“I’m as certain as one can be that there was no other gun shot …. But it’s not silliness to speculate that somebody was behind Oswald …. I’d almost bet on the [anti-Castro] Cubans.”
– Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, quoted by David Talbot in “Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years.”
Jonathan, political expediency means doing what the direction of the wind calls for, at a specific time, on a specific day, in any part of the country, as long as it agrees with “official policy.”
Perhaps understanding the full weight of “official policy” could deepen our perspective from our point of view – looking into government – rather than looking out at the citizens.
“The trained servants [Administrators] will tutor the people by improving public opinion and thereby even ultimately ruling them. The bureaucracy would educate the electorate.
Wilson modestly claims that his ideal is
“a civil service [Administrators] cultured and self-sufficient enough to act with sense and vigor, and yet so intimately connected with the popular thought, by means of elections and constant public counsel, as to find arbitrariness of class spirit quite out of the question.”
Yet once the bureaucracy [Administrators], aided by the universities, asserts itself against the elected branches and the people in the name of its expertise, the people could no longer defend themselves” (The Heritage Foundation, 2014)
Wilson, W. (1887). The Study of Administration. Political Science Quarterly, July 1887.
Accessed from http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary- sources/woodrow-wilson-on-administration
Expertise, as witnessed over time, often morphs into “official policy” in bureaucratic hands with unbridled discretion.
A few current definitions of “official policy” follow:
1. “A policy statement, ordinance, regulation, or decision that is officially adopted and promulgated by the lawmaking officers or by an official to whom the lawmakers have delegated policy-making authority; or
2. A persistent, widespread practice of officials or employees which, although not authorized by officially adopted and promulgated policy, is so common and well-settled as to constitute a custom that fairly represents policy. Actual or constructive knowledge of such custom must be attributable to the governing body or to an official to whom that body had delegated policy-making authority.” (Curry v. Ellis County, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67018 (N.D. Tex. July 31, 2009)
Katzenbach became famous because of Katzenbach v. McClung (U.S. Sup. Ct. 1964 or 65), holding that Ollie’s Barbecue in Birmingham, Alabama could not exclude Blacks from inside service. This important case extends the reach of the “Commerce Clause” of the U.S. Constitution.
Katzenbach backed civil rights, which indicates JFK was not killed for his civil rights stands.
I give Katzenbach a pass on civil rights. I deny him a pass on the cover-up.