John Fitzgerald Kennedy Timeline
The Most Comprehensive Timeline On John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"It is our task in our time and in our generation,
to hand down undiminished to those who come after us,
as was handed down to us by those who went before,
the natural wealth and beauty which is ours."
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
The principal came on the PA system and announced the death of Kennedy.
It seems like it was just yesterday that I was a five-year-old Irish Catholic boy
coming out of Ascension Grammar School in Elmhurst, Queens, New York City.
A haunting scene of Mothers there to get their children all of them openly weeping.
I will never forget the assassination of my President on Friday, November 22, 1963.
I swore to myself I'd find who was responsible for the assassination of my President.
I finally have.
When I'm asked, who ordered or was behind the assassination of President Kennedy?
My one sentence answer was and still is: It was those who controlled almost all media
back in 1963 (Newspapers, Films, Radio, and especially Television), that relentlessly
put forth the narrative of Lee Harvey Oswald, as the lone gunman, assassinated by
Jacob Leonard Rubenstein, and the single bullet theory, put forth by Arlen Specter.
The assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was followed by the assassinations of, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Francis Kennedy and finally John Lennon. Why is it that so very few seem to put this common denominator together, that all of these men wanted peace?
The Assassination Of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Who Had The Means, Motive And Opportunity?
One Hundred Sections Proving Treason
The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963, was the defining moment of the twentieth century. Not only was our brave and peace seeking President horrifically murdered in broad daylight, in a barbaric coup d'etat; it was also the day that our republic based on democratic principles was permanently annihilated.
My comprehensive website will consist of one hundred sections, with each comprising numerous subsections. Each section with its numerous subsections will contain a compendious overview of the topic and include dozens to hundreds of hotlinks. These links will consist of historical news stories, articles, photographs, quotes, books, letters, audios / videos of interviews, lectures and speeches, films and documentaries.
When all one hundred sections are complete, there will be thousands of pertinent links to edify oneself. With my comprehensive website, I'll show who had the means, motive and opportunity to assassinate the 35th President of the United States, and get away with it. That is, until all 100 sections are completed on: http://November221963.com
Until all 100 sections are completed, this timeline will have links that don't work.
And sometime along the publishing of the 100 Sections - Home will become:
And the web address of this timeline will become:
http://Timeline.November221963.com
This timeline is dedicated to my assassinated President
on the 100th commemoration of his birth, May 29, 2017.
Timeline
February 21, 1871
The United States Isn't A Country - It's a Corporation!
by Lisa Guliani
...The date is February 21, 1871 and the Forty-First Congress is in session. I refer you to the "Acts of the Forty-First Congress," Section 34, Session III, chapters 61 and 62. On this date in the history of our nation, Congress passed an Act titled: "An Act To Provide A Government for the District of Columbia." This is also known as the "Act of 1871." What does this mean? Well, it means that Congress, under no constitutional authority to do so, created a separate form of government for the District of Columbia, which is a ten mile square parcel of land.
What??? How could they do that? Moreover, WHY would they do that? To explain, let's look at the circumstances of those days. The Act of 1871 was passed at a vulnerable time in America. Our nation was essentially bankrupt — weakened and financially depleted in the aftermath of the Civil War. The Civil War itself was nothing more than a calculated "front" for some pretty fancy footwork by corporate backroom players. It was a strategic maneuver by European interests (the international bankers) who were intent upon gaining a stranglehold on the neck (and the coffers) of America.
The Congress realized our country was in dire financial straits, so they cut a deal with the international bankers — (in those days, the Rothschilds of London were dipping their fingers into everyone's pie) thereby incurring a DEBT to said bankers. If we think about banks, we know they do not just lend us money out of the goodness of their hearts. A bank will not do anything for you unless it is entirely in their best interest to do so. There has to be some sort of collateral or some string attached which puts you and me (the borrower) into a subservient position. This was true back in 1871 as well. The conniving international bankers were not about to lend our floundering nation any money without some serious stipulations. So, they devised a brilliant way of getting their foot in the door of the United States (a prize they had coveted for some time, but had been unable to grasp thanks to our Founding Fathers, who despised them and held them in check), and thus, the Act of 1871 was passed.
In essence, this Act formed the corporation known as THE UNITED STATES. Note the capitalization, because it is important. This corporation, owned by foreign interests, moved right in and shoved the original "organic" version of the Constitution into a dusty corner. With the "Act of 1871," our Constitution was defaced in the sense that the title was block-capitalized and the word "for" was changed to the word "of" in the title. The original Constitution drafted by the Founding Fathers, was written in this manner:
"The Constitution for the united states of America"...
The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 (17:46)
The Act Of 1871 (5:14)
The UNITED STATES is a CORPORATION
by Anonymous
September 6, 1888
Joseph Patrick Kennedy (the Father of John Fitzgerald Kennedy) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the elder son of businessman and politician Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy and Mary Augusta Hickey. He had a younger brother Francis (who died young), and two younger sisters, Mary and Margaret. All four of Joe's grandparents had immigrated to Massachusetts in the 1840s to escape the Irish Holocaust.
July 22, 1890
Countess Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy (the Mother of John Fitzgerald Kennedy) was born at 4 Garden Court in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. She was the eldest of six children born to Boston Mayor John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald (1863 - 1950) and Mary Josephine "Josie" Hannon (1865 - 1964). Her siblings were Mary, Thomas, John Jr., Eunice, and Frederick.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered... I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
Thomas Jefferson
April 21, 1898 - August 13, 1898
Spanish-American War: Trial Run for Interventionism
by James Perloff
U.S. Secretary of State John Hay called the Spanish-American War of 1898 a “splendid little war.” Superficially, the description seemed apt. After the battleship Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana Harbor, an incident then blamed on Spain, America went to war, our citizens urged to free Cuba from Spanish rule as well as avenge the Maine. Largely a naval war, an American squadron under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish squadron at Manila; likewise, the U.S. Navy crushed Spain’s Caribbean squadron off Cuba’s port of Santiago. In each engagement, the United States suffered only one fatality. Things went tougher for American troops in Cuba, where malaria and yellow fever proved as daunting as Spanish bullets. But American schoolchildren would thereafter thrill to tales of Teddy Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders,” and of the famed charge up San Juan Hill. Defeated on land and sea, Spain sued for peace. The war lasted less than four months; our fighting forces distinguished themselves with valor; and the United States, acquiring territory from Puerto Rico to the Philippines, emerged as a “world power.”
However, behind victory’s fervor lay deceptions, and principles of the Founding Fathers were discarded, portending future misery for Americans...
November 22, 1910
Israel Killed JFK And Has Ruled America Ever Since.
by VidRebel
...The United States has had three coups if you count the first one as being Jekyll Island in November of 1910. Those first coup plotters met at Jekyll Island and secretly wrote the law that became the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. All of the bankers who met in secret were Rothschild agents. This included Paul Warburg of the Rothschild dominated Kuhn Loeb bank. Nelson Aldrich who was a Senator married into the Rockefeller family. The Rockefellers were created by the Rothschilds as were J P Morgan, the Harrimans and the Bush family. Senator Aldrich was head of the National Monetary Commission created by President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had become President after the Jews had successfully assassinated President McKinley. They previously had assassinated President Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth was Jewish. But I prefer not to count these earlier assassinations as coups. The remaining members of the Jekyll Island Six were Treasury Department employees. who did what they were told to do.
The first day of those meetings actually occurred in a private railway car on the evening of November 22, 1910. When the Jews took over America’s banking and monetary system in 1913, they took over the country. Not all coups involve tanks in the streets. It was no coincidence that President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, which was the 53rd anniversary of Israel’s earlier coup. President Kennedy had dared to attempt to take America back from the Jews....
December 23, 1913
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law, thus creating, for the third time in the nation’s history a national central bank. The first two central banks lost their 20 year charters, this act did not include a 20 year charter, or a charter of any duration, so it couldn't be voted out of existence. They got smart the third time around.
On this day our monetary policy was stolen from us by usurious counterfeiters using fraction reserve banking. It was the beginning of the end for the United States. Since this day, these debt slavery Shylock charlatans, have grown evermore embolden in their quest for the complete dominance in every aspect of society and personal life.
by Ellen Brown
...Professor Margrit Kennedy writes that a stunning 35% to 40% of everything we buy goes to interest. This interest goes to bankers, financiers, and bondholders, who take a 35% to 40% cut of our GDP (gross domestic product). That helps explain how wealth is systematically transferred from Main Street to Wall Street. The rich get progressively richer at the expense of the poor, not just because of Wall Street greed but because of the inexorable mathematics of our private banking system.
This hidden tribute to the banks will come as a surprise to most people, who think that if they pay their credit card bills on time and don't take out loans, they aren't paying interest. This, says Dr. Kennedy, is not true. Tradesmen, suppliers, wholesalers and retailers all along the chain of production rely on credit to pay their bills. They must pay for labor and materials before they have a product to sell and before the end buyer pays for the product 90 days later. Each supplier in the chain adds interest to its production costs, which are passed on to the ultimate consumer. Dr. Kennedy cites interest charges ranging from 12% for garbage collection, to 38% for drinking water, to 77% for rent in public housing in her native Germany...
Which 3 Crimes Are In The U.S. Constitution?
Treason, Piracy and Counterfeiting
by Brett Snider
In Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution states; that Congress shall have the power “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measure”
Chart of who "owns" the Federal Reserve
Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence
"Once the government reclaims the power to create money from the banks, it will no longer need to sell its bonds to investors. It will not even need to levy income taxes... government-issued money would actually be less inflationary than the system we have now; and it is precisely because power and money corrupt that money creation needs to be done by a public body, exercised in full view and with full accountability... what has allowed government to be corrupted today is that it is actually run by the money cartel. Big business holds all the cards, because its affiliated banks have monopolized the business of issuing and lending the national money supply, a function the Constitution delegated solely to Congress."
Ellen Brown
The North Dakota Model For Capitalizing Community Banks
by Ellen Brown
...North Dakota is the only state in the union to own its own bank. The Bank of North Dakota (BND) was established by the state legislature in 1919 specifically to free farmers and small businessmen from the clutches of out-of-state bankers and railroad men. Its populist organizers originally conceived of the bank as a credit union-like institution that would provide an alternative to predatory lenders, but conservative interests later took control and suppressed these commercial lending functions. The BND now chiefly acts as a central bank, with functions similar to those of a branch of the Federal Reserve.
However, the BND differs from the Federal Reserve in significant ways. The stock of the branches of the Fed is 100% privately owned by banks. The BND is 100% owned by the state, and it is required to operate in the interest of the public. Its stated mission is to deliver sound financial services that promote agriculture, commerce and industry in North Dakota...
“Here are the simple facts of the great betrayal. Wilson and House knew that they were doing something momentous. One cannot fathom men's motives and this pair probably believed in what they were up to. What they did not believe in was representative government. They believed in government by an uncontrolled oligarchy whose acts would only become apparent after an interval so long that the electorate would be forever incapable of doing anything efficient to remedy depredations."
Ezra Pound in the introduction to Secrets of the Federal Reserve by Eustace Mullins
August 20, 1914
Joseph P. Kennedy buys the house at 83 Beals Street, Brookline, Massachusetts.
October 7, 1914
Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald and Joseph Patrick Kennedy marry.
May 7, 1915
The Lusitania, Woodrow Wilson, and the Deceptions that Dragged America into World War I
by James Perloff
This is a long article. But World War I – which was the first global war, and claimed as many as 65 million lives – has nearly been forgotten about. This article contains many suppressed facts, and I hope you come away from it with a better understanding of how the present connects to the past.The Mighty Lusitania
As discussions crop up of a Third World War possibly arising from tensions in the Middle East or Ukraine, it is apt to examine the First World War, whose 100th anniversary falls this year. America’s entanglement in that war, like so many others, was engineered through a false flag.
In 1915, Britain was at war with Germany. The United States was still neutral. On May 7, the Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from America to England, was sunk by a German submarine some 12 miles off Ireland’s southern coast. There were 764 survivors, but nearly 1,200 people, including 128 Americans, lost their lives. The Lusitania – which had been the world’s largest ship when launched in 1906 – went down in just 18 minutes after a single torpedo hit. Survivors reported there had been two explosions – a smaller one followed moments later by an enormous one. This was affirmed by the log of the U-20, the submarine which sank her.
The tragedy was portrayed to the public as the wanton slaughter of women and children. It became the subject of a relentless propaganda campaign, including a fabricated claim that German children were given a holiday from school to celebrate the sinking. The Lusitania was the most important in a series of pretexts used to generate the eventual U.S. declaration of war on Germany...
The Sinking of The Lusitania, America’s Entry into World War I, A Bonanza for Wall Street
By Gabriel Donohoe
On this day 99 years ago, a German U-boat sunk the RMS Lusitania off the southern Irish coast with the loss of 1,195 lives, including 128 Americans. 94 children perished, 31 of them mere babies. This incident became the major catalyst for drawing a reluctant America into the European slaughter pens of World War 1.
But was the sinking of the Lusitania one of those unfortunate acts that occur randomly during war or was there a more sinister and deliberate hand at work? lusitania on fire
In a disputed incident like this, one often gets to the truth of the matter by asking the question, “Cui bono?” “Who benefits?” After a detailed examination of the facts, one can only come to the conclusion that it was the banksters who benefitted, and grossly at that...
July 25, 1915
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. is born in Hull, Massachusetts. He the oldest child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.
April 6, 1917
On April 6, 1917, two days after the United States Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the United States House of Representatives voted of 373 to 50, and the United States formally entered the First World War.
A few years ago out of the blue this idea came to me. It said the day the United States entered the First World War, April 6, 1917, had significance, go check it out. So, I did.
First I found out that April 6, 1917, was on a Friday. Then I checked to see if it happened to be Good Friday, and it was.
So, the day the United States formally entered the First World War, April 6, 1917, was Good Friday. This is not a coincidence, it was done by the same group of mostly Jewish financers who just three years earlier created the Federal Reserve Act.
May 13, 1917 - October 13, 1917
First Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima - May 13, 1917
On May 13, 1917, Lucia dos Santos, Francisco, and Jacinta Marto were, respectively, ten, nine, and seven years old. As we have said, the three children lived in Aljustrel, a hamlet of the township of Fatima.
After three apparitions of the Angel of Portugal in 1916, the children began to receive visits of a luminous Lady who later identified herself as “The Lady of the Rosary.” In Catholic language, “Our Lady of the Rosary” is the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God made man.
The apparitions took place on a small property belonging to Lucia's parents called Cova da Iria, about a mile and a half from Fatima.
The three seers were playing at Cova da Iria on May 13, 1917 when they saw two flashes like lightning, after which they saw the Mother of God above a holm oak. She was, according to the description of Lucia, "a Lady dressed in white, more brilliant than the sun…" Her face, indescribably beautiful, was "neither sad nor happy, but serious," with an air of mild reproach. Her hands, joined together as if she were praying, were resting at her breast and pointing upward. A rosary hung from her right hand.
The seers were so close to Our Lady, about a yard and a half away, that they stood within the light that radiated from her.
by Joe Nickell
What Our Lady Said at Fatima on October 13, 1917
by Antonio A. Borel
The Miracle of the Sun in Fatima October 13, 1917 (5:32)
The Miracle of the Sun (Portuguese: O Milagre do Sol) was an event which occurred on October 13, 1917, attended by a large crowd who had gathered near Fátima, Portugal in response to a prophecy made by three shepherd children that the Virgin Mary, referred to as Our Lady of Fatima, would appear and perform miracles on that date. Newspapers published testimony from reporters and other people who claimed to have witnessed extraordinary solar activity, such as the sun appearing to "dance" or zig-zag in the sky, careen towards the earth, or emit multicolored light and radiant colors. According to these reports, the event lasted approximately ten minutes.
May 29, 1917
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK), known in his family as Jack, is born at 83 Beals Street, Brookline, Massachusetts, a wealthy suburb of Boston. He is the second of Rose Kennedy (Fitzgerald) and Joseph Kennedy's nine children. His grandfathers P. J. Kennedy and Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald were both Massachusetts politicians. All four of his grandparents were the children of Irish immigrants. The Kennedy family spent summers at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and Christmas and Easter holidays at their winter home in Palm Beach, Florida.
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy Transformation From 1 to 46 Years Old (2:46)
The Kennedys in Palm Beach, through 1963 (Photographs)
1917 - 1927
John F. Kennedy lived in Brookline for ten years and attended the Edward Devotion School, the Noble and Greenough Lower School, and the Dexter School through 4th grade.
November 2, 1917
As per the Rothschild Zionist promise to the British, to take America into the war, they decide they want something in writing from the British to prove that they will uphold their side of the bargain. The British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour therefore drafts a letter which is commonly known as the, “Balfour Declaration,” which is reprinted below.
Foreign Office November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour
When the Balfour Declaration was written on November 2, 1917, Palestine was not the legal property British government. It was, as it had been since 1516, a part of the Ottoman Empire. The British captured [stole] Jerusalem on December 9, 1917. The League of Nations formally awarded Britain a mandate over Palestine in 1922.
September 13, 1918
Rosemary Kennedy, born Rose Marie Kennedy, is born at 83 Beals Street, Brookline, Massachusetts. She is the third child and eldest daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.
February 20, 1920
Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy was born at 83 Beals Street, Brookline, Massachusetts. She is the second daughter and fourth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.
February 20, 1920
When he was just two years old, John F. Kennedy contracted scarlet fever at his family’s home in Brookline. On that same day, February 20, 1920, his pregnant mother went into labor with his younger sister, Kathleen.
Roberts said it made for a chaotic scene in the Kennedy’s Beals Street colonial, with the family nurse running back and forth from Rose to Jack in separate rooms. At the time, scarlet fever was potentially fatal for children. Fearing that Kennedy might transmit the disease to his newborn sister or his two other young siblings, Joe and Rosemary, the family worked to get him admitted to Boston City Hospital. But first, a priest was summoned to the sickly toddler’s second-floor room to deliver his last rites.
“When you’re delivered last rites in the Catholic faith, they don’t expect you to pull through,” said Jim Roberts of the JFK Historic site.
March 1920
The growth of the Kennedy family made it a necessity to move to a larger home so they sold their Beals Street house to Joe Kennedy's advisor Edward Moore and his family. Joseph P. Kennedy purchases a larger home a few blocks away, located at 131 Naples Road (now 51 Abbottsford Road) in Brookline, Massachusetts. The Kennedy's lived in the Abbottsford Road home until they moved to New York on September 26, 1927.
June 10, 1921
Eunice Mary Kennedy is born at 51 Abbottsford Road, Brookline, Massachusetts. She is the fifth of Rose and Joseph Kennedy’s nine children and their third daughter.
September 12, 1921
John enters kindergarten at the Edward Devotion School, a public elementary school in Brookline, Massachusetts.
May 6, 1924
Patricia Kennedy is born at 51 Abbottsford Road, Brookline, Massachusetts. She is the sixth child and fourth daughter of Rose and Joseph Kennedy.
Fall 1924
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. and John F. Kennedy enroll at Dexter School, a private school for boys in Brookline, Massachusetts.
November 20, 1925
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy is born at 51 Abbottsford Road, Brookline, Massachusetts. He is the seventh child in the closely knit and competitive family of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy.
September 1927
Joe Kennedy's business interests prompted the family to move to New York. So, in 1927, the Kennedy family moved to a stately twenty-room, Georgian-style mansion at 5040 Independence Avenue (across the street from Wave Hill) in the Hudson Hill neighborhood of Riverdale, Bronx, New York City. John attended the lower campus of Riverdale Country School, a private school for boys, from 5th to 7th grade.
February 20, 1928
Jean Ann Kennedy is born at St. Margaret's Hospital in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She is the eighth child and youngest daughter of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy.
1929
Two years later, the Kennedy family moved to 294 Pondfield Road in the New York City suburb of Bronxville, New York, where Kennedy was a member of Boy Scout Troop 2. Kennedy is the first Boy Scout to become President.
July 28, 1929
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (the Wife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy) was born on July 28, 1929, at Southampton Hospital in Southampton, New York, to Wall Street stockbroker John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III (1891 - 1957) and socialite Janet Norton Lee (1907 - 1989). Bouvier's mother was of Irish descent, and her father had French, Scottish, and English ancestry. Named after her father, Bouvier was baptized at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan; she was raised in the Catholic faith. bHer younger sister Lee was born in 1933.
September 24, 1930
John F. Kennedy, 13, enters the eighth grade at the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut.
Late April 1931
In late April 1931, JFK required an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut and recuperated at home.
September 19, 1931
John F. Kennedy, 14, enters his first year at Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut. Despite his high intelligence and academic potential, Jack earns only mediocre grades. His older brother Joe had already been at Choate for two years and was a football player and leading student.
September 1931 - June 1935
During his Choate years, Kennedy was beset by health problems that culminated with his emergency hospitalization at New Haven Hospital in 1934, where doctors thought he might have leukemia. In June 1934, he was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the ultimate diagnosis there was colitis.
February 22, 1932
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy is born at St. Margaret's Hospital in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He is the fourth son and youngest of nine children of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy.
March 9, 1933
The Bankruptcy of America - 1933
Hint: A Lot More Happened Than Just The Confiscation Of The People’s Gold!
[Excerpted from Judge Dale’s The Great American Adventure - Secrets of America.]
by Judge Dale, retired
On March 9, 1933, House Joint Resolution No. 192-10 by the 73rd Congress, was voted into law, which is the Emergency Banking Act. This Act declared the Treasury of the United States, ‘Bankrupt’, which is an impossible feat since the U. S. Treasury was secretly closed by the Congress twelve years earlier in 1921. The Emergency Banking Act succeeded in abrogating America’s gold standard and hypothecated all property found within the United States to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank.
All Sovereign American Citizens residing within the Republic of States suddenly and falsely were expatriated from their Sovereign American status without their knowledge or consent and their labor, souls, children, property, sweat equity and credit became the financial collateral for the public debt, which had then been converted into a Public Trust, which had been scripted after the ancient Roman Trusts.
“Script” money or [negotiable debt instruments] was issued by a private corporation, which is owned by a group of Sabbatean European Jewish Bankers and which is known to everybody as: “The Federal Reserve System.” These promissory notes were called Federal Reserve Notes and our future treatment by the U.S. Government was to be redefined under USC Title 50, ‘The Trading with the Enemy Act’ in which American citizens are defined as, “an enemy of their government” and this is the reason why Lincoln’s Declaration of War is renewed yearly by Congress and the President! In the same year President Roosevelt closed THE VIRGINIA COLONY CORPORATION and opened a new Government Corporation called: THE UNITED STATES, INC...
...Under Regulation 840-10 of the Military Code and sections of the Administrative Procedures Act and the presence of that Military [gold fringed] Flag on display in the Courtroom, instantly creates a state of emergency meaning that, the moment a police officer stopped you in the exercise of your right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the police officer became a belligerent! He is armed and you’re not! He displays a military rank and you’re a civilian and he has now delivered you into a Military Court of Justice with the intent to ‘pillage and plunder’ within the Admiralty jurisdiction of that Military Court, which is also known as ‘The Law of Prize and Captured Property,’ as defined under Title 10, sections 7651 to 7681 of the Code of Military Justice, March 25, 1862.
As mentioned before, The Reconstruction Act included and changed all state officials into having ‘federal foreign standing.’ The 14th amendment deliberately forced and kept them there and section 2 of the Lieber Code instructs that: ‘A victorious army seizes all money and movable property and holds it in trust,’ and this is exactly what the Corporate United States Government and State Governments did and continue to do because they now perceive themselves to be, ‘a victorious army.’
The corporate Congress; the corporate Military Government and their corporate Military Courts of Justice however discovered that they could not gain access to those Public Trusts deposited into the Federal Reserve System, which they had created using our birth registration forms; social security registration forms, licenses, personal property, deeds, promissory notes, equity and credit, without including our individual persons into the bankruptcy of the United States Treasury of 1933. So they cleverly denied our personal Sovereignty and converted our persons into an appellation, which is a corporate fiction or strawman and identified us by writing our birth names all in capital letters. All of our Licenses and documents now reflect this appellation...
...In 1933, this corporate government enticed Americans to voluntarily register for birth certificates, social security, driver’s licenses, voter registration, etc. and enticed us with government benefits to do so. Years later they obligated American’s to register for all of these documents except for voter registration.
These so-called government benefits were no bargain because they belonged to all of us to begin with and over time the largest benefits have been watered down! What most American’s don’t realize is that: No Corporation can operate or fund itself. Corporations require human beings; their credit and sweat equity to finance and operate them! Therefore, everything that the government claims to own actually belongs to “We the Public” and not them! Everything they have been doing is one gigantic fraud and all of it at our expense!
As previously mentioned: These registration programs were instituted so that the Federal Reserve Banks and the Corporate Military Courts of Justice could securitize and monetize the public Trust Accounts. Each Birth Certificate and Social Security Card was eventually converted into a Trust Account and became a government security [like company stocks and bonds] and is marketed as a Mutual Fund. If you own a piece of a Mutual Fund Investment you are actually hedging your money against human collateral...
Strawman - The Real Story Of Your Artificial Person
by Clint Richardson
The Andrew Carrington Hitchcock Show (360) Clint Richardson (1:05:36)
Strawman: The Real Story Of Your Artificial Person
June 19, 1934
by Robert Dallek
Recent assessments of Kennedy's presidency have tended to raise "questions of character"—to view his Administration in the context of his sometimes wayward personal behavior. Such assessments are incomplete. Newly uncovered medical records reveal that the scope and intensity of his physical suffering were beyond what we had previously imagined. What Kennedy endured, and what he hid from the public, both complicates and enlarges our understanding of his character.
...In the winter of 1934 he became very sick and had to be rushed by ambulance to New Haven Hospital for observation. His symptoms included weight loss and a bad case of hives. Doctors feared that he had leukemia and began regularly checking his blood counts. "It seems that I was much sicker than I thought I was," Jack wrote to his classmate Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings after he got out of the hospital, "and am supposed to be dead, so I am developing a limp and a hollow cough." His rectum was "plenty red after the hospital," he complained. "Yours would be red too if you had shoved every thing from rubber tubes to iron pipes up it." By March, Jack's symptoms had largely disappeared, but his doctors remained uncertain about the cause of his difficulties.
In June of 1934, as his junior year at Choate ended, he began feeling ill again, and his parents sent him to the famous Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. He spent a miserable month there, "the God-damnest hole I've ever seen," he wrote to Billings. By himself at the Mayo and then at nearby St. Mary's Hospital, where he was transferred after two weeks, he maintained his sanity and kept up his hopes for a return to friends and family through a series of such letters. Jack handled what he feared was a life-threatening disease with a biting wit and a refusal to complain openly to anyone but his friend. Judging from the medical tests described in the correspondence and in later medical records, Jack had colitis, which was initially thought to be peptic-ulcer disease. The doctors began by prescribing a diet of bland food preparatory to tests that Jack had hoped would be over in a few days. But the exams lasted much longer. "I am suffering terribly out here," he wrote to Billings. "I now have a gut ache all the time. I'm still eating peas and corn for my food." He expected to be there for at least another twelve days. Two days later he told Billings, "God what a beating I'm taking. I've lost 8 lbs. And still going down ... I'm showing them a thing or two. Nobody able to figure what's wrong with me. All they do is talk about what an interesting case."
"It would be funny," he declared wishfully, "if there was nothing wrong with me. I'm commencing to stay awake nights on that. Still don't know when I'll get home. My last eight meals have been peas, corn, prunes."...
For more see the comprehensive section: Health
June 8, 1935
Kennedy graduated from Choate on June 8, 1935, ranked 64th in a class of 112. For the school yearbook, of which he had been business manager, Kennedy was voted the "most likely to succeed" which he sure did.
September 1935
In September 1935, Kennedy made his first trip abroad with his parents and his sister Kathleen to London intending to study under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics as his older brother had done. Ill-health forced his return to America in October of that year.
October 26, 1935
John Kennedy enters his freshman year at Princeton University,
December 12, 1935
Due to illness, John Kennedy withdraws from Princeton University. Kennedy was then hospitalized for observation at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, afterwards he convalesced further at the Kennedy winter home in Palm Beach.
Spring 1936
Kennedy spent the spring of 1936 working as a ranch hand on the 40,000-acre Jay Six cattle ranch outside Benson, Arizona.
July 26, 1936
“Fifty men have run America, and that’s a high figure.”
Joseph Kennedy, Father of JFK, in the July 26th, 1936 issue of The New York Times
September 28, 1936
Kennedy enrolled at Harvard University, where he produced that year's annual "Freshman Smoker", called by a reviewer "an elaborate entertainment, which included in its cast outstanding personalities of the radio, screen and sports world." He tried out for the football, golf, and swimming teams and earned a spot on the varsity swimming team.
1936
Mary Pinchot Meyer started dating William Attwood in 1935 and, while with him at a dance held at Choate, first met John F. Kennedy in 1936.
See: October 12, 1964
1937
The earliest known recording of future president's voice. John F. Kennedy recording for public speaking class at Harvard, 1937.
Summer 1937
In July 1937, Kennedy sailed to France, taking his convertible, and spent ten weeks driving through Europe.
December 1937 - November 1940
In early December 1937, Roosevelt named Joseph P. Kennedy the new ambassador to the Court of St. James, the United States’ representative to Great Britain. In many respects the ambassadorship represented the pinnacle of Joseph P. Kennedy’s personal success. Accompanied by his wife and children, now numbering nine since the birth in 1932 of the fourth son and last child, Edward M. Kennedy.
Joseph P. Kennedy was greeted with enthusiasm by the British public, and for a while Kennedy and his family were popular celebrities in England. But Kennedy’s tenure as ambassador soon ran into difficulty. European tensions were already running high when he arrived in 1938, and Kennedy’s personal aversion to war put him firmly in the appeasement camp, a position that was losing favor in Britain. When war broke out in 1939, Kennedy’s firm and outspoken commitment to United States neutrality put him increasingly at odds with the British Government, and eventually his own. Kennedy ultimately resigned in November 1940.
June 1938
Kennedy sailed overseas with his father and older brother to work at the American embassy in London, where his father was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's.
1939
As an upperclassman at Harvard University, Kennedy became a more serious student and developed an interest in political philosophy. In his junior year, he made the Dean's List.
Summer 1939
In the Summer of 1939, Kennedy toured Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Czechoslovakia and Germany before returning to London on September 1, 1939, the day that Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, the family was in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the United Kingdom's declaration of war on Germany. Kennedy was sent as his father's representative to help with arrangements for American survivors of the SS Athenia before flying back to the U.S. from Foynes, Ireland to Port Washington, New York on his first transatlantic flight.
September 1, 1939
After numerous attempts by Hitler at trying to broker a peace for East Prussia and the city of Danzig (95% Germanic people), the land stolen from Germany in June 28, 1919, at the Treaty of Versailles, and after these ethnic German are being slaughtered (on purpose to force Hitler to defend his fellow Germans) in these areas, Germany finally goes into Poland to stop the atrocities and take back her rightful land.
For my comprehensive article on this and all of Hitler's Peace Plans read:
by Mark R Elsis
...Hitler did not want war in 1939 -- and certainly not a general or global conflict. He earnestly sought a peaceful resolution of the dispute with Poland over the status of the ethnically German city-state of Danzig and the “Corridor” region, which was the immediate cause of conflict. The sincerity of his desire for peace in 1939, and his fear of another world war, has been affirmed by a number of scholars, including the eminent British historian A. J. P. Taylor. It was, of course, the declarations of war against Germany by Britain and France on September 3, 1939, made with secret encouragement by US President Roosevelt, that transformed the limited German-Polish clash into a larger, continent- wide war...
September 3, 1939
Britain and France declare war on Germany.
October 18, 1939
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18, 1939, to Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Sr. (1896 - 1939) and Marguerite Frances Claverie (1907 - 1981). Robert Oswald died of a heart attack two months before Lee was born. Lee's elder brother Robert, Jr. (born 1934) was also a former Marine. Through Marguerite's first marriage to Edward John Pic, Jr., Lee and Robert Jr. were the half-brothers of Air Force veteran John Edward Pic (1932 - 2000).
The Actual Conspiracy - Oswald (32:40)
by Michael Parenti
You think you know the story of the JFK assassination?
The government’s story is even more ridiculous then that you know.
For example, here’s what we know for sure about Oswald’s real background:
He was a high level federal government operative.
No debates about it. No “conspiracy theory.” Undeniable evidence.
Who else gets to renounce his citizenship, declare he was taking state secret to Russia, get invited back to the country and have his life subsidized while he dabbled in high profile, highly exhibitionist pantomimes of leftist politics?
For more see the comprehensive section: Lee Harvey Oswald
April 1, 1940
In the early Spring of 1940 John F. Kennedy, 23, completed his Harvard thesis, Appeasement in Munich, about British participation in the Munich Agreement. Then on April 1, 1940, it is published as, Why England Slept.
June 20, 1940
On June 20, 1940, John F. Kennedy graduated from Harvard University cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in government, concentrating on international affair.
July 1940
Why England Slept becomes a bestseller.
1940
Kennedy attempted to enter the Army's Officer Candidate School in 1940, but was medically disqualified (4-F Classification) for his chronic lower back problems.
September 1940
Kennedy enrolled in, and audited classes at, the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
When John F. Kennedy walked the halls of Stanford
by Kate Chesley
John F. Kennedy once briefly audited classes at the Graduate School of Business. Kennedy wrote to a friend: “Have become very fond of Stanford. Everyone is friendly, the gals are quite attractive, and it’s a very good life.”
According to A Chronology of Stanford University and Its Founders, published by the Stanford Historical Society, Kennedy registered as a graduate student for the fall quarter in September 1940. He lived in a cottage behind a house on Mayfield Avenue and took classes in business, economics and political science. He left the campus “around the Christmas holidays.” As a presidential candidate, Kennedy returned to campus in 1960 to deliver a speech to some 4,000 people inside and outside Memorial Auditorium.
November 1940
Joseph P. Kennedy had a personal aversion to war that put him firmly in the appeasement camp, a position that was losing favor in Britain (thanks to warmongering Winston Spencer Churchill). When war broke out in 1939, Kennedy’s firm and outspoken commitment to United States neutrality put him increasingly at odds with the British Government, and eventually his own. Kennedy ultimately resigned as the ambassador to the Court of St. James, the United States’ representative to Great Britain in November 1940.
by Edward Renehan Jr.
Arriving at London in early 1938, newly-appointed U.S. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy took up quickly with another transplanted American. Viscountess Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor assured Kennedy early in their friendship that he should not be put off by her pronounced and proud anti-Catholicism.
"I'm glad you are smart enough not to take my [views] personally," she wrote. Astor pointed out that she had a number of Roman Catholic friends - G.K. Chesterton among them - with whom she shared, if nothing else, a profound hatred for the Jewish race. Joe Kennedy, in turn, had always detested Jews generally, although he claimed several as friends individually. Indeed, Kennedy seems to have tolerated the occasional Jew in the same way Astor tolerated the occasional Catholic.
Fiercely anti-Communist, Kennedy and Astor looked upon Adolf Hitler as a welcome solution to both of these "world problems" (Nancy's phrase). No member of the so-called "Cliveden Set" (the informal cabal of appeasers who met frequently at Nancy Astor's palatial home) seemed much concerned with the dilemma faced by Jews under the Reich. Astor wrote Kennedy that Hitler would have to do more than just "give a rough time" to "the killers of Christ" before she'd be in favor of launching "Armageddon to save them. The wheel of history swings round as the Lord would have it. Who are we to stand in the way of the future?" Kennedy replied that he expected the "Jew media" in the United States to become a problem, that "Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles" were already making noises contrived to "set a match to the fuse of the world."
During May of 1938, Kennedy engaged in extensive discussions with the new German Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Herbert von Dirksen. In the midst of these conversations (held without approval from the U.S. State Department), Kennedy advised von Dirksen that President Roosevelt was the victim of "Jewish influence" and was poorly informed as to the philosophy, ambitions and ideals of Hitler's regime. (The Nazi ambassador subsequently told his bosses that Kennedy was "Germany's best friend" in London.)
Columnists back in the states condemned Kennedy's fraternizing. Kennedy later claimed that 75% of the attacks made on him during his Ambassadorship emanated from "a number of Jewish publishers and writers. ... Some of them in their zeal did not hesitate to resort to slander and falsehood to achieve their aims." He told his eldest son, Joe Jr., that he disliked having to put up with "Jewish columnists" who criticized him with no good reason.
Like his father, Joe Jr. admired Adolf Hitler. Young Joe had come away impressed by Nazi rhetoric after traveling in Germany as a student in 1934. Writing at the time, Joe applauded Hitler's insight in realizing the German people's "need of a common enemy, someone of whom to make the goat. Someone, by whose riddance the Germans would feel they had cast out the cause of their predicament. It was excellent psychology, and it was too bad that it had to be done to the Jews. The dislike of the Jews, however, was well-founded. They were at the heads of all big business, in law etc. It is all to their credit for them to get so far, but their methods had been quite unscrupulous ... the lawyers and prominent judges were Jews, and if you had a case against a Jew, you were nearly always sure to lose it. ... As far as the brutality is concerned, it must have been necessary to use some ...."
Writing to Charles Lindbergh shortly after Kristallnacht, which was a a false flag, in November of 1938, Joe Kennedy Sr. seemed more concerned about the political ramifications stemming from high-profile, riotous anti-Semitism than he was about the actual violence done to the Jews. "... Isn't there some way," he asked, "to persuade [the Nazis] it is on a situation like this that the whole program of saving western civilization might hinge? It is more and more difficult for those seeking peaceful solutions to advocate any plan when the papers are filled with such horror." Clearly, Kennedy's chief concern about Kristallnacht was that it might serve to harden anti-fascist sentiment at home in the United States.
Like his friend Charles Coughlin (a broadcaster and Roman Catholic priest), Kennedy always remained convinced of what he believed to be the Jews' corrupt, malignant, and profound influence in American culture and politics. "The Democratic [party] policy of the United States is a Jewish production," Kennedy told a British reporter near the end of 1939, adding confidently that Roosevelt would "fall" in 1940...
1941
In early 1941, Kennedy helped his father write a memoir of his three years as an American ambassador, afterwards he traveled throughout South America; including Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
September 24, 1941
After exercising for months to strengthen his back, and with the help of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), Kennedy joined the United States Naval Reserve.
John F. Kennedy's Naval Career
John Fitzgerald Kennedy's Naval Career
October 26, 1941
Kennedy was commissioned an ensign on October 26, 1941, and joined the staff of the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington, D.C. His older brother, Joe Jr., is already training to be a navy pilot.
December 6, 1941
...It was not until December 6, 1941, the day before Pearl Harbor, that an all-out effort to build an atomic bomb began under the direction of General Leslie Groves. This was what became known as the Manhattan Project...
December 7, 1941
The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, compelling the United States to enter World War II.
To find out what really happened on December 7, 1941, read the excellent article:
Pearl Harbor: Roosevelt’s 9/11
False flags do not stand alone. They are better understood – and more credibly explained to skeptics – when seen in history’s context.
by James Perloff
December 8, 1941
The United States entered World War Two on the Immaculate Conception.
The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception was brought about the normal way, was conceived without original sin or its stain, that’s what "immaculate" means: without stain. The essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of sanctifying grace, and its stain is a corrupt nature. Mary was preserved from these defects by God’s grace; from the first instant of her existence she was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free from the corrupt nature original sin brings.
FDR Declares War on December 8, 1941, Infamy Speech (7:59)
January 19, 1942 - December 4, 1942
Letters to John F. Kennedy from journalist Inga Arvad. In 1935, as a freelance reporter, Inga Arvad interviewed Hitler, and this connection would color the rest of her life. Arvad was Hitler's guest at the 1936 Summer Olympics, which led to her being investigated by the FBI in America as a potential spy. Hitler had told her that she was a perfect example of Nordic beauty. A photograph of her with Hitler surfaced and the FBI followed her, finding out that she was dating an American ensign, John F. Kennedy, son of the former U.S. ambassador to Britain. Kennedy's prominence led only to greater scrutiny of Arvad and suspicions about her that were never substantiated.
January 15, 1942 - July 1942
From January 15, 1942 through July 1942, John F. Kennedy was assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence field office at Headquarters, Sixth Naval District, in Charleston, South Carolina.
May 9, 1942 - May 11, 1950
Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Massachusetts
This folder contains materials concerning medical treatment John F. Kennedy received at the United States Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts (previously known as Naval Hospital at Charlestown and later known as Naval Hospital Boston). Materials in this folder include memoranda, admission reports, examination reports, medical charts, dental records, accounts of Kennedy's medical history, and letters from physicians at the Lahey Clinic in Boston.
July 27, 1942 - September 27, 1942
John F. Kennedy attended Naval Reserve Officers Training School, at Northwestern University, in Chicago, Illinois.
September 27, 1942 - December 2, 1942
John F. Kennedy voluntarily entered the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center, in Melville, Rhode Island
October 10, 1942
John F. Kennedy was promoted to lieutenant junior grade.
December 2, 1942 - February 23, 1943
His first command was PT-101 from December 7, 1942, until February 23, 1943: It was a PT boat used for training while Kennedy was an instructor at Melville. He then led three Huckins patrol torpedo (PT) boats; PT-98, PT-99, and PT-101, which were being relocated from MTBRON 4 in Melville, Rhode Island, back to Jacksonville, Florida and the new MTBRON 14 (formed February 17, 1943). During the trip south, he was hospitalized briefly in Jacksonville after diving into the cold water to untangle a propeller. Thereafter, Kennedy was assigned duty in Panama and later in the Pacific theater, where he eventually commanded two more patrol torpedo boats.
April 1943 - March 1945
From April 1943 till December 21, 1943, Kennedy was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron Two. On April 24, Kennedy took command of PT-109 which was based at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands.
On the night of August 1 - 2, PT-109, on its 31st mission, was performing nighttime patrols near New Georgia in the Solomon Islands with PT-162 and PT-169. Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer nearby and attempted to turn to attack, when PT-109 was rammed suddenly at an angle and cut in half by the destroyer Amagiri, costing two PT-109 crew members their lives.
Kennedy gathered his surviving ten crew members including those injured around the wreckage, to vote on whether to "fight or surrender". Kennedy stated: "There's nothing in the book about a situation like this. A lot of you men have families and some of you have children. What do you want to do? I have nothing to lose." Shunning surrender, the men swam towards a small island three miles away. Despite re-injuring his back in the collision, Kennedy towed a badly burned crewman through the water to the island with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth, and later to a second island, where his crew was subsequently rescued on August 8.
John F. Kennedy and Ensign Leonard Thom, his executive officer on PT-109, were both later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism and the Purple Heart Medal for injuries.
Why JFK Kept A Coconut Shell In The Oval Office
During this week in 1943, a 26-year-old Kennedy and his crew were marooned on a deserted island and then rescued thanks to two daring men
by Kat Eschner
July 24, 1943 - August 2, 1943
Operation Gomorrah. I wonder who would name it this?
Operation Gomorrah - Bombing of Hamburg
The attack during the last week of July, 1943, Operation Gomorrah, created one of the largest firestorms raised by the RAF and USAAF in World War II, killing 42,600 civilians and wounding 37,000 in Hamburg and practically destroying the entire City. Before the development of the firestorm in Hamburg there had been no rain for some time and everything was very dry. The unusually warm weather and good conditions meant that the bombing was highly concentrated around the intended targets and also created a vortex and whirling updraft of super-heated air which created a 1,500-foot-high tornado of fire, a totally unexpected effect.
Operation Gomorrah was the military codename for the Allied bombing of Hamburg (Battle of Hamburg) during World War II (24 July 1943 - 2 August 1943). The attacks during the last week of July in 1943, created one of the largest firestorms raised by the RAF and USAAF in World War II, killing at least 42,600 civilians (other sources account for up to 125,000 deaths) and wounding over 37,000 in Hamburg and practically destroying the entire city.
September 1, 1943
On September 1, 1943, Kennedy returned to duty, went to Tulagi, and took command of a PT boat converted into a gunboat, the PT-59.
October 10, 1943
Kennedy was promoted to Lieutenant and continued to command the motor torpedo boat when the squadron moved to Vella Lavella.
November 2, 1943
On November 2, 1943, PT-59, which included three former PT-109 crew members, took part with another boat in the successful rescue of 87 marines stranded on two rescue landing craft on the Warrior River at Choiseul Island which was held by the Japanese.
November 18, 1943
Under doctor's orders, Kennedy was relieved of his command of PT-59 on November 18, 1944
December 21, 1943 - Early January 1944
Kennedy left the Solomons on December 21, 1943, and he returned to the United States in early January 1944.
February 15, 1944 - March 1944
John F. Kennedy attended Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center, Melville, Rhode Island. Due to the re-injury of his back during the sinking of PT 109, Kennedy entered a hospital for treatment.
March 8, 1944 - October 30, 1944
On March 8, 1944, Kennedy went to the Submarine Chaser Training Center, Miami, Florida. In May while still assigned to the Center, Kennedy entered the Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Massachusetts, for further treatment of his back injury. Under treatment as an outpatient, Kennedy was ordered detached from the Miami Center on October 30, 1944.
June 12, 1944
PC110 Lt. Kennedy being awarded the Navy Marine Corps Medal
At the Hospital on June 12, 1944, he was presented the Navy and Marine Corps Medal (the Navy's highest non-combat decoration for heroism) for his heroic actions on August 1–2, 1943, and the Purple Heart Medal for his back injury on PT-109, on August 1, 1943 (injured on August 2).
After the war, Kennedy felt that the medal he had received for heroism was not a combat award and asked that he be reconsidered for the Silver Star Medal for which he had been recommended initially. (His father also requested the Silver Star, which is awarded for gallantry in action, for his son). In 1950, The Department of the Navy offered Kennedy a Bronze Star Medal in recognition of his meritorious service, but he would have to return his Navy and Marine Corps Medal in order to receive it. He declined the medal. In 1959, the Navy again offered him the Bronze Star. Kennedy responded, repeating his original request concerning the award. He received the same response from the Navy as he had in 1950. The Navy said his actions were a lifesaving case. Kennedy's two original medals are currently on display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
John F. Kennedy also received the American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.
1944 - November 22, 1963
Florence Pritchett met John F. Kennedy in 1944 and began a romantic relationship that lasted for years. Flo, whom young Jack Kennedy spent time with in New York, Washington, Palm Beach, and Havana, was the girl with whom he had the closest relationship. In Kennedy's appointment book for June 28, 1947 there was an entry written by Flo that read: "Flo Pritchett's birthday! send diamonds." Betty Spalding said that for Kennedy, "Over a long period of time, it was probably the closest relationship with a woman I know of."
In 1940 Florence met and married Richard Canning. Soon afterwards she became fashion editor of New York Journal American, a journal owned by William Randolph Hearst. In 1943 Florence divorced Canning. Because of her divorce, and Kennedy was a Roman Catholic with political aspirations, so marriage was out of the question.
In 1947 Florence married Earl E. T. Smith, member of the New York Stock Exchange. The couple had three children. In June, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Smith as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Cuba. FBI files reveal that over the next two years John F. Kennedy made more than a dozen visits to Cuba in order to meet Florence. Florence also met Kennedy in Miami and Palm Beach, where their homes were conveniently adjoined.
Dorothy Kilgallen managed to obtain a private interview with Jack Ruby. She told friends that she had information that would "break the case wide open". Aware of what had happened to Bill Hunter and Jim Koethe, Kilgallen handed her interview notes to Florence Pritchett Smith. She told friends that she had obtained information that Ruby and J. D. Tippit were friends and that David Ferrie was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. On November 8, 1965, Dorothy Kilgallen, was found dead in her New York apartment. She was fully dressed and sitting upright in her bed. The police reported that she had died from taking a cocktail of alcohol and barbiturates. The notes of her interview with Jack Ruby and the article and book she was writing on the case had disappeared. Florence Smith, died a day later of a cerebral hemorrhage. Her son, Earl Smith III, said that she had been suffering from leukemia.
See: November 8, 1965
For more see the comprehensive section: Witness Deaths
August 12, 1944
On August 12, 1944, Kennedy's older brother, Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., 29, a Navy pilot, was killed after volunteering for a special and hazardous air mission when his explosive-laden PB-44 drone Liberator plane exploded over the English Channel.
Because his eldest brother had been the family's political standard-bearer, and had been tapped by his father to seek the Presidency. His death in 1944 changed that course, and Jack, the second oldest Kennedy child, is now "next in line" for political leadership within the powerful Kennedy family.
The Secret Drone Mission that Killed Joseph Kennedy Jr.
by Ed Grabianowski
In 1944, Joseph Kennedy Jr. (older brother of JFK) took off from a British airfield in a B-24 Liberator filled with 20,000 pounds of explosives. He'd volunteered for the mission. It would be his last.
Kennedy was the eldest of nine siblings, and it was assumed he'd eventually take up the family business [he was to be President of the United States]. However, in 1942 he dropped out of law school to join the U.S. Navy, hoping to become a pilot. In 1943 and 1944 he flew numerous missions in a PB4Y-1 Liberator (the Navy's designation for the B-24 Liberator), completing two tours of duty. Eligible for stateside duty at that point, he instead volunteered for a secret and incredibly dangerous mission: operating some of the first military drone aircraft...
November 6, 1944
Lord Moyne (Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne)
Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne DSO and Bar PC (March 29, 1880 - November 6, 1944) was a British politician and businessman, from the famous Irish Anglican brewing family. He served as the British minister of state in the Middle East until November 6, 1944, when he was assassinated during World War II in Egypt by terrorist group Lehi in a Zionist-Jewish plot. The assassination of Lord Moyne sent shock waves through Palestine and the rest of the world. A member of the Conservative Party, Lord Moyne was opposed to the Palestinian Holocaust.
January - March 1945
Beginning in January 1945, Kennedy spent three more months recovering from his back injury at Castle Hot Springs, a resort and temporary military hospital in Arizona.
February 13, 1945 - February 14, 1945
Dresden, Germany, and the overwhelmingly innocent people in it were turned to ash on Wednesday, February 14, 1945, Ash Wednesday.
Why did the Allies reduce Dresden to rubble?
by Don Harkins
As is so often the case of the history we are taught in schools, the books tell a tale differently than what we can learn from first-hand accounts of those who actually lived through the experience. It is from the memories of common people who survived the Dresden Bombing of February 13-14, 1945, that we can understand why somewhere between 130,000 and 300,000 common people had to die. The truth is the Allies (Churchill's England, Stalin's Russia and Roosevelt's U.S.) mass murdered them.
The Dresden Bombing: An eyewitness account
by Edda West
“The Dresden experience has stayed with me very vividly through my entire life. The media later released that the number of people who died during the bombing was estimated in excess of two hundred and fifty thousand, over a quarter of a million people. This was due to all the refugees who came fleeing from the Russians, and Dresden's reputation as a safe city. There were no air raid shelters there because of the Red Cross agreement."...
March 1, 1945
On March 1, 1945, Kennedy was retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant. When asked later how he became a war hero, Kennedy joked: "It was easy. They cut my PT boat in half."
April 25, 1945 - June 16, 1945
In April 1945, Kennedy's father, who was a friend of William Randolph Hearst, arranged a position for his son as a special correspondent for Hearst Newspapers; the assignment kept Kennedy's name in the public eye and "exposed him to journalism as a possible career." He worked as a correspondent for several months covering the Potsdam Conference, the United Nations Conference in San Francisco and the 1945 General Election in Britain.
by Peter Janney
...John F. Kennedy and Mary Pinchot Meyer, whom he had first met at an Ivy League prep school dance when she was only 15 years old. Their paths had crossed briefly once again in the Spring of 1945, at the founding conference for the United Nations in San Francisco. (Mary, her new husband Cord Meyer, and John F. Kennedy all attended the conference as journalists reporting on the events there, at the birth of the United Nations.
See the assassination of Mary Pinchot Meyer: October 12, 1964
May 7, 1945
Germany surrenders in World War two.
Hellstorm - Exposing The Real Genocide of Germany (1:30:30)
This is now the completed "full length" documentary of a previous posting here of just the "trailer" for this film by Kyle Hunt. It's truly fantasticin its scope of content and quality of production.. Please share this video to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the single greatest act of terror and of a true "genocidal holocaust" near the very end of World War II.
More people died by way of the RAF (British) fire-bombing of Dresden on February 13 and 14, 1945 (and the 3 following days of subsequent American fighter-plane "strafing")., than in the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined
It is our sacred duty., to not only inform the world about the atrocities committed against the German people, but also to rid our nations of those who carry out and celebrate such slaughter.!!
Winston Churchill told Lord Robert Boothby the following:
"Germany's most unforgivable crime before the Second World War, was her attempt to extricate her economic power from the world's trading system (ie: World-Bankers), and to create her own exchange mechanism (ie: "Honest", non-interest bearing money) which would deny "world finance" of its opportunity to profit."
So., Germany's unwillingness to be looted by the "international bankers" was the true reason that millions and millions of Europeans had to perish.?! The "world's elite"., definitely did not want the "Goyim" (ie: Anglo-Saxon & related peoples) to get any "big ideas", especially after seeing Germany's more than remarkable recovery under National Socialism (ie: one's own nation comes first).
