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Edward Lansdale


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I can't believe this thread exists and nobody has ever posted this letter.....to Prouty from General "Brute" Krulak...

It is on Prouty's website, which is still online even though he is deceased.

Dear Fletch:

As I read your interesting letter it is plain that you have not wanted for interest or achievement in your life. It has to have been exciting and rewarding too.

Mine has been a lively existence too. I had much to do with Vietnam from '64 to '68, and was loudly disenchanted with what went on and how. I recorded it as part of my book First to Fight that came out a few months ago.

I've also spent ten years in the newspaper business (a most useful education) and now write a syndicated weekly column. I wrote another book, Organization for National Security that resulted in my testifying before a Senate committee.

All taken together, a stirring life.

As to your chronicle concerning the JFK assassination period, I remember your going to Antarctica. I was in the Pentagon at the time of the tragedy but have no recollection of where Lansdale was.

The pictures.-- The two policemen are carrying shotguns, not rifles. Their caps are different (one a white chinstrap, one black). One has a Dallas police shoulder patch, one does not and their caps differ from that of another police officer in photo 4. Reasonable conclusion -- they are either reservists or phonys. And, as you know, city cops don't have anything to do with Sheriff's offices.

As to photo no. 1. That is indeed a picture of Ed Lansdale. The haircut, the stoop, the twisted left hand, the large class ring. It's Lansdale. What in the world was he doing there? Has anyone ever asked him and who was the photographer? Why did he take the pictures? What did he do with them?

I have examined my own records and find no clue that would help. Suffice to say, it is a fascinating proposition.

I am returning your pictures.

Best regards always.

Sincerely,

[signed, Brute Krulak]

http://www.ratical.o...html#pgfId=7194

Also Irrespective of the letter, and I am sure that there are those who claim that the letter is not authentic, [i am not claiming it is], Prouty wrote a book called Understanding Special Operations And Their Impact On the Vietnam War Era

It is online and can be found here

http://www.ratical.o...tville/JFK/USO/

Question for Sterling Seagrave

Do you know anything about the disappearance of Colonel Masanobu Tsuji? He disappeared in 1962 and was officially declared dead in 1968.

See

During the early days of the Occupation, an extensive clean-up operations to purge anti-Japanese elements (such as the Dalforce, Force 136 and supporters of the China Relief Fund), named Sook Ching was undertaken. The massacres were executed under the supervision of the Kempeitai with the Hojo Kempei ("auxiliary military police") being employed to carry out the actual shooting under orders of a Kempeitai officer. Although the exact figures will never be fully known, it was estimated that a total figure between 25,000 and 50,000 victims were massacred according to the post-war trial testimonies in 1947.[9]

Colonel Masanobu Tsuji was fingered by Japanese army commanders as the man responsible for Sook Ching during the Singapore Chinese Massacre Trial in 1947.[10] Tsuji was appointed as the Chief Planning and Operations Officer of the 25th Army that was led by Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamaxxxxa's for the Malaya campaign. He had close links with the Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo and enjoyed certain privileges that officers of more senior ranks were not allowed.[10]

Over stepping his authority, he had issued orders during the massacre of thousands of Chinese civilians in Singapore and Malaya with Yamaxxxxa's knowledge but without his approval. He was also responsible for the slaughter of thousands more US and Filipino servicemen in the Philippines.[11] Tsuji was in Myanmar at the time of Japan's unconditional surrender to British forces in August 1946 and made his getaway to Thailand disguised as a wandering Buddhist monk. He later spent a short spell in China during its Civil War. He was hotly pursued by the British but they were unable to get him, as he was sheltered by the Americans for political reasons when he resurfaced in Japan in 1947.[11] He was cleared of any war crimes in 1950 and later became one of his country's most prominent post-war parliamentarian.[11] In 1961, Tsuji disappeared mysteriously somewhere in Indochina and was officially declared dead in 1968.[12]

http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Kempeitai_East_District_Branch

