operations against communist insurgents in Nam.
This decision was in Direct Conflict with Presidentt Kennedy's announced intention
of Oct.63..to withdraw 1000 U.S.military personnel from Sth.Vietnam, reducing U.S.troop strength there to approximately 14.500..
Three days later Lodge met with the new President and was instructed by LBJ to return to Vietnam and inform the Saigon government of the new U.S policy pf strong military support for South Vietnam..
But from Washington......on the afternoon of Nov. 22/63......somewhere high over the United States, the new President Lyndon Baines Johnson and the passengers aboard AF 1....received the news that the assassination had been performed by one individual and no conspriacy existed.....The news came not from the scene of the crime,Dallas.....but from Washington D.C....specifically, it came from either McGeorge Bundy or Commander Oliver Hallet in the Situation Room of the White House Communications Agency...........manned by military personnel and receiving much of it's information from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in the Pentagon.....
and Last but not least there was in the air over the U.S a mobile military force able to be thrown into action anywhere in the U.S where needed.......if trouble developed..The largest peacetime airlift in history had taken place, Operation Big Lift....had moved an entire combat division from Texas to Germany for thirty days just one month previous.....On the day of President Kennedy was killed, the last third of the returning troops were in the air at the time of the shooting...estimated to be a brigade combat team armed with personal weapons, which could have been deployed anywhere into action, in the nation on a very short notice.....if perhaps needed.....
But this was of course all coincidence, if not then it was an indication of the careful planning undertaken by the Military ......That day in Dallas.....
The question has been asked many times...Did the Military kill it's own Commander In Chief.??
Perhaps this isn't so far fetched.
Between the years of 1962 and 1954 there were 16 successful and 12 unsuccess ful military coups around the globe... From WW2 to 1961 there were no less than 27 major military uprisings around the world, that swept away their civilian governments.
Successful: Burma 3/2/62 ,Argentina,3/28/52, Peru 7/18/62,Togo 1/13/63, Iraq 2/8/63, Peru 3/3/63,Syria 3/8/63,Guatemala 3/30/63,Equador 7/11/63, Congo 8/12/63, Dominican Republic 9/25.63,Honduras 10/3/63, Vietnam 11/1/63, Brazil 4/1/64, Laos 4/19/64, Bolivia 11/3/64
Dwight D.Eisenhower was aware that (what he called ) the Military-Industrial Complex was actually running the nation..But not till he was leaving office did he dare voice his concern.." On the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought ,by the military-industrial complex."
Then in 1960 there occurred the election of a peace seeking ,idealistic man,a former Navy lieutenant..and for the first time since WW2 the military was perhaps threatened by a President, who as such, intended to execute his role as he saw fit, and search for that peace..
In 1962 the thought of a possible military takeover in the U.S.,was dominant in the minds of many public officials, and it was a widely discussed topic. Much of this had been generated by the best selling novel "Seven Days in May" by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W.Bailey...which later became a popular movie, made at the request of President Kennedy, who wanted it filmed as a warning to the nation..
This book which depicted a U.S President fighting a secret military junta that seeks to seize control of the nation, presented an idea that was taken somewhat seriously in the nation's capitol..In the 15 years since the second world war the military had emerged as the dominant force in the government ,a number of officials ,civilian and former military ,had publicly voiced alarm..over their growing power and influence..In 1961 the Sec.of the Navy in a conversation with one of the authors of the book ruminated on the state of the nation, unknown to him ,his thoughts were amplified and placed in the mind of the fictional President in the popular novel."I'm worried ,up until 1945 an individual could have some feeling even in a world war that he had some control over his own existence. But when that atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, something happened .People began to feel helpless....Now, with hydrogen bombs all over the world, the individual feels even more at a loss to help control his own destiny.You can sense the feeling everywhere."......."The Secretary went on to say that in a monolithic state,such as Russia, it doesn't matter much what the individual feels .But in a democracy ,where leaders govern only by the collective consent of millions of individuals, the attitude of the single citizen is crucial.If people no longer believe they can influence events ,he argued, democracy is in danger,and a dictator could take over. There is no magic in the American System. It can be preserved only by millions of citizens working day in and day out to nourish a system that was then 185 years old.But did Americans still work at it? Or, he wondered,were they beginning to give up." ..The man who headed the most powerful peacetime navy in history ,later resigned and returned to his home state and was elected Governor...and so it was that on Nov.22/63...former Navy Secretary John B.Connally became a victim in the six-second ambush that killed President John F.Kennedy....
As Ike had continued on, "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exisits and will persist..We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."
Just two months after taking office Ike's young successor issued a similar warning when he sent Congress his first message on the defense budget " Neither our strategy nor our psychology as a nation, and certainly not our ecomony...must become dependent upon the permanent maintenance of a large military establishment"..... "Our arms must be subject to ultimate civilian control and command at all times, in war as well as peace."....
Did it happen in America ? Did the military establishment covertly gain control of the government reins it had acquired in the latter stages of WW2.?..
It has always been difficult for a democracy to return to that democracy after a prolonged period of a form of dictatorship that always comes with war..It was difficult after WW1, and in some ways it barely made it back.but after WW2 it seems it may not have ..some believe that the military took control, or the reins, of the government during the latter stages of the second world war when President Franklin D.Roosevelt was, tired, very ill, and dying, and with the advent of the Atomic Bomb.
Kennedy himself had considered the possibility of some sort of military coup..In his memoirs Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev tells of a key meeting which occurred during the Cuban Military crisis..with RFK and Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin..Khrushchev quoted RFK as saying..."The President is in a grave situation. We are under very severe stress..In fact we are under pressure from our military to use force against Cuba......That is why the President is appealing directly to Chairman Khrushchev for his help in liquidating the conflict. If the situation continues much longer,........The President is not sure that the military will not overthrow him and seize power. The American army could get out of control."
In "The Pleasure of His Company"..by JFK's confidant Red Fay he states " We were out on the Honey Fitz again the next day, and the President said he had read "Seven Days In May"..the previous night.He discussed the possibility of such a military takeover very calmly ......"" It's possible. It could happen in this country, but the conditions would have to be just right. If, for example ,the country had a young President, and he had a Bay of Pigs, there would be a certain uneasiness. Maybe the military would do a little criticizing behind his back, but this would be written off as the usual military dissatisfaction with civilian control. Then if there were another Bay of Pigs ,the reaction of the country would be, "Is he too young and inexperienced ?". The military would almost feel that it was their patriotic obligation to stand ready to preserve the integrity of the nation ,and only God knows just what segment of democracy they would be defending if they overthrew the elected establishment." Then as if steeling himself for the final challenge, he continued, "Then, if there were a third Bay of Pigs, it could happen.:...."Pausing long enough for all of us to assess the significance of his comment, he concluded with the old Navy phrase, " But it won't happen on my watch."......Did it??
President Kennedy more so than perhaps any President in the history of the U.S. was in conflict with the military and intelligence combined.At the time of the assassination the interests of the Pentagon and the CIA coincided....as Jim Garrison stated .."the CIA had become the clandestine arm of the military-industrial complex.." Later it seemed that a rift ?? of some sort could have developed, as the Military continued to concentrate it's efforts against Communism in Southeast Asia and the CIA began to broaden it's base of operations and expanded it's power within the United Sates, or was this their plan????
JFK had seen nearly two decades of increasing militarism and he saw the danger that exisited from that excessive power of America's warfare interests in the Pentagon as well as the illegal, covert operations of the CIA abroad and domestically..He sought to place civilian control over both, but in the years after WW2 these two sectors of the goverment had become so powerful that they answered to no one...not even the President.
Briefly:
The Bay of Pigs:Ill conceived, badly executed attempt in Apr.61..to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro..the idea being conceived by Nixon during Ike's administration, and three months after Kennedy had taken office.
Conflict:
Kennedy's failure to provide military support , air cover by US war planes,resulting in the aborted ingression.He incurred both the wrath and the hostility of the Pentagon and the CIA..later he initiated a house cleaning of the Agency and demanded the resignations of, Allen Dulles,( later a member of the WC.).Dep. Director General C.Cabell, (his brother was Mayor of Dallas at the time of the assassination)..Kennedy was quoted as stating he wished "
to splinter the CIA into 1,000 pieces and scatter it to the winds."..He was determined to curb it's power and independence, and discussed plans to place it under the authority of the Attorney General....(who happened to be his brother Robert F.Kennedy.)
The Cuban Missile Crisis:
Aerial reconnaissance photographs showing Soviet long range missile bases under construction in Cuba....90 miles off shore..... a nuclear attack could be launched on much of the US..and the Western hemisphere..at the height of the crisis Soviet ships carrying additional weapons returned to Russian ports..and Khrushchev announced that they would be dismantled..and Armageddon was averted..
Conflict:
For several years the Pentagon along with the CIA had put forth a considerable amount of time, money,and effort outlining and planning the attempted assassination of Castro,and the taking back of Cuba..and to make matters considerably worse after the BOPs disaster had ordered all assassination attempts on Castro concelled and plans for detente were initiated.
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty:
In Sept.61.The Soviets suddenly resumed nuclear tests, breaking an unofficial test ban that had lasted nearly three years..JFK urged the Russians and Great Britain in a agreement not to conduct tests in the atmosphere..When the Russians did not, Kennedy resumed underground tests....in March 62 after extensive studies of Soviet advances he reluctantly ordered new atmospheric tests ..He announced another conference, in Jun 63 aimed at producing a test ban treaty..on Aug.5/63..after lengthy negotiations the three signed a limited nuclear test ban treaty forbidding atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons...this treaty also forbid no further testing underwater........it was formally ratified on Sep.1/63...and it eased Cold War tensions..
Conflict:
Authorities ,many from the military community appeared before the Senate Committee considering the Treaty in August, to vehemently oppose the President's words of support for the measure..Citing distrust of the Soviets ,the
Joint Chiefs of Staff declared themselves opposed to the treaty "under almost any terms." Their advice was overruled by President Kennedy..
Efforts to End the Cold War:
Situation and Conflict...In 1963 the Pentagon and the CIA wanted deep involvement in Vietnam and their thrust had become almost irreversible.Kennedy by that time had begun to resist this thrust and had changed his earlier decisions recommended to him by the Joint Chiefs of Staff , permitting the US to have limited involvement.He had become convinced by former military commanders , particularly retired General Douglas Mac Arthur,against allowing the US to become involved in a land war with her troops..in South East Asia.In June 63, Kennedy was in deep conflict with his military advisors...he ordered Sec. of Defense
Robert MacNamarra and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Maxwell Taylor to announce from the White House steps ,that all American forces were going to be withdrawn from Vietnam by 1965....By the summer of 63, Kennedy had made his final decision , no involvement in Vietnam....and eventual withdrawl, totally of all US forces ....
This was a fatal decision ...the American warfare machine in Asia had gained too much momentum to be reversed: men more powerful than Kennedy had already decided the policy with regard to Vietnam.....
In what was perhaps his last formal executive order, President Kennedy announced his intentions...to withdraw 1,000......US military personnel from South Vietnam.."Within 72 hours of Kennedy's brutal death :new President Lyndon Baines Johnson completely reversed his predecessor's policy toward Southeast Asia...Following the eulogy for John F.Kennedy in the rotunda of the nations capitol, Johnson met with US ambassador to Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge and instructed him to return to Vietnam and inform the Saigon government that the United States was going to provide South Vietnam with strong military support .."
The secret build up then began ,the rest is history.....58,000 Americans dead......
300,000 Americans wounded......2 million civilians dead......billions of dollars wasted conducting an immoral, senseless, and undeclared war which was prolonged by the deception of Presidents, Johnson and Nixon by their military advisors.....
Review:
Recall the conditions that would have had to exist for a military coup d'etat in the Unites States.......as outlined by President Kennedy himself........
1..the country would have to be lead by a young President ( Kennedy in fact was at that time the youngest man ever to hold that office.)
2..there would have to be a Bay of Pigs ( this occurred in April,1961.)
3..military criticism of the President would follow.(it did.)
