Anthony Thorne

The new paperback edition of JFK and Vietnam is here.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/153047793X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

John says the Kindle version of the JFK book should be appearing around the 7th or 8th of Feb.

The pictures referred to by Newman are here.

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Three new / updated John Newman books, including COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS, are appearing on Amazon sequentially over the next few weeks.  The links to all of them on Amazon will be up soon.

The updated new edition of JFK AND VIETNAM is out on January 15th. John Newman posted the new preamble to the book on Facebook. I've reprinted it below. There is substantial new supplementary material in the volume.

The all new COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS is out on January 25th. Noted John - "Vol II is a big surprise. Completely changed my view of Eisenhower. And the Joint Chiefs were seditious on the Bay of Pigs plan--not good."  The back cover of this long awaited volume features long quotes of praise from Bill Simpich, Peter Dale Scott and others.  It will be very enticing to see where John's study of the assassination is leading.

The revised edition of 2015's WHERE ANGELS TREAD LIGHTLY is out on January 31st. "One substantive change in Vol I is Merton is Jack Stewart, not Phillips. Otherwise there are minor changes, a few new crypts etc."

PREAMBLE TO THE 2017 EDITION OF JFK AND VIETNAM – 
On Amazon January 15th 2017.

Quote

Brigadier General Joseph A. McChristian was the intelligence chief of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), during General William Westmoreland’s command of MACV (1964-1968).

McChristian’s insistence on telling the truth about the size and determination of the Viet Cong caused a premature end to his tour at MACV in June 1967. He was perhaps the army’s most distinguished intelligence officer. He had served as General Patton’s intelligence chief in the breakout from Normandy in WWII. After MACV, McChristian became the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI), at Headquarters, U.S. Army.

I met McChristian during my assignment at Fort Huachuca in 1988, when he was inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of fame. We spoke privately for more than an hour. When he learned the topic of my PhD dissertation was about Kennedy and Vietnam, he opened up to me, not only about what had happened to him in Vietnam, but also about what happened afterward. He told me that many of his records at the Army Center for Military History had been surreptitiously removed. He encouraged me to go forward with the project, and to find the officers who had been in Vietnam during the 1961-1963 period and interview them. McChristian was happy to find out that Don Blascak and Sam Adams were going to help me do just that.

I decided to write this short preamble about a profound comment that General McChristian once made, and that I had quoted in the original manuscript of this book. Unfortunately, my editor at Warner Books—who held a very senior position at that publishing house—told me I needed to remove it. She said that nobody would be able to understand what the comment meant. Reluctantly, I went along with her wish, and I have regretted it ever since. So, rather than just reinserting it in its original location at the end of Chapter Thirteen, I want to put it up front here. I want to frame it. I want to call it out, so that those among our citizenry who have not served in a military uniform can understand the kind of general officer we need the most.

The comment by McChristian to which I refer, took place on camera as CBS was producing its famous documentary on General Westmoreland and MACV: “CBS Reports, the Uncounted Enemy—A Vietnam Deception.” In Westmoreland’s lawsuit afterward, the prosecution deposed McChristian on the question of whether or not Westmoreland had lied. They regretted doing that, as the intelligence chief, under oath, told the truth, and said that lying about the enemy violated the West Point motto—duty, honor, country. For the first time in history, one West Point graduate accused another of doing something “dishonorable.”

But the comment I am thinking about took place during the production of the CBS documentary. In that on camera setting, McChristian refused to answer whether or not Westmoreland had lied. He agreed, however, to address the issue if the question was posed to him in this way: producer George Crile asked, “What does it mean to lie about the enemy in a time of war?” This was McChristian’s answer: “It jeopardizes not only the lives of the soldiers on the battlefield, but also the future liberty of your people at home.” It is my heartfelt hope that my editor was wrong, and that I do not have to explain the meaning and eloquence of McChristian’s response.

This long withheld document has finally been shaken loose by FOIA requests. The full document runs for 181 pages and is linked at the bottom of this post. A 'disclaimer' of sorts from CIA historian David Robarge follows.

September 2016

Context for Readers of the Attached CIA Draft Volume

Between 1979 and 1984, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) staff historian Jack Pfeiffer prepared five volumes of the Agency’s Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation. The titles of the first four volumes were Air Operations, March 1960-April 1961; Participation in the Conduct of Foreign Policy; Evolution of CIA’s Anti-Castro Policies, 1951-January 1961; and The Taylor Committee Investigation of the Bay of Pigs. All have been declassified and are available to the public on CIA’s website in the electronic reading room. Pfeiffer also wrote a draft fifth volume, CIA’s Internal Investigation of the Bay of Pigs, being released today, which the CIA Chief Historian rejected as inadequate at the time, instructing Pfeiffer to make substantial revisions. Pfeiffer did not complete those revisions before retiring in 1984.

