The digerati at Uproxx.com make my point: the CIA’s JFK story is ‘evolving’ and few have noticed.
The lack of interest around this declassified report (there are still 15 “blanked out” areas of the statement that involve names and places, presumably for security reasons) is a sad statement about how little we are surprised that the government covers up its own misdeeds. The assassination of John F. Kennedy is a major part of our recent history, yet news that our spy agency was active in hiding the truth from a major investigation into JFK’S death seems to have become something of a passing interest.
Source: CIA Admitted To Lying About JFK’s Assassination, But No One Noticed
Funny how these thing work. A Hollywood director does a movie on how the JFK assassination might have occurred and he was nearly burned at the stake by the mass media before the movie was released. Later the CIA releases records admitting that they participated in a cover up of the investigation of the assassination and there is hardly a peep heard from the same media. One wonders if that “Mockingbird” still sings.
Damn great point, Clarence.
The media – “to serve and protect” the CIA, apparently.
Yes it does still sing, selectively. Just as important is when it chooses, or is told, not to. E.G. the MSM’s lack of acknowledgement of Mr. Talbot’s fine new book.
The following are two pieces of correspondence (reconstructed to adapt to the format of this comments section) from Director of Central Intelligence John McCone to former President Dwight Eisenhower culled from the collection at the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas. As noted, one is dated 2 weeks, 1 day before the assassination, the other 1 month and 1 day after. (note that both mention Vietnam.)
The Director of Central Intelligence
November 7, 1963
Dear General,
Thank you so very, very much for autographing my deluxe copy of your book, “Mandate for Change.” I appreciate your doing this.
The book is excellent. Although I confess that because of the pressures of South Vietnam and other matters, I have not read it all. I plan to complete it within a day or two. It will occupy an important place in my library.
In addition, I hope you are getting a royalty from sales of the book because I am a pretty good customer of yours, having now bought three copies.
Warm personal regards and all good wishes.
Sincerely,
John A. McCone
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
JOHN ALEX MCCONE
3025 WHITEHAVEN STREET, N.W.
WASHINGTON 8, D.C.
23 December, 1963
Dear General,
I have just returned from Saigon and found some things there which I would like to discuss with you. Theiline and I plan to be at our house in San Marino from December 28 to January 2nd. I know your obligations will have you enormously busy when you are in Pasadena but perhaps there will be an opportunity for an hour together. It might even be possible for you and Mamie to slip away from the hotel and come to the house, as I am very anxious to have both of you see it.
I will call you when I arrive in Los Angeles. In the meantime, the warmest regards and my very best to you and Mamie in which Theiline joins me.
Sincerely,
John A. McCone
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eldorado Country Club
Palm Desert, California
In the previous scenario we have DCI John McCone caught in what I assume can be considered a criminal act that is currently being whitewashed in the media, and we have former DCI Allen Dulles masterfully maneuvering that misconduct while he and John McCloy orchestrated the conclusion of the Warren Commission. We have Maxwell Taylor, the former Chair of the Joint Chiefs who served with both CIA directors – Dulles and McCone – rejoining Allen Dulles at Nation-Wide Securities whose primary investments were directed to the Military Industrial complex and included directors representing General Dynamics, Bell Helicopter, Navy contractor Bath Iron Works, and Socony Mobil. We have Taylor serving as president of a Mexico City utility company where he replaced William Draper who returned to the states and voted in retired Director of the CIA, John McCone onto the board of Western Bancorp that included McCloy’s brother in law LW Douglas and CB Thornton of military contractor Litton Industries. All of this swirling in and around Mexico City while Win Scott served as CIA Station Chief whose bosses included both Allen Dulles and John McCone.
And with Kennedy’s assassination, the Vietnam War escalated.
What fealty might any combination of these individuals have had that could trump their oaths of office and loyalty to country? Or was that the rationale, Kennedy’s removal was ‘for the good of country’?
In the examples of a warm friendship between McCone and Eisenhower we read a degree of decorum and hints at the issues they might be communicating about. However in the December 23 letter, we read no outrage let alone concern over the murder in broad daylight of the sitting president. This was correspondence between the former most powerful political figure in the world and the current head of the most powerful intelligence agency. There is not even an appropriate level of commiseration at the los of Kennedy the man, let alone Kennedy the elected president of this democracy. It is simply not there, nor is it even hinted at. So was this a harbinger of John McCone’s approach to the WC investigation and a reflection for us to consider now … there may not be a cohesive paper trail. Was he arranging to confer with Eisenhower in private – in his home where no notes would be taken, no recordings made – about his plans to withhold files from the commission? And would they be discussing Vietnam at length? Eisenhower warned the nation of the military-industrial complex, yet in the immediate aftermath of Dallas he was arranging a meeting with one of its representatives. Did the two of them discuss dismantling it?
