"JFK's Death Turning Point For Valenti"

[Nic Martin]

Found this article today, and you can read all of it over at PalmBeachNews, but here's just the part about 11-22:

But the seminal moment in his personal history, Valenti said, came on Nov. 22, 1963, as he rode in a motorcade in Dallas, seven cars behind President John F. Kennedy. The events of those hours led to his selection as Lyndon Johnson's first special adviser.

"He sent a Secret Service agent to get me at Parkland Hospital and said to me, 'I need you to come back to Washington and handle some things for me.' Next thing I knew, I was on Air Force One."

The Texas-born Valenti said LBJ made two decisions that fateful day that Valenti described as visionary.

First, he refused to leave JFK's body behind despite the urging of the Secret Service and military officials who wanted to get him airborne as soon as possible.

"He told them, 'I'm not going anywhere until the president's body is on this plane.' Can you imagine the public reaction if he had left without him? How people would say he was so anxious to be president that he left his fallen leader behind?" Valenti asked.

Secondly, LBJ decided to have a federal judge administer the oath of office on the plane, "even though constitutionally, he was already president. He asked Jackie to come up from the rear where she was sitting next to JFKs flag-draped coffin. I had heard the words 'catatonic state,' but I didn't know what they meant until I saw her come walking up, taking these little mincing steps. Her eyes were open but they were opaque, they weren't seeing anything.

"And I saw the Constitution acted out right in front of me," Valenti said. "The president is dead. The president lives. We go on."

After three years in the Johnson administration, he went to Hollywood as president of the Motion Picture Association of America.

[Pat Speer]

Let's not forget that Valenti is one of those who campaigned to have The Men Who Killed Kennedy banned from television. While he is certainly entitled to believe that his mentor LBJ was not involved in the assassination, his knee-jerk reaction to protect LBJ's legacy is an insult to creators and thinkers everywhere. If he and his colleagues had spent half the energy actually learning about the assassination as they have complaining about those who do, we'd have solved this thing a long time ago. Valenti's idea of visionary makes me think of cowardice.

[Shanet Clark]

Note that the complicit authorities wanted to fly in separate planes,

with a greater opportunity for forensic malfeasance....and the proof

is pretty compelling that the flag draped casket had no body in it....

JFK came off the plane in a body bag, according to witnesses...

[Dawn Meredith]

Note that the complicit authorities wanted to fly in separate planes,

with a greater opportunity for forensic malfeasance....and the proof

is pretty compelling that the flag draped casket had no body in it....

JFK came off the plane in a body bag, according to witnesses...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

__________________________

Great thread, surprised there are no updates on this one.

I will have some news on Valenti when the time is right. He PERSONALLY saw to it that TMWKK was not only cencored but you cannot even buy it.

More when I learn it, or rather, when it has actually happened, is a more accurate statement. We have not heard the last of those three cencored hours and Valenti.

Ask yourself just why LBJ refused to leave without the body, and why he literally forced Jackie to be at his side as he was sworn in. He knew better. (Then for good measure, check out Valenti's wink AS LBJ is being sworn in.) Just my idle musings....could all be just one big string of coincidences, no?

Better yet, ask why he hung around Dallas so long if he thought for one second his OWN life was in danger (Cuba/Russia).

Dawn

[Dixie Dea]

Quote from Dawn

Ask yourself just why LBJ refused to leave without the body, and why he literally forced Jackie to be at his side as he was sworn in. He knew better. (Then for good measure, check out Valenti's wink AS LBJ is being sworn in.) Just my idle musings....could all be just one big string of coincidences, no?

___________________________________

Hi Dawn...

I just wanted to mention that is was not Valenti that winked at LBJ, at he swearing in...it was Cong.Albert Thomas. Here is a photo:

http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma/wink.jpg

Regards,

Dixie

Edited February 8, 2005 by Dixie Dea

[John Simkin]

I just wanted to mention that is was not Valenti that winked at LBJ, at he swearing in...it was Cong.Albert Thomas. Here is a photo:

http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma/wink.jpg

Of course Albert Thomas was a key member of the Suite 8F Group:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2868

In fact, the decline in the power of this group can be traced back to his death in 1966.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKthomasA.htm

[James Richards]

I just wanted to mention that is was not Valenti that winked at LBJ, at he swearing in...it was Cong.Albert Thomas. Here is a photo: (Dixie Dea)

Hi Dixie,

Here is a nice clean version of that photograph.