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Sterling:

Excellent posting... Lansdale is still a prime suspect (regarding JFK) in my book. His disappointment with not getting the promised posting in Vietnam (ambassador), the bungled Mongoose operation, the crazy Northwoods schemes and his intelligence affiliations with the Far east contingent of OSS/CIA are prime indicators of motive and means. Plus Prouty's allegations, especially that Lansdale's specialty was setting up elaborate psychological operations such as Dealey Plaza represented. Do you have some perspective about what Lansdale was doing in 1963 (purportedly retired) , and his Dallas logistics? He does seem to be the classic "ugly American".

Gene Kelly

Gene ~ I was on staff at the Washington Post in 1963, and a legman for Larry Stern on a number of investigations. Lansdale was living out near the agency, but I had contact with him only twice, both in connection with the Philippines. I did some articles on Jack Ruby, but most of what I know about Lansdale I picked up over many years since then. I stayed out of the JFK reporting during that period because I was working on a book about the PRC.

Sterling

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Guest Robert Morrow

I think it is extremely LIKELY/PROBABLE the Gen. Edward Lansdale was involved in a BIG WAY in the JFK assassination. And if Lansdale was, then it is likely that Allen Dulles and Nelson Rockefeller were involved as well.

I think that Lyndon Johnson and the CIA made a dirty deal to murder John Kennedy; with the CIA to do the killing and LBJ and his close ally/friend J. Edgar Hoover in charge of the cover up.

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And the horses they rode in on, like the Mellons, Hunts, Donovan -- the list is VERY long. Russ Baker's website is a good source, because he has put a lot of energy and brains into this in recent years. Currently, there's a lot of discussion about Bob Woodward's role at the WashPost/ Watergate, etc., and his long established ties to the intel community, almost making it seem like he was the only guy at the WashPost who was in bed with the agency. In fact, when I was on the WashPost staff for a few years in the 1960s, it was often discussed by staff members that the whole senior editorial management had all worked in the "same" intelligence units with Phil Graham during WW2, so it was a house full of spooks. Then, if you look farther into the past, you discover that Kay Graham's father (from whom she inherited the paper) was part of the network that set up the OSS, and before that was part of the group from Jekyll Island that created the Fed and fiat currency, and worked with Colonel House in steering Woodrow Wilson. The following is am extract from Wikipedia on Eugene Graham. Reminds me of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

Born in Los Angeles, California, he was one of eight children[1] of Marc Eugene Meyer and Harriet Newmark. His parents were Jewish but he avoided identification as a Jew until later in life.[2] He grew up in San Francisco and attended college across the bay at the University of California, but he dropped out after one year and later enrolled at Yale University. He received his A.B. in 1895.

After college, Meyer went to work for Lazard Freres, where his father was a partner, but quit in 1901 after four years and struck out on his own. He was a successful investor and speculator and owned a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. He married Agnes Elizabeth Ernst, a Lutheran, in 1910; they had five children, including the future Katharine Graham and another daughter Florence Meyer (1911-1962) (Mrs. Oscar Homolka). By 1915, when he was forty, he was worth $40 million.

In 1920, Meyer teamed with William H. Nichols of General Chemical to help fulfill his vision of a bigger, better chemical company. Meyer and Nichols combined five smaller chemical companies to create the Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, which later became Allied Chemical Corp., and eventually became part of AlliedSignal, the forerunner of Honeywell’s specialty materials business. Both men have buildings named after them at Honeywell’s headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey.

Meyer went to Washington, D.C. during the First World War as a "dollar a year man" for Woodrow Wilson, becoming the head of the War Finance Corporation and served there long after the end of hostilities. President Calvin Coolidge named him as chairman of the Federal Farm Loan Board in 1927 and Herbert Hoover promoted him to chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 1930. He served in that capacity from September 16, 1930 to May 10, 1933.

Meyer strongly supported government relief to combat the Great Depression taking on an additional post as chief of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Herbert Hoover's unsuccessful attempt to aid companies by providing loans to businesses. Upon Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933, he resigned his government posts.

Months later in 1933 he bought the Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction, the paper having been ruined by its spendthrift socialite owner, Ned McLean. Over the next twenty years, Meyer spent millions of dollars of his own money to keep the money-losing paper in business, while focusing on improving its quality; by the 1950s, it was finally consistently profitable and was increasingly recognized for good reporting and important editorials. As publisher, Meyer occasionally contributed to stories: his friendship with the British Ambassador, Lord Lothian, led to a Washington Post scoop on reporting of Edward VIII's relationship with Wallis Simpson.

After World War II, Harry Truman named Meyer, then 70 years old, to be the first head of the World Bank in June 1946. Meyer appointed his son-in-law, Philip Graham, as publisher. However, after only six months with the World Bank, Meyer returned to the Post, serving as Chairman of the Washington Post Company until his death in Washington in 1959.

Sterling Seagrave

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And the horses they rode in on, like the Mellons, Hunts, Donovan -- the list is VERY long. Russ Baker's website is a good source, because he has put a lot of energy and brains into this in recent years. Currently, there's a lot of discussion about Bob Woodward's role at the WashPost/ Watergate, etc., and his long established ties to the intel community, almost making it seem like he was the only guy at the WashPost who was in bed with the agency. In fact, when I was on the WashPost staff for a few years in the 1960s, it was often discussed by staff members that the whole senior editorial management had all worked in the "same" intelligence units with Phil Graham during WW2, so it was a house full of spooks. Then, if you look farther into the past, you discover that Kay Graham's father (from whom she inherited the paper) was part of the network that set up the OSS, and before that was part of the group from Jekyll Island that created the Fed and fiat currency, and worked with Colonel House in steering Woodrow Wilson. The following is am extract from Wikipedia on Eugene Graham. Reminds me of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

Born in Los Angeles, California, he was one of eight children[1] of Marc Eugene Meyer and Harriet Newmark. His parents were Jewish but he avoided identification as a Jew until later in life.[2] He grew up in San Francisco and attended college across the bay at the University of California, but he dropped out after one year and later enrolled at Yale University. He received his A.B. in 1895.

After college, Meyer went to work for Lazard Freres, where his father was a partner, but quit in 1901 after four years and struck out on his own. He was a successful investor and speculator and owned a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. He married Agnes Elizabeth Ernst, a Lutheran, in 1910; they had five children, including the future Katharine Graham and another daughter Florence Meyer (1911-1962) (Mrs. Oscar Homolka). By 1915, when he was forty, he was worth $40 million.

In 1920, Meyer teamed with William H. Nichols of General Chemical to help fulfill his vision of a bigger, better chemical company. Meyer and Nichols combined five smaller chemical companies to create the Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, which later became Allied Chemical Corp., and eventually became part of AlliedSignal, the forerunner of Honeywell's specialty materials business. Both men have buildings named after them at Honeywell's headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey.

Meyer went to Washington, D.C. during the First World War as a "dollar a year man" for Woodrow Wilson, becoming the head of the War Finance Corporation and served there long after the end of hostilities. President Calvin Coolidge named him as chairman of the Federal Farm Loan Board in 1927 and Herbert Hoover promoted him to chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 1930. He served in that capacity from September 16, 1930 to May 10, 1933.

Meyer strongly supported government relief to combat the Great Depression taking on an additional post as chief of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Herbert Hoover's unsuccessful attempt to aid companies by providing loans to businesses. Upon Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933, he resigned his government posts.

Months later in 1933 he bought the Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction, the paper having been ruined by its spendthrift socialite owner, Ned McLean. Over the next twenty years, Meyer spent millions of dollars of his own money to keep the money-losing paper in business, while focusing on improving its quality; by the 1950s, it was finally consistently profitable and was increasingly recognized for good reporting and important editorials. As publisher, Meyer occasionally contributed to stories: his friendship with the British Ambassador, Lord Lothian, led to a Washington Post scoop on reporting of Edward VIII's relationship with Wallis Simpson.