Decades before in 1920, Winston Churchill, had actually written about the subject of Jewish involvement in the "looting" of Germany, already after the end of the first World War., when he wrote the following:
"The same phenomenon (ie: Jewish involvement with left-wing and Communist movements) has been presented in Germany (especially in Bavaria) as far as this madness has been allowed to prey upon the temporary prostration of the German people. And although in all these countries, there are many non-Jews., every bit as bad as the worst of the Jewish revolutionaries., the part played by the latter., in proportion to their numbers., is astonishing."
Churchill also acknowledged the role Jews played in the bringing about of the Soviet terror in writing:
"There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution, by these international, and for the most part atheist Jews. It is certainly a very great one; and it probably outweighs all others. With the notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews (Lenin's paternal grandfather was later found to be a Jew). Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders"
Jewish power was not confined to Germany or the Soviet Union, but could be found all around the world, when Churchill also said:
"Some people like (are fond of) the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are beyond any question., the most formidable and most remarkable race which has appeared in the world.!!"
At some point Churchill became an instrument of this "power". During World War II., Churchill's loyalty was not to the British people (as the majority of the people never wanted war with Germany !) but to the small "tribe" of alien elites., that has been generating wars and reaping "the spoils" for centuries upon centuries.!!
Churchill's true "atrocities" against Germany make him one of the worst villains this world has ever known., along with his comrade., Joseph Stalin *and* FDR..!!
Senator Homer Capeheart spoke the following to the U.S. Senate on Feb. 5, 1946, in which he said:
"Since the end of the war., about 3,000,000 people,, mostly women and children and over-aged men., have been killed in eastern Germany and south-eastern Europe. About 15,000,000 people have been deported, or had to flee from their homesteads, and are on the road. About 25 % of these people., over 3,000,000 have perished / died. About 4,000,000 men and women have been deported to Eastern Europe and Russia as slaves. It seems that the elimination of the German population of Eastern Europe, at least 15,000,000 people, was planned in accordance with decisions made at the "Yalta Conference". Churchill had said to Mikolajczyk when the latter protested during the negotiations at Moscow against forcing Poland to incorporate eastern Germany: "Don't mind the five or more million Germans. Stalin will see to them. You will have no trouble with them.., as they will cease to exist."
Summer 1945
JFK called Hitler 'the stuff of legends':
Secret diary reveals future president's fascination with Hitler when he visited Germany after WW2
The comments were revealed in a diary entry Kennedy wrote in Germany in 1945
JFK traveled the war-torn country as a correspondent with Hearst newspapers
'He had boundless ambition for his country,' the future president said of Hitler
JFK's diary is being auctioned off by his former researcher, Deirdre Henderson
Henderson worked with Kennedy when he was a Senator for Massachusetts
"After visiting these two places, you can easily understand how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived."
"He had boundless ambition for his country which rendered him a menace to the peace of the world, but he had a mystery about him in the way he lived and in the manner of his death that will live and grow after him."
"He had in him the stuff of which legends are made."
Prelude to Leadership: The European Diary of John F. Kennedy, Summer 1945
July 16, 1945
Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It was conducted by the United States Army at At 05:29:21 a.m. MWT (± 2 seconds), on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project.
Trinity Blast Opens Atomic Age
The first atomic bomb is tested successfully at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in a remote section of desert near Los Alamos, New Mexico. The instant the bomb detonated at 5:29:21 a.m. that Monday, the atomic age was born, and the world changed forever.
The Trinity test, as it was known, was the culmination of the American effort to win the race against Germany (and, ultimately, the Soviet Union) in building an atomic bomb. A mere three weeks after the test, the United States used atomic bombs to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But prior to the 16th, none of those involved in the project knew if they had built a devastating new weapon or a spectacular dud.
With gallows humor, the Los Alamos physicists got up a betting pool on the possible yield of the bomb. Estimates ranged from zero to as high as 45,000 tons of TNT. Enrico Fermi, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938 for his work on nuclear fission, offered side odds on the bomb destroying all life on the planet.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, was under no illusions about what he and his fellow physicists had wrought. The effects of the blast, the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT, moved the intellectual Oppenheimer to quote from the Bhagavad Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds."
More prosaically, Dr. Kenneth Bainbridge, site director of the Trinity test, said: "Now we are all sons-of-bitches."
August 6, 1945
Killing Women and Children First
by John Zmirak
The 60th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should remind us that so long as the world’s most powerful nations continue to target cities, innocent civilians, with nuclear weapons, our condemnations of ‘terror’ will ring hollow.
The anniversaries passed with little fanfare in America. No nation really likes to remember its crimes. Stories appeared about the bombings in the German and Japanese press-though both nations feel honor-bound to place them in the context of fascist atrocities which provoked them. But with a few exceptions, the American press has done little to remind us what Allied bombers wrought 60 years ago over the skies of Dresden and other German civilian targets, or over Hiroshima and Nagasaki...
Statement by the President, August 6, 1945
Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British "Grand Slam" which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare...
Nuclear Bomb - Hiroshima - August 6, 1945 (2:04)
August 9, 1945
Christianity and the Nagasaki Bomb
by Gary G. Kohls
Though Christianity began as a religion of peace, it soon became a cloak for genocidal violence, such as the incineration of defenseless civilians in Nagasaki, including many Japanese Christians, 71 years ago.
Seventy-one years ago, on August 9, 1945, an all-Christian bomber crew dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki City, Japan, instantly vaporizing, incinerating, irradiating and otherwise annihilating tens of thousands of innocent civilians, men, women and children. Very few Japanese soldiers were affected.
In a nation whose citizens are historically non-Christian (Shintoism or Buddhism are the major religions), a disproportionately large number of the Nagasaki victims were Christian (see below for the history of that reality). The bomb mortally wounded uncountable thousands of other victims who succumbed to the blast trauma, the heat trauma and/or the radiation trauma...
Truman, A-Bombs, and the Killing of Innocents
by Sheldon Richman
August 9, 2013 - Sixty-eight years ago today a president of the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a city full of innocent Japanese. It was the second time in three days that Harry Truman had done such a thing: He had bombed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The fatalities in the two cities totaled 150,000–246,000. The victims – mostly children, women, and old men – suffered horrible deaths in the blasts and firestorms. Only shadows remained of those who were vaporized. Many more were injured; others later died from radiation sickness.
1946
1946 British TV Report From Palestine (2:07)
There is even mention of how the Jews at the time were hiding weapons in schools. Now you know where the Palestinians learned this from.
Early 1946
At the urging of Kennedy's father, U.S. Representative James Michael Curley vacated his seat in the strongly Democratic 11th Congressional district in Massachusetts to become mayor of Boston in 1946.
April 26, 1946
John F. Kennedy announces his candidacy for the Democratic nomination to Congress from Massachusetts' Eleventh Congressional District.
June 17, 1946
Kennedy wins the Democratic primary for Massachusetts' Eleventh Congressional District.
July 22, 1946
The Bombing Of The King David Hotel
The King David Hotel explosion of July 22, 1946 (Palestine), which resulted in the deaths of 92 Britons, Arabs and Jews, and in the wounding of 58, was not just an act of “Jewish extremists,” but a premeditated massacre conducted by the Irgun in agreement with the highest Jewish political authorities in Palestine, the Jewish Agency and its head David-Ben-Gurion.
According to Yitshaq Ben-Ami, a Palestinian Jew who spent 30 years in exile after the establishment of Israel investigating the crimes of the “ruthless clique heading the internal Zionist movement,” The Irgun had conceived a plan for the King David attack early in 1946, but the green light was given only on July first. According to Dr. Sneh, the operation was personally approved by Ben-Gurion, from his self-exile in Europe.
Sadeh, the operations officer of the Haganah, and Giddy Paglin, the head of the Irgun operation under Menachem Begin agreed that thirty-five minutes advance notice would give the British time enough to evacuate the wing, without enabling them to disarm the explosion. The Jewish Agency’s motive was to destroy all evidence the British had gathered proving that the terrorist crime waves in Palestine were not merely the actions of “fringe” groups such as the Irgun and Stern Gang, but were committed in collusion with the Haganah and Palmach groups and under the direction of the highest political body of the Zionist establishment itself, namely the Jewish Agency.
That so many innocent civilian lives were lost in the King David massacre is a normal part of the pattern of the history of Zionist outrages: A criminal act is committed, allegedly by an isolated group, but actually under the direct authorization of the highest Zionist authorities, whether of the Jewish Agency during the Palestine Mandate or of the Government of Israel thereafter...
King David Hotel Bombing (35:28)
The King David Hotel bombing was an attack carried out on Monday July 22, 1946 by the militant Zionist underground organization Irgun on the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, which was housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. 91 people of various nationalities were killed and 46 were injured.
November 5, 1946
Results of John F. Kennedy's 1946 U.S. Congressional Election
With the help of his father's campaign financing, John F. Kennedy is elected to his first political office, the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts' 11th Congressional District, in Boston with over 70% of the popular vote.
He is re-elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1948 and 1950.
December 14, 1946
Outstanding Young Man of the Year Award, 1947
This folder contains materials concerning Kennedy’s nomination as one of the ten outstanding young men of 1946 by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce.
January 3, 1947
John F. Kennedy enters the 80th Congress on January 3, 1947, at the age of 29, and immediately attracts attention (as well as some criticism from older members of the Washington establishment) for his youthful appearance and relaxed, informal style.
1947 - 1953
Kennedy served as a congressman for six years. He established himself as a loyal supporter of President Harry S. Truman. In Congress he advocated progressive taxation, the extension of social welfare and more low-cost public housing. He was also a leading opponent of the Taft-Hartley Bill.
1947
Kennedy was hospitalized in London and diagnosed with Addison’s disease, a serious adrenal disorder that the family didn’t disclose until after his death.
According to Chris Matthew’s biography Jack Kennedy: The Elusive Hero, the doctor who treated him was less than optimistic about his future in a conversation with Kennedy’s friend and travel companion, Pamela Churchill.
According to varying accounts, Kennedy was given last rites by a priest either during his voyage back across the Atlantic Ocean or upon docking in New York. Nasaw writes that upon his return, the young congressman’s father, Joe Kennedy Sr., spread the fake story that his son had suffered a recurrence of the malaria he first contracted during WWII in the Solomon Islands.
May 13, 1948
On May 13, 1948, Kathleen Kennedy, is killed in a plane crash. Her tragic death reminds Jack of his mortality and inspires him to pursue politics with greater fervor and dedication.
May 14, 1948
Truman Adviser Recalls May 14, 1948 US Decision to Recognize Israel
by Richard H. Curtiss
...Most people who knew the Middle East at first hand opposed the partition plan, adopted by the United Nations on November 29, 1947. Patently unfair, it awarded 56 percent of Palestine to its 650,000 Jewish inhabitants, and 44 percent to its 1,300,000 Muslim and Christian Arab inhabitants.
Partition was adopted only after ruthless arm-twisting by the US government and by 26 pro-Zionist US senators who, in telegrams to a number of UN member states, warned that US goodwill in rebuilding their World War II-devastated economies might depend on a favorable vote for partition...
...Marshall and a majority of diplomats at the UN saw a direct UN trusteeship, succeeding the British mandate, as the only solution to halt the bloodshed. Otherwise, they knew, neighboring Arab states would send military units across the border into Palestine the day the British withdrew, in an attempt to reoccupy the Arab towns and villages seized by Jewish forces. The State Department urged Truman not to grant diplomatic recognition to the Jewish state when the British withdrew, but instead to side with rapidly growing sentiment in the United Nations in favor of trusteeship. Truman wavered and, for a time, both sides in a bitter battle for the president's ear thought they had his support.
Forty-four years after these events, Clifford, Truman's principal domestic advisor, has produced his memoir. Written in two parts with Richard Holbrooke, the first part of the memoir was published in the March 25, 1991 New Yorker. It covers events from 1944, when [Clark] Clifford, a 37-year-old lawyer and newly commissioned lieutenant, junior grade, in the naval reserve from St. Louis, MO, Truman's home town, took up duties in the White House, through the decision to recognize Israel on May 14, 1948.
Astonishingly, it confirms the key role of Clifford, Truman's inexperienced domestic political adviser, in overriding the wishes of General of the Armies George C. Marshall, the World War II chief of staff.
Marshall had returned to government to serve as secretary of state to the inexperienced former vice president, who was ill-prepared for the presidency when it was thrust upon him by the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, just a month before the Allied victory in Europe and four months before the victory over Japan.
A Hasty Decision
Confirming charges by "Arabists" that the decision to recognize Israel was hasty and based upon domestic political considerations, Clifford writes:
"Marshall firmly opposed American recognition of the new Jewish state; I did not. Marshall's opposition was shared by almost every member of the brilliant and now legendary group of presidential advisers, later referred to as the Wise Men, who were then in the process of creating a post-war foreign policy that would endure for more than 40 years. The opposition included the respected Under Secretary of State Robert Lovett; his predecessor, Dean Acheson; the No. 3 man in the State Department, Charles Bohlen; the brilliant chief of the Policy Planning Staff George Kennan; (Navy Secretary James V.) Forrestal; and ... Dean Rusk, then the director of the Office of United Nations Affairs...
"Officials in the State Department had done everything in their power to prevent, thwart, or delay the President's Palestine policy in 1947 and 1948, while I had fought for assistance to the Jewish Agency.
"At midnight on May 14, 1948 (6 pm in Washington), the British would relinquish control of Palestine, which they had been administering under a mandate from the old League of Nations since the First World War. One minute later, the Jewish Agency, under the leadership of David Ben-Gurion, would proclaim the new state...
May 15, 1948
The Nakba did not start or end in 1948
Key facts and figures on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine
...Every year on May 15, Palestinians around the world, numbering about 12.4 million, mark the Nakba, or "catastrophe", referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society in 1948.
The Palestinian experience of dispossession and loss of a homeland is 69 years old this year.
The creation of Israel was a violent process that entailed the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland to establish a Jewish-majority state, as per the aspirations of the Zionist movement.
Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians from a 1.9 million population were made refugees beyond the borders of the state. Zionist forces had taken more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres...
Al-Nakba (47:24)
by Al Jazeera English
A series on the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures. "The Nakba did not begin in 1948. Its origins lie over two centuries ago…." So begins this four-part series on the 'nakba', meaning the 'catastrophe', about the history of the Palestinian exodus that led to the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, and the establishment of the state of Israel.
For Palestinians, 1948 marks the 'nakba' or the 'catastrophe', when hundreds of thousands were forced out of their homes.
"The tragedy in Palestine is not just a local one; it is a tragedy for the world, because it is an injustice that is a menace to the world's peace."
Arnold Toynbee, British historian
Since its establishment [theft of Palestine] on May 14, 1948, the [apartheid] State of Israel has fought eight recognized wars, two Palestinian intifadas, and a series of armed conflicts in the broader Arab–Israeli conflict.
Israeli war of independence (November 1947 – July 1949) – Started as 6 months of civil war between Jewish and Arab militias at the end of the British Mandate of Palestine and turned into a regular war after the declaration of independence of Israel and the intervention of several Arab armies. In its conclusion, a set of agreements were signed between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, called the 1949 Armistice Agreements, which established the armistice lines between Israel and its neighbours, also known as the Green Line.
Reprisal operations (1950s–1960s) – Military operations carried out by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1950s and 1960s. These actions were in response to constant fedayeen incursions during which Arab guerillas infiltrated from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan into Israel to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The policy of the reprisal operations was exceptional due to Israel's declared aim of getting a high 'blood cost' among the enemy side which was believed to be necessary in order to deter them from committing future attacks.
Suez Crisis (October 1956) – A military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel, beginning on 29 October 1956, with the intention to occupy the Sinai Peninsula and to take over the Suez Canal. The attack followed Egypt's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal after the withdrawal of an offer by Britain and the United States to fund the building of the Aswan Dam. Although the Israeli invasion of the Sinai was successful, the US and USSR forced it to retreat. Even so, Israel managed to re-open the Straits of Tiran and pacified its southern border.
Six-Day War (June 1967) – Fought between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The nations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, and others also contributed troops and arms to the Arab forces. Following the war, the territory held by Israel expanded significantly ("The Purple Line") : The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan, Golan Heights from Syria, Sinai and Gaza from Egypt.
War of Attrition (1967–1970) – A limited war fought between the Israeli military and forces of the Egyptian Republic, the USSR, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1967 to 1970. It was initiated by the Egyptians as a way of recapturing the Sinai from the Israelis, who had been in control of the territory since the mid-1967 Six-Day War. The hostilities ended with a ceasefire signed between the countries in 1970 with frontiers remaining in the same place as when the war began.
Yom Kippur War (October 1973) – Fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel as a way of recapturing part of the territories which they lost to the Israelis back in the Six-Day War. The war began with a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Egypt and Syria crossed the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and Golan Heights, respectively. Eventually Arab forces were defeated by Israel and there were no significant territorial changes.
Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon (1971–1982) – PLO relocate to South Lebanon from Jordan and stage attacks on the Galilee and as a base for international operations. In 1978, Israel launches Operation Litani – the first Israeli large-scale invasion of Lebanon, which was carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in order to expel PLO forces from the territory. Continuing ground and rocket attacks, and Israeli retaliations, eventually escalate into the 1982 War.
1982 Lebanon War (1982) – Began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon to expel the PLO from the territory. The Government of Israel ordered the invasion as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by the Abu Nidal Organization and due to the constant terror attacks on northern Israel made by the Palestinian guerilla organizations which resided in Lebanon. The war resulted in the expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon and created an Israeli Security Zone in southern Lebanon.
South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000) – Nearly 15 years of warfare between the Israel Defense Forces and its Lebanese Christian proxy militias against Lebanese Muslim guerrilla, led by Iranian-backed Hezbollah, within what was defined by Israelis as the "Security Zone" in South Lebanon.
First Intifada (1987–1993) – First large-scale Palestinian uprising against Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Second Intifada (2000–2005) – Second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified violence, which began in late September 2000.
2006 Lebanon War (summer 2006) – Began as a military operation in response to the abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers by the Hezbollah. The operation gradually strengthened, to become a wider confrontation. The principal participants were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict started on 12 July 2006 and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006, when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. The war resulted in the pacification of southern Lebanon and in the weakness of the Hezbollah (which suffered serious casualties but managed to survive the Israeli onslaught).
Gaza War (December 2008 – January 2009) – Three-week armed conflict between Israel and Hamas during the winter of 2008–2009. In an escalation of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israel responded to ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip with military force in an action titled "Operation Cast Lead". Israel opened the attack with a surprise air strike on December 27, 2008. Israel's stated aim was to stop such rocket fire from and the import of arms into Gaza. Israeli forces attacked military and civilian targets, police stations, and government buildings in the opening assault. Israel declared an end to the conflict on January 18 and completed its withdrawal on January 21, 2009.
Operation Pillar of Defense (November 2012) – Military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Operation Protective Edge (July–August 2014) – Military offensive on the Gaza Strip as a response to the collapse of American-sponsored peace talks, attempts by rival Palestinian factions to form a coalition government, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, the subsequent kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian teenager, and increased rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas militants.
September 17, 1948
Jewish Terrorists Assassinate U.N. Peacekeeper Count Folke Bernadotte
by Donald Neff
It was 47 years ago, September 17, 1948, when Jewish terrorists assassinated Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden as he sought to bring peace to the Middle East. His three-car convoy had been stopped at a small improvised roadblock in Jewish-controlled West Jerusalem when two gunmen began shooting out the tires of the cars and a third gunman thrust a Schmeisser automatic pistol through the open back window of Bernadotte's Chrysler. The 54-year-old diplomat, sitting on the right in the back, was hit by six bullets and died instantly. A French officer sitting next to Bernadotte was killed accidentally.
The assassins were members of Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel—Fighters for the Freedom of Israel), better known as the Stern Gang. Its three leaders had decided a week earlier to have Bernadotte killed because they believed he was partial to the Arabs. One of those leaders was Yitzhak Shamir, who in 1983 would become prime minister of Israel.1
Bernadotte had been chosen the United Nations mediator for Palestine four months earlier in what was the U.N.'s first serious attempt at peacemaking in the post-World War II world. As a hero of the war, when his mediation efforts on behalf of the International Red Cross saved 20,000 persons, including thousands of Jews, from Nazi concentration camps, Bernadotte seemed a natural choice for the post.2 The terms of the mediator's mandate were to "promote a peaceful adjustment of the future situation in Palestine" and to allow him to mediate beyond the terms of the Partition Plan...
Who killed the UN official Count Folke Bernadotte?
Count Folke Bernadotte (Count of Wisborg) was a Swedish diplomat, nephew of King Gustavus V, fluent in six languages, who gained international recognition through his work as head of the Swedish Red Cross during World War II. On May 20, 1948 Bernadotte was appointed mediator of the UN General Assembly, and was immediately faced with the volatile situation in the Middle East. The long-standing conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine escalated after the adoption of the UN partition resolution on November 29, 1947. When Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, five Arab armies invaded Israel.
During the summer of 1948, Count Folke Bernadotte was sent by the United Nations to Palestine to mediate a truce and try to negotiate a settlement. On June 11, Bernadotte succeeded in arranging a 30-day cease-fire. After visiting Cairo, Beirut, Amman and Tel Aviv, he came to the conclusion that the UN partition plan was an “unfortunate” resolution and proposed his own plan.
Bernadotte’s plan called for the Jewish State to relinquish the Negev and Jerusalem to Transjordan and to receive the western Galilee. Bernadotte advocated a total demilitarization of Jerusalem and blamed the Jewish forces for “aggressive” behavior in the city. The boundaries proposed were similar to what had been proposed prior to the partition vote, and had been rejected by all sides. Now, the proposal was being offered after the Arabs had gone to war to prevent partition and a Jewish state had been declared. The Jews and Arabs both rejected the plan. Fighting resumed on July 8, 1948 raging until another cease-fire was arranged July 18th.
LEHI was a Jewish extremist group, also called the “Stern Gang”, engaging in a campaign of “personal terror” against the British in Palestine. When the IDF was established on May 31, 1948, LEHI was disbanded and its members enlisted in the IDF. But in Jerusalem LEHI remained an independent organization, arguing that at the time of the proclamation of independence the city’s fate had not yet been determined.
For LEHI, Count Folke Bernadotte, as UN mediator for “Palestine,” came to symbolize the foreign oppression of the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel. LEHI called Bernadotte a British agent and said he had cooperated with the Nazis in World War II. The organization considered his plan to be a threat to its goal of an independent Israel with expanded territory on both sides of the Jordan River. Bernadotte was assassinated by a LEHI team in Jerusalem on September 17, 1948, an act that resulted in the elimination of the LEHI organization by the Jewish leaders of Israel...
Kennedy is reelected to a second term in the United States House of Representatives for Massachusetts' 11th Congressional District, in Boston.
January 3, 1949
Kennedy enters the 81st Congress on January 3, 1949.
"Played golf with Joe Kennedy (United States Ambassador to Britain). He says that (Neville) Chamberlain (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) stated that America and world Jewry forced England into World War II."
James V. Forrestal
May 22, 1949
by Dave "DC Dave" Martin
World War II had ended less than three years before. It was becoming increasingly apparent that, for all its losses, the big winner of that war had been the Soviet Union and world communism. On March 10, 1948, the body of one of the leading holdouts against the communist advance was found in the courtyard beneath the window of his office. National authorities called the death a suicide, but reports in opposition countries concluded that it had been a murder, a political assassination by the secret police. I am speaking of Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, the last non-communist government minister of Czechoslovakia, which was the last Eastern European country not yet taken over completely by the communists.
...James V. Forrestal was America's first Secretary of Defense. He was also the leading official in the Truman administration opposing the creation and U.S. recognition of the state of Israel. President Truman relieved Forrestal of his position in late March of 1949....
On May 22, 1949, the body of the man generally regarded as the leading government official warning of the communist menace abroad and within the United States government, the nation’s first Secretary of Defense, James V. Forrestal, was found on a third floor roof 13 floors below a 16th-floor window of the Bethesda Naval Hospital. He had been admitted to the hospital, apparently against his will, diagnosed as suffering from “operational fatigue” and kept in confinement in a room with security-screened windows on the 16th floor since April 2, some seven weeks before. The body had been discovered at 1:50 a.m., and the last edition of the May 22 New York Times reported the death as a suicide, although the belt, or sash, of his dressing gown was tied tightly around his neck, a more suspicious happenstance than anything associated with Masaryk’s death....
Before meeting Jim Forrestal I thought we were losing to international Communism because of incompetence and stupidity on the part of our planners. I mentioned that to Forrestal. I shall forever remember his answer. He said, "McCarthy (Joe), consistency has never been a mark of stupidity. If they were merely stupid they would occasionally make a mistake in our favor."
November 7, 1950
Kennedy is reelected to a third term in the United States House of Representatives for Massachusetts' 11th Congressional District, in Boston.
January 3, 1951
Kennedy enters the 82nd Congress on January 3, 1949.
May 1951
Georgetown Town House Where JFK Met Jackie To Hit The Market
by Patrick Roth
The house, which originally dates back to 1895, was rented out to Charles and Martha Bartlett in the 1950s. In May 1951, they threw a dinner party to introduce then-Congressman Kennedy to Bouvier.
The pair bonded over cocktails, chicken casserole and a game of charades, and two years later they got married in Rhode Island.
Home Where Jackie And John Kennedy First Met To Hit Market
by Beckie Strum
The Washington, D.C., house will ask $1.725 million
In the spring of 1951, journalist Charles Bartlett and his wife, Martha, played matchmaker by inviting then-Congressman Kennedy and Bouvier to a brick townhouse they rented on Q Street in Georgetown for an intimate dinner party.
Kennedy took a strong interest in foreign policy and in 1951 toured Europe visiting Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Yugoslavia and West Germany. On his return he told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that the United States should maintain its policy of helping to defend Western Europe. However, he argued that the countries concerned should contribute more to the costs of the operation. In the autumn of 1951 Kennedy visited the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Indochina, Malaya and Korea. An opponent of colonial empires, Kennedy urged that France should leave Algeria. He also argued for increased financial aid to underdeveloped countries.
Fall 1951
...Jack, then in his third term as a congressman from Massachusetts, include his younger brother on his trip to the Middle East and Asia in the fall of 1951, Jack moaned that Bobby would be “a pain in the ass.” Yet traveling in close quarters for 25,000 miles, including to trouble spots like Vietnam, let Jack see Bobby as a grown man with his own opinions. The brothers met Pakistan’s first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, just before he was murdered, and they saw India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who Bobby said “didn’t pay the slightest attention to my brother but was just destroyed by my sister Pat.” For Jack, the trip was a quick way to beef up his foreign policy resume; it went deeper for Bobby, who was struck by the human dimension of scenes he witnessed and people he encountered: “These countries were struggling for independence, or had just gained their independence and were trying to right themselves and create a future.” Having Bobby along began as a burden for Jack, but in the end it saved his life. Bobby arranged for his brother to be flown to a US military hospital on Okinawa when an adrenal condition flared up, and he sat at his bedside when Jack’s temperature shot to 107. “They didn’t think he could possibly live,” Bobby remembered. It was the second time priests had given the congressman last rites...
April 7, 1952
John F. Kennedy's Announcement as Candidate for U.S. Senate. After serving three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Kennedy decided to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate representing Massachusetts against Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the incumbent. Jack Kennedy's younger brother, Bobby, becomes his campaign manager, signaling the birth of an enduring political partnership between the two brothers. His mother and sisters held "Kennedy teas" throughout the state.
July 12, 1952 - July 29, 1952
The 1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident, also known as the Washington flap, the Washington National Airport Sightings, or the Invasion of Washington, was a series of unidentified flying object reports from July 12 to July 29, 1952, over Washington, D.C. The most publicized sightings took place on consecutive weekends, July 19 - 20 and July 26 - 27. UFO historian Curtis Peebles called the incident "the climax of the 1952 (UFO) flap" - "Never before or after did Project Blue Book and the Air Force undergo such a tidal wave of (UFO) reports."
UFOs over Washington D.C. 1952 (8:13 - start at 1:00)
September 16, 1952
John F. Kennedy wins the Massachusetts Democratic primary for Senate, he ran virtually unopposed.
November 4, 1952
JFK defeats Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. to win election to the United States Senate. In the presidential election, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his running mate, Richard Nixon, carried Massachusetts by a margin of 208,000 votes over Adlai Stevenson, but Kennedy defeated Lodge by 70,000 votes for the Senate seat. Largely due to Bobby Kennedy's effective strategic planning in the campaign, John F. Kennedy is elected to the United States Senate. Joe Sr., Jack, and Bobby all consider the Senate seat to be a key step in Jack's political ascendancy.
Senator Kennedy enters the 83rd Congress on January 3, 1953. Evelyn Lincoln starts work as the personal secretary for Senator Kennedy.
August 15, 1953 - August 19, 1953
The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup, was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Shah of Iran) on August 19, 1953, orchestrated by the MI6 in the United Kingdom, under the name, Operation Boot, and by the CIA in the United States, under the name, Operation Ajax.
September 12, 1953
Wedding of Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy, Newport, Rhode Island.
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and John F. Kennedy were married on the morning of September 12, 1953, in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island. The more than eight hundred guests included many notable individuals. Bouvier is the daughter of John Vernon Bouvier III and Janet Lee Bouvier.
The ceremony was performed by Archbishop Cushing, a friend of the Kennedy family, and he was assisted by four other priests, including the former president of Notre Dame and the head of the Christopher Society. Before the mass, a special blessing from Pope Pius XII was read.
Tenor soloist Luigi Vena from Boston sang Gounod’s Ave Maria.
The reception was held on the terrace of the 300 acre Auchincloss oceanfront estate, Hammersmith Farm, for more than twelve hundred guests. The wedding cake, four feet tall, was ordered by Joseph P. Kennedy. Meyer Davis and his orchestra played under a huge canopy.
April 6, 1954
Senator John F. Kennedy Speaking Against American Involvement In Indochina (:50)
June 18, 1954 - June 27, 1954
The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état was a covert operation carried out by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–54. Code-named Operation PBSUCCESS, it installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian rulers in Guatemala.
July 1954
by Michael Collins Piper
Perhaps the best-known instance in which Israel used a “false flag” to cover its own trail was in the infamous Lavon Affair in which, in July of 1954, there was a series of bombings in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt. Among the targets were the libraries of the United States Information Service in both cities. In fact, the bombings were an operation by Israeli Military Intelligence who hoped both Egyptian President Nasser and the outside world would believe the attacks were carried out by militant Egyptian Muslim fundamentalists angry at Nasser’s friendly relations with the U.S. and Britain.
Israel’s ultimate purpose was to destabilize Nasser’s relationships with both the U.S. and Britain and compel the British to withdrawal from their bases on the Suez Canal (although, in fact, in the end, no British targets were bombed, the initial plan notwithstanding).
According to Colonel Benjamin Gibli, Israel’s chief of military intelligence and the senior army officer responsible for sending the final signal to Cairo to initiate the bombings, he had been given his orders by Defense Minister Pinchas Lavon...
The Lavon Affair: How a false-flag operation led to war and the Israeli bomb
by Leonard Weiss
The Lavon Affair, a failed Israeli covert operation directed against Egypt in 1954, triggered a chain of events that have had profound consequences for power relationships in the Middle East; the affair’s effects still reverberate today. Those events included a public trial and conviction of eight Egyptian Jews who carried out the covert operation, two of whom were subsequently executed; a retaliatory military incursion by Israel into Gaza that killed 39 Egyptians; a subsequent Egyptian–Soviet arms deal that angered American and British leaders, who then withdrew previously pledged support for the building of the Aswan Dam; the announced nationalization of the Suez Canal by Nasser in retaliation for the withdrawn support; and the subsequent failed invasion of Egypt by Israel, France, and Britain in an attempt to topple Nasser. In the wake of that failed invasion, France expanded and accelerated its ongoing nuclear cooperation with Israel, which eventually enabled the Jewish state to build nuclear weapons.
October 21, 1954
As Kennedy’s carefully managed political ascent continued, so did his health issues. In 1954, less than two years after being elected to the Senate, doctors recommended that Kennedy undergo back surgery to fuse his spinal disks with a metal plate.
The root of Kennedy’s long-term back problems may have been steroids he took in the late 1930s for intestinal problems, which resulted in the degeneration of his vertebrae, biographer Robert Dallek told The New York Times,
Doctors told Kennedy in 1954 that if he did not undergo the surgery he could be confined to a wheelchair for life. And yet the procedure was still risky due to his adrenal condition. Against the wishes of his father, Kennedy opted for surgery, and nearly paid dearly for it.
After the surgery was performed that fall, Kennedy developed a urinary tract infection. And just as doctors warned, the infection worsened due his Addison’s disease. Kennedy’s temperature spiked and he again went into a coma. And once again a priest was summoned to deliver last rites.
And this time, the news of the Massachusetts senator’s poor health spread nationally. Kennedy’s Senate office secretary was told that he wasn’t except to live through to the morning and a “Kennedy death watch” was reported on television.
“The odds made by the political wise guys were that he wouldn’t live, and that if he did live he’d be a cripple,” Ken O’Donnell, a political adviser and friend of Kennedy, told Matthews. “It became ‘he might not make it.'”
But of course, Kennedy did make it. His recovery, however, was slow.
It wasn’t until two months later, four days before Christmas, that he was flown from the New York City hospital where he underwent the operation to his parents’ home in Palm Beach, Florida. According to Nasaw, Kennedy’s father converted the ground floor of the home into a “makeshift hospital” with rotating shifts of doctors and nurses.
Kennedy spent the next five months at his parent’s home recovering and didn’t return to the Senate until May 1955, after a second back surgery.
His medical issues hardly ended there. Kennedy was hospitalized at least nine different times within the next two years and heavily medicated. However, the young senator was able to turn the narrative to attribute his medical woes to a war injury and used his young, telegenic appearance to propel himself to the presidency within only a few years.
“[Voters] largely knew nothing of his illnesses and chronic pain,” Nasaw wrote. “The were instead presented with the portrait of a superbly healthy young man, an athlete, a veteran, a smiling, affable, dynamic, energetic, youthful, handsome American with a smiling, healthy, athletic wife, parents, brothers, and sisters.”
December 2, 1954
Joseph McCarthy is censured by the U.S. Senate. JFK abstains from voting on the resolution. While Kennedy's father was a strong supporter of Senator Joseph McCarthy, McCarthy was also a friend of the Kennedy family. As well, Bobby Kennedy worked for McCarthy's subcommittee, and McCarthy dated Kennedy sister Patricia. In 1954, the Senate voted to censure McCarthy and Kennedy drafted a speech supporting the censure. However, it was not delivered because Kennedy was hospitalized at the time. The speech had the potential of putting Kennedy in the position of participating procedurally by "pairing" his vote against that of another senator. Although Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted, the episode damaged his support among members of the liberal community.
February 11, 1955
Kennedy undergoes a second spinal operation in New York. While convalescing Jackie supposedly asked him to write. Kennedy started to write a history of acts of bravery and integrity by eight heroic American Senators, Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957.
1955
Jacqueline Kennedy became pregnant for the first time in 1955 but after three months “suffered a miscarriage and learned that carrying and delivering a child would always be difficult for her,” recalled JFK’s friend and adviser Ken O’Donnell.
August 15, 1956
The highlight of the 1956 Democratic Convention (held in the International Amphitheatre on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois August 13 - August 17, 1956) came when Presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II, in an effort to create excitement for the ticket, made the surprise announcement that the convention's delegates would choose his running mate. This set off a desperate scramble among several candidates to win the nomination. A good deal of the excitement of the vice-presidential race came from the fact that the candidates had only one hectic day to campaign among the delegates before the voting began. The two leading contenders were Senator Kefauver, who retained the support of his primary delegates, and John F. Kennedy, who, as a first term Senator from Massachusetts, was relatively unknown at that point. Kennedy surprised the experts by surging into the lead on the second ballot; at one point he was only 15 votes shy of winning.
However, a number of states then left their "favorite son" candidates and switched to Kefauver, giving him the victory. Kennedy then gave a gracious concession speech. The narrow defeat raised his profile and helped Kennedy's long-term presidential chances, yet by losing to Kefauver he avoided any blame for Stevenson's expected loss to Eisenhower in November. As of 2017, this was the last time any presidential or vice presidential nomination of either the Democratic or Republican parties, went past the first ballot.
August 15, 1956 (Video 32:24)
Kennedy Withdraws His Name From Vice Presidential Nomination Speech
Roll Call for V.P. Nomination. At the 1956 Democratic National Convention, John Kennedy delivered a speech to withdraw his name from the 1956 vice presidential nomination. Presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II announced that the convention would vote on the vice presidential nominee. Senator Kennedy lost by a small margin to Senator Kefauver.
August 17, 1956
August 23, 1956
On the morning of August 23, 1956, a month before the baby was due, Jacqueline Kennedy awoke and cried out for her mother, she was hemorrhaging. She gave birth to a stillborn infant that she secretly called, Arabella.
November 6, 1956
The incumbent President, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, successfully ran for re-election. The election was a re-match of 1952, as Eisenhower's opponent in 1956 was Adlai Stevenson, a former Illinois governor, whom Eisenhower had also defeated in 1952.
1957
Kennedy gains a plum assignment to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, allowing him to gain valuable political experience and increase his prestige.
February 23, 1957
Before He Was President, John F. Kennedy Came To Springfield To Speak At Jackson Day Banquet
by Brooke Crum
When John F. Kennedy came to Springfield in 1957, he predicted Democratic wins in the next two national elections - but not his own victory in the 1960 presidential election.
Kennedy came to town Feb. 23, 1957, as the main speaker at the Missouri Democrats' Jackson Day banquet at the Shrine Mosque. Jackson Day, which has been renamed Democrat Days of the Ozarks, is an annual gathering of liberals in southwest Missouri.
At the time, Kennedy was a young senator from Massachusetts. This is believed to be the only visit Kennedy ever made to Springfield, according to News-Leader archives.
May 6, 1957
Profiles in Courage is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
Kennedy was the first Senator to support Algeria's struggle for Independence.
From, JFK’s Embrace of Third World Nationalists
by Jim DiEugenio
...Kennedy started the speech with an understanding tone, observing that many American leaders had chosen not to say anything since this was an internal French matter and France had been America’s first ally. Kennedy then switched gears, noting that a true friend of France would not stand by and watch France tear itself asunder in a futile war, one that would only delay the inevitable.
Kennedy then got to his point: “Yet, did we not learn in Indochina that we might have served both the French and our own causes infinitely better had we taken a more firm stand much earlier than we did? Did that tragic episode not teach us that, whether France likes it or not, admits it or not, or has our support or not, their overseas territories are sooner or later, one by one, inevitably going to break free and look with suspicion on the Western nations who impeded their steps to independence?”
“In these days, we can help fulfill a great and promising opportunity to show the world that a new nation, with an Arab heritage, can establish itself in the Western tradition and successfully withstand both the pull toward Arab feudalism and fanaticism and the pull toward Communist authoritarianism.”
As historian Allan Nevins wrote, no speech by Sen. Kennedy had attracted more attention than this one, and much was negative. Naturally, those he criticized harshly attacked Kennedy: John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower and Nixon. But again, as in 1956, Stevenson and another fellow Democrat, former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, also attacked him. Kennedy’s staff collected the many newspaper editorials the speech generated: 90 of the 138 responses were negative.
July 4, 1957
Senator Kennedy Reads The Declaration of Independence (10:39)
This recording of Senator John F. Kennedy reading the entire text of the Declaration of Independence was broadcast by WQXR Radio in New York, on July 4, 1957 as part of the station's observance of the Fourth of July. The recording was broadcast at 9:05 a.m. and at 10:25 p.m. The recording was made in Washington, D.C. in June of 1957.
October 29, 1957
When JFK Had Good Things to Say About Communist Kerala
The former US president also had words of praise for the “Communist” chief minister E.M.S. Namboodiripad.
by The Wire Staff
November 27, 1957
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is born at Cornell Medical Center, New York.
November 4, 1958
In 1958, Kennedy was re-elected to a second term in the Senate, defeating his Republican opponent, Boston lawyer Vincent J. Celeste, by a wide margin. It was during his re-election campaign that Kennedy's press secretary at the time, Robert E. Thompson, put together a film entitled The U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy Story, which exhibited a day in the life of the Senator and showcased his family life as well as the inner workings of his office. It was the most comprehensive film produced about Kennedy up to that time.
1958
Senator John F. Kennedy writes, A Nation Of Immigrants.
1959
Jack Paar interviews Senator Kennedy on The Tonight Show.
1959
The Story Behind John F. Kennedy’s Favourite Image Of Himself
by Belle Hutton
American fashion and portrait photographer Mark Shaw captured the Kennedys at home in 1959, in a series of unprecedented intimate images
1959
Kennedy’s interest in ending colonialism and supporting the struggle for self-determination (African Independence), which first attracted national attention in the 1950s as a result of his speeches attacking French colonialism in Vietnam and Algeria, extended as well to the struggles for independence in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1958, the State Department first established a Bureau of African Affairs and the following year, Kennedy became chairman of the African Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
1960 - 1962
“The Jack Pack” was the name briefly attributed to a famous group of 1960s entertainers who supported U.S. Senator John F. “Jack” Kennedy (JFK) in his 1960 run for president. “The Jack Pack” moniker was actually a variant of “The Rat Pack,” a nickname for a coterie of Hollywood stars and Las Vegas entertainers that included: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. In 1960, this group was temporarily dubbed “the Jack Pack” by Sinatra when they worked in various ways to support Kennedy’s election bid. Kennedy had socialized with Sinatra and the group on occasion and liked the camaraderie, which later turned to political and financial support on his behalf.
JFK Announces Candidacy For President - January 2, 1960 (Audio 26:55)
Forty-two year old Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts officially announces his intention to run for the Presidency of the United States. Other major candidates for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination are: Governor Pat Brown of California, Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, and Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota.
Results of 1960 Presidential Election Primaries
Despite his youth, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy captured the Democratic nomination in 1960 and went on to win one of the closest elections in United States history.
January 5, 1960
Listening In: JFK on running for President (2:45)
On January 5, 1960, the journalist James M. Cannon recorded a dinner party conversation at the home of John F. Kennedy, who had declared his candidacy for president three days earlier. Also present were his wife, Jacqueline, and their close friends Ben and Toni Bradlee. The conversation includes fascinating and candid revelations about Kennedy's medical problems, his private reasons for wanting to run, and his worry that he was too introverted to be a natural politician.
March 8, 1960
Kennedy wins the New Hampshire primary, receiving 88% of the vote. This would be the first of 10 primary victories for the Massachusetts Senator.
March 19, 1960 - April 29 1960
Speeches given by Senator John F. Kennedy concerning a proposal for the expansion of Public Law 480, also known as the Food for Peace program.
April 11, 1960
Senator John F. Kennedy campaigning in Charleston, West Virginia (7:57)
Senator John F. Kennedy delivering a campaign speech on the steps in front of the State Capitol.
May 4, 1960
Senators Kennedy and Humphrey hold a televised debate in West Virginia, prior to that state’s primary. Kennedy outperforms Senator Hubert Humphrey.
Kennedy-Humphrey Debate, 1960 West Virginia Primary Debate (59:40)
Senators John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey appeared in a televised debate during the West Virginia primary campaign. The debate was held at the WCHS-TV studio in Charleston, WV. The panelists included WCHS news director Bill Ames, Charleston Gazette publisher Ned Chilton, and WTRF-TV journalist Dale Schussler.
May 10, 1960
Kennedy wins the West Virginia primary, receiving 61% of the vote, and afterward, Humphrey ends his presidential campaign. West Virginia shows that Kennedy, a Catholic, could win in a heavily Protestant state.
May 1, 1960 - February 10, 1962
Gary Powers was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident.
On February 10, 1962, Powers was exchanged, along with American student Frederic Pryor, in a well-publicized spy swap at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin. The exchange was for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher, known as "Rudolf Abel", who had been caught by the FBI and tried and jailed for espionage. Powers credited his father with the swap idea.
Was the downing of Gary Powers’ U2 flight sabotage, or a terribly inconvenient accident? After four years of uneventful missions, why had this flight suddenly crashed on Mayday, two weeks before an unprecedented summit scheduled in Paris between Eisenhower and Khruschev, and who exactly authorized the flight on that date?
Years later, the liberal Senator from Arkansas, William Fulbright, who headed the senate hearings on the U2 affair, stated: “I have often wondered why, in the midst of these efforts by President Eisenhower and Khruschev to come to some understanding, the U2 incident was allowed to take place. No one will ever know whether it was accidental or intentional.”
May 16, 1960
U.S.-Soviet Summit Meeting Collapses
In the wake of the Soviet downing of an American U-2 spy plane on May 1, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev lashes out at the United States and President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a Paris summit meeting between the two heads of state. Khrushchev’s outburst angered Eisenhower and doomed any chances for successful talks or negotiations at the summit.
June 16, 1960
JFK on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar (4:19)
Kennedy was the first presidential candidate to campaign on an entertainment talk show when he appeared on The Tonight Show, Starring Jack Paar.
July 11, 1960 - July 15, 1960
Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles, California (9:38)
The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles. In the end, the Kennedy-Johnson ticket was assembled. In the week before the convention opened, John F. Kennedy received two new challengers when Lyndon B. Johnson, the powerful Senate Majority Leader from Texas, and Adlai Stevenson II, the party's nominee in 1952 and 1956, announced their candidacies. However, neither Johnson nor Stevenson was a match for the talented and highly efficient Kennedy campaign team led by Robert Kennedy. Johnson challenged Kennedy to a televised debate before a joint meeting of the Texas and Massachusetts delegations; Kennedy accepted. Most observers felt that Kennedy won the debate, and Johnson was not able to expand his delegate support beyond the South. Stevenson was popular among many liberal delegates, especially in California, but his two landslide defeats in 1952 and 1956 led party leaders to search for a "fresh face" who had a better chance of winning.
After Kennedy secured the nomination, he asked Johnson to be his running mate in a move which surprised many. To this day there is much debate regarding the details of Johnson's nomination—why it was offered and why he agreed to take it. Some historians speculate that Kennedy actually wanted someone else (such as Senators Stuart Symington or Henry M. Jackson) to be his running mate, and that he offered the nomination to Johnson first only as a courtesy to the powerful Senate Majority Leader
In Los Angeles, California, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts is nominated for the presidency by the Democratic Party Convention, defeating Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.
July 14, 1960
Kennedy asked Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas to be his vice presidential candidate, despite opposition from many liberal delegates and Kennedy's own staff, including his brother Bobby. Johnson was named Kennedy’s running mate by a unanimous vote of the convention.
Senator John F. Kennedy picks Senator Lyndon B. Johnson as running mate (1:51)
July 15, 1960
John F. Kennedy is officially nominated as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate at the Democratic Convention, held in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. Kennedy was the first senator since 1920 to be nominated for the presidency by either the Democrats or the Republicans.
Senator Kennedy 1960 Acceptance Speech (Videos)
Kennedy - 1960 Democratic National Convention Acceptance Speech (Audio 22:00)
John F. Kennedy accepts the nomination of the Democratic party to run in the presidential election of 1960. He announces Lyndon B. Johnson as his vice-presidential running mate. The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles. In the end, the Kennedy-Johnson ticket was assembled and went on to secure an electoral college victory and a narrow popular vote plurality (slightly over 110,000 nationally) in the fall over the Republican candidates Richard M. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
July 26, 1960
by Ashley Collman
The FBI interviewed a 'high-class Hollywood call girl' named Sue Young in July 1960, according to newly-released records about the JFK assasination
Young told them about a recent conversation she had with a private detective named Fred Otash
She says Otash asked her about her 'participation in sex parties' with then Sen. John F. Kennedy, the actor Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr
Young told Otash that she had 'no knowledge of such activities' and didn't know any other call girls who were present at any such parties
Otash reportedly wanted Young to reach out to Sen. Kennedy for a meeting, so she could record him making 'indiscreet statements'
The private detective implied that a magazine was 'looking for dirt on Kennedy' that they could use before the November 1960 presidential election
For more see the comprehensive section:
http://AffairsAndAllegedAffairs.November221963.com
August 10, 1960
Fair Labor Standards Speech by Senator John F. Kennedy, Delivered in the Senate
Today we begin debate upon the minimum wage bill known as the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1960. The bill has two major purposes. First, it will raise the minimum wage now received by 2 1/2 million workers from $1.10 to $1.25 an hour. Second, it will extend the protection of the Fair Labor Standards Act to 5 million additional employees, chiefly in large-scale interstate retail and service industries, thereby guaranteeing these employees a fair minimum wage and a just premium for overtime...
September 12, 1960
Kennedy's Separation of Church and State Speech Rice Hotel, Houston, Texas. (10:53)
Address of Senator John F. Kennedy to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association
Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy’s major address to a group of Protestant ministers on the religious issue in which he strongly reaffirms his support for separation of church and state. Many Protestants questioned the ability of a Roman Catholic President to make important national decisions independently of the influence of his church. Senator Kennedy answers those questions before an audience of Protestant clergy, many of whom may believe that he can not.
September 26, 1960
John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon participate in the first-ever televised presidential debate. The debate, which showcases Jack's youth and charm, marks a turning point in the campaign. CBS News journalist, Howard K. Smith, moderates.
Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate (58:34)
On September 26, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon stood before an audience of 70 million Americans, two-thirds of the nation's adult population, in the first nationally televised Presidential debate. This first of four debates held before the end of October gave a national audience the opportunity to see and compare the two candidates, and ushered in a new age of Presidential politics.
October 7, 1960
Kennedy and Nixon participate in the second presidential debate, held in Washington, D.C.; NBC News journalist, Frank McGee moderates.
Kennedy vs. Nixon - Second 1960 Presidential Debate (8:33)
Among the issues discussed was the U-2 incident involving Francis Gary Powers that occurred in May 1960, in the midst of the Cold War.
October 13, 1960
Senator Kennedy and Vice President Nixon debate each other for the third time; former Face the Nation anchor Bill Shadel moderates. Kennedy participates from a New York studio, while Nixon participates from a Los Angeles studio.
Presidential Candidates Debate (60:00) Senator John F. Kennedy (D-MA) and Vice President Richard M. Nixon met via remote link for the third of four presidential debates prior to the 1960 presidential election. Vice President Nixon was in Los Angeles and Senator Kennedy was in New York. The candidates responded to questions from a panel of correspondents. The debate was moderated by Bill Shadel. Other panelists included Frank McGee, Charles Van Fremd, Douglass Cater, and Roscoe Drummond.
October 21, 1960
Kennedy and Nixon participate in the fourth and final presidential debate in New York. This debate centered on foreign policy. ABC News journalist Quincy Howe moderates.
John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon - Fourth Presidential Debate (58:51)
This is the fourth presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.
October 24, 1960
Senator John F. Kennedy's Remarks at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL (9:55)
‘’….but if this is the way we turn out in these strong Republican centers, what is happening to Mr. Nixon all over the United States? This is an important campaign and these are important issues which face our country, and I appreciate your coming here. Prince Bismarck once said that one-third of the students - I guess maybe you better get down there a little - [applause], Prince Bismarck once said that one-third of the students of German universities broke down from overwork, another third broke down from dissipation, and the other third ruled Germany. I do not know which third of the student body of this university is here today, but I am confident I am talking to the rulers of America, in the sense that all educated men and women have the obligation to accept the discipline of self-government.
Mr. Nixon and I campaign for the most important office in the free world, but in my judgment this is more than a contest between Mr. Nixon and myself. It is more than a contest between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. It is a contest between the contented and the concerned, between those who wish to stand still and those who wish to move ahead.‘’
October 28, 1960
He was there: Native recalls Kennedy’s historic NEPA visit
by Michael Clark
John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign swing through Northeastern Pennsylvania — nearly six decades later — is still the watershed political event for tens of thousands of admirers determined to get a glimpse of, or if lucky, a handshake with the young senator who was taking the nation by storm. Indeed, it was Pennsylvania’s huge plurality, a sizable part of it from the anthracite region, that went far in Kennedy’s victory only days later.
November 4, 1960
Speech of Senator John F. Kennedy, Chicago Auditorium.
November 8, 1960
Senator John F. Kennedy is elected the 35th President of the United States, defeating his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon. Kennedy's popular vote margin is only 0.17%, 112,827 votes, and his electoral margin is 84 electoral votes. Nixon won more states, 26 to 22.
The 1960 presidential election is the first to have both candidates born in the 20th century, and the first in which the two most recently admitted states, Alaska (January 3, 1959) and Hawaii (August 21, 1959), participated. The electoral result proves to be the closest since the 1916 presidential election.
This election also features the last time the state of Ohio was on the losing end of the presidential election. From 1964 onward, the candidate who won Ohio won the election nationwide. There were 14 unpledged electors and one faithless elector in the election, all 8 from Mississippi, 6 out of 11 from Alabama, and 1 out of 8 from Oklahoma for the Byrd / Thurmond ticket, and one for the Byrd / Goldwater ticket.
Popular vote: Kennedy 34,220,984 - Nixon 34,108,157
Percentage: Kennedy 49.72% - Nixon 49.55%
Electoral vote: Kennedy 303 - Nixon 219
States carried: Kennedy 22 - Nixon 26
Election Night 1960 NBC-TV Coverage (1:26:17)
November 9, 1960
Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon concedes the presidency to Kennedy.
Kennedy Elected, Nixon Concedes (5:49)
67 million go to polls on election day, Ike votes, JFK and Jackie vote, Nixon and Pat vote in Whittier, Nixon speaks from his election HQ and concedes defeat; Kennedy wins; JFK speaks, to all Americans I say the next 4 years will be difficult, and the supreme national efort will be needed (cut off) (partial newsreel)
November 9, 1960
President Elect Kennedy Acceptance Speech Hyannis Armory (9:31)
John F. Kennedy Acceptance Speech
Hyannis Armory, Hyannis, Massachusetts, November 9, 1960
This is a transcription of this speech made for the convenience of readers and researchers. No textual copies of the speech exist at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, and this short speech appears to be at least partly extemporaneous. This transcription is based on a Boston Globe article from November 9, 1960 and CBS News film footage housed at the library. Because there is no original textual source available to us, efforts have been made to follow John F. Kennedy's spoken words as closely as possible. In some cases this has led to apparent errors, where President-elect Kennedy's grammar becomes somewhat conflicted as he improvises his remarks.
November 25, 1960
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., named after his father, the President-elect and Mrs. Kennedy's second child and first son. is born at Georgetown University Hospital.
November 1960
President-elect John F. Kennedy And His Family (4:00)
December 2, 1960
President-elect John F. Kennedy And Daughter Caroline Arriving In West Palm Beach, Florida (:41)
President Elect John F. Kennedy arriving aboard his private plane, with his three year old daughter, Caroline in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 2, 1960. Caroline seems to be pulling her daddy as they head for a waiting car, which will take them to his Palm Beach water front home in Florida. She peers out rear window of car and looks puzzled at all the excitement going on, in West Palm Beach, Florida, as Kennedy glances at her. They were whisked away from the airport to his Palm Beach home.
December 6, 1961
JFK And Eisenhower Meeting During Presidential Transition (1:52)
President-elect John F. Kennedy's visit to the White House to meet with President Dwight D. Eisenhower during the presidential transition.
December 7, 1960 - November 22, 1963
The following 17 pages is an extensive overview because it is the number one motive to assassinated the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
In the future I will devote a compressive section on Dimona / David Ben-Gurion and the never-ending lies and deceitful behavior that Israel have promulgated to obtain hundreds of nuclear weapons and dictate foreign policy of the United States.
I strongly recommend reading the insightful, well documented and in my opinion, the best book on the Kennedy assassination; Final Judgment: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy, written by the late Michael Collins Piper.
Final Judgment: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy (Free .pdf)
Final Judgment: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy (Free .pdf)
Final Judgment: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy (Book)
Final Judgement Lecture [Mossad Connection To JFK Conspiracy] (45:25)
by Michael Collins Piper
In Final Judgment, Piper puts forth the number one motive for the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy; Israel was obsessed on building their covert Dimona nuclear plant, with the aim of obtaining nuclear weapons, and with the proliferation of nuclear weapons being the paramount issue with Kennedy, there was simply no way he was going to let them.
Piper also lays out in detail how the assassination of Kennedy, and the Presidency of Johnson brought about a 180 degree change in the United States policy towards Israel.
See the section: Jewish Lobby
According to author Stephen Green, Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel, 1984, as early as March 5, 1964, Nasser (Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, was the second President of Egypt, serving from 1956 until his death in 1970) told Assistant US Secretary of State Phillips Talbot that 'the US had shifted its policy into more active support of Israel'. Nasser's assessment is supported by intelligence historian Richard Deacon in his book, The Israeli Secret Service (1978). Deacon claims that Johnson's new policy was keeping in line not only with Israel's demands but those of Israel's friends in the CIA: 'President Johnson had already swung away from the tentative pro-Arab stance of the Kennedy Administration which had always been frowned upon by the CIA". Deacon further claimed that Walt Rostow, LBJ's national security advisor, believed that US policy towards Israel would serve as an effective check on Soviet support for Arab countries. Thus, according to Deacon, 'Rostow reflected almost totally the views of the CIA hierarchy'.
Did LBJ dramatically increase aid to Israel? Former Undersecretary of State George Ball commented that, 'The Isreali's were proved right in their assumption that Johnson would be more friendly than Kennedy'. According to author Stephen Green, citing US Agency for International Development data: 'Over the next few years--the first three years of the Johnson administration--the level of foreign aid support to Israel would change both qualitatively and quantitatively. US Government assistance to Israel in FY 1964, the last budget year of the Kennedy administration, stood at $40 million. In FY 1965, this figure rose to $71 million and in FY 1966, to $130 million'.
'More significant, however, was the change in the composition of that assistance. In (JFK's) FY 1964, virtually none of the official US assistance was military assistance; it was split almost equally between development loans and food aid under the PL 480 program. In LBJ's FY 1965, however, 20% of US aid was military in nature, and in FY 1966, fully 71% of all official assistance to Israel came in the form of credits for purchase of military equipment.
'Moreover, the nature of the weapons system we provided had changed. In FY 1963, the Kennedy administration agreed to sell five batteries of Hawk missiles valued at $21.5 million. This however, was an air defense system. The Johnson administration, in FY 65/66, provided Israel with 250 modern (modified M-48) tanks, 48 A-1 Skyhawk attack aircraft, communications and electronic equipment, artillery and recoilless rifles.
'The $92 million in military assistance provided in FY 1966 was greater than the total of all official military aid provided to Israel cumulatively in all the years going back to the foundation of that state in 1948. America has given Israel $17 billion in military aid since 1946, virtually all of which--over 99%--has been provided since 1965'.
It should be noted that Green's book was written in 1984, tens of billions more military aid has been provided by United States taxpayers to Israel since then.
In Kennedy Assassination, Anyone But Mossad is Fair Game for U.S. Media (March 1992)
by Paul Findley (Former Illinois Congressman)
From: Kennedy, The Lobby And The Bomb
by Laurent Guyénot
Kennedy and the AIPAC
In May 1963, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations opened an investigation into the covert activities of foreign agents on U.S. soil, focusing in particular on the American Zionist Council and the Jewish Agency for Israel. The investigation was prompted by a report from the Chairman of that standing Committee, Senator J. William Fulbright, written in March 1961 (declassified in 2010), stating: "In recent years there has been an increasing number of incidents involving attempts by foreign governments, or their agents, to influence the conduct of American foreign policy by techniques outside normal diplomatic channels." By covert activities, including "within the United States and elsewhere," Fulbright was referring to the 1954 "Lavon Affair", where a group of Egyptian Jews was recruited by Israel to carry out bomb attacks against British targets, which were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood so as to discredit Nasser in the eyes of the British and Americans.
The Senate investigation brought to light a money laundering racket through which the Jewish Agency (indivisible from the State of Israel and a precursor to the Israeli Government) was channeling tens of millions of dollars to the American Zionist Council, the main Israeli lobby in the United States. Following this investigation, the Department of Justice, under the authority of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, ordered the American Zionist Council to register as "agents of a foreign government," subject to the requirements of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, involving the close monitoring of its activities.
This attempt to counter Israel’s growing interference in U.S. politics undoubtedly enjoyed the support of the President. At the time when he was still a young journalist covering the United Nations inaugural conference, John Kennedy was troubled by Israel’s ability to buy politicians, up to and including the President himself. By recognizing the State of Israel on May 15, 1948, (just ten minutes after its official proclamation) despite the unanimous disapproval of his government, President Harry Truman not only gained a place in biblical history ("Truman’s historic act of recognition will remain forever inscribed in golden letters in the 4000-year history of the Jewish people”, declared the Israeli ambassador), he also pocketed two million dollars to revitalize his re-election campaign. "That’s why our recognition of Israel was rushed through so fast,” Kennedy told his friend novelist and essayist Gore Vidal.
In 1960, John Kennedy himself received a financial aid offer from the Israeli lobby for his presidential campaign. He decoded Abraham Feinberg’s proposal for his journalist friend Charles Bartlett in the following terms: "We know your campaign is in trouble. We’re willing to pay your bills if you’ll let us have control of your Middle East policy." Bartlett recalls Kennedy’s promise that "if he ever did get to be President, he was going to do something about it." Between 1962 and 1963, he submitted seven campaign finance reform bills but all were defeated by the influential groups they sought to restrain.
All government efforts to stymie the corruption of American democracy by Israeli agents were stopped short by Kennedy’s assassination and his brother’s replacement at the Department of Justice by Nicholas Katzenbach. The American Zionist Council evaded foreign agent status by dissolving and renaming itself American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Ten years later (April 15, 1973), Fulbright commented on CBS: "Israel controls the U.S. Senate. [...] The great majority of the Senate of the U.S. – somewhere around 80 percent – are completely in support of Israel; anything Israel wants Israel gets." AIPAC continued the same practices, dodging any sanction even when its members were caught red-handed in acts of espionage and high treason. In 2005, two AIPAC officials, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, were acquitted after having received from a member of the Pentagon Office of Special Plans, Larry Franklin, documents classified as Secret-Defense which they transmitted to a senior Israeli official.
In 2007, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt demonstrated in their book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy that AIPAC and less prominent pro-Israel lobbies were the main cause of the war in Iraq and, more broadly, the determining factor in the foreign policy of the U.S. in the Middle East. Considering that nothing has changed, there is no reason to believe that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu will not also obtain from the United States the destruction of Iran that it consistently clamors for.
On October 3, 2001, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was reported by Kol Yisrael radio to have said to his Foreign Minister Shimon Peres that "We, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it."
His successor Benjamin Netanyahu gave a demonstration of that on May 24, 2011, before the U.S. Congress, when members of both houses stood up to cheer him 29 times, in particular after each of the following remarks: "In Judea and Samaria, the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers"; "No distortion of history could deny the 4000- year-old bond between the Jewish people and the Jewish land"; "Israel will not return to the indefensible boundaries of 1967”; "Jerusalem must never again be divided. Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel.”
Both houses of Congress offer Benjamin Netanyahu 29 standing ovations (2:37)
And again...
Over one quarter of Netanyahu’s speech to Congress consisted of applause and standing ovations
by Ben Norton
US congresspeople got quite the workout on the morning of March 3, 2015. ‘Twas on this fateful day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, addressed US Congress, in what one might refer to as an historic occasion, the lector himself saw no problem in proclaiming it to be. To say it was just well received would be to commit the callous crime of understatement. In Netanyahu’s pep rally, rather speech before the US legislative branch, Congress interrupted to applaud 39 times. 23 of these were standing ovations. 10:55 of the 40:30 of Netanyahu’s exhortation consisted of applause. In other words, 27% was Congress applauding and doing standing ovations...
Benjamin Netanyahu Speech to Congress 2015 (43:24)
So, who owns our sold out puppet politicians?
"No American president was more concerned with the danger of nuclear proliferation than John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was convinced that the spread of nuclear weapons would make the world more dangerous and undermine United States interests."
Avener Cohen, Israel and the Bomb
From: Israeli Nuclear Threats And Blackmail
The Samson Option Still Threatens The World
by Carol Moore
Israel also use plausible deniability of processing hundreds of nuclear weapons while threatening to use the Samson Option. The phrase the “Samson Option” is used to describe Israel’s strategy of massive nuclear retaliation against “enemy” nations should its existence as a Jewish state be jeopardized through military attack. Israeli leaders created the term in the mid-1960s, inspired by the Biblical figure Samson, who destroyed a Philistine temple, killing himself and thousands of Philistine enemies.
Israel refuses to admit officially that it has nuclear weapons - a policy known as “nuclear ambiguity” or "nuclear opacity." This despite government officials inferring repeatedly - and occasionally admitting - the fact. And despite Israeli nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu making public smuggled photographs of nuclear weapons and production equipment in the 1980s. Israel now may have as many as 400 atomic and hydrogen nuclear weapons, as well as the ability to launch them via long range missiles, submarines and aircraft. It can use them in a second strike even if its military is devastated.
Originally a strategy of last resort retaliation - even if it means Israel’s annihilation - it has developed into being a nuclear bullying strategy to further Israel’s territorial goals through threats and blackmail. Israel has bullied not only Arab and Muslim nations, but the United States and Russia with its Samson Option threats. Mordechai Vanunu has alleged that Israel uses for purposes of blackmail its ability to "bombard any city all over the world, and not only those in Europe but also those in the United States."...
"Most European capitals are targets for our [Israel's] air
force....
We have the capability to take the world down with
us.
And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel
goes under."
Martin Van Creveld, professor of military history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem
From: Samson Option:
Israel’s Plan to Prevent Mass Destruction Attacks
by David Eberhart
Israel’s Military Might
In 1997, Jane’s Intelligence Weekly examined satellite photographs of what it described as an Israeli military base at Kfar Zechariah, concluding academically, “Israel’s nuclear arsenal is larger than many estimates.”
According to Jane’s, the site was said to house about 50 Jericho-2 missiles, believed to have a maximum range of about 3,000 miles with a warhead of about 2,200 pounds.
According to the report, the installation contained nuclear bombs, configured for dropping from bombers.
Furthermore, five bunkers at the site were cited as capable of safeguarding 150 weapons.
“This … supports indications that the Israeli arsenal may contain as many as 400 nuclear weapons with a total combined yield of 50 megatons,” the report concluded.
In 1998 the New York Times reported a Rand Corp. study commissioned by the Pentagon that opined Israel had enough plutonium to make 70 nuclear weapons.
More light was shed on the issue in February of last year when the Israeli Knesset (parliament) held the first public discussion on the country’s nuclear arms program.
Issam Mahoul, an Arab Israeli MP and member of the Hadash (Communist) Party, petitioned that country’s Supreme Court to force the government to permit a parliamentary debate on the forbidden subject.
The upshot of this bold and generally unpopular tactic was an unprecedented televised session of the Knesset at which Mahoul stated that, according to experts’ estimates, Israel had stockpiled huge numbers of nuclear warheads.
This had increased to what he described as the “insane amount of 200-300.” The weapons had been developed with the help of the South African apartheid regime.
Working up a head of rhetorical steam, Mahoul grandly alleged that three new German-built submarines just purchased by Israel were to be fitted with nuclear weapons.
Their stated purpose, he said, was “to cruise deep in the sea and constitute a second strike force in the event that Israel is attacked with nuclear weapons.”
Mahoul also announced what was hardly a news bulletin – Israel was producing “biological warfare” weapons at the government’s Biological Institute in Ness Ziona.
The obstreperous MP concluded that the government’s official policy of “nuclear ambiguity” was the height of self-delusion. “All the world knows that Israel is a vast warehouse of atomic, biological and chemical weapons that serves as an anchor for the Middle East arms race,” he said.
Despite the bristling inventory of nukes, the Israelis have a laudable history of restraint in brandishing, much less using, these most destructive of all weapons of mass destruction.
In fact, for most of the latter half of the 20th century, the Israeli Bomb remained invisible and unacknowledged. Israel’s official position was to neither confirm nor deny its nuclear status, only pledging on the record “not to be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East.”
“Should war break out in the Middle East again and should the Syrians and the Egyptians break through again as they did in 1973 [Yom Kippur War], or should any Arab nation fire missiles again at Israel, as Iraq did [in the 1991 Gulf War], a nuclear escalation, once unthinkable except as a last resort, would now be a strong possibility.”
Seymour M. Hersh, The Samson Option
Israel's Dimona facility is still not under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision, nor has Israel joined the international Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Joining this treaty would place all of Israel's nuclear facilities under IAEA supervision and subject Israel to more often and thorough evaluations of their nuclear facilities. Currently Israel is a member of the UN Nuclear Agency but is not subject to regular IAEA inspections because they are not a signatory to the NPT.
Israel began actively investigating the nuclear option from its inception (actually the theft of Palestine) on May 14, 1948. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has a brief, yet excellent history of the Israeli nuclear weapons program.
Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion is said to have been "nearly obsessed" with Israel obtaining nuclear weapons, feeling that a nuclear arsenal was the only way to counter the Arabs' superiority in numbers, space, and financial resources, and that it was the only sure guarantee of Israel's survival.
Israel started the construction work at the Dimona nuclear plant sometime in late 1957 or early 1958, but amazingly it somehow took the United States intelligence community three years to "discover" the site for what it was, namely, a nuclear site under construction.
This so-called Intelligence failure speaks volumes to power that Israel already possessed over both the United States intelligence and political communities in the late 1950's. There is no other rational explanation. How could Israel hide everything from the Americans until the Dimona reactor was an established fact? If you believe that for almost four years, between 1956 and 1960, this project was hidden due to intelligence failures in the gathering, analysis and inter-agency coordination of various professionals and political figures in Washington, I have a bridge to sell you.
From: The Eisenhower Administration and the Discovery of Dimona:
by Avner Cohen and William Burr
The United States supposedly first became aware of Dimona's existence after U-2 overflights in 1958 captured the facility's construction, but it was not identified as a nuclear site until two years later.
Israel continually lied about their clandestine nuclear project in the Negev desert. The complex was variously explained as a textile plant, an agricultural station, and a metallurgical research facility, until David Ben-Gurion stated in December 1960 that Dimona complex was a nuclear research center built for "peaceful purposes."
When it comes to the textile factory as cover for the Dimona project, researchers from the National Security Archive dug up its origins in a helicopter ride that American Ambassador Ogden Reid took over the Negev desert in September of 1960. Reed asked Addy Cohen of the Israeli Finance Ministry for an explanation for the extensive earthmoving work in the area. Cohen lied, telling Reed it was a textile factory.
Finally, on December 7, 1960, an action on the matter was taken by the United States. The State Department summoned Israeli Ambassador and asked Israel for an explanation. For the first time Dimona was placed on the table. In response to the blunder concerning the late discovery of Dimona the U.S. Intelligence Board (USIB) asked on December 13, 1960, the CIA to prepare a "detailed post-mortem report on why the intelligence community did not recognize this development [Dimona] earlier." On January 31, 1961, eleven days after President Kennedy took office, and in response to his explicit request, the 17-page "post-mortem" report was forwarded to his office.
On January 19, 1961, on the eve of his inauguration, President-elect Kennedy visited the White House, for the last time as a guest, along with his senior team. After 45 minutes of one-on-one conversation with President Eisenhower, the two men walked to the Cabinet Room to join their departing and incoming secretaries of state, defense and treasury to discuss the transition. One of Kennedy’s first questions was about the countries which were most determined to seek the bomb. “Israel and India,” Secretary of State Christian Herter fired back, and added that the newly discovered Dimona reactor, being constructed with aid from France, could be capable of generating 90 kilogram of weapons-grade plutonium by 1963. Herter urged the new president to press hard on inspection in the case of Israel before it introduced nuclear weapons into the Middle East.
From: The First American Visit to Dimona
The issue of the Dimona reactor was among President Kennedy’s top issues immediately after he took office on January 20, 1961. On January 30, Secretary of State Dean Rusk submitted to Kennedy a two-page report about Israel’s atomic energy activities. The next day Kennedy met departing American Ambassador to Israel, Ogden Reid, primarily to be briefed about the matter of Dimona. Reid told Kennedy that an inspection of the Dimona reactor could be arranged, "if it is done on a secret basis."
The memo, and its attached chronology, summarizes the diplomatic exchanges that had taken place between the Eisenhower administration and the Israeli government, saying that "categoric assurances" were obtained from Ben Gurion "that Israel does not have plans for developing atomic weaponry. As to Ben Gurion’s assurances, Rusk states that those assurances "appear to be satisfactory,...although several minor questions still require clarification." Rusk points out, however, that the State Department intended to treat the issue not as a single episode, but as "a continuing subject and it [is] the intention of our intelligence agencies to maintain a continuing watch on Israel as on other countries to assure that nuclear weapons capabilities are not being proliferated." He added that, "at the moment, we are encouraging the Israelis to permit a qualified scientist from the United States or other friendly power to visit the Dimona installation."
Israel's ambassador in Washington Avraham Harman attempted to promote a "calming" version of the Dimona project before the Kennedy administration. It was nothing but "a simple story,” Harman attempted to persuade Assistant Secretary of State Lewis Jones in February 1961, about two months after the project was uncovered. There is plenty of time and no plutonium, Harman told Jones, seeking to convince him that no reactor would be operating for at least two years. The Israelis, Harman said, could not conceive why there should be continuing interest in Dimona in the United States or anywhere else. Talk about unabashed chutzpah.
Kennedy was determined to make good on Ben Gurion’s pledge to the Eisenhower administration for a visit of American scientists to Dimona. Ben Gurion, however, appeared equally determined not to arrange the visit anytime soon. To complicate the problem, Ben Gurion’s domestic political crisis, the Lavon Affair (just another lame obfuscation - the Lavon Affair - an Israeli false flag - occurred in the Summer of 1954), intensified. During February-April 1961 a pattern emerged in which Kennedy would press for a date for the inspection visit, while Israel would invoke Ben Gurion’s domestic problems or the Jewish holidays as reasons for delaying the visit.
By late March 1961, Ben Gurion realized that he could no longer postpone the visit. Myer Feldman and Abe Feinberg persuaded him that a meeting between him and Kennedy, in return for an American visit to Dimona, was necessary to avoid confrontation and save the Dimona project. Ben Gurion asked to set such visit to late May and approved the visit to Dimona against the objections of Foreign Minister Meir, who was, apparently, concerned about the implications of misleading (or just getting caught doing so) the American scientists. Which is just what Israel did, yet again.
On March 28, 1961, Assistant Secretary Jones summoned Ambassador Harman to the State Department and told him that the United States had been faithfully waiting since early January for the promised invitation to visit Dimona, yet no such invitation arrived. He informed the Ambassador that the White House had inquired the previous day when the visit would take place and had requested a report on the matter by 31 March. The American lack of patience with the Israeli delays was evident. Ambassador Harman replied that he had no news about the visit from Jerusalem and doubted whether any action would be possible until after Passover, that is another ten days.
On April 10, 1963, Ambassador Harman informed the State Department that the visit to Dimona was scheduled for the week of May 15. The preparations for the visit moved now to the working level. The United States Atomic Energy Commission (USAEC) selected two of its scientists to conduct the visit: Ulysses Staebler, assistant director of the USAEC Reactor Development Division, and Jesse Croach, a heavy water expert employed by Dupont at the USAEC Savannah River facility.
But even in later April Israel still proposed to have the American visit after the meeting between Ben Gurion and Kennedy (on May 30, 1961, Kennedy met Ben-Gurion at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan). This issue was raised in meetings on May 1 and May 4 between Mordechai Gazit and Armin Meyer, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. In the end Israel reaffirmed the original arrangement and agreed to receive the two American scientists on May 18, 1961.
The available record does not explain why Israel wanted to postpone the technical visit after the meeting so one can only propose a plausible speculation. The Israelis might have thought that the manner in which they would present the Dimona project to the American visits, that is, how much they would reveal about its security aspects, would be dependent on the outcome of discussions between Ben-Gurion and Kennedy, in particular how much room Ben-Gurion would leave to weapons option in his discussions with the Kennedy. It seems that the Israelis did not want to commit Prime Minister Ben-Gurion to a definitive policy line (to be determined by the way the reactor presented to the scientists) but rather to allow him a certain political latitude for his discussions with Kennedy on the purpose of the Dimona project.
Staebler and Croach arrived in Israel on May 17, and three days later, on Saturday May 20, visited Dimona escorted by Professor Ephraim Katzir-Katachalsky and Dimona director Manes Pratt. They were briefed by their Israeli hosts about the deliberation process that led, in 1957, to the decision to expand Israel’s nuclear program through the Dimona project. The Dimona complex was presented to them as a transitory stage in Israel’s ambitious plans to become part of the atomic revolution.
The original report of the American visit to Dimona in May 1961 appears to be missing. Yet on May 26, National Security Advisor, McGeorge Bundy received a two-page memorandum report from the State Department on the scientists’ visit, including "tentative conclusions and opinions," which might be of relevance to President Kennedy for his meeting with Ben Gurion on May 30. In essence, the scientists concluded that the reactor "is of the scope and peaceful character previously described to the United States."The positive report was critical for making the meeting on May 30, between President Kennedy and Prime Minister Ben Gurion, successful.
But in fact, Israel had yet again cleverly deceived both Ulysses Staebler, assistant director of the USAEC Reactor Development Division, and Jesse Croach, a heavy water expert employed by Dupont at the USAEC Savannah River facility.
According to one account by Mossad agent Eitan relayed to British writer Gordan Thomas, among the outlandish schemes used to hide the facility from inspectors was a "bogus control center built over the real one… complete with fake control panels and computer-lined gauges that gave a credible impression of measuring the output of a reactor engaged in an irrigation scheme to turn the Negev into a lush pastureland."
Another version of the "no-nuclear-weapons here" charade was assisted by France, which helped produce video footage of spent reactor fuel being loaded onto French jets, to be supposedly sent to France for reprocessing. The ploy, as reported in the Guardian, was used as evidence by Israel to support its claim that its reactor was not being used to make a bomb. Israeli deceptions to get nuclear weapons knew no ends.
From: Kennedy, Dimona and the Nuclear Proliferation Problem: 1961-1962
by Avner Cohen and William Burr
President John F. Kennedy worried that Israel’s nuclear program was a potentially serious proliferation risk and insisted that Israel permit periodic inspections to mitigate the danger, according to declassified documents published today (April 21, 2016) by the National Security Archive, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Kennedy pressured the government of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to prevent a military nuclear program, particularly after stage-managed tours of the Dimona facility for U.S. government scientists in 1961 and 1962 raised suspicions within U.S. intelligence that Israel might be concealing its underlying nuclear aims. Kennedy’s long-run objective, documents show, was to broaden and institutionalize inspections of Dimona by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
This collection includes both American and Israeli transcripts of the Waldorf Astoria meeting. One of the transcripts is a previously unknown draft of the Kennedy-Ben-Gurion memcon, which has interesting differences with the final version. The U.S. official memorandum of conversation, declassified and published in the 1990s, was prepared by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs Phillips Talbot (and approved – possibly corrected – by White House Deputy Special Counsel Myer “Mike” Feldman). The Israeli minutes, prepared by Ambassador Avraham Harman, were also declassified in the 1990s and historians have made extensive use of them.
Ben-Gurion provided Kennedy with a rationale and narrative of the Dimona project that was very similar to what the Israeli hosts provided to the AEC team visiting Dimona (albeit in non-technical and more political terms): the Dimona project was peaceful in nature; it was about energy and development. However, unlike during the Dimona visit, Ben-Gurion’s narrative and rationale left a little wiggle room for a future reversal. The prime minister did that by qualifying his peaceful pledge and leaving room for a future change of heart. The Israeli transcript makes Ben-Gurion’s caveat pronounced: “for the time being, the only purposes are for peace. … But we will see what will happen in the Middle East. It does not depend on us” (italics added). The American transcript, by way of rephrasing Ben-Gurion, reveals a similar caveat as well: “Our main – and for the time being – only purpose is this [cheap energy, etc.],” the Prime Minister said, adding that “we do not know what will happen in the future” … Furthermore, commenting on the political and strategic implications of atomic power and weaponry, the Prime Minister said he does believe that “in ten or fifteen years the Egyptian presumably could achieve it themselves” (italics added).
In his draft minutes, Assistant Secretary Talbot notes (in parentheses) that during that part of the conversation, Ben-Gurion spoke “rapidly and in a low voice” so that “some words were missed.” Nevertheless, Talbot thought that he had heard Ben-Gurion making reference to a “pilot plant for plutonium separation which is needed for atomic power,” but that might happen “three or four years later” and that “there is no intention to develop weapons capacity now.” Talbot’s draft was declassified long ago but has been buried in obscurity; it needs to be taken into account by scholars. Notably, the Israeli transcript is even more straightforward in citing Ben-Gurion on the pilot plant issue: “after three or four years we shall have a pilot plant for separation which is needed anyway for a power reactor.”
Days after the meeting, Talbot sat with Feldman at the White House to “check fine points” about “side lines of interest.” There was the key issue of plutonium, about which Ben-Gurion mumbled quickly in a low voice. Ben-Gurion was understood to say something to the effect that the issue of plutonium would not arise until the installation was complete in 1964 or so, and only then could Israel decide what to do about processing it. But this appeared to be incompatible with what the prime minister had said to Ambassador Reid in Tel Aviv in January 1961, namely that the spent fuel would return to the country which provided the uranium in the first place (France). But Israeli affairs desk officer, William R. Crawford, who looked further into the record, suggested that what Ben-Gurion had said was more equivocal and evasive. Upon close examination, Ben-Gurion might have meant to hint in passing that Israel was preserving its freedom of action to produce plutonium for its own purposes. Kennedy may not have picked up on this point, but he, like Talbot, may not have been sure exactly what Ben-Gurion had said.
Intelligence Estimate
The most intriguing – and novel – document in this collection is National Intelligence Estimate 35-61 (document #11a), under the headline “Outlook on Israel,” which was declassified only in February 2015. This NIE left no doubt that the AEC scientists’ impressions from their visit to Dimona had no impact on the way which the intelligence community made its own determination on Dimona’s overall purpose. While the visit clearly helped to ease the political and diplomatic tensions between the United States and Israel over Dimona, and removed, at least temporarily, the nuclear issue as a problem from the bilateral agenda, it did not change the opinion of U.S. intelligence professionals. In their view, while acknowledging the Israeli official narrative of Dimona as peaceful, it was truly about weapons capability. The Dimona complex provided Israel with the experience and resources “to develop a plutonium production capability.” NIE 35-61 reminded its readers that France had supplied “plans, material, equipment and technical assistance to the Israelis.”
Significantly, the intelligence community estimated in 1961 that Israel would be in a position to “produce sufficient weapons grade plutonium for one or two crude weapons a year by 1965-66, provided separation facilities with a capacity larger than that of the pilot plant now under construction are available.” In retrospect, in all these respects, NIE 35-61 was accurate in its assessments and predictions, although no one on the U.S. side knew for sure when Israel would possess the requisite reprocessing facilities. The language about “separation facilities” raises important questions. If Israel was to produce nuclear weapons it would require technology to reprocess spent fuel into plutonium. Whether and when U.S. intelligence knew that Israel had begun work on a secret, dedicated separation plant – larger than a pilot plant – at the Dimona complex has yet to be disclosed. But if the CIA knew about such plans, it may have meant that key information was concealed from AEC scientists who visited Dimona (or perhaps they were instructed to locate such facilities).[3]
Probably lacking secret knowledge of internal Israeli government thinking, the authors of NIE 35-61 may not have fully understood the depth of Israel’s nuclear resolve, or at least, the modus operandi by which Israel proceeded with its nuclear project. They could not be fully clear – both conceptually and factually – on the nature of the Israeli nuclear commitment, i.e., whether Dimona was a dedicated weapons program from the very start, or, alternatively, whether it was set up as infrastructure leading to a weapons capability upon a later decision. At a minimum, however, the authors of NIE 35-61 believed “that the Israelis intend at least to put themselves in the position of being able to produce nuclear weapons fairly soon after a decision to do so.”
Notwithstanding the lack of clarity, the NIE’s findings were incompatible with what Ben-Gurion told Kennedy about the overall purpose of the Dimona project as well as with what he said about Dimona’s plutonium production capacity. Similarly, the NIE was inconsistent with the AEC report whose writers accepted the Israeli narrative and rationale. The bottom line was that as early as 1961 the CIA already knew – or at least suspected – that the Israeli official account of the Dimona project – either by the prime minister or by Israeli scientists – was a cover story and deceptive by nature.
The Second Visit
The AEC visit and the Ben-Gurion Kennedy meeting helped clear the air a bit, but the wary view embodied in the NIE shaped U.S. perceptions of the Dimona project. The Kennedy administration held to its conviction that it was necessary to monitor Dimona, not only to resolve American concerns about nuclear proliferation but also to calm regional anxieties about an Israeli nuclear threat. In this context, the United States did not want to continue to be the only country that guaranteed the peaceful nature of Dimona to the Arab countries. Hence, during the months after the meetings, State Department officials tried to follow up President Kennedy’s interest in having scientists from “neutral” nations, such as Sweden, visit the Dimona plant. The British also favored such ideas but they sought U.S. pressure to induce the Israelis to accept inspection visits by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Kennedy administration believed that IAEA inspections of Dimona were a valid long-term goal but recognized that a second visit by U.S. scientists was necessary if a visit by neutrals could not be arranged.
The talks with the Swedes did not pan out; by June 1962, the Kennedy administration decided to “undertake the responsibility once more.” On September 26, 1962, after “repeated requests over several months,” a second American visit to Dimona finally took place. Until recently little was known about that visit except that Ambassador Walworth Barbour referred to it as “unduly restricted to no more than forty five minutes.” Also, the late professor Yuval Ne’eman, at the time serving as the scientific director of the Soreq nuclear research center and the official host of the American AEC visitors, was cited in Israel and the Bomb to the effect that the visit was a deliberate “trick” (the word “trick” was used but was not cited in the book) he devised and executed to ease American pressure for a second formal visit in Dimona.
Phillips Talbot, who succeeded Jones as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, and as a note-taker at the Kennedy/Ben-Gurion meeting had to make sense of the Prime Minister’s rapid and “low” voice. (National Archives, Still Picture Branch, 59-SO, box 41)
This collection includes archival material that sheds light on the second visit. The key document is a memo, written on December 27, 1962, by deputy director of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Rodger Davies to Assistant Secretary Talbot on the September visit. It was hiding in plain sight in a microfilm supplement to the State Department historical series, Foreign Relations of the United States. The memo narrated the improvised circumstances of the visit which fit well with the way Ne’eman told the story in the late 1990s. As the two AEC scientists who had arrived to inspect the small reactor at Soreq – Thomas Haycock and Ulysses Staebler – were being driven back from their Dead Sea tour, Ne’eman noted that they were passing by the Dimona reactor and that he could spontaneously “arrange a call with the director.” Notably, Staebler was among the two AEC scientists who had visited Dimona in May 1961, so he must have met director Pratt. It turned out that the director was not there, but the chief engineers gave them a 40-minute tour of the reactor.
The December 27 document reveals that the circumstances of that tour made the AEC visitors feel a little awkward, “not certain whether they were guests of their scientist-host or on an inspection.” They did not see the complete installation, nor did they enter all the buildings they saw, but they believed that what they saw confirmed that Dimona was a research reactor, not a production reactor; and that, from their point of view, made the visit worthwhile and “satisfactory.”
In 1963 President Kennedy was again trying his best to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. He sent at least six letters to Israel Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and his successor Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. All to no avail, there was nothing but lies about Israel's nuclear weapons capability and there was never any inspections of Dimona.
Ben-Gurion felt that Kennedy's position of not wanting Israel to developed nuclear weapons threatened the very survival Israel.
John Kennedy: A Martyr Who Worried About The Spread Of Nukes
by Ron Kampeas
The one phenomenon Kennedy feared above all was the proliferation of
nuclear weapons on his watch. He demanded an accounting of the
purpose of the nuclear reactor Israel was building near Dimona. At a
1961 meeting in New York with Ben-Gurion, the prime minister
noticeably mumbled a lot and used terms like “for the time being”
in promising that the reactor would not produce weapons-grade fissile
material.
Kennedy wanted Americans to inspect the plant; Israel kept dodging the requests. In May 1963, Kennedy threatened to isolate Israel unless it let in the inspectors. Neither he nor Johnson ever made good on the threat, and today, Israel’s nuclear capabilities are its worst-kept secret.
by Ron Kampeas
"Israel need not apologize for the assassination or destruction of those who seek to destroy it. The first order of business for any country is the protection of its people."
Washington Jewish Week, October 9, 1997
John F. Kennedy Administration Letter To Israeli PM Ben-Gurion Regarding Visit To Dimona (May 18, 1963)
"I welcome your letter of May 12 and am giving it careful study.
Meanwhile, I have received from Ambassador Barbour a report of his conversation with you on May 14 regarding the arrangements for visiting the Dimona reactor. I should like to add some personal comments on that subject.
I am sure you will agree that there is no more urgent business for the whole world than the control of nuclear weapons. We both recognized this when we talked together two years ago, and I emphasized it again when I met with Mrs. Meir just after Christmas. The dangers in the proliferation of national nuclear weapons systems are so obvious that I am sure I need not repeat them here.
It is because of our preoccupation with this problem that my Government has sought to arrange with you for periodic visits to Dimona. When we spoke together in May 1961 you said that we might make whatever use we wished of the information resulting from the first visit of American scientists to Dimona and that you would agree to further visits by neutrals as well. I had assumed from Mrs. Meir's comment that there would be no problem between us on this.
We are concerned with the disturbing effects on world stability which would accompany the development of a nuclear weapons capability by Israel. I cannot imagine that the Arabs would refrain from turning to the Soviet Union for assistance if Israel were to develop a nuclear weapons capability--with all the consequences this would hold. But the problem is much larger than its impact on the Middle East. Development of a nuclear weapons capability by Israel would almost certainly lead other larger countries, that have so far refrained from such development, to feel that they must follow suit."...
"I thank you for your letter of May 27 concerning American visits to Israel's nuclear facility at Dimona. I know your words reflect your most intense personal consideration of a problem that is not easy for you or for your Government, as it is not for mine.
"I welcome your strong reaffirmation that the Dimona will be devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes. I also welcome your reaffirmation of Israel's willingness to permit periodic visits to Dimona.
"Because of the crucial importance of this problem, however, I am sure you will agree that such visits should be of a nature and on a schedule which will more nearly be in accord with international standards, thereby resolving all doubts as to the peaceful intent of the Dimona project.
"Therefore, I asked our scientists to review the alternative schedules of visits we and you have proposed. If Israel's purposes are to be clear to the world beyond reasonable doubt, I believe that the schedule which would best serve our common purposes would be a visit early this summer, another visit in June 1964, and thereafter at intervals of six months. I am sure that such a schedule should not cause you any more difficulty than that which you have proposed. It would be essential, and I take it that your letter is in accord with this, that our scientists have access to all areas of the Dimona site and to any related part of the complex, such as fuel fabrication facilities or plutonium separation plant, and that sufficient time be allotted for a thorough examination.
"Knowing that you fully appreciate the truly vital significance of this matter to the future well-being of Israel, to the United States, and internationally, I am sure our carefully considered request will again have your most sympathetic attention."...
The very next day, June 16, 1963, David Ben-Gurion resigns as Prime Minister of Israel for what he describes as personal reasons and chooses Levi Eshkol as his successor.
So, when President Kennedy was pushing extremely hard and not backing down to have inspections at the illegal Dimona nuclear plant, Ben-Gurion resigns, never responding to his letter of June 15, 1963.
Due to the overwhelming evidence in this matter, and long history of false flag incidents which Israel has perpetrated and blamed on others (Lavon Affair, USS Liberty and 911, just to name three), it is my conviction that Ben-Gurion resigned to have plausible deniability for the assassination he ordered on President Kennedy.
For a more detailed list of Israeli false flags please read:
Israel’s Use of False Flags in Global Terrorism
by Michael Collins Piper
On June 26, 1963, Levi Eshkol is elected Prime Minister of Israel.
The Kennedy / Ben Gurion / Eshkol Nuclear Exchange, July 5, 1963
On July 5, 1963, Kennedy sent the new Prime Minister of Israel Levi Eshkol a three page letter. Not since President Eisenhower's message to Ben Gurion, in the midst of the Suez crisis in November 1956, had an American president been so blunt with an Israeli prime minister. Kennedy told Eshkol that the American commitment and support of Israel 'could be seriously jeopardized' if Israel did not let the United States obtain 'reliable information' about Israel's efforts in the nuclear field.
In the letter Kennedy presented specific demands on how the American inspection visits to Dimona should be executed. Since the United States had not been involved in the building of Dimona and no international law or agreement had been violated, Kennedy demands were indeed unprecedented. They amounted, in effect, to American ultimatum.
JFK and Israel's Nuclear Program:
Kennedy Letter to Eshkol Regarding Visits to Dimona (August 26, 1963)
"Your letter of August 19 was most welcome here. I appreciate that this was a difficult decision, yet I am convinced that in generously agreeing to invite our scientists to visit the Dimona complex on the regular basis that was proposed you have acted from a deep wisdom regarding Israel's security in the longer term and the awesome realities which the atomic age imposes on the community of man.
You have suggested that an initial visit take place toward the end of this year in the pre-startup stage. I am asking Ambassador Barbour to keep in touch with you so that the visit can be arranged for at a time when the reactor's core is being loaded and before internal radiation hazards have developed.
The recent overwhelming endorsement of the partial test ban treaty has moved us all a small step in the direction of a more peaceful world. Our purpose must be to continue striving toward the effective control of the power of the atom so that it may be used only for the welfare of man. The spirit you have shown in your letter to me is a clear indication that you share that same high purpose."
From: Mossad And The JFK Assassination
Ben-Gurion was convinced that Israel needed nuclear weapons to insure its survival, while Kennedy was dead-set against it. This inability to reach an agreement caused obvious problems. One of them revolved around Kennedy's decision that he would make America his top priority in regard to foreign policy, and not Israel! Kennedy planned to honor the 1950 Tripartite Declaration which said that the United States would retaliate against any nation in the Middle East that attacked any other country. Ben-Gurion, on the other hand, wanted the Kennedy Administration to sell them offensive weapons, particularly Hawk missiles.
The two leaders thus engaged in a brutal letter exchange, but Kennedy wouldn't budge. Ben-Gurion, obsessed by this issue, slipped into total paranoia, feeling that Kennedy's obstinance was a blatant threat to the very existence of Israel as a nation. Piper writes, "Ben-Gurion had devoted a lifetime creating a Jewish State and guiding it into the world arena. And, in Ben-Gurion's eyes, John F. Kennedy was an enemy of the Jewish people and his beloved state of Israel." He continues, "The 'nuclear option' was not only at the very core of Ben-Gurion's personal world view, but the very foundation of Israel's national security policy."
In one of his final communications with Kennedy, Ben-Gurion wrote: "Mr. President, my people have the right to exist.. . and this existence is in danger." It was at this time that Ben-Gurion demanded that Kennedy sign a security treaty with Israel. Kennedy refused.
Israel's Central Role in JFK Assassination, Who's Who in JFK Assassination
excerpted from the book
Final Judgment:
The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy
by Michael Collins Piper
excerpted from the book
Final Judgment:
The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy
by Michael Collins Piper
excerpted from the book
Final Judgment:
The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy
by Michael Collins Piper
excerpted from the book
Final Judgment:
The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy
by Michael Collins Piper
excerpted from the book
Final Judgment:
The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy
by Michael Collins Piper
excerpted from the book
Final Judgment:
The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy
by Michael Collins Piper
The Mossad Role In The JFK Assassination Conspiracy
by Michael Collins Piper
Thank you and bless you Michael Collins Piper for your insight and courage in pinning the tale on the donkey. May you rest in peace.
Some other books about Dimona and Israel acquiring hundreds of nuclear weapons:
by Avner Cohen
by Seymour M. Hersh
America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel
by Stephen Green
by Andrew and Leslie Cockburm
There's
A Fish In The Courthouse
by Gary Wean
For more see the comprehensive section:
Dimona Nuclear Reactor And David Ben-Gurion
December 20, 1960
What President-elect John Kennedy is planning to propose to Congress will be a test of his strategic guile.
President-elect John Kennedy sat down this evening with Vice-President-elect Lyndon Johnson and the Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, at his father’s house in Palm Beach, Florida, to decide on the first legislation he will propose to the new Congress and the best strategy to win it.
The two tasks must always go hand in hand in a country where the “Opposition” is no single party but a dominating coalition of like-minded men in both parties. The next session of Congress will test the President’s strategic guile more than usual, because three of the four earliest bills he wants to bring up were strangled in the abortive emergency session of Congress called by Senator Johnson, then the Democratic leader, between the conventions and the election. They were:
Medical care for the aged, to be financed through the social security system;
A depressed areas bill;
A bill for federal aid to education; and
The raising of the minimum wage from $1 to $1.25...
A press conference given by President-elect John F. Kennedy at his father’s house in Palm Beach, Florida. Also attending the press conference are Vice President-elect Lyndon B. Johnson, Senator Mike Mansfield, and Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn. President-elect Kennedy begins by announcing Vice President-elect Johnson as Chairman of the President’s Advisory Council on Space. The President-elect, Vice President-elect, Speaker Rayburn, and Senator Mansfield go on to answer questions from the press regarding the economy, the Federal budget, legislation, and potential changes to Congressional regulations.
December 25, 1960
President-elect John F. Kennedy and his wife entering his car after attending Christmas Day mass at St. Edwards Catholic Church, in Palm Beach, Florida.
A Daily Calendar of President Kennedy's Schedule Month by Month
January 9, 1961
Address of President-Elect John F. Kennedy Delivered to a Joint Convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The State House, Boston, January 9, 1961. Also know as the "City Upon a Hill" speech.
January 17, 1961
Farewell Address of President Eisenhower, the Military Industrial Complex speech.
Eisenhower Warns Us Of The Military Industrial Complex (2:30)
Eisenhower Farewell Address 'Military Industrial Complex' (Full Speech 16:14)
January 17, 1961
Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, is assassinated.
From, JFK’s Embrace of Third World Nationalists
by Jim DiEugenio
,,,In July 1960, Lumumba went to Washington to seek help in kicking the Belgians out. When Lumumba arrived, Eisenhower remained on a golfing trip in Newport, Rhode Island. And, it was clear from Lumumba’s discussion with other officials that America was not going to help him expel the Belgians. Then, Lumumba turned to the Russians, who did supply military assistance.
This development played into the hands of CIA Director Allen Dulles, who declared that the “communist” Lumumba must be removed. He was assassinated on January 17, 1961, apparently by a firing squad organized by Belgian officers and Katangan authorities (although his fate was covered up for several weeks).
There are some writers, like John Morton Blum and the late Jonathan Kwitny, who did not believe the timing of Lumumba’s murder to be a coincidence, just three days before Kennedy’s inauguration. It may have been done then because the CIA suspected that Kennedy would side with Lumumba, which, when his new plan for Congo was formulated, was clearly what JFK was going to do.
Kennedy decided to cooperate with Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold at the United Nations to try and save the country’s independence. Kennedy wanted to neutralize any East-West competition, to stop the creation of an economic puppet state in Katanga, and to free all political prisoners. Not knowing Lumumba was dead during the first weeks of his administration, Kennedy meant to restore Lumumba to power. If Lumumba’s death was accelerated to defeat an expected policy change by JFK, in practical terms, it was successful.
January 19, 1961
President-Elect John F. Kennedy Meets With President Dwight Eisenhower (2:38)
President-elect John F. Kennedy meets with President Dwight Eisenhower at the White House to discuss the transition.
January 20, 1961
At age 43, John F. Kennedy takes the oath of office to become the 35th president of the United States. Kennedy is sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. He is the youngest elected president, the first president to be Roman Catholic and of Irish ancestry on both his paternal and maternal sides. All four of his grandparents were the children of Irish immigrants.
In his widely praised inaugural speech, Kennedy speaks these famous words: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." Kennedy also formally nominates his cabinet and attends the inaugural balls. He is congratulated by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
On January 20, 1961, I was three years and twelve days old. This day was the first memory that that I remember, and it left an indelible imprint on me. My maternal grandparents were both born in Ireland, and the paternal side of my family is also mostly Irish with some German and French (Alsace-Lorraine where my last name Elsis has its derivation). Therefore I am mostly Irish, and was also brought up as a Roman Catholic (that was until I became disillusioned at the age of eight and a third with the hypocrisy of the warmongering Cardinal Spellman, his mother was born a Jew, the daughter of a rabbi, and with what I perceived as the greed of the Church - Yes, I was a smart young boy). What I remember, is the excitement that was in my family home that day. Finally a Catholic who was also Irish had become President of the United Sates.
It's been more than 56 years since President John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered his inaugural address, and his most famous section still resonates deeply with me now. "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
This timeline is for my heroic, slain President, and to shine a laser beam on the enemy inside the gates of my country, which the overwhelming populace have been relentlessly fooled by all the media they own, into thinking they are our great allies.
Nantucket Nuclear Bunker Could Be New Kennedy Museum
by Peter Sutters
t the height of Cold War tensions, just after President John F. Kennedy was sworn into office, Nantucket’s small Navy base suddenly took on a much more important mission: sheltering the president and his family from radioactive fallout in the event of nuclear war.
There’s A Cold War-Era Bunker That Was Built To Shelter President Kennedy On Nantucket
by Emily Sweeney
Nantucket officials are considering whether to make a museum out of an underground military bunker that was reportedly built to shelter President John F. Kennedy from a nuclear attack.
Kennedy Bunker On Peanut Island Closing October 22, 2017
by Susan Salisbury
The Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach across from Peanut Island owns the 6 acres that are home to the bunker built in 1961 as a top-secret nuclear bomb shelter for Kennedy in case there was a nuclear attack while he was visiting his “Winter White House” - the Kennedy compound on the north end of Palm Beach. The port has leased the bunker to the Palm Beach Maritime Museum since 1992.
January 21, 1961
President Kennedy's remarks at the Swearing-In Ceremonies for his Cabinet (7:20)
The Cabinet is sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren.
January 21, 1961
President John F. Kennedy's first visitor to the White House is former President Harry S. Truman (1:14)
January 21, 1961
President John F. Kennedy at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee (6:21)
The President spoke in the East Room at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.
January 21, 1961
Kennedy issued Executive Order 10914 directing a doubling of the quantity of surplus food distributed to needy families. Kennedy also attends a meeting at the Democratic National Committee and hosts the swearing-in of his cabinet.
Kennedy meets with the poet Robert Frost.
President Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Paul B. Fay attend mass at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.
January 22, 1961
Kennedy establishes the three-member Government Ethics Committee. Kennedy appoints Hickman Price, Jr. and Roland Burnstan as Assistant Commerce Secretaries.
January 23, 1961
Kennedy meets with several defense, foreign policy, and intelligence advisers, including Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, CIA Director Allen Dulles, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Lyman Lemnitzer. Kennedy nominates Frank Burton Ellis for a federal judgeship on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
January 24, 1961
Kennedy issued Executive Order 10915; Amending Prior Executive Orders to Provide for the Responsibilities of the Director of the Food-for-Peace Program. Kennedy meets with then-former Congressman (later Senator) George McGovern of South Dakota. He is presented plans for what would become the Food for Peace program and designates McGovern Director.
January 24, 1961
Kennedy meets with Democratic legislative leaders, and receives a tour of the shelter areas of the White House from Naval Aide, Cmdr. Tazewell Shepard.
January 25, 1961
Kennedy holds his first regular live televised press conference in the State Department Auditorium. He announces the release of two surviving USAF crewman by the Soviet Union after being captured when their RB-47 Stratojet was shot down on July 1, 1960.
Clip from President John F. Kennedy's first News Conference (2:04)
JFK Holds First Televised News Conference, January 25, 1961
by Andrew Glass
Kennedy meets with Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Oval Office of the White House:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Lyman Lemnitzer
Chief of Staff of the United States Army General George H. Decker
Chief of Staff of the United States Navy Admiral Arleigh A. Burke
Commandant of the United States Marine Corps General David M. Shoup
Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force General Thomas D. White
January 30, 1961
John F. Kennedy delivers his first State of the Union address to a Joint session of the United States Congress. He asks Congress to include health insurance in the Social Security Program.
President Makes First "State Of The Union" Speech (Video 3:12)
John F. Kennedy State of the Union Address, January 30, 1961 (Audio 43 minutes)
January 1961 - July 1962
The Laos Crisis was a deteriorating political situation that posed a serious concern in United States foreign policy when President John F. Kennedy took office. After the surrender of the Japanese in World War II, the French attempted to reassert dominion over Laos and the rest of French Indochina, which included Vietnam and Cambodia. The Communist Laotian nationalist movement, the Pathet Lao, was an ally of the Vietnamese in the struggle with France. After the French were defeated by the Vietnamese, the Geneva Accords of 1954 established the sovereignty of Laos. Civil war soon broke out, however, as the Royal Lao government, supported by the United States, fought Pathet Lao insurgents, supported by the Communists in neighboring North Vietnam.
President Kennedy holds his second presidential news conference; he announces the establishment of five pilot food stamp distribution projects. He later meets with economic and budget advisers. President Kennedy holds the first meeting of the National Security Council and sends a letter to Defense Secretary McNamara marking the scheduled launch of the USS Sam Houston (SSBN-609) the next day.
President Kennedy meets with NATO Supreme Allied Commander Lauris Norstad, Joint Chiefs Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer, and later with his cabinet.
February 2, 1961
Kennedy appoints Burke Marshall as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, David K. E. Bruce as Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
February 2, 1961
Kennedy telegrams the mayors of 297 cities urging an increase in urban renewal activities. President asks Congress for program to help end recession, including food stamps, extended benefits for unemployed workers and welfare payments for their children.
February 3, 1961
President Kennedy meets with Ambassador to Laos Winthrop G. Brown. Kennedy and Paul B. Fay attend the movie Spartacus at the Warner Theater. After meeting with Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Abraham A. Ribicoff, Kennedy orders money and surplus food totaling $4 million for Cuban refugees in fiscal year 1961.
February 9, 1961
President requests legislation assisting medical and dental colleges and students.
President warns Soviets to avoid interfering with United Nations pacification of the Congo.
February 22, 1961
President Kennedy sent Premier Nikita Khrushchev a letter stating, “I hope it will be possible, before too long, for us to meet personally for an informal exchange of views.” This was the first time either man suggested a diplomatic meeting. Kennedy felt “that if he could just sit down with Khrushchev” the two leaders could work out their inter-state conflicts. From this letter the Vienna summit soon became a reality.