4..if there was another Bay of Pigs ,the military would consider overthrowing
the elected establishment .( the Cuban Missile Crisis may be considered "another
Bay of PIgs.").
5..if there was a third Bay of Pigs it could happen..........(This could be represented by the signing of the Test Ban Treaty against the advice of the Joint Chiefs of staff.)
Therefore the conditions outlined by President John F.Kennedy were approximated during his administration....his decisions on Vietnam......ended with his death.
Information from:
Fletcher Knebel & Charles Bailey .."Military Control Can It Happen Here," Look magazine
9/11/62.
Arthur Schlesinger: "The Imperial Presidency"
President Dwight David Eisenhower: "Farewell Address", 1/17/61
Khrushchev" "Khrushchev Remembers".
Jim Garrison: "A Heritage of Stone."
Wise & Ross " "The Invisible Government".
Branch & Crile "The Kennedy Vendetta.: Harper's 8/75.
Schlesinger: "A Thousand Days".
Elie Abel : "The Missile Crisis"..
Penn Jones: "Forgive My Grief".Vol.IV
Schurmann,Scott & Zelnick:"The Politics of Escalation in Vietnam".
Jim Bishop:" The Day Kennedy Was Shot."
"Dallas Radio Tapes"..11/22/63
William Manchester:"The Death of a President".p.62..63..237..321
Penn Jones:"Forgive My Grief IV".
Theodore White:"The Making of a President".
This is from the work of....
"Cover-Up".......by .J.Gary Shaw with Larry R.Harris 1976-1992
DOD: Dept of Defense
SS: Secret Service.
The question has been asked many times...Did the Military kill it's own Commander In Chief.??
Perhaps this isn't so far fetched.
Between the years of 1962 and 1954 there were 16 successful and 12 unsuccess ful military coups around the globe... From WW2 to 1961 there were no less than 27 major military uprisings around the world, that swept away their civilian governments.
Successful: Burma 3/2/62 ,Argentina,3/28/52, Peru 7/18/62,Togo 1/13/63, Iraq 2/8/63, Peru 3/3/63,Syria 3/8/63,Guatemala 3/30/63,Equador 7/11/63, Congo 8/12/63, Dominican Republic 9/25.63,Honduras 10/3/63, Vietnam 11/1/63, Brazil 4/1/64, Laos 4/19/64, Bolivia 11/3/64
Dwight D.Eisenhower was aware that (what he called ) the Military-Industrial Complex was actually running the nation..But not till he was leaving office did he dare voice his concern.." On the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought ,by the military-industrial complex."
Then in 1960 there occurred the election of a peace seeking ,idealistic man,a former Navy lieutenant..and for the first time since WW2 the military was perhaps threatened by a President, who as such, intended to execute his role as he saw fit, and search for that peace..
In 1962 the thought of a possible military takeover in the U.S.,was dominant in the minds of many public officials, and it was a widely discussed topic. Much of this had been generated by the best selling novel "Seven Days in May" by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W.Bailey...which later became a popular movie, made at the request of President Kennedy, who wanted it filmed as a warning to the nation..
This book which depicted a U.S President fighting a secret military junta that seeks to seize control of the nation, presented an idea that was taken somewhat seriously in the nation's capitol..In the 15 years since the second world war the military had emerged as the dominant force in the government ,a number of officials ,civilian and former military ,had publicly voiced alarm..over their growing power and influence..In 1961 the Sec.of the Navy in a conversation with one of the authors of the book ruminated on the state of the nation, unknown to him ,his thoughts were amplified and placed in the mind of the fictional President in the popular novel."I'm worried ,up until 1945 an individual could have some feeling even in a world war that he had some control over his own existence. But when that atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, something happened .People began to feel helpless....Now, with hydrogen bombs all over the world, the individual feels even more at a loss to help control his own destiny.You can sense the feeling everywhere."......."The Secretary went on to say that in a monolithic state,such as Russia, it doesn't matter much what the individual feels .But in a democracy ,where leaders govern only by the collective consent of millions of individuals, the attitude of the single citizen is crucial.If people no longer believe they can influence events ,he argued, democracy is in danger,and a dictator could take over. There is no magic in the American System. It can be preserved only by millions of citizens working day in and day out to nourish a system that was then 185 years old.But did Americans still work at it? Or, he wondered,were they beginning to give up." ..The man who headed the most powerful peacetime navy in history ,later resigned and returned to his home state and was elected Governor...and so it was that on Nov.22/63...former Navy Secretary John B.Connally became a victim in the six-second ambush that killed President John F.Kennedy....
As Ike had continued on, "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exisits and will persist..We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."
Just two months after taking office Ike's young successor issued a similar warning when he sent Congress his first message on the defense budget " Neither our strategy nor our psychology as a nation, and certainly not our ecomony...must become dependent upon the permanent maintenance of a large military establishment"..... "Our arms must be subject to ultimate civilian control and command at all times, in war as well as peace."....
Did it happen in America ? Did the military establishment covertly gain control of the government reins it had acquired in the latter stages of WW2.?..
It has always been difficult for a democracy to return to that democracy after a prolonged period of a form of dictatorship that always comes with war..It was difficult after WW1, and in some ways it barely made it back.but after WW2 it seems it may not have ..some believe that the military took control, or the reins, of the government during the latter stages of the second world war when President Franklin D.Roosevelt was, tired, very ill, and dying, and with the advent of the Atomic Bomb.
Kennedy himself had considered the possibility of some sort of military coup..In his memoirs Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev tells of a key meeting which occurred during the Cuban Military crisis..with RFK and Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin..Khrushchev quoted RFK as saying..."The President is in a grave situation. We are under very severe stress..In fact we are under pressure from our military to use force against Cuba......That is why the President is appealing directly to Chairman Khrushchev for his help in liquidating the conflict. If the situation continues much longer,........The President is not sure that the military will not overthrow him and seize power. The American army could get out of control."
In "The Pleasure of His Company"..by JFK's confidant Red Fay he states " We were out on the Honey Fitz again the next day, and the President said he had read "Seven Days In May"..the previous night.He discussed the possibility of such a military takeover very calmly ......"" It's possible. It could happen in this country, but the conditions would have to be just right. If, for example ,the country had a young President, and he had a Bay of Pigs, there would be a certain uneasiness. Maybe the military would do a little criticizing behind his back, but this would be written off as the usual military dissatisfaction with civilian control. Then if there were another Bay of Pigs ,the reaction of the country would be, "Is he too young and inexperienced ?". The military would almost feel that it was their patriotic obligation to stand ready to preserve the integrity of the nation ,and only God knows just what segment of democracy they would be defending if they overthrew the elected establishment." Then as if steeling himself for the final challenge, he continued, "Then, if there were a third Bay of Pigs, it could happen.:...."Pausing long enough for all of us to assess the significance of his comment, he concluded with the old Navy phrase, " But it won't happen on my watch."......Did it??
President Kennedy more so than perhaps any President in the history of the U.S. was in conflict with the military and intelligence combined.At the time of the assassination the interests of the Pentagon and the CIA coincided....as Jim Garrison stated .."the CIA had become the clandestine arm of the military-industrial complex.." Later it seemed that a rift ?? of some sort could have developed, as the Military continued to concentrate it's efforts against Communism in Southeast Asia and the CIA began to broaden it's base of operations and expanded it's power within the United Sates, or was this their plan????
JFK had seen nearly two decades of increasing militarism and he saw the danger that exisited from that excessive power of America's warfare interests in the Pentagon as well as the illegal, covert operations of the CIA abroad and domestically..He sought to place civilian control over both, but in the years after WW2 these two sectors of the goverment had become so powerful that they answered to no one...not even the President.
Briefly:
The Bay of Pigs:Ill conceived, badly executed attempt in Apr.61..to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro..the idea being conceived by Nixon during Ike's administration, and three months after Kennedy had taken office.
Conflict:
Kennedy's failure to provide military support , air cover by US war planes,resulting in the aborted ingression.He incurred both the wrath and the hostility of the Pentagon and the CIA..later he initiated a house cleaning of the Agency and demanded the resignations of, Allen Dulles,( later a member of the WC.).Dep. Director General C.Cabell, (his brother was Mayor of Dallas at the time of the assassination)..Kennedy was quoted as stating he wished "
to splinter the CIA into 1,000 pieces and scatter it to the winds."..He was determined to curb it's power and independence, and discussed plans to place it under the authority of the Attorney General....(who happened to be his brother Robert F.Kennedy.)
The Cuban Missile Crisis:
Aerial reconnaissance photographs showing Soviet long range missile bases under construction in Cuba....90 miles off shore..... a nuclear attack could be launched on much of the US..and the Western hemisphere..at the height of the crisis Soviet ships carrying additional weapons returned to Russian ports..and Khrushchev announced that they would be dismantled..and Armageddon was averted..
Conflict:
For several years the Pentagon along with the CIA had put forth a considerable amount of time, money,and effort outlining and planning the attempted assassination of Castro,and the taking back of Cuba..and to make matters considerably worse after the BOPs disaster had ordered all assassination attempts on Castro concelled and plans for detente were initiated.
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty:
In Sept.61.The Soviets suddenly resumed nuclear tests, breaking an unofficial test ban that had lasted nearly three years..JFK urged the Russians and Great Britain in a agreement not to conduct tests in the atmosphere..When the Russians did not, Kennedy resumed underground tests....in March 62 after extensive studies of Soviet advances he reluctantly ordered new atmospheric tests ..He announced another conference, in Jun 63 aimed at producing a test ban treaty..on Aug.5/63..after lengthy negotiations the three signed a limited nuclear test ban treaty forbidding atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons...this treaty also forbid no further testing underwater........it was formally ratified on Sep.1/63...and it eased Cold War tensions..
Conflict:
Authorities ,many from the military community appeared before the Senate Committee considering the Treaty in August, to vehemently oppose the President's words of support for the measure..Citing distrust of the Soviets ,the
Joint Chiefs of Staff declared themselves opposed to the treaty "under almost any terms." Their advice was overruled by President Kennedy..
Efforts to End the Cold War:
Situation and Conflict...In 1963 the Pentagon and the CIA wanted deep involvement in Vietnam and their thrust had become almost irreversible.Kennedy by that time had begun to resist this thrust and had changed his earlier decisions recommended to him by the Joint Chiefs of Staff , permitting the US to have limited involvement.He had become convinced by former military commanders , particularly retired General Douglas Mac Arthur,against allowing the US to become involved in a land war with her troops..in South East Asia.In June 63, Kennedy was in deep conflict with his military advisors...he ordered Sec. of Defense
Robert MacNamarra and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Maxwell Taylor to announce from the White House steps ,that all American forces were going to be withdrawn from Vietnam by 1965....By the summer of 63, Kennedy had made his final decision , no involvement in Vietnam....and eventual withdrawl, totally of all US forces ....
This was a fatal decision ...the American warfare machine in Asia had gained too much momentum to be reversed: men more powerful than Kennedy had already decided the policy with regard to Vietnam.....
In what was perhaps his last formal executive order, President Kennedy announced his intentions...to withdraw 1,000......US military personnel from South Vietnam.."Within 72 hours of Kennedy's brutal death :new President Lyndon Baines Johnson completely reversed his predecessor's policy toward Southeast Asia...Following the eulogy for John F.Kennedy in the rotunda of the nations capitol, Johnson met with US ambassador to Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge and instructed him to return to Vietnam and inform the Saigon government that the United States was going to provide South Vietnam with strong military support .."
The secret build up then began ,the rest is history.....58,000 Americans dead......
300,000 Americans wounded......2 million civilians dead......billions of dollars wasted conducting an immoral, senseless, and undeclared war which was prolonged by the deception of Presidents, Johnson and Nixon by their military advisors.....
Review:
Recall the conditions that would have had to exist for a military coup d'etat in the Unites States.......as outlined by President Kennedy himself........
1..the country would have to be lead by a young President ( Kennedy in fact was at that time the youngest man ever to hold that office.)
2..there would have to be a Bay of Pigs ( this occurred in April,1961.)
3..military criticism of the President would follow.(it did.)
4..if there was another Bay of Pigs ,the military would consider overthrowing
the elected establishment .( the Cuban Missile Crisis may be considered "another
Bay of PIgs.").
