Jump to content
The Education Forum

The assassination of John Lennon -25 years ago today.


Lynne Foster

Recommended Posts

Reagan's foreign policy advocates prepared to satisfy the unfinished agenda of the Nixon White House and serious threats were promptly eliminated. The so-called lessons of the 1960's were very close to the hearts of "time warp patriots" who blamed the loss of the Vietnam war on the antiwar movement and they resented the influence of activists like Lennon to the point of paranoia. In short, Reagan's upcoming, anti-Communist crusade could simply not tolerate an invigorated John Lennon and "he had to be cut down before the reasons for his death became obvious: before Reagan took the oath of office on 20 January 1981, before the world realized that Lennon was coming back to being the old Lennon, the man who sang Give Peace A Chance.35 In 1969, the Vietnam war prompted the largest anti-war demonstrations in the history of the United States and young people who rallied around Lennon's protest songs infuriated the Nixon White House. The Kent State massacre was immediately followed by protesters who circled the White House and chanted "all we are saying is give peace a chance" but the spirit of the peace movement was ultimately dampened by the slaughter. Regardless, the paranoia of Richard Nixon refused to wane. The Nixon White feared Lennon's capacity to disrupt the re-nomination of Richard Nixon and Hoover promptly dispatched his political police to "initiate discreet efforts to locate subject [John Winston Lennon] and remain aware of his activities and movements." Hoover died less that a year after the Republican convention in 1972, but the prejudice, fear and paranoia that motivated the Nixon White House survived and resurfaced with a vengeance in 1980. And when Bill Casey and Richard Nixon paved the road to systematically eliminate their "enemies" John Lennon became the first known casualty of the Nixon navigated, Reagan revolution. Reagan himself reflects the fact that Nixon's extraordinary White House authority practically exceeded his own. After leaving the White House, the Reagan's were disturbed by what they perceived to be "Reagan Bashing" by the Bush team, and it was Nixon who contacted Bush's Chief of Staff, to intercede on behalf of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. "Nixon made the call, telling Sununu that attacking the Reagans was counterproductive for the White House. For whatever reason, the attacks stopped".36 Nixon certainly did not have to physically occupy the White House to exercise power. At the same time, he evidently acted as though he was in fact the official President of the United States. When, For example, Richard Reeves interviewed Richard Nixon in his "exile sanctum" in New York in 1980, his apartment was arranged like the Oval Office. "The flags, the couch, the chairs were just like it..." Indeed, Richard Nixon was so obsesses with his role-play, that when the interview was concluded, he escorted Reeves to the supplies closet "because the closet door in the faux Oval Office was in the same place as an exit in the real Oval Office."37 In retrospect, Ronald Reagan was Jimmy Carter's political adversary in the 1980 election while Richard Nixon and other ghosts from the past [like Bill Casey] were his secret enemies. Consequently, the ultimate leader of the powerful, unaccountable, parallel government within-a-government that Oliver North operated was Richard Nixon himself -which probably explains the public controversy between Oliver North and Ronald Reagan. Indeed, the secret government "was believed to have grown out of a group Mr. Casey set up during the final weeks of the 1980 presidential campaign, called the October Surprise Group.38 Casey and Nixon were evidently full of surprises and on the very day that the press headlined the announcement that a "local screwball" murdered Lennon, the political backdrop was the innocuous headline, Reagan set to announce cabinet.

The claim that John Lennon was the target of a political assassination is not original. In 1989, Fenton Bresler, an intelligent British Barrister wrote a book called The Murder of Lennon, and he raises many of the serious questions about Lennon's murder that have been almost totally ignored. In particular, he convincingly argues that Mark Chapman, Lennon's assassin was brainwashed by the CIA. Indeed, all the "traditional" motivations that are ascribed to Mark Chapman are relatively absurd compared to Bresler's analysis. On December 17, 1992, Chapman was interviewed on Larry King Live, and that was certainly an eye opener in terms of exposing the real Mark Chapman. In a nutshell, Chapman reflected the demeanour of a cold, dispassionate, methodical, cold blooded murderer. In particular, Chapman ascribed a phoney motivation to account for Lennon's murder, and that is certainly the mark of a cover up. On the one hand, Chapman claimed that he "was so bonded with Lennon" and on the other, he boldly asserted that he "struck out at something he perceived to be phoney, and that extraordinary contradiction, reflects duplicity, deception and the fact that Mark Chapman was not a "lone nut."

The most striking, consistent element in the short adult life of Mark Chapman is his affiliation to the YMCA. Indeed, he had given serious consideration to applying himself to a career with the International Division of the YMCA. When he was arrested, one of the few items that Chapman left "on display" for the police to find was the following letter of recommendation from David Moore, then stationed at the Geneva office of the World Alliance of YMCAs:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

This is to introduce Mark Chapman, a staff member of the U.S. International Division of the National Council of YMCAs. Mark was an effective and dedicated worker at the refugee camp in Fort Chaffe Arkansas following the mass influx of refugees after the change in governments in Indo-China in the spring of 1975. Mark was also the youth representative to the Board of Directors of the YMCA in his home town in Georgia. Mark will be visiting YMCAs in Asia and Europe and we look forward to his visit here in Geneva. I can commend him to you as a sincere and intelligent young man. Any assistance that you can give Mark during his travels will be greatly appreciated by this office.39

It is certainly not an exaggeration to assert that the YMCA was essentially Mark Chapman's surrogate family. But what is more significant however is the mysterious, troubling implications of the fact that Chapman was not a "lone nut." In 1967, Ramparts Magazine exposed the fact that the CIA used students to gather information from abroad and in the 1970's and 1980's, the CIA was evidently using YMCA patrons as spies. Philip Agee, the first-known CIA defector blew the cover on the CIA/YMCA link, and Mark Chapman's YMCA link was evidently too substantial and too "political" to preclude a CIA link as well. In 1975, Mark Chapman, the vehemently anti-Communist Southerner applied to represent the YMCA as a counsellor in the Soviet Union, but that bid was denied because Chapman did not speak Russian. Instead, Mark visited Lebanon, where, according to radio commentator, Mae Brussell, the CIA maintained training camps for assassins at the time.40 Whether Chapman was a trained assassin or not, his Beirut experience had a profound impact on his life, and following narrative indicates that Mark's harrowing overseas experience produced a very deep, psychological impact which was ripe for exploitation:

June 1975 seems to have been the first time that Mark heard gunfire, the whizzing of bullets, bombs bursting nearby and the screams of people in pain and dying. It etched deep into his consciousness. This "gentle" man, who hated violence, came back from Beirut with a cassette recording that he had actually made of the barbarous sounds of warfare. He played it time and again to anyone in Atlanta who would listen. Says Harold Blankinship: "He played us this recording he had made in his hotel room at the YMCA in Beirut of all the fighting going on. You could hear the shooting, etc. That could have affected him. He was real up-tight about it, I know that." Whether intentional or otherwise, Lennon's future killer had indeed been "bloodied" in war-torn Beirut.41

The violence of war-torn Lebanon was Chapman's first, it wasn't his last firsthand look at the miserable dislocation that war produced. After Beirut, Chapman worked with Vietnamese refugees in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, where the YMCA was setting up services to accommodate them. Since the fall of Saigon, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fled to the United States and in the eyes of "time warp" patriots, antiwar activists [phonies] like John Lennon were directly responsible for that particular "mess." And so, Mark Chapman, who travelled the world at the behest of the CIA-linked YMCA, was ripe for exploitation -he was an ideal brainwash victim -he had witnessed firsthand the world disorder that so-called phonies like John Lennon were responsible for. Indeed, Mark Chapman dabbled in the philosophy of "time warp" patriots who blamed the 1960's for every ill in society, and that sort of mentality is transmitted from "patriot" to receptive ear, it did not develop in Chapman alone.

Since he murdered John Lennon, Mark Chapman boasted: "I murdered a man. I took a lot more with me than just myself. A whole era ended. It was the last nail in the coffin of the '60's."42 After killing his target and simultaneously satisfying the paranoia of "time warp patriots" who are in a perpetual war against the so-called 1960's, Chapman did not flee the murder scene, he calmly started to read his copy of The Catcher in the Rye when amazed New York City police officers arrested him. Chapman obviously wanted to get caught -the implication being that he would plead guilty and the Lennon case would close without investigation. Over the years, when asked why he murdered Lennon, Chapman would direct attention to the book The Catcher in the Rye. That in turn, directs attention towards patriots like George Herbert Walker Bush, who claim to have been most influenced by the books War and Peace and The Catcher in the Rye.43 The Catcher in the Rye is about a "crusade against phoneyness" and Mark Chapman, who used the assassination of Lennon to promote the book, claimed that he was motivated by Holden Caulfield, the book's sixteen-year-old "crusader". In a nutshell, Holden Caulfield hated phonies and Mark Chapman's crusade against a "phoney" like Lennon was "ideologically" aligned with the agenda of overzealous "patriots" who were occupied by the obsession to neutralize the influence of popular antiwar activists. In the awkward words of Mark Chapman: "I have a small part in me that cannot understand the world and what goes on in it. I did not want to kill anybody... I fought against the small part for a long time. I'm sure the large part of me is Holden Caulfield. The small part of me must be the Devil."44 Seeking to activate the "big part" of Mark Chapman, his "handlers" could have easily exploited his evident compassion for children and made him believe that "phonies" like John Lennon were ultimately responsible for the horror and the dislocation of war. Friends and associates made a point of having observed a very close bond between Mark Chapman and children, and that certainly provided the opportunity to exploit his Achilles heel. In the words of Mark Chapman: "I never wanted to hurt anybody my friends will tell you that. I have two parts in me the big part is very kind, the children I worked with will tell you that."45 Chapman struggled to avoid hurting Lennon but his "big part won" and he took his gun out of his coat pocket and shot Lennon in the chest, in the left arm and in the head. Mark Chapman had evidently mustered up the courage he required to satisfy the agenda of patriots who considered themselves to be exempt from the normal restraint of the law, because in their eyes, the "big picture", the "big part", the national security interest or whatever else they chose to call it, was essentially a license to kill -and John Lennon was clearly a priority target.

In the final analysis, the terrifying reality is that the impressionable Mark Chapman is just one of hundreds of thousands of young people who are not appreciably distinct, in the absence of the "exposure" they receive. Under the circumstances, since Chapman travelled the world as a guest of the YMCA, it is reasonable to expect the organization that sponsored Chapman's psychologically harrowing adventures to assume at least some responsibility for the extraordinary mental transformation -from Mark Chapman, the compassionate young man, to Mark Chapman, the awkward, reluctant assassin who had to be prodded, to murder John Lennon.

If one looks at the foreign policy direction of the Reagan White House, it is glaringly obvious that "patriots" like Bill Casey and Richard Nixon were steering the course. Clearly, the "invisible prints" of the clandestine, foreign policy strategists who coordinated the entire intelligence apparatus of the government to mount a fierce, unprecedented war against dissent, belong to Casey and Nixon. Richard Nixon made that absolutely clear in The Real War, when he wrote: "I am confident that President Reagan and the members of his administration will have the vision to see what needs to be done and the courage to do it. Nixon's confidence obviously stemmed from the fact that Reagan's inclination to mount an anti-Communist crusade provided zealots like himself the opportunity to use the "acting President" to promote their vision. The Reagan/Bush years are certainly distinguished by the fact that "patriots" were routinely granted license to ignore the law as long as the intended consequence was to advance the President's anti-Communist crusade. The law was routinely violated in the process, and blatant, illegal acts of terror targeted domestic dissidents at home, and entire countries, abroad. Clearly, the CIA deployment of mines in the harbours of Nicaragua was an illegal act of war, and it is not possible to ignore the fact that the Reagan administration routinely disrespected and disregarded the law. Moreover, the paranoid, Nixon assertion that "we will do whatever is necessary" to win World War III, is a clear reflection of the violent, ominous assault that was deployed, to "neutralize" any influential activist who did not think like Richard Nixon's patriots. In the final analysis, the deaths of the people that Nixon targeted were as predictable, as they were tragic. Clearly, The Real War that Nixon waged produced Real Casualties, and "patriots" like Richard Nixon and Bill Casey were directly responsible for slaughter. One of the premises of The Real War was that the need to win on the battlefield was as vital as the need to control the public opinion arena, and the compromise of every worthy American ideal was deemed to be acceptable.

After Mark Chapman hammered the so-called final nail in "the coffin of the '60's", Richard Nixon had the audacity to write a book called The Real Peace, and he was so excited about it that he privately printed and distributed it to more than 100 government officials, journalists and friends, before it was published by Little, Brown & Co. Ronald Reagan was officially the President of the United States, but time evidently warped when Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger stood before a battery of microphones in Washington to brief reporters about their "brain-dead" vision for peace and democracy in Central America. Nixon had just finished testifying before Kissinger's National Bipartisan Commission on Central America (no, Kissinger was not Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State), and one can safely assume that like any predictable ideologue, Nixon simply disseminated propaganda. He certainly did not expose the inspiration behind The Real Peace: Did he get the idea to disparage the word "peace" before or after John Lennon was murdered?