See: June 3, 1961 - June 4, 1961
March 1, 1961
Emphasizing the theme of public service in his inaugural address, President Kennedy issued Executive Order 10924, establishing the Peace Corps on a "temporary pilot basis". Kennedy also sends to Congress a message requesting authorization of the Peace Corps as a permanent organization. He appoints Sargent Shriver to head the organization. President Kennedy holds his fifth presidential news conference. President Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt make a tape recording promoting the Youth Peace Corps. President Kennedy records a message for the American Red Cross. President Kennedy signs into law a joint resolution (H.J. Res. 155) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln on March 4, 1861, (PL87-1).
March 4, 1961
President Kennedy appoints R. Sargent Shriver to head the Peace Corps.
March 4, 1961
President Kennedy dines at the home of his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and meets with Ambassador to the United Kingdom David K. E. Bruce.
March 4, 1961
President Kennedy meets with Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Walter Heller.
March 13, 1961
President John F. Kennedy proposes the Alliance for Progress in Washington DC. President proposes a long-term Alliance for Progress between the United States and Latin America, emphasizing democratic reform and economic development.
March 15, 1961
President John F. Kennedy's 7th News Conference
President calls for long-term Foreign Aid program with new emphasis on self help.
March 23, 1961
President warns Communists that cease fire must precede negotiations for a neutral and independent Laos.
March 28, 1961
President initiates the largest and most rapid defense buildup in United States' peacetime history, doubling Polaris missile program, increasing armed bomber and other missile programs, adding five combat ready divisions and quadrupling anti-guerilla forces.
April 1, 1961
Kennedy meets with Secretary of State Dean Rusk on the Laos crisis.
Kennedy declares parts of eastern Iowa flooded by the Cedar River to be a major disaster area.
April 2, 1961
Kennedy meets with journalists Albert Merriman Smith and Marvin Arrowsmith.
April 2, 1961
The First Family view the film, All in a Night's Work.
April 7, 1961
President Kennedy called on Congress to endorse an international effort to preserve the ancient temples in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. The monuments were threatened by the impending construction of the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River.
April 8, 1961
President John F. Kennedy Meets with Helen Keller
President John F. Kennedy meets with Helen Keller in the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C.
President Kennedy Meets Helen Keller (:29)
April 8, 1961
President John F. Kennedy's and Harold Macmillan's remarks after their meeting (2:04)
Remarks at the Reading of the Joint Statement Following Discussions With British Prime Minister Macmillan.
President John F. Kennedy:
"We are delighted that I had a chance to see him again after our very satisfactory talk in Florida. Each one of our meetings I think has increased the degree of cohesion which exists and must exist between his country and the United States, and therefore I must say, as these talks come to a conclusion, I think I express the sentiment of all of the Americans who participated, our great appreciation to the Prime Minister, to his Secretary of State, Lord Home, and to the other delegates for another happy milestone in the long series of meetings which have existed between the United States and Great Britain in previous years."
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan:
"This has been a very happy visit. I am delighted that we have been able in your own words, to make a friendship both private and public which I feel certain will be good for both our countries and for the future of all the free world. You, Mr. President, have shown me in particular so many acts of kindness in these days that I really hardly know how to thank you. It has been quite an experience over the last to days. I came to lunch with you at Key West, 3,600 miles altogether - very good lunch it was, though. And then, come a week after, here you have given me helicopters and every possible convenience - taken me boating - and everything. But the point is we have had just friendly talks, sometimes in private and sometimes with our collaborators, which is the basis of confidence that I hope and feel is established between us. And on that friendship I trust that we shall long be able to work for the benefit of our countries and for all the world. I thank you most warmly."
April 12, 1961
On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. Vostok 1 orbited Earth at a maximum altitude of 187 miles and was guided entirely by an automatic control system. The only statement attributed to Gagarin during his one hour and 48 minutes in space was, “Flight is proceeding normally; I am well.”
Yuri Gagarin - Vostok 1 - April 12 1961 (3:00)
April 15, 1961 - April 20, 1961
A U.S.-sponsored invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs fails. With inadequate support and facing an overwhelming force, the CIA-trained brigade of anti-Castro exiles is defeated in a few days. Kennedy takes responsibility for the disaster.
Unhappy with Fidel Castro and the direction he was taking Cuba in, the United States government under President Eisenhower began plotting Castro's demise. This included assassination plots and also a plan for a CIA-trained group of Cuban exiles to invade the island.
The training of the exiles, which took place in Guatemala, did not achieve sufficient results to launch the invasion before the 1960 U.S. elections, which saw the defeat of Vice-President Richard Nixon to John F. Kennedy. Kennedy had used the "Cuba issue" in his campaign, and inherited a plan which the CIA assured him would succeed. Kennedy and his aides forced some modifications to the plan, to try to ensure that the invasion would not be perceived as led by the United States. This included relocating the landing location to an area known as the "Bay of Pigs."
On April 17, 1961, approximately 1,400 exiles landed at Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the southern coast of Cuba. Their mission was to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro by inciting revolt among the Cuban people. They were quickly overwhelmed by Cuban military forces, with many killed and the bulk of the men captured. President Kennedy refused to order additional air strikes, beyond some initial sorties which had failed to disable the Cuban air force, and for this some attribute the operation's failure to Kennedy.
An internal CIA investigation conducted in 1961 and finally declassified in 1998 put the blame squarely on the CIA's shoulders (though it is accompanied by a scathing rebuttal written by Deputy Director Tracey Barnes). In hindsight, the plan seems so unlikely to succeed that some speculate that CIA planners must have counted on some other factor - possibly the simultaneous assassination of Fidel Castro. Or, perhaps the planners were counting on President Kennedy, faced with impending failure, to send in the U.S. military to rescue the situation. Instead, Kennedy accepted a humilating defeat, soon moved to take military operations out of the hands of the CIA, and obtained the resignations of high-level CIA officials including Director Allen Dulles and covert action head Richard Bissell.
April 17, 1961
The Bay of Pigs: On April 17, 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba.
April 19, 1961
The invasion of Cuba fails and results in a Cuban revolutionary victory. Kennedy's administration is severely embarrassed, so much so that Kennedy supposedly stated he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind."
April 19, 1961
President Kennedy's Remarks to Jacques Yves Cousteau in the Rose Garden (1:34)
Remarks Upon Awarding the National Geographic Society Gold Medal to Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
"I Want To Say that it is a great pleasure and honor to participate in this event sponsored by the National Geographic, which has been a great American institution, and which has advanced our information on a whole variety of horizons in the last years. And I can think of no more felicitous award than this to the Captain. We have learned in the last 60 years how to fly better than the birds - or at least higher and longer. And the Captain has given us a possibility that some day we may swim as well as the fish - or at least deeper. And he is, therefore, one of the great explorers of an entirely new dimension, and I can imagine his satisfaction in having opened up the ocean floor to man and to science. And therefore I present the National Geographic Society Gold Medal Award to Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, undersea pioneer to earth-bound man, who gave the key to the silent world, April 19, 1961. I congratulate also your wife, the representatives of France, the Ambassador, Mrs. Alphand, and your country, and you, and the Geographic."
The presentation was made in the Rose Garden at the White House. At the conclusion of his remarks the President referred to Hervé Alphand, the French Ambassador, and Mme. Alphand.
President assumes responsibility for failed Bay of Pigs invasion, says policies and procedures will be changed.
April 20, 1961
President Kennedy speech on the Bay of Pigs Invasion (13:24)
President Kennedy spoke to the Society of Newspaper Editors about events in Cuba, which later became known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. He emphasized that Cuban “patriots” had taken up arms against Fidel Castro’s Revolutionary Government and that the U.S. armed forces were not involved, despite sympathizing with their cause. He also talked about the greater threat of global communist expansion and the American role in resisting such expansion.
For more see the comprehensive section: Bay of Pigs
April 21, 1961
President Kennedy News Conference (33:05)
President Kennedy delivered a press conference. Four days earlier 1500 Cuban exiles had invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. President Kennedy would not respond to media questions about the conflict saying that his statement of the previous day would suffice for now. He announced that the Peace Corps was proceeding with its first project in Tanganyika. He answered questions about the John Birch Society, the space budget, agriculture automation, the hope for a cease-fire in Laos, and other topics.
April 21, 1961 - April 26, 1961
The Algiers putsch, also known as the Generals' putsch, was a failed coup d'état to overthrow French President Charles de Gaulle and establish a military junta. Evidence suggests that Allen Dulles, the United States Director of the CIA, and his numerous contacts deep within the French government, helped orchestrate the plot.
A “Nuclear Coup”? France, the Algerian War and the April 1961 Nuclear Test
by Bruno Tertrais
1960-1966, Algeria: The Generals' Plot Against de Gaulle
by William Blum
Fifty-five Years Ago: Attempt to Overthrow France’s Charles De Gaulle.
JFK Assassination Plot Mirrored In 1961 France: Part 1
French Right Wing, CIA Join Forces Against de Gaulle
by David Talbot
JFK Assassination Plot Mirrored In France: Part 2CIA, Right Wing: No Match for Millions of French Who Love de Gaulle
by David Talbot
JFK Assassination Plot Mirrored In 1961 France: Part 3
Assassination Attempts, Killings on the Streets of Paris, Purges
by David Talbot
April 27, 1961
Address, "The President and the Press," (Audio 19:37)
Before The American Newspaper Publishers Association
Sound recording of President John F. Kennedy’s address to the American Newspaper Publishers Association at a Bureau of Advertising dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. In his speech President Kennedy addresses his discontent with the press’s news coverage of the Bay of Pigs incident, suggesting that there is a need for “far greater public information” and “far greater official secrecy.”
"The President and the Press" (Text)
Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association
"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society;
and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies,
to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings."
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
May 1, 1961
President signs long-sought Area Redevelopment Act. A bill to aid communities with chronic unemployment.
President John F Kennedy signs the Area Redevelopment Act (:40)
"I want to commend the Members of the House and Senate who've been identified with this issue for a number of years, and they surround me here on both sides. I want to congratulate them and to say that there's no piece of legislation which has been passed which gives me greater satisfaction to sign."
Alan Shepard is launched on Freedom 7 on a sub-orbital spaceflight aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket, and becomes the first American in outer space, a month after the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had earned the distinction as the first person in space. After roughly four hours of delays, the flight takes off, traveled more than 300 miles, lasts 15 minutes 22 seconds, and reaches an apogee of 187.42 kilometres (116.46 mi), and a maximum speed of 8,277 kilometres per hour (5,143 mph) (Mach 6.94). Shepard came down in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas, where he was picked up by the aircraft carrier Lake Champlain.
Alan Shepard: Mercury Freedom 7 (9:04)
May 8, 1961
Kennedy meets with Alan Shepard at the White House, to congratulate him on becoming the first American in space. He awards him the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in a ceremony on the White House lawn. The six other Mercury Seven astronauts attend the ceremony, the next of which, Gus Grissom, would launch into space less than three months later.
President John F. Kennedy presents medal to Astronaut Alan B. Shepard (:57)
Three days after astronaut Commander Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space, he was awarded with a NASA Distinguished Service Medal by President John F. Kennedy at a Rose Garden Ceremony at the White House. With Shepard were his wife and his parents. Also present were Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and John Glenn. Caroline Kennedy watched from the balcony. Also clips of Louise Brewer Shepard and Jacqueline Kennedy in the Green Room at the Reception following the presentation.
President Kennedy meets NASA Astronauts in his office at the White House (:40)
President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Johnson meet Commander Alan Shepard, Jr., Lt. Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., Lt. Commander Malcolm S. Carpenser, Captain Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr., Lt. Commander Walter M. Schirra, Jr. and Major Donald K. Slayton in the President's office in the White House after the ceremony in the Rose Garden, where the President presented the Distinguished Service Medal of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to Commander Shepard.
May 16, 1961 - May 18, 1961
Kennedy makes the first international trip of his presidency, traveling to Ottawa, Canada, for a state visit. There he meets with Canadian Governor General Georges Vanier and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.
President John F. Kennedy's visit to Canada (3:50)
May 17, 1961
Kennedy addresses the Canadian parliament.
President John F. Kennedy and wife Jacqueline in the Canadian Parliament (5:20)
U.S. President John F. Kennedy at the Chamber of the Speaker of the House of Commons where he addresses the Senate and the House of Commons of Canada. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is conducted to the Speaker's private sitting room.
May 25, 1961
Kennedy in an address to a Joint session of the United States Congress, announces full presidential support for the goal to "commit...before this decade is out, to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" and urges Congress to appropriate the necessary funds, eventually consuming the largest financial expenditure of any nation in peacetime.
John F. Kennedy "Landing a man on the Moon" Address to Congress (Video 3:46)
In an address to a Joint session of the United States Congress on May 25, 1961, Kennedy announces full presidential support for the goal to "commit...before this decade is out, to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" and urges Congress to appropriate the necessary funds, eventually consuming the largest financial expenditure of any nation in peacetime.
President Kennedy Addresses Congress (May 25, 1961) (Audio 45:42)
President Kennedy learned of Rafael Trujillo's (who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961) assassination during a diplomatic meeting with French President Charles de Gaulle.
President Kennedy Is Said to Have Tried to Stop Assassination of Trujillo
by Nicholas M. Horrock
White House officials under President Kennedy made an abortive, last-minute attempt to stop the assassination of the Dominican Republic dictator, General Rafael Trujillo Molina, according to former intelligence officers and current Government sources.
A cable was sent from the National Security Council, which is the President's arm for directing foreign affairs, to the station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency in Ciudad Trujillo (now Santo Domingo) the day before a group of Dominicans killed General Trujillo in an ambush outside the capital.
It informed the C.I.A. official that the United States could not condone an attempt to overthrow General Trujillo's Government and was based on information from the Dominican Republic that assassination was part of the plot to remove the Trujillo dictatorship...
William C. Bishop, a CIA contract agent, U.S. Army colonel, and confessed political assassin - will assert to assassination researchers in 1990 that one of his CIA assignments was the assassination of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1961.
Kennedy makes the second international trip of his presidency.
President Kennedy’s Trip to Europe, May 30, 1961 - June 5, 1961
This segment features archival footage covering highlights of President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 trip to Europe. Included are scenes of President and Mrs. Kennedy in Paris, France; President Kennedy meeting over two days with the Soviet Union's Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev in Vienna, Austria; and President Kennedy and meeting British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, in London, England. The footage is narrated by Kennedy Library Director Tom Putnam.
Kennedy addresses North Atlantic Council, and meets with French President Charles de Gaulle in Paris, France.
President John F. Kennedy in Paris, France (9:30)
May 31, 1961
President and Mrs. Kennedy are given a state dinner at the Élysée Palace in Paris.
June 1, 1961
President Kennedy meets with his advisers and with Ambassador to France, General James Gavin.
President Kennedy addresses the staff of the U.S Embassy in Paris, a civic reception at the Hotel de Ville, and the North Atlantic Council.
Meeting with President de Gaulle at the Élysée Palace.
President and Mrs. Kennedy are welcomed by departmental and municipal officials at the Hotel De Ville. The President makes brief remarks.
President and Mrs. Kennedy host a luncheon for President de Gaulle at the American Embassy.
President Kennedy addresses NATO officials and personnel at the NATO Headquarters building at Porte Dauphine.
President and Mrs. Kennedy are given a State Dinner in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.
June 2, 1961
President Kennedy visits SHAPE headquarters where he is greeted by Supreme Allied Commander Lauris Norstadt and makes brief remarks.
President Kennedy and President Charles de Gaulle conclude three days of discussions at the Élysée Palace. In a joint communiqué both leaders declare that they are in firm agreement on the defense of Berlin.
June 3, 1961
President Kennedy and his party depart Paris.
June 3, 1961
Kennedy meets with Austrian President Adolf Schärf.(3:21)
US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at a gala dinner in Vienna's palace Schönbrunn. The Austrian government is hosting a banquet for the visiting American and Russian leaders. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is wearing a dress designed by Oleg Cassini in shell pink silk-georgette chiffon, embroidered with sequins. Nina Khrushchev, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Austrian President Adolf Schaerf, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, at Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. The Vienna State Opera Ballet dances a waltz.
June 3, 1961 - June 4, 1961
President Kennedy meets with Khrushchev of the Soviet Union in Vienna for a the two day summit. The conference fails to resolve conflict over the status of Berlin. The focus of the meeting is disarmament, Germany, Laos and nuclear testing. They fail to agree on certain problems but issue a joint statement that they agrees to "maintain contact on all questions of interest to the two countries and for the whole world." On August 13, 1961, the Soviets start to build a wall between East and West Berlin.
John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meet at US Embassy, Vienna, Austria (2:43)
The historic first meeting between President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the American ambassador's residence in Vienna, Austria, June 3, 1961.
John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meets at the Embassy of the USSR (2:16)
The second meeting between President John F. Kennedy meets Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Embassy of the Soviet Union, Vienna, Austria on June 4, 1961.
...In June 1961, Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, Austria. (See a memorandum outlining the main points of conversation between President Kennedy and Khrushchev at their first lunch meeting.) Kennedy was surprised by Khrushchev's combative tone during the summit. At one point, Khrushchev threatened to cut off AlliedUS Information Agency Incoming Telegram access to Berlin. The Soviet leader pointed out the Lenin Peace Medals he was wearing, and Kennedy answered, "I hope you keep them." Just two months later, Khrushchev ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall to stop the flood of East Germans into West Germany.
As a result of these threatening developments, Kennedy ordered substantial increases in American intercontinental ballistic missile forces. He also added five new army divisions and increased the nation's air power and military reserves. The Soviets meanwhile resumed nuclear testing and President Kennedy responded by reluctantly reactivating American tests in early 1962...
June 5, 1961
President Kennedy visits with British Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in London, England.
June 4, 1961 - June 5, 1961 - John F. Kennedy arriving in London (7:21)
June 4, 1961
President and Mrs. Kennedy fly to London for a personal visit at the home of the Radziwills (Lee Radziwill is the sister of Jacqueline Kennedy).
June 5, 1961
President Kennedy and Prime Minister Macmillan meet at London's Admiralty House to review the world situation. Both leaders express satisfaction with the agreement in Vienna on the need for a Laotian cease fire. Both also express "full agreement on the necessity of maintaining the rights and obligations of the allied governments in Berlin."
President and Mrs. Kennedy attend the christening ceremonies of the Radziwill's newborn child in Westminster Cathedral.
President and Mrs. Kennedy are the guests of Queen Elizabeth II for a private dinner in their honor at Buckingham Palace
President Kennedy leaves London for Washington and Mrs. Kennedy remains at her sister Lee Radziwill's home before flying to Greece and then returning to Washington.
June 5, 1961
President John F. Kennedy and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan meet at Admiralty House (:58)
President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy leaving London's Admiralty House with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and wife Dorothy. The Macmillans' entertained the visiting president and his wife to luncheon.
June 5, 1961
President John F. Kennedy's Remarks to the Staff of the US Embassy in London, England (5:51)
Late at night on June 5, 1961, on the plane flight back to Washington from his Vienna meeting with Nikita Khrushchev, a weary President Kennedy wrote down on a slip of paper as he was about to fall asleep, a favorite saying of his from Abraham Lincoln, really a prayer. Presidential secretary Evelyn Lincoln discovered the slip of paper on the floor. On it she read the words: “I know there is a God, and I see a storm coming. If he has a place for me, I believe that I am ready.”
June 6, 1961
Telegram relaying Khrushchev's comments about meeting President Kennedy. Khrushchev commented that President Kennedy was "tough, very forthright and extremely intelligent."
June 6, 1961
President Kennedy delivers a major radio and television report to the American people on his trip to Europe centering on his talks in Vienna with Soviet Premier Khrushchev.
John F. Kennedy report to the American people on his trip to Europe (5:00)
'' I returned this morning from a weeklong trip to Europe and I want to report to you on that trip in full. It was in every sense an unforgettable experience. The people of Paris, of Vienna, of London, were generous in their greeting. They were heartwarming in their hospitality, and their graciousness to my wife is particularly appreciated. We knew of course that the crowds and the shouts were meant in large measure for the country that we represented, which is regarded as the chief defender of freedom. Equally memorable was the pageantry of European history and their culture that is very much a part of any ceremonial reception, to lay a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe, to dine at Versailles, and Schönbrunn Palace, and with the Queen of England. These are the colorful memories that will remain with us for many years to come. Each of the three cities that we visited - Paris, Vienna, and London - have existed for many centuries, and each serves as a reminder that the Western civilization that we seek to preserve has flowered over many years, and has defended itself over many centuries. But this was not a ceremonial trip. Two aims of American foreign policy, above all others, were the reason for the trip: the unity of the free world, whose strength is the security of us all, and the eventual achievement of a lasting peace. My trip was devoted to the advancement of these two aims. To strengthen the unity of the West, our journey opened in Paris and closed in London. My talks with General de Gaulle were profoundly encouraging to me. Certain differences in our attitudes on one or another problem became insignificant in view of our common commitment to defend freedom. Our alliance, I believe, became more secure; the friendship of our nation, I hope - with theirs - became firmer; and the relations between the two of us who bear responsibility became closer, and I hope were marked by confidence. I found General de Gaulle far more interested in our frankly stating our position, whether or not it was his own, than in appearing to agree with him when we do not. But he knows full well the true meaning of an alliance. He is after all the only major leader of World War II who still occupies a position of great responsibility. His life has been one of unusual dedication; he is a man of extraordinary personal character, symbolizing the new strength and the historic grandeur of France. Throughout our discussions he took the long view of France and the world at large. I found him a wise counselor for the future, and an informative guide to the history that he has helped to make. Thus we had a valuable meeting. I believe that certain doubts and suspicions that might have come up in along time - I believe were removed on both sides. Problems which proved to be not of substance but of wording or procedure were cleared away. No question, however sensitive, was avoided. No area of interest was ignored, and the conclusions that we reached will be important for the future - in our agreement on defending Berlin, on working to improve the defenses of Europe, on aiding the economic and political independence of the underdeveloped world, including Latin America, on spurring European economic unity, on concluding successfully the conference on Laos, and on closer consultations and solidarity in the Western alliance. General de Gaulle could not have been more cordial, and I could not have more confidence in any man.''
June 12, 1961
President Kennedy flies back to Washington D.C. from Palm Beach. Kennedy returns on crutches from a rest to meet Italian Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani to begin two days of discussions.
June 20, 1961
President Kennedy meets with Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda of Japan.
President John F. Kennedy Meets with Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan
Meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan Hayato Ikeda. (L-R) President John F. Kennedy, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Zentaro Kosaka, Prime Minister Ikeda, United States Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer, interpreter James J. Wickel. Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy meets with Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan (1:00)
U.S. President John F. Kennedy walks on crutches as he leaves his limousine to board the presidential yacht "Honey Fitz" for a cruise down the Potomac River with Japanese Prime Minister Ikeda, in Washington on June 21, 1961. President John F. Kennedy and Prime Minister of Japan Hayato Ikeda aboard President Kennedy's yacht "Honey Fitz." Hains Point, Potomac River, Washington, D.C.
June 23, 1961 - Prime Minister of Japan Hayato Ikeda pays a farewell call on President John F. Kennedy. Yellow Oval Room, White House, Washington, D.C.
June 21, 1961
My mother told a story, says Caroline Kennedy; She was sitting next to Khrushchev at a state dinner in Vienna, on June 3, 1961. She ran out of things to talk about, so she asked about the dog, Strelka, that the Russians had shot into space. During the conversation, my mother asked about Strelka's puppies. Soon after a puppy arrived at the White House, the puppy was Strelka's daughter, Pushinka. Kennedy's letter from June 21, 1961, to Khrushchev thanking him for the gift of Pushinka is one of many letters exchanged between the leaders.
June 28, 1961
The first extremely important step for President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to reign in the Central Intelligence Agency was to issue, National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) NSAM 55, 57 an 57 on June 28, 1961.
Following the failed Bay of Pigs (See April 15, 1961 - April 20, 1961), the failed Algiers putsch against President of France, Charles de Gaulle (See April 21, 1961 - April 26, 1961), and the January 17, 1961, assassination of Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, just three days before his presidential inauguration (See January 17, 1961).
John M. Newman writes, "The crux of NSAM 55, however, was this: Kennedy charged the Joint Chiefs with responsibility for 'defense of the nation in the Cold War' and 'dynamic and imaginative leadership... of military and paramilitary aspects of Cold War programs.' This mandate was big news, since cold war paramilitary operations were, up to this moment, the exclusive fiefdom of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)."
NSAM 55, 57 and 57 stripped the CIA of its cherished covert operations role, except for small actions. It cut out the red tape that normally would hinder such an endeavor.
Many military historians of the Kennedy era, most notably, John M. Newman and Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty (Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Kennedy) have written that JFK was trying to reign in the power of the CIA throughout most of his abbreviated term in office. Some have wondered, in the context of an evolving Cuba policy and a planned withdrawal from Vietnam, both hot spots for CIA activities, if this may have been the motivation for his assassination.
See: November 28, 1961 - November 29, 1961: JFK fires Allan Dulles. Deputy Director for Plans Richard M. Bissell, Jr., and Deputy Director General Charles Cabell.
President Kennedy signs bill extending Social Security benefits to five million people and permitting people to retire with benefits at age 62.
President Kennedy signs most comprehensive Housing Bill in history, initiating aid to middle income families and mass transportation users, and increasing urban renewal and elderly housing.
June 30, 1961
President John F. Kennedy Signs the Housing Act of 1961 (:30)
President John F. Kennedy signs into law an omnibus housing bill to authorize a thirty-year low interest rate mortgage loan program for moderate income families, and an increase of $300 million for loans for construction of college housing through 1964.
Remarks Upon Signing the Housing Act
I want to express our pleasure in signing S. 1922, the Housing Act of 1961. This bill is the most important and far-reaching Federal legislation in the field of housing since the enactment of the Housing Act of 1949. For the communities of the Nation, large and small, it provides an opportunity for a giant step toward better cities and improved housing. And I think the beneficial effects of this legislation will be felt by every American...
President Kennedy signs bill doubling Federal effort to halt water pollution.
July 12, 1961
President Kennedy meets with President Ayub Khan of Pakistan at the White House.
July 20, 1961
Studies by Once Top Secret Government Entity Portrayed Terrible Costs of Nuclear War
Reports of the Net Evaluation Subcommittee
On the morning of July 20, 1961, while the Berlin Crisis was simmering, President John F. Kennedy and the members of the National Security Council (NSC) heard a briefing on the consequences of nuclear war by the NSC's highly secret Net Evaluation Subcommittee. The report, published in excerpts today for the first time by the National Security Archive, depicted a Soviet surprise attack on the United States in the fall of 1963 that began with submarine-launched missile strikes against Strategic Air Command bases. An estimated 48 to 71 million Americans were "killed outright," while at its maximum casualty-producing radioactive fallout blanketed from 45 to 71 percent of the nation's residences. In the USSR and China, at the end of one month 67 and 76 million people, respectively, had been killed. This was President Kennedy's first exposure to a NESC report, but the secret studies of nuclear war scenarios had been initiated by his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
It may have been after this National Security Council briefing, described by Secretary of State Dean Rusk as "an awesome experience," that a dismayed Kennedy turned to Rusk, and said: "And we call ourselves the human race."
From: Did The U.S. Military Plan A Nuclear First Strike For 1963? (Fall1994)
by James Galbraith and Heather Purcell
Recently declassified information shows that the military presented President Kennedy with a plan for a surprise nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in the early 1960s...
...beginning in 1957 the U.S. military did prepare plans for a preemptive nuclear strike against the U.S.S.R., based on our growing lead in land-based missiles. And top military and intelligence leaders presented an assessment of those plans to President John F. Kennedy in July of 1961. At that time, some high Air Force and CIA leaders apparently believed that a window of outright ballistic missile superiority, perhaps sufficient for a successful first strike, would be open in late 1963.
The document reproduced opposite is published here for the first time. It describes a meeting of the National Security Council on July 20, 1961. At that meeting, the document shows, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the director of the CIA, and others presented plans for a surprise attack. They answered some questions from Kennedy about timing and effects, and promised further information. The meeting recessed under a presidential injunction of secrecy that has not been broken until now...
...In 1960, claims of a "missile gap" favoring the Soviets had given the Democrats a critical election theme, and many millions of Americans entered the Sixties feeling intensely vulnerable to the new Soviet ICBM threat. But as Richard Reeves has recently written, intelligence based on satellites launched in August of 1960 soon challenged the campaign assessment and public view. The United States had beaten the USSR to an operational ICBM and enjoyed a clear, and growing, numerical advantage. We were far ahead, and our military planners knew it.
Kennedy was quickly convinced of this truth, which was further confirmed as new satellites brought back new information. Later in 1961, a National Intelligence Estimate came through showing only four Soviet ICBMs in place, all of them on low alert at a test site called Plesetsk. By fall, Defense Undersecretary Roswell Gilpatric would acknowledge in a public speech that U.S. forces (with 185 ICBMs and over 3,400 deliverable nuclear bombs at that time) were vastly superior to those of the Russians...
July 25, 1961
President Kennedy tells nation of determination to deter war in West Berlin, increasing military might and manpower; Soviet deadline for East German Treaty subsequently passes.
August 7, 1961
President Kennedy signs first of three bills creating National Seashore Parks, the first major addition to the National Park System in 16 years. On August 7, 1961, he established the Cape Cod National Seashore.
National Parks Servive milestone: Exploring the National Seashore’s watery roots
by Don Wilding
...The Cape Cod National Seashore was signed into law on Aug. 7, 1961, by Kennedy, who became president seven months earlier. A “Mission 66” hallmark was the visitors center. The Cape now has two visitors centers, Salt Pond in Eastham and Province Lands in Provincetown. The park, with numerous selling points, now draws over 4 million visitors annually...
President Kennedy signs most comprehensive wheat and feed grain bill since 1938, resulting in higher farm income and lower food surpluses.
August 11, 1961
NSAM 65, Joint Program of Action with the Government of Vietnam to Secretary of State Dean Rusk from McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
August 13, 1961 - November 9, 1961
By July 1961 American officials estimated that over 1,000 East German refugees were crossing into West Berlin each day, an economic and demographic drain that, left unchecked, would spell disaster for the East.
The Berlin Crisis was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. The USSR provoked the Berlin Crisis with an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Western armed forces from West Berlin, culminating in the city's de facto partition with the East German erection of the Berlin Wall staring on August 13, 1961.
At Checkpoint Charlie, on October 27, 1961 at 17:00 until October 28, 1961 at about 11:00, a 16 hour standoff between United States and Soviet troops on either side of the diplomatic checkpoint led to one of the tensest moments of the Cold War in Europe. A dispute over whether East German or Soviet guards were authorized to patrol the checkpoints and examine the travel documents of U.S. diplomats passing through led the United States to station tanks on its side of the checkpoint, pointing toward the East German troops just beyond the wall. Concerns that U.S. forces would either attempt to take down the wall or force their way through the checkpoint led the Soviet Union to station its own tanks on the East German side. A wrong move during the face-off could have led to war, and any conventional skirmish between two nuclear powers always brought with it the risk of escalation. Instead, Kennedy made use of back channels to suggest that Khrushchev remove his tanks, promising that if the Soviet Union did so, the U.S. Army would reciprocate. The standoff ended peacefully.
For more see the comprehensive section: Berlin Crisis
August 13, 1961
East Germany, supported by the Soviet Union, begins construction of the Berlin Wall, halting the flow of refugees to the West.
August 17, 1961
The Alliance for Progress was signed at an inter-American conference at Punta del Este, Uruguay, in August 1961. To advance the work of the Alliance, President and Mrs. Kennedy visited Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, while the president joined all six presidents of Central American governments at an unprecedented meeting in Costa Rica. In ceremonies at the White House, the president and first lady honored the presidents of Peru, Brazil, Panama, Colombia, Honduras, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia, and Governor Muñoz Marín of Puerto Rico.
September - October 1961
President John F. Kennedy - September - October 1961
September 12, 1961 - Meeting with President Ahmed Sukarno of Indonesia and President Modibo Keita of Mali.
October 6, 1961 - Meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.
October 7, 1961 - President Kennedy flies to Quonset Point Rhode Island and arrives at Hammersmith Farm, Newport, Rhode Island. The President cruises aboard the Honey Fitz with Jacqueline and Caroline Kennedy.
October 19, 1961 - President Kennedy welcomes President William Tubman of Liberia.
Kennedy Wins Minimum Wage Victory
Making due on his campaign promise of August 10, 1960, President Kennedy signs $1.25 Minimum Wage Bill, expanding coverage by several million for the first time since original passage.
September 18, 1961
Dag Hammarskjöld killed [or Murdered] in a plane crash. President John F. Kennedy called Hammarskjöld "the greatest statesman of our century." Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (July 29 1905 - September 18, 1961) was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author, who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash on September 18, 1961.
At the age of 56 years and 255 days, Hammarskjöld was the youngest to have held the post. Additionally, he is one of only four people to be awarded a posthumous Nobel Prize and was the only United Nations Secretary-General to die while in office.
He was killed in a Douglas DC-6 airplane crash en route to cease-fire negotiations. Hammarskjöld has been referred to as one of the two best secretaries-general, and his appointment has been mentioned as the most notable success for the UN.
Former United States President Harry Truman said diplomat was on the verge of "getting something done when they killed him."
Evidence may lead to new probe in 1961 death of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld
Documents, testimony add weight to case that plane crash was no accident
by Melissa Kent
New evidence to be submitted to the United Nations' General Assembly this week could help shed light on one of the enduring mysteries of the 20th century, namely, was the 1961 death of the second UN Secretary General an accident or an act of murder?
Dag Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash in Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, along with 15 others on Sept. 18, 1961.
The 56-year old Swedish diplomat was in Africa to try to unite the Congo, but faced resistance from a number of multinationals, often supported by mercenaries and openly hostile to the UN, who coveted the area's mineral wealth.
The crash has been a source of widespread speculation for decades, which has ramped up thanks to evidence uncovered in the last few years.
That includes testimony from a former U.S. National Security Agency intelligence officer who claims he heard a recording of another pilot attacking the plane, as well as a Belgian pilot who says that he accidentally shot the plane down after being hired to merely divert it....
Dag Hammarskjöld is dead, crash site footage (3:07)
Death (or Murder] of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. Footage of the crash site near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia
Theory That [Dag] Hammarskjold Plane Was Downed Is Bolstered By U.N. Report
by Alan Cowell and Rick Gladstone
The finding by Judge Mohamed Chande Othman, a senior Tanzanian jurist who was asked by the United Nations to review both old and newly uncovered evidence, gave weight to a longstanding suspicion that Mr. Hammarskjold may have been assassinated.
September 22, 1961
President John F. Kennedy Signs Peace Corps Act
Shortly after his inauguration in January 1961, Kennedy made good on his promise for a new and aggressive foreign policy. On March 1, 1961, he issued an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. As described by Kennedy, this new organization would be an “army” of civilian volunteers, teachers, engineers, agricultural scientists, etc., who would be sent to underdeveloped nations in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere to assist the people of those regions.
Making due on a campaign promise made on November 4, 1960. President Kennedy signs a bill committing United States to unprecedented search for economic breakthrough in the conversion of salt water to fresh.
September 22, 1961
President Kennedy signs a bill establishing first Federal program to help combat juvenile delinquency.
September 24, 1961
President John F. Kennedy Arrives at Carlyle Hotel
President John F. Kennedy (center) arrives at the Carlyle Hotel, New York City, New York; Chairman of US Delegation to the Geneva Conference on Disarmament, Arthur Dean, stands right of the President. Also pictured: Secret Service agents, Bill Greer, Bill Payne, and Gerald “Jerry” Behn. Police officers and others observe.
September 25, 1961
President John F. Kennedy's address before the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) (Video 43 minutes)
in New York City (JFK's first of two). In his speech Kennedy addresses the recent death of Secretary-General Hammarskjold, presents six proposals for the new Disarmament Program (announces the United States intention to "challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race"), and provides information on the current crises in Berlin, Germany, Laos, and South Vietnam.
“Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be inhabitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us. It is therefore our intention to challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race, to advance together step by step, stage by stage, until general and complete disarmament has been achieved.”
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Address Before The United Nations General Assembly (Audio 41 minutes)
Sound recording of President John F. Kennedy’s address before the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City. In his speech President Kennedy discusses the recent death of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, presents six proposals for a new disarmament program, and provides information on the current crises in Laos, South Vietnam, and Berlin, Germany. The President also famously states, “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
John F. Kennedy On Nuclear War And The Threats To World Peace
“Together we Shall Save our Planet, or We shall Perish in its Flames”
Address before the General Assembly of the United Nations, September 25, 1961
by President John F. Kennedy
September 26, 1961
President John F. Kennedy Departs Carlyle Hotel
President John F. Kennedy walks toward a car as he leaves the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, New York. Reporters and photographers observe.
October 6, 1961
JFK urges Americans to build bomb shelters, October 6, 1961
by Andrew Glass
On this day in 1961, President John F. Kennedy advised U.S. families to build bomb shelters to protect themselves from atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. In a speech on civil defense issues, Kennedy assured the public that the government would soon begin providing such protection for every American...
October 6, 1961
President Kennedy meets with Andrei Gromyko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, 5:00 p.m. (Photographs)
October 7, 1961
President John F. Kennedy met by Caroline at Quonset Point Naval Air Station (:48)
President John Kennedy bends down to greet his daughter, Caroline, who hugs his leg, moments after he arrived at Quonset Point Naval Air Station, Quonset, Rhode Island. Caroline greeted her father when he stepped off his plane and rode in his car to the presidential yacht docked a short distance from the airport. The President and Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy with Caroline, aboard the Honey Fitz.
October 11, 1961
Kennedy ponders the Vietnam situation
At a meeting of the National Security Council, President John F. Kennedy is asked by his advisers to accept “as our real and ultimate objective the defeat of the Vietcong.” The Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated that 40,000 U.S. troops could clean up “the Vietcong threat” and another 120,000 could cope with possible North Vietnamese or Chinese Communist intervention. Kennedy wanted to prevent the fall of South Vietnam to the Communist insurgents, but decided to send General Maxwell Taylor to Vietnam to study the situation. Ultimately, Kennedy would send advisers, helicopters, and other military support to South Vietnam to aid President Ngo Dinh Diem in his fight against the Viet Cong.
October 19, 1961
President Kennedy welcomes President William Tubman of Liberia.
Photograph of President of Liberia William V.S. Tubman
Black and white portrait photograph of William V.S. Tubman, the President of Liberia. The photograph is autographed in green pen "Sincerely, W. Tubman 19-10-61".
Historical Note: This photograph was presented to President John F. Kennedy by William V.S. Tubman, the President of Liberia, during his state visit to the White House on October 19, 1961.
November 28, 1961 - November 29, 1961
Following the failed Bay of Pigs (See April 15, 1961 - April 20, 1961), and the failed Algiers putsch against Charles de Gaulle (See April 21, 1961 - April 26, 1961), CIA Director, Allan Dulles faced increased criticism from President Kennedy.
On November 28, 1961, President Kennedy presented Allan Dulles with the National Security Medal at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The next day, November 29, the White House released a resignation letter signed by Allan Dulles.
Knowing this, it now becomes beyond quite interesting that Allen Dulles, who was fired by JFK, was not only a member of the Warren Commission, but actually played the leading role in promoting both the single bullet theory and lone gunman narratives.
On January 31, 1962, President Kennedy also forced the resignation of the third man behind Dullas, Deputy Director of the CIA, General Charles Cabell. An interesting fact, on November 22, 1963, the brother of General Charles Cabell, was Mayor Earle Cabell, of Dallas, Texas.
In February 1962, President Kennedy got the resignation of the second man behind Dullas, the Directorate for Plans, Richard M. Bissell, Jr., who was responsible for what became known as the CIA's Black Operations. President John F. Kennedy did not actually sack Bissell. Instead he offered him the post as director of a new science and technology department. This would place him in charge of the development of the SR-71, the new spy plane that would make the U-2 obsolete. Bissell turned down the offer and in February 1962 he left the Central Intelligence Agency and was replaced as head of the Directorate for Plans, by Richard Helms.
For more see the comprehensive section: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
With More To Come, New JFK Documents Offer Fresh Leads 54 Years Later
by Kevin G. Hall
One particular document from the August [2017] release has created much buzz. It that shows that Earle Cabell, mayor of Dallas at the time of the November 22, 1963, shooting, became a CIA asset in late 1956.
The CIA had withheld the information on grounds that it was not considered relevant. No related documents have been released, but even alone it is important. Cabell’s brother Charles was deputy director of the CIA until he was fired by Kennedy in January 1962.
December 9, 1961
Tanganyika became independent nation (Tanganyika subsequently merged with Zanzibar in 1964 to become Tanzania).
December 13, 1961 - December 25, 1961
White House Christmas Tree, December 13, 1961
President and Mrs. Kennedy with the 1961 White House Christmas tree. White House, Blue Room. Photograph by Robert Knudsen.
Christmas With Kennedy's 1961 (1:42)
President Kennedy's 1961 Christmas Message Still Inspires Today
"Christmas expresses the deepest hopes for a world of peace."
by Caroline Hallemann
"For uncounted millions, Christmas expresses the deepest hopes for a world of peace where love rather than mistrust will flourish between neighbors."
This was before our country was taken over, which became quite evident with the removal of nativity scenes that were soon replaced with a huge menorah in front of the White House during Christmastime.
The War on Christmas (11:08)
President Kennedy renews American commitment to preserve independence of Vietnam.
December 16, 1961 - December 17, 1961
Kennedy makes the third international trip of his presidency. Meets with Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt in Caracas, Venezuela. Then meets with Colombian President Alberto Lleras Camargo in Bogota, Colombia.
December 19, 1961
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Suffers Stroke
Palm Beach, Florida (JFK+50) Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., father of President John F. Kennedy, suffered a massive stroke here in Palm Beach today. The elder Kennedy was rushed to St. Mary's Hospital where the stroke was diagnosed. The 73 year old former Ambassador to the Court of St. James was on the golf course at the time he had the stroke.*
The stroke left Joe Sr. paralyzed on the right side of his body & limited his speech to the single long, drawn out word "Nooooooooo". By all indications, however, he remained mentally alert.** Joseph Kennedy spent the 8 years until his death inside an eerie deep freeze sometimes broken by rages, while his sons triumphed...& died by violence."
December 19, 1961 - December 31, 1961
President Kennedy visits his father at St. Mary's Hospital, Palm Beach, Florida. (2:45)
Joseph P. Kennedy, 73, father of the President, suffered a stroke while playing golf and was taken to St. Mary's Hospital, Palm Beach, Florida. President John F. Kennedy returned to Palm Beach, where he and his family had expected to fly down for a family Christmas celebration. Also visiting Joseph Kennedy are his sons Robert and Edward and his son in law, Peter Lawford. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy also visiting almost every day.
December 21 - 22, 1961
Kennedy makes the fourth international trip of his presidency, travelling to Hamilton, Bermuda, where he meets with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
January 1962 - November 1963
President’s Daily Diary - January 1962 - November 1963
January 11, 1962
John F. Kennedy delivers his second State of the Union address
John F. Kennedy State of the Union Address, January 11, 1962 (Audio 32 minutes)
Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union. (Full Text)
“The task must begin at home. For if we can not fulfill our own ideals here, we cannot expect others to accept them.”
“It is the fate of this generation, of you in Congress and of me as President, to live with a struggle that we did not start, in a world that we did not make. But, the pressures of life are not always distributed by choice. And while no nation has ever faced such a challenge, no nation has ever been so ready to seize the burden and the glory of freedom.”
January 29, 1962
The Geneva conference, with the United States, Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom participating, adjourns without reaching an agreement on a nuclear test ban.
January 31, 1962
General Charles P. Cabell Resigns As Deputy Director Of CIA Under Allen Dulles
On April 23, 1953, while still an active air force officer, he was appointed deputy director of the CIA. In 1956, along with the CIA's Richard Bissell, he flew to Bonn, to brief the West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, on the U-2 program. Adenauer allowed U-2 planes, pilots, and support teams to be based at Wiesbaden. He was promoted to full general in 1958.
Cabell became Deputy Director of CIA under Allen Dulles. He was forced by President Kennedy to resign, on January 31, 1962, following the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Cabell's brother, Earle Cabell, was Mayor of Dallas when Kennedy visited that city and was assassinated, on November 22, 1963.
Febraury 1962
Richard M. Bissell, Jr. Directorate For Plans For The CIA Leaves
In February 1962, President Kennedy got the resignation of the second man behind Dullas, the Directorate for Plans, Richard M. Bissell, Jr., who was responsible for what became known as the CIA's Black Operations. President John F. Kennedy did not actually sack Bissell. Instead he offered him the post as director of a new science and technology department. This would place him in charge of the development of the SR-71, the new spy plane that would make the U-2 obsolete. Bissell turned down the offer and in February 1962 he left the Central Intelligence Agency and was replaced as head of the Directorate for Plans, by Richard Helms.
February 3, 1962
Embargo on All Trade with Cuba
By the President of the United States of America Proclamation 3447.
February 6, 1962
President Kennedy Special Message to the Congress on Education.
No task before our Nation is more important than expanding and improving the educational opportunities of all our people. The concept that every American deserves the opportunity to attain the highest level of education of which he is capable is not new to this Administration--it is a traditional ideal of democracy. But it is time that we moved toward the fulfillment of this ideal with more vigor and less delay.
February 10, 1962
American U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is released by the Soviets in exchange for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught in the United States five years earlier. The two men were brought to separate sides of the Glienicker Bridge, which connects East and West Berlin across Lake Wannsee. As the spies waited, negotiators talked in the center of the bridge where a white line divided East from West. Finally, Powers and Abel were waved forward and crossed the border into freedom at the same moment, 8:52 a.m., Berlin time. Just before their transfer, Frederic Pryor–an American student held by East German authorities since August 1961–was released to American authorities at another border checkpoint.
February 12, 1962
As Commander-in-chief, Kennedy commutes the military death sentence of seaman Jimmie Henderson to life imprisonment, marking the last time in the 20th century that an American president was faced with such a decision.
February 20, 1962
Astronaut John Glenn is launched on Friendship 7 on an orbital space flight aboard a Mercury-Atlas rocket, and becomes the first American to orbit the Earth.
NBC News Re-broadcast coverage John Glenn 1962 Space Flight (5:37)
February 26, 1962
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that segregation in transportation facilities is unconstitutional.
U.S. Supreme Court, Bailey v. Patterson, 369 U.S. 31, Decided February 26, 1962
March 2, 1962
President announces that Soviet resumption of atmospheric nuclear testing makes American testing necessary in late April unless effective treaty is signed.
The main proposal was presented in a document titled "Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba," a top secret collection of draft memoranda written by the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The document was presented by the JCS to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962, as a preliminary submission for planning purposes. The JCS recommended that both the covert and overt aspects of any such operation be assigned to them.
Operation Northwoods was a proposed false flag operation against the Cuban government, that originated within the U.S. DoD and the JCS of the United States government in 1962. The proposals called for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or other U.S. government operatives to commit acts of terrorism against American civilians and military targets, blaming it on the Cuban government, and using it to justify a war against Cuba. The plans detailed in the document included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities. The proposals were rejected by the Kennedy administration.
For more see the comprehensive section: Operation Northwoods
March 15, 1962
Statement by President Kennedy Upon Signing the Manpower Development and Training Act.
I have today signed S. 1991, the "Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962." President Kennedy signs first major Federal bill to retrain jobless victims of automation and chronic unemployment.
March 22, 1962
Kennedy signs into law HR5143 (PL87-423), abolishing the mandatory death penalty for first degree murder in the District of Columbia, the only remaining jurisdiction in the United States with a mandatory death sentence for first degree murder, replacing it with life imprisonment with parole if the jury could not decide between life imprisonment and the death penalty, or if the jury chose life imprisonment by a unanimous vote. The death penalty in the District of Columbia has not been applied since 1957, and has now been abolished.
The evidence suggests that JFK and Marilyn Monroe were intimate at least once. On March 24, 1962, JFK and Marilyn Monroe were both guests at Bing Crosby’s house in Palm Springs. JFK had arranged the rendezvous through the actor Peter Lawford, who was married to JFK's sister Pat at the time. According to Marilyn Monroe's biographer Donald Spoto, Marilyn Monroe called her personal masseur, the actor Ralph Roberts, from the same bedroom where JFK was staying at Bing Crosby's house. Roberts, JFK, and Monroe then had a brief conversation about the President's back problems. Spoto later interviewed Ralph Roberts, who clarified what Marilyn Monroe had told him about her sexual experiences with JFK. Later, once the rumor mill was grinding, Marilyn told me that this night in March was the only time of her "affair" with JFK. Of course she was titillated beyond belief, because for a year he had been trying, through Lawford, to have an evening with her. A great many people thought, after that weekend, that there was more to it. But Marilyn gave me the impression that it was not a major event for either of them: it happened once, that weekend, and that was that.
The Details of JFK's "Affair" With Marilyn Monroe Are Way More Chill Than We've Been Told
Multiple Marilyn historians, including respected biographer Donald Spoto, who wrote the 1993 book Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, allege that the most plausible time that Marilyn and JFK could have had a sexual encounter was during a party at Bing Crosby's home in Palm Springs, CA, on March 24, 1962.
by Brittney Stephens
For more see the comprehensive section: Marilyn Monroe
April 5, 1962
President calls for overhaul of Federal transportation policy, emphasizing increased and equal competition instead of regulation; also renews request for urban mass transportation program.
Special Message to the Congress on Transportation (Text)
March 31, 1962 - April 11, 1962
Kennedy goes toe to toe with United States Steel. One of the leading companies in the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned of was United States Steel, a major contractor with the United States military that controlled 25% of the entire steel market. Steelworkers staged a 4-month strike in 1959 during Eisenhower's second term, and Kennedy hoped to avoid a similar flare up during his tenure.
Kennedy was also concerned about potentially rising inflation, so his administration set an informal but well-publicized target of having wage increases and price hikes match productivity increases. Meanwhile, United Steelworkers’ (USW) bargaining over a contract with the nation’s steel companies was getting nowhere, so the Kennedy administration intervened. Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg, a longtime union counsel, mediated the talks. The two sides reached agreement on March 31. The pact, with ten of the nation’s 11 steel companies, called for an increase in fringe benefits worth 10 cents an hour in 1962, but no wage hikes that year. Then-AFL-CIO President George Meany said that in the pact, the union “settled on a wage increase figure somewhat less than the Steelworkers thought they would get.”
Kennedy praised the contract as “obviously non-inflationary” and said both the USW and the steel firms showed “industrial statesmanship of the highest order.” The agreement also implicitly said the companies would not raise prices, as that would be inflationary. But on April 10, Roger Blough, CEO of United States Steel, the largest of the firms, met Kennedy in the Oval Office and told him the company was immediately raising prices by $6 a ton, and that other steel companies would follow. Six other steel companies did raise their prices. The 3.5% hike and being double-crossed enraged the president. What he said in public was biting, but he was even more caustic in private.
In an April 11, 1962 press conference, Kennedy called the price hikes “a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest.” He criticized “a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility.” The executives had “utter contempt” for the United States, Kennedy said.
But after Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, informed United States Steel that a new submarine contract would be given to a smaller steel company that hadn't agreed to the price hike, other industries that had raised prices in response to United States Steel's maneuver quickly withdrew their price hikes, leaving the military-industrial complex smarting from the Kennedy administration's pointed blow.
"My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it until now."
John F. Kennedy, April 1962
May 1, 1962
One thousand members of the Society of Friends had been vigiling for peace and world order outside the White House. Kennedy meets with six Quakers in the Oval Office on May 1, 1962. James W. Douglass wrote: “Kennedy’s dialogue with the Quakers was a hopeful sign of what would come in the last year of his presidency, when he would make a crucial turn toward peace.”
David Hartsough called himself “the token young guy” on a six-person Quaker delegation that met with President Kennedy to discuss world peace and nuclear disarmament at a time when the threat of nuclear war had reached an historic high point. The others invited to the Oval Office made up a who’s who of prominent Quaker peace advocates: Ed Snyder and Samuel Levering, executive secretary and chairperson, respectively, of the Friends Committee on National Legislation; Henry Cadbury, a professor at Harvard Divinity School and the chairperson of the American Friends Service Committee; Dorothy Hutchinson, president of the U.S. section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; and George Willoughby, who had sailed on the Golden Rule into the nuclear testing area in the Pacific.
In an interview with Street Spirit, Hartsough described his meeting with JFK. “Kennedy met with us in his office, sitting in his rocking chair next to the fireplace, and we sat around him, and he listened to us. We told him there was a nuclear submarine that was to be named the William Penn, and that was totally unacceptable.”
Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was a Quaker and a pacifist. Naming a nuclear submarine the William Penn is exactly the same as naming a battleship the USS Gandhi or a jet bomber the St. Francis of Assisi.
Hartsough said, “Kennedy just grinned and told us, ‘I’ll see that it doesn’t happen.’ ” The president was as good as his word, and the nuclear-armed submarine was not named after the Quaker pacifist.
The president’s secretary came in after 25 minutes and said, “Mr. President, your next appointment is here.” Kennedy said, “Tell them to wait, I’m learning something from these Quakers.”