5..if there was a third Bay of Pigs it could happen..........(This could be represented by the signing of the Test Ban Treaty against the advice of the Joint Chiefs of staff.)
Therefore the conditions outlined by President John F.Kennedy were approximated during his administration....his decisions on Vietnam......ended with his death.
Information from:
Fletcher Knebel & Charles Bailey .."Military Control Can It Happen Here," Look magazine
9/11/62.
Arthur Schlesinger: "The Imperial Presidency"
President Dwight David Eisenhower: "Farewell Address, 1/17/61
Khrushchev" "Khrushchev Remembers".
Jim Garrison: "A Heritage of Stone."
Wise & Ross " "The Invisible Government".
Branch & Crile "The Kennedy Vendetta.: Harper's 8/75.
Schlesinger: "A Thousand Days".
Elie Abel : "The Missile Crisis"..
Penn Jones: "Forgive My Grief".Vol.IV
Schurmann,Scott & Zelnick:"The Politics of Escalation in Vietnam".
Gery Shaw: "Cover Up"..
***************************
The murder of President Kennedy could have been the function of a top-level military-industrial-intelligence faction of the United States government.
When President L.B.Johnson chose the members of the Warren Commission, some had long-standing allegiance to these factions...
Chief Justice Earl Warren: Though revered by some.....Was a most important source and mover in organizing the first concentration camps in the U.S. after they entered WW 2 interpreting the Constitution as allowing the imprisonment of innocent American citizens whose ancestry happened to be Japanese...thereby being loyal to the military.
On Dec.9/63 Nicholas Katzenbach sent a memorandum to Warren stating that copies of the FBI Report was being sent to him and the other members of the WC..on the assassination..
The FBI report stated :" one of the bullets had entered just below his shoulder to the right of the spinal column at an angle of 45 to 60 degrees downward, that there was no point of exit." ....as of Dec.9/63....Earl Warren and the government therefore could not have such a scenario as the "Magic Bullet"....the three-bullet lone assassin theory..as ( there was no point of exit).......if the government were innocent and Earl Warren was not in compliance...this alone proved evidence of conspiracy...
The memo further mentioned "....that the latest gallop poll shows that over half the American people believe that Oswald acted on part of a conspiracy, in shooting President Kennedy ..I think therefore ,the Commission should consider releasing or allowing the Dept of Justice to release, a short press statement which would briefly make the following points."
"" The FBI report through scientific examination of evidence ,testimony and intensive investigation ,established beyond a reasonable doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy on Nov. 22,1963..The FBI made exhaustive investigation into whether Oswald may have conspired with or been assisted by any organization ,group,or person foreign or domestic ,in carrying out this dastardly act..To date this aspect of the investigation has been negative.""
Warren accepted what to some appear to be orders ,and did a great disservice to the country and to the Constitution but a great service to the MIC, he also showed contempt for the American public whom the majority had stated loud and clear that they believed there was a conspiracy.....the American people were to be misled, lied to, confused, and manipulated, and also pay the cost as taxpayers for the Warren Commission, that carried his name.....he continued with his charade..and pretended to be looking for the truth but in reality he had apparently accepted his orders and was in compliance...Why ?..whatever his reasons...he then proceeded to allow the fantasy to be created....By not informing the citizens of the United States ,of the lies held within this announcement was he was guilty of obstruction of justice ?
Allen W.Dulles: Was Director of the CIA for 8 years 53/61..until President Kennedy fired him, after the BOPs fiasco.Under Dulles the CIA grew and developed it's enormous power .He had been a master spy in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
--the U.S. Intelligence agency during WW 2 and the forerunner of the CIA...He was credited with two outstanding feats: the penetration of the German Abwehr (Hitler's Intelligence Service) and the negotiating the surrender of German troops in Italy...
Here was the consummate cold warrior..on Jan21/64, there was a secret executive meeting of the WC..Marina Oswald was going to give evidence that LHO was a Soviet Spy:...a snip.....of the meeting....
Russell stated" That will blow the lid if she testifies to that." Dulles stated he knew Isaac Don Levine who was with Life Magazine, who had the assigment and meeting with Marina..the article was never published , Dulles stated "I can get ahold of him and have a friendly talk." Now why would Dulles want to potect the Soviets, if LHO was an agent ? He and his brother Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, certainly had been willing to carry the U.S to the brink of nuclear war in post WW 2 times...so why now the reluctance.... to invole Russia ?
In Gaeton Fonzi's book, you will see that he has traced the assassination to the CIA and President Kennedy had fired Allen Dulles....as the head of such..therefore could Dulles have had the knowledge that LHO was the patsy, and that the CIA had carried out the assassination ? He had an interest in protecting the agency, he had reason to hate Kennedy and his courage for opposing the intelligence and military on Cold War policy... in appointing Dulles to the WC, President Johnson had placed him in a position of obstructing justice, which he then carried out....there could not be an investigation that would lead to the CIA...
(The information that has been researched on LHO, points to him being a U.S Intelligent Agent...the same government agencies who created the Marxist cover for him, were more than likely involved in the assassination.)
John J.McCloy: Was the Assistant Secretary of War from April 1941..to Nov.1945.
President of the World Bank from 1947-49 and the US Military Governor and High Commissioner to Germany from 1949-51..
Gerald R.Ford: A staunch ally of the military establishment and the Pentagon.He had the reputation on the Hill as the CIA's best friend in Congress..He became President and chose the members of the Rockefeller Commission ,and accepted that commissions whitewashed report..he also withheld it's findings on the CIA's alleged
assassination plots..He did everything in his power to block the release of the Church Committee findings about the CIA's assassination plots against foreign leaders and it was Ford who steadfastly defended the Agency and harshly criticized those in Congress and the media who called for vast reforms and tighter reins to control the CIA.....and it was Ford who moved President Kennedy's back wound up several inches, on the Bethesda Autopsy Report....it was Ford, who stole the LHO Diary that legally belonged to Marina Oswald, and sold the contents to Life Magazine....
and it was Ford who kept J.Edgar Hoover and the FBI informed of all that came to light within the Warren Commission during regular meetings with him...
The Warren Commission is a volume of lies and deceit , and therefore we could be led to one of two possible conclusions:
The WC was part of the conspiracy and was used to conceal the truth about the crime.
or..........
Like the man who created it, the Commission had been placed under the control of the force that killed Kennedy....
The FBI: Hoover the Assassination and the Warren Commission..
If concealing facts and evidence in the assassination is a sign of guilt...the FBI is a prime suspect..They were the principal investigative arm of the WC...who had none of it's own, though they certainly had the power to have created one of their own..but they accepted Hoover's information readily, though at times questionably.
The FBI:
Witheld much pertinent information..
Submitted a barrage of irrelevant data...( such as a sampling of the dental charts of Jack Ruby's Mother..CE 1281....a study of the differences between Caucasian,Negroid and Mongoloid hair..CE 668-670...and two copies of Marina's dental charts....a 48 page summary..from when she was pregnant..CD 884 )
Altered, suppressed and destroyed evidence .
Procrastinated in investigating and replying to Commission requests for specific information...
Intimidated witnesses who disputed the lone assassin theory.
Botched the New Orleans investigation...
Did not thoroughly investigate Dealey Plaza..and area ,site of the killing..
The misconduct is too long to extensive to cover here.
In the FBI Summary and Supplemental reports ,there contains statements,allegations of medical findings and other evidence which are irreconciliable with the Commission's own findings based on the same evidence .The Bureau was in the rediculous position of submitting reports which contradicted the conclusions of the Warren Report, while at the same time illogically conceding that those same findings were correct..??? ( for a detailed analysis see the "Whitewash Series"; and "Post Mortum" by Harold Weisberg.)
One such....the suspicion that LHO was a FBI informant ..yet the FBI were more than ready to close the case..in a matter of days......based on the fact that he was the lone assassin..( seen in transcript of the Jan. 22/64 session .).during this emergency meeting that was called to discuss the rumour , the information being supplied by Texas A.G.Waggoner Carr, was that LHO was being paid $200 a month and had been recruited in Sep.62..and assigned # S-179 .The WC members were so stunned that Allan Dulles suggested that the minutes of the meeting be destroyed..
The Commission seemed convinced that the FBI was deliberately leaking information,to the press.....to build the lone assassin case quickly and decisively in the public mind. ( the FBI failed to inform the SS and DPD of Oswald's presence in Dallas..prior to Kennedy's visit.)
In the Jan. 27/64 transcript session, the Commission members seemed terrified of Director Hoover ?? and suspicious...for two hours they discuss ways of inquiring about the informant rumor..Indeed they spent Four months..debating just how to approach Hoover for a disclaimer that would convince the public ..Intially they had decided that a disclaimer would not suffice, nor would it convince the public..after being informed that if LHO was an informer, Hoover would lie..Dulles also confides that during his tenure as CIA director, he would have lied under oath to anyone except the President ,if he thought it was in the interest of the nation or the Agency..
Finally Rankin approached Hoover ,he flatly denied the rumor and the matter, and as far as the WC was concerned it was dropped..
( It was during this session that Rankin made his famous remark: "We do have a dirty rumor that is very bad for the Commission...and it must be wiped out insofar as it is possible to do so by this Commission."....re LHO being a paid informer..
The last two lines:
Russell: (referring to the attitude taken by FBI's re it's reports.)..."You have our statement. What else do you want ?."
McCloy:" Yes,""We know who killed cock robin."
That is the point ,it isn't only who killed cock robin.
No less than seven FBI agensts are known to have been associated with Oswald during the year and a half between his return from the Soviet Union and the assassination.
The first contact ,a two hour interview on June 26/62 ( Report) shortly after his return. Two months later Aug.16/62...SA John Fain and Arnold Brown...in a stakeout in an car near Oswald's home..they approached him, as he walked down the street, Fain told the WC that was done so as not to embarrass him in his home..( 4 Hearings p.420)..He invited them in but they insisted the conversation be held in the car..
Apparently they wished to discuss something they did not want overheard.
LHO promised to report "any contacts or attempted contacts by Soviets under
suspicious circumstances or otherwise." What else did he promise them...and what was promised to him in return.?
Aug.9/63 New Orleans during the leaflet FPGC distribution, he was arrested , and strangley he requested and promptly received an interview with an FBI agent John Quigley.......FBI agent James P.Hosty's name, address, telephone number, and auto license were in LHO's personal notebook...This information was omitted in a Dec.23/63 FBI report to the WC..Seven weeks later they corrected their mistake.?
Hosty was assigned to investigate Oswald prior to the assassination. On the afternoon of Nov.22/63 he lamented to DPD Lt.Jack Revill "Jack, a communist killed President Kennedy....Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy....We had information that he was capable of this..."..WR V H 34,35)..Revill reported the statement in a written report on Nov.22/63...The statement was however kept in a locked drawer at the DPD station for five months..( Ft Worth Star Telegram: 02.09.75.)
Not until Oct.1975 did Chief of Police Jesse Curry admit to suppressing Revill's statement at the request of the FBI. He revealed the existance of the statement and the cover-up in a registered letter to Earl Warren on May 28/64. In the letter Curry states that he instructed Revill to keep his statement confidential after the police chief was requested to do so by J.Gordon Shanklin , then Special Agent-in-Charge of the Dallas FBI office...Contrary to the evidence, Hosty later denied the statement to the WC..( Report 442.)and that there was no information to justify a warning to the SS .The WC disagreed ..( Report 443) Hoover was furious with Hosty and gave him a disciplinary transfer to Kansas..with a cut in pay..("Time"11.03.75).Hoover waited till Hosty had testified before ordering the transfer lest Commission members learn of it and make an inquiry. (1V H 20 )..After his arrest, upon seeing Hosty ,Oswald being interrogated by Cap.Will Fritz, became enraged "he beat on the desk and went into a kind of tantrum" He told Hosty,"I know you .You accosted my wife on two occasions"..asked what he meant...he said " Well he threatened her." "He practically told her she would have to go back to Russia."