After World War II, Harry Truman named Meyer, then 70 years old, to be the first head of the World Bank in June 1946. Meyer appointed his son-in-law, Philip Graham, as publisher. However, after only six months with the World Bank, Meyer returned to the Post, serving as Chairman of the Washington Post Company until his death in Washington in 1959.

Sterling Seagrave

With regards to Harry Truman the person I inquired about yesterday, once called "Give Em Hell" Harry the most notorious war criminal in history......

Although maybe the Lansdale thread isn't visibly the most appropriate place, in lieu of all the facts that are not known, the region of his disappearance makes me wonder if he had some Agency connection, ie contact of some kind.

Jap Urges Trade with Reds [excerpt]

12-23-1953

TOKYO Wednesday (AP)

An ardent Japanese nationalist and World War II military strategist

said Tuesday he advocated in a letter to Vice-President Richard Nixon

that the United States should let Japan wean China away from Russia

by permitting freer political and economic relations.

Masonobu Tsuji, a member of the Diet's House of Representatives,

frequently an outspoken critic of United States policy in Japan,

said in an interview that anti-American feeling is increasing.

"The United States stripped Japan of her army, so it is her duty to supply

Japan with MSA aid without any strings attached." Tsuji said.

He declared the amount of aid need not exceed the 10 per cent of

expenditures in the Korean War.

Wednesday, July 26, 2000

Disappearance of Masanobu Tsuji remains a mystery

By SHIRO YONEYAMA

Kyodo News -- An entrance ceremony for the University of Tokyo was only eight days away in April 1961 when Takeshi Tsuji, excited about starting life as a student at the nation's most prestigious school, saw his lawmaker father off on a Southeast Asian "mission."

Masanobu Tsuji

But April 4, 1961, turned out to be the last time Takeshi saw his father, Masanobu Tsuji, whose whereabouts remain unknown today. He would be 98 this Oct. 11, though he was legally declared dead in 1968.

The fate of Tsuji, a staff officer in Japan's Guangdong Army and at the Imperial General Headquarters who later became a colonel during World War II, has long been a source of curiosity in his homeland and in many parts of Asia.

One of the most controversial figures in the Imperial Japanese Army, Tsuji was a key planner and strategist in the 1939 Nomonhan Incident, in which Japanese troops were badly beaten by Soviet soldiers on the Manchurian and Mongolian frontiers.

He also had a hand in the disastrous 1942 Guadalcanal campaign, the invasion of Malaya and the capture of Singapore, before being stationed in Burma and finally Thailand.

When Japan surrendered in August 1945, Tsuji decided to flee, first pretending to be a local Buddhist monk, and later acting as an adviser to Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalist Chinese government before returning to Japan in 1947. Three years later he emerged from obscurity to become an instant celebrity.

He was easily elected to the House of Representatives from his native Ishikawa Prefecture in 1952 and switched to the House of Councilors in 1959. After 10 years in the Diet, during which he displayed nonpartisan and sometimes erratic behavior, he decided to embark on the fateful Southeast Asian mission.

Kenshiro Seki, president of a famous Japanese inn called Sekiya in the hot-spring resort of Katayamazu in Ishikawa Prefecture, remembers meeting Tsuji in his office one day before his departure for Southeast Asia.

"I'm going to Laos on orders from Prime Minister (Hayato) Ikeda," Seki, 58, quoted Tsuji as telling him and his mother, Tami, 39 years ago.

Seki said Tsuji patronized his inn whenever the lawmaker returned to his constituency in the prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast. He said Tsuji needed such moments of safety and comfort after nearly five years on the run as a potential war criminal.

