Hugo Langendoen

Thanks for the recommendation. I ordered this book via Alibris a few days ago. So if I am lucky it will arrive next week. After just one day at this forum I have another three books to read. And I do very much recognize what you said: when reading a book, or an article some questions are answered. But always more new questions keep coming up. But the more I read, the more interested I become.

Thank you! I will do my best to make good contributions here! So far I am impressed by all the information which is available on this forum. I think it will cost my quite some time to read all the older posts.

Despite of what one believes that happened in Daeley Plaza, I think it is a good idea to keep the interest in JFK alive. I am sure a lot of people who hear about this get interested in the case, and form their own opinion.

Did he also mention what the exact assignment for Tippit was on that afternoon? What always makes me wonder is the question why on the first place did Tippit confront Oswald. And what about the story that a police car was honking in front of the 1026 N. Beckley residence of Oswald. Would it have been possible that it was Tippit? I even sometimes read (I do not know where I read that) that some people even saw Tippit at the time of the Kennedy shooting in Dealey Plaza. But I think I remember that Tippit was at a gas station at that time. Do you have more information on the whereabouts of Tippit on the day he was killed?

After what I read about the Berlin crisis this standoff was for sure a tense moment. Both sides were worried that the other side would attack. Luckily both sides remained calm. The fact that the Russians put exactly the same amount of tanks in line as the US had makes it clear that they were there on a defensive mission. It is important to mention something I read in the book The Berlin Wall (by Frederick Taylor). He analyses this chapter in history and made it very clear that it is a good thing that Khrushchev did not listen to GDR leader Walther Ulbricht. Ulbricht wanted a much tougher stand towards the Western powers in "his" Berlin. Also the American side was kind of happy with the Russian tanks at that moment, because the East German border troopers were much more of a risk. Btw: the standoff did not actually took place at Brandenburger Gate but in its vicinity. The standoff happened at checkpoint Charlie which is at the Friedