Roger Hilsman on JFK’s Vietnam plans
Jefferson Morley
August 19, 2015
“At the end, Ngu Dinh Diem was talking to nobody but his brother Nu. …
April 10, 1963: Oswald tries to shoot General. Walker
Jefferson Morley
April 10, 2015
Ron Capshaw, a writer in Midlothian, Virginia, argued here two years ago that Lee Oswald had fired a rifle shot at former U.S. Army General Edwin Walker on April 10, 1963. Walker, cashiered for proselytizing troops with his right-wing, white supremacist politics, was a harsh critic of JFK.
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April 10, 1963: Oswald tries to shoot General. WalkerRead More »
That awkward moment
Jefferson Morley
January 18, 2015
… when you are told you have been charged with killing the president of the United States of America.
Putting aside ‘American exceptionalism,’ JFK proposed cooperation in space
Jefferson Morley
January 17, 2015
In response to my question on Wednesday, a reader sent this video. (H/T David)
Andrew Cohen’s new book highlights two key JFK speeches
Jefferson Morley
January 1, 2015
A new book, Two Days in June, calls attention to the JFK’s supremely important and still relevant speech at American University on June 10, 1963, in which he asked Americans to rethink ‘peace.’
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Andrew Cohen’s new book highlights two key JFK speechesRead More »
Like Obama, JFK wanted to make peace with Cuba
Jefferson Morley
December 30, 2014
Fifty one years before President Obama normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba, President John F. Kennedy was thinking of doing the same. To start the negotiations, Obama sent one of his aides, Ben Rhodes, to talk to the Cuban government.
Likewise in the fall of 1963, JFK authorized a U.S.diplomat, Bill Attwood, to make contact with Cuban representatives to discuss the outlines of an agreement between the two countries.
In a new document collection, Cuba – United States Secret Diplomacy Documents (1961-1977), published by Paperless Archives, you can follow how JFK’s pursuit of peace with Cuba, right up to the moment he was assassinated.
After JFK was dead, LBJ had no interest and the initiative died. It would take a half century before JFK’s goal was achieved.
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Fidel Castro’s reaction to the assassination of JFK
Jefferson Morley
December 11, 2014
“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.”
via Fidel Castro Reaction to Kennedy Assassination in Cuba | New Republic.
When the Cold War made Georgetown hot
Jefferson Morley
November 7, 2014
“… one of the most zealous of the anti-Communist crusaders who turned the agency into an enormous, squid-like meddler in global affairs.”
via Luke Menand in the New Yorker: “When the Cold War Made Georgetown Hot.”
Radio reporter to talk about his Oswald encounter
Jefferson Morley
October 3, 2014
“Former WFAA-Radio Program Director Pierce Allman had no assignment to cover President John F. Kennedy’s visit to Dallas on November 22, 1963. At the last minute, Allman decided to walk to nearby Dealey Plaza to see the presidential motorcade. …
Radio reporter to talk about his Oswald encounterRead More »
Why the Warren Commission got scared of Castro
Arnaldo M. Fernandez
September 27, 2014
The Warren Commission didn’t get scared if Fidel Castro because of Lyndon B. Johnson’s chilling warning to Chief Justice Earl Warren about rumors that “if not quenched, could conceivably lead the country into a war which could cost 40 million lives.” …
Once and future presidents
Jefferson Morley
July 24, 2014
The young Bill Clinton shook President Kennedy’s hand on July 24, 1963.
Letters to Oswald: hoax or evidence?
Arnaldo M. Fernandez
June 28, 2014
On January 17, 1964, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote to J. Lee Rankin, the general counsel of the Warren Commission, on the evidence compiled as Commission Document 295: four letters postmarked in Havana that suggested or alleged that the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was a contract killing undertaken by Lee Harvey Oswald under the direction of an agent for Fidel Castro named Pedro Charles.
Hoover concluded it was “some type of hoax, possibly on the part of some anti-Castro group,” since the FBI Crime Lab found that the same Remington No. 10 typewriter had been used to prepare all four letters:
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Memorial Day 1963: Standing where he would be buried
Jefferson Morley
May 26, 2014
From historian Michael Beschloss, a glimpse of John F. Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day 1963, one day after his last birthday.
The Washington Post reported:
“President Kennedy led the memorial observances by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington. He was accompanied by his two-year-old son John Jr. who held tightly to the hand of a Secret Service agent.”
JFK was standing where he would be buried six months later.
JFK balked at Castro peace feelers, historian says
Jefferson Morley
May 22, 2014
Diplomatic historian David Kaiser, the author of a new and well-reviewed book about World War II, took time out from flogging it to respond to John Simkin’s post on JFK’s Cuba policy, CIA looped in on Castro peace feelers.
Kaiser, author of The Road to Dallas, says the argument that JFK was a dove on Cuba is overdrawn. He dismisses the idea that Kennedy’s evolving Cuba policy fatally alienated the CIA.
CIA was in the loop for Castro peace feelers
Jefferson Morley
May 19, 2014
In response to Two secret memos on JFK and Cuba, John Simkin, the British historian wrote the following essay that gives valuable context to this neglected story.
Simkin writes:
“The secret negotiations that took place between the JFK administration and the Cuban government could be significant issue in the JFK assassination.
“A key figure in this was Lisa Howard.
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