Takeshi, 57, speculated in an interview with Kyodo News that his father felt he had fulfilled his parental responsibility because his son had passed the rigorous university entrance exam and would be capable of supporting himself after graduation.

Masayoshi Tsuji, 85, is a younger brother of Tsuji and the only surviving member of the Tsuji clan from the village of Imadachi near another hot-spring resort, Yamanaka, in the prefecture.

Masayoshi, also a former military officer who ran a stationery shop in Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, before his retirement, had always believed his elder brother would return safely, until a few years ago.

He still keeps a postcard from his brother from Vientiane dated April 20, 1961. "I traveled around Southeast Asia with a Buddha statue," it says. "I saw Laos. War and festivals are taking place at the same time and in the same place."

The postcard went on to say he would return to his hometown in June to visit the grave of their younger brother, Tadashi, another military officer killed in action during the war. Tsuji also asked Masayoshi not to tell others about his clandestine trip.

"I think he is already dead. I thought he would live until 90," Masayoshi said at his home in suburban Komatsu.

Eko Hata, chief priest of Hoshoji Temple in Tokyo's Suginami Ward, recalled, "I thought it was an almost suicidal act to go to Laos and further north after crossing the Mekong River in the middle of the rainy season," when told of his wartime boss' disappearance in 1961. Laos at the time was in the middle of civil war.

Hata, 74, was one of seven priests-turned-soldiers who Col. Tsuji agreed to bring along with him on his bid to evade arrest by victorious British troops in Bangkok in the summer of 1945.

Hata, whose former name was Takashi Fukuzawa, said in an interview at his Tokyo temple that he and the other six decided to go into hiding with Tsuji because "life as a prisoner of war would be the same anywhere, and we felt he (Tsuji) would somehow manage to flee."

The seven young priests, masquerading as Thai monks, were later captured, but Tsuji indeed fled, starting life as a fugitive that took him to Vientiane, Hanoi, China's Chongqing and Nanjing before secretly arriving from Shanghai at Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, as "a professor of Beijing University" in May 1947.

"As I placed my first step upon the soil of Japan, I quietly picked up a handful of earth, unnoticed by the others, and smelt its sweetness. It was the first smell of my motherland in six years," Tsuji wrote in his best-selling "Underground Escape -- 7,500 Miles in Disguise."

One of the first places he visited upon returning to Japan was Hata's temple in a quiet Tokyo residential area, which Hata said was free from police surveillance.

Tsuji stopped hiding after the U.S. ended his designation as a wanted war criminal on New Year's Day 1950.

After writing a number of best sellers, including "Nomonhan" and "Guadalcanal," Tsuji turned to politics. He was initially elected to the Lower House as an independent and subsequently joined the Japan Democratic Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, from which he was expelled in 1959 for insubordination and criticizing Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, a former Class A war criminal, for corruption.

Tsuji's military and political career has fascinated many young men, one of whom was a Waseda University student named Yoshiro Mori.

http://search.japant...20000726b1.html

Edited by Robert Howard
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Well, I cannot be certain what Tsuji's ultimate fate was, after stepping off the plane in Hanoi. But I can comment on his ties to the CIA after the war -- prior to and/or coinciding with his Hanoi trip. Actually I'm using CIA generically when I should simply say that Tsuji, like Kodama and many other really nasty guys, were bailed out and given jobs working for Willoughby. Or at least Willoughby was the head of that section for MacArthur -- in my mind Willoughby was simply too stupid to do anything ingenious (his record shows he was incompetent). But there were some very bright people on MacArthur's staff at that time in Tolyo like Al Haig. We describe this in some length in our book GOLD WARRIORS. I feel certain that Kodama helped the USA to provoke a North Korean attack, because Kodama and his Korean underworld cronies helped to stage several provocative acts in Korea to precipitate the Korean War, and Kodama accompanied JF Dulles on his tour of South Korea just prior to these provocations. I would imagine that Tsuji was equally employed by Willoughby, et al, in various parts of Asia. If the spooks wanted to kill Tsuji, they could have done so by blowing up his aircraft, as often was done in that epoch, or they could have had the North Vietnamese snuff him. Having effectively forgiven Tzuji and Kodama, etc., and let them write books and play politicians, I doubt if the agency sent him on a mission to Hanoi intending him to die, or be murdered. Frankly, I have not pursued it, but I will now make some inquiries of contacts I have in Hanoi, and see what they think became of Tzuji. More when I have it. Best regards, Sterling