James

[Shanet Clark]

After reviewing John's entire Suite 8 material, I must say the winking is more than just bad taste. Congressman Thomas Albert headed the powerful House Appropriations Committee?

The material on Fred Korth is also important, as Secretary of the Navy...General Dynamics and the industrial espionage lead back to the Paine's and Bell Helicopter. John has done some very heavy lifting, and James has the photo....

[Stan Wilbourne]

Just as telling is the look on Lady Bird's face, don't you think, Shanet?

[James Richards]

Shanet,

It should also be remembered that on the 21st of November, 1963, JFK paid tribute to Albert Thomas as the man who gave America the leadership in space. (see below)

What a difference a day makes.

James

[Pat Speer]

I've thought about this picture a lot and I've decided it may not be as incriminating as it seems. Thomas was a mentor to LBJ. He was terminally ill. I don't think it was all that out of line to give LBJ a wink of encouragement as he stepped into the Presidency. As for Lady Bird, I think she looks completely upset, trying to hold on. I've seen some tragedy and I've seen that look on faces before. As for Valenti.... he, above all, should have respect for the free exchange of ideas...

[Nic Martin]

My grandmother told me she remembers watching television on 11-21 and looking at Lady Bird and commenting to my grandfather, "She'd do just about anything to be First Lady."

It's simply amusing that Lady Bird has no problem placing the blame on LHO's name ( even though he was never proven guilty ), yet whines when the same is done to her husband ( claiming that it's unfair to label him as he was never proven guilty ). It's almost like she's scared for her title to be stripped away.

[Pat Speer]

My grandmother told me she remembers watching television on 11-21 and looking at Lady Bird and commenting to my grandfather, "She'd do just about anything to be First Lady."

It's simply amusing that Lady Bird has no problem placing the blame on LHO's name ( even though he was never proven guilty ), yet whines when the same is done to her husband ( claiming that it's unfair to label him as he was never proven guilty ). It's almost like she's scared for her title to be stripped away.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think that Lady Bird and many other Texans felt a tremendous amount of guilt that JFK was killed in Texas, so much so they couldn't help but feel vindicated when the Warren Commission determined that the Louisiana-native Oswald acted alone. The Johnsons were, of course, tremendously hopeful that their reign in the White House be considered legitmate. Attacks on the Warren Commisssion's findings were therefore most probably viewed as assaults on their personal integrity.

[Tim Gratz]

Pat, I'm not trying to push my "Fidel Did It" scenario on this thread but that is what LBJ concluded after Helms briefed him on the 1967 CIA Inspector General's Report (prompted, of course) by the Jack Anderson column re the CIA/Mafia plots.

I wonder, however, if LBJ had faith in the Warren Report from the get go? Holland's book "The Assassination Tapes" might shed light on this.

[Pat Speer]

Pat, I'm not trying to push my "Fidel Did It" scenario on this thread but that is what LBJ concluded after Helms briefed him on the 1967 CIA Inspector General's Report (prompted, of course) by the Jack Anderson column re the CIA/Mafia plots.

I wonder, however, if LBJ had faith in the Warren Report from the get go?  Holland's book "The Assassination Tapes" might shed light on this.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've read Holland's book and to my recollection LBJ seemed to defer to first Hoover and then the Warren Commisssion's conclusions that Oswald acted alone. It is interesting, however, that LBJ's approach is almost from the start political--as in how can he present the conclusions to the public. After the first few days, he never expresses any curiousity about the facts of the case.

I suspect that LBJ believed there was a conspiracy all along, and that he either knew who did it or knew that it would do him no good to know who did it. The "Castro did it" comments expressed later on were simply LBJ's way of insinuating his arch-rival Bobby into the mess.