James DiEugenio

Roger: in your last sentence, the first part is accurate. Alsop did have a very strong part in convincing LBJ to form the Warren Commission, and that is clearly documented by Donald GIbson in his milestone essay in the book The Assassinations. The last part is in all likliehood not true. I think that after the fact LBJ realized what a joke it was to put Dulles on that Commission and he felt the need to blame someone he despised. As per your first statement there is a very clear reason to think that way about the CIA/Mafia plots and LBJ. Its in the IG Report. They admit it on pp. 132-33: no president had any knowledge of the plots. Its right there in B and W. And its so devastating that Helms only kept one copy. That is clearly not what Helms wanted to hear. But the authors of the report reluctantly came to that conclusion. The first exposure of the plots was done by Roselli to Anderson, who printed a very much distorted view of them. Johnson, like many others, saw this story. He asked Helms for an accurate report on them. And that is how we got that report. Which actually traces how the Anderson story was put together, again its right there in B and W. If you have other information about this, and if its solidly documented, I would certainly like to see it. And so would everyone else.

Here you go Sandy. Direct link to CIA IG Report. Which, IIRC, Fetter has no footnotes to. Kind of mind boggling. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=9983 This was so incriminating that Helms told the guys who wrote it to destroy their notes, and he kept only one copy, the ribbon original in his safe. Which Johnson read. I think he did that because he understood that logical, informed thinkers may have thought that these plots--which featured the CIA, Mafia, and Cuban exiles--could then have been turned against JFK.

In the Washington Post of December 12, 1977, you will see a story about LBJ's chief of staff Marvin Watson telling Deloach that after reading the CIA IG report Johnson now felt the CIA was involved in the murder of President Kennedy. Unfortunately that is behind a wall.

Sandy, The CIA IG report, which is invaluable and one of the triumphs of the ARRB, is at MFF. And its completely declassified now. If you have not read it please do.

No Ron, it does not look like him, as I have seen close up pictures of Cruz back then. Trump really wanted to accent this phony story by the way, he actually mentioned it on TV. Richard, can you provide a source for him being on the route working for IBM, and then running away to Canada.?

BTW, how did Johnson eventually find out about the plots? It was the Drew Pearson story through Johnny Roselli. When that got into the papers, LBJ told Helms he wanted a report on this. That is how we got the CIA IG Report. After reading it, Johnson told his assistant he now thought the CIA was involved in JFK's murder. Although he never said that in public. The closest he got I think was when he said Oswald was likely not working alone. He had some help.

That is a pretty good short summary of what Scott has put forth Sandy. And unlike Fetter, it does fit the evidence. But I have always wondered if Johnson really believed what Hoover was telling him. Because after proffering this evidence, Hoover tells him that the picture is not Oswald and the voice on the tape is not either. I have never known what to make of this. Maybe LBJ realized he was being tricked and decided to call it off? But this is what is so odd about Fetter,: he never pursues this question!

No Stu, that is not it. He is saying that somehow RFK had knowledge of the third phase of the CIA plots to kill Castro. And therefore when the name Rolando Cubela came up in a CIA cable, this froze him in place. I replied that if one looks at the CIA IG Report, this does not work. Because they say that the plots were never given presidential approval and were kept from all three presidents, Ike, JFK and LBJ. And Helms specifically forbade that Cubela have any kind of meeting with RFK. He does not even prove that RFK saw this cable.

This Rufus Youngblood myth was taken care of by Bob Groden in his book JFK:Absolute Proof. Johnson was upright when the shooting started. ( see page 272)

This book I think is a good example of when theorizing about what happened to JFK takes precedence over data and analysis. If you read the second part of my review, what Fetter does with Mexico City is another example of making theory first and then shoving data into it. He wants to conclude that the whole Mexico City mess was about freezing RFK in place. Which is not, for instance, what John Newman thinks. Or Peter Scott as another example. And I think they have done more work on that than Fetter has. Scott, for example, has come up with the whole Phase 1 and Phase 2 idea. That Mexico CIty was done to jump start a war on Castro, but then when LBJ and Hoover put the brakes to that, the idea was to make Oswald into a sociopathic loner model. I have never seen anyone put forth what this book does. And as I pointed out, with evidence, he does not prove his idea.

And BTW, Fetter leaves that whole aspect about Rayburn out, namely that the guy was incorruptible. Yet when I was reading about him for this review, that is the aspect of his character that struck me the most. The guy was legendary in. that regard. The other things that struck me were the contradictions. If Rayburn and LBJ were scheming to get Johnson as VP in 1960, why did Rayburn advise LBJ not to take the offer? Why did LBJ run at all that year? And BTW, JFK knew that Johnson would be his toughest opponent which is why he sent RFK down to Texas in 1959 to feel him out. The whole question about that election is this: Why did Johnson not enter earlier, as Rayburn was clearly trying to get him to do? And BTW, Fetter leave that out also, Rayburn's urging of LBJ to get in the race in the spring. Rayburn even set up a shell HQ called Citizens for Johnson to push him into getting into the race. (Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p.28). Johnson not only refused to go over there, he got mad at Rayburn for doing it behind his back! This is why I used the word solipsistic in my critique. Because the stuff he leaves out, gives the reader a different picture. And I compared him to Waldron for that reason.

Welcome Steve. BTW, Fetter actually says that the plotting by Rayburn and LBJ began back in 1956. I am still trying to find his evidence for this. I should add if you read Part 2 of the review, Rayburn's major characteristic as a politician is that he was incorruptible. Go figure.

Tom Gram: That was quite possibly the worst JFK book I’ve ever read in my life That is because you have not read this one. Not only does Fetter cook up a motive for Rayburn and Johnson that is almost ludicrous, but he is obsessed with the late David Lifton. He does not even call him that, he calls him Samuel Lifton. And that is just the beginning of his crusade against the deceased. Fetter really needed an editor on this book. To protect him from his worst tendencies.

Gil: He is aware of those matters. But it does not matter. He all but ignores the differences between LBJ and JFK on Vietnam which go back to the siege of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, and the use of combat troops in 1961. Then, he uses a picture of Wheeler leaning over a desk in front of LBJ during a conference to somehow articulate a conspiratorial angle to the JCS. I have rarely read a more agenda driven, solipsistic book. I think one has to go back to the heyday of Lamar Waldron with his whole C day invasion/Mob did it scheme to find any kid of comparison.

I paid 90 bucks for this two volume set that clocks in at over 1000 pages. To put it mildly, it was not worth the money or the time to read it. Because its so long, the review is in two parts. The first is about his spin on the medical side, and the second is his case against Johnson and his co-conspirator. I mean Sam Rayburn was a plotter? The guy died two years before JFK was killed! You will double over when you read the motive. Because it says it had utterly nothing to do with any of JFK's policies. Further, it did not matter who was nominated that year, they would have been knocked off also. And wait until you read what he does with his footnotes. As per the medical aspect, although the author despises David Lifton, he actually outdoes Lifton's body switching scheme. The body was switched at Parkland and Jackie knew it. https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/under-cover-of-night-by-sean-fetter