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Well, I cannot be certain what Tsuji's ultimate fate was, after stepping off the plane in Hanoi. But I can comment on his ties to the CIA after the war -- prior to and/or coinciding with his Hanoi trip. Actually I'm using CIA generically when I should simply say that Tsuji, like Kodama and many other really nasty guys, were bailed out and given jobs working for Willoughby. Or at least Willoughby was the head of that section for MacArthur -- in my mind Willoughby was simply too stupid to do anything ingenious (his record shows he was incompetent). But there were some very bright people on MacArthur's staff at that time in Tolyo like Al Haig. We describe this in some length in our book GOLD WARRIORS. I feel certain that Kodama helped the USA to provoke a North Korean attack, because Kodama and his Korean underworld cronies helped to stage several provocative acts in Korea to precipitate the Korean War, and Kodama accompanied JF Dulles on his tour of South Korea just prior to these provocations. I would imagine that Tsuji was equally employed by Willoughby, et al, in various parts of Asia. If the spooks wanted to kill Tsuji, they could have done so by blowing up his aircraft, as often was done in that epoch, or they could have had the North Vietnamese snuff him. Having effectively forgiven Tzuji and Kodama, etc., and let them write books and play politicians, I doubt if the agency sent him on a mission to Hanoi intending him to die, or be murdered. Frankly, I have not pursued it, but I will now make some inquiries of contacts I have in Hanoi, and see what they think became of Tzuji. More when I have it. Best regards, Sterling

Sterling, it really means a lot to me to hear your thoughts, and is very much appreciated.

I don't know how much you follow the cryptology aspects of the JFK Assassination, but you may be aware of the John Hurt/Oswald phone call on November 23, 1963, when Oswald was in the Dallas jail. Whether it is a mirage or not, there are some of us on the forum that believe he was actually trying to contact the former cryptographer who worked

on the PURPLE codes, John B Hurt, in the period after Herbert Yardley's Black Chamber was shut down.

The reason I mention this, is that in the World War II era, the group which comprised the codebreakers on the PURPLE codes

was

H. Frank Bearce,

Solomon Kullback,

Army Captain Harrod Miller,

John B Hurt

William Friedman,

Abraham Sinkov

Coast Guard Lieutenant L.D. Jones,

Frank Rowlett.

Louise Newkirk Nelson

Alan Turing

Gordon Welchman;

Bletchley Park squadron leader E.M. Jones.

Also John McCoy relates that "Japan mounted a full-scale invasion of China in 1937, driving the KMT government into the interior. Although the war in the Pacific halted the flow of heroin from China to the United States after 1941, the drug traffic within China continued. During the war the KMT and the Japanese freely traded a variety of goods, including opium, across mostly stagnant battle lines. Japan played an official role in the narcotics business in occupied China. In Manchuria the Japanese authorities used opium as a revenue source; in 1938 its sale accounted for 8 percent of general budget receipts. Nanking under Japanese occupation had an estimated fifty thousand heroin addicts. And in Shanghai, about one-sixth of the 1.5 million dollars spent every month on drugs was used to buy heroin."

See - This Deception, also Spies, Dupes, and Diplomats - Page 44 by Ralph de Toledano - Espionage, Soviet - 1952 - 244 pages

During World War II MacArthur, mainly through Willoughby had a separate codebreaking group,which did not share its codebreaking operations

with Friedman's group. whereas MacArthur went on, as you know, to administer the postwar occupation of Japan.