Unlike his four other histories, this fifth draft volume was not publishable in its present form, in the judgment of CIA Chief Historians as well as other reviewers, because of serious shortcomings in scholarship, its polemical tone, and its failure to add significantly to an understanding of the controversy over the Bay of Pigs operation—much of which has now been discussed in open source histories and memoirs. CIA’s Chief Historians have assessed that addressing those deficiencies would have required much more effort than the draft volume’s potential value would justify. Consequently, it remains an unfinished and unpublished draft.

In the attached draft volume, Pfeiffer took very strong issue with the findings of the CIA Inspector General, Lyman Kirkpatrick, who blamed the Bay of Pigs debacle on the Agency task force in charge of an operation that Kirkpatrick assessed was misconceived, mismanaged, and bound to fail from the outset. Kirkpatrick’s report evoked a fervent defense from CIA’s operations directorate (both of those documents have been declassified and are on CIA’s website in the electronic reading room), and Pfeiffer in large part accepted the operations directorate’s viewpoint. He contended that Kirkpatrick, for a variety of motives, conducted his inquiry from the start with the purpose of laying responsibility for the Bay of Pigs fiasco on the officers who planned and ran the operation and on two Agency leaders, Deputy Director for Plans Richard Bissell and DCI Allen Dulles.

We are releasing this draft volume today because recent 2016 changes in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires us to release some drafts that are responsive to FOIA requests if they are more than 25 years old.

David S. Robarge

CIA Chief Historian, 2005 - present

OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE BAY OF PIGS

​DRAFT Volume V: CIA'S INTERNAL INVESTIGATION OF THE BAY OF PIGS

by Jack B. Pfeiffer

https://archive.org/details/CIAsInternalInvestigationOfTheBayOfPigs

Forum regular James DiEugenio reviewed it in detail over at CTKA. It does look good.

http://www.ctka.net/2014_reviews/Swanson.html

Here are three reviews of the Hammarskjöld book. It does look good.

http://www.dag-hammarskjold.com/interpreting-hammarskjold-s-political-wisdom/who-killed-hammarskj-ld-susan-williams-formidable-book/

http://www.innovation.cc/book-reviews/doughty_bk_rev_williams2_30v17i2a8.pdf

http://lucas.leeds.ac.uk/review/who-killed-hammarskjold/

The author, Dr Susan Williams, talk about her book and the death of Hammarskjöld here.

https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/who-killed-dag-hammarskj-ld-un-cold-war-and-white-supremacy-africa

An update on Walt's chonology if people haven't investigated it yet.

All the various volumes of it (and there are nearly 20 volumes - four main volumes of the Chronology proper, then a dozen or more appendix volumes on various subjects) are available on Amazon. if anyone wants to read the most assassination-heavy volume, grab 'DEATH', the second part of the Chronology. It's around 1600 A4 pages in print form, and has (as an example) about 100 pages or so just devoted to the minute of JFK's assassination. The first volume, 'DYNASTY', covers events prior to the shooting, DISAPPOINTMENT covers the Warren Commission, and DISCOVERY covers the years after that, and each of those is again around 1500 pages long.

The appendix volumes are also fascinating - in the medical volume, Walt goes through all the medical testimony from Warren Commission, to the HSCA, to the AARB period, and annotates it with footnotes that highlight contradictions in testimony and other observations. A volume on the U-2 Powers flight and shootdown over Russia follows the entire Powers trial and the machinations of the CIA through that period. There are volumes on the witnesses in Dealy Plaza, and a volume on the testimony of folks who were in the motorcade. I'm just scratching the surface here.

As a final note, Walt chronologically deconstructs Judith Baker's assertions from her ME AND LEE volume to match them against documented events, and methodically rips her narrative apart throughout much of his first 'DYNASTY' volume. It's grimly funny - he's not a fan of her book at all.

Walt's chronology is well worth a read in part or whole if anyone is interested.

Hi Marian, thank you for the information about your father, it was very informative. WHO KILLED KENNEDY is a favourite of mine and I know a Melbourne-based author/screenwriter who also values it highly.

If more writers had done what Thomas Buchanan bravely did back in 1964, things may have tuned out a little differently thereafter.

Is there any link or site yet - Amazon or otherwise - where Robert Groden's new book can be ordered?

[EDIT] - Never mind, I've found the links to it.

Good work (and good timing) Shane and I look forward to watching this.

Happy to see what John Newman has to say about the case. Is it true that he has another book on the subject forthcoming?

Chris Lightbown (a member of the forum here) has a book coming out called THE STRANGE DEATH OF JFK. I am very keen to read it. The Amazon listings for it which had it due out this week have now been adjusted to read out-of-print with no future date listed. Has it been delayed? Has anyone here read an advance copy, or would Chris (if he's reading this) care to comment on the book itself? I have high hopes for the work and am just curious if anyone here has further details. Thanks in advance.

I initially had the same question as Paul, and researchers might be able to link the new book to GOLD WARRIORS if (a.) some of the same figures and agencies were involved in the theft, or (b. and possibly more likely) there is any similarity in where that stolen gold ended up - i.e funnelled through the covert operative arms of the White House, Pentagon and CIA. If Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld appear at all within the Nixon portion of the narrative in respect to the gold theft and subsequent cover-up, that's another kettle of fish with further ramifications again.

Looks interesting. UK journalist and researcher Chris Lightbown's book is due out next month as well.

It has been 50 years since the appalling murder of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on the 22nd November 1963. Large numbers of interested individuals still seek the truth as to what transpired that day.

Dealey Plaza UK is a group that researches the assassination with a view to finding that truth ... a truth the American Government and mainstream media have deliberately avoided for the past 50 years.

This book is the result of that search, incorporating the work and endeavours of many group members from the UK, Ireland and the USA, including such leaders in their field of research as Larry Hancock, Russell Kent, Alaric Rosman and Chris Scally.

INTRODUCTION
ONE// The Lead up to the Assassination
TWO// The Dealey Plaza Witnesses
THREE// A Flurry of Shells Come Into the Car
FOUR// Dallas Police and the Hunt for Oswald
FIVE// The Medical Evidence
SIX// Unsound Acoustics
SEVEN// The Single Bullet Theory
EIGHT// JFK at Risk
NINE// J.D.Tippit – a Troubled Officer
TEN// A Man of Unusual Training
ELEVEN// The Autopsy of John. F. Kennedy
TWELVE// Jack Ruby
THIRTEEN// The Authenticity of the Zapruder Film
FOURTEEN// The Other Side of the Mirror
FIFTEEN// Why We Don’t Know
SIXTEEN// JFK – Relevant Today

Great work Bill. This tape will provide much to chew on for some time I think. Hopefully we will get that fully uncut version at some point. (An archival TV researcher in Africa found a large cache of DR WHO episodes and other BBC shows that had been missing for 45 years earlier this year, the point being that you never know what is out there and it pays dividends to keep on looking).

I'll add more once I've read further but it's worth noting that the full Chronology is more than just the date-by-date/analysis compendium that has been discussed in online references to the work. Scroll up to the link for the 'Read Me' volume at the top of this page, click the picture of the book on the Amazon page to open up its 'expanded view', and read through the detailed contents page that appears. There are fifteen different appendices that follow the chronology (all of which should appear as ebooks fairly shortly), and each looks to be of interest. There's a complete collection of Kennedy's speeches, a history of Marina Oswald's changes in testimony, a study of political assassinations in the US prior to Kennedy's murder, a volume covering the medical evidence and testimony, a section on Cuba, and more. There's even (in Appendix IV) a (reportedly book-length) autobiography by Walt covering his years of work as an assassination researcher. Walt has clearly been working on this for years and it will take a while to dig through it all.

Bill, I have the entire chronology on order. When I get it I'll do my best to answer that question and share some opinions on the worth of the project once I've had a read of it.

Walt Brown is serialising his mammoth JFK assassination chronology in ebook form (across several volumes) on Amazon. The first two parts are up already - a long, detailed introduction to the work (titled "READ ME") and the first volume of the chronology proper, (titled "DYNASTY").

The "READ ME" introduction is more than worth the single dollar Walt is asking for the chapter - it's a thoughtful and witty discussion of the genesis of the book, the state of the field today and his hopes for the overall work. "DYNASTY" (not yet read by me) is everything of interest leading up to the assassination itself. The rest of the chronology covering the assassination and events thereafter will apparently be up on Amazon before the anniversary.

READ ME

http://www.amazon.com/Chronology-JFK-Assassination-Read-ebook/dp/B00FG8F0TW/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380372370&sr=1-7&keywords=walt+brown

DYNASTY

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Chronology-JFK-Assassination-ebook/dp/B00FGCPY62/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380372370&sr=1-8&keywords=walt+brown

Very generous of both Bill and the Mary Ferrell site, thanks for the heads up.

Joan Mellen, author of A FAREWELL TO JUSTICE, reportedly has a book due out within the year specifically about Mac Wallace and that fingerprint.

UPDATE - It's just the main opening page that was hacked, the forum is still there if people have the link. Hopefully just a false alarm then.

***

Not attempting to provoke internecine squabbles here by mentioning it but I notice, as of a few minutes ago, the Deep Politics Forum has been hacked and displays a garish hackers message rather than its traiditonal logo and messageboard. Sheesh...

I think some posters here are members of both forums. Just a heads-up to the EF here to hopefully have all their web defences up and running (firewalls etc) to avoid anything similar as I suspect any hacking of sites like this at the moment is probably not unrelated to the anniversary coming up in November.

It's a lovely looking edition and nicely priced too. I've been re-reading the old softcover recently but will probably get this to have a definitive edition on my shelf.

Veciana makes an impression in Fonzi's book and his encounters with Phillips in that volume are very memorable. Hope's he's doing okay these days.

Not to pile on Summers too much, but reading that he was clueless as to who Gary Webb was does suggest a certain disinterest in deep political research. Then again, Summers has probably never claimed to have such a specific interest.

I own his Hoover book, and the circa 90's UK edition of NOT IN YOUR LIFETIME. I skipped his 9/11 volume as it was clear much of it would not be what was hoped for. (The quote from post #21 above, where NIST found no evidence of a blast event, should have been expanded with the equally true observation that NIST, by their own admission, never looked for evidence of explosives in the first place. One prominent 9/11 truth advocate - possibly Jon Gold - did mention however that he found sections of the Summers book worthwhile despite the many caveats and misgivings he had over its broad acceptance of the official story). I'll be buying the newest edition of NOT IN YOUR LIFETIME when it comes but my expectations for it aren't as high as they are for some other JFK books appearing around the same time. Being pleasantly surprised by it would be nice.

Paris Flammonde (if he's still about) should have used the anniversary as an excuse to bring out new editions of his four-volume set with all the typos corrected.

I hope the forum can continue, and I hope the personal attacks - in whichever direction - stop permanently. With John's advance warning there are various apps and software programs that allow people to download an entire site for offline reference - some here might wish to attempt an archival download of the forum and its many hundreds of valuable threads on the off chance that things don't end happily. Obviously I hope that doesn't happen though.

Just want to add a thank you in the meantime to John and the various forum members for their years of hard work and discussion as we approach the 50th.

Greg, I didn't detect any ungratitude (or anything narky) at all, so no worries.

A friend of mine, David Richardson, had two books published locally, one through ABC books and the other through Harper Collins, and he's fairly scathing about the extended period of time local publishing houses can take to release your book, the tiny percentage they typically give the author from any book sold, and the lack of support they frequently give books once printed. (The Harper Collins volume received next to no publicity). I have a couple of books coming together (slowly) on Italian films and he strongly recommended I e-publish them directly. Createspace/Kindle offers around 70% royalty on the cover price. They also recently expanded the distribution channel so you get covered with Amazon.uk as well as the main US branch.

https://www.createspace.com/Special/PRArchive/2012/20120517_EuropeDistribution.jsp

You also get to solicit both a printed version and the e-book so customers can take their pick. I could be talking out of my arse but I think the advertising for the book you could do alone would match what a local publishing house would likely offer more closely than you might think, simply as many local authors now push their books more online than through printed advertisements. A website, podcast interviews with as many sympathetic blogs and forums that will have you, and free printed copies sent out to some high profile bloggers would do quite a bit to get the ball rolling. James Corbett at CorbettReport.com gets substantial traffic worldwide and frequently talks to authors, and some quality interviews concluding with a link to the e-book version which people could grab at the push of a button would give the book some solid attention.

Anyway, the details you gave about your volume all sound intruiging and make me want to read it. I've heard little about the Jorge Gaitan hit but am now going to go off and find out what I can about it with your observation in mind.

You'd probably make more money self-publishing it through Createspace/Amazon and putting up a $9.99 Kindle version with blurbs and quotes from a few other well-known researchers. With the volume of new JFK related volumes coming out across the next 6 months I suspect a good number of the sales leading up to November will be Kindle versions, and with an attractive cover and some advance critic review quotes you could compete directly with the volumes that had bigger budgets. Either way please don't be discouraged Greg and I'm hoping I get to purchase and read your magnum opus sooner rather than later.

I agree with Jim that the Nolan book looks interesting. i just hope it lives up to its premise.