“Eisenhower warned the nation of the military-industrial complex, yet in the immediate aftermath of Dallas he was arranging a meeting with one of its representatives. Did the two of them discuss dismantling it?”~leslie sharp
Of course this is highly unlikely as both men were products of and highly compensated members of the military-industrial complex.
Eisenhower was obviously shocked by the blatant act of the system in removing Kennedy in a deadly coup d’etat. But he was certainly not willing to share a similar fate as Kennedy by speaking out too forcefully on the matter. Again, going along to get along is a pattern enforced by the coercion of the System.
\\][//
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyGzVQGgdqw
min. 2:38: “the American nation is a people of great common sense and they are not going to be stampeded or bewildered.” — Dwight Eisenhower
This begs the question, stampeded or bewildered by whom? a lone gunman?
at minute 2:50 Eisenhower begins speaking from the same playbook that would be presented by former CIA Director Allen Dulles (who served under his administration) to the first session of members of the Warren Commission on December 16th; the booklet recapped presidential assassinations perpetrated by “a lone gunman” in the course of US history. Eisenhower’s spontaneous recount of those assassinations is remarkably accurate under the circumstances and is followed with his revelation “and it’s just these occasional psychopathic actions occur ….”
What information was he relying upon at that impromptu press conference that he would use the phrase “occasional psychopathic actions …”?
min. 4:00 Eisenhower responds to a question about global reaction to the assassination with, “. . . in civilized countries of the world, this doesn’t happen (pause …..) so often …”
at minute 4:45, the former president talks about Archduke Ferdinand and says, ‘I think that was his name’ and then he begins a nervous ramble.
at min. 4:53 Eisenhower tells a reporter that he has cancelled his dinner date.
and as the interview winds down, Eisenhower repeats that ‘the American people will not be “stampeded”’.
Who does Eisenhower think is attempting to “stampede” the American people? Why does he repeat the term ‘stampede’? Is he suggesting that Lee Harvey Oswald might be attempting to stampede Americans?
According to a letter from CIA Director John McCone to the former president dated December 23, 1963, just a month after the assassination in Dallas, the two were planning to meet over the holidays. There is no mention in that letter, not even the most obligatory recognition that Kennedy had been gunned down in Dallas. For a man who was allegedly fearful of the Military Industrial Complex, it is interesting that Ike maintained such a cordial friendship with one of its stalwarts who was intimating in that letter that Vietnam (not the murder in broad daylight of a sitting president) was occupying his attention.
Why did President Eisenhower wait eight years to warn the American public of the Military Industrial Complex?
The cia admitted to lying? Dulles told the WC they would, or he expected them to. Lying is their job, to protect us all.
I cannot see how preventing an open and honest investigation of the murder of an American president is protecting us.
Due to the deception of the CIA, some aspects of the JFK assassination were not investigated at all.
An example being that both the WC and HSCA were not aware that the DRE were CIA assets, and the HSCA were not aware of the role of George Joannides in 1963.
Such deception does not make me feel protected at all.
And how easy it would be for the CIA, or elements within it, to perform a coup d’etat if the people watched them lie, and did nothing about it.
I was being sarcastic George.
In “The Devil’s Chessboard” David Talbot calls attention to John McCone’s history as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and his service to International Telephone and Telegraph (during which time it should be noted that Hal Hendrix who was responsible for handing Oswald’s history to Seth Kantor was hired by ITT).
On retirement, DCI McCone also joined the board of Western Bancorp in 1965. That board included CB Thornton (board member of McCone’s own engineering firm that enjoyed lucrative military contracts and co-founder of Litton Industries who influenced the selection of his co-Whiz Kid Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense); L. W. Douglas (former aide to General Lucius Clay in Berlin while John McCloy served as Asst. Sec. of War) who was McCloy’s brother-in-law and both were cousins-in-law by marriage of German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
And William H. Draper, Jr,
William Draper Jr. will be recognized by those who have followed the rise of the Bush political dynasty; he and his son “invested” heavily in the political careers of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. What may not be as well known is that Draper served as the president of Mexican Light and Power from 1956-1961 with a permanent residential address on la Reforma, Mexico City. When Draper left that capitol to devote attention to his venture capital firm on the West Coast, he joined the board of Western Bancorp, and four years later John McCone was voted onto the board of that financial institution by Draper, Thornton and Douglas.
In late ‘60/early ’61, William Draper was replaced at MexLight by none other than (temporarily retired) General Maxwell Taylor who served the Canadian based utility company until it was nationalized by the Mexican government. The chairman emeritus responsible for Taylor’s vetting was former US Ambassador to Argentina George S. Messersmith (we know this because prior to his death in Houston, he hosted Taylor in Mexico City) and Sir Reginald Leeper, also former British Ambassador to Argentina and former member of British Intelligence. On that same board at MexLight was a somewhat obscure (in contemporary research) Arthur Hobson Dean, senior partner in the Dulles’ Sullivan & Cromwell law firm. Through A.H. Dean, S&C and by osmosis Allen Dulles would have influenced Maxwell Taylor’s rather lucrative appointment to MexLight while he waited in the wings to become Chair of the Joint Chiefs. Following Mexico City, Taylor served the Kennedy Administration briefly in tandem with DCI Dulles and then as JCS with John McCone, Director of the Central Intelligence who has been exposed as having been responsible for a benign cover up that deflected the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy.
