Cord Meyer and the Assassination of JFK

[Ron Bulman]

A post about the film The American Media and the Second Assassination of JFK being shown in London on another thread

in conjunction with reading somewhere also in the last couple of weeks that Cord Meyer was the head of Operation Mockingbird at the time of JFK's assassination it jolted my thoughts.  I had never considered the role he might have played in the cover up from the perspective of his being in that position.  Working for Helms and Angleton (and still loyal to Dulles?) .  The former (still bitter?) husband of JFK's last known paramour tells the National press what it should and shouldn't publish about the assassination through personal contact's and his emissaries in the cia.  The thought begs a little delving.

So I searched the site for him and came up with this 12/5 year old thread.  Not long but historically interesting.  Started by Mr. Simkin.  Commented on by knowledgeable persons.  Abandoned, brought back in 09 by Bill Kelly, abandoned again.  Hijacked in 12. 

Interesting to note it was all written before Mary's Mosaic came out.  Some of the conclusions/assumptions are questionable in light of it.  Though I realize skulley thoroughly destroyed some aspects of the book afterward.

Cord wrote a book about himself.  He could be worthy of a book by an objective author as well.

Perhaps the subject of a dissertation by some young upcoming political science historian? 

Edited July 9, 2017 by Ron Bulman

[Paul Brancato]

Hijacked is a good word for it, though to be fair Sculley's work highlights the social connections that reveal how power works. John Dolva says on one post in this thread that the problem with Sculley is that he never writes concluding paragraphs summing up the point of his delving into family histories. 

[Douglas Caddy]

My small contribution to this discussion of Cord Meyer is as follows:

In February 1972 attorney George Webster telephoned John Kilcullen, a partner in the law firm where I worked as an associate, and asked him to assign an attorney as a volunteer for the Lawyers Committee for the Re-election of the President, of which Webster was chairman. I was volunteered to be that attorney. Webster then told me to report to John Dean, who was White House Counsel in the White House. Dean gave me ordinary legal campaign work to do, such as visiting the office of columnist Jack Anderson to get certain information if possible about Senator Edmund Muskie about whom Anderson had written in one of his columns. Webster then telephoned me around March 1972 and told me to report to Gordon Liddy, who was the Legal Counsel to the Finance Committee for the Re-election of the President. I did ordinary legal work pursuant to assignments given to me by Liddy. So I found myself working for both Dean and Liddy.

Around April 1972 Howard Hunt invited me to join him and Gordon Liddy for lunch at a club. I believe it was the Federal Club located in the Georgetown section of Washington, which was a dining club for CIA employees and their guests. While we were having lunch, Hunt suddenly blurted out, "There's that S.O.B. Cord Meyer", who was seated at lunch at a nearby table.

I pass this incident along as it would appear that there was great animosity between Meyer and Hunt at that time. I have no idea what might have brought it about sometime in the past.

Edited July 10, 2017 by Douglas Caddy

[Paul Brancato]

Thanks Doug - always enjoy reading your first hand accounts. Interesting thing here is Hunt's animosity towards Meyer. It might put a different spin on Hunt's deathbed confession. 

[Ron Bulman]

Hunt may have had a personal reason for calling Meyer an SOB.  At the same time if memory serves I remember reading somewhere, most likely in Mary's Mosaic, that Meyer could at least at times have a bit of a condescending attitude.  I recall an example, an occasion after work or at a dinner party where Meyer had a few drinks, someone said something he disagreed with and he dressed them down quite heartily in front of the crowd.

[Brian Schmidt]

Plus, they had completely opposite politics, with Meyer being a liberal and Hunt a staunch conservative.

[Kirk Gallaway]

Prior to Hunt's deathbed "confession", the only thing I had ever heard about Cord Meyer concerning  the Kennedy assassination was his response in his later life when asked who killed his ex-wife and he purportedly said "the same people who killed Kennedy". The first I had ever heard of his direct involvement was from Hunt.

Edited July 10, 2017 by Kirk Gallaway

[David Andrews]

19 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

Prior to Hunt's deathbed "confession", the only thing I had ever heard about Cord Meyer concerning  the Kennedy assassination was his response in his later life when asked who killed his ex-wife and he purportedly said "the same people who killed Kennedy". The first I had ever heard of his direct involvement was from Hunt.