In retrospect, one can confidently state that Richard Nixon always targeted his enemies and he always managed to cover up the entire truth about his covert schemes, and since he rose to national prominence through successfully framing Alger Hiss, his positive track record bodes an ominous threat to all of his political enemies.

Mat Wilson sounds like a REAL John Lennon fan. All you phony, 'Rock On' hippies kill me ! LOL

Edited by Lynne Foster
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you had actually read the previous John Lennon thread, you would already know that Dawn had corrected Tim Gratz's mistake, and Tim had acknowledged his mistake...that John Lennon was actually killed on December 8th, 1980.

Of course, that would assume that you've actually read what you are dismissing...and in all fairness to you, I won't make that assumption.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you had actually read the previous John Lennon thread, you would already know that Dawn had corrected Tim Gratz's mistake, and Tim had acknowledged his mistake...that John Lennon was actually killed on December 8th, 1980.

Of course, that would assume that you've actually read what you are dismissing...and in all fairness to you, I won't make that assumption.

True, it's only a mistake if you fail to correct it. Oh well. I stiill get a kick when I hear a hateful person like Dawn say, "Rock and Roll in the free world."

We all make mistakes, it's the predictable propaganda, that I find obnoxious, and what makes Richard Nixon and anybody who defends him so obnoxious is the refusal to admit the consequence of ALL his BIG MISTAKES, like the assassination of John Lennon.

You are correct Mark, I reviewed the thread and she corrected it while she attacked the book of the Barrister who exposed the truth about the murder of John Lennon.

That doesn't sound like a John Lennon fan to me, that sounds like Mark David Chapman.

Edited by Lynne Foster
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So Lynne starts a thread, first to wish that certain named forum members were dead or never existed, then to post for the second time in its entirety an article by the esteemed Mat Wilson.

Somewhere somebody posted on how to block posts from individuals so that you never have to see them. I guess I'll have to go to the trouble now of looking up the instructions to do that. I've seen all I can stand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So Lynne starts a thread, first to wish that certain named forum members were dead or never existed, then to post for the second time in its entirety an article by the esteemed Mat Wilson.

Somewhere somebody posted on how to block posts from individuals so that you never have to see them. I guess I'll have to go to the trouble now of looking up the instructions to do that. I've seen all I can stand.

Ron: "To wish that certan forum members were DEAD or never existed"???? She's way sicker than I imagined.

I blocked her earlier: here's how: Control panel (on the forum), options, manage ignored users, the put in the name you wish to block. Then all posts by this person will just reflect that you have chosen to block same.

DEAD??? Damn!!!

Dawn

ps JOHN: UNDER WHAT THEORY IS SHE STILL HERE??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Imagine there's no heaven,

It's easy if you try,

No hell below us,

Above us only sky,

Imagine all the people

living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,

It isnt hard to do,

Nothing to kill or die for,

No religion too,

Imagine all the people

living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,

I wonder if you can,

No need for greed or hunger,

A brotherhood of man,

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,

but Im not the only one,

I hope some day you'll join us,

And the world will live as one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So Lynne starts a thread, first to wish that certain named forum members were dead or never existed, then to post for the second time in its entirety an article by the esteemed Mat Wilson.

Somewhere somebody posted on how to block posts from individuals so that you never have to see them. I guess I'll have to go to the trouble now of looking up the instructions to do that. I've seen all I can stand.

Ron I missed that too where did she do that? I guess it must be true because she didn't deny it. I don't know why John gives Tim G. such a hard time and doesn't say anything about this nut case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ron I missed that too where did she do that? I guess it must be true because she didn't deny it.

"Imagine a world without Dawn, Ron, Mark, Owen and the like, and you will know what peace and love sounds like."

My interpretation of that is that the world would be a lot better off without the named individuals in it. But again, that's just my interpretation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ron I missed that too where did she do that? I guess it must be true because she didn't deny it.

"Imagine a world without Dawn, Ron, Mark, Owen and the like, and you will know what peace and love sounds like."

My interpretation of that is that the world would be a lot better off without the named individuals in it. But again, that's just my interpretation.

It's irrefutable!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Imagine there's no heaven,

It's easy if you try,

No hell below us,

Above us only sky,

Imagine all the people

living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,

It isnt hard to do,

Nothing to kill or die for,

No religion too,

Imagine all the people

living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,

I wonder if you can,

No need for greed or hunger,

A brotherhood of man,

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,

but Im not the only one,

I hope some day you'll join us,

And the world will live as one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...