Of course, Lee Harvey Oswald has not even been mentioned but he is the prime reason I have followed these persons. There

are also the British SOE and Secret Intelligence Service individuals to consider in codebreaking.

An outpost of the Government Code and Cypher School was set up in Hong Kong in 1935, the Far East Combined Bureau (FECB). The FECB naval staff moved in 1940 to Singapore, then Colombo, Ceylon, then Kilindini, Mombasa, Kenya. They succeeded in deciphering Japanese codes with a mixture of skill and good fortune.[12] The Army and Air Force staff went from Singapore to the Wireless Experimental Centre at Delhi, India. In early 1942, a six-month crash course in Japanese, for 20 undergraduates from Oxford and Cambridge, was started by the Inter-Service Intelligence school in Bedford, in a building across from the main Post Office. This course was repeated every six months until war's end. The LMS railway provided twice-daily trains, reserved for BP workers, between Cambridge and Bletchley, stopping at Bedford St Johns railway station).

Sir James Hambro, head of SIS, as well as Paul Rosbaud and Frederick van den Heuvel, all affiliated with British SIS died in 1963

And figures like Richard Sorge, Theodore Froelich, Jack Cannon, the Kaji Affair, an example of Army Intelligence

and the CIA working together, and Dr Chikao Fujikawa, Richard Nagell are all of interest to me. Another name active in black-operations or psychological operations is Robert J Morris, whose name is familiar to those who are knowledgeable regarding the assassination of President Kennedy. Robert J. Morris, was the Officer-in-Charge of the Advance Psychological Warfare Section of CINCPAC under

Commander-in-Chief, Chester Nimitz on Guam.

So your comments and input are of extreme interest to me.....

Edited by Robert Howard
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About Tsuji:

I have some feelers out in Hanoi, Laos and Thailand regarding Tsuji's fate or whereabouts. Unfortunately, those who were involved in black ops in Laos in the early 60s, are either dead or aging to a point where probing them is unlikely to produce an answer. Others who are now retired, are afraid of losing their pensions. But I will see what I can learn. The station chief in Vientiene at that time kept them on a short umbilical cord. Not a nice guy.

Sterling

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About Tsuji:

I have some feelers out in Hanoi, Laos and Thailand regarding Tsuji's fate or whereabouts. Unfortunately, those who were involved in black ops in Laos in the early 60s, are either dead or aging to a point where probing them is unlikely to produce an answer. Others who are now retired, are afraid of losing their pensions. But I will see what I can learn. The station chief in Vientiene at that time kept them on a short umbilical cord. Not a nice guy.

Sterling

Not a problem, I appreciate you going to the trouble to respond.......

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About Tsuji:

I have some feelers out in Hanoi, Laos and Thailand regarding Tsuji's fate or whereabouts. Unfortunately, those who were involved in black ops in Laos in the early 60s, are either dead or aging to a point where probing them is unlikely to produce an answer. Others who are now retired, are afraid of losing their pensions. But I will see what I can learn. The station chief in Vientiene at that time kept them on a short umbilical cord. Not a nice guy.

Sterling

Not a problem, I appreciate you going to the trouble to respond.......

Just to get back on track of the thread, interesting that this is in the AMBUD Section

Home/Archive/Documents/JFK Assassination Documents/JFK Documents - Central Intelligence Agency/HSCA Segregated CIA Collection (microfilm)/HSCA Segregated CIA Collection (microfilm - reel 69: AMBUD)/

NARA Record Number: 104-10235-10438

CABLE-DURING RECENT MTG WITH GEN LANSDALE, PASSAVOY REQUESTED AND RECEIVED, WITH HQS CONCURRENCE, TELEPHONE NUMBER SO HE. COULD COMMUNICATE DIRECTLY WITH GEN LANSDALE

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=25754

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  • 1 month later...