If I remember, the source for that attributed quotation was C. David Heymann, whose books have been widely discredited:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=david heymann jfk&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=david heymann jfk&sc=0-17&sk=&cvid=233374CD85A149FDB6FB7053E6B2ED87

 

[Kirk Gallaway]

3 hours ago, David Andrews said:

If I remember, the source for that attributed quotation was C. David Heymann, whose books have been widely discredited:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=david heymann jfk&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=david heymann jfk&sc=0-17&sk=&cvid=233374CD85A149FDB6FB7053E6B2ED87

 

Uh huh, Meyer was Hunt's link to LBJ, which I thought was maybe somewhat incongruent.  I've suspected that Hunt was doing a partial hangout,giving up people from his circles that were widely thought at the time to be part of the conspiracy , Phillips,Harvey,Morales, Sturgis, and tying them through Meyer to LBJ to protect Daddy (Dulles, Angleton) and the agency, and tell the ultimate juicy story, that a Vice President killed a standing President to fulfill his ambition to office.

[Paul Brancato]

I agree Kirk, and fell for the LBJ angle at first. Now I believe otherwise, that it was factions of CIA/military. In my opinion Nixon and Bush were closer to this nexus than LBJ. Not that I don't find Lyndon repugnant. I do, viscerally. And he surely benefitted and perhaps knew in advance but did nothing. He and Hoover could be relied upon to run the coverup, but did not arrange the crime itself. 

[Joe Bauer]

There's so much material dedicated to discrediting C. David Heymann ( almost over-the-top ) to the point I wonder about whether there are other personal agendas ( the Kennedy's protecting their image ) fueling and exaggerating this relative to the accurate truth?

Here again we have an obviously talented writer who is accused of occasionally playing fast and loose with the research facts and materials for his biographies, but still garnered enough respect from major publishers to get many book deals with pretty good advances.

Was the man eccentric? Probably, but so many well known writers have been this way or worse.

I wanted to know more about Heymann after reading here that the highly provocative statement accorded to Cord Meyer regards who Meyer thought killed his ex-wife ( "the same bunch that killed Kennedy") came from Heymann.

If so, I cannot simply dismiss the alleged Cord Meyer ( "the same bunch that killed Kennedy" ) Heymann statement just because many people have written discrediting pieces on Heymann.

Didn't Heymann get a lot of biography tales right? Of course he did.

 

[Ron Bulman]

On ‎7‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 3:37 PM, Kirk Gallaway said:

Prior to Hunt's deathbed "confession", the only thing I had ever heard about Cord Meyer concerning  the Kennedy assassination was his response in his later life when asked who killed his ex-wife and he purportedly said "the same people who killed Kennedy". The first I had ever heard of his direct involvement was from Hunt.

Regarding the latter, some speculate the CIA killed his ex wife.  Was this in a sense a confession on his part?  His statement makes me think of Angleton, "A mansion has ???, but I'm not privy to who shot John".  Regarding the first part, I guess I've never fully read Hunt's death bed confession, I know not the son's book.  I didn't know he mentioned Meyer in the confession.

[Ron Bulman]

To summarize from "Mary's Mosaic" starting on pg. 169.  1942, Cord graduates early with Yale's highest honor (skull & bones too?).  Enlists in Marine Corps OCS, looses eye and brother in WWII.  1945, chosen to be an aide to former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, delegate to the San Francisco conference to establish the United Nations. Wife Mary went to report for UPI.  JFK had met her as a teenager at a dance.  He was covering the event as a reporter for the Chicago Herald-American.  Purportedly JFK was still infatuated with Mary and Cord took offense.  Small world for Ivy leaguers.  Pg. 172 "Realizing Cord's position as a principal liaison to U.S. delegate Harold Stassen, Jack wanted to interview him for one of his press filings, but Cord snubbed him, declining the invitation.  Jack never forgot the dismissal; years later, when Cord wanted out of the CIA and solicited Kennedy for the ambassadorship to Guatemala, the President ignored him".

Pg. 191.  1967.  "Ramparts magazine would expose Cord as director of the CIA's notorious Operation Mockingbird... During the 1950's, an estimated three thousand salaried and contract employees were engaged in propaganda efforts."  ...Phillip Graham - WaPo...  "Under Cord's tutelage, Mockingbird became a stunning success.  Whenever the CIA wanted a news story slanted in a particular direction, it got it.  This amounted to subversion of democracy's most precious cornerstone, the free press.  Secretly controlling the media had proven to be one of the CIA's most powerful tools.  The agency didn't take kindly to being found out."

Note:  Pg. 340. Paraphrase, author Peter Janney's dad, co worker Wistar Janney, high level employee of the CIA since it's inception, old friend of Cord Meyer called to inform him of his wife's death.  Peter thinks his dad knew about her death before it happened.