William Draper was then appointed as president of Combustion Engineering, one of the leading atomic energy companies in the US. As a minor footnote, Draper was a card-carrying member of the Society of American Magicians.
(primary sources: Who’s Who, Moody’s Industrial Manual and Moody’s Bank and Finance)
To be cont.
Those who have worked in business and encountered directly and/or studied how corporations interact with one another and with government and vice versa, and how boards of directors are selected for their ability to influence those dynamics will grasp the significance of the ties between the aforementioned Thornton, Draper, Douglas and McCone,; Draper, Messersmith, Leeper, Taylor and Dean i.e. the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell in this microcosm of the macro of the Military Industrial Complex.
And it is unfathomable to argue that the bon vivant CIA Station Chief in Mexico City, Win Scott would not have entertained during the years he was in Mexico City any combination of these individuals, given the power – both literal and figurative – of MexLight. Is there proof that he entertained former ambassador Messersmith? I think that is highly likely. Sir Reginald Leeper? Fergal Dempster might be a key into the former British intel man. Draper? We can review Scott’s affiliation with Al Ulmer on retirement (Diversified Corporate Services) to observe a young George H. W. Bush in the shadows who emerged the week of the assassination with Al Ulmer. Gen. Maxwell Taylor? I would put money on it that Win Scott either hosted a welcome to Mexico City party for him or attended it. John McCone? He was after all, Win Scott’s ultimate boss of record in 1963.
Allen Dulles and Maxwell Taylor:
Retired General Maxwell Taylor who served briefly as president of Mexico Light & Power in Mexico City (along with AH Dean of Sullivan & Cromwell) following William Draper’s departure to return to the West Coast where he served on the board of a financial institution along with former Director of Central Intelligence John McCone beginning in 1965 is recorded on official documents as a board member of Nation-Wide Securities – a division of NY investment firm Bullock Funds, heavily invested in military and industrial interests.
On that same board was Frank Pace, former Secretary of Army and president of General Dynamics, Grayson Kirk, board of Mobil (Socony – Magnolia), IBM and president of Columbia University, economics professor at Columbia University Arthur Burns who served on a board at the same time with Adolph Berle who in 1963/1964 had a back channel to FBI Director J. Edgard Hoover as liaison between the Department of State and Hoover’s FBI, and R.B Carney, former Secretary of the Navy and board of both Navy contractor Bath Iron Works where he served as president and Bell Helicopter.
Maxwell Taylor left the board of Nation-Wide (and Mexico Light & Power) to join the Kennedy Administration where he played key roles that have been highlighted in comments on the site for several years related to the Vietnam debacle.
Allen Dulles joined the board of Nation-Wide Securities as a representative of his law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell in 1961 following his ‘retirement’ from the Central Intelligence Agency, He and Taylor crossed paths that year at Nation-Wide.
But when Maxwell Taylor retired from military/civil service for good (from his final post as Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff having composed the McNamara/Taylor report (recall CB Thornton’s close relationship/influence with Robert McNamara and his association with Dulles’ replacement as DCI, John McCone) he rejoined the Nation-Wide board with Dulles, RB Carney (Bell Helicopter), Frank Pace (General Dynamics), Grayson Kirk (Mobil Oil and IBM), Arthur Burns (Adolph Berle and J. Edgar Hoover), et al.
In the ensuing years, the Vietnam war unfolded.
Leslie, I appreciate your insight. But I’m lost. Dulles orchestrated the assassination with the approval of McCone and Taylor?
Ronnie, the purpose of this is to define Dulles’ relationships beyond those who have been identified heretofore, in particular at the very least a business connection to Maxwell Taylor. I contend that Dulles would not set anything in motion without the absolute certainty he would not be exposed in his lifetime. Any combination of these individuals were in a position to assure him of that. From there, we’ll see what might surface to implicate some if any of them directly. For starters, we now know that John McCone was involved in a “benign” effort to divert the WC investigation.
Leslie, I wasn’t totally lost. Your post is insightful. The “approval” was tongue in cheek. I don’t think Dulles would have sought their approval in advance. However, he was probably confident they would approve once the deed was done, and, that they would toe the line for the cover up as they were both “in like Flynn” with the East coast establishment (which did not accept the Kennedy’s “new” money as part of their “power elite”).
Modified limited hangout, if ever there was one. They release information suggesting Castro might have been involved in the assassination, and then they say they’re not even suggesting that.