Good read

Eddys cold war

I just read this, actually. It's good on Lansdale's Cold War history, and even on his Iran-Contra consulting (heck of a photo of him with Oliver North). But the book disavows Lansdale's involvement in the assassination with a hireling's fervor. I hear a mockingbird...

Edited by David Andrews
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There is a fork in the road about Lansdale. Most people think he was playing an active villain's role. John Simkin appears to have become persuaded that Lansdale was not the nasty culprit so many people say he was, and that he had a lot of good qualities. I don't think John is playing the angel's advocate. I do think Lansdale was both things, and took a lot of time and trouble to extend and project his "good" image, while simultaneously continuing his "evil" role.

My first impression of Lansdale many years ago, was that he was active in carrying out all sorts of murders and large scale atrocities. Not just making phony movies to promote Magsaysay. Gradually, I discovered that he had a number of people working under his command who did the blood and guts, allowing Lansdale to distance himself from all the gore, avoiding getting his hands dirty.

While his hitmen (Bohannen in charge of planning, Valeriano in charge of the actual carnage) were carrying out the hits and massacres, Lansdale was able to sit back and discourse, over a glass of fine claret, an enlightened and very broad range of ideas that seem almost tenderhearted, humanitarian, even liberal.

In the end, I concluded that Lansdale was playing a lifelong double game. Lansdale was the strategist with the crucial connections in Washington, the Pentagon and Langley, and in Manila, Saigon, etc. He dreamed up his strategies, and told Bohannen what needed to be done, and after Lansdale went off to lunch or dinner parties with the civilized folks, Bohannen sat down with Valeriano and (both being professional killers, and Valeriano a psychopath to boot), they worked out the dirty details. If anything was ghastly, there was no direct link to Lansdale, Bohannen was the intermediary, and Valeriano's teams of bloodthirsty psychos did the mass murders.

I think this is why Pyle seems to be such an evangelist that some people find it hard to believe he's modeled on Lansdale; and John's take on Lansdale is almost evangelical. But let's not forget that he was an ad agency account executive as well as copy writer in San Francisco, and had a good many years to cultivate his benign image, before being posted to Manila by Donovan, where he was given Bohannen the award-winning military specialist in assassinating Japanese in New Guinea (one of the US top-guns), who then selected Valerianno as his weapon of choice. And Valerianno assembled the hit-teams.

Graphic evidence of this can be found in our book RED SKY, now on Kindle, which is based on a great mass of G-2 documents, quoted extensively. So far as JFK goes, Lansdale was (figuratively) in the executive suite. He didn't pull the trigger. Always -- like Pyle -- the nice guy.

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Esentially it was Fletcher Prouty who put EGL in the villain role for his Mongoose tenancy. I didn't see a lot of argument against Lansdale not fitting Prouty's model in Nashel's book - just apologia for the ethnomusicology and Kiplingesque disporting among the natives that made him more thoughtful than rapacious at what he pursued, assurances one might make about Angleton's activities.

I can't really live on Nashel's assurances - too many bellies were slit in Nicaragua once Lansdale gave briefings to Oliver North. We should perhaps define Lansdale's role in the assassination better, if that role existed. His talents were in disinformation and disguise, which demand logistical planning to execute - but there were many other logistical needs in Dealey Plaza, and during the various forms of cover-up. Lansdale cannot have controlled all these functions.

It's probably time to re-examine Prouty on Lansdale, to see how much we may tend to operate on assurances there. I'm going to double-check.

Edited by David Andrews
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I'm not saying Lansdale was innocent, just the opposite, but he was successful in fooling a lot of people by having Bohannen and Valeriano carry out the the actual murders. I have it direct from Bohannen's widow during a long conversation at her home in Manila that Lansdale (for instance), thought up taping two ice picks together to stab victims in the neck and make it look like a vampire did it; Bohannen then had a lot of them made and turned them over to Valeriano, whose death squads used them for mass murder. This enabled Lansdale to play a role in public where he mouthed endless evangelical opinions, which deceived a lot of people.

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