“Vous me blaguez! [You’re kidding me.] Cowboys and Indians!”
– French President Charles DeGaulle, on being briefed by a reporter on the lone-nut theory of the Kennedy assassination. Quoted by David Talbot in “The mother of all coverups.”
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DeGaulle himself had been a victim of an assassination attempt in 1962 by French ultra-nationalists who were enraged over his Algeria policy.
In Joachim Joesten’s book “How Kennedy was Killed: the Full Appalling Story,” Joesten has an extensive passage on how DeGaulle immediately suspected a conspiracy in the JFK assassination and only solified his view over time.
Some think the book “Farewell America” was a book put out by French intelligence to help Robert Kennedy in his 1968 presidential campaign. The book is legitimate and quite important.
“After having returned to power with the stated intention of maintaining the French Départements of Algeria, de Gaulle, in September 1959, made a sudden reversal of policy and instead began opting for the eventual secession of Algeria.”
This is very similar to split between JFK and CIA/military/anti-Castro Cuban radicals over Cuba policy. JFK was simply not going to take out Castro; was secretly beginning to negotiate with Castro; and this enraged JFK’s enemies and played a big role in the JFK assassination (far more so than Vietnam policy).
Here is a nugget about what LBJ thought about DeGaulle as well as what the megalomaniac Johnson thought about *himself*:
Lyndon Johnson bellowing in Tarzan style “I am the king!”
“Four reporters in the press pool were sharing highballs with President Johnson in his airborne parlor on another occassion when LBJ began ruminating aloud about all the changes that had occurred in world leadership. He was in a buoyant mood, savoring his tremendous election victory over Goldwater in 1964.
“Looking around the world,” Johnson was saying. “Khrushchev’s gone. Macmillan’s gone. Adenour’s gone. Segni’s gone. Nehru’s gone. Who’s left – de Gaulle?”
There was a sneering tone in Johnson’s voice as he uttered the French president’s name, Cormier said. Then leaning back in his massive “throne chair,” as the crew dubbed it, LBJ thumped his chest in Tarzan fashion and bellowed, “I am the king!”
As reporters left the plane, Reedy took pains to remind them that they had been the President’s social guests and were not there as news gatherers. “Gentlemen,” Reedy solemnly intoned, “you did not see the President of the United States tonight.””
[J.F. terHorst & Col. Ralph Albertazzie, The Flying White House: The Story of Air Force One, p. 215]
Robert,
You and I share the belief LBJ was an execrable human being. But unlike you I don’t believe he had a hand in the assassination.
LBJ was fundamentally weak. He was strongest at exerting power over others. But inside, he was insecure. He cried in the bathroom of AF 1 as it sat on Love Field. He crumpled in 1968 when his approach to Viet Nam became an apparent failure.
Yes, I agree he had much to gain from the assassination. That’s why the plotters pulled the trigger, IMO.
is joachim joesten still alive?
and: have you read joseph mcbride’s new book?
(he mentions jj)