All six members of the Quaker delegation were highly impressed by Kennedy’s listening with an open mind to the radical antiwar values of the delegation, and his evident sincerity in understanding the urgent need to work for world peace.
“I think most important to me was, first, that he listened,” Hartsough said. “He wasn’t just pontificating as if he was the president and we were lowly peons. And, second, we were speaking truth to power in the White House, and Kennedy wasn’t just rejecting it as hogwash.”
See: October 9, 1963 "Wheat Sale: U.S. to Sell Grain to Soviet Bloc."
May 1, 1962
Kennedy signs the Educational Television Facilities Act into law, marking the first time Congress provided major federal aid to public broadcasting.
May 19, 1962
Marilyn Monroe sings Happy Birthday, Mr. President to President Kennedy in Madison Square Garden as part of the President's 45th birthday celebrations (JFK's birthday was on May 29).
Marilyn Monroe - Happy Birthday Mr. President (3:50)
Marilyn Monroe sings Happy Birthday to President Kennedy.
June 28, 1961
National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 55, 56 And 57
http://NSAM_55_56And57.November221963.com
June 29, 1962 - July 1, 1962
Kennedy makes the fifth international trip of his presidency, traveling to Mexico City, Mexico, for a state visit. There he meets with Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos.
Progress through Freedom: The President's Trip to Mexico, 1962: (Video 20 minutes)
Motion picture covering President John F. Kennedy's trip to Mexico beginning in June of 1962. Included are scenes of President Kennedy being welcomed with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy by Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos and delivering remarks, a tour by the First Lady, and shots of local landmarks, scenery, and activities. Presented by: United States Information Service (USIS). Produced in cooperation with Movietone Productions.
Directed by: Leo Seltzer
Written by: Doris Ransohoff
Narrated by: Jose Ferrer
June 29, 1962
President John F. Kennedy's remarks in the National Palace in Mexico City (:59)
Address by the President at a Luncheon Given in His Honor by President López Mateos. ''We in the United States are committed to a better life for our people, for no nation can seek social justice abroad that does not practice it at home. But now, in addition, the United States of America is committed to help fulfill these goals throughout the Americas, to work together with Mexico and all the other nations of the inter-American system, to create a society in which all men have equal access to land, to jobs, and to education - a society in which no man is exploited for the enrichment of a few, and in which every arm of the Government is dedicated to the welfare of all the people. This effort is not a one-way street. We in the United States have much to learn, as well as something to teach.''
Mexico: JFK trip to Mexico City, 1962: June-July
This folder contains materials collected by the office of President John F. Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, concerning President Kennedy's visit to Mexico City, Mexico. Materials in this folder include itineraries, a commemorative brochure, a press release announcing the President's schedule, a list of officials accompanying the President, guest lists for events and meetings, suggested remarks for the President to deliver upon arrival, a program from the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, letters thanking those responsible for making administrative arrangements, and briefing papers concerning the Alliance for Progress, the current state of the Mexican economy, the salinity problem near the lower Colorado River, and possible joint ventures between Mexico and the United States. This folder contains some Spanish-language material
President John F. Kennedy in Mexico, June 29, 30 and July 1, 1962 (2:59)
July 1, 1962
President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Attend Mass in Mexico City (:37)
President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy attending mass at the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe) officiated by Archbishop of Mexico City Miguel Darío Miranda y Gómez in Mexico City, Mexico.
July 1962
President John F. Kennedy - July 1962 (7:55)
July 4, 1962 - President John F. Kennedy visits Independence Hall in Philadelphia and touches the Liberty Bell.
July 10, 1962 - President Kennedy attends the All Star baseball game at Washington D.C. Stadium.
July 17, 1962 - Meeting with Anthony Celebrezze and HEW Secretary Abraham Ribicoff
July 18, 1962 - Presentation of the Robert J. Collier Trophy for outstanding achievement in aviation to four X-15 rocket plane pilots.
July 20, 1962 - Meeting with French Minister of Finance Valery Giscard D'Estaing.
July 22, 1962 - President and Mrs. Kennedy cruise aboard the Marlin accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. John Glenn, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
July 25, 1962 - Meeting with Maxwell Taylor and Lyman Lemnitzer.
July 3, 1962
Algeria becomes a sovereign state. This is five years and one day after Kennedy was the first Senator to supported Algeria's struggle for Independence.
Algerian National Liberation (1954-1962)
The Algerian war for independence began in 1954 and ended in on July 3. 1962 when French President Charles De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country.
July 4, 1962
Kennedy delivered an address at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in which he spoke of the new movement toward interdependence that is transforming the world, and noting that the spirit of that new effort is the same spirit which gave birth to the American Constitution.
JFK Speech at Independence Hall - July 4, 1962 (16:05)
President Kennedy praises the American democratic system which encourages differences and allows for dissent, discusses the enduring relevance of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and addresses the role of the United States in relation to the emerging European Community.
July 10, 1962
President Kennedy attends the All Star baseball game at D.C. Stadium, and throws out the first pitch.
July 12, 1962
President Kennedy couples depreciation reform with tax credit to spur greater investment in plant and industry.
July 26, 1962
Statement by the President Upon Approving the Public Welfare Amendments Bill.
President Kennedy signs the most far-reaching revision of public welfare legislation since enactment in 1935, emphasizing family rehabilitation and training instead of dependency.
August 4, 1962
Marilyn Monroe is assassinated.
August 13, 1962
JFK'S Speech On The State Of The American Economy (Audio 28:23)
Income Tax Cut, JFK Hopes To Spur Economy (2:03)
August 16, 1962
President Kennedy issued National Security Action Memorandum Number 179: U.S. Policy Toward Indonesia.
August 22, 1962
The Plot To Kill Charles de Gaulle
by Christopher Othen
Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry was a French Air Force lieutenant-colonel and military air-weaponry engineer. He was the creator of the Nord SS.10/SS.11 missiles. He attempted to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle on 22 August 1962, following de Gaulle's decision to accept Algerian independence. The attack made international headlines. Bastien-Thiry was the last person to be executed by firing squad in France.
Citroen Helps De Gaulle Survive Assassination Attempt
In August 1962, a group called the OAS (Secret Army Organization in English) plotted an assassination attempt on President De Gaulle, who they believed had betrayed France by giving up Algeria (in northern Africa) to Algerian nationalists. Near dusk on August 22, 1962, De Gaulle and his wife were riding from the Elysee Palace to Orly Airport. As his black Citroen DS sped along the Avenue de la Liberation in Paris at 70 miles per hour, 12 OAS gunmen opened fire on the car. A hail of 140 bullets, most of them coming from behind, killed two of the president’s motorcycle bodyguards, shattered the car’s rear window and punctured all four of its tires. Though the Citroen went into a front-wheel skid, De Gaulle’s chauffeur was able to accelerate out of the skid and drive to safety, all thanks to the car’s superior suspension system. De Gaulle and his wife kept their heads down and came out unharmed.
August 27, 1962 - November 27, 1967
DOJ Orders The American Zionist Council To Register As A Foreign Agent
"Attached hereto is the entire file relating to the American Zionist Council and our efforts to obtain its registration under the terms of the Foreign Agents Registration Act..."
In the early 1960's Israel funneled $5 million (more than $35 million in today's dollars) into US propaganda and lobbying operations. The funds were channeled via the quasi governmental Jewish Agency's New York office into an Israel lobby umbrella group, the American Zionist Council. Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigations and hearings documented funding flows, propaganda, and public relations efforts and put them into the record. But the true fate of the American Zionist Council was never known, except that its major functions were visibly shut down and shifted over to a former AZC unit known as the "Kenen Committee," called the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (or AIPAC) in the late 1960's. The following chronology provides links to images of original Department of Justice case files released on June 10, 2008 under a Freedom of Information Act filing.
JFK Orders The American Zionist Council To Register As A Foreign Agent
by John Bruce Campbell
The following demonstrates why there is no legal method in America to overthrow the alien control of the US government by the Zionists (American and Israeli Jews and their Gentile fronts).
During the last year of his life, John Kennedy told his brother, Robert, to force the Zionist lobbyists to register as foreign agents of Israel. He told the attorney general to order the Zionist propagandists to conform to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA). The purpose of FARA is to insure that the U.S. government and the people of the United States are informed of the source of information (propaganda) and the identity of persons attempting to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and laws. In 1938, FARA was Congress' response to the large number of German propaganda agents in the pre-WWII U.S.
The principal Israeli agency at the time was the American Zionist Council, formed by Isaiah Kenen in 1951. Here is the timeline of the Kennedy effort to register the AZC: John Kennedy was not successful in his struggle with the Zionists. It’s time to recognize his struggle, which contributed to his assassination, and to read the words he planned to give in Austin the evening of his death: “Neither the fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a party is not to our party alone, but to the nation, and, indeed, to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of political power but the preservation of peace and freedom."
For more see the comprehensive section: Jewish Lobby
September 12, 1962
JFK - We Choose To Go To The Moon (17:48)
Kennedy delivers a speech at Rice University on the subject of the nation's plans to land humans on the Moon. Kennedy announces his continued support for increased space expenditures, saying "we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
"Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, 'Because it is there.' Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."
John F. Kennedy Moon Speech (Video, Audio and Text)
September 26, 1962
President Kennedy signs bill enabling construction of world's largest atomic power plant in Hanford, Washington.
September 30, 1962
Joints Chiefs of Staff Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer is denied another term. Lemnitzer approved the plans known as Operation Northwoods in 1962, a proposed plan to discredit the Castro regime and create support for military action against Cuba by staging false flag acts of terrorism and developing "a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington". Lemnitzer presented the plans to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962. It is unclear how McNamara reacted, but three days later President Kennedy told the general that there was no chance that the United States would take military action against Cuba.
50 Years After JFK Murder, The Finger Finally Points To Pentagon Chief Lemnitzer
Evidence Points to New Suspect as Architect of JFK Murder Plot: Pentagon Chief General Lyman Lemnitzer had Motives, Means, and Track Record, says Gladio expert
To sum up, Lemnitzer had deep ideological and personal motives for killing Kennedy. As NATO commander, he had all the necessary means at his disposal, with the advantage of distance and military discipline to keep it secret. Under him, NATO tried to assassinate President De Gaulle, a head of state who was an ideological and personal adversary, and several other highly respected figures.
Lemnitzer had deep and long-standing Mafia connections, and the contemporary political thriller and film "Seven Days in May" dropped a very broad hint that "Lyman" would lead a coup against Kennedy. Col. Lansdale, who also had scores to settle, was the ideal deputy to carry out the hit on JFK for his general.
by Richard Cottrell
For more see the comprehensive section: Lyman Lemnitzer
September 30, 1962
President Kennedy announces action by Federal Government to carry out court order admitting James Meredith to the University of Mississippi. The U.S. Supreme Court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James H. Meredith, its first African-American student. After Governor Ross Barnett attempts to block the admission, U.S. Marshals escort Meredith to campus while Federalized national guardsmen maintain order. They were met by an angry crowd of students and other local whites who opposed Meredith's efforts to integrate “Old Miss.” The deadly riot that broke out forced President John F. Kennedy to intervene, and the episode helped change the President’s approach to civil rights.
September 30, 1962
Listening In: JFK on Integration in University of Mississippi (2:25)
President Kennedy places a call to Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett during the crisis over the University of Mississippi and James Meredith, an African-American seeking admission to the school. With riots and a death reported, Kennedy negotiates with Barnett amid high tensions.
For more see the comprehensive section: Civil Rights Movement
October 2, 1962
President Kennedy signs United Nations bond issue bill authorizing American participation in financing United Nations peacekeeping operations in the Congo and elsewhere.
October 2, 1962
President John F. Kennedy Signs Bill to Limit Drainage of Wetlands
President John F. Kennedy signs an amendment to the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act to limit the drainage of wetlands in the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. Present are Representative Lester R. Johnson (Wisconsin); Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, John P. Duncan, Jr.; Representative Henry S. Reuss (Wisconsin); Senator Eugene J. McCarthy (Minnesota).
October 9, 1962
Uganda's Political History Independence through the 1960s
Uganda gained her independence on October 9, 1962. Since 1894 she was a British protectorate that was put together from some very organized kingdoms and chieftaincies that inhabited the lake regions of central Africa. At independence, Dr. Milton Apollo Obote, also leader of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) became the first Prime Minister and head of the government.
October 10, 1962
President Kennedy signs first major improvement in Food and Drug laws since 1938, protecting families against untested and ineffective drugs.
Remarks Upon Signing the Drug Reform Bill (Text)
I am pleased to approve this bill, which is designed to provide safer and more effective drugs to the American consumer. Enactment of this legislation will help give the American consumer the protection from unsafe and ineffective drugs. It will also insure that our pharmaceutical industry will be even better equipped to provide us with the best possible drugs to be found anywhere.
October 11, 1962
President Kennedy signs Trade Expansion Act granting unprecedented authority to end American protectionism and build free world economic unity.
Remarks Upon Signing the Trade Expansion Act, October 11,1962 (Audio 3:56)
October 16, 1962 - January 17, 1963
Oil Men And Oil Depletion Allowance is a section that describes the powerful forces within the Texas oil industry and their wanting to keep the oil depletion allowance tax break. For me, this was the third top motive to assassinated Kennedy. Some of those who became extremely wealthy and powerful as a result of discoveries of oil in Texas included, Ross Sterling, Hugh R. Cullen, Sid Richardson and Clint Murchison.
Let me state, I wholeheartedly believe that there is no possible way Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson ordered the assassination of Kennedy. Yes, he despised the Kennedy brothers, and he had long litany of illegal activates including many murders committed by his personal hit man Malcolm Wallace, but he did not order the hit. Something I do find quite interesting is that a fingerprint of Malcolm Wallace was supposedly found in the sniper's nest on the sixth floor of the Dallas School Book Depository. Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson had both foreknowledge of the Kennedy assassination and was an accessory after the fact and that he was deeply involved in the cover-up.
Philip F. Nelson, the author of LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination (2011) has pointed out that the oil depletion allowance, "allowed them to retain 27.5 percent of their oil revenue tax-tree; its loss, according to World Petroleum magazine, stood to cost the industry as much as $300 million in annual profits (in 1962 dollars). The original rationale for such an allowance was that the product that their investments yielded yeas a finite resource that would require continual investments in exploration and recovery in order to extend the flow of raw material; the more the companies produced, the less was available. Recognition of this depletion of the asset was intended as an incentive for finding and recovering more oil fields. (How this particular commodity was materially different from other forms of mining, or commercial ocean fishing, or even farming, was never fully explained, other than perhaps the oilmen having better lobbyists than the others.)"
During the 1960 presidential election Kennedy gave his support for the oil depletion allowance. In October, 1960, he said that he appreciated However, two years later, Kennedy decided to take on the oil industry. On October 16, 1962, Kennedy was able to persuade Congress to pass an act that removed the distinction between repatriated profits and profits reinvested abroad. While this law applied to industry as a whole, it especially affected the oil companies. It was estimated that as a result of this legislation, wealthy oilmen saw a fall in their earnings on foreign investment from 30 per cent to 15 per cent.
On January 17, 1963, President Kennedy presented his proposals for tax reform. This included relieving the tax burdens of low-income and elderly citizens. Kennedy also claimed he wanted to remove special privileges and loopholes. He even said he wanted to do away with the oil depletion allowance.
After the assassination of Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson dropped the government plans to remove the oil depletion allowance. Richard Nixon followed his example and it was not until the arrival of Jimmy Carter that the oil depletion allowance was removed.
From: What They Don’t Tell You About Oil Industry Tax Breaks
…To head off this larger threat, it was clear to John F. Kennedy’s political advisers that he would have to campaign in Texas, along with Florida, in 1963. Kennedy was interested in revoking the oil depletion allowance, a decision that would have meant steep losses for Texas oilmen, and he continued voicing his support for civil rights, always a contentious issue in the South.
President Kennedy demonstrated his willingness to buck big money during the “steel crisis” of April 1962, when he forced a price rollback by sending FBI agents into corporate offices. But Kennedy’s gutsiest, and arguably his most dangerous, domestic initiative was his administration’s crusade against the oil depletion allowance, the tax break that swelled uncounted oil fortunes. It gave oil companies a large and automatic deduction, regardless of their actual costs, as compensation for dwindling assets in the ground.
Robert Kennedy instructed the FBI to issue questionnaires, asking the oil companies for specific production and sales data. “The oil industry, in particular, the more financially vulnerable Dallas-based independents, did not welcome this intrusion. The trade publication Oil and Gas Journal charged that RFK was setting up a “battleground [on which] business and government will collide.”
FBI director Hoover expressed his own reservations, especially about the use of his agents to gather information in the matter. Hoover’s close relationship with the oil industry was part of the oil-intelligence link he shared with [CIA director Allen]Dulles and the CIA. Industry big shots weren’t just sources; they were clients and friends. And Hoover’s FBI was known for returning favors.
One of Hoover’s good friends, the ultrarich Texas oilman Clint Murchison Sr., was among the most aggressive players in the depletion allowance dispute. Murchison had been exposed as far back as the early 1950s, in Luce’s Time magazine no less—as epitomizing the absurdity of this giveaway to the rich and powerful. Another strong defender of the allowance was Democratic senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma, the multimillionaire owner of the Kerr-McGee oil company. So friendly was he with his Republican colleague Prescott Bush that when Prescott’s son, George H. W. Bush, was starting up his Zapata Offshore [oil] operation, Kerr offered some of his own executives to help. Several of them even left Kerr’s company to become Bush’s top executives.
Lyndon Johnson shared in the prevailing oil belt enmity toward Kennedy. In fact, he was the one person in the White House the oilmen trusted. After Johnson ascended to the presidency, he and newly elected congressman Bush were often allies on such issues as the oil depletion allowance and the war in Vietnam [oil executive Jack] Crichton (close with Bush and head of a secretive Dallas-based, oil-connected military intelligence unit that deeply immersed in aspects of the tragic events of November 22, 1963) was so plugged into the Dallas power structure that one of his company directors was Clint Murchison Sr., king of the oil depletion allowance, and another was D. Harold Byrd, owner of the Texas School Book Depository building...
For more see the comprehensive section: Oil Men And Oil Depletion Allowance
October 16, 1962 - October 28, 1962
For thirteen days in October 1962 the world waited, seemingly on the brink of nuclear war, and hoped for a peaceful resolution to the Cuban missile crisis.
I owe my life, as do tens or hundreds of millions of other people, to President Kennedy, because of his incredible detente in defusing the Cuban missile crisis. As a four year old boy who lived in New York City at the time, during a nuclear exchange it would surely have been hit with multiple warheads.
John F. Kennedy And The Cuban Missle Crisis
Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis
by Karthik Gopalan
On October 16, 1962 President John F. Kennedy received information from his National Security Advisor (NSA), McGeorge Bundy, regarding the Soviet MRBMs, or medium range ballistic missiles, placed in Cuba. The President instantly pulled together a group of 14-15 of his closest advisors known as the EXCOMM, or the Executive Committee of the National Security Council. What followed for the next thirteen days until October 28, 1962 was a series of intense discussions usually held in the Cabinet Room which centered on how to respond to this situation.
October 16, 1962
JFK is shown photographs of Soviet nuclear missile sites being installed in Cuba. To minimize Soviet power in the West, the president initiates a blockade of Cuba the following week. For thirteen days, the Cuban missile crisis will bring the world closer to nuclear war than ever before or after.
October 18, 1962
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meets President John F. Kennedy (7:03)
President John F. Kennedy and Soviet minister of foreign affairs Andrei Gromyko meet in the Oval Office. Also present are Soviet deputy minister Vladimir S. Seyemenov and Soviet ambassador to the United States Anatoly F. Dobrynin. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko asserts that Soviet aid to Cuba is purely defensive and does not represent a threat to the United States. President Kennedy do not reveal that he knows of the existence of the missiles. Afterwards Gromyko spoke to the press outside the White House.
October 22, 1962
President Kennedy's address the nation on the Cuban missile crisis and orders a navel quarantine of Cuba to halt Soviet missile buildup and prevent further shipments of nuclear weapons.
October 22, 1962
Listening In: JFK & Eisenhower on the Cold War (1:05)
As President, John F. Kennedy was the ultimate arbiter of American foreign and millitary policy. But there were still a number of former presidents he could consult with, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In this phone conversation, Kennedy asks Eisenhower what he believes the chances are that Russia would launch a nuclear weapon if the United States invaded Cuba.
October 26, 1962
JFK Phone Call During The Cuban Missile Crisis (2:520
Both President Kennedy and his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, can be heard in this telephone call, which took place at the height of the tense Cuban Missile Crisis on October 26, 1962.
October 27, 1962
Anatoly F. Dobrynin's Meeting With Robert F. Kennedy, Saturday, October 27, 1962
Reproduced with permission from:
The Cold War International History Project Bulletin Issue 5, Spring 1995
by Jim Hershberg
If the Cuban Missile Crisis was the most dangerous passage of the Cold War, the most dangerous moment of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the evening of Saturday, 27 October 1962, when the resolution of the crisis—war or peace—appeared to hang in the balance. While Soviet ships had not attempted to break the U.S naval blockade of Cuba, Soviet nuclear missile bases remained on the island and were rapidly becoming operational, and pressure on President Kennedy to order an air strike or invasion was mounting, especially after an American l -2 reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba that Saturday afternoon and its pilot killed. Hopes that a satisfactory resolution to the crisis could be reached between Washington and Moscow had dimmed, moreover, when a letter from Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev arrived Saturday morning demanding that the United States agree to remove its Jupiter missiles from Turkey in exchange for a Soviet removal of missiles from Cuba. The letter struck U.S. officials as an ominous hardening of the Soviet position from the previous day's letter from Khrushchev, which had omitted any mention of American missiles in Turkey but had instead implied that Washington's pledge not to invade Cuba would be sufficient to obviate the need for Soviet nuclear protection of Castro's revolution.
On Saturday evening, after a day of tense discussions within the "ExComm" or Executive Committee of senior advisers, President Kennedy decided on a dual strategy—a formal letter to Khrushchev accepting the implicit terms of his October 26 letter (a U.S. non-invasion pledge in exchange for the verifiable departure of Soviet nuclear missiles), coupled with private assurances to Khrushchev that the United States would speedily take out its missiles from Turkey, but only on the basis of a secret understanding, not as an open agreement that would appear to the public, and to NATO allies, as a concession to blackmail. The U.S. president elected to transmit this sensitive message through his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who met in his office at the Justice Department with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.
That meeting has long been recognized as a turning point in the crisis, but several aspects of it have been shrouded in mystery and confusion. One concerned the issue of the Jupiter missiles in Turkey: U.S. officials maintained that neither John nor Robert Kennedy promised to withdraw the Jupiters as a quid pro quo, or concession, in exchange for the removal of the Soviet missiles from Cuba, or as part of an explicit agreement, deal, or pledge, but had merely informed Dobrynin that Kennedy had planned to take out the American missiles in any event. This was the version of events depicted in the first published account of the RFK-Dobrynin meeting by one of the participants, in Robert F. Kennedy's Thirteen Days: A Memoir at the Cuban Missile Crisis, posthumously published in 1969, a year after he was assassinated while seeking the Democratic nomination for president. While Thirteen Days depicted RFK as rejecting any firm agreement to withdraw the Jupiters, this was also the first public indication that the issue had even been privately discussed...
October 27, 1962
The Man Who Saved The World [Vasili Arkhipov] (53:07)
This film explores the dramatic and little-known events that unfolded inside a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine during the Cuban Missile Crisis. While politicians sought a solution to the stand-off, Vasili Arkhipov, an officer aboard the submarine, refused to fire a nuclear torpedo, thus averting disaster. The program combines tense drama with eyewitness accounts and expert testimony about a critical event during the Cold War.
Vasili Arkhipov: Cold War Russian Hero
by Erico Matias Tavares
You may have never heard of Vasili Arkhipov. And yet life as we know it on this planet could have ended if it were not for his crucial intervention during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Cold War started heating up soon after. In July of 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba as a deterrent to future US interference, pursuant to the Bay of Pigs invasion debacle a few years earlier. In mid-October, a US reconnaissance airplane produced evidence of medium and long range Soviet ballistic missiles on the site, sending alarm bells ringing in Washington DC.
US President John F. Kennedy promptly established a military blockade to prevent further missiles from entering Cuba and demanded that the missiles be dismantled and returned to the Soviet Union. Over the following days the world came close to the brink of nuclear war as the two blocks vigorously asserted their positions.
Nobody realized at the time just how close to disaster they really were. And that's where Arkhipov would make his decisive contribution to world history.
Arkhipov was second-in-command in the nuclear-armed Foxtrot-class submarine B-59, part of a flotilla of four submarines protecting Soviet ships on their way to Cuba. On October 27, as they approached the US imposed quarantine line, US Navy ships in pursuit started dropping depth charges to force the B-59 to surface for identification - completely unaware that it was carrying nuclear weapons.
The explosions rocked the submarine which went dark except for emergency lights. With the air-conditioning down, temperature and carbon dioxide levels rose sharply. The crew was hardly able to breathe.
Unable to contact Moscow and under pressure from the Americans for several hours, Captain Valentin Savitsky finally lost his nerve. He assumed that war had broken out between the two countries and decided to launch a nuclear torpedo. He would not go down without a fight.
However, unlike the other submarines in the flotilla, the three officers onboard the B-59 had to agree unanimously to launch the nuclear torpedo. As the other officer sided with Savitsky, only Arkhipov stood in the way of launching World War III.
An argument broke out between the three, but Arkhipov was able to convince the Captain not to launch the torpedo. How was he able to prevail under such stressful conditions? He was actually in charge of the entire flotilla and as such was equal in rank to Savitsky. But the reputation he had gained during the K-19 incident may have been the decisive factor in convincing the other officers to abort the launch. That detail may have made all the difference.
The submarine eventually surfaced and awaited orders from Moscow, averting what would have been a nuclear holocaust. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended a few days later.
The Russian Who Saved The Whole World From Devastating Nuclear Disaster
by Rishabh Banerji
We could have been living in a very different present had it not been for a certain Russian sitting inside a nuclear torpedo equipped submarine aimed at the U.S Navy. A world ravaged by nuclear war with generations getting to experience its ripple effect, first-hand. He's the reason why you, I or anyone on this planet perhaps, is alive. Alive to tell the story of Vasili Arkhipov - the man who saved our planet.
October 28, 1962
Phone Call with General Eisenhower during Cuban Missile Crisis (4:24)
Sound recording of a telephone conversation held on October 28, 1962, between President John F. Kennedy and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. They discuss dealings with Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev for ending the Cuban Missile Crisis. [White House Operator?] connects the call at President Kennedy’s request.
October 28, 1962
After thirteen days of extreme tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Cuban missile crisis is resolved. The United States will pledge not to invade Cuba (and secretly agrees to remove missiles from Turkey), in exchange for the removal of the Soviet nuclear weapons from Cuba.
From: JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matter
by James W. Douglass
JFK had to confront the unspeakable in the Missile Crisis in the form of total nuclear war. At the height of that terrifying conflict, he felt the situation spiraling out of control, especially because of the actions of his generals. For example, with both sides on hair-trigger alert, the U.S. Air Force test-fired missiles from California across the Pacific, deliberately trying to provoke the Soviets in a way that could justify our superior U.S. forces blanketing the USSR with an all-out nuclear attack. As we know from Kennedy’s secretly taped meeting with his Joint Chiefs of Staff on October 19, 1962, the Chiefs were pushing him relentlessly to launch a pre-emptive strike on Cuba, and ultimately the Soviet Union. In this encounter the Chiefs’ disdain for their young commander-in-chief is summed up by Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay when he says:
LeMay: “This [blockade and political action] is almost as bad as the appeasement [of Hitler] at Munich…I think that a blockade, and political talk, would be considered by a lot of our friends and neutrals as being a pretty weak response to this. And I’m sure a lot of our own citizens would feel that way too.
“In other words, you’re in a pretty bad fix at the present time.”
President Kennedy responds: “What did you say?”
LeMay: “I say, you’re in a pretty bad fix.”
President Kennedy: [laughing] “You’re in with me, personally.”
As the meeting draws to a close, Kennedy rejects totally the Joint Chiefs’ arguments for a quick, massive attack on Cuba. The president then leaves the room but the tape keeps on recording. Two or three of the generals remain, and one says to LeMay, “You pulled the rug right out from under him.”
LeMay: “Jesus Christ. What the hell do you mean?”
Other General: “…He’s finally getting around to the word ‘escalation.’ If somebody could keep ‘em from doing the goddamn thing piecemeal, that’s our problem…”
The White House tapes show Kennedy questioning and resisting the mounting pressure to bomb Cuba coming from both the Joint Chiefs and the Executive Committee of the National Security Council. At the same time, John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, the two men most responsible for the Cuban Missile Crisis, seemed locked in a hopeless ideological conflict. The U.S. and Soviet leaders had been following Cold War policies that now seemed to be moving inexorably toward a war of extermination.
Yet, as we have since learned, Kennedy and Khrushchev had been engaged in a secret correspondence for over a year that gave signs of hope. Even as they moved publicly step by step toward a Cold War climax that would almost take the world over the edge with them, they were at the same time smuggling confidential letters back and forth that recognized each other’s humanity and hoped for a solution. They were public enemies who, in the midst of deepening turmoil, were secretly learning something approaching trust in each other.
On what seemed the darkest day in the crisis, when a Soviet missile had shot down a U2 spy plane over Cuba, intensifying the already overwhelming pressures on Kennedy to bomb Cuba, the president sent his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, secretly to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. RFK told Dobrynin, as Dobrynin reported to Khrushchev, that the president “didn’t know how to resolve the situation. The military is putting great pressure on him…Even if he doesn’t want or desire a war, something irreversible could occur against his will. That is why the President is asking for help to solve this problem.”
In his memoirs, Khrushchev recalled a further, chilling sentence from Robert Kennedy’s appeal to Dobrynin: “If the situation continues much longer, the President is not sure that the military will not overthrow him and seize power.”
Sergei Khrushchev, Nikita’s son, has described his father’s thoughts when he read Dobrynin’s wired report relaying John Kennedy’s plea: “The president was calling for help: that was how father interpreted Robert Kennedy’s talk with our ambassador.”
At a moment when the world was falling into darkness, Kennedy did what from his generals’ standpoint was intolerable and unforgivable. JFK not only rejected his generals’ pressures for war. Even worse, the president then reached out to their enemy, asking for help. That was treason.
When Nikita Khrushchev had received Kennedy’s plea for help in Moscow, he turned to his Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko and said, “We have to let Kennedy know that we want to help him.”
Khrushchev stunned himself by what he had just said: Did he really want to help his enemy, Kennedy? Yes, he did. He repeated the word to his foreign minister:
“Yes, help. We now have a common cause, to save the world from those pushing us toward war.”
How do we understand that moment? The two most heavily armed leaders in history, on the verge of total nuclear war, suddenly joined hands against those on both sides pressuring them to attack. Khrushchev ordered the immediate withdrawal of his missiles, in return for Kennedy’s public pledge never to invade Cuba and his secret promise to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey – as he would in fact do. The two Cold War enemies had turned, so that each now had more in common with his opponent than either had with his own generals. As a result of that turn toward peace, one leader would be assassinated thirteen months later. The other, left without his peacemaking partner, would be overthrown the following year. Yet because of their turn away from nuclear war, today we are still living and struggling for peace on this earth. Hope is alive. We still have a chance.
...That is how he seemed to regard the situation – that it would soon lead to his own death. JFK was not afraid of death. As a biographer observed, “Kennedy talked a great deal about death, and about the assassination of Lincoln.” His conscious model for struggling truthfully through conflict, and being ready to die as a consequence, was Abraham Lincoln. On the day when Kennedy and Khrushchev resolved the missile crisis, JFK told his brother, Robert, referring to the assassination of Lincoln, “This is the night I should go to the theater.” Robert replied, “If you go, I want to go with you.”
The Other Terrifying Lesson Of The Cuban Missile Crisis
Historians have focused on how John F. Kennedy’s wisdom narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe. They’ve paid less attention to how little we knew about the Soviets’ true intentions.
by George Perkovich
For, until 1992, at a conference in Cuba of American, Soviet and Cuban veterans of the crisis, no Americans knew that the Soviets had deployed more than 100 “tactical” nuclear weapons in Cuba.
The military found the idea of invasion desirable, or at least feasible, because as McNamara told Kennedy, there were “about 8 to 10,000” Soviet “personnel, probably military personnel” in Cuba. As it turned out, this was an “unknown known” - a thing American leaders thought they knew but did not. The Soviets actually had far more troops on the island - 42,000 - which was not revealed until 2008.
Similar harrowing developments were also occurring at sea, even in the days after the crisis seemingly had ended. In brief, Soviet submarines patrolling around Cuba were equipped with nuclear-armed torpedoes, unbeknownst to U.S. officials. When American vessels dropped “practice” depth charges intended to signal the submarines to surface, the submarines’ commanders thought they were under attack. Two of the crews prepared to launch their nuclear-armed torpedoes against American ships, but for different reasons ultimately withheld firing. These crews, when they later returned to Russia after the crisis, were reprimanded for not heroically violating orders and firing. Again, none of this was known by Americans until decades after the crisis.
JFK's 'Secret' Doomsday Map Revealed (Video 1:29 and Text)
An old map of Cuba is up for auction in Boston -- but it's much more than a map.
It's a historic artifact from some of the darkest days of the Cold War, when Washington and Moscow reached a standoff that could have led to a nuclear doomsday.
President John F. Kennedy consulted the map -- which shows dozens of potential military targets across Cuba -- as he was considering whether to launch a US attack during the Cuban missile crisis.
by Thom Patterson
For more see the comprehensive section: Cuban Missile Crisis
November 6, 1962
The 1962 United States mid-term elections were held on November 6, and elected the members of the 88th United States Congress. The election occurred in the middle of Democratic President John F. Kennedy's term. The Republican Party picked up four seats in the House of Representatives, but the Democrats retained strong majorities in both houses of Congress. In the Senate, Democrats won a net gain of four seats from the Republicans, maintaining control of the Senate. Kennedy's brother Ted wins a special election in Massachusetts to represent the state as junior senator, in the seat his brother had held prior to his election as president. In the gubernatorial elections, neither party won a net gain of seats. Notably, 1960 Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon lost the California gubernatorial election to Democratic incumbent Governor Pat Brown by almost 300,000 votes, which many analysts incorrectly predicted to be the end of his political career.
November 20, 1962
Kennedy announces fair housing legislation
President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order 11063, which mandates an end to discrimination in housing. The order, which came during the burgeoning Civil Rights movement, prohibited federally funded housing agencies from denying housing or funding for housing to anyone based on their race, color, creed or national origin.
November 20, 1962
During the President’s news conference (number 45) of November 20, 1962, he begins with an update on the Cuban missile crisis, stating that Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev would withdraw IL-28 bomber planes in Cuba within 30 days and that the naval quarantine of Cuba was lifted as a result of the withdrawal. The President then announces the signing of Executive Order 11063, which prevented discrimination in housing facilities owned or operated by the federal government, and the creation of the Committee on Equal Opportunity in Housing.
President John F. Kennedy's 45th News Conference (30:36)
President John F. Kennedy's forty-fifth news conference was held in the State Department Auditorium at 6 o'clock on Tuesday evening, November 20, 1962.
‘’I have several statements. I have today been informed by Chairman Khrushchev that all of the IL-28 bombers now in Cuba will be withdrawn in 30 days. He also agrees that these planes can be observed and counted as they leave. Inasmuch as this goes a long way towards reducing the danger which faced this hemisphere 4 weeks ago, I have this afternoon instructed the Secretary of Defense to lift our naval quarantine. In view of this action, I want to take this opportunity to bring the American people up to date on the Cuban crisis and to review the progress made thus far in fulfilling the understandings between Soviet Chairman Khrushchev and myself as set forth in our letters of October 27 and 28. Chairman Khrushchev, it will be recalled, agreed to remove from Cuba all weapons systems capable of offensive use, to halt the further introduction of such weapons into Cuba, and to permit appropriate United Nations observation and supervision to insure the carrying out and continuation of these commitments. We on our part agreed that once these adequate arrangements for verification had been established we would remove our naval quarantine and give assurances against an invasion of Cuba.’’
November 21, 1962
Listening In: JFK on Getting to the Moon (4:04)
At an off-the-record meeting held on November 21, 1962 with NASA Administrator James Webb, NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans, and Special Assistant to the President Jerome Wiesner, President Kennedy states clearly that his administration's priority is for the United States to land on the Moon before the Soviet Union.
November 22, 1962
President Kennedy is presented with the Laetare Medal by Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, the president of the University of Notre Dame. The Medal, annually awarded by Notre Dame, is considered the highest award for American Catholics. Kennedy was presented with the award in the Oval Office, by Fr. Hesburgh, who was also a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, the university's executive vice president.
Presentation of University of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal to President Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy is presented the Laetare Medal for 1961 from the University of Notre Dame. Attending the presentation (L-R): Father Edmund P. Joyce, vice president of the University of Notre Dame; President Kennedy; Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh, president of the University of Notre Dame; three unidentified men; and Representative John Brademas (Indiana). Unidentified man in background. Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C.
November 29, 1963
President John F. Kennedy Speaking at American Pageant of the Arts Dinner (11:35)
President John F. Kennedy spoke in the National Guard Armory in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Kennedy then spoke briefly before introducing Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower who served with her as Honorary Co-Chairman of the National Cultural Center. General and Mrs. Eisenhower participated in the broadcast from Augusta, Georgia.
December 12, 1962
President Kennedy meets with President Jorge Alessandri of the Republic of Chile, have a working meeting to discuss the Alliance for Progress.
President John F. Kennedy with President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez
President John F. Kennedy walks with President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, through the West Wing Lobby, following their meeting at the White House.
December 12, 1962
President and First Lady at Christmas Reception
President and Mrs. Kennedy pose in front of the White House Christmas Tree during the Staff Christmas Reception. White House, Entrance Hall.
Photograph by Robert Knudsen
December 14, 1962
JFK Address to the Economic Club of New York, December 14, 1962 (Audio 28 minutes)
...However, at that time the income tax rate was 91 percent, which Kennedy wanted to lower to 65 percent.
John F. Kennedy On The Economy And Taxes
The president finally decided that only a bold domestic program, including tax cuts, would restore his political momentum. Declaring that the absence of recession is not tantamount to economic growth, the president proposed in 1963 to cut income taxes from a range of 20-91% to 14-65% He also proposed a cut in the corporate tax rate from 52% to 47%.
JFK Speech On Tax Cuts (8:08)
An excerpt from John F Kennedy's address to the Economic Club of New York on December 14, 1962.
President John F. Kennedy Address To The Economic Club Of New York (Audio 27:31 and Text)
Delivered December 14, 1962, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York
December 17, 1962
This folder contains materials collected by the office of President John F. Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, concerning President Kennedy's Christmas message for 1962. In his speech the President discusses the universality of Christmas as a day of peace. Materials in this folder include drafts by economist and Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith, one of which contains handwritten notations by the President.
December 18, 1962 - December 21, 1962
Kennedy makes the sixth international trip of his presidency, traveling to Nassau, The Bahamas, where he confers with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and concludes an agreement on nuclear defense systems.
Britain's Special Relationship With USA Was 'Saved By Kennedy' In Nuclear Row
by Marco Giannangeli
Britain might well have seen its special relationship with the US downgraded to become merely a “strategically-positioned launchpad for American interests” had it not been for John F Kennedy, according to a new book.
December 25, 1962
Kennedy Slideshow #1 -- Christmas Day With The Kennedys At Palm Beach, Florida
January 2, 1963
Isaiah L. Kenen incorporates the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, DC.
1963: The Year The Israel Lobby Transcended US Law
by Grant F. Smith
...A half-century after the attempted regulation of Israel lobbies under FARA failed, it is productive to image what might be different today if AIPAC in particular had been properly registered under the Act. When AIPAC director Morris Amitay was caught red-handed mishandling classified missile secrets in 1975, he could have been prosecuted under FARA. When AIPAC and an Israeli diplomat purloined the entire 300-page book of classified trade secrets compiled from 70 U.S. industry groups opposed to unilateral trade concessions for Israel in 1984, they could have been prosecuted for failing to report their clandestine subversion of due process. When in 2005 Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman met with Israeli diplomats during efforts to pass classified information to the press they thought could trigger a U.S attack on Iran, FARA consequences would have awaited them all...
The Kennedys vs Israel’s Lobby
by Grant F. Smith
... Between 1962 and 1963 Senator J.W. Fulbright uncovered a massive network of financial “conduits” moving funds directed by the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem to Israel lobby startup groups across the United States. Even as JFK attempted to place Israel’s Dimona nuclear weapons program under US inspection, RFK ordered the AZC to openly register and disclose all of its foreign funded lobbying activity in the United States...
The Open Secret About The Israel Lobby
by Paul Findley
There is an open secret in Washington. I learned it well during my 22-year tenure as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. All members swear to serve the interests of the United States, but there is an unwritten and overwhelming exception: The interests of one small foreign country almost always trump U.S. interests. That nation of course is Israel...
The Jewish Israel Lobby In The U.S.
AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is Israel's main lobby in the U.S. There are about 126 other political action committees (PAC), listed under deceptive names to hide their actual purpose, that can be mobilized at any time to rain money on any congressman ousting his disobedient opponent who dared criticize any aspect of U.S.-Israeli relationship. No wonder AIPAC is referred to on the Capitol Hill as "The Lobby". Many congressmen (now all ex's), such as the late Fullbright, Findley, and Percy, felt its power when daring to mildly criticize U.S.-Israeli relationship. Such criticism would also induce the wrath of the numerous pro-Israel columnists around the nation's major newspapers, such the New York Times' Safire, A.M. Rosenthal and the more subtle Thomas Friedman, the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer and George Will, the Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby, or the New Republic's Martin Peretz and Steven Emerson...
For more see the comprehensive section: Jewish Lobby
January 10, 1963
Kennedy meets with President-elect Dr. Juan Bosch of the Dominican Republic.
Meeting with the President-elect of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Juan E. Bosch
January 14, 1963
JFK's 1963 State of the Union (45:01)
Kennedy delivers his third (and final) State of the Union address. The President calls for massive tax reduction and tax reform, accurately predicting longest, strongest economic expansion in American peace-time history to that time.
Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union (Text)
by President John F. Kennedy
January 24, 1963
Special Message To The Congress On Tax Reduction And Reform (Text)
by President John F. Kennedy
1) Reduction in individual income tax rates from their present levels of 20 to 91 percent, to a range of 14 to 65 percent--the 14 percent rate to apply to the first $2,000 of taxable income for married taxpayers filing joint returns, and to the first $1,000 of the taxable income of single taxpayers;
(2) Reduction in the rate of the corporate income tax from 52 to 47 percent;
(3) Reversal of the corporate normal and surtax rates, so that the tax rate applicable to the first $25,000 of corporate income would drop from 30 to 22 percent, so as to give particular encouragement to small business;
(4) Acceleration of tax payments by corporations with anticipated annual liabilities of more than $ 100,000, to bring the corporate payment schedule to a current basis over a five-year transition period;
(5) Revision of the tax treatment of capital gains, designed to provide a freer and fuller flow of capital funds and to achieve a greater equity;
(6) Removal of certain inequities and hardships in our present tax structure; and
(7) Broadening of the base of the individual and corporate income taxes, to remove unwarranted special privileges, correct defects in the tax law, and provide more equal treatment of taxpayers--thereby permitting a larger reduction in tax rates than would otherwise be possible and making possible my proposals to alleviate hardships and inequities.
I shall propose a permanent reduction in tax rates which will lower liabilities by $13.5 billion. Of this, $11 billion results from reducing individual tax rates, which now range between 20% and 91%, to a more sensible range of 14% to 65%. $2.5 billion results from reducing corporate tax rates, from 52%--which gives the Government today a majority interest in profits-to the permanent pre-Korean level of 47%.
Celebrating A Time When Tax-Cutting Was The Cause Of Democrats
by James P. Pinkerton
In his message that day, Kennedy was unmistakable in his determination to focus on tax changes: “The revision of our federal tax system on an equitable basis is crucial to the achievement of these goals.”
Kennedy then listed the tax reductions he wanted, including cuts in both personal and corporate tax rates - from 91 percent to 65 percent and from 52 percent to 47 percent, respectively - as well as other changes, almost all of them downward adjustments.
February 5, 1963
John F. Kennedy and People with Intellectual Disabilities
"Mental retardation ranks with mental health as a major health, social, and economic problem in this country. It strikes our most precious asset, our children."
John F. Kennedy
February 7, 1963
Press Conference, February 7, 1963 (31 minutes)
Sound recording of the President’s News Conference of February 7, 1963 (News Conference 48). The President begins the press conference by announcing reappointments of William McChesney Martin, Jr. as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Mr. C. Canby Balderston as Vice Chairman. Following this statement the President answers questions from the press on a variety of topics including the Cuban Missile Crisis and Soviet military personnel and weapons inspections in Cuba. President Kennedy also answers questions concerning President of France Charles de Gaulle’s blocking of Great Britain from the Common Market and his desire for an independent national deterrent.
February 28, 1963
Special Message on Civil Rights, February 28, 1963
This folder contains a press release of President John F. Kennedy's Special Message to Congress on civil rights, during which he asks Congress to enact legislation protecting all Americans' voting rights, legal standing, educational opportunities, and access to public facilities. The President recognizes that legislation alone cannot solve the country's problems concerning race relations, but notes that these measures are necessary preliminary actions towards the ideal of equality.
A Brief History Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964
by Robert D. Loevy
On February 28, 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent Congress a strong message on the immediate need for civil rights legislation: "The Negro baby born in America today ... has about one-half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day-one-third as much chance of completing college-one third as much chance of becoming a professional man-twice as much chance of becoming unemployed ... a life expectancy which is seven years less-and the prospects of earning only half as much."
March 18, 1963
The Supreme Court rules in Gideon v. Wainwright that states must supply counsel in criminal cases for individuals who cannot afford it.
March 18, 1963 - March 20, 1963
Kennedy makes the seventh international trip of his presidency, traveling to San José, Costa Rica, where he attends the Conference of Presidents of the Central American Republics.
President John F. Kennedy in Costa Rica, March 18-20, 1963 (3:25)
March 18-20, 1963, San José, Costa Rica. President John F. Kennedy attending Conference of Presidents of the Central American Republics. Meetings with Central American business and government leaders during this visit led to the establishment of INCAE.In his opening discourse President Kennedy speaks of strengthening education in Central America. The Declaración de Centroamérica (Declaration of Central America), emitted on the second day of the conference, documents the presidents interests in strengthening institutions that would train and integrate public and private sector leaders in the Central American region. Kennedy met with President of Costa Rica Francisco Orlich during his tour of San Jose.
March 22, 1963
President Kennedy urges final action on Constitutional Amendment outlawing poll tax as a bar to voting; it became the 24th Amendment.
Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-fourth Amendment (Amendment XXIV) of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. The amendment was proposed by Congress to the states on August 27, 1962, and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964.
President John F. Kennedy returned to this issue. His administration urged Congress to adopt and send such an amendment to the states for ratification. He considered the constitutional amendment the best way to avoid a filibuster, as the claim that federal abolition of the poll tax was unconstitutional would be moot. Still, some liberals opposed Kennedy's action, feeling that an amendment would be too slow compared to legislation.[10] Spessard Holland, a conservative Democrat from Florida, introduced the amendment to the Senate. Holland opposed most civil rights legislation during his career,[11] and Kennedy's gaining of his support helped splinter monolithic Southern opposition to the Amendment. Ratification of the amendment was relatively quick, taking slightly more than a year; it was rapidly ratified by state legislatures across the country from August 1962 to January 1964.
April 1963
President John F. Kennedy - April 1963 (3:33)
April 3, 1963 British Labour Party Leader Harold Wilson visits Washington for talks with President John F. Kennedy.
April 8, 1963 - President Kennedy opens the 1963 baseball season by throwing out the first ball at D.C. Stadium
April 9, 1963 - President Kennedy signs Proclamation 3517 declaring Winston Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States
April 14, 1963 -The Kennedy family attend church during Easter.
April 29, 1963 - Meeting with Anastas Mikoyan.
April 30, 1963 - John F. Kennedy and Eunice Shriver meeting Grand Duchess Charlotte and Prince Jean of Luxembourg
April 1963
President John F. Kennedy - Easter Vacation in Palm Beach, Florida (3:34)
The President swimming and playing with John Jr., Caroline and the dogs in the swimming pool.
April 3, 1963
Press Conference, April 3, 1963 (30 minutes)
Sound recording of the President’s News Conference of April 3, 1963 (News Conference 53). During this press conference President Kennedy answers questions from the press on a variety of topics including the budget, Soviet troop withdrawal from Cuba, the TFX fighter plane contract, hit and run raids on Cuba by Cuban exiles, an increase in the size of the Peace Corps for Latin America, and the space program.
April 3, 1963
Martin Luther King Jr leads a civil rights drive in Birmingham, Alabama. Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor orders the police to use fire hoses and dogs on demonstrators.
April 4, 1963
White House Rose Garden, ca. April 4, 1963 (Video 11 minutes)
Silent motion picture containing scenes filmed possibly on April 4, 1963, on the grounds of the White House, Washington, D.C., including the South lawn, the Rose Garden, and the East Wing. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Antoinette Bradlee, and other children have a picnic and some of the children play in the fountain and elsewhere. President John F. Kennedy also joins the group.
April 10, 1963
Did Lee Harvey Oswald Shoot at General Edwin Walker?
Oswald was posthumously accused of having shot at Walker in April 1963, largely on the basis of a claim by his widow that he had admitted to the shooting. Against this, the only witness failed to identify Oswald, and the bullet was the wrong type.
On the evening of April 10, 1963, Edwin Walker, a former Army general, was sitting in his study when a bullet entered his house through a window frame and struck the wall close to his head. Dallas police were unable to identify the gunman.
The crime remained unsolved until shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy, when the FBI’s report presumed that Lee Harvey Oswald was the culprit (see Warren Commission Document 1, pp.20–22). The Warren Commission, unable to determine Oswald’s motive for shooting JFK, seized on the attempted shooting of General Walker as evidence of Oswald’s murderous tendencies...
Judyth Baker: Lee Harvey Oswald did not shoot at General Walker
“Did Lee Harvey Oswald shoot at General Edwin Walker months before the Kennedy assassination? As in virtually every Warren Commission conclusion regarding Oswald, it is unsupported by the evidence”.
by Richard Charnin
April 24, 1963
Press Conference, April 24, 1963 (Audio 31 minutes)
Sound recording of the President’s News Conference of April 24, 1963 (News Conference 54). The President begins the press conference by announcing that he would meet with Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts on May 10 and 11. He goes on to say that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs W. Averell Harriman will travel to Moscow to meet with Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to discuss the situation in Laos. Following the announcements the President answers questions from the press on a variety of topics including the tax cut, Laos, the nuclear test ban treaty, the number of Soviet personnel and troops in Cuba, Scientist John Rock’s recommendation of Government-funded population growth programs, civil rights, and the space program.
May 1963
President John F. Kennedy - May 1963 (2:49)
May 10, 1963 - Meeting with Prime Minister Lester Pearson of Canada, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts
May 12, 1963 - Address to the nation on radio and television on the racial strife in Birmingham, Alabama
May 23, 1963 - President Kennedy at a Democratic Party fund raising event held by as a birthday salute to the President at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
May 31, 1963 - General Mobutu from Zaire visits the White House.
President Kennedy's Schedule - May 1963
May 6, 1963
President Kennedy orders National Security Action Memorandum NSAM 239 to pursue both a nuclear test ban treaty and an urgent reexamination of the possibilities of new approaches to significant measures short of general and complete disarmament which it would be in the interest of the United States to propose in the resumed session of the Geneva Conference.
1) Discussions in the 18 Nation Disarmament Conference at Geneva on both general and complete disarmament and a nuclear test bam treaty have unfortunately resulted in almost no progress. There has been no serious discussion of general and complete disarmament for some time. While discussions of a test ban treaty have shown important developments since the beginning of the 18 Nation Conference, they are now stalled.
2) I have in no way changed my views of the desirability of a test ban treaty or the value of our proposals on general and complete disarmament. Further, the events of the last two years have increased my concern for the consequences of an unchecked continuation of the arms race between ourselves and the Soviet Bloc.
3) We now expect the 18 Nation Disarmament Committee in Geneva to recess shortly for six weeks to two months. I should like the interval to be used for an urgent reexamination of the possibilities of new approaches to significant measures short of general and complete disarmament which it would be in the interest of the United States to propose in the resumed session of the Geneva Conference.
Norman Cousins And The Limited Test Ban Treaty Of 1963
by Lawrence S. Wittner
...Cousins stepped forward in an effort to break the great-power deadlock over a test ban treaty. Asked by Pope John XXIII to speak with Khrushchev in order to improve relations between the Vatican and the Kremlin, the SANE leader arranged to meet with Kennedy in November 1962 before his departure. During their discussion, Cousins inquired if the president wanted him to use the visit to transmit a peace and disarmament message to the Soviet premier. In response, Kennedy urged Cousins to convince Khrushchev that his administration sought peaceful relations with the Soviet Union and that a test ban treaty would provide an important route toward this goal...
For more see the comprehensive section: NSAM 239
May 8, 1963
Press Conference, May 8, 1963 (Audio 30 minutes)
Sound recording of the President’s News Conference of May 8, 1963 (News Conference 55). The President begins the press conference with a statement concerning recent civil rights issues and demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, and urges leaders on both sides of the issue to continue their cooperative efforts to achieve equality. Following this statement the President answers questions from the press on a variety of topics including the situation in Birmingham, Alabama; desegregation of the University of Alabama at Huntsville; a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Pearson; agricultural legislation; tax cuts; and the forthcoming GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) meeting at Geneva.
President Kennedy's Birthday, May 29, 1963
President's Birthday Party, given by White House Staff. President and Mrs. Kennedy, assistants David Powers and Kenneth O'Donnell, others. White House, Navy Mess Hall.
Photograph by Robert Knudsen
May 29, 1963
How John F. Kennedy celebrated his last birthday, May 29, 1963 (Video and Text)
by Peter Grier
JFK's last birthday was classic 'Camelot,' with 'festive yachting suit and dress' and a dash of Hollywood. 'I don’t think I had ever seen the president and Mrs. Kennedy having more fun,' wrote an aide.
May 29, 1963
Remembering JFK’s Last Birthday
by Clint Hill
May 29, 1963, was President Kennedy’s forty-sixth birthday, and it is one of those days that has remained vivid in my memory. At the end of the workday, at around 5:45, President Kennedy walked down to the Navy Mess, where a small group of his staff and Mrs. Kennedy were waiting with a cake. When the president walked in, we yelled, “Surprise!” and as soon as somebody handed him a glass of champagne, we all started singing “Happy Birthday.”
June 4, 1963
President Kennedy issues Executive Order 11110.
Many believe (such as I had, and I umwhittingly helped to promagated this myth - perhaps more than anyone - for this, I am sorry - thanks to Jim Marrs for mistakingly starting this myth) that this EO was the opening salvo to put an end to the uruios counterfiting of the Federal Reserve. It wasn't.
What is true, is that Joseph P. Kennedy understood what the Federal Reserve was and istilled this knowledge into his son, John. He wanted John to take down this cabal. This may have happened if John F. Kennedy lived to have a second term as President.
In 1963, the last $2 an $5 United States Treasury Notes were printed and put into circulation. In 1966 $100 United States Treasury Notes were printed. This was the last time usury free money entered circulation.
EO 11110, Hard Facts Refute `JFK Greenback' Myth
by Michael Collins Piper
The Jewish War on the Kennedys
John DeNugent
by John DiNardo
Israel Killed JFK And Has Ruled America Ever Since.
by VidRebel
The United States has had three coups if you count the first one as being Jekyll Island in November of 1910. Those first coup plotters met at Jekyll Island and secretly wrote the law that became the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. All of the bankers who met in secret were Rothschild agents. This included Paul Warburg of the Rothschild dominated Kuhn Loeb bank. Nelson Aldrich who was a Senator married into the Rockefeller family. The Rockefellers were created by the Rothschilds as were J P Morgan, the Harrimans and the Bush family. Senator Aldrich was head of the National Monetary Commission created by President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had become President after the Jews had successfully assassinated President McKinley. They previously had assassinated President Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth was Jewish. But I prefer not to count these earlier assassinations as coups. The remaining members of the Jekyll Island Six were Treasury Department employees. who did what they were told to do.
The first day of those meetings actually occurred in a private railway car on the evening of November 22, 1910. When the Jews took over America’s banking and monetary system in 1913, they took over the country. Not all coups involve tanks in the streets. It was no coincidence that President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 which was the 53rd anniversary of Israel’s earlier coup. President Kennedy had dared to attempt to take America back from the Jews.
All three of America’s coups involved Israel. I have defined an Israeli as anyone of Jewish descent who is loyal to Israel. There was no state of Israel in 1910 but there was an ongoing criminal enterprise which could be called Judaism Incorporated. Any educated person whose thoughts have not been contaminated by the Jews should view Israel as the enemy of all mankind.
Today I want to focus on the assassination of JFK as we are now facing the 51st anniversary of our President’s murder without being allowed to conduct a criminal investigation. Voltaire said you know who has power because you are not allowed to criticize them. We could rephrase that in today’s world by saying we know who owns the government by determining who has not been arrested for stealing money by the billions.
The following is from a video made by Michael Collins Piper. He has connected all the dots in the Kennedy assassination and tied them to Israel.
Mordecai Vanunu was the original whistleblower. In 1986 he told the world that Israel had nuclear weapons and published photos of the secret Dimona works in the British press. He said Prime Minister Ben Gurion ordered the assassination of JFK because the President opposed Israel’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. Ben Gurion resigned in protest over JFK’s Israeli policies. Vanunu also wrote a letter in 1997 saying that there was even a link between the assassination of Kennedy and Israel’s launching of the 1967 war.
Michael Collins Piper wrote Final Judgement: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination. Michael Collins Piper in this book argued that the Israelis killed Kennedy. Vanunu endorsed Piper’s book.
The Oliver Stone movie JFK was the kosher version of the assassination. Piper does not dispute that Clay Shaw had connections to the CIA. But the film neglects Shaw’s connections to the heart of the Israeli nuclear program. He was also on the Board of Directors of Permindex, a Swiss assassination bureau. Permindex is an Israeli front and was not run by the CIA as Oliver Stone had said. A primary shareholder in Permindex was the Banque De Credit International of Geneva, founded by Tibor Rosenbaum, an arms procurer and financier for the Mossad. That bank was used by Meyer Lansky to launder hot money. Permindex was owned by CMC of Rome, which was founded by a Hungarian Jew named George Mandel who had deep connections with Israel and the Mossad. Mandel was the first man to start rumors about Auschwitz being a death camp. The Chairman of the Board at Permindex was Louis Bloomfield, a Canadian Jew and close associate of Edgar Bronfman. He also had long standing connections with the Rothschilds dating back before WW II.
The Stern family funded Clay Shaw’s defense. They can be traced back to the Purple Gang of Detroit. The Stern family owned WDSU radio and TV stations in New Orleans. Prior to JFK’s assassination they ran stories on Lee Harvey Oswald denouncing him as a member the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. They did not tell the people of New Orleans that this an FBI front group. This gave Oswald the cover of being a Leftist while spying on American liberals. The Stern family was heavily invested in the NUMEC nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, which was the source of Israel’s first nuclear bomb. NUMEC also dumped nuclear waste in Pennsylvania.
Piper said Clay Shaw might have had more to do with CIA-Mossad attempts to assassinate Charles De Gaulle than he did with the assassination of President Kennedy.
Ed Asner played Guy Bannister, the private detective, in the movie JFK. Bannister was a good friend of Kent and Phoebe Courtney. Bannister and the Courtneys were active in conservative politics. But the Courtneys did frustrate the work of people on the Right that the Anti-Defamation League did not like. Joe Pesci played David Ferrie in the movie JFK. He was a pilot and a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald. Bannister, Ferrie and Oswald spied on Leftists in New Orleans. Guy Bannister also was a friend of A. I. Botnick who was the head of the New Orleans ADL office. The Courtneys, Bannister, Ferrie and Lee Harvey Oswald were actively spying on Leftists in New Orleans for the ADL and Botnick.
The producer of JFK was the Israeli spy Arnon Milchan who sold nuclear triggers to Israel. A J Weberman, an Israeli citizen, was the first to say that District Attorney Jim Garrison had an unpublished manuscript that charged Israel was behind the assassination of President Kennedy.
John King offered Jim Garrison a judgeship to stop his investigation of Clay Shaw. King was a business partner of Bernie Cornfeld whose Investors Overseas Service was a 2.5 billion dollar fraud. It was a subsidiary of Permindex and was linked to Tibor Rosenbaum and the Mossad.
The London Jewish Chronicle denounced President Kennedy’s UN delegation position that displaced Palestinians had the right to return to the land that Israel had illegally taken from them during the 1948 war. The Jewish Chronicle published this in London on November 22, 1963.
Adlai Stevenson, a former Presidential candidate, was the American UN ambassador at the time. Stevenson’s son was also a Senator and opposed Israel’s excesses. He was critical of Israel sinking the USS Liberty in the 1967 war, which killed 34 American sailors.
Lyndon Johnson said he wanted the USS Liberty to sink to the bottom of the Mediterranean even while the Israelis were attacking the ship. LBJ was sleeping with a former Irgun terrorist, Mathilde Krim. Her husband was one of LBJ’s many Jewish advisers.
A JFK researcher once wrote that Piper was on to something in his research linking Israel to the assassination of President. But he said that we had to proceed with caution. Because to be accused of anti-Semitism is about the same as being accused of being a child molester.
Robert Kennedy was the Attorney General in 1963. He gave the American Zionist Council, the predecessor to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), 72 hours to register as a foreign lobby. They formed AIPAC and waited for President Kennedy to be murdered so their legal problems would go away.
Frank Sturgis was an anti-Castro operative who was caught up in the Watergate burglary. He was an Israeli mercenary during the 1948 war. Cuban Intelligence believed Sturgis was in charge of communications for one of the JFK hit teams on November 22, 1963.
Meyer Lansky was key to the establishment of both Las Vegas and the state of Israel. The casinos launder the CIA’s Black Ops money along side Jewish mob money. The real crime boss of Chicago was Meyer Lansky’s partner Hyman Larner. Larner was closely connected with Israel and the Shah of Iran. Lucky Luciano wrote in his biography that his old friend and partner Meyer Lansky took over the mob from him. Sam (Santo) Trafficante of Tampa and Carlos Marcello of New Orleans were both lower level local bosses who were far out ranked by Lansky.
The Bronfman family bought Texas Pacific, an oil company. The Crown family of Chicago who had been part of organized crime bought General Dynamics. The late Sir Edgar Bronfman was given 240 million US dollars a year by organized crime for the right to export heroin from Canada into the US. He was allowed to write this down on his tax returns, which legitimatized his take from the heroin trade. This allowed him to at one time buy 20% of the combined assets of DuPont-Conoco. The Bronfman family has branched out into water privatization through Vivendi, which was exploited of the poor in Third World countries.
Lee Harvey Oswald tested negative for gunshot residue. Piper believes Oswald was in front of the Texas Schoolbook Depository when JFK was killed. There is a photo, which could be of Oswald standing in front of the building. Judyth Vary Baker, a medical researcher, worked with Oswald at the Riley Coffee Company of New Orleans, which was a CIA front run by a retired FBI agent. She was a child prodigy who developed cancer cells in mice that Oswald took to Dr Mary Sherman at LSU to be put in vaccines for Americans. Dr Mary Sherman died under mysterious and to date unsolved circumstances. Ed Haslam wrote a book called Dr Mary’s Monkey about this neglected part of Oswald’s life. Judyth Vary Baker also wrote about her affair with Oswald.
Jack Ruby was connected to two people who were involved in smuggling nuclear triggers to Israel. One was Lawrence Meyers. Piper had corresponded with James Earl Ray. Ray’s brother published a book saying that the Bronfmans and Israel had nothing to do with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. A US intelligent agent helped put the book together.
Piper does not mention that JFK was assassinated on the 53rd anniversary of the first day of the meetings to found the Federal Reserve Bank. That meeting on November 22, 1910 could be considered the first Jewish coup. America’s second Jewish coup was of course the JFK assassination. And the third occurred on 9-11-2001 when Israel took down World Trade Center Towers 1, 2 and 7 with controlled demolitions.
There have been many books written that prove JFK was not killed by a lone assassin. But Michael Collins Piper the first to connect all the dots and trace them back to Israel.
For more see the comprehensive section: Executive Order 11110
June 7, 1963 - June 9, 1963
John F. Kennedy in Los Angeles and Honolulu
President Kennedy attends a Democratic Party fund-raising dinner for 150 members of the President's Club of Los Angeles. President Kennedy addresses a breakfast with Democratic State Committeewomen of California at the Hollywood Palladium. The President calls for enactment of his tax cut and aid-to-education programs. He defends his administration's civil rights record. President Kennedy arrives in Honolulu, Hawaii. President Kennedy addresses the U.S. Conference of Mayors at the Lawn House at the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Honolulu. The President discusses the increased "tempo of the nationwide drive for full equality." He asks the mayors to help guide "along constructive channels the attainment of a peaceful revolution which will not only avoid disaster, but fulfill our highest obligations." The President asks the mayors to adopt a program for local action.
June 10, 1963
American University peace speech. President John Kennedy gave the commencement address at American University. In it, he addressed relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and offers a nuclear test ban treaty (on August 5, 1963, the United States and the Soviet Union sign the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, agreeing not to test nuclear bombs in air, space, or water). He calls on American people to reexamine their attitude toward cold war. In my humble opinion (Mark R. Elsis), this is the greatest speech of President Kennedy, it's also the greatest speech ever given by a United States President, and the most important speech of the 20th century.
John F. Kennedy - Commencement Address at American University in Washington - June 10, 1963 (Text)
Commencement Address At American University - June 10, 1963 (Video 27:05)
by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
The ceremonies began earlier than expected, so the network cameras missed the first half of the President's prefatory remarks. In his speech the President asks the graduates to re-examine their attitudes towards peace, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War, famously remarking, "If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can make the world safe for diversity." The President also announces that he, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan have agreed to hold discussions concerning a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. Finally, he explains that the United States will not conduct atmospheric nuclear tests on the condition that other countries uphold this same promise.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/BWC7I4C9QUmLG9J6I8oy8w.aspx
The Soviet press, which was accustomed to censoring United States government statements, published the entire speech all across the country. Soviet radio stations broadcast and rebroadcast the speech to the Soviet people. In response to Kennedy’s turn toward peace, the Soviet government even stopped jamming all Western broadcasts into their country.
Nikita Khrushchev was deeply moved by the American University Address. He said Kennedy had given “the greatest speech by any American President since Roosevelt.”
“At American University on June 10, 1963, President Kennedy proposed an end to the Cold War.”
Norman Cousins, editor Saturday Review
"After the American University address, John Kennedy and Nikita Krushchev began to act like competitors in peace. They were both turning. However, Kennedy's rejection of Cold War politics was considered treasonous by forces in his own government. In that context, which Kennedy knew well, the American University address was a profile in courage with lethal consequences. President Kennedy's June 10, 1963 call for an end to the Cold War, five and one-half months before his assassination, anticipates Dr. King's courage in his April 4, 1967, Riverside Church address calling for an end to the Vietnam War, exactly one year before his assassination. Each of those transforming speeches was a prophetic statement provoking the reward a prophet traditionally receives. John Kennedy's American University address was to his death in Dallas as Martin Luther King's Riverside Church address was to his death in Memphis."
James Douglass, "JFK and the Unspeakable," p. 46
As a Peacemaker John F. Kennedy Understood the Potential of the Human Spirit
by George Cassidy Payne
John F. Kennedy was no saint. But the man was a prophet. He knew that our shared hopes and experiences are more than what keeps us apart. In his most important speech-the one that likely got him killed a little more than five months later-Kennedy charted the only course that has a future. Speaking at an American University commencement- and cleverly addressing the Soviet Union head on- the president stated with heroic conviction:
"Today, should total war ever break out again—no matter how—our two countries would become the primary targets. It is an ironic but accurate fact that the two strongest powers are the two in the most danger of devastation. All we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours.... [W]e are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons that could be better devoted to combating ignorance, poverty, and disease. We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counterweapons."
June 11, 1963
Thich Quang Duc Self-Immolation (2:20)
Thich Quang Duc was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on June 11, 1963. Quang Duc was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led by Ngô Ðình Diem. Photographs of his self-immolation were circulated widely across the world and brought attention to the policies of the Diem government. John F. Kennedy said in reference to a photograph of Ðuc on fire, "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one." Malcolm Browne won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of the monk's death.
The burning monk, 1963
..The self-immolation was done in protest to the South Vietnamese Diem regime’s pro-catholic policies and discriminatory Buddhist laws. In particular this was a response to the banning of the Buddhist flag, just 2 days after Diem had held a very public ceremony displaying crosses; earlier in his rule he had dedicated Vietnam to Jesus and the Catholic Church. The growing resentment of Buddhists under Diem was one of the underlying issues of South Vietnam, and eventually led to a coup to put in place a leader who would not alienate Buddhists, who made up 70-90% of Vietnam’s population...
The Burning Monk - 1963 (1:27)
See: November 1, 1963 - November 2, 1963
Kennedy sends the Alabama National Guard to the University of Alabama to protect two African-American students who won a court order to attend the college.
That evening in a televised address to the nation, Report to the American People on Civil Rights, Kennedy defined the civil rights crisis as moral, as well as constitutional and legal. He announced that major civil rights legislation would be submitted to the Congress to guarantee equal access to public facilities, to end segregation in education, and to provide federal protection of the right to vote.
Report to the American People on Civil Rights, June 11, 1963 (Video 14 minutes)
CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) motion picture excerpt of President John F. Kennedy's full radio and television report to the American people on civil rights. See "Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963: Item 237." In his speech the President responds to the threats of violence and obstruction on the University of Alabama campus following desegregation attempts, explaining that the United States was founded on the principle that all men are created equal and thus, all American students are entitled to attend public educational institutions, regardless of race. He also discusses how discrimination affects education, public safety, and international relations, noting that the country cannot preach freedom internationally while ignoring it domestically. The President asks Congress to enact legislation protecting all Americans' voting rights, legal standing, educational opportunities, and access to public facilities, but recognizes that legislation alone cannot solve the country's problems concerning race relations.
John F. Kennedy's 'finest moment' (10:22)
For more see the comprehensive section: Civil Rights Movement
June 12, 1963
Medgar W. Evers, civil rights leader and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) field secretary for Mississippi, is assassinated In the driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. The murder of Evers happens the very day after President Kennedy addressed the nation about civil rights.
Medgar Evers Assassination (4:31)
June 19, 1963
Special Message to the Congress on Civil Rights and Job Opportunities.
To the Congress of the United States:
Last week I addressed to the American people an appeal to conscience--a request for their cooperation in meeting the growing moral crisis in American race relations. I warned of "a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety" in many parts of the country. I emphasized that "the events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or State or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them." "It is a time to act," I said, "in the Congress, in State and local legislative bodies and, above all, in all of our daily lives."
In the days that have followed, the predictions of increased violence have been tragically borne out. The "fires of frustration and discord" have burned hotter than ever...
Until this year, President Kennedy has tackled civil rights by issuing executive orders, launching investigations, and enforcing existing laws. On February 28, he sends a Special Message to Congress outlining a plan dealing with racial discrimination. But Congress takes no action.
In the spring, a weeks-long series of civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama result in thousands of people arrested and jailed, many of them young schoolchildren. When Eugene “Bull” Connor, Birmingham’s notorious city commissioner, uses police dogs and fire hoses against demonstrators, the violence is broadcast on television and seen in news photos around the globe, and ignites protests across the country. The crisis compels the administration to speed up the drafting of comprehensive civil rights legislation.
On May 29, with the intention of sending a bill to Congress, Kennedy begins a series of meetings to get input and support from governors, civil rights groups, business executives, religious leaders, educators, women’s organizations, and others. On June 11, in a nationally televised address, he promises to send a bill to Congress, and on June 19 he does just that...
June 22, 1963
President Kennedy meets with civil rights leaders to review results of efforts to end segregation, stress the responsibility of leaders to stay within the law, and to discuss the nature of proposed civil rights legislation.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
President Kennedy is out on a political limb. He’s committed his administration to a major new civil rights bill, which he outlines in a nationally-televised address on June 11, 1963. The following week, he submits the bill to Congress. But its passage is very much in doubt, and he needs all the support he can get. Now he’s learned that civil rights and labor organizations are planning a big demonstration in the capital this summer, which they are calling "The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom." Kennedy is afraid that it will hurt rather than help his chances of getting the bill through Congress.
On June 22, the same day he’s scheduled to leave on an important European trip, the President has a pre-arranged meeting with civil rights leaders. A. Philip Randolph, the respected black labor leader is there. He’s the driving force behind the proposed March. Martin Luther King Jr. is also present and has joined Randolph in supporting the demonstration. The president tells the group he doesn’t want “a big show in the capital” that could jeopardize passage of the bill...
In the early 1960s, the fundamental prize sought by the civil rights movement was something that African Americans had never known: full legal equality.
When John F. Kennedy became president in 1961, African Americans throughout much of the South were denied the right to vote, barred from public facilities, subjected to insults and violence, and could not expect justice from the courts. In the North, black Americans also faced discrimination in housing, employment, education, and many other areas. But the civil rights movement had made important progress, and change was on the way...
June 23, 1963 - July 2, 1963
Kennedy makes the eighth and final international trip of his presidency.
President Kennedy’s Trip to Europe, June 23-July 2, 1963 (Video 8:40)
This segment features archival footage covering highlights of President John F. Kennedy’s European trip in the summer of 1963. Included are scenes from of President Kennedy in West Berlin; President Kennedy arriving in Ireland and his visit to the Kennedy Homestead; and President Kennedy meeting Pope Paul VI at the Vatican. The footage is narrated by Kennedy Library Director Tom Putnam.
June 23, 1963 - June 25, 1963
Kennedy visits Cologne, Frankfurt, and Wiesbaden, West Germany; he also holds meetings with West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and other officials.
June 25, 1963
President John F. Kennedy's Address at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. (2:31)
Address in the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt.
''The first task of the Atlantic Community was to assure its common defense. That defense was and still is indivisible. The United States will risk its cities to defend yours because we need your freedom to protect ours. Hundreds of thousands of our soldiers serve with yours on this continent, as tangible evidence of that pledge. Those who would doubt our pledge or deny this indivisibility--those who would separate Europe from America or split one ally from another--would only give aid and comfort to the men who make themselves our adversaries and welcome any Western disarray.
The proposal before us is for a new Atlantic force. Such a force would bring strength instead of weakness, cohesion instead of division. It would belong to all members, not one, with all participating on a basis of full equality. And as Europe moves towards unity, its role and responsibility, here as elsewhere, would and must increase accordingly. Let it not be said of this Atlantic generation that we left ideals and visions to the past, nor purpose and determination to our adversaries. We have come too far, we have sacrificed too much, to disdain the future now. And we shall ever remember what Goethe told us, that the "highest wisdom, the best that mankind ever knew" was the realization that "he only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew."
June 25, 1963 - June 26, 1963
President John F. Kennedy in Frankfurt, June 25-26, 1963 (2:23)
President Kennedy visits Allied and American troops at Fliegerhorst Barracks near Hanau after which he drives to Frankfurt. President Kennedy signs the Golden Book and makes remarks at Romerburg in Frankfurt upon signing the Golden Book. President Kennedy addresses German government officials and invited guests at the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, site of the first free German Parliament in 1848. The President says "The future of the West lies in the Atlantic partnership." President Kennedy meets with Ludwig Erhard, expected successor to Chancellor Adenauer. President Kennedy makes remarks at a reception in his honor given by Hesse state president Georg Zinn in the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden.
June 26, 1963
Kennedy visits West Berlin, and delivers his now-famous speech to an enormous crowd at Schoneberger Rathaus in the Rudolph Wilde Platz. Kennedy's stirring words on freedom excite the crowd: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, Ich bin ein Berliner."
President John F Kennedy's visit to Germany in June 23-26, 1963 (Part 1) (9:44)
June 23, 1963 President Kennedy arrives at the Wahn Airport between Bonn and Cologne in West Germany. The President is welcomed by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. They attend Mass at Cologne Cathedral.
President John F Kennedy's visit to Germany in June 23-26, 1963 (Part 2) (10:46)
President Kennedy continues his visit in West Germany
President John F Kennedy's visit to Germany in June 23-26, 1963 (Part 3) (9:38)
President Kennedy in West Berlin. ''Ich bin ein Berliner'' speech
June 26, 1963 - June 29, 1963
Kennedy visits Dublin, Wexford, Cork, Galway, and Limerick, Ireland.
President John F Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 26-29, 1963 (Part 1) (10:39)
President Kennedy arriving in Dublin Airport.
President John F Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 26-29, 1963 (Part 2) (10:36)
President Kennedy in Dunganstown, New Ross, Co. Wexford. Kennedy Homestead.
President John F Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 26-29, 1963 (Part 3) (9:32)
President Kennedy continues his trip in Ireland and takes of for Britain.
June 28, 1963
President Kennedy addresses the Oireachtas Éireann, the national parliament of Ireland, at Leinster House in Dublin, Ireland.
June 28, 1963
President Kennedy's Address Before the Irish Parliament in Dublin, Ireland (17:15)
President Kennedy and Taoiseach Sean Lemass entering the Dáil Éireann Chamber where the President makes a speech to both houses of the Oireachtas. President John F. Kennedy spoke in Leinster House before a joint session of the Seanad and the Dail. Kennedy spoke to both Dáil Éireann and of Seanad Éireann on 28th of June, 1963. In his speech the President discusses the historic relationship between Ireland and the United States, the numerous contributions to society made by Americans of Irish descent, and commends the representatives on Ireland's social, political, and economic advancements following the Famine.
June 29, 1963
President John F. Kennedy's Remarks at Shannon Airport Upon Leaving (5:31)
President John F. Kennedy’s final remarks in Ireland. Large numbers turn out at Shannon Airport in the hope of getting a glimpse of President Kennedy before he leaves for the UK. Already behind in his schedule President Kennedy says farewell to the people of Ireland before boarding Air Force One to the UK. Police and photographers surround President Kennedy, as he meets the Bunratty Castle Singers.
June 29, 1963 - June 30, 1963
Kennedy travels to the United Kingdom for an informal visit with the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at his home in West Sussex, England.
June 29, 1963 - June 30, 1963
President Kennedy Meets Macmillan - Technicolor (2:51)
June 29, 1963 - June 30, 1963
President John F. Kennedy's visit to Britain, June 29-30, 1963 (5:20)
President John F. Kennedy arrives at Gatwick Airport in London for a private visit at Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's country home, Birch Grove, Sussex, England. They fly by helicopter to Macmillans country home. Kennedy attends Mass at a nearby Catholic church. Later he departs from Gatwick. Next destination is Milan.
June 29, 1963 - June 30, 1963
President John F. Kennedy visits Harold Macmillan, Birch Grove House, Sussex (2:06)
In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan met at Birch Grove, Macmillan's country house in Sussex. The brief 24 hour visit is often overlooked by the history books, but their time together in the English countryside cemented their relationship and a unique Anglo-American friendship. Birch Grove acted as the stage for the talks between the two men, with all the comings and goings of an international Cold War summit. After just 24 hours Kennedy would leave England never to return.
June 30, 1963
President John F. Kennedy attending Mass at Our Lady of the Forest, Forest Row (:49)
President John F. Kennedy attended Mass at Our Lady of the Forest Church in Forest Row, East Sussex, England. President Kennedy's car stopped in the church courtyard and the President stepped out. He was greeted by Father Charles P. Dolman on the entrance before going inside.
July 1, 1963 - July 2, 1963
Kennedy visits Naples and Rome, Italy, where he meets with Italian President Antonio Segni, and with officials of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
July 1, 1963 - July 2, 1963
President John F. Kennedy's visit to Italy, July 1-2, 1963 (10:58)
President Kennedy arrives at Fiumicino Airport in Rome, where he is welcomed by President Antonio Segni and Premier Giovanni Leone. Kennedy visit Pope Paul VI at the Vatican together with his sister Eunice Shriver.
July 2, 1963
Kennedy has an audience with the newly elected Pope Paul VI at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.
July 2, 1963
President John F. Kennedy visits Pope Paul VI in the Vatican City (1:14)
U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Archbishop Gennaro Verolino, secretary of the Vatican Ceremonial Congregation, in the courtyard of St. Damasus of the Vatican Palace. Pope Paul VI spreads arms in welcoming gesture as he receives President John F. Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic President of the United States, for their historic meeting in the Apostolic Palace. Kennedy was ushered into the private library of the newly-crowned Pontiff for a talk presumably centering on their mutual hopes for world peace.
July 2, 1963
President John F. Kennedy meets Pope Paul VI in the Vatican (4:49)
President John F. Kennedy, sister Jean Smith and American Secretary of State Dean Rusk are received by Pope Paul in the Vatican. This is the only meeting of a Roman Catholic U.S. President and a reigning Pope.
July 1963
July 1963 with JFK in Hyannis (19:20)
Family life at the JFK compound during July of 1963
July 18, 1963
Kennedy presents latest in series of administrative and legislative programs to stabilize United States balance of payments and stem outflow of gold.
July 24, 1963
President John F. Kennedy greets members of the American Legion Boys Nation (1:50)
President John F. Kennedy greets the delegates to the 18th Annual American Legion Boys Nation in the Rose Garden of the White House. He congratulated Richard J. Stratton, 17, of Leland, Illinois, who had just been elected President of Boys Nation. Among the delegates is future President Bill Clinton (starting at 39 seconds).
July 25, 1963
To make due on his American University promise to get a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, President Kennedy selected Averell Harriman, an experienced diplomat known and respected by Khrushchev, to resume negotiations in Moscow. An agreement to limit the scope of the test ban paved the way for a treaty. By excluding underground tests from the pact, negotiators eliminated the need for the on-site inspections that worried the Kremlin. On July 25, 1963, after only 12 days of negotiations, the two nations agreed to ban testing in the atmosphere, in space, and underwater. The next day, in a television address announcing the agreement, Kennedy claimed that a limited test ban" is safer by far for the United States than an unlimited nuclear arms race."
Within six weeks after the American University Address, the president had done an end run around the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He negotiated the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty without consulting them, because they opposed it.
Kennedy was fiercely determined but not optimistic that the Test Ban Treaty be ratified by the defense-conscious Senate. In early August, he told his advisers that getting Senate ratification of the agreement would be “almost in the nature of a miracle.” He said if a Senate vote were held right then it would fall far short of the necessary two-thirds.
Kennedy initiated a whirlwind public education campaign on the treaty, coordinated by Saturday Review editor Normal Cousins, who directed a committee of activists. By the end of August, the tide of congressional mail had gone from fifteen to one against a test ban to three to two against.
In September public opinion polls showed a turnaround. 80 percent of the American people were now in favor of the Test Ban Treaty. On September 24, 1963, the Senate approved the treaty by a vote of 80 to 19 – 14 more than the required two-thirds. No other single accomplishment in the White House gave Kennedy greater satisfaction.
July 26, 1963
Address to the Nation on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, July 26, 1963 (Video 26 minutes)
President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C., delivering a radio and television address to the American people on the passage of a treaty banning atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, later known as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) or Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT). In his speech the President explains that the treaty will strengthen national security, lessen the risk and fear of radioactive fallout, reduce world tension by encouraging further dialogue, and prevent acquisition of nuclear weapons by nations not currently possessing them. The President emphasizes that while the treaty does not eliminate the threat of nuclear war, a limited test ban is safer than an unlimited arms race.
July 26, 1963
JFK's "Nuclear Test Ban Treaty" Speech To The Nation (25:38)
August 5, 1963
After more than eight years of difficult negotiations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, agreeing not to test nuclear bombs in air, space, or water.
August 7, 1963
Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, the President and Mrs. Kennedy's last child, is born five-and-a-half weeks prematurely at the Otis Air Force Base Hospital in Bourne, Massachusetts. Shortly after birth, he develops symptoms of hyaline membrane disease, now called infant respiratory distress syndrome.
August 9, 1963
Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, the President and Mrs. Kennedy's last child, dies at Boston Children's Hospital from a lung ailment only two days after his birth.
Details you didn't know about the death of JFK's son, Patrick
by IrishCentral Staff
August 9, 1963
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for fighting in New Orleans. His
arrest occurred when Oswald was handing out pro-Castro leaflets on
Canal Street. The man Oswald got into the altercation with was Carlos
Bringuier, a strongly anti-Castro Cuban exile and head of the New
Orleans chapter of the Directorio Revoionario Estudiantil, the DRE,
an exile group with well-known ties to the CIA's JM/WAVE program.
by John Simkin
Carlos Bringuier was born in Cuba on June 22, 1934. He studied at the University of Havana where he qualified as a lawyer in 1957. An opponent of Fidel Castro and his government he moved to Guatemala in 1960. He also lived in Argentina before arriving in the United States in February, 1961.
Bringuier joined the Student Revolutionary Directorate (DRE), a militant right-wing, anti-Communist, anti-Castro, anti-Kennedy, group. Bringuier, based in New Orleans, was placed in charge of DRE publicity and propaganda.
On August 9, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was handing out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets when he became involved in a fight with Bringuier. Oswald was arrested and on August 12th, he was found guilty and fined $10. While in prison he was visited by FBI agent, John L. Quigley. Five days later Oswald debated the issue of Fidel Castro and Cuba with Bringuier on the Bill Stuckey Radio Show.
Investigators discovered further links between Bringuier and Oswald. Bringuier was found in possession of a book, Guidebook for Marines, owned by Oswald. On Oswald's leaflets given out in New Orleans, was the address 544 Camp Street, New Orleans. This was also the address of the office used by Bringuier. It was also around the corner from 531 Lafayette Street, which housed the detective agency run by Guy Bannister, another man accused of being involved in the assassination...
August 14, 1963
Although then-Senator John F. Kennedy's 1957 speech calling for
independence for Algeria from France had helped pave the way for that
end result, newly-won Algerian freedom came at great cost. Israel was
actively seeking to undermine the new regime. On August 14, 1963 the
government of Algerian premier Ben Bella accused Israel of plotting
to topple the new Arab regime. The Algerian authorities captured 20
Algerians and 10 foreigners who were engaged in a conspiracy to bring
down the government. "Those foreigners are nearly all
Israelites," declared the Algerian information minister. "We
are led to believe that we are facing a plot with far-flung
ramifications and that behind it is the hand of Israel which is
trying to oppose the march of our revolution. "Ben Bella has
made clear the Algerian position on the enclave of imperialism called
Israel but which is really Palestine. It is not strange that they are
trying to interfere in our internal affairs."
August 28, 1963
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom attracts 250,000 people to the nation's capital in support of civil rights legislation. After rousing songs, heartfelt prayers, and inspirational speeches by nine other civil rights leaders at the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., addressed a sweltering but energized crowd in the afternoon heat culminating in the now-famous, "I Have A Dream" speech. The event exceeded all expectations; it was a powerful and peaceful demonstration for equality and justice. Following the event, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the nine other civil rights leaders of the "Top Ten" met with President Kennedy.
I Have A Dream (17:27)
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Probably the most famous speech of the 20th century by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. "I Have A Dream" is the popular name given to the public speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he spoke of his desire for a future where blacks and whites, among others, would coexist harmoniously as equals.
King's delivery of the speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.
Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters, the speech is often considered to be one of the greatest and most notable speeches in history and was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.
I Have A Dream (Text)
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963
August 30, 1963
Kennedy becomes the first United States president to have a direct phone line to the Kremlin in Moscow. The “hotline” was designed to facilitate communication between the president and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.
September 15, 1963
The Birmingham Church bombing. On September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured; outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans.
Birmingham Bombing (Sixteenth Street Baptist Church)
The bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was one of the deadliest acts of violence to take place during the Civil Rights movement and evoked criticism and outrage from around the world. On the morning of September 15, 1963, as the congregation's children prepared for annual Youth Day celebrations, a bomb exploded in the stairwell of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church killing four girls and injuring dozens of others in the assembly. In the aftermath of the bombing, riots and violent demonstrations broke out throughout Birmingham, resulting in the death of two young African American boys. Following a tainted investigation by the FBI, Robert Chambliss, an active member of the Ku Klux Klan, was arrested and charged with murder and the possession of dynamite without a permit. Chambliss was acquitted of murder charges until 1977 when the reopening of the case resulted in his conviction, fourteen years after the bombing. In recent years, two additional conspirators, Thomas Blanton and Robert Cherry, have been tried and convicted for their roles in the church bombing. The bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which previously served as a central meeting place and staging ground for Civil Rights activities, was intended to stall the progression of the Civil Rights movement; however, the tragedy had the opposite effect, galvanizing support and propelling the movement forward.
Klan Bombing of Birmingham Church 1963 (3:53)
Haven to the South's most violent Ku Klux Klan chapter, Birmingham was probably the most segregated city in the country. Dozens of unsolved bombings and police killings had terrorized the black community since World War II. On Sunday, 15th September, 1963, a white man was seen getting out of a white and turquoise Chevrolet car and placing a box under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Soon afterwards, at 10.22 a.m., the bomb exploded killing Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14). The four girls had been attending Sunday school classes at the church. Twenty-three other people were also hurt by the blast.
September 18, 1963
Eulogy For The Young Victims Of The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
September 18, 1963, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama
Delivered at funeral service for three of the children -Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley - killed in the bombing. A separate service was held for the fourth victim, Carole Robertson.
President Kennedy address before the United Nations General Assembly (JFK's second and last) stating various specific recommendations, including “My fellow inhabitant of this planet: Let us take our stand here in this Assembly of nations. And let us see if we, in our own time, can move the world to a just and lasting peace.”
He proposes additional cooperation with Soviet Union, including outer space exploration. The United States and the Soviet Union subsequently agree on outer space disarmament move.
Address Before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations, September 20, 1963 (Audio 29 minutes)
Sound recording of President John F. Kennedy’s address to the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations. In his speech the President discusses the recently signed treaty banning atmospheric nuclear weapons tests (later known as the Partial Test Ban Treaty or Limited Test Ban Treaty), remarking that peace may be attainable when two nations with incompatible ideologies successfully negotiate. The President famously asks, "Space offers no problems of sovereignty…Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition?" President Kennedy also explains that the task of maintaining peace and decreasing global tension must be shared by all nations. He proposes ways for the United Nations to increase and improve their efforts in developing countries, specifically focusing on health.
Address at 18th U.N. General Assembly, September 20, 1963 (Text)
This folder contains materials collected by the office of President John F. Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, concerning President Kennedy's address to the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations. In his speech the President discusses the recently signed treaty banning atmospheric nuclear weapons tests (later known as the Partial Test Ban Treaty or Limited Test Ban Treaty), remarking that peace may be attainable when two nations with incompatible ideologies negotiate with each other. The President famously asks, "Space offers no problems of sovereignty…Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition?" President Kennedy also explains that the task of maintaining peace and decreasing global tension must be shared by all nations. He proposes ways for the United Nations to increase and improve their efforts in developing countries, specifically focusing on health, human rights, agriculture, communication, and the environment. Materials in this folder include drafts by Special Assistant to the President and speechwriter Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., a press copy, and a reading copy of the speech with handwritten notations by the President, in addition to memoranda from Schlesinger and Adlai Stevenson, Ambassador to the United Nations.
President John F. Kennedy, address to the United Nations, September 20, 1963 (2:02)
"Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity, in the field of space, there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. Space offers no problems of sovereignty; by resolution of this Assembly, the members of the United Nations have foresworn any claim to territorial rights in outer space or on celestial bodies, and declared that international law and the United Nations Charter will apply. Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure?"
See: November 12, 1963
Joint Moon Mission With USSR
http://JointMoonMissionWithUSSR.November221963.com
September 20, 1963
CIA, JFK Assassination Revealed And Richard Case Nagell (1:30:43)
Dark Journalist Interviews Dick Russell
In this exciting new Dark Journalist episode he is joined by best-selling author Dick Russell, who co-authored several volumes on American conspiracy with Jesse Ventura. He also wrote the ultimate classic volume on the JFK Assassination, "The Man Who Knew Too Much."
In this rare, exclusive interview, Russell recounts tracking down retired CIA agent and super-spy Richard Case Nagell. Nagell told Russell that he became an intelligence triple agent and was sent to penetrate Russian intelligence. The Russians wanted him to stalk a young intelligence officer named Lee Harvey Oswald who had lived in Russia, and who they feared was being set up as a patsy in an assassination plot to pin the blame on the Soviets.
by Dick Russell and Lachy Hulme
Dick Russell’s book, The Man Who Knew Too Much, tells the story of Nagell being recruited by the Soviet KGB to kill Lee Harvey Oswald and thereby prevent JFK’s assassination.
Richard Case Nagell had been a US Army counterintelligence officer from 1955 to 1959. He was assigned to Field Operations Intelligence (FOI), which he later described as “a covert extension of CIA policy and activity designed to conceal the true nature of CIA objectives”. During his training in Japan, Nagell was familiarized with “simple and intricate weapons to be used in assassinations”. He was also “advised that in the event I was apprehended, killed or compromised during the performance of my illegal FOI duties, the Department of the Army would publicly disclaim any knowledge of or connection with such duties, exercising its right of plausible denial”.
In the late fifties, Nagel’s role as a double agent in liaison with Soviet intelligence allowed his path to converge with that of Lee Harvey Oswald. Both men worked in a counterintelligence operation with the code name “Hidell”, which Oswald later used as part of his alias, “Alek James Hidell”.
Assigned by the KGB to monitor Lee Harvey Oswald, Nagell became involved in New Orleans and Texas with Oswald and two Cuban exiles using the “war names” “Angel” and “Leopoldo” in what he saw was a large operation to kill JFK. He identified Angel’s and Leopoldo’s CIA-financed group as Alpha 66. (Leopoldo and Angel were also the names given by the two men who showed up with “Leon Oswald” in September 1963 on the doorstep of Sylvia Odio, the daughter of imprisoned anti-Castro organizer, Amador Odio.)
Alpha 66 was a group of Cuban exile paramilitaries who were directed by David Atlee Phillips, Chief of Covert Action at the CIA’s Mexico City Station. In early 1963, Phillips deployed Alpha 66 in attacks on Russian ships in Cuban ports to draw JFK into a war with Cuba.
In September of 1963, Nagell was ordered by the KGB to convince Oswald that he was being set up by Angel and Leopoldo as the assassination patsy – or, if that failed, to murder Oswald in Mexico City. Nagell met with Oswald in New Orleans and warned him, but Oswald was evasive and unresponsive to Nagell’s appeals to quit the assassination plot.
Rather than carry out the KGB’s order to kill Oswald, Nagell sent a registered letter to J. Edgar Hoover on September 17, 1963, warning of the president’s impending assassination. The FBI later denied any knowledge of such a letter.
Having put his warning on record, Nagell then decided to remove himself from any possible role in the assassination plot. He had little choice. His CIA case agent had suddenly cut him off to sever his connection to the Agency. If Nagell had followed his KGB orders to terminate Oswald, he would be viewed by the CIA as a traitor. If he went along with the plot to kill Kennedy, he would be a traitor to his country as well as his KGB handlers.
On September 20, 1963, Nagel walked into a bank in El Paso TX and calmly fired two shots from a Colt .45 pistol into a plaster wall just below the bank’s ceiling. He then went outside and waited in his car until a police officer came to arrest him. When questioned by the FBI, Nagell made only one statement: “I would rather be arrested than commit murder and treason.”
In 1967 as a federal prisoner in Springfield, Missouri, Nagell contacted New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and offered to turn over a secret tape recording of a meeting of Oswald, Angel and Arcacha, planning the assassination of President Kennedy. When Nagell learned, however, that Garrison’s staff member and intermediary revealed he had been a CIA officer, he withdrew the offer.
For the rest of his life, Richard Case Nagell kept his secrets to himself, fearful for the safety of his family, and survived three attempts on his life in the late 1960s.
On October 31, 1995, the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) mailed Nagell a letter seeking access to documents he claimed to have had about a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy, and wanted a sworn deposition as well. Nagell’s friend and biographer, Dick Russell, believed that “if an official government body ever took him seriously”, Nagell “would probably cooperate”.
On November 1, 1995, the day after the ARRB letter was mailed, Richard Case Nagell was found dead in the bathroom of his Los Angeles home. The autopsy concluded that he died of a heart attack, but his niece said he had no history of heart problems and that his health had been good until a week and a half before his death when his equilibrium suddenly failed and he fell and required hospitalization. Concerned and suspicious, Nagell had phoned his niece and asked neighbors to check on him every day.
Nagell had, however, entrusted his niece with the knowledge of a purple trunk in which he had stored “what everybody is trying to get ahold of”. Robert Nagell, Richard’s son, discovered in his father’s house after his death the address of a Tucson, Arizona storage unit, and drove immediately to the site but found only family items and no purple trunk. While Robert was racing to Tuscon to retrieve the evidence of an assassination conspiracy, his own house in California was being broken into and ransacked.
50 Reasons For 50 Years - Episode 07 - Richard Case Nagell (5:34)
Author Dick Russell recounts the cryptic story of intelligence operative Richard Case Nagell and his links to the Kennedy assassination.
Richard Case Nagell, The Man Who Knew Too Much
by Dick Russell
In April of 1994, which was about a year and a half after my book came out, I came down the stairs one day and heard my answering machine going – and recognized this voice. Picked it up, and sure enough, it was Richard Nagell. He had received some documents I’d sent him, including the Hensen document, and some CIA files about his notebook names. And was calling me, and talking as if no time had passed. Just commenting on these documents, talking about the description of Elrod Henson and the CIA document, the Laredo codename that fit somebody that he’d run into at the time…
“And then, as the conversation went on, it began to seem very strange to me, because he hadn’t even mentioned the fact that I’d written this book, this massive book about him. And finally – I’d also written him a number of letters when I was putting the book together, hoping that he would get back in touch with me at that time. So I said, ‘Dick, I’m really glad to hear from you. But,’ I said, ‘I wrote you a number of letters over the last few years.’ And he said, ‘Oh, really? I think maybe I’ve gotten one or two of them.’ And I said, ‘You are aware that I’ve written a huge, unauthorized biography of you…?’ And he said he had no idea.
“I had sent him the book. And obviously he had never received it – I think he was telling me the truth. He began going on about how the Post Office was still checking on his mail, and somebody was running off with stuff, and he had no idea… “So I said, ‘I can’t believe none of your friends wouldn’t have told you that this book was out.’ He said, ‘Well, I don’t have that many friends, and the ones I do don’t speak – a lot of them don’t even speak English.
The Life and Death of Richard Case Nagell
In 1975, on the eve of the HSCA, Jim Garrison stated quite succinctly, “Richard Nagell is the most important witness there is.” Nagell occupies a prominent place in Garrison’s memoir On the Trail of the Assassins. Bud Fensterwald, after the HSCA, in 1981, stated pretty much the same: “Nagell is probably the only vital individual who knew the details of the assassination and is still alive.” Amazingly, there is no record of the Warren Commission ever having interviewed Nagell. This in spite of the fact that there is a December 1963 FBI memo stating that he had met Oswald in Texas and Mexico City. This in spite of the fact that Nagell wrote at least two letters to the Commission telling them he had knowledge of both Oswald and the conspiracy well in advance of the assassination.
For more see the comprehensive section: Foreknowledge
September 23, 1963
In September public opinion polls showed a turnaround. 80 percent of the American people were now in favor of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. On September 23, 1963, the Senate approved the treaty by a vote of 80 to 19, this is 14 more than the required two-thirds. No other single accomplishment in the White House gave Kennedy greater satisfaction.
The Limited Nuclear Test Ban treaty was signed in Moscow on August 5, 1963, by US Secretary Dean Rusk, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, and British Foreign Secretary Lord Home, one day short of the 18th anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Over the next two months, President Kennedy convinced a fearful public and a divided Senate to support the treaty. The Senate approved the treaty on September 23, 1963, by an 80 - 19 margin. Kennedy signed the ratified treaty on October 7, 1963.
The treaty:
Prohibited nuclear weapons tests or other nuclear explosions under water, in the atmosphere, or in outer space.
Allowed underground nuclear tests as long as no radioactive debris falls outside the boundaries of the nation conducting the test.
Pledged signatories to work towards complete disarmament, an end to the armaments race, and an end to the contamination of the environment by radioactive substances.
President Kennedy signs first major program assisting construction of higher education classrooms.
President Kennedy Legislative Summary: Education
September 25, 1963 - October 2, 1963
Allegedly, Oswald departed from New Orleans about noon on September 25, 1963, and arrived in Mexico City at 10 a.m. on September 27, 1963. On Wednesday morning October 2, 1963, Oswald left Mexico City on a bus bound for the United States.
There is no conclusive evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was in Mexico City.
The Fourteen Minute Gap
Mexico City
Silvia Odio
The Framing Of Oswald
The Fourteen Minute Gap
President Lyndon Baines Johnson: Have you established any more about the visit to the Soviet embassy in Mexico in September?
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover: No, that’s one angle that’s very confusing, for this reason. We have up here the tape and the photograph of the man who was at the Soviet embassy, using Oswald’s name. That picture and the tape do not correspond to this man’s voice, nor to his appearance. In other words, it appears that there is a second person who was at the Soviet embassy down there.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, informing President Lyndon Baines Johnson of an Oswald impersonation. This call occurred at 10:01 am on the morning of November 23, 1963, less than 24 hours after the assassination, while Oswald was still alive in a jail cell in Dallas. This phone call itself appears to have been erased.
The Fourteen Minute Gap (Part I of II) (6:32)
November 23, 1963, 10:01 a.m.
Less than 24 hours earlier, President John F. Kennedy was murdered in the streets of Dallas. As a nation reels with shock and confusion, President Lyndon Johnson receives a telephone call from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, updating him on the progress of the investigation. The recording of that conversation would later be destroyed. Only a transcript survives. A story of cover-up and denial that continues to this day, The Fourteen Minute Gap explores researcher Rex Bradford's discovery of the erasure, the shocking revelations of that call, and his attempt to get that discovery out to the national media.
The Fourteen Minute Gap (Part II of II) (8:09)
by Rex E. Bradford
During Watergate, one of the more important events was the discovery of an “eighteen minute gap” on one of the Nixon tapes. This erasure, reportedly performed by Presidential secretary Rose Mary Woods on Nixon’s orders, created quite a stir when revealed. It was never determined what in fact had been erased, which added to the mystery of the affair.
This article presents my discovery of a second such tape erasure, this one of a phone conversation conducted between President Johnson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover less than 24 hours after the assassination of President Kennedy. The erasure in this case is about 14 minutes in length, somewhat shorter than the Nixon gap. The Johnson tape is different in one other significant respect - a transcript of the conversation survived the erasure. It is in my view the true “smoking gun” tape of modern American history.
First, some background. At last November’s JFK Lancer conference in Dallas, former military intelligence officer and history professor John Newman gave an electrifying presentation. In this talk, he discussed in detail the existence, post-assassination, of the famous “Oswald” Mexico City tapes. One of the most astonishing documents to surface in this regard was a transcript of a phone call between FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and the new President Lyndon Johnson. This call occurred at 10:01 AM on the morning of November 23, 1963, less than 24 hours after the assassination, while Oswald was still alive in a jail cell in Dallas. The most explosive portion of this transcript is reproduced below:
LBJ: Have you established any more about the visit to the Soviet embassy in Mexico in September?
Hoover: No, that’s one angle that’s very confusing, for this reason - we have up here the tape and the photograph of the man who was at the Soviet embassy, using Oswald’s name. That picture and the tape do not correspond to this man’s voice, nor to his appearance. In other words, it appears that there is a second person who was at the Soviet embassy down there.
Fact 1: Lee Harvey Oswald was impersonated in phone calls and visits to the Soviet embassy in Mexico city, including links to Kostikov, a known KGB agent in 'Department 13', the KGB's division responsible for assassinations, just weeks prior to the assassination of JFK.
Fact 2: The FBI director Hoover along with President Johnson and other top officials in the US Government were aware of this the day after the assassination of JFK.
Fact 3: There was no subsequent investigation by any US Government agency to discover the motive behind this impersonation or the impersonator despite the photographic evidence and taped phone calls available.
Fact 4: The Warren Commission (WC) ignored the whole affair in their Warren Report.
Fact 5: The routinely recorded conversation where Hoover first mentions this to Johnson the morning after the JFK assassination was suspiciously erased.
Mexico City
The Chicago Tribune, quoting a November 25th report from the Mexico Newspaper, Excelsior says today that Lee Harvey Oswald crossed the border at Laredo, Texas on September 26th and drove to Mexico City. The United States customs service at Laredo confirms the crossing. A spokesman says, ”There are records to establish this.” The records also show Oswald reentered the United States on October 3rd.
The New York Herald-Tribune reports: U.S. Customs official Oran Pugh says that Oswald had been checked by U.S. Immigration officials on entering and leaving Mexico; Pugh admits that this is not the usual procedure but that “U.S. Immigration has a folder on Oswald’s trip.” The Warren Report will not mention the newspaper stories in the sections which deal with Oswald's trip to Mexico City.
The CIA, Mafia, Mexico - and Oswald, Part 1
by Peter Dale Scott
Deep history differs from history in two respects. First, it is an account of suppressed events, at odds with the publicly accepted history of this country. (One might say that history is the record of politics; deep history, the record of deep politics.) Second, deep history is often restored from records which were themselves once repressed. In short, deep history is a reconstructed account of events denied by the public records from which history is normally composed.
A key example concerns a tape of someone calling himself “Lee Oswald,” discussing in a phone call to the Soviet Embassy about having met a consul there by the name of Kostikov, a KGB agent. As we shall see, this tape should have been preserved and investigated as a prime piece of evidence to frame Oswald as an assassin.
We have documentary evidence, initially suppressed, that one day after the President’s murder this tape was listened to by FBI agents in Dallas, who determined that the speaker was in fact not Lee Harvey Oswald. Yet almost immediately this event was denied by other reports, including cables claiming - falsely - that the tape had already been destroyed before the assassination.
Oswald. Mexico, and Deep Politics: Revelations from CIA Records on the Assassination of JFK
by Peter Dale Scott
Peter Dale Scott has written extensively on the Kennedy assassination and other dark corners of the American political scene. His encyclopedic knowledge enables him to connect the dots among the players, the organizations, and the unacknowledged collusions - the deep politics - of our often troubled political system.
Deep Politics on Oswald, Mexico, and Cuba, originally published in 1995, narrows the focus of Scott’s earlier Deep Politics and the Death of JFK. Scott delivers the most detailed treatment yet of the mysterious sojourn of Lee Harvey Oswald (or someone using his name) to Mexico City in the fall of 1963. Was this trip a key aspect of the framing of Oswald, was it an approved intelligence operation, or was it perhaps both?
It is now known that allegations of Communist conspiracy in the wake of the JFK assassination, emanating mostly from Mexico City, caused Lyndon Johnson to put together a “blue ribbon commission” to investigate what happened in Dallas. Scott explains through meticulous research and analysis exactly why LBJ would want the Warren Commission to rush to a conclusion, and the far-reaching political ramifications of the commission’s public findings.
Scott’s analysis suggests the evidence from Mexico City was part of a frame-up, making Deep Politics on Oswald, Mexico, and Cuba an essential piece of research and analysis, shedding new light on the Communist conspiracy allegations behind the JFK assassination.
Kennedy Assassination and the CIA (Video 1:19:03)
John Newman talked about declassified documents and codenames related to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Cuba, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
This was part of “The Warren Report and the JFK Assassination: A Half Century of Significant Disclosures,” a conference marking the 50th anniversary of the release of the Warren Report,
https://www.c-span.org/video/?321703-3/kennedy-assassination-cia
John Newman at the "November in Dallas" JFK Lancer Conference
Transcript by Joe Backes and Debra Conway
John Newman brought several hefty packets of document transparencies, along with two slide trays full of scanned document slides for the Conference audience.
by John Newman
From the acclaimed author of JFK and Vietnam comes a book that uncovers the government's role in the Kennedy assassination more clearly than any previous inquiry. What was the extent of the CIA's involvement with Lee Harvey Oswald? Why was Oswald's file tampered with before the assassination of John F. Kennedy? And why did significant documents from that file mysteriously disappear? Oswald and the CIA answers these questions, not with theories, but with information from the primary sources themselves—ex-agents, officials, and secret records. To look at the Oswald file is to look at the most sensitive CIA operation of the Cold War. The story is as alarming as it is tragic; the lies and manipulations it reveals led directly to Kennedy's murder. Oswald and the CIA is a gripping journey to the darkest corners of the CIA.
Wiretapping in Mexico City, Double Agents, and the Framing of Lee Oswald
by Bill Simpich
Six weeks before Dallas, these CIA officers wrote two misleading memos about Lee Harvey Oswald
by Bill Simpich
Dan Hardway: Investigating The JFK Assassination Then And Now (1:20:40)
Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City (Video 1:23:50)
Edwin Lopez and Dan Hardway talked about their time in the late 1970s working for the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, and a report they co-wrote entitled, “Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City.” This was part of “The Warren Report and the JFK Assassination: A Half Century of Significant Disclosures,” a conference marking the 50th anniversary of the release of the Warren Report
Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City aka the Lopez Report
by Dan Hardway and Edwin Lopez for the House Select Committee on Assassinations
Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City: The Lopez-Hardway Report
by Dan Hardway (Author) and Edwin Lopez (Contributor)
Among the most important and revelatory of the declassified JFK assassination records is the House Select Committee on Assassinations' suppressed report on Lee Harvey Oswald's alleged trip to Mexico City in the fall of 1963. First available in 1993, and now with fewer blacked-out "redactions," this volume discusses one of the most mysterious and important matters of the Kennedy murder.
Unlike most such government reports, the Lopez-Hardway Report brims with unanswered questions and suspicions of a CIA cover-up. In this report, the Committee questions the CIA's assertions that no photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald was obtained by surveillance cameras, that CIA had no knowledge of Oswald's contact with the Cuban Embassy before 11/22/63, and that tapes of a person calling himself Lee Harvey Oswald were "routinely erased" prior to the murder of President Kennedy.
These tapped phone calls connected Oswald to a suspected Soviet assassination expert, and raised alarm bells in Washington DC. With evidence suggesting that Oswald was impersonated in Mexico City, the question is raised--who would frame Oswald in such a way as to make it look like the KGB or Castro killed JFK?
2003 Release: Oswald, The CIA, And Mexico City ("Lopez Report")
The "thirteenth appendix" to the HSCA Report on the JFK assassination is a staff report entitled "Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City." This report describes what the Committee learned about Lee Oswald's trip to Mexico City less than two months prior to the assassination. Questions it grapples with include why the CIA was apparently unable to obtain a photo of Oswald from any of its photographic surveillance stations (and instead produced a photo of a "Mystery Man" who was clearly not Oswald), whether Oswald was impersonated in Mexico City, and what credibility to attach to any of the indications and allegations of Communist
Oswald in Mexico City
The Fourteen Minute Gap - A short documentary about an erased Presidential phone call in which Johnson and Hoover a Mexico City impersonator.
Oswald's Visits to the Cuban and Soviet Embassies - Discusses the Oswald embassy visits and the resulting CIA cable traffic.
The Mexico City Tapes - Focuses on recorded telephone conversations of a man using Oswald's name, who was apparently not Oswald.
Valeriy Kostikov and Comrade Kostin - Examines the KGB Department 13 "wet affairs" connection and the curious letter written to a "Comrade Kostin."
Photo Surveillance and the Mystery Man - Looks at the man caught on surveillance cameras, apparently originally thought to be Oswald.
Stories of Communist Conspiracy in Mexico City
Discusses the arrest of Cuban Consulate worker Sylvia Duran, the allegations of Gilberto Alvarado Ugarte, Pedro Gutierrez Valencia, and Elena Garro de Paz, and another event involving suspected Cuban intelligence agent Luisa Calderon.
The JFK Files: New Light on Oswald and Mexico City
Those with a stake in avoiding the truth about John F. Kennedy’s assassination want you to believe Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone nut. If you won’t accept that, they have a fallback position: “It’s even worse. He was working for the commies.”
That “alternative” scenario revolves around a purported Oswald trip to Mexico City in the months before Kennedy’s death, when he allegedly visited Soviet and Cuban missions, met with a handler and sought his escape path to his beloved USSR.
There’s just one problem with this narrative. It probably isn’t true.
Clearly something very strange was going on in Mexico City in the months leading up to JFK’s assassination. A man claiming to be Lee Oswald, who apparently looked nothing like him and could barely speak Russian, was making what can only be described as attention-grabbing trips to the Soviet and Cuban consuls. Both the CIA and the FBI were well aware of this during the immediate aftermath of the assassination.
So ask yourself this question: Why would someone who wasn’t Oswald pretend to be Oswald and run around visiting Soviet and Cuban embassies? Could it be that someone was trying to set up Oswald to make it look like he was working with the “commies” to kill Kennedy? If anyone wanted an excuse to start a war with Cuba and the Soviets, this was an opportunity served on a silver platter.
Here’s a follow up question: Why aren’t we hearing more about this in the mainstream media? Instead, we’re hearing the same game-plan story that was trotted out in November 1963 — if Oswald wasn’t a lone-nut, then the Cubans and the Soviets were behind it. Anything but the possibility that powerful Americans conspired to violently remove a sitting president.
“A Little Incident In Mexico City”
Seven weeks before the assassination, Lee Oswald appears to have been impersonated in Mexico City, in a way that implied Soviet or Cuban involvement in the assassination.
The FBI learned on the afternoon of the assassination that it had not been kept fully informed by the CIA of Oswald’s activities in Mexico City. To remedy this, two sets of evidence were sent by the CIA station in Mexico City to the FBI in Dallas, arriving early on the morning of 23 November:
At least one tape recording of a phone call by a man claiming to be Oswald. Several photographs of the only non–Hispanic man to enter the Soviet compound on the date of Oswald’s meeting there with Kostikov.
FBI agents in Dallas made an unexpected and ominous discovery: neither the voice on the recording nor the man in the photographs matched the man who was in custody. Someone had impersonated Oswald in Mexico City.
The New JFK Files Reveal How The CIA Tracked Oswald
Agency Personnel Read The Assassin’s Mail In Russia And Observed His Activities In New Orleans
The latest batch of JFK assassination files, released December 15, illuminate a story that the CIA still denies: the surveillance of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in the years before he shot and killed President John F. Kennedy.
by Jefferson Morley
Who is the man featured above, photos of whom were caught by surveillance cameras and rushed to Dallas from Mexico City on the evening of the Kennedy assassination? Was he the man calling the Soviet Embassy on tapped phone lines using Oswald's name, which the FBI determined did not match the voice of the actual Lee Harvey Oswald? And were these phone calls meant to tie Oswald to purported KGB assassin agent Valeriy Kostikov, about whom a strange letter signed by Oswald would later appear?
Mexico City became a hornet's nest of conspiracy allegations in the wake of JFK's murder, much of it related to Oswald's trip to that city several weeks earlier and his visits to the Cuban and Soviet embassies. The now-declassified CIA reporting of that trip is at odds with the participants' memories and has striking internal contradictions.
Communist conspiracy stories included that of Gilberto Alvarado Ugarte, Elena Garro de Paz, and Pedro Gutierrez Valencia, all of whom told of Oswald being seen with Cubans and in some cases being paid by them. Factoring into some of these stories was Sylvia Duran, the woman who had dealt with Oswald's visa requests and had been arrested, interrogated, and beaten by Mexican authorities in the days after the Kennedy assassination. Other allegations included the idea that Cuban Embassy employee Luisa Calderon had expressed foreknowledge of the assassination over a tapped phone line.
Do these stories add up to a Cuban conspiracy to kill JFK? Or are they all post-assassination "provocations" meant to create that impression? Or are they something yet different, echoes of a pre-assassination framing of Oswald to tie him to Cuba and the Soviet Union?
Silvia Odio
Silvia Odio - The Odio Incident - Who were the three men who visited Silvia Odio in late September of 1963, one of whom was introduced as "Leon Oswald"? Silvia Odio is the daughter of a Cuban refugee who was jailed for his attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro in 1962.
The Odio Incident (2:04)
On 25th September, 1963, Sylvia and Annie Odio had a visit from three men who claimed they were from New Orleans. Two of the men, Leopoldo and Angelo, said they were members of the Junta Revolucionaria. The third man, Leon, was introduced as an American sympathizer who was willing to take part in the assassination of Fidel Castro. After she told them that she was unwilling to get involved in any criminal activity, the three men left.
Two days later, Leopoldo phoned Odio and told her that Leon was a former Marine and that he was an expert marksman. He added that Leon had said "we Cubans, we did not have the guts because we should have assassinated Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs".
Odio became convinced that after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that Leon was Lee Harvey Oswald.
Lee Harvey Oswald & Sylvia Odio (9:14)
1966 Radio Show Excerpt With Wesley Liebeler
50 Reasons For 50 Years - Episode 06 - The Sylvia Odio Incident (4:57)
Author Jim DiEugenio discusses a strange visit to Sylvia Odio's Dallas apartment in late September 1963.
Silvia Odio was born in Cuba in 1937. Her father was involved in the struggle against Fulgencio Batista. However, he disagreed with Fidel Castro about certain issues and in 1962 he was arrested and sent to the Isle of Pines. Soon afterwards Odio left Cuba and settled in Dallas. Odio became active in the anti-Castro movement and helped form an organization called Junta Revolucionaria.
On 25th September, 1963, Odio had a visit from three men who claimed they were from New Orleans. Two of the men, Leopoldo and Angelo, said they were members of the Junta Revolucionaria. The third man, Leon, was introduced as an American sympathizer who was willing to take part in the assassination of Fidel Castro. After she told them that she was unwilling to get involved in any criminal activity, the three men left.
The following day Leopoldo phoned Odio and told her that Leon was a former Marine and that he was an expert marksman. He added that Leon had said “we Cubans, we did not have the guts because we should have assassinated Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs”. It is believed that Bernardo De Torres was Leopoldo and Edwin Collins was Angelo.
Odio became convinced that after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that Leon was Lee Harvey Oswald. Odio gave evidence to the Warren Commission and one of its lawyers commented: "Silvia Odio was checked out thoroughly... The evidence is unanimously favorable... Odio is the most significant witness linking Oswald to the anti-Castro Cubans."
The author, Anthony Summers, suggests that the visit had "been a deliberate ploy to link Junta Revolucionaria, a left-wing exile group, with the assassination"
Sylvia Odio vs. Liebeler and The La Fontaines
by Jim DiEugenio
Gaeton Fonzi's interview with Silvia Odio for the Church Committee, reproduced here, reveals that the Warren Commission was intent on covering up conspiracy, as Wesley Liebeler baldly asserted to her.
Just declassified at the National Archives is the record of Gaeton Fonzi's interview with Silvia Odio for the Church Committee. We choose to reprint it here in full for two reasons. First, because it is interesting to note the actions of one Wesley Liebeler, UCLA law professor, in his apparent attempt to discredit her. There are still some who believe today that the Warren Commission was actually a fairly neutral body that was just tricked and lied to by the FBI and CIA. We find this an untenable position. We think the Commission, from top to bottom, was prejudiced against Oswald from its inception.
For more on Silvia Odio see the comprehensive section: Foreknowledge
by Rex Bradford
"The CIA advised that on October 1, 1963, an extremely sensitive source had reported that an individual identified himself as Lee Oswald, who contacted the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City inquiring as to any messages. Special Agents of this Bureau, who have conversed with Oswald in Dallas, Texas, have observed photographs of the individual referred to above, and have listened to a recording of his voice. These special agents are of the opinion that the above-referred-to individual was not Lee Harvey Oswald."
The paragraph shown above comes from an FBI memo sent to both the White House and the Secret Service on November 23, 1963, the day after President Kennedy's assassination. It was a follow-up to a phone call at 10:01 AM, in which Director Hoover informed Lyndon Johnson of the same fact. Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of Kennedy held in police custody in Dallas, had been impersonated in phone calls to the Soviet Embassy in Mexio City.
The fact that Oswald was impersonated less than two months prior to the Dallas shooting was obviously important news. What made the revelation even more stunning was that, in one such call, "Oswald" referred to a previous meeting with a Soviet official named Kostikov. Valeriy Kostikov was well-known to the CIA and FBI as a KGB agent operating out of the Embassy under official cover. But, far more ominously, the FBI's "Tumbleweed" informant had previously tipped off the U.S. that Kostikov was a member of the KGB's "Department 13," involved in sabotage and assassinations.
An otherwise inexplicable impersonation episode takes on an entirely new meaning in this light. The calls from the Oswald impersonator made it appear that Oswald was a hired killer, hired by the Soviet Union no less. This was a prescription for World War III.
Perhaps the perfect plan was foiled by the fact that Oswald was captured, allowing the FBI to interrogate him and compare his voice to the tapes of these tapped phone calls, which were apparently flown up from the CIA's Mexico City Station on the evening of November 22. In any case, what should have been a hot lead to sophisticated conspirators was instead quickly buried—by November 25, FBI memos made no more mention of tapes, only transcripts. The CIA has maintained to this day that the tapes were routinely recycled prior to the assassination, and no tapes were ever sent. But the evidence that the tapes did exist and were listened to is now overwhelming, and includes several FBI memos, a call from Hoover to LBJ which appears to have been suspiciously erased, and even the word of two Warren Commission staffers who say they listened to the tapes during their visit to Mexico City in April 1964!
Back in November 1963, with the knowledge that it wasn't Oswald in these calls to the Soviet Embassy tightly held, and with witnesses coming forward to claim seeing Oswald take money to kill Kennedy from Cuban operatives, a cover-up went into high gear. Lyndon Johnson used the fear of nuclear war, bandying about the figure "40 million Americans" who would die in a nuclear exchange. Even though he knew of the impersonation, Johnson used this false scare to press men like Richard Russell and Earl Warren onto a President's Commission which another Commissioner, John J. McCloy, said was to "settle the dust."
The Mexico City story, which involves far more than the telephone tapes and remains truly mysterious in many ways, is not the only element in the setup of Oswald. Whether he was part of a murder conspiracy or just a "patsy," Oswald was set up for the role as lone gunman. Several incidents prior to the assassination painted him as a "Red" assassin, including his test-drive at a car dealership in Dallas and an episode at a shooting range. In both cases, the Warren Commission showed that Oswald could not have been present, and thus dismissed the claims. They should have instead asked, who was there pretending to be Oswald?
The frameup also included the planting of Commission Exhibit 399, the "magic" bullet which matched Oswald's rifle, and the laydown of that junky weapon and matching shells near the so-called "sniper's nest" in the Book Depository. While the pre-assassination Oswald setup events are the most interesting, because they are inherently part of the assassination plot, post-assassination coverup activities also served to frame Oswald for the murder, and to hide his connections to the intelligence community. Essays in this topic area include discussion of the circumstantial evidence that ballistics evidence was tampered with in order to support the lone gunman answer. And the medical cover-up writings on this site abound with examples of such manipulation.
But the most important setup was the incriminating connection to a planted Communist conspiracy. This episode is important because it helps explain why men like Earl Warren might engage in a coverup. It also narrows the field of potential conspirators considerably. In 1963 these intelligence activities were kept under extremely tight wraps. So who knew that the Embassy phone lines were tapped? Who knew that Kostikov was involved in assassinations and that this fact was known to the U.S.? Who knew that this phony Red connection would scare the government into a coverup?
For more see the comprehensive section: Mexico City
September 26, 1963
John F. Kennedy's Remarks at Hanford Electric Generating plant, Hanford, WA (15:10)
President John F. Kennedy addresses crowd, and initiates groundbreaking of the N-Reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Richland, Washington, September 26, 1963, two month before he was assassinated.
In his opening words the President referred to U.S. Senators Henry M. Jackson and Warren G. Magnuson and to Governor Albert D. Rosellini of Washington; Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall; U.S. Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah; U.S. Representatives AI Ullman of Oregon and Chet Holifield of California; and Atomic Energy Commissioner Gerald F. Tape. Later the President referred to Owen Hurd, Managing Director of the Washington Public Power Supply System; Glenn Lee and Don Pugnetti, publisher and managing editor, respectively, of the Tri-City Herald of Richland, Wash.
At the close of his remarks the President broke ground for the new Hanford nuclear generating plant, the world's largest, by means of a new device. Using a pointer tipped with uranium from the first Hanford reactor he caused a radiation counter on the speakers' stand to close a relay, thereby setting in motion a 60-foot crane and breaking ground for the new plant.
Remarks at the Hanford, Washington, Electric Generating Plant (Text)
September 27, 1963
Have You Seen John F Kennedy In Red Slippers Feeding A Deer?
by Kate Hickey
The photo was taken by Cecil Stoughton, a Military Aide to the President who was with him during his “Conservation Tour of Western States”. Kennedy had stayed in a cabin at the Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, for just one night.
Autumn - November 22, 1963
From, Kennedy’s Last Act: Reaching Out to Cuba
by Peter Kornbluh
Secret United States - Cuban talks. The talks between Cuba and the U.S. began, ironically, around Washington’s bald act of aggression, the paramilitary invasion at Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs). In the aftermath of Cuba’s victory over the CIA-backed brigade, the President and his brother, Robert Kennedy sent a lawyer named James Donovan to negotiate the release of over 1,000 captured brigade members. During the course of several negotiating sessions in the fall of 1962, Donovan brokered a deal to supply Cuba with $62 million in food and medicine in return for the release of the prisoners. He not only won their freedom but the trust of Fidel Castro as well.
In the spring of 1963, Donovan returned to Havana several times to negotiate with Castro the release of two dozen Americans, three of them were CIA operatives that were imprisoned in Cuban jails on charges of spying and sabotage. During the course of their meetings, Castro for the first time raised the issue of restoring relations. Given the acrimony and hostility of the recent past, “how would the U.S. and Cuba go about it,” he asked Donovan.
“Do you know how porcupines make love?,” James Donovan replied. “Very carefully. And that is how you and the U.S. will go about this issue.”
When Donovan’s report on Castro’s interest in talks to normalize relations reached the desk of President Kennedy, the White House began considering the possibility of a “sweet approach” to Castro. Top aides argued that the U.S. should demand that Castro jettison his relations with the Soviets as a pre-condition to any talks. But the President overruled them; he instructed his top aides to “start thinking along more flexible lines” in negotiating with Castro, and made it clear, according to declassified White House documents, that he was “very interested” in pursuing this option.
On his last trip to Cuba in April 1963, Donovan introduced Castro to a correspondent for ABC News named Lisa Howard who had traveled to Havana to do a televised special on the Cuban revolution. She replaced Donovan as the central interlocutor in a protracted secret effort to set up the first serious face to face talks on better relations. When she returned from Cuba, the CIA met her in Miami and debriefed her on Castro’s clear interest in improved relations. In a top secret memorandum that arrived on the desk of the president, CIA deputy director, Richard Helms, reported that “Howard definitely wants to impress the U.S. Government with two facts: Castro is ready to discuss rapprochement and herself is ready to discuss it with him if asked to do so by the U.S. Government.”
Predictably, the CIA adamantly opposed any dialogue with Cuba. The agency was institutionally invested in its on-going efforts to covertly roll back the revolution. In a secret memo rushed to the White House on May 1, 1963, CIA Director John McCone requested that “no active steps be taken on the rapprochement matter at this time” and urged only the “most limited Washington discussions” on accommodation with Castro.
But in the fall of 1963, Washington and Havana did take active steps toward actual negotiations. In September Howard used a cocktail party at her East 74th Street Manhattan townhouse as cover for the first meeting between a Cuban official, UN Ambassador Carlos Lechuga, and a U.S. official, deputy UN Ambassador William Attwood. Attwood told Lechuga that there was interest at the White House in secret talks, if there was something to talk about. He also noted that “the CIA runs Cuba policy.” Following that meeting, Castro and Kennedy used Howard as an intermediary to began passing messages about arranging an actual negotiation session between the two nations.
On November 5, Kennedy’s secret taping system in the Oval Office recorded in a conversation with his national security advisor, McGeorge Bundy, on whether to send William Attwood, who was serving as a deputy to U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson at the United Nations, to Havana to meet secretly with Castro. Attwood, Bundy told the President, “now has an invitation to go down and talk to Fidel about terms and conditions in which he would be interested in a change of relations with the U.S.” The president is heard agreeing to the idea but asking if “we can get Attwood off the payroll before he goes” so as to “sanitize” him as a private citizen in case word of the secret meeting leaked.
On November 14, Howard arranged for Attwood to come to her home and talk via telephone to Castro’s top aide, Rene Vallejo, about obtaining the Cuban agenda for a secret meeting between in Havana with the Cuban commandante. Vallejo agreed to transmit a proposed agenda to Cuba’s UN ambassador, Lechuga, to give to the Americans. When Attwood passed this information onto Bundy at the White House, he was told that when the agenda was received, “the president wanted to see me at the White House and decide what to say and whether to go [to Cuba] or what we should do next.”
“That was the 19th of November,” Attwood recalled. “Three days before the assassination.”
Kennedy’s Final Act
But Kennedy also sent another message of potential reconciliation to Castro. His emissary, a French journalist named Jean Daniel, had met with Kennedy in Washington to discuss Cuba. Kennedy gave him a message for Fidel Castro: Better relations were possible, and the two countries should work toward an end to hostilities. On November 22, Daniel passed that message to Castro, and the two were discussing it optimistically at Castro home over lunch, when Castro received a phone call reporting that Kennedy had been shot. “This is terrible,” Castro told Daniel, realizing that his mission had been aborted by an assassins’ bullet. “Everything is changed. Everything is going to change.” “There goes your mission of peace.” Castro then accurately predicted: “They are going to say we did it.”
Amidst the ongoing controversies over conspiracy theories, what is lost in the historical discussion of the assassination is that John F. Kennedy’s very last act as president was to reach out to Castro and offer the possibility of a different bilateral relationship between Havana and Washington. Fifty years later, the potential Kennedy envisioned for co-existence between the Cuban revolution and the U.S. has yet to be realized. As part of commemorating his legacy, his vision for a détente in the Caribbean must be remembered, reconsidered, and revisited.
by John Simkin
Lisa Howard died at her home at East Hampton, Long Island, on July 4, 1965. It was officially reported that she had committed suicide. Her name is rarely mentioned in list of suspicious deaths. The reason for this is that it is only recently been discovered that she was an important figure in the events of 1963.
I Was With Fidel Castro When JFK Was Assassinated
by Jean Daniel
It was around 1:30 in the afternoon, Cuban time. We were having lunch in the living room of the modest summer residence which Fidel Castro owns on magnificent Varadero Beach, 120 kilometers from Havana. For at least the tenth time, I was questioning the Cuban leader on details of the negotiations with Russia before the missile installations last year. The telephone rang, a secretary in guerrilla garb announced that Mr. Dorticós, President of the Cuban Republic, had an urgent communication for the Prime Minister. Fidel picked up the phone and I heard him say: “Como? Un atentado?” (“What’s that? An attempted assassination?”) He then turned to us to say that Kennedy had just been struck down in Dallas. Then he went back to the telephone and exclaimed in a loud voice “Herido? Muy gravemente?” (“Wounded? Very seriously?”)
He came back, sat down, and repeated three times the words: “Es una mala noticia.” (“This is bad news.”)
Now it was nearly 2 o’clock and we got up from the table and settled ourselves in front of a radio. Commandant Vallero, his physician, aide-de-camp, and intimate friend, was easily able to get the broadcasts from the NBC network in Miami. As the news came in, Vallero would translate it for Fidel: Kennedy wounded in the head; pursuit of the assassin; murder of a policeman; finally the fatal announcement: President Kennedy is dead. Then Fidel stood up and said to me: “Everything is changed. Everything is going to change. The United States occupies such a position in world affairs that the death of a President of that country affects millions of people in every corner of the globe. The cold war, relations with Russia, Latin America, Cuba, the Negro question… all will have to be rethought. I’ll tell you one thing: at least Kennedy was an enemy to whom we had become accustomed. This is a serious matter, an extremely serious matter.”
The Intra-Administration War in Vietnam
by Arthur Krock
Published by The New York Times, on October 3, 1963.
The Central Intelligence Agency is getting a very bad press in dispatches from Vietnam to American newspapers and in articles originating in Washington. Like the Supreme Court when under fire, the C.I.A. cannot defend itself in public retorts to criticisms of its activities as they occur. But, unlike the the Supreme Court, the C.I.A. has no open record of its activities on which the public can base a judgment of the validity of the criticisms. Also, the agency is precluded from using the indirect defensive tactic which is constantly employed by all other Government units under critical file.
This tactic is to give information to the press, under a seal of confidence, that challenges or refutes the critics. But the C.I.A. cannot father such inspired articles, because to do so would require some disclosure of its activities. And not only does the effectiveness of the agency depend on the secrecy of its operations. Every President since the C.I.A. was created has protected this secrecy from claimants—Congress or the public through the press, for examples—of the right to share any part of it.
With High Frequency
This Presidential policy has not, however, always restrained other executive units from going confidentially to the press with attacks on C.I.A. operations in their common field of responsibility. And usually it has been possible to deduce these operational details from the nature o the attacks. But the peak of the practice has recently been reached in Vietnam and in Washington. This is revealed almost every day now in dispatches from reporters—in close touch with intra-Administration critics of the C.I.A.—with excellent reputations for reliability.
One reporter in this category is Richard Starnes of the Scripps-Howard newspapers. Today, under a Saigon dateline, he related that, "according to a high United States source here, twice the C.I.A. flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge . . . [and] in one instance frustrated a plan of action Mr. Lodge brought from Washington because the agency disagreed with it." Among the views attributed to United States officials on the scene, including one described as a "very high American official . . . who has spent much of his life in the service of democracy . . . are the following:
The C.I.A.'s growth was "likened to a malignancy" which the "very high official was not sure even the White House could control . . . any longer." "If the United States ever experiences [an attempt at a coup to overthrow the Government] it will come from the C.I.A. and not the Pentagon." The agency "represents a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone."
Disorderly Government
Whatever else these passages disclose, they most certainly establish that representatives of other Executive branches have expanded their war against the C.I.A. from the inner government councils to the American people via the press. And published simultaneously are details of the agency's operations in Vietnam that can come only from the same critical official sources. This is disorderly government. And the longer the President tolerates it—the period already is considerable—the greater will grow its potentials of hampering the real war against the Vietcong and the impression of a very indecisive Administration in Washington.
The C.I.A. may be guilty as charged. Since it cannot, or at any rate will not, openly defend its record in Vietnam, or defend it by the same confidential press "briefings" employed by its critics, the public is not in a position to judge. Nor is this department, which sought and failed to get even the outlines of the agency's case in rebuttal. But Mr. Kennedy will have to make a judgment if the spectacle of war within the Executive branch is to be ended and the effective functioning of the C.I.A. preserved. And when he makes this judgment, hopefully he also will make it public, as well as the appraisal of fault on which it is based.
Doubtless recommendations as to what his judgment should be were made to him today by Secretary of Defense McNamara and General Taylor on their return from their fact-finding expedition into the embattled official jungle in Saigon.
The Intra-Administration War In Vietnam, by Arthur Krock, a very close friend of the Kennedy Family, published by The New York Times, on October 3, 1963.
...One reporter in this category is Richard Starnes of the Scripps-Howard newspapers. Today, under a Saigon dateline, he related that, "according to a high United States source here, twice the CIA flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Herny Cabot Lodge [and] in one instance frustrated a plan of action Mr. Lodge brought from Washington because the agency disagreed with it."
Among the views attributed to United States officials on the scene, including one described as a "very high American official who has spent much of his life in the service of democracy" are the following: The CIA's growth was "likened to a malignancy" which the very high official was not sure even the white house could control "any longer." "If the United States ever experiences an attempt at a coup to overthrow the government, it will come from the CIA and not the Pentagon". The agency "represents a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone."
October 3, 1963
White House Oval Office, President Kennedy’s Rocking Chair and Desk
From: JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matter
For at least a decade, JFK’s favorite poem had been Rendezvous, a celebration of death. Rendezvous was by Alan Seeger, an American poet killed in World War One. The poem was Seeger’s affirmation of his own anticipated death.
The refrain of Rendezvous, “I have a rendezvous with Death,” articulated John Kennedy’s deep sense of his own mortality. Kennedy had experienced a continuous rendezvous with death in anticipation of his actual death: from the deaths of his PT boat crew members, from drifting alone in the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean, from the early deaths of his brother Joe and sister Kathleen, and from the recurring near-death experiences of his almost constant illnesses.
He recited Rendezvous to his wife, Jacqueline, in 1953 on their first night home in Hyannis after their honeymoon. She memorized the poem, and recited it back to him over the years. In the fall of 1963, Jackie taught the words of the poem to their five-year-old daughter, Caroline.
I have thought many times about what then took place in the White House Rose Garden one beautiful fall day.
On the morning of October 5, 1963, President Kennedy met with his National Security Council in the Rose Garden. Caroline suddenly appeared at her father’s side. She said she wanted to tell him something. He tried to divert her attention while the meeting continued. Caroline persisted. The president smiled and turned his full attention to his daughter. He told her to go ahead. While the members of the National Security Council sat and watched, Caroline looked into her father’s eyes and said:
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air –
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath –
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.
God knows ‘twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear….
But I’ve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
After Caroline said the poem’s final word, “rendezvous,” Kennedy’s national security advisers sat in stunned silence. One of them said later the bond between father and daughter was so deep “it was as if there was ‘an inner music’ he was trying to teach her.”
JFK had heard his own acceptance of death from the lips of his daughter. While surrounded by a National Security Council that opposed his breakthrough to peace, the president once again deepened his pledge not to fail that rendezvous. If God had a place for him, he believed that he was ready.
President Kennedy signs the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. This is the first disarmament agreement of the nuclear age. Kennedy states: "with our courage and understanding enlarged by this achievement, let us press onward in quest of man's essential desire for peace."
President Kennedy Signs Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1:36)
For more see the comprehensive section: Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
October 9, 1963
"Wheat Sale: U.S. to Sell Grain to Soviet Bloc." At the Presidential News Conference, Kennedy makes remarks concerning the wheat surplus in America, and the new agreement to sell off the wheat to the Soviet Union. He states that although this act does not alter the Soviet trade policy, it is still a good step forward in better foreign relations.
From: JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matter
Why He Died and Why It Matters: In the final weeks of his presidency, President Kennedy took one more risky step toward peace. It can be seen in relation to a meeting he had the year before with six Quakers who visited him in his office. One thousand members of the Society of Friends had been vigiling for peace and world order outside the White House. President Kennedy agreed to meet with six of their leaders. I have interviewed all three survivors of that meeting with the president 47 years ago. They remain uniformly amazed at the open way in which President Kennedy listened and responded to their radical Quaker critique of his foreign policy. Among their challenges to him was a recommendation that the United States offer its surplus food to the People’s Republic of China. China was considered an enemy nation. Yet it was also one whose people were beset by a famine.
Kennedy said to the Quakers, “Do you mean you would feed your enemy when he has his hands on your throat?”
The Quakers said they meant exactly that. They reminded him it was what Jesus had said should be done. Kennedy said he knew that, and knew that it was the right thing to do, but he couldn’t overcome the China lobby in Washington to accomplish it.
Nevertheless, a year and a half later in the fall of 1963, against overwhelming opposition, Kennedy decided to sell wheat to the Russians, who had a severe grain shortage. His outraged critics said in effect to him what he had said to the Quakers: Would you feed an enemy who has his hands on your throat?
Vice President Lyndon Johnson said he thought Kennedy’s decision to sell wheat to Russia would turn out to be the worst political mistake he ever made. Today JFK’s controversial decision “to feed the enemy” has been forgotten. In 1963, the wheat sale was seen as a threat to our security – feeding the enemy to kill us. Yet JFK went ahead with it, as one more initiative for peace.
The violent reaction to his decision was represented on Friday morning, November 22, 1963, by a threatening, full-page advertisement addressed to him in the Dallas Morning News. The ad was bordered in black, like a funeral notice.
Among the charges of disloyalty to the nation that the ad made against the president was the question: “Why have you approved the sale of wheat and corn to our enemies when you know the Communist soldiers ‘travel on their stomach’ just as ours do?” JFK read the ad before the flight from Fort Worth to Dallas, pointed it out to Jacqueline Kennedy, and talked about the possibility of his being assassinated that day.
“But, Jackie,” he said, “if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?”
See: May 1, 1962, Kennedy meets with six Quakers in the Oval Office.
October 9, 1963 - October 10, 1963
Lee Harvey Oswald was ostensibly being closely tracked by the CIA as well as by the FBI because he was a recent defector and a self-proclaimed revolutionary. But, as President Kennedy prepared to visit Dallas, something curious occurred within this surveillance labyrinth.
On October 9, 1963, Oswald was suddenly removed from the FBI “FLASHLIST”, the bureau’s index of suspicious individuals to be kept under close watch. FBI officials took this surprising step despite Oswald’s suspicious behavior in Mexico City. The day after the FBI took Oswald off its watch list, the CIA also downgraded him as a security risk.
On October 10, 1963, four senior counterintelligence officials who reported to Angleton and Helms signed off on a curious cable to the CIA station chief in Mexico City, assuring him there was no reason to be concerned about Oswald because his stay in the Soviet Union had a “maturing effect” on him.
October 11, 1963
On October 11, 1963, President Kennedy issued National Security Action Memorandum 263, In NSAM 263 he orders that 1,000 U.S. military personnel be withdrawn from Vietnam by the end of 1963, and that the bulk of U.S. personnel be taken out by the end of 1965. Kennedy decided on his withdrawal policy, against the arguments of most of his advisers, at a contentious October 2 National Security Council meeting. When Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was leaving the meeting to announce the withdrawal to the White House reporters, “the President called to him, ‘And tell them that means all of the helicopter pilots, too.’”
In fact, it would not mean that at all. After JFK’s assassination, his withdrawal policy was quietly voided (See November 21, 1963 NSAM 273 Draft and November 26, 1963, NSAM 273). In light of the future consequences of Dallas, it was not only John Kennedy who was murdered on November 22, 1963, but 58,000 other Americans and over three million Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians.
From, Exit Strategy: In 1963, JFK Ordered A Complete Withdrawal From Vietnam
by James K. Galbraith
... A more thorough treatment appeared in 1992, with the publication of John M. Newman’s JFK and Vietnam. Until his retirement in 1994 Newman was a major in the U.S. Army, an intelligence officer last stationed at Fort Meade, headquarters of the National Security Agency. As an historian, his specialty is deciphering declassified records, a talent he later applied to the CIA’s long-hidden archives on Lee Harvey Oswald.
Newman’s argument was not a case of “counterfactual historical reasoning,” as Larry Berman described it in an early response. It was not about what might have happened had Kennedy lived. Newman’s argument was stronger: Kennedy, he claims, had decided to begin a phased withdrawal from Vietnam, that he had ordered this withdrawal to begin. Here is the chronology, according to Newman:
(1) On October 2, 1963, Kennedy received the report of a mission to Saigon by McNamara and Maxwell Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The main recommendations, which appear in Section I(B) of the McNamara-Taylor report, were that a phased withdrawal be completed by the end of 1965 and that the “Defense Department should announce in the very near future presently prepared plans to withdraw 1,000 out of 17,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Vietnam by the end of 1963.” At Kennedy’s instruction, Press Secretary Pierre Salinger made a public announcement that evening of McNamara’s recommended timetable for withdrawal.
(2) On October 5, Kennedy made his formal decision. Newman quotes the minutes of the meeting that day:
The President also said that our decision to remove 1,000 U.S. advisors by December of this year should not be raised formally with Diem. Instead the action should be carried out routinely as part of our general posture of withdrawing people when they are no longer needed. (Emphasis added.)
The passage illustrates two points: (a) that a decision was in fact made on that day, and (b) that despite the earlier announcement of McNamara’s recommendation, the October 5 decision was not a ruse or pressure tactic to win reforms from Diem (as Richard Reeves, among others, has contended3) but a decision to begin withdrawal irrespective of Diem or his reactions.
(3) On October 11, the White House issued NSAM 263, which states:
The President approved the military recommendations contained in section I B (1-3) of the report, but directed that no formal announcement be made of the implementation of plans to withdraw 1,000 U.S. military personnel by the end of 1963.
In other words, the withdrawal recommended by McNamara on October 2 was embraced in secret by Kennedy on October 5 and implemented by his order on October 11, also in secret. Newman argues that the secrecy after October 2 can be explained by a diplomatic reason. Kennedy did not want Diem or anyone else to interpret the withdrawal as part of any pressure tactic (other steps that were pressure tactics had also been approved). There was also a political reason: JFK had not decided whether he could get away with claiming that the withdrawal was a result of progress toward the goal of a self-sufficient South Vietnam.
The alternative would have been to withdraw the troops while acknowledging failure. And this, Newman argues, Kennedy was prepared to do if it became necessary. He saw no reason, however, to take this step before it became necessary. If the troops could be pulled while the South Vietnamese were still standing, so much the better.4 But from October 11 onward the CIA’s reporting changed drastically. Official optimism was replaced by a searching and comparatively realistic pessimism. Newman believes this pessimism, which involved rewriting assessments as far back as the previous July, was a response to NSAM 263. It represented an effort by the CIA to undermine the ostensible rationale of withdrawal with success, and therefore to obstruct implementation of the plan for withdrawal. Kennedy, needless to say, did not share his full reasoning with the CIA.
(4) On November 1 there came the coup in Saigon and the assassination of Diem and Nhu. At a press conference on November 12, Kennedy publicly restated his Vietnam goals. They were “to intensify the struggle” and “to bring Americans out of there.” Victory, which had figured prominently in a similar statement on September 12, was no longer on the list.
(5) The Honolulu Conference of senior cabinet and military officials on November 20–21 was called to review plans in the wake of the Saigon coup. The military and the CIA, however, planned to use that meeting to pull the rug from under the false optimism which some had used to rationalize NSAM 263. However, Kennedy did not himself believe that we were withdrawing with victory. It follows that the changing image of the military situation would not have changed JFK’s decision.
(6) In Honolulu, McGeorge Bundy prepared a draft of what would eventually be NSAM 273. The plan was to present it to Kennedy after the meeting ended. Dated November 21, this draft reflected the change in military reporting. It speaks, for example, of a need to “turn the tide not only of battle but of belief.” Plans to intensify the struggle, however, do not go beyond what Kennedy would have approved: A paragraph calling for actions against the North underscores the role of Vietnamese forces:
7. With respect to action against North Vietnam, there should be a detailed plan for the development of additional Government of Vietnam resources, especially for sea-going activity, and such planning should indicate the time and investment necessary to achieve a wholly new level of effectiveness in this field of action. (Emphasis added.)
(7) At Honolulu, a preliminary plan, known as CINCPAC OPLAN 34-63 and later implemented as OPLAN 34A, was prepared for presentation. This plan called for intensified sabotage raids against the North, employing Vietnamese commandos under U.S. control—a significant escalation.5 While JCS chief Taylor had approved preparation of this plan, it had not been shown to McNamara. Tab E of the meeting’s briefing book, also approved by Taylor and also not sent in advance to McNamara, showed that the withdrawal ordered by Kennedy in October was already being gutted, by the device of substituting for the withdrawal of full units that of individual soldiers who were being rotated out of Vietnam in any event.
(8) The final version of NSAM 273, signed by Johnson on November 26, differs from the draft in several respects. Most are minor changes of wording. The main change is that the draft paragraph 7 has been struck in its entirety (there are two pencil slashes on the November 21 draft), and replaced with the following:
Planning should include different levels of possible increased activity, and in each instance there be estimates such factors as: A. Resulting damage to North Vietnam; B. The plausibility denial; C. Vietnamese retaliation; D. Other international reaction. Plans submitted promptly for approval by authority.
The new language is incomplete. It does not begin by declaring outright that the subject is attacks on the North. But the thrust is unmistakable, and the restrictive reference to “Government of Vietnam resources” is now missing. Newman concludes that this change effectively provided new authority for U.S.–directed combat actions against North Vietnam. Planning for these actions began therewith, and we now know that an OPLAN 34A raid in August 1964 provoked the North Vietnamese retaliation against the destroyer Maddox, which became the first Gulf of Tonkin incident. And this in turn led to the confused incident a few nights later aboard the Turner Joy, to reports that it too had been attacked, and to Johnson’s overnight decision to seek congressional support for “retaliation” against North Vietnam. From this, of course, the larger war then flowed.
Another excellent in-depth article on NSAM 263 and NSAM 273:
The Kennedy Assassination And The Vietnam War (1971)
by Peter Dale Scott
October 22, 1963
Abuse of Psychiatry In The Kennedy Assassination
by David Martin
The old Soviet Union was notorious for its corruption of the psychiatric profession and its use of psychiatric hospitals to imprison and neutralize its dissidents. It is an easy profession to abuse by wielders of corrupt authority, and those meeting that description have apparently not been immune to the temptation in the United States. The following grotesque little vignette comes from Phillip Nelson’s extraordinary and very persuasive new book, LBJ, the Mastermind of the JFK Assassination.* All of Nelson’s references for the story are to Noel Twyman’s earlier, but very hard to find book, Bloody Treason.
Exactly one month before JFK was assassinated, a cryptographic code operator working for the U.S. Army Ordinance [sic] in Metz, France, tried to alert his superiors, all the way up to Robert F. Kennedy, that John F. Kennedy would be assassinated in November, in Texas. An FBI report dated April 9, 1964, confirmed that Eugene B. Dinkin, entrusted with the military’s highest Crypto clearance, predicted “that a conspiracy was in the making for the ‘military’ of the United States, perhaps combined with an ‘ultra right wing economic group’.” He discovered the plot as he routinely processed messages between the plotters (i.e., Bill Harvey and/or Guy Bannister [sic] and QJ/WIN, a hit man of French origin, associated with the Antoine Guerini Mob headquartered in Marseilles, France. A number of known hit men were part of this gang, some known variously as Carlos Rigal, Victor Michael Mertz, Michel Roux, Lucien Sarti, or Jean Soutre).
His mistake was letting certain of his superiors know about his discovery and that he was preparing to leak this information despite his sworn oath of secrecy; evidently, he felt that there was a higher duty owed to his country than to knowingly participate, by omission, in the murder of the president. Dinkin heard through the grapevine that he was going to be locked up as a psychotic and decided to go AWOL, taking a train to Geneva, Switzerland, where he found reporters in the pressroom of the United Nations office to whom he told his story. From there he went on to Luxembourg, where he reported it to several embassies and finally on to Germany where he reported it to Overseas Weekly where he was talked into turning himself in.
At that point, the grapevine rumor came true. His reward for trying to save the president’s life was to be committed to a psychiatric hospital. By December 5, 1963, he had been brought back to Washington DC and put into Walter Reed Hospital where he was given strong drugs and electric shock treatment. He was forced to admit that he was only looking for attention; whenever he said otherwise, he was given an electric shock. “Dinkin said that he feigned cooperation and professed understanding of his unfortunate mental condition being ‘schizo-assassination prognostication’.” Dinkin discussed his treatment with his mother, who then wrote Robert Kennedy on December 20, 1963, stating, among other things, that “Col. Dickson and Lt. Col. Black came into the orderly room of his company and phoned psychiatrist Col. Hutson and gave him a direct order to find him psychologically unfit to handle security information, and to write a paranoiac evaluation. He claims this to be a frame up.”
In a civil action lawsuit in 1975, Dinkin stated that the information he intercepted revealed that “blame would then be placed upon a Communist or Negro, who would be designated the assassin, and believing that the conspiracy was being engineered by elements of the military, I did speculate that a military coup might ensue. I did request of the Attorney General that he dispatch a representative of the Justice Department to Metz, France to discuss this warning.”
Either [James Jesus] Angleton’s tentacles reached deeply enough to intercept Dinkin’s letter to Robert F. Kennedy or military superiors familiar with Johnson’s plan caught it; it is possible that RFK simply ignored it after being reassured that Dinkin was a nut. In any event, it got Richard Helms’s attention who alerted a number of others in a classified memo, which stated, “All aspects of this story were known, as reported above, by U.S. military authorities and have been reported by military attaché cable through military channels.”
The CIA was coincidentally running its Operation MK/ULTRA (owned by Allen Dulles and operated by Richard Helms) at the same time, which involved psychological warfare, mind control, and hypnosis with a little LSD experimentation mixed in; the evidence presented by author Twyman indicates that Dinkin was quickly swept into that program as soon as he was institutionalized. It was within this same program that [Lee Harvey] Oswald was possibly groomed for his adventures in the Soviet Union and beyond.
On Solving History's Greatest Murder Mystery : The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
by Noel Twyman
Allegations of PFC Eugene Dinkin
Private First Class Eugene Dinkin was a cryptographic code operator stationed in Metz, France. On November 4, 1963 he went AWOL from his unit, and entered Switzerland using forged travel orders and a false Army identification card. On November 6, he appeared in the Press Room of the United Nations in Geneva and told reporters he was being persecuted. He also told reporters that "they" were plotting against President Kennedy and that "something" would happen in Dallas. After Kennedy was murdered, a friend of Dinkin's named Dennis De Witt told military authorities that Dinkin had predicted Kennedy's assassination for November 28, and later changed the date to November 22.
Dinkin was arrested on November 13 and placed in a psychiatric hospital, and latered transferred to Walter Reed, where he underwent various psychological tests before eventually being released. His allegation reached the White House on November 29, and went to the Warren Commission in April of 1964.
Eugene B. Dinkin Is A Key To JFK’s Assassination
by Steven Hager
Dinkin was an army code operator stationed in Mertz, France, when he intercepted a message between a CIA-operative (probably Harvey) who had contacted French mafia in Marseilles to recruit their top assassin (who had the CIA code name QJ/WIN ) for a plot against President Kennedy. Apparently this plot already had the support of some Pentagon brass and a right-wing group in Texas (Murchinson and the Hunt brothers, no doubt). Apparently, some top assassins from a number of secret societies were being recruited. Dinkin made the mistake of telling one of his superiors about this message, as well as his plans to alert the world in order to stop this attempt to kill the President.
Pretty soon, word came down that Dinkin was about to be declared mentally ill, so he went AWOL and escaped into Switzerland, where he attempted to alert the press at a United Nations function. He also sent a letter to Robert Kennedy outlining the plot. Keep in mind, this all happened just days before the assassination, and Dinkin was already telling people the exact date and place the assassination was due to happen.
U.S. Army Pfc. Eugene Dinkin Intercepted Cable About JFK Assassination
by Tim King
He was 1963's incarnation of Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning; Dinkin intercepted cables in France and tried to prevent Kennedy's death.
Tosh Plumlee says Dinkin's revelations were common knowledge among government agents. He says many assassination reports had been circulating around Miami and Texas the past few months prior to November 1963. "Everyone knew about the Army's Private Eugene B. Dinkin report to the Pentagon and his allegations," Plumlee said, adding, "That is the reason that they launched a team from the Pentagon, because of information received from Private Dinkin."
While his perspective was somewhat limited, Tosh was part of the CIA team that flew to Dallas hoping to thwart the assassination. "When we got to Dallas there were a total of 8 people. I didn't know exactly what they were doing, that is my problem all these years with all of these researchers, they think I know all of the people, I was a pilot. This was the third or fourth time we were sent out to try to prevent assassinations on JFK."
For more see the comprehensive section: Foreknowledge
October 24, 1963
President Kennedy signs the bill launching first major national drive against mental illness and mental retardation.
President Kennedy’s Remarks to the National Association for Retarded Children (1:43)
The President spoke at a luncheon at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.
"In spite of the dramatic discoveries in medicine, the number of mentally retarded is increasing. Whooping cough, diphtheria, scarlet fever, have all but been eliminated, but every year 126,000 children are born who are or who will become retarded. Parents frequently must face decisions in hospitals of what therapy should be adopted to preserve a child's life, knowing that that therapy may bring about mental retardation or blindness. Almost 5,000 of these children are so severely retarded that they will never be able to care for their own needs. This tragic human waste which, of course, affects not only the child but the family which is involved, can and must be stopped.
I think we have an obligation of country, especially a country as rich as ours, especially a country which has so much money to spend on so many things which may be desirable, but may be not essential in every case--we certainly should have the resources to spend to make a major effort to see if we can block this, stop it, and cure it."
President Kennedy signs the Maternal and Child Health and Mental Retardation Planning Amendment to the Social Security Act, the first major legislation to combat mental illness and retardation and hands pen to his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
October 24, 1963
Cora Lacy Frederickson was an insurance executive's wife and a prominent figure in downtown lunch clubs. On October 24, 1963, Mrs Frederickson assaulted U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson at Dallas' Memorial Auditorium Theater. Stevenson first approached a screaming Mrs. Frederickson merely to ask her about the source of her anger. In response, she struck the ambassador over the head with her "Down with U.N." picket sign. Mrs. Frederickson was arrested, but Stevenson didn't press charges.
A Month Before JFK's Assassination, Dallas Right Wingers Attack Adlai Stevenson
by Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis
Extremists in Dallas created volatile atmosphere before JFK’s 1963 visit
by Scott K. Parks
...But those symbols were mere smudges on the national snapshot of Dallas, compared with the attack on U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson II on Oct. 24, 1963, a month before Kennedy's assassination.
The story goes like this: When Walker heard that Stevenson was coming to Dallas to deliver a speech at Memorial Auditorium commemorating U.N. Day, he scheduled a "U.S. Day" celebration one day earlier at the same downtown locale.
Walker, speaking to 1,000 people, called his gathering a "symbol of our sovereignty," then added: "Tomorrow night, there will stand here a symbol of the communist conspiracy and its United Nations."
During Stevenson's U.N. Day address, a heckler stood up in the audience and began shouting into a bullhorn. He was later identified as a founder of the National Indignation Convention, another right-wing Dallas group that had supported Walker in his failed run for governor.
Police escorted the heckler from the auditorium, but the trouble had just begun.
After the speech, a hostile crowd of about 100 protesters surrounded the ambassador outside the auditorium. Many carried signs denouncing the U.N. - signs that had been stored at Walker's home, according to Payne, the Dallas historian.
Stevenson tried to reason with the protesters. Suddenly, one woman conked him on the head with her sign. A man spat on him. After police broke through the crowd to rescue him, Stevenson was heard to say, "Are these human beings or are these animals?"
Once again, the spotlight shone on Dallas. "A City Disgraced," read the headline in Time magazine.
The Dallas Morning News, in an editorial headlined "Our Apologies," defended the ambassador's right to deliver his speech and admonished demonstrators for their crude manners. The editorial ended with words that, read today, are chilling: "The President of the United States will be here in November. We trust he will be welcomed and accorded the respect and dignity that go with the office he represents."
October 31, 1963
President John F. Kennedy's 63rd News Conference (6:27)
Q. Mr. President, just shortly after the Bay of Pigs I asked you how you liked being President, and as I remember you said you liked it better before the event. Now you have had a chance to appraise your job, and why do you like it and why do you want to stay in office 4 more years?
THE PRESIDENT. Well, I find the work rewarding. Whether I am going to stay and what my intentions are and all of the rest, it seems to me it is still a good many, many months away. But as far as the job of President goes, it is rewarding. And I have given before to this group the definition of happiness of the Greeks, and I will define it again: it is full use of your powers along lines of excellence. I find, therefore, the Presidency provides some happiness.
Q. Mr. President, there have been persistent reports in recent days that the State Department is negotiating with the Junta in the Dominican Republic looking toward a resumption of full diplomatic relations. Are these reports true, and is there some basis on which we would be willing to recognize the present Junta?
THE PRESIDENT. Well, there have been conversations in the Dominican Republic to see what assurances can be given regarding the restoration of democratic rule, constitutional rule in the Dominican Republic. We have a charge d'affaires there, and quite obviously we are interested in that restoration. Those assurances are of free elections, so we are continuing to carry out these discussions, although actually they are relatively informal, and they have reaped no harvest as yet. But that would be our policy to attempt to see if we can resume relations with the Dominican Republic under assurances of a restoration of constitutional government. As yet we have had no success.
He was at his witty best in his response of Goldwater:
''Well, as I have said before, I think it would be unwise at this time to answer or reply to Senator Goldwater. I am confident he will be making many charges even more serious than this one in the coming months, and in addition, he, himself, has had a busy week selling TVA and giving permission to or suggesting that military commanders overseas be permitted to use nuclear weapons, and attacking the President of Bolivia while he was here in the United States, and involving himself in the Greek election. So I thought it really would not be fair for me this week to reply to him.''
November 1, 1963 - November 2, 1963
The South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his adviser, his younger brother Ngô Ðình Nhu are arrested and assassinated. The Unites States backed coup overthrows the government of South Vietnam, replaces it with a military dictatorship.
The Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
by Peter Kross
The brutal murder of the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, and his powerful brother and adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu, on November 2, 1963, was a major turning point in the war in Vietnam...
...The first coup effort against Diem originated in August 1963, when CIA officer Colonel Lucien Conein met secretly with a number of high-ranking South Vietnamese military officers, including Generals Duong Van Big Minh, Tran Van Don, Le Van Kim and Tran Thien Khiem. Conein was a veteran of the World War II Office of Strategic Services and was on good terms with Diem. It was his job to act as an intermediary between the plotters and the U.S. embassy. During the initial meeting, Minh spoke about assassinating both Diem and Nhu. When Ambassador Lodge learned of this he cabled Washington. Upon receiving the report of the clandestine meeting, Kennedy responded by declaring that there was no turning back.
In his discussions with the insurgent generals, Conein meanwhile told them that the United States could not be of any help during initial action of assuming power of state. It would be entirely their own action, win or lose. At the end of August the Kennedy administration sent another, more forceful message to the coup plotters, saying that the United States would support a coup if it had a good chance of succeeding, but it would not permit the participation of U.S. forces. The president also told Ambassador Lodge that it was fine if Washington initiated action to suspend further aid to the Diem regime.
According to the Assassinations Report issued by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 1975, the initial coup plan failed because the Generals did not feel ready and did not have sufficient balance of focus. If Diem did not realize at that point that his hold on power was fleeting, a series of public pronouncements from Washington should have allayed any doubt. On September 8, David Bell, the director of the Agency for International Development, told a television reporter that Congress might cut off further aid to Diem if radical changes were not carried out. On September 12, Senator Frank Church, with President Kennedy’s approval, introduced a resolution in the Senate condemning the South Vietnamese government for its repressive measures and calling for aid to be cut off.
In October 1963, Secretary McNamara and General Taylor arrived in Saigon on a fact-finding mission. After meeting with President Diem, they recommended to President Kennedy that the United States work with Diem but hold back further financial and political support. They also proposed a 1,000-man troop withdrawal by the end of the year. Their most important concern was that no actions resulting in a coup take place at that time.
On October 3, however, Conein made contact with General Minh, who told him that a new coup was in the offing and asked for American support if it succeeded. In their discussion Minh revealed that the plan included the assassinations of both Diem and Nhu. On October 5, 1963, according to the Assassinations Report, the unnamed acting chief of the CIA station in Saigon cabled Washington that he had recommended to Ambassador Lodge that the United States not set ourselves irrevocably against the assassination plot.
Also according to the Assassinations Report, CIA Director John McCone later stated that after a meeting with both the president and Attorney General Robert Kennedy, he believed that President Kennedy agreed with his recommendation to assemble all pertinent intelligence on the coup plot, despite the fact that the president had great reservations about Diem. McCone further said that during his talk with President Kennedy they did not discuss assassination specifically, only whether or not the United States should let the coup go ahead or try to stop it. McCone left the meeting believing that the president concurred with the CIA director’s hands-off recommendation.
In Saigon, Conein met secretly with General Don, one of the coup plotters, telling him that the United States was opposed to any assassinations. The general responded, All right, you don’t like it, we won’t talk about it anymore.
On October 28, Don told Ambassador Lodge that he would tell him of the plans for the coup before it took place. Lodge called Washington, reporting that he could do nothing to stop the coup. Washington hurriedly replied, telling Lodge to try to talk the generals out of going ahead with the coup. By that point neither Lodge nor any other American official in Washington or Saigon could exert any more influence over the generals. The coup was on.
In the pre-dawn darkness of November 1, 1963, ARVN soldiers loyal to the generals took up positions around Saigon. They took over police headquarters and radio stations and began to move on the presidential palace. The coup leaders gave only a four-minute warning to the U.S. embassy, allowing Ambassador Lodge no time to react. When they confronted Diem, the plotters demanded that he resign and guaranteed him and the Nhus safe exit from the country. Diem called Lodge, who said that the United States could take no action.
General Minh called Diem and told him that if he did not resign immediately the presidential palace would be attacked. When Diem did not respond, the plotters launched an air attack on the presidential palace just before dark. In the early hours of November 2, Diem finally called General Don and offered to surrender if his party received safe passage out of the country. Don agreed to the terms, but Diem did not inform Don of his whereabouts.
Diem and Nhu had escaped through a secret tunnel under the presidential palace and had made their way to Cholon, the Chinese district of Saigon. In circumstances that are still unclear today, Diem and Nhu were tracked down and taken into custody by forces loyal to the plotters. A little while later Diem and Nhu were killed inside an armored personnel carrier while they were being transported to the joint general staff headquarters building.
.When President Kennedy heard the news, he reacted with shock to the deaths of Diem and his brother. Their murders had not been in the script...
CIA Assassinated President Of The Republic Of Vietnam
Betrayed Ally Of The United States Of America
LBJ Admits Murder of Diem (:20)
Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge informed President Kennedy of Diem's assassination after the fact. The reason Kennedy wanted to shatter CIA into a thousand pieces. They created the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban missile crisis, which almost caused a nuclear winter. They overthrew other governments and Kennedy didn't want CIA calling shots and making him dance as their puppet. The CIA's response: They shattered Kennedy's brain in a thousand pieces in Dealey Plaza. And who was the driver of the limousine when Kennedy was murdered? The best witness of all was Jackie Kennedy. She said that Greer had not acted during the crucial moment, that he might just as well have been Miss Shaw” (the children’s nanny), and if Greer had hit the gas “Jack might still be alive.” Greer’s son indicated that his father was one of those people who had no respect for John F. Kennedy. Greer was a servant for JFK’s rival Henry Cabot Lodge for many years, and was a Northern Irish Protestant in an era where the Protestant-Catholic hatred was palpable. When Greer’s son was asked “what did your father think of JFK?”, the son was silent. When the question was repeated, Greer responded: “Well, we’re Methodists ... and JFK was Catholic.”
See: November 4, 1963, President Kennedy records a personal memo about the assassination of South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem.
For more see the comprehensive section: Assassination Of Ngô Brothers
November 2, 1963
The Chicago plot. Chicago was originally where Kennedy was to be assassinated. Had the plan succeeded, Thomas Arthur Vallee would have been the famous alleged assassin whose name would be remembered forever, rather than Lee Harvey Oswald.
On November 2, 1963, Kennedy was set to appear at the Army / Air Force football game in Chicago at 11:40 a.m. At the Chicago Secret Service Bureau, Special Agent in Charge, Maurice Martineau, informed agents about reports of assassins on October 30. Martineau was repeating a tip from the FBI, in which an informant identifying as "Lee" talked about a four-man sniper team of "rightwing para-military fanatics" with high-powered rifles, who would shoot at Kennedy as his motorcade was driving from O'Hare down the Northwest Expressway, around a slow loop off the highway exit of what is now ironically known as the JFK Expressway.
The tip from "Lee" wasn't the only one. A landlady at a Northside boarding house called the FBI after she saw four men check into the house, each with a scoped rifle, and carrying a map of Kennedy's motorcade route. The FBI then called the Secret Service office in Chicago, who searched for the riflemen. Two of the would-be assassins were found and detained for several hours for questioning, while the other two got away. The names of the two would-be presidential assassins are still unknown to this day, as the Department of the Treasury, which oversees the Secret Service, mysteriously destroyed all records of the Chicago plot when the Assassinations Records and Review Board asked for them in 1995, more than three decades after the incident.
In the meantime, the Secret Service had to respond to another tip about an ex-Marine named Thomas Arthur Vallee, who had been reportedly talking about shooting the president when he came to Chicago. Vallee was a paranoid schizophrenic, a disaffiliated member of the famously right-wing, anti-Communist John Birch society, collected guns, and was described as a loner. As a Marine in the Korean War, Vallee was injured by a mortar blast, was subsequently committed to several mental institutions, and received full disability benefits from the Veterans Administration. Like Oswald the expat turncoat, Vallee the mentally disabled fit the preferred profile of the lone wolf presidential assassin.
Vallee's apartment was raided in his absence, and FBI agents found an M1 rifle, a carbine rifle, and 2500 rounds of ammunition. The Secret Service instructed Chicago Police to put 24-hour surveillance on Vallee and "get him off the street." Vallee was pulled over and arrested by Chicago Police Department officers Daniel Groth and Peter Schurla on the morning of November 2, as his 1962 Ford Falcon made its way toward the expressway on Kennedy's motorcade route. The officers cited a missed turn signal as the result of the arrest. Upon seeing a hunting knife in the front seat of the Falcon, they charged Vallee with carrying a concealed weapon, and a search of his trunk yielded 300 rounds of ammunition.
Vallee's connections to Unites States intelligence soon came out. His New York license plates read 31-10RF. NBC Chicago employee Luke Christopher Hester learned of the arrest and asked Hugh Larkin, his father-in-law, to have a background check done on the plates by his former colleagues in the New York Police Department. The plates came back "frozen," meaning that only United States intelligence agencies could retrieve the classified information associated with Vallee's registration.
Officers Groth and Schurla went on to have prominent intelligence careers. Groth led the December 4, 1969, raid on Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, who were both assassinated by police. Hampton was just 21, and Clark was 22. The families of Hampton and Clark, as well as Black Panthers who survived the raid, would successfully sue Daniel Groth and local, state, and federal agencies in 1983 for a $1.85 million settlement. While under Oath, Groth admitted that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI specifically requested the raid on Hampton. Officer Schurla became a high-level intelligence officer at the Chicago police headquarters.
Like Oswald, Vallee also worked on the CIA's top-secret U-2 planes in Japan. Vallee told investigative journalist Edwin Black that his U-2 work was at Camp Otsu, but that he also helped the CIA train Cuban exiles to kill Fidel Castro at a CIA base in Levittown, Long Island. Oswald did similar work at a CIA training camp in Lake Pontchartrain, close to New Orleans. Vallee worked near a third floor window at IPP Litho-Plate, at 625 West Jackson Boulevard, directly above where the presidential motorcade would pass. Oswald worked on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD), in front of where the Dallas motorcade would pass. It isn't hard to see how the CIA blazed a path for both men to be set up as scapegoats in their elaborate plot to assassinate JFK.
For more see the comprehensive section: Chicago Plot
November 4, 1963
Listening In: JFK on Vietnam (4:05)
President Kennedy records a personal memo about the assassination of South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem, only to be interrupted by his son, John F. Kennedy, Jr. The light tone he strikes with his son stands in stark contrast to his words about the [CIA] overthrow of Diem and his brother, which clearly upset him.
November 6, 1963
...Later, in 1975, two House subcommittees held public hearings on issues relating to the treatment of assassination records. These were the House Judiciary Committee's Civil and Constitutional Rights Subcommittee (Edwards Committee) that investigated the destruction of the so-called "Hosty note" which Lee Harvey Oswald had left at the FBI Dallas field office for Special Agent James Hosty on November 6, 1963.
After the assassination, Hosty destroyed the note on the instructions of his superior, Special Agent in Charge J. Gordon Shanklin. Its existence remained unknown outside the FBI for 12 years. The Government Information and Individual Rights Subcommittee of the Government Operations Committee (Abzug Committee) examined issues of access and openness relating to Warren Commission records...
Destruction of the Oswald Note
In 1975, the allegation surfaced that the FBI had destroyed a note delivered to it by Lee Harvey Oswald, just one or two weeks prior to the assassination of President Kennedy. An internal FBI investigation failed to find any records relating to this, but interviews of Dallas Field Office personnel established that an Oswald visit and note dropoff had occurred.
The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony from several relevant witnesses, as did the contemporaneous Church Committee. The results of this were:
Oswald definitely did visit the Dallas Field Office a week to two weeks prior to the assassination, looking for Agent Hosty, who had recently visited his wife Marina.
When told that Hosty was not in, Oswald left a note in an envelope which was unsealed.
The note contained some sort of threat, but accounts varied widely as to whether Oswald threatened to "blow up the FBI" or merely "report this to higher authorities."
Within hours after Oswald's murder on 24 Nov 1963, Hosty destroyed the note and a memorandum which Special-Agent-in-Charge Gordon Shanklin had ordered written on November 22.
Hosty maintained that Shanklin, head of the Dallas Field Office, had ordered him to destroy the note. Shanklin denied ever having heard of the note until 1975, though Assistant Director William Sullivan did recall the incident. The House Select Committee on Assassinations reviewed the incident and did not find Shanklin's denial credible.
The movie JFK added a new twist based on rumors which have never been substantiated. In the film, New Orleans DA Jim Garrison wonders why the FBI would destroy a note which would tend to confirm Oswald's violent character, and presents his staff with an alternative: "This is just speculation, people, but what if the note was describing the assassination attempt on JFK?"
...In March, 1963, Hosty was ordered to keep Lee Harvey Oswald under observation. Soon afterwards Hosty received a message from the FBI's Washington office that Oswald was subscribing to the Daily Worker, the newspaper of the American Communist Party.
In June, Hosty heard from FBI headquarters that Oswald was in New Orleans, and requested information on him. Hosty visited the home of Ruth Paine to discover where Oswald was living. He spoke to both Paine and Marina Oswald about Oswald. When Oswald heard about the visit he went to the FBI office in Dallas. When told that Hosty was at lunch Oswald left him a message in an envelope.
The contents of the envelope has remained a mystery. A receptionist working at the Dallas office claimed it included a threat to "blow up the FBI and the Dallas Police Department if you don't stop bothering my wife." Hosty later claimed it said: "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 the proper authorities."
Soon after Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Hosty was called into the office of his superior, Gordon Shanklin. Hosty was asked about what he knew about Oswald. When Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby two days later, Shanklin ordered Hosty to destroy Oswald's letter.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation I discovered that Hosty's name and phone number appeared in Oswald's address book. J. Edgar Hoover was worried that this indicated that Oswald had been working closely with the FBI. That he might have been an FBI informant on the activities of left-wing groups such as the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Instead of passing Oswald's address book to the Warren Commission, the FBI provided a typewritten transcription of the document in which the Hosty entry was omitted...
Assignment: Oswald by James P. Hosty, Jr.
by George W. Bailey
Former FBI Agent’s Book Reveals Some Surprises
I’ve read that FBI Special Agent James P. Hosty’s book, Assignment: Oswald, published in 1996 and now out of print, offers some surprising background details on the early turbulent days of the FBI’s investigation of the Kennedy and Tippet murders. Hosty’s account spares no one in this frank description of the events and personalties that shaped the early days of the JFK assassination investigation. James Hosty does a good job at recounting the chaotic scenes in the Dallas FBI headquarters and later, the Dallas Police Department with the gaggle of photographers and newsmen, the chain smoking, coffee swilling detectives, the banging and clanging of the teletype machines and typewriters, to the short fuses of overworked men enduring sleepless nights fueled by caffeine and adrenaline.
Early on Hosty makes this sobering assessment of being in the FBI:
“With time, my idealism waned, and I accepted the hard fact that law enforcement is basically gray. I also came to understand that one of our jobs was to protect the Bureau’s image at all costs, even if it ran roughshod over individuals or principles.”
A candid disclosure to say the least. And therein, lies the problem with the FBI investigating crimes. Their approach will have political angle to it. Hosty clearly illustrates this later when his boss Gordon Shanklin, who he describes as a “damn good man” orders him to destroy evidence in the case. Not once but twice, with a third time implied. And why? So as to eliminate any embarrassment to the prestige of the FBI and hence, J. Edgar Hoover since both were viewed as one and the same at the time. It should also be noted that Hoover’s early comments immediately after the assassination were that the FBI had no foreknowledge about Oswald, but in fact, they had a file on him starting the year of his defection to the Soviet Union in 1959. They kept him under tight surveillance by the time he landed back in America in June of 1962 to just a few days before the assassination in 1963...
November 8, 1963
President Kennedy arrives and departs Hotel Carlyle, New York City, N.Y. (1:33)
President John F. Kennedy arrives and departs Hotel Carlyle in New York City before his Address on the foreign aid program at the dinner of the Protestant Council of the City of New York, Hilton Hotel. President Kennedy is picked up by Mayor of New York City Robert F. Wagner and wife Susan Wagner.
by Jeane MacIntosh
...By 1953, when the then-Boston senator wed New York native Jacqueline Bouvier, Kennedy’s Manhattan base was a suite on the 34th floor of The Carlyle hotel, which would become known as “the New York White House.”...
November 8, 1963
Remarks by President Kennedy at the Dinner of the Protestant Council of the City of New York (Audio 22 minutes)
Sound recording of President John F. Kennedy’s remarks to the Protestant Council of the City of New York during a ceremony presenting the 1963 Family of Man Award to President Kennedy. In his speech the President explains that robust foreign and domestic aid programs are an essential method for reducing and eliminating the problems that afflict the international “human family” such as poverty, malnutrition, and political instability.
November 9, 1963
“I guess you thought I was kidding when I said Kennedy would be killed from an office building with a high-powered rifle.” On the morning of November 9, 1963, two weeks before JFK was assassinated, right-wing extremist Joseph Milteer was in a Miami hotel room talking with Willie Somerset, an undercover police informant who happened to be wearing a wire.
Joseph Milteer
Threat In Miami : The Milteer Tape (5:13)
JFK Assassination Former FBI Agent Don Adams On Joseph Milteer (4:45)
Thirteen days before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, a man named Joseph Milteer was tape recorded telling Miami police informant William Somersett that the murder of Kennedy was "in the working," that the best means of killing Kennedy was "from an office building with a high-powered rifle," and that "they will pick up somebody within hours afterwards, if anything like that would happen just to throw the public off."
Joseph Milteer Is A Key To The JFK Assassination
by Steven Hager
On the morning of November 9, 1963, two weeks before JFK was assassinated, right-wing extremist Joseph Milteer was in a Miami hotel room talking with Willie Somerset, an undercover police informant who happened to be wearing a wire. This conversation was turned over to the FBI immediately, although it would not surface publicly until four years later. Here is what Milteer had to say: [Killing Kennedy] “was in the working” and would be accomplished “from an office building with a high-powered rifle”….that could be “disassembled” to get it into the building and they will “pick someone up within hours if anything like that happened just to throw the public off.” Milteer also mentioned “the Cubans” were involved.
In fact, an even earlier assassination attempt had been planned for Chicago on November 2, but that plot had been foiled by someone named “Lee.” Coincidentally, two of the men involved in the Chicago plot were former Marines who’d been stationed at Atsuki, the same base where Lee Harvey Oswald was likely programmed by MKULTRA-style brainwashing.
Maybe you know Frank Sturgis was accused by Marita Lorenz of driving a car with high-powered rifles and scopes in the trunk from Miami to Dallas right before the assassination.
I’d imagine Milteer attended some sort of celebration later that day. Clint Murchison held a big one on his ranch...
A Miami Police Informant, A Prophetic Racist And Fresh Questions About JFK’s Death
by Dan Christensen
For more see the comprehensive section: Foreknowledge
November 9, 1963
Watch Rare Footage Of JFK Playing With His Children Just A Week Before His Death
by Adam Rathe
The clip is part of the HBO documentary The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee.
NSAM 271 Cooperation With The USSR On Outer Space Matters
Memorandum For The Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
I would like you to assume personally the initiative and central responsibility within the Government for the development of a program of substantive cooperation with the Soviet Union in the field of outer space, including the development of specific technical proposals. I assume that you will work closely with the Department of State and other agencies as appropriate.
These proposals should be developed with a view of their possible discussion with the Soviet Union as a direct outcome of my September 20 proposal for broader cooperation between the United States and the USSR in outer space, including cooperation in lunar landing programs. All proposals or suggestions originating within the Government relating to this general subject will be referred to you for your consideration and evaluation.
In addition to developing substantive proposals, I expect that you will assist the Secretary of State in exploring problems of procedure and timing connected with holding discussions with the Soviet Union and in proposing for my consideration the channels which would be most desirable from our point of view. In this connection the channel of contact developed by Dr. Dryden between NASA and the Soviet Academy of Sciences has been quite effective, and I believe that we should continue to utilize it as appropriate as a means of continuing the dialogue between the scientists of both counties.
Commentary on NSAM #271 and NASA
by Nathan Gant
...But almost immediately after the UN speech, it was NASA which became uncooperative. There was serious foot-dragging within their upper ranks. For example, Dr. Robert C. Seamans(Associate NASA Administrator) had (privately) threatened to resign rather than cooperate in a joint US-USSR lunar flight. Moreover, a former head of NASA's moon flight program, Dr. B. Holmes, publically stated in an ABC television interview in Sept. 1963 that a Soviet-American mission to the moon would be, "a very costly, very inefficient, probably a very dangerous way to execute the program."
On the other hand, on Sept. 29, 1963, the Soviet responses to his speech were all quite favorable. See the NY Times article(included as file NYT1.TXT). Later on Oct. 25, 1963, at a Kremlin press conference in another positive response to Kennedy's joint space initiative, Premier Krushchev emphasized that there would not be any kind of 'moon race' against the Americans. And really from that point on, the Soviet govenment no longer made any sort of plans for a lunar landing on its own...
National Security Action Memorandum No. 271
Memorandum For The Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Subject: Cooperation with the USSR on Outer Space Matters
For more see the comprehensive section: Joint Moon Mission With USSR
November 14, 1963
JFK Press Conference - Subject: Vietnam (1:32)
After all, it's their war. They're the ones that will have to win it or lose it.
November 15, 1963?
Sergei Khrushchev said his father talked to him about a week before Kennedy’s assassination on the president’s idea for a joint lunar mission. Nikita Khrushchev had broken ranks with his rocket scientists, and thought the Soviet Union should accept Kennedy’s invitation to go to the moon together, as a further step in peaceful cooperation.
In Washington, Kennedy acted as if he already knew about Khrushchev’s hopeful change of heart on that critical issue. JFK was already telling NASA to begin work on a joint U.S.-Soviet lunar mission. On November 12, 1963, JFK issued his National Security Action Memorandum 271, ordering NASA to implement, as he put it, my “September 20 proposal for broader cooperation between the United States and the USSR in outer space, including cooperation in lunar landing programs.”
That further visionary step to end the Cold War also died with President Kennedy. As you know, the U.S. went to the moon alone. U.S. and Soviet rockets continued to be pointed at their opposite countries rather than being joined in a project for a more hopeful future. Sergei Khrushchev said, “I think if Kennedy had lived, we would be living in a completely different world.”
November 15, 1963
President Kennedy visits the family home in Palm Beach.
November 16, 1963
President Kennedy visits Cape Canaveral. Ten days after his visit, the cape was renamed Cape Kennedy. Today it is known as the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.
President John F. Kennedy visits the Saturn Missile Control Center. (2:51)
President John F. Kennedy traveled from Palm Beach to Cape Canaveral, Florida on this Saturday morning, where he visited Pad B at Complex 37 and was briefed by Wernher von Braun on the Saturn rocket booster.
Watch JFK Tour NASA 6 Days Before His Assassination (Video and Text)
by Allison McNearney
JFK Visits NASA for the Last Time. Shortly before his assassination, President Kennedy visited Cape Canaveral to inspect NASA's efforts to put a man on the moon – a goal Kennedy set in his first year in office.
November 17, 1963
President Kennedy returns to Palm Beach. He is scheduled to visit Tampa, Miami and several cities in Texas in the coming week.
President Kennedy arrives at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa. His first stop is Al Lopez Field, where he delivers a speech. He then travels to the State Chamber of Commerce meeting and delivers another speech at a meeting at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory. Then he flies to Miami to speak at a Democratic rally at the airport and at the Inter-American Press Association in Miami Beach. He returns to Washington late in the evening.
Lyndon Johnson Wanted Jackie To Ride In His Limo Not JFK's
by Robert Morrow
Here is a fuller, more complete quote of George Smathers who spoke with Kennedy on November 18, 1963. It comes from the Kennedys, on PBS "American Experience." Apparently, Johnson wanted to ride with Kennedy, which is quite strange if LBJ knew there would be snipers and a kill zone in the parade. Then, apparently, Lyndon Johnson was lobbying hard to have Jackie ride with him ... I think the first move was a ploy and the second demand was the real goal. You can watch the film clip online at PBS, the Kennedys, at the 1:44:30 mark of the video at PBS.
Lyndon Johnson Wanted Jackie To Ride In His Limo Not JFK's
by Robert Morrow
...Lyndon Johnson wanted Jackie Kennedy to ride in his limo in the motorcade ... or rather his Lincoln convertible. And, also on the day of the assassination, Johnson was also pleading/demanding that his friend John Connally be put in his car and his hated enemy Ralph Yarborough moved to the kill zone in JFK's car.
JFK's good friend and Florida Senator George Smathers is the source for the very revealing information that LBJ wanted Jackie to ride in his car.
Just before John Kennedy headed to Dallas he had a conversation with his good friend Florida Senator George Smathers; here is how it went:
JFK: “Gee, I really hate to go to Texas. I gotta go to Texas next week and its just a pain in the rear end and I just don’t want to go, I wish I could get out of it.
George Smathers: I said “Well, what’s the problem?”
JFK: “Well, you know how Lyndon is, Johnson wants Jackie to ride with him, and all these fights were going on…. I hate to go into all that mess and I hate to go and I wish I could think of a way to get out of it.”
Transcript from PBS "American Experience - The Kennedys Part II - The Sons"
Sen. George Smathers, U.S. Congress 1946-1968: I came back to Washington with the President. He was lying down. They had a bed in the Air Force One for him to lie on. So he said, Gee, I really hate to go to Texas. I got to go to Texas next week and its just a pain in the rear end and I just don't want to go. I wish I could get out of it. And I said, Well, what's the problem? He said, Well, you know how Lyndon is. Lyndon was Vice President. Lyndon wants to ride with me, but John Connally is the governor and he wants to ride and I think that protocol says that he's supposed to ride and Johnson wants Jackie to ride with him. And Connally was, at that time, a little bit jealous of Lyndon and Lyndon was a little jealous of him, so its all these fights were going on. He said, I just don't want to go down in that mess. I hate to go. I wish I could think of a way to get out of it.
November 19, 1963
...But there was another case where Kennedy did the same, the giant island archipelago of Indonesia, which the Netherlands had colonized since the late 1500s. After World War II, a guerrilla war challenged a restoration of colonialism and Indonesia won its independence in 1949. But, as with Katanga in Congo, the Dutch decided to keep control of the eastern island of West Irian because of its wealth.
In 1958, the Dulles brothers tried to overthrow Achmed Sukarno, the nationalist president of Indonesia, but the coup attempt failed. The shoot-down of American pilot Allen Pope exposed the coup as being organized and run by the CIA. Sukarno kept Pope imprisoned after the change of administrations.
President Kennedy invited Sukarno to the U.S. for a state visit. He wanted to discuss the release of Pope, so he asked CIA Director Allen Dulles for the report on how Pope was captured. Dulles gave him a redacted copy. But even in this form, Kennedy discerned what had happened. He exclaimed, “No wonder Sukarno doesn’t like us very much. He has to sit down with people who tried to overthrow his government.”
Because of Kennedy’s different view of the issues at hand, he was able to achieve a much improved relationship with Indonesia. He secured the release of Pope, put together a package of non-military aid for Indonesia, and finally, with the help of Robert Kennedy and veteran diplomat Ellsworth Bunker, West Irian was released by the Netherlands and eventually returned to Indonesia.
Kennedy’s diplomatic opening to the fiery third-world leadership of President Sukarno of Indonesia. Sukarno was “the most outspoken proponent of Third World neutralism in the Cold War.” He had actually coined the term “Third World.” The CIA wanted Sukarno dead. It wanted what it saw as his pro-communist “global orientation” obliterated. During Eisenhower’s presidency, the CIA repeatedly tried to kill and overthrow Sukarno but failed.
Kennedy, however, chose to work with Sukarno, hoping to win him over as an ally, which he did. Sukarno came to love Kennedy. The U.S. president resolved what seemed a hopeless conflict between Indonesia and its former colonial master, the Netherlands, averting a war. To the CIA’s dismay, in 1961 Kennedy welcomed Sukarno to the White House.
Most significantly, three days before his assassination (November 19, 1963), President Kennedy said he was willing to accept Sukarno’s invitation to visit Indonesia the following spring. His visit to Indonesia would have dramatized in a very visible way Kennedy’s support of Third World nationalism, a sea change in U.S. government policy.
Kennedy’s Indonesian policy was also killed in Dallas, with horrendous consequences. After Lyndon Johnson became president, the CIA finally succeeded in overthrowing Sukarno in a massive purge of suspected Communists that ended up killing 500,000 to one million Indonesians.
November 19, 1963
Sends a presidential statement to be read at the Centennial Ceremony in Gettysburg National Military Park, where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.
November 20, 1963
President Kennedy discusses the prospect of a single global commercial space communications system. He transmits to Congress an annual report on the United Nations. He signs a bill authorizing medals commemorating the founding of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (his last bill). That evening Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy host a cocktail party at the White House.
November 20, 1963
One of the most well-known stories of foreknowledge in the Kennedy assassination is that of Rose Cherami (often spelled "Cheramie"), whose real name was Melba Christine Marcades.
On November 20, 1963, Cherami was struck by a car on Highway 190 near Eunice, Lousiana. She told police Lt. Francis Fruge she had been traveling with two men from Florida to Dallas, as part of a drug run, but had been thrown out of the Silver Slipper Lounge after an argument, after which she had been run over. After exhibiting drug withdrawal symptoms, Fruge took her to Jackson East Louisiana State Hospital.
On the journey there, Fruge later told the HSCA, Rose Cherami told the story of her companions and the argument, and then when asked about her business in Dallas, she said she intended to "number one, pick up some money, pick up her baby, and kill Kennedy." She reportedly subsequently told hospital nurses, moments before JFK was killed, that the murder was about to happen.
A few days later, she told Fruge that Oswald was a friend of Jack Ruby, for whom she said she worked as a stripper and dope runner. Dr. Victor Weiss, who treated Cherami, told Jim Garrison's investigators in 1967 that he had heard Rose's predictions about the Kennedy assassination. In his testimony to the HSCA Dr. Weiss was clear that he had heard this before Kennedy's assassination, though the initial 1967 contact report notes that "Dr. Weiss states that he doesn't recall whether this was told to him before or after the assassination."
While working for the Garrison investigation, Lt. Francis Fruge tracked down the owner of the Silver Slipper Lounge, Mac Manual. Manual remembered the incident clearly, and picked out as Rose's companions mug shots of Cuban exile Sergio Arcacha Smith and a man Fruge remembered as "Osanta" (Emilio Santanta?).
On September 4, 1965, Rose Cherami was again a victim of a car accident. This time her skull was crushed and she was killed, near Big Sandy, Texas.
ARRB: Witnesses Verified Cheramie Story (4:28)
Narrated by Jim DiEugenio.
ARRB documents indicate that an intern at the Louisiana State Hospital named Wayne Owen, told his hometown newspaper in Wisconsin that he and other interns at the hospital learned of the assassination of JFK BEFORE it occurred and that they were told that one of the men involved in the killing was a man named "Jack Rubenstein".
Louisiana State Hospital was the place where Rose Cheramie made her plea to stop the assassination.
by John Simkin
Rose Cheramie (Cherami) was found unconsciousness by the side of the road at Eunice, Louisiana, on November 20, 1963. Lieutenant Francis Frugé of the Louisiana State Police took her to the state hospital. On the journey Cheramie said that she had been thrown out of a car by two gangsters who worked for Jack Ruby. She claimed that the men were involved in a plot to kill John F. Kennedy. Cheramie added that Kennedy would be killed in Dallas within a few days. Later she told the same story to doctors and nurses who treated her. As she appeared to be under the influence of drugs her story was ignored.
Following the assassination, Cheramie was interviewed by the police. She claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald had visited Ruby's night club. In fact, she believed the two men were having a homosexual relationship.
Rose Cheramie was found dead on 4th September, 1965. At first it appeared she had been involved in a road accident. Later it was argued that she had been shot in the head before being run over by by a car in order to disguise the original wound. However, the Louisiana State Police Memo reported: "Cheramie died of injuries received from an automobile accident on a strip of highway near Big Sandy, Texas, in the early morning of September 4, 1965.
Rose Cheramie: How She Predicted the JFK Assassination
by Jim DiEugenio
On November 20, 1963, Lt. Francis Fruge of the Louisiana State Police received a phone call from Moosa Memorial Hospital in Eunice. A Mrs. Louise Guillory, the hospital administrator told him that there was an accident victim in the emergency ward. Guillory knew that Fruge worked the narcotics detail and she felt that the woman was under the influence of drugs.
Fruge immediately left for the hospital. When he got there he encountered a middle-aged white female sitting down in the waiting room outside emergency. There were no serious injuries; only bruises and abrasions. She was only partly coherent. But Moosa was a private hospital and since the woman seemed bereft of funds, Guillory had called Fruge to see what he could do to help. The woman identified herself to Fruge as Rose Cheramie.
Fruge had no choice at the time except to place Cheramie in the Eunice City Jail. He then went out to attend the Eunice Police Department's Annual Ball. About an hour later a police officer came over to the function and told Fruge that Cheramie was undergoing withdrawal symptoms. Fruge came back and, after recognizing the condition, called a local doctor, Dr. Derouin, from the coroner's office. Derouin administered a sedative via syringe to calm her down. The doctor then suggested that she be removed from the jail and taken to the state facility in Jackson. After Fruge agreed, Derouin called the facility at about midnight on the 20th and made arrangements for her delivery there. Afterwards, Fruge called Charity Hospital in Lafayette and ordered an ambulance for the transport to the hospital.
Fruge accompanied Cheramie to the hospital. And, according to his House Select Committee deposition, it was at this point that Rose began to relate her fascinating and astonishing tale. Calmed by the sedative, and according to Fruge, quite lucid, she began to respond to some routine questions with some quite unusual answers. She told him that she was en route from Florida to Dallas with two men who looked Cuban or Italian. The men told her that they were going to kill the president in Dallas in just a few days. Cheramie herself was not part of the plot but apparently the men were also part of a large dope ring with Rose since Cheramie's function was as a courier of funds for heroin which was to be dropped off to her by a seaman coming into the port of Galveston. She was to pick up the money for the drugs from a man who was holding her child. It seemed a quite intricate dope ring since she was then to transport the heroin to Mexico. The two men were supposed to accompany her to Mexico but the whole transaction got short-circuited on Highway 190 near Eunice. In the confines of a seedy bar called the Silver Slipper Lounge, Cheramie's two friends were met by a third party. Rose left with the two men she came with. But a short distance away from the bar, an argument apparently ensued. And although some have written that she was thrown out of the vehicle and hit by an oncoming car, according to Fruge, Rose said that the argument took place inside the Silver Slipper, and that the two men and the manager, Mac Manual, threw her out. While hitchhiking on the 190, she was hit by a car driven by one Frank Odom. It was Odom who then delivered her to Moosa. As Fruge so memorably recalled to Jonathan Blackmer of the HSCA, Cheramie summed up her itinerary in Dallas in the following manner: "She said she was going to, number one, pick up some money, pick up her baby, and to kill Kennedy." (p. 9 of Fruge's 4/18/78 deposition)...
The Strange and Revelatory Saga of Rose Cheramie
by Robert Riversong
“We’re going to kill President Kennedy when he comes to Dallas”
Colonel Morgan of the Louisiana State Police phoned Captain Will Fritz of the Dallas Police to tell him about Cheramie’s prediction of the assassination, the confirmed parts of her story, and that the Chief of Customs in Houston was holding her for further questioning. When Morgan had hung up from his conversation with Fritz, he turned to the other officers in the room and said “They don’t want her – they’re not interested”. By that time, Oswald had been captured and the Dallas Police wanted no further witnesses.
The Chief Customs Agent called the FBI to pass on the information received from Cheramie, but was told they did not want to question her.
Cheramie may, in fact, have been shot in the head before Moore found her on the highway and been left there along with the suitcases to create an accident to cover the murder. Records at Gladewater Hospital describe a “deep punctate stellate” (starlike) wound to her right forehead. Dr. Charles A. Crenshaw commented in his book, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, that “The wound in Cheramie’s forehead as described, according to medical textbooks, occurs in contact gunshot wounds – that is, when a gun barrel is placed against a victim’s body and discharged. It is especially applicable to a gunshot wound of the skull…”
Cheramie’s autopsy “cannot be found” according to the authorities. Because of the suspicious conditions and unanswered questions surrounding her death, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison wanted to exhume Cheramie’s body, but the local Texas authorities refused to cooperate.
Todd C. Elliot - Author of “A Rose by Many Other Names (37:24)
Rose Cherami and the JFK Assassination
by Todd C. Elliott
For more see the comprehensive section: Foreknowledge
The Last Two Days, November 21 and 22, 1963 (Video 19 minutes)
Motion picture covering highlights of the final two days in the life of President John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy makes scheduled public appearances and delivers remarks, including his last public words, and interacts informally with crowds that greet him in San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth, and Dallas, Texas. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Governor John Connally, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson make appearances with President Kennedy. Also included is a brief segment as the late President's body is returned to the White House on November 23, 1963. Portions of the soundtrack include radio narration of the assassination of President Kennedy, and a live recording of Judge Sarah Hughes swearing in Lyndon B. Johnson as 36th President of the United States. Produced by: Naval Photographic Center, 1211-69. Photographed by Thomas M. Atkins, Robert L. Knudsen.
November 21, 1963
President Kennedy asks economic advisors to prepare “War on Poverty” program for 1964.
by Thomson Gal
Homer Echevarria - Taking Care of Kennedy
On November 21, 1963, a government informant named Thomas Mosley was negotiating the sale of machine guns to a Cuban exile named Echevarria. In the course of the transaction, Echevarria said that "we now have plenty of money - our new backers are Jews" and would close the arms deal "as soon as we [or they] take care of Kennedy." The next day, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
Mosley, an ATF informant, reported his conversation to the Secret Service, and that agency quickly began investigating what it termed "a group in the Chicago area who may have a connection with the JFK assassination." Echevarria was a member of the 30th November group, associated with the DRE with whom Oswald had dealings the previous summer. Mosley said the arms deal was being financed through Paulino Sierra Martinez and his J.G.C.E., Sierra interestingly was connected to Bobby Kennedy's effort to unite various exile groups, through Harry Ruiz Williams.
The Secret Service investigation was soon taken over by the FBI. The FBI quickly dropped the case, leaving this explosive statement unresolved. The Warren Commission received the Secret Service reports but did not direct the FBI to take any action in the matter.
Worth noting is that in 1995, the Secret Service destroyed presidential protection survey reports for some of Kennedy's trips during the fall of 1963, including the cancelled Chicago trip planned for the beginning of November.
For more see the comprehensive section: Foreknowledge
JFK researcher Matthew Smith has discussed his conversations with Wayne January for many years now, and I wanted to put this story out for comment.
In his book “Conspiracy: The Plot To Stop The Kennedys” (CTPTSTK) he goes into much more detail than he did in his previous book “JFK: The Second Plot”. For one thing he could actually name Mr. January since he had passed away by the time of this book (2005), whereas, in the earlier book (1992) he did not have permission to do so.
The company January was a partner in, Royal Air Service Inc., was wrapping up the selling off of large aircraft. This was part of a top-secret government program that was interested in developing radar mapping for low-level flying by such planes as the F-111 fighter-bomber.
At the time of our story they only had one DC3 left to sell off to finish the contract. This final plane was sold in mid-November by January’s partner and the owner showed up on November 18 to sign for it. January told Mr. Smith he was a very well-dressed gentleman. January said “he was about six feet tall, fair complexioned, brown hair, and late thirties to early forties. His haircut was short, military type, and wore slacks and a sport shirt.” January also said, “he had no particular accent.” January said later on he found out he was an Air Force Colonel who specialized in the type of plane being specialized.
This Colonel brought along an experienced pilot with him to check the plane over from top to bottom before he sale would be finalized. This is where it gets interesting!
Quote on
He was born in Cuba, he said, and had been a senior pilot in Fidel Castro’s air force. Recruited by the CIA, he had flown for it at the Bay of Pigs, when the CIA-led invasion had been routed. He talked to January, and as the day passed, they became friends. The next day, Wednesday, November 20, the day January had encounter with the “hippie” –type CIA agents, they became relaxed and even friendlier. It was the following day that the anti-Kennedy feeling in the air became apparent. January told me, “[There] seemed to be an air of anxiety because the radio and television were spending a lot of time [discussing] the President’s visit to Dallas. Many people were displeased with the President’s policies and politics in general.” It was about ten o’clock in the morning when a friend of January’s up to the plane and stayed talking for over an hour. He added his own unhappiness with the president to what was going about. “I really didn’t pay any attention” said January, “for I just considered him to be rambling with his mouth like everybody else.”
After his friend left, January asked the CIA pilot if he would like to eat some lunch. The pilot said he did but that he did not want to leave the plane, making the excuse that they were a little behind with preparations. January obligingly went over to the restaurant and bought sandwiches for them both. They settled down leaning against the plane’s landing wheels and chatted. Then there was a pause, January told me.
It was now between 12:30 and 1:00 PM. The CIA pilot looked at January and said, “They are going to kill your president.”
“What do you mean?” January asked.
“I mean they are going to kill your president,” replied the pilot.
“You mean President Kennedy?”
“Yes.”
“What makes you think that? Why would anyone want to do that?”
January told me the CIA pilot, with a somber face, said, “I was a mercenary pilot, hired by the CIA. I was involved in the Bay of Pigs planning strategy which was operated by the CIA. I was there involved with many of my friends when they died, when Robert Kennedy talked John Kennedy out of sending in the air cover which he’d agreed to send. He canceled the air support after the invasion was launched. Many, many died. Far more than was told. I don’t all that was going on, but I do know that there was an indescribable amount of hurt, anger, and embarrassment to those that were involved in the operation.”
“Is that why they will kill the President?” January asked.
The CIA pilot replied, “They are not only going to kill the President. They are going to kill Robert Kennedy and any other Kennedy that gets in their position.”
January told me that the pilot did not say what the position was. He said to the CIA pilot, “To be honest with you – and myself – I take what you have said with a grain of salt. Not meaning to insult you or hurt you in any way, it’s just too far fetched for me to believe. If I mentioned anything like that to the world, they would put me out of aviation as a nut, and ruin my reputation as a businessman.” The pilot’s only answer was, “You will see!”
“I have to say,” said January, “I had no answer to that. I could understand his feelings for the friends he lost, but I could not understand the matter-of-fact statements he had uttered, neither the certainty that was in his voice.” The conversation was dropped for a while, favoring small talk. Then the pilot came back with, “They want Robert Kennedy real bad.”
“What for?”
He said, “Never mind. You don’t need to know. Let’s get this job done, time is running out. My boss wants to return to Florida: he thought we would be through today. I told him we would be finished tomorrow by early afternoon.” Tomorrow was November 22, 1963.
Nothing else was said,. We just worked late to finish our job.
The next day January said it was a normal day and as they were finishing the job he got told of the President’s shooting by a Texas Ranger Captain who happened to be a friend of his.
I did not know how to handle the situation. I knew the pilot was not involved (there are man ways to be involved – RC) because he was with me. Then I could not help myself: I had to ask him if he knew what had happened. He told me the man on the fuel truck had told him what had happened. There was a long pause, a sadness in the air, and then he said, “It’s all going to happen just like I told you.”
Matthew Smith believes this DC3 flew out of Red Bird that day with the complete team that had murdered JFK. He surmised it went from Dallas to Houston, and he also believes David Ferrie’s “ice skating” trip to Houston was really to fly this plane form Houston to its ultimate destination.
He tried to trace this plane and did learn that the number (N-17888) had been tied to a DC3 after initially being told a different type plane had that number and the DC3 never “existed.”
He also found out that the plane had been purchased by the Houston Air Center. Mr. Smith then contacted a former CIA Agent out of Houston and asked him if he would check this out for him. The former CIA Agent said the Houston Air Center was a “CIA front.”
For more see the comprehensive section: Foreknowledge
President Kennedy begins his tour of Texas. His destinations are San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth, Dallas and Austin. In San Antonio, President Kennedy gives a dedication speech for U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base. In Houston, he attends at testimonial dinner at the Rice Hotel, honoring Congressman Albert Thomas. At 11:35 p.m., the First Couple arrives at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, after being cheered by thousands of well-wishers lined on the route towards the West Freeway, despite the late time and rainy weather.
Wanted For Treason - A Handbill Circulated On November 21, 1963 In Dallas, Texas. Around 5,000 copies were distributed around Dallas in the days before President Kennedy’s November 22, 1963 visit, accused Kennedy of a range of offenses, from being “lax” on Communism, to “appointing anti-Christians to Federal office,” to lying to the American people about his personal life. General Edwin A. Walker, a Texan who served in World War II and the Korean War, had resigned his Army post in 1961 after a Kennedy-ordered investigation found that he had violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity on the job. The Warren Commission investigation tracked these flyers to Walker’s aide Robert Surrey. Surrey had overseen the distribution of the sheets in the days prior to JFK’s arrival; members of Walker’s organization, acting on his behalf, placed them under windshield wipers and in newspaper racks.
John F. Kennedy's Remarks in Houston at a Dinner Honoring Albert Thomas (11:54)
President John F. Kennedy spoke at the Coliseum in Houston at a Dinner Honoring Representative Albert Thomas. His opening words referred to Representative and Mrs. Albert Thomas of Texas, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and to Governor John B. Connally, Senator Ralph W. Yarborough, and Representative Bob Casey, all of Texas.
JFK's humor, Houston (:46)
President John F. Kennedy's motorcade through San Antonio, Texas (6:19)
President John F. Kennedy's motorcade makes its way from the San Antonio International Airport to downtown. Shortly after the arrival, the Democratic Party dignitaries and members of the press followed the presidential car in a motorcade to Brooks Air Force Base. The route took them down Broadway to Houston Street then south on St. Mary’s Street and Roosevelt Avenue to Military Drive. Following the ceremony at Brooks, the President and his entourage went to Kelly Air Force Base, where they left for Houston.
President John F. Kennedy's motorcade travels past Brackenridge High School. Hundreds of schoolchildren lined San Antonio streets during President John F. Kennedy's visit to San Antonio. Following the ceremony at Brooks, the President and his entourage went to Kelly Air Force Base, where they left for Houston.
President Kennedy's aide Dave Powers rare film from San Antonio, Texas (1:23)
Dave Powers, a presidential aide, mostly captured the Kennedys arriving and departing from Texas airports and traveling in motorcades. This is a clip from President John F. Kennedy and wife First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's departure from San Antonio International Airport to Brooks Air Force Base, Kelly Air Force Base , San Antonio, Texas. The president's limousine slowed and he sort of stood and waved at the students and catholic nuns as the motorcade drove away. Kennedy and his party would later depart from Kelly Air Force Base.
Perhaps the most powerful evidence indicating that select Senior Administration Officials and Senior Military personnel may have had foreknowledge of the plot to assassinate the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, is found in the draft of National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) Number 273. There are several smoking guns, but the one that initially stands out as the most obvious is the date of the draft, which was subsequently signed by McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President for National Security. The draft was written and dated November 21st, 1963 less than 24 hours before the assassination.
Strangely, this NSAM #273, which began the change in Kennedy's policy toward Vietnam, was drafted on November 21, 1963, the day before Kennedy died. It was not Kennedy's policy. He would not have requested it, and would not have signed it. Why would it have been drafted for his signature on the day before he died; and why would it have been given to Johnson so quickly? Johnson had not asked for it. On November 21, 1963 Johnson had no expectation whatsoever of being President.
See: October 11, 1963
The Day Before JFK Was Assassinated
by Timothy Noah
During a November 21, 1963, stopover with Kennedy in San Antonio, Johnson suffered another setback. Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough, a Democrat, was feuding with Texas Governor (and fellow Democrat) John Connally. Kennedy wanted Johnson to put an end to it; winning Texas in 1964 would be difficult enough without a Democratic party driven by conflict. To resolve the matter, Johnson had to talk to Yarborough. But Yarborough refused–in full view of reporters–to ride in a motorcade with Johnson. A headline in the next morning’s Dallas News would read, “Yarborough Snubs LBJ.” Connally, Johnson felt, was also treating him disrespectfully, and later, in a Houston hotel room, Caro writes in “The Passage of Power,” “there were, perhaps for the first time since Kennedy had been elected, loud, angry words directly between the president and the vice president.”
The Party At Clint Murchison Home The Evening Of November 21, 1963
There was a party and afterwards a very late (12:30 a.m.) closed door meeting at the home of Clint Murchison on the evening of Thursday, November 21, 1963. There were at lease four witnesses that have gone on record about this party and then late night meeting, Helen Thomas, Penn Jones, Madeline Brown and May Newman. Also, Val Imm, the society editor for the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald, attended the party and unwittingly documented one of the most significant gatherings in American history. James Tague was also confident in his research that the party and meeting occurred.
Chapter Eighty-Two - Clint Murchison's Party (Part 1)
by James Tague
Chapter Eighty-Two - Clint Murchison's Party (Part 2 - Helen Thomas)
by James Tague
Madeleine Brown, on the television program, A Current Affair (February 24, 1992)
On Thursday night, November 21, 1963, the last evening prior to Camelot's demise, I attended a social at Clint Murchison's home. It was my understanding that the event was scheduled as a tribute honoring his long time friend, J. Edgar Hoover (whom Murchison had first met decades earlier through President William Howard Taft), and his companion, Clyde Tolson.
Val Imm, the society editor for the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald, unwittingly documented one of the most significant gatherings in American history. The impressive guest list included John McCloy, Richard Nixon, George Brown, R. L. Thornton, H. L. Hunt and a host of others from the Suite 8F group.
The jovial party was just breaking up when Lyndon made an unscheduled visit. I was the most surprised by his appearance since Jesse had not mentioned anything about Lyndon's coming to Clint's. With Lyndon's hectic schedule, I never dreamed he could attend the big party. After all, he had arrived in Dallas on Tuesday to attend the Pepsi-Cola convention. Tension filled the room upon his arrival.
The group immediately went behind closed doors. A short time later Lyndon, anxious and red-faced, reappeared I knew how secretly Lyndon operated. Therefore I said nothing... not even that I was happy to see him. Squeezing my hand so hard, it felt crushed from the pressure, he spoke with a grating whisper, a quiet growl, into my ear, not a love message, but one I'll always remember: "After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedy's will never embarrass me again, that's no threat, that's a promise."
The Clint Murchison Meeting (1:21:26)
Interview with Madeleine Duncan Brown
The Men Who Killed Kennedy - Lyndon Johnson (First Part Clint Murchison's Party)
According to journalist Helen Thomas, those who were at that private meeting the night before the assassination included:
Vice President Lyndon Johnson
J. Edgar Hoover
Clyde Tolson - J. Edgar Hoover's boyfriend and Associate Director of the FBI
Richard M. Nixon
Edward Clark - Johnson’s attorney, and the secret boss of Texas
H. L. Hunt
George Brown - Brown and Root
John McCloy - Chairman Chase Manhattan Bank and member of Warren Commission
John Connally
Cliff Carter - National Director of the Democratic National Committee
Clint Murchison Sr.
Carlos Marcello - Head of New Orleans Mafia
Joe Civello - Head of Dallas Mafia
Earle Cabell - Mayor of Dallas and brother of General Charles Cabell who was Deputy Director of the CIA until he was fired by Kennedy
Robert L. Thornton - Former Dallas Mayor
Amon G. Carter Jr. - Owner of the Fort Worth Star Telegram newspaper
Bill Decker - Sheriff of Dallas County
Malcolm Wallace, Hitman for LBJ
Jack Ruby
And others...
When Kennedy was slaughtered, Russia’s Khrushchev was literally crying, fearing nuclear war. Cuba