Agent Hosty also received the infamous note from Oswald, delivered to the FBI office..several weeks before the assassination...and it was destroyed..Hosty stated it read " If you have anything you want to learn about me, come talk to me directly.If you don't cease bothering my wife I will take appropriate action and report this to proper authorities"...the recepionist who took the note from Oswald quoted it as saying "Let this be a warning, I will blow up the FBI and the Dallas Police Department if you don't stop bothering my wife."..this information did not come out till 1975 and The House subcommittee ,at the time, immediately requested an investigation..and the testimoney it heard simply used passing the buck..tactics..
Hosty said that Shanklin ordered the destruction,of the note and his three page report made two hours after Oswald was killed by Ruby..on.24/63..Hosty said he tore it and flushed it down the toilet..Shanklin denied giving the order..said he didn't know there had been a note till 1975...But Agent Kenneth Howe testified that he personally showed the note to Shanklin..that weekend...Hosty said Howe was present...when Shanklin told him to destroy the note but Howe denied that....Hosty said he didn't tell the WC when he tesified because he had been ordered not to...by his superiors..not to volunteer any information." and they didn't ask me about it ."!! Now William C.Shanklin who headed the FBI in 75...told Time magazine 11.03.75.....that at least ten top officials at the FBI headquarters in Washington knew about the note..The New York Times 9.17.75...reported that top FBI officials ,"probably including former Director J. Edgar Hoover ."...ordered the destruction of the note" The Times attributed the report to a source it described as familiar with the meeting at which the decision to destroy the letter was made in order to avoid embarrassment to the Bureau....Did the note contain a warning of the pending assassination..??
This tiny bit of information points out the fact that the FBI was culpable in the assassination of John F.Kennedy....and there is much more available....
Hoover Was the FBI, being it's director for 39 years when he died May 1972, at the age of 77..any group contemplating the murder of the President required their assistance, and received it...by looking at the records...He was simply too powerful, and too valuable to be overlooked by the planners. Once the investigation was taken out of the legal authorities hands, where it should have remained, in Dallas, Texas...by the FBI...they headed any official investigation into the assassination..The co-operation of J.Edgar Hoover was imperative ,unless the force behind the murder was so awesome and so powerful that it was certain it could control him..?
The primary souce of his power was explained in simple terms by William C.Sullivan a 30 year verteran of the FBI at the time...
"He was very ,very powerful, unbelievably powerful..We don't ever want another man in that postion of power again.He was in there such a long time, and he gathered all the dirt that was present on people in high-ranking positions, all the irregularities ,not necessarily sex alone, but financial irregularities, or political chicanery. It doesn't have to be something of a sexual nature ,although that would be included..He was a genius at implying that he knew all this information, and sometimes he didn't know as much as he implied, but it didn't matter. Once it reached them that this implication had been made, damn it, they had a guilty conscience, and they may have done something that Hoover didn't know about, but they assumed he did know.They placed him in a position of power,and they were all afraid to get rid of him. I know Nixon was actually afraid of him.Knowledge is powerful, and he had knowledge of the most damaging kind, knowledge of people's misbehaviour."..Demaris "Argosy".
He was mentioned by Nixon to Dean on Feb.28/73 during one of the taped meetings..
President R.M.Nixon:
" (expletive deleted) Hoover was my crony .He was closer to me than Johnson, actulally though Johnson used him more. But as for Pat Gray,(expletive deleted) I never saw him."
John Dean
"While it might have been a lot of blue chips to the late Director, I think we would have been a lot better off during this whole Watergate thing if he had been alive.Because he knew how to handle ,that Bureau...knew how to keep them in bounds."
Nixon:
"Well, Hoover performed.He would have fought.That was the point .He would have defied a few people.He would have scared them to death.He has a file on everybody."
No doubt a massive sigh of relief went through Washington when Hoover died.
Following his death 35 filing drawers containing Hoover's personal files were moved from his office to his home and subsequently destroyed by Helen Gandy, his long time secretary...the destruction process took two months. ( Dallas Morning News..11.19.75...12.02.75..)
To many he was Mr.America....his legend grew for years, perpetuated by the FBI's public relations office ,and continued to grow until he was something of a demigod. To speak of him in any derogatory terms was nothing short of blasphemy ,and anyone doing so could be suspected of being a communist...In 75 the legend began to crumble and Americans started to see what type of man Hoover really was.Testimony before a Senate sub-committee revealed the faults in Hoover's character and the shocking instances of lawless acts carried out at his direction..a few.. "The Truth About Hoover" Time 12.22.75 )
"Instead of insulating his bureau from politically sensitive Presidents. Hoover eagerly complied with improper requests from the men in the White House, for information on potential opponents If a President failed to ask.....the Director often volunteered.He tapped telephones of Government officials on request, perused files of politicians unasked,volunteered tidbits of gossip. He was a petty man of towering personal hates.There was much more than a tinge of racism in his vicious vendetta against Martin Luther King Jr. He had to be pushed into hiring black agents for the bureau.His informers, infilitrators and wiretappers delved into the activities of even the most innocuous and nonviolent civil rights groups ,trampling on the right of citizens to express grievances against Government.His spies within potentially dangerous extremist groups sometimes provoked more violence than they prevented.
As an administrator, he was an erratic, unchallenged czar, banishing agents to Siberian posts on whimsy, terrorizing them with torrents of implausible rules, insisting on conformity of thought as well as dress."
He also presented the information of John F.Kennedy's Addisons desease to LBJ before the Democratic Convention ,in choosing it's new candidate for President...LBJ did not use it publicly, but made sure that the news was out....amongst certain people.
This was the type of man in charge of the FBI, when John F.Kennedy was President...and assassinated, and responsible for the gathering of the information on the murder.....and he also had had no use for the President...would he have had a reasonable motive, as he saw it to have him removed from office...?..Yes, his comtempt for the Kennedy's was well known in the nations capitol...It irked him to no end, that Robert, whom he particularly abhorred, and who was his superior as Attorney General...was born in 1924 ...and Hoover had come to the helm of the Bureau one year before....
Other than his dislike of the brothers, the only other possible motive that could be attributed to him would have been that the Kennedys wanted to remove him from his powerful position...it has been reported by associates of the President that after the 64
election,he planned to put the aging Hoover out to pasture..when he reached his 70th Birthday...on Jan.1/65.....( which LBJ did not)....But that plan seems to be somewhat unlikely when you consider the considerable files that Hoover had accumulated on them.....he is known to have had thick files on the Kennedy's personal lives ...
**On two occasions Hoover sent details of JFK's sexual personal files on his relations with other women to Richard Nixon for use in the Presidential campaigns; they were submitted for use in the 1960 campaign against JFK, and in 1971 for possible use against Edward Kennedy had he sought the Democratic nomination.**
Dallas Morning News 12.23.75..
Did Hoover possess the power and resources to kill the President ?? Yes... the resources and contacts at the Bureau's disposal were almost unlimited..
Continued in part 2..
Posted by: Bernice Moore Today, 07:21 PM
Part 2:
* Had Hoover been involved in planning the murder ,he would not have permitted the choice of patsy as being LHO...a man who Dallas and Texas officials would indicate immediately after the assassination was a paid FBI informer.This then raises a question: Did the assassination planners deliberately select a FBI informer as a Patsy in order to embarass and thereby neutralize Hoover and the FBI??
Could Hoover have manipulated a cover-up involving Federal agencies and authorities ? Quite possibley ,with his extensive knowledge of the sins of high government officials....Could Hoover have been powerful enough to persuade or command some of the highest officials to the government to perjure themselves before the American public? Only to a certain extent, for not, all the officials would have bowed before him.....he did have some "clean" enemies..who would never have yielded to the pressure of the demigod..Of all the individuals who have held the position of public trust ,Hoover was one of the most powerful, but the execution of the President and the en-suing cover-up required far more than the power and influence this one individual could muster from his files...
While Hoover may have known JFK was to be murdered ,and did play a central role in the cover-up, there is nothing to suggest that the plot originated with the FBI Director....
If the Commission had decided to publish it's false report"in the public interest"...as the better part of descretion it could then be viewed as a delegation of the civilian leaders of the country accepting the terms laid down by the Military...
Who would benefit from Earl Warren who was a very respected liberal and a loved man, who led the Supreme Court..and conducted the secret hearings of the Commission....why and what purpose would be served in having such a liberal and distinguished man sponsor the Warren Commission Report...??? Recall from the beginning it revealed itself to be a compiliation of lies and distortion of the truth..Congress was also represented on the WC.. and Congress remained quiet and raised no queries in face of the majority of it's citizens believing in a conspiracy..The Commission was all so transparant it appeared to distort the view of the american citizens in the years that followed ,to have them question and have little faith left if any in their Government proccess, ...
In the book by Jim Moore, "The Day The President Was Shot"..(" a well written but inaccurate book which is, essentially, the Warren Report in narrative form"...Shaw..Harris)...
Bishop tells the story of Officer Ira Gearhart who was a member of the Presidential party, carrying a metal suitcase which carried the all important electronic apparatus so that if needed the President could call, in code, a nuclear strike..He was called the Bagman , he had to remember the combination for the safe dial that opened the Bag, and stay at all times never more than a few seconds away from the President..within the bag there were various bulky packets, each having wax seals...and the signatures of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...The second contained what appeared to be gaudy pages of close text with what looked like color cartoons..more like horror comics as they had been carefully designed so that any one of Kennedy's three military aides could tell him quickly how many millions of casualties would result from Retaliation Able, Retaliation Baker, Retaliation Charlie, etc...Captain Tazwell Shepard had prepared these, what were called the Doomsday Books.......In one were cryptic numbers which would permit the President to set up a crude hot line to the Prime Minister of the U.K...and France on a four minutes notice..
Gearharts only job was to follow the President ,stick around and lug the "Bag" and of course remember the combinations...He and his ghastly burden were necessary...In Harry Truman's time, the on slot of the Cold War, it would have taken him four hours to think things through,by JFK's watch, it has been reduced to 15 minutes and was shrinking...
...Bishop relates how Gearhart becomes separated from the VIP portion of the motorcade as it raced to Parkland...and after arriving he did not know where the President was nor whom he was..The SS kept him away from the booth where LBJ had been placed...and that Johnson and Gearhart had been separated again, when LBJ raced to Love Field..." Somehow in the flight from the hospital ,the new President had overlooked the Bagman and the Major General Chester V.Clifton, who understood the coded types of retaliation..If at this time the Soviet Union had launched a millile attack , referred to in the DOD ....In Manchester's "Death of a President"....He states the advance man for the Texas trip was Warrent Officer Art Bales (Sturdy) 30yr old vet who new every executive in the Southwest Bell Telephone Co...he could bug any line from the nearest manhole or... conduit , and had all the facilities that enabled him to scramble almost any converstaion and disconnect it without notice...The President needed one clear circuit to Washington when he was out of town..at all times..which means that Bales could pull the plug more or less on any Cabinet Member ,if necessary...In the motorcades Bales would ride in the Signals control car,and he states by tradition this was the last car in the caravan , and that his companion there would be a swarthy Gearhart..When he tried to get into Minor Medicine where LBJ was waiting but he was unknown to the VPs men and was kept secluded in booth 8...until Emory Roberts saw him and identified him..when leaving Parkland, he had forced himself and his bag into a policeman's lap.....Stoughton took photographs of LBJs swearing in, and though he wished he were elsewhere he dutifully performs his duty, in one of the photos can be seen Gearhart's spectacles, identified by two tiny points of light..
When Warrant Officer Ira Gearhart was separated from Johnson, it would not necessarily have been accidentally...It could have been deliberately arranged by the military personnal at the upper level of the plot..They may not have trusted Johnson with the steel 30lb.. suitcase that held the key to a retaliatory attack, perhaps it was imperative that for the first few hours following the transfer of power, that the planners have complete control of all aspects...foreign and domestic.
It is hard to believe the United States was off guard in anyway, within the Pentagon
where total control was concentrated, the high military officials were in command,
they were aware, and prepared for any situation that might arise from foreign or
a domestic source...
In Bishop's book, it contains another revealing incident: "Officials at the Pentagon were calling the White House switchboard at the Dallas-Sheraton Hotel asking who was now in command. An Officer grabbed the phone and assured the Pentagon that Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara and the Joint Chief of Staff ' are now the President".".......Perhaps because the assassination was on a need to know basis ,the party that called was a low echelon officer who was unaware of what was happening..It was interesting that the communication officer who took the phone to announce the transfer of power was a member of the Presidential party and was fully aware of what was taking place.....
Communications of all kinds seemed to have been deemed important by those who planned and carried out the assassination..Several strange incidents that involved communications in Dallas..Washington...and abroad occurred..that day...
They of course have been attributed to coincidence , but what are the odds.?
In Dallas the police radio was immobilized at 12.29 pm Channel One of the DP radio system was rendered inoperative when someone within the dept. keyed his radio microphone button for four minutes, making it impossible for any police communication from the kill zone during the critical moments...and immediately afterward.....Channel One was reserved that day for those officers in the security of the President..From 12.29 pm till 12.33 pm the only audible sound on the police audio tape is the rumbling of a motorcycle engine...In Dallas the press telephone within the motorcade was immobilized..At 12.34 the radiophone in the press car carrying the members of the wire services was rendered inoperative, also.....In fact a fight broke out between UPI's Merriman Smith and Jack Bell of the AP.Bell finally managed to grab it after Smith has issued the initial report that shots had been fired , but to Bell's dismay, the line inexplicably went dead..
In Washington there was a crucial breakdown of communications when the telephone system ,in the capital went out at approximately 12.33..pm..It was almost an hour before full telephone service resumed ..It was explained ,that it was due to overloaded phone lines, was the Pentagon affected by this shut down??
Abroad, a teletype machine aboard a military aircraft carrying the Cabinet members to Japan began chattering the first report that shots had been fired, there was a moment of panic ,fearing an international plot, and with codes and procedures for such and emergency,Sec. of State Dean Rusk and Press Sec. Pierre Salinger attempted to contact the White House for verification..The did reach the Situation Room but were prohibited from authenticating the data because the "official code book was missing"..from it's special place aboard the plane.
After a futile search the Sec of State was forced to break procedures with coded communications ,Rusk was forced to break the code and communicate with the WH in plain English..
This was not happenstance that the President, the Vice President and six members of the Cabinet were away from the centre of power on Nov.22/63.It seems as though it was by design that Sec. of State Dean Rusk, Treasury Sec. Douglas Dillon, Interior Sec. Stewart Udall, and Labor Sec.W.W.Wirtz, as well as other administration officials like Press Sec. Salinger, were trapped on an airplane over the Pacific at such a critical time..These men perhaps thought they represented the true power of the nation but by all authority that day it belonged to the powerful military chieftans deep within the Pentagon....
As an additive....
In Hawaii on Nov. 21/63 , the day before......shortly after lunch Honolulu time , U.S.Ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge made a long distance call from the lobby of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel..Now this distinguished diplomat had acces to phones in privacy from his room or the military circuits at no cost....Yet he was seen, according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin, with a stack of quarters in his hand pitting coin after coin into a pay phone??
Mr.Lodge was in Honolulu for a nine hour summit conference on Nam with Sec. of Defence Robert McNamara ,Sec of State Dean Rusk, financial aid chief David E.Bell ,Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D.Taylor, Admiral Harry D.Felt, and General Paul D.Harkins, then the Commander of U.S.Forces in Vietnam..
Lodge was the only person of the seven member policy-making body to stay at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.....the others stayed in the military quarters.
This group of high level political and military policymakers had just decided to step-up military operations against communist insurgents in Nam.
This decision was in Direct Conflict with Presidentt Kennedy's announced intention
of Oct.63..to withdraw 1000 U.S.military personnel from Sth.Vietnam, reducing U.S.troop strength there to approximately 14.500..
Three days later Lodge met with the new President and was instructed by LBJ to return to Vietnam and inform the Saigon government of the new U.S policy pf strong military support for South Vietnam..
But from Washington......on the afternoon of Nov. 22/63......somewhere high over the United States, the new President Lyndon Baines Johnson and the passengers aboard AF 1....received the news that the assassination had been performed by one individual and no conspriacy existed.....The news came not from the scene of the crime,Dallas.....but from Washington D.C....specifically, it came from either McGeorge Bundy or Commander Oliver Hallet in the Situation Room of the White House Communications Agency...........manned by military personnel and receiving much of it's information from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in the Pentagon.....
and Last but not least there was in the air over the U.S a mobile military force able to be thrown into action anywhere in the U.S where needed.......if trouble developed..The largest peacetime airlift in history had taken place, Operation Big Lift....had moved an entire combat division from Texas to Germany for thirty days just one month previous.....On the day of President Kennedy was killed, the last third of the returning troops were in the air at the time of the shooting...estimated to be a brigade combat team armed with personal weapons, which could have been deployed anywhere into action, in the nation on a very short notice.....if perhaps needed.....
But this was of course all coincidence, if not then it was an indication of the careful planning undertaken by the Military ......That day in Dallas.....
The question has been asked many times...Did the Military kill it's own Commander In Chief.??
Perhaps this isn't so far fetched.
Between the years of 1962 and 1954 there were 16 successful and 12 unsuccess ful military coups around the globe... From WW2 to 1961 there were no less than 27 major military uprisings around the world, that swept away their civilian governments.
Successful: Burma 3/2/62 ,Argentina,3/28/52, Peru 7/18/62,Togo 1/13/63, Iraq 2/8/63, Peru 3/3/63,Syria 3/8/63,Guatemala 3/30/63,Equador 7/11/63, Congo 8/12/63, Dominican Republic 9/25.63,Honduras 10/3/63, Vietnam 11/1/63, Brazil 4/1/64, Laos 4/19/64, Bolivia 11/3/64
Dwight D.Eisenhower was aware that (what he called ) the Military-Industrial Complex was actually running the nation..But not till he was leaving office did he dare voice his concern.." On the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought ,by the military-industrial complex."
Then in 1960 there occurred the election of a peace seeking ,idealistic man,a former Navy lieutenant..and for the first time since WW2 the military was perhaps threatened by a President, who as such, intended to execute his role as he saw fit, and search for that peace..
In 1962 the thought of a possible military takeover in the U.S.,was dominant in the minds of many public officials, and it was a widely discussed topic. Much of this had been generated by the best selling novel "Seven Days in May" by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W.Bailey...which later became a popular movie, made at the request of President Kennedy, who wanted it filmed as a warning to the nation..
This book which depicted a U.S President fighting a secret military junta that seeks to seize control of the nation, presented an idea that was taken somewhat seriously in the nation's capitol..In the 15 years since the second world war the military had emerged as the dominant force in the government ,a number of officials ,civilian and former military ,had publicly voiced alarm..over their growing power and influence..In 1961 the Sec.of the Navy in a conversation with one of the authors of the book ruminated on the state of the nation, unknown to him ,his thoughts were amplified and placed in the mind of the fictional President in the popular novel."I'm worried ,up until 1945 an individual could have some feeling even in a world war that he had some control over his own existence. But when that atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, something happened .People began to feel helpless....Now, with hydrogen bombs all over the world, the individual feels even more at a loss to help control his own destiny.You can sense the feeling everywhere."......."The Secretary went on to say that in a monolithic state,such as Russia, it doesn't matter much what the individual feels .But in a democracy ,where leaders govern only by the collective consent of millions of individuals, the attitude of the single citizen is crucial.If people no longer believe they can influence events ,he argued, democracy is in danger,and a dictator could take over. There is no magic in the American System. It can be preserved only by millions of citizens working day in and day out to nourish a system that was then 185 years old.But did Americans still work at it? Or, he wondered,were they beginning to give up." ..The man who headed the most powerful peacetime navy in history ,later resigned and returned to his home state and was elected Governor...and so it was that on Nov.22/63...former Navy Secretary John B.Connally became a victim in the six-second ambush that killed President John F.Kennedy....
As Ike had continued on, "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exisits and will persist..We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."
Just two months after taking office Ike's young successor issued a similar warning when he sent Congress his first message on the defense budget " Neither our strategy nor our psychology as a nation, and certainly not our ecomony...must become dependent upon the permanent maintenance of a large military establishment"..... "Our arms must be subject to ultimate civilian control and command at all times, in war as well as peace."....
Did it happen in America ? Did the military establishment covertly gain control of the government reins it had acquired in the latter stages of WW2.?..
It has always been difficult for a democracy to return to that democracy after a prolonged period of a form of dictatorship that always comes with war..It was difficult after WW1, and in some ways it barely made it back.but after WW2 it seems it may not have ..some believe that the military took control, or the reins, of the government during the latter stages of the second world war when President Franklin D.Roosevelt was, tired, very ill, and dying, and with the advent of the Atomic Bomb.
Kennedy himself had considered the possibility of some sort of military coup..In his memoirs Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev tells of a key meeting which occurred during the Cuban Military crisis..with RFK and Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin..Khrushchev quoted RFK as saying..."The President is in a grave situation. We are under very severe stress..In fact we are under pressure from our military to use force against Cuba......That is why the President is appealing directly to Chairman Khrushchev for his help in liquidating the conflict. If the situation continues much longer,........The President is not sure that the military will not overthrow him and seize power. The American army could get out of control."
In "The Pleasure of His Company"..by JFK's confidant Red Fay he states " We were out on the Honey Fitz again the next day, and the President said he had read "Seven Days In May"..the previous night.He discussed the possibility of such a military takeover very calmly ......"" It's possible. It could happen in this country, but the conditions would have to be just right. If, for example ,the country had a young President, and he had a Bay of Pigs, there would be a certain uneasiness. Maybe the military would do a little criticizing behind his back, but this would be written off as the usual military dissatisfaction with civilian control. Then if there were another Bay of Pigs ,the reaction of the country would be, "Is he too young and inexperienced ?". The military would almost feel that it was their patriotic obligation to stand ready to preserve the integrity of the nation ,and only God knows just what segment of democracy they would be defending if they overthrew the elected establishment." Then as if steeling himself for the final challenge, he continued, "Then, if there were a third Bay of Pigs, it could happen.:...."Pausing long enough for all of us to assess the significance of his comment, he concluded with the old Navy phrase, " But it won't happen on my watch."......Did it??
President Kennedy more so than perhaps any President in the history of the U.S. was in conflict with the military and intelligence combined.At the time of the assassination the interests of the Pentagon and the CIA coincided....as Jim Garrison stated .."the CIA had become the clandestine arm of the military-industrial complex.." Later it seemed that a rift ?? of some sort could have developed, as the Military continued to concentrate it's efforts against Communism in Southeast Asia and the CIA began to broaden it's base of operations and expanded it's power within the United Sates, or was this their plan????
JFK had seen nearly two decades of increasing militarism and he saw the danger that exisited from that excessive power of America's warfare interests in the Pentagon as well as the illegal, covert operations of the CIA abroad and domestically..He sought to place civilian control over both, but in the years after WW2 these two sectors of the goverment had become so powerful that they answered to no one...not even the President.
Briefly:
The Bay of Pigs:Ill conceived, badly executed attempt in Apr.61..to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro..the idea being conceived by Nixon during Ike's administration, and three months after Kennedy had taken office.
Conflict:
Kennedy's failure to provide military support , air cover by US war planes,resulting in the aborted ingression.He incurred both the wrath and the hostility of the Pentagon and the CIA..later he initiated a house cleaning of the Agency and demanded the resignations of, Allen Dulles,( later a member of the WC.).Dep. Director General C.Cabell, (his brother was Mayor of Dallas at the time of the assassination)..Kennedy was quoted as stating he wished "
to splinter the CIA into 1,000 pieces and scatter it to the winds."..He was determined to curb it's power and independence, and discussed plans to place it under the authority of the Attorney General....(who happened to be his brother Robert F.Kennedy.)
The Cuban Missile Crisis:
Aerial reconnaissance photographs showing Soviet long range missile bases under construction in Cuba....90 miles off shore..... a nuclear attack could be launched on much of the US..and the Western hemisphere..at the height of the crisis Soviet ships carrying additional weapons returned to Russian ports..and Khrushchev announced that they would be dismantled..and Armageddon was averted..
Conflict:
For several years the Pentagon along with the CIA had put forth a considerable amount of time, money,and effort outlining and planning the attempted assassination of Castro,and the taking back of Cuba..and to make matters considerably worse after the BOPs disaster had ordered all assassination attempts on Castro concelled and plans for detente were initiated.
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty:
In Sept.61.The Soviets suddenly resumed nuclear tests, breaking an unofficial test ban that had lasted nearly three years..JFK urged the Russians and Great Britain in a agreement not to conduct tests in the atmosphere..When the Russians did not, Kennedy resumed underground tests....in March 62 after extensive studies of Soviet advances he reluctantly ordered new atmospheric tests ..He announced another conference, in Jun 63 aimed at producing a test ban treaty..on Aug.5/63..after lengthy negotiations the three signed a limited nuclear test ban treaty forbidding atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons...this treaty also forbid no further testing underwater........it was formally ratified on Sep.1/63...and it eased Cold War tensions..
Conflict:
Authorities ,many from the military community appeared before the Senate Committee considering the Treaty in August, to vehemently oppose the President's words of support for the measure..Citing distrust of the Soviets ,the
Joint Chiefs of Staff declared themselves opposed to the treaty "under almost any terms." Their advice was overruled by President Kennedy..
Efforts to End the Cold War:
Situation and Conflict...In 1963 the Pentagon and the CIA wanted deep involvement in Vietnam and their thrust had become almost irreversible.Kennedy by that time had begun to resist this thrust and had changed his earlier decisions recommended to him by the Joint Chiefs of Staff , permitting the US to have limited involvement.He had become convinced by former military commanders , particularly retired General Douglas Mac Arthur,against allowing the US to become involved in a land war with her troops..in South East Asia.In June 63, Kennedy was in deep conflict with his military advisors...he ordered Sec. of Defense
Robert MacNamarra and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Maxwell Taylor to announce from the White House steps ,that all American forces were going to be withdrawn from Vietnam by 1965....By the summer of 63, Kennedy had made his final decision , no involvement in Vietnam....and eventual withdrawl, totally of all US forces ....
This was a fatal decision ...the American warfare machine in Asia had gained too much momentum to be reversed: men more powerful than Kennedy had already decided the policy with regard to Vietnam.....
In what was perhaps his last formal executive order, President Kennedy announced his intentions...to withdraw 1,000......US military personnel from South Vietnam.."Within 72 hours of Kennedy's brutal death :new President Lyndon Baines Johnson completely reversed his predecessor's policy toward Southeast Asia...Following the eulogy for John F.Kennedy in the rotunda of the nations capitol, Johnson met with US ambassador to Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge and instructed him to return to Vietnam and inform the Saigon government that the United States was going to provide South Vietnam with strong military support .."
The secret build up then began ,the rest is history.....58,000 Americans dead......
300,000 Americans wounded......2 million civilians dead......billions of dollars wasted conducting an immoral, senseless, and undeclared war which was prolonged by the deception of Presidents, Johnson and Nixon by their military advisors.....
Review:
Recall the conditions that would have had to exist for a military coup d'etat in the Unites States.......as outlined by President Kennedy himself........
1..the country would have to be lead by a young President ( Kennedy in fact was at that time the youngest man ever to hold that office.)
2..there would have to be a Bay of Pigs ( this occurred in April,1961.)
3..military criticism of the President would follow.(it did.)
4..if there was another Bay of Pigs ,the military would consider overthrowing
the elected establishment .( the Cuban Missile Crisis may be considered "another
Bay of PIgs.").
5..if there was a third Bay of Pigs it could happen..........(This could be represented by the signing of the Test Ban Treaty against the advice of the Joint Chiefs of staff.)
Therefore the conditions outlined by President John F.Kennedy were approximated during his administration....his decisions on Vietnam......ended with his death.
Information from:
Fletcher Knebel & Charles Bailey .."Military Control Can It Happen Here," Look magazine
9/11/62.
Arthur Schlesinger: "The Imperial Presidency"
President Dwight David Eisenhower: "Farewell Address", 1/17/61
Khrushchev" "Khrushchev Remembers".
Jim Garrison: "A Heritage of Stone."
Wise & Ross " "The Invisible Government".
Branch & Crile "The Kennedy Vendetta.: Harper's 8/75.
Schlesinger: "A Thousand Days".
Elie Abel : "The Missile Crisis"..
Penn Jones: "Forgive My Grief".Vol.IV
Schurmann,Scott & Zelnick:"The Politics of Escalation in Vietnam".
Jim Bishop:" The Day Kennedy Was Shot."
"Dallas Radio Tapes"..11/22/63
William Manchester:"The Death of a President".p.62..63..237..321
Penn Jones:"Forgive My Grief IV".
Theodore White:"The Making of a President".
This is from the work of....
"Cover-Up".......by .J.Gary Shaw with Larry R.Harris 1976-1992
DOD: Dept of Defense
SS: Secret Service.
The question has been asked many times...Did the Military kill it's own Commander In Chief.??
Perhaps this isn't so far fetched.
Between the years of 1962 and 1954 there were 16 successful and 12 unsuccess ful military coups around the globe... From WW2 to 1961 there were no less than 27 major military uprisings around the world, that swept away their civilian governments.
Successful: Burma 3/2/62 ,Argentina,3/28/52, Peru 7/18/62,Togo 1/13/63, Iraq 2/8/63, Peru 3/3/63,Syria 3/8/63,Guatemala 3/30/63,Equador 7/11/63, Congo 8/12/63, Dominican Republic 9/25.63,Honduras 10/3/63, Vietnam 11/1/63, Brazil 4/1/64, Laos 4/19/64, Bolivia 11/3/64
Dwight D.Eisenhower was aware that (what he called ) the Military-Industrial Complex was actually running the nation..But not till he was leaving office did he dare voice his concern.." On the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought ,by the military-industrial complex."
Then in 1960 there occurred the election of a peace seeking ,idealistic man,a former Navy lieutenant..and for the first time since WW2 the military was perhaps threatened by a President, who as such, intended to execute his role as he saw fit, and search for that peace..
In 1962 the thought of a possible military takeover in the U.S.,was dominant in the minds of many public officials, and it was a widely discussed topic. Much of this had been generated by the best selling novel "Seven Days in May" by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W.Bailey...which later became a popular movie, made at the request of President Kennedy, who wanted it filmed as a warning to the nation..
This book which depicted a U.S President fighting a secret military junta that seeks to seize control of the nation, presented an idea that was taken somewhat seriously in the nation's capitol..In the 15 years since the second world war the military had emerged as the dominant force in the government ,a number of officials ,civilian and former military ,had publicly voiced alarm..over their growing power and influence..In 1961 the Sec.of the Navy in a conversation with one of the authors of the book ruminated on the state of the nation, unknown to him ,his thoughts were amplified and placed in the mind of the fictional President in the popular novel."I'm worried ,up until 1945 an individual could have some feeling even in a world war that he had some control over his own existence. But when that atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, something happened .People began to feel helpless....Now, with hydrogen bombs all over the world, the individual feels even more at a loss to help control his own destiny.You can sense the feeling everywhere."......."The Secretary went on to say that in a monolithic state,such as Russia, it doesn't matter much what the individual feels .But in a democracy ,where leaders govern only by the collective consent of millions of individuals, the attitude of the single citizen is crucial.If people no longer believe they can influence events ,he argued, democracy is in danger,and a dictator could take over. There is no magic in the American System. It can be preserved only by millions of citizens working day in and day out to nourish a system that was then 185 years old.But did Americans still work at it? Or, he wondered,were they beginning to give up." ..The man who headed the most powerful peacetime navy in history ,later resigned and returned to his home state and was elected Governor...and so it was that on Nov.22/63...former Navy Secretary John B.Connally became a victim in the six-second ambush that killed President John F.Kennedy....
As Ike had continued on, "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exisits and will persist..We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."
Just two months after taking office Ike's young successor issued a similar warning when he sent Congress his first message on the defense budget " Neither our strategy nor our psychology as a nation, and certainly not our ecomony...must become dependent upon the permanent maintenance of a large military establishment"..... "Our arms must be subject to ultimate civilian control and command at all times, in war as well as peace."....
Did it happen in America ? Did the military establishment covertly gain control of the government reins it had acquired in the latter stages of WW2.?..
It has always been difficult for a democracy to return to that democracy after a prolonged period of a form of dictatorship that always comes with war..It was difficult after WW1, and in some ways it barely made it back.but after WW2 it seems it may not have ..some believe that the military took control, or the reins, of the government during the latter stages of the second world war when President Franklin D.Roosevelt was, tired, very ill, and dying, and with the advent of the Atomic Bomb.
Kennedy himself had considered the possibility of some sort of military coup..In his memoirs Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev tells of a key meeting which occurred during the Cuban Military crisis..with RFK and Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin..Khrushchev quoted RFK as saying..."The President is in a grave situation. We are under very severe stress..In fact we are under pressure from our military to use force against Cuba......That is why the President is appealing directly to Chairman Khrushchev for his help in liquidating the conflict. If the situation continues much longer,........The President is not sure that the military will not overthrow him and seize power. The American army could get out of control."
In "The Pleasure of His Company"..by JFK's confidant Red Fay he states " We were out on the Honey Fitz again the next day, and the President said he had read "Seven Days In May"..the previous night.He discussed the possibility of such a military takeover very calmly ......"" It's possible. It could happen in this country, but the conditions would have to be just right. If, for example ,the country had a young President, and he had a Bay of Pigs, there would be a certain uneasiness. Maybe the military would do a little criticizing behind his back, but this would be written off as the usual military dissatisfaction with civilian control. Then if there were another Bay of Pigs ,the reaction of the country would be, "Is he too young and inexperienced ?". The military would almost feel that it was their patriotic obligation to stand ready to preserve the integrity of the nation ,and only God knows just what segment of democracy they would be defending if they overthrew the elected establishment." Then as if steeling himself for the final challenge, he continued, "Then, if there were a third Bay of Pigs, it could happen.:...."Pausing long enough for all of us to assess the significance of his comment, he concluded with the old Navy phrase, " But it won't happen on my watch."......Did it??
President Kennedy more so than perhaps any President in the history of the U.S. was in conflict with the military and intelligence combined.At the time of the assassination the interests of the Pentagon and the CIA coincided....as Jim Garrison stated .."the CIA had become the clandestine arm of the military-industrial complex.." Later it seemed that a rift ?? of some sort could have developed, as the Military continued to concentrate it's efforts against Communism in Southeast Asia and the CIA began to broaden it's base of operations and expanded it's power within the United Sates, or was this their plan????
JFK had seen nearly two decades of increasing militarism and he saw the danger that exisited from that excessive power of America's warfare interests in the Pentagon as well as the illegal, covert operations of the CIA abroad and domestically..He sought to place civilian control over both, but in the years after WW2 these two sectors of the goverment had become so powerful that they answered to no one...not even the President.
Briefly:
The Bay of Pigs:Ill conceived, badly executed attempt in Apr.61..to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro..the idea being conceived by Nixon during Ike's administration, and three months after Kennedy had taken office.
Conflict:
Kennedy's failure to provide military support , air cover by US war planes,resulting in the aborted ingression.He incurred both the wrath and the hostility of the Pentagon and the CIA..later he initiated a house cleaning of the Agency and demanded the resignations of, Allen Dulles,( later a member of the WC.).Dep. Director General C.Cabell, (his brother was Mayor of Dallas at the time of the assassination)..Kennedy was quoted as stating he wished "
to splinter the CIA into 1,000 pieces and scatter it to the winds."..He was determined to curb it's power and independence, and discussed plans to place it under the authority of the Attorney General....(who happened to be his brother Robert F.Kennedy.)
The Cuban Missile Crisis:
Aerial reconnaissance photographs showing Soviet long range missile bases under construction in Cuba....90 miles off shore..... a nuclear attack could be launched on much of the US..and the Western hemisphere..at the height of the crisis Soviet ships carrying additional weapons returned to Russian ports..and Khrushchev announced that they would be dismantled..and Armageddon was averted..
Conflict:
For several years the Pentagon along with the CIA had put forth a considerable amount of time, money,and effort outlining and planning the attempted assassination of Castro,and the taking back of Cuba..and to make matters considerably worse after the BOPs disaster had ordered all assassination attempts on Castro concelled and plans for detente were initiated.
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty:
In Sept.61.The Soviets suddenly resumed nuclear tests, breaking an unofficial test ban that had lasted nearly three years..JFK urged the Russians and Great Britain in a agreement not to conduct tests in the atmosphere..When the Russians did not, Kennedy resumed underground tests....in March 62 after extensive studies of Soviet advances he reluctantly ordered new atmospheric tests ..He announced another conference, in Jun 63 aimed at producing a test ban treaty..on Aug.5/63..after lengthy negotiations the three signed a limited nuclear test ban treaty forbidding atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons...this treaty also forbid no further testing underwater........it was formally ratified on Sep.1/63...and it eased Cold War tensions..
Conflict:
Authorities ,many from the military community appeared before the Senate Committee considering the Treaty in August, to vehemently oppose the President's words of support for the measure..Citing distrust of the Soviets ,the
Joint Chiefs of Staff declared themselves opposed to the treaty "under almost any terms." Their advice was overruled by President Kennedy..
Efforts to End the Cold War:
Situation and Conflict...In 1963 the Pentagon and the CIA wanted deep involvement in Vietnam and their thrust had become almost irreversible.Kennedy by that time had begun to resist this thrust and had changed his earlier decisions recommended to him by the Joint Chiefs of Staff , permitting the US to have limited involvement.He had become convinced by former military commanders , particularly retired General Douglas Mac Arthur,against allowing the US to become involved in a land war with her troops..in South East Asia.In June 63, Kennedy was in deep conflict with his military advisors...he ordered Sec. of Defense
Robert MacNamarra and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Maxwell Taylor to announce from the White House steps ,that all American forces were going to be withdrawn from Vietnam by 1965....By the summer of 63, Kennedy had made his final decision , no involvement in Vietnam....and eventual withdrawl, totally of all US forces ....
This was a fatal decision ...the American warfare machine in Asia had gained too much momentum to be reversed: men more powerful than Kennedy had already decided the policy with regard to Vietnam.....
In what was perhaps his last formal executive order, President Kennedy announced his intentions...to withdraw 1,000......US military personnel from South Vietnam.."Within 72 hours of Kennedy's brutal death :new President Lyndon Baines Johnson completely reversed his predecessor's policy toward Southeast Asia...Following the eulogy for John F.Kennedy in the rotunda of the nations capitol, Johnson met with US ambassador to Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge and instructed him to return to Vietnam and inform the Saigon government that the United States was going to provide South Vietnam with strong military support .."
The secret build up then began ,the rest is history.....58,000 Americans dead......
300,000 Americans wounded......2 million civilians dead......billions of dollars wasted conducting an immoral, senseless, and undeclared war which was prolonged by the deception of Presidents, Johnson and Nixon by their military advisors.....
Review:
Recall the conditions that would have had to exist for a military coup d'etat in the Unites States.......as outlined by President Kennedy himself........
1..the country would have to be lead by a young President ( Kennedy in fact was at that time the youngest man ever to hold that office.)
2..there would have to be a Bay of Pigs ( this occurred in April,1961.)
3..military criticism of the President would follow.(it did.)
4..if there was another Bay of Pigs ,the military would consider overthrowing
the elected establishment .( the Cuban Missile Crisis may be considered "another
Bay of PIgs.").
5..if there was a third Bay of Pigs it could happen..........(This could be represented by the signing of the Test Ban Treaty against the advice of the Joint Chiefs of staff.)
Therefore the conditions outlined by President John F.Kennedy were approximated during his administration....his decisions on Vietnam......ended with his death.
Information from:
Fletcher Knebel & Charles Bailey .."Military Control Can It Happen Here," Look magazine
9/11/62.
Arthur Schlesinger: "The Imperial Presidency"
President Dwight David Eisenhower: "Farewell Address, 1/17/61
Khrushchev" "Khrushchev Remembers".
Jim Garrison: "A Heritage of Stone."
Wise & Ross " "The Invisible Government".
Branch & Crile "The Kennedy Vendetta.: Harper's 8/75.
Schlesinger: "A Thousand Days".
Elie Abel : "The Missile Crisis"..
Penn Jones: "Forgive My Grief".Vol.IV
Schurmann,Scott & Zelnick:"The Politics of Escalation in Vietnam".
Gery Shaw: "Cover Up"..
***************************
The murder of President Kennedy could have been the function of a top-level military-industrial-intelligence faction of the United States government.
When President L.B.Johnson chose the members of the Warren Commission, some had long-standing allegiance to these factions...
Chief Justice Earl Warren: Though revered by some.....Was a most important source and mover in organizing the first concentration camps in the U.S. after they entered WW 2 interpreting the Constitution as allowing the imprisonment of innocent American citizens whose ancestry happened to be Japanese...thereby being loyal to the military.
On Dec.9/63 Nicholas Katzenbach sent a memorandum to Warren stating that copies of the FBI Report was being sent to him and the other members of the WC..on the assassination..
The FBI report stated :" one of the bullets had entered just below his shoulder to the right of the spinal column at an angle of 45 to 60 degrees downward, that there was no point of exit." ....as of Dec.9/63....Earl Warren and the government therefore could not have such a scenario as the "Magic Bullet"....the three-bullet lone assassin theory..as ( there was no point of exit).......if the government were innocent and Earl Warren was not in compliance...this alone proved evidence of conspiracy...
The memo further mentioned "....that the latest gallop poll shows that over half the American people believe that Oswald acted on part of a conspiracy, in shooting President Kennedy ..I think therefore ,the Commission should consider releasing or allowing the Dept of Justice to release, a short press statement which would briefly make the following points."
"" The FBI report through scientific examination of evidence ,testimony and intensive investigation ,established beyond a reasonable doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy on Nov. 22,1963..The FBI made exhaustive investigation into whether Oswald may have conspired with or been assisted by any organization ,group,or person foreign or domestic ,in carrying out this dastardly act..To date this aspect of the investigation has been negative.""
Warren accepted what to some appear to be orders ,and did a great disservice to the country and to the Constitution but a great service to the MIC, he also showed contempt for the American public whom the majority had stated loud and clear that they believed there was a conspiracy.....the American people were to be misled, lied to, confused, and manipulated, and also pay the cost as taxpayers for the Warren Commission, that carried his name.....he continued with his charade..and pretended to be looking for the truth but in reality he had apparently accepted his orders and was in compliance...Why ?..whatever his reasons...he then proceeded to allow the fantasy to be created....By not informing the citizens of the United States ,of the lies held within this announcement was he was guilty of obstruction of justice ?
Allen W.Dulles: Was Director of the CIA for 8 years 53/61..until President Kennedy fired him, after the BOPs fiasco.Under Dulles the CIA grew and developed it's enormous power .He had been a master spy in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
--the U.S. Intelligence agency during WW 2 and the forerunner of the CIA...He was credited with two outstanding feats: the penetration of the German Abwehr (Hitler's Intelligence Service) and the negotiating the surrender of German troops in Italy...
Here was the consummate cold warrior..on Jan21/64, there was a secret executive meeting of the WC..Marina Oswald was going to give evidence that LHO was a Soviet Spy:...a snip.....of the meeting....
Russell stated" That will blow the lid if she testifies to that." Dulles stated he knew Isaac Don Levine who was with Life Magazine, who had the assigment and meeting with Marina..the article was never published , Dulles stated "I can get ahold of him and have a friendly talk." Now why would Dulles want to potect the Soviets, if LHO was an agent ? He and his brother Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, certainly had been willing to carry the U.S to the brink of nuclear war in post WW 2 times...so why now the reluctance.... to invole Russia ?
In Gaeton Fonzi's book, you will see that he has traced the assassination to the CIA and President Kennedy had fired Allen Dulles....as the head of such..therefore could Dulles have had the knowledge that LHO was the patsy, and that the CIA had carried out the assassination ? He had an interest in protecting the agency, he had reason to hate Kennedy and his courage for opposing the intelligence and military on Cold War policy... in appointing Dulles to the WC, President Johnson had placed him in a position of obstructing justice, which he then carried out....there could not be an investigation that would lead to the CIA...
(The information that has been researched on LHO, points to him being a U.S Intelligent Agent...the same government agencies who created the Marxist cover for him, were more than likely involved in the assassination.)
John J.McCloy: Was the Assistant Secretary of War from April 1941..to Nov.1945.
President of the World Bank from 1947-49 and the US Military Governor and High Commissioner to Germany from 1949-51..
Gerald R.Ford: A staunch ally of the military establishment and the Pentagon.He had the reputation on the Hill as the CIA's best friend in Congress..He became President and chose the members of the Rockefeller Commission ,and accepted that commissions whitewashed report..he also withheld it's findings on the CIA's alleged
assassination plots..He did everything in his power to block the release of the Church Committee findings about the CIA's assassination plots against foreign leaders and it was Ford who steadfastly defended the Agency and harshly criticized those in Congress and the media who called for vast reforms and tighter reins to control the CIA.....and it was Ford who moved President Kennedy's back wound up several inches, on the Bethesda Autopsy Report....it was Ford, who stole the LHO Diary that legally belonged to Marina Oswald, and sold the contents to Life Magazine....
and it was Ford who kept J.Edgar Hoover and the FBI informed of all that came to light within the Warren Commission during regular meetings with him...
The Warren Commission is a volume of lies and deceit , and therefore we could be led to one of two possible conclusions:
The WC was part of the conspiracy and was used to conceal the truth about the crime.
or..........
Like the man who created it, the Commission had been placed under the control of the force that killed Kennedy....
The FBI: Hoover the Assassination and the Warren Commission..
If concealing facts and evidence in the assassination is a sign of guilt...the FBI is a prime suspect..They were the principal investigative arm of the WC...who had none of it's own, though they certainly had the power to have created one of their own..but they accepted Hoover's information readily, though at times questionably.
The FBI:
Witheld much pertinent information..
Submitted a barrage of irrelevant data...( such as a sampling of the dental charts of Jack Ruby's Mother..CE 1281....a study of the differences between Caucasian,Negroid and Mongoloid hair..CE 668-670...and two copies of Marina's dental charts....a 48 page summary..from when she was pregnant..CD 884 )
Altered, suppressed and destroyed evidence .
Procrastinated in investigating and replying to Commission requests for specific information...
Intimidated witnesses who disputed the lone assassin theory.
Botched the New Orleans investigation...
Did not thoroughly investigate Dealey Plaza..and area ,site of the killing..
The misconduct is too long to extensive to cover here.
In the FBI Summary and Supplemental reports ,there contains statements,allegations of medical findings and other evidence which are irreconciliable with the Commission's own findings based on the same evidence .The Bureau was in the rediculous position of submitting reports which contradicted the conclusions of the Warren Report, while at the same time illogically conceding that those same findings were correct..??? ( for a detailed analysis see the "Whitewash Series"; and "Post Mortum" by Harold Weisberg.)
One such....the suspicion that LHO was a FBI informant ..yet the FBI were more than ready to close the case..in a matter of days......based on the fact that he was the lone assassin..( seen in transcript of the Jan. 22/64 session .).during this emergency meeting that was called to discuss the rumour , the information being supplied by Texas A.G.Waggoner Carr, was that LHO was being paid $200 a month and had been recruited in Sep.62..and assigned # S-179 .The WC members were so stunned that Allan Dulles suggested that the minutes of the meeting be destroyed..
The Commission seemed convinced that the FBI was deliberately leaking information,to the press.....to build the lone assassin case quickly and decisively in the public mind. ( the FBI failed to inform the SS and DPD of Oswald's presence in Dallas..prior to Kennedy's visit.)
In the Jan. 27/64 transcript session, the Commission members seemed terrified of Director Hoover ?? and suspicious...for two hours they discuss ways of inquiring about the informant rumor..Indeed they spent Four months..debating just how to approach Hoover for a disclaimer that would convince the public ..Intially they had decided that a disclaimer would not suffice, nor would it convince the public..after being informed that if LHO was an informer, Hoover would lie..Dulles also confides that during his tenure as CIA director, he would have lied under oath to anyone except the President ,if he thought it was in the interest of the nation or the Agency..
Finally Rankin approached Hoover ,he flatly denied the rumor and the matter, and as far as the WC was concerned it was dropped..
( It was during this session that Rankin made his famous remark: "We do have a dirty rumor that is very bad for the Commission...and it must be wiped out insofar as it is possible to do so by this Commission."....re LHO being a paid informer..
The last two lines:
Russell: (referring to the attitude taken by FBI's re it's reports.)..."You have our statement. What else do you want ?."
McCloy:" Yes,""We know who killed cock robin."
That is the point ,it isn't only who killed cock robin.
No less than seven FBI agensts are known to have been associated with Oswald during the year and a half between his return from the Soviet Union and the assassination.
The first contact ,a two hour interview on June 26/62 ( Report) shortly after his return. Two months later Aug.16/62...SA John Fain and Arnold Brown...in a stakeout in an car near Oswald's home..they approached him, as he walked down the street, Fain told the WC that was done so as not to embarrass him in his home..( 4 Hearings p.420)..He invited them in but they insisted the conversation be held in the car..
Apparently they wished to discuss something they did not want overheard.
LHO promised to report "any contacts or attempted contacts by Soviets under
suspicious circumstances or otherwise." What else did he promise them...and what was promised to him in return.?
Aug.9/63 New Orleans during the leaflet FPGC distribution, he was arrested , and strangley he requested and promptly received an interview with an FBI agent John Quigley.......FBI agent James P.Hosty's name, address, telephone number, and auto license were in LHO's personal notebook...This information was omitted in a Dec.23/63 FBI report to the WC..Seven weeks later they corrected their mistake.?
Hosty was assigned to investigate Oswald prior to the assassination. On the afternoon of Nov.22/63 he lamented to DPD Lt.Jack Revill "Jack, a communist killed President Kennedy....Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy....We had information that he was capable of this..."..WR V H 34,35)..Revill reported the statement in a written report on Nov.22/63...The statement was however kept in a locked drawer at the DPD station for five months..( Ft Worth Star Telegram: 02.09.75.)
Not until Oct.1975 did Chief of Police Jesse Curry admit to suppressing Revill's statement at the request of the FBI. He revealed the existance of the statement and the cover-up in a registered letter to Earl Warren on May 28/64. In the letter Curry states that he instructed Revill to keep his statement confidential after the police chief was requested to do so by J.Gordon Shanklin , then Special Agent-in-Charge of the Dallas FBI office...Contrary to the evidence, Hosty later denied the statement to the WC..( Report 442.)and that there was no information to justify a warning to the SS .The WC disagreed ..( Report 443) Hoover was furious with Hosty and gave him a disciplinary transfer to Kansas..with a cut in pay..("Time"11.03.75).Hoover waited till Hosty had testified before ordering the transfer lest Commission members learn of it and make an inquiry. (1V H 20 )..After his arrest, upon seeing Hosty ,Oswald being interrogated by Cap.Will Fritz, became enraged "he beat on the desk and went into a kind of tantrum" He told Hosty,"I know you .You accosted my wife on two occasions"..asked what he meant...he said " Well he threatened her." "He practically told her she would have to go back to Russia."
Agent Hosty also received the infamous note from Oswald, delivered to the FBI office..several weeks before the assassination...and it was destroyed..Hosty stated it read " If you have anything you want to learn about me, come talk to me directly.If you don't cease bothering my wife I will take appropriate action and report this to proper authorities"...the recepionist who took the note from Oswald quoted it as saying "Let this be a warning, I will blow up the FBI and the Dallas Police Department if you don't stop bothering my wife."..this information did not come out till 1975 and The House subcommittee ,at the time, immediately requested an investigation..and the testimoney it heard simply used passing the buck..tactics..
Hosty said that Shanklin ordered the destruction,of the note and his three page report made two hours after Oswald was killed by Ruby..on.24/63..Hosty said he tore it and flushed it down the toilet..Shanklin denied giving the order..said he didn't know there had been a note till 1975...But Agent Kenneth Howe testified that he personally showed the note to Shanklin..that weekend...Hosty said Howe was present...when Shanklin told him to destroy the note but Howe denied that....Hosty said he didn't tell the WC when he tesified because he had been ordered not to...by his superiors..not to volunteer any information." and they didn't ask me about it ."!! Now William C.Shanklin who headed the FBI in 75...told Time magazine 11.03.75.....that at least ten top officials at the FBI headquarters in Washington knew about the note..The New York Times 9.17.75...reported that top FBI officials ,"probably including former Director J. Edgar Hoover ."...ordered the destruction of the note" The Times attributed the report to a source it described as familiar with the meeting at which the decision to destroy the letter was made in order to avoid embarrassment to the Bureau....Did the note contain a warning of the pending assassination..??
This tiny bit of information points out the fact that the FBI was culpable in the assassination of John F.Kennedy....and there is much more available....
Hoover Was the FBI, being it's director for 39 years when he died May 1972, at the age of 77..any group contemplating the murder of the President required their assistance, and received it...by looking at the records...He was simply too powerful, and too valuable to be overlooked by the planners. Once the investigation was taken out of the legal authorities hands, where it should have remained, in Dallas, Texas...by the FBI...they headed any official investigation into the assassination..The co-operation of J.Edgar Hoover was imperative ,unless the force behind the murder was so awesome and so powerful that it was certain it could control him..?
The primary souce of his power was explained in simple terms by William C.Sullivan a 30 year verteran of the FBI at the time...
"He was very ,very powerful, unbelievably powerful..We don't ever want another man in that postion of power again.He was in there such a long time, and he gathered all the dirt that was present on people in high-ranking positions, all the irregularities ,not necessarily sex alone, but financial irregularities, or political chicanery. It doesn't have to be something of a sexual nature ,although that would be included..He was a genius at implying that he knew all this information, and sometimes he didn't know as much as he implied, but it didn't matter. Once it reached them that this implication had been made, damn it, they had a guilty conscience, and they may have done something that Hoover didn't know about, but they assumed he did know.They placed him in a position of power,and they were all afraid to get rid of him. I know Nixon was actually afraid of him.Knowledge is powerful, and he had knowledge of the most damaging kind, knowledge of people's misbehaviour."..Demaris "Argosy".
He was mentioned by Nixon to Dean on Feb.28/73 during one of the taped meetings..
President R.M.Nixon:
" (expletive deleted) Hoover was my crony .He was closer to me than Johnson, actulally though Johnson used him more. But as for Pat Gray,(expletive deleted) I never saw him."
John Dean
"While it might have been a lot of blue chips to the late Director, I think we would have been a lot better off during this whole Watergate thing if he had been alive.Because he knew how to handle ,that Bureau...knew how to keep them in bounds."
Nixon:
"Well, Hoover performed.He would have fought.That was the point .He would have defied a few people.He would have scared them to death.He has a file on everybody."
No doubt a massive sigh of relief went through Washington when Hoover died.
Following his death 35 filing drawers containing Hoover's personal files were moved from his office to his home and subsequently destroyed by Helen Gandy, his long time secretary...the destruction process took two months. ( Dallas Morning News..11.19.75...12.02.75..)
To many he was Mr.America....his legend grew for years, perpetuated by the FBI's public relations office ,and continued to grow until he was something of a demigod. To speak of him in any derogatory terms was nothing short of blasphemy ,and anyone doing so could be suspected of being a communist...In 75 the legend began to crumble and Americans started to see what type of man Hoover really was.Testimony before a Senate sub-committee revealed the faults in Hoover's character and the shocking instances of lawless acts carried out at his direction..a few.. "The Truth About Hoover" Time 12.22.75 )
"Instead of insulating his bureau from politically sensitive Presidents. Hoover eagerly complied with improper requests from the men in the White House, for information on potential opponents If a President failed to ask.....the Director often volunteered.He tapped telephones of Government officials on request, perused files of politicians unasked,volunteered tidbits of gossip. He was a petty man of towering personal hates.There was much more than a tinge of racism in his vicious vendetta against Martin Luther King Jr. He had to be pushed into hiring black agents for the bureau.His informers, infilitrators and wiretappers delved into the activities of even the most innocuous and nonviolent civil rights groups ,trampling on the right of citizens to express grievances against Government.His spies within potentially dangerous extremist groups sometimes provoked more violence than they prevented.
As an administrator, he was an erratic, unchallenged czar, banishing agents to Siberian posts on whimsy, terrorizing them with torrents of implausible rules, insisting on conformity of thought as well as dress."
He also presented the information of John F.Kennedy's Addisons desease to LBJ before the Democratic Convention ,in choosing it's new candidate for President...LBJ did not use it publicly, but made sure that the news was out....amongst certain people.
This was the type of man in charge of the FBI, when John F.Kennedy was President...and assassinated, and responsible for the gathering of the information on the murder.....and he also had had no use for the President...would he have had a reasonable motive, as he saw it to have him removed from office...?..Yes, his comtempt for the Kennedy's was well known in the nations capitol...It irked him to no end, that Robert, whom he particularly abhorred, and who was his superior as Attorney General...was born in 1924 ...and Hoover had come to the helm of the Bureau one year before....
Other than his dislike of the brothers, the only other possible motive that could be attributed to him would have been that the Kennedys wanted to remove him from his powerful position...it has been reported by associates of the President that after the 64
election,he planned to put the aging Hoover out to pasture..when he reached his 70th Birthday...on Jan.1/65.....( which LBJ did not)....But that plan seems to be somewhat unlikely when you consider the considerable files that Hoover had accumulated on them.....he is known to have had thick files on the Kennedy's personal lives ...
**On two occasions Hoover sent details of JFK's sexual personal files on his relations with other women to Richard Nixon for use in the Presidential campaigns; they were submitted for use in the 1960 campaign against JFK, and in 1971 for possible use against Edward Kennedy had he sought the Democratic nomination.**
Dallas Morning News 12.23.75..
Did Hoover possess the power and resources to kill the President ?? Yes... the resources and contacts at the Bureau's disposal were almost unlimited..
Continued in part 2..
Posted by: Bernice Moore Today, 07:21 PM
Part 2:
* Had Hoover been involved in planning the murder ,he would not have permitted the choice of patsy as being LHO...a man who Dallas and Texas officials would indicate immediately after the assassination was a paid FBI informer.This then raises a question: Did the assassination planners deliberately select a FBI informer as a Patsy in order to embarass and thereby neutralize Hoover and the FBI??
Could Hoover have manipulated a cover-up involving Federal agencies and authorities ? Quite possibley ,with his extensive knowledge of the sins of high government officials....Could Hoover have been powerful enough to persuade or command some of the highest officials to the government to perjure themselves before the American public? Only to a certain extent, for not, all the officials would have bowed before him.....he did have some "clean" enemies..who would never have yielded to the pressure of the demigod..Of all the individuals who have held the position of public trust ,Hoover was one of the most powerful, but the execution of the President and the en-suing cover-up required far more than the power and influence this one individual could muster from his files...
While Hoover may have known JFK was to be murdered ,and did play a central role in the cover-up, there is nothing to suggest that the plot originated with the FBI Director....
If the Commission had decided to publish it's false report"in the public interest"...as the better part of descretion it could then be viewed as a delegation of the civilian leaders of the country accepting the terms laid down by the Military...
Who would benefit from Earl Warren who was a very respected liberal and a loved man, who led the Supreme Court..and conducted the secret hearings of the Commission....why and what purpose would be served in having such a liberal and distinguished man sponsor the Warren Commission Report...??? Recall from the beginning it revealed itself to be a compiliation of lies and distortion of the truth..Congress was also represented on the WC.. and Congress remained quiet and raised no queries in face of the majority of it's citizens believing in a conspiracy..The Commission was all so transparant it appeared to distort the view of the american citizens in the years that followed ,to have them question and have little faith left if any in their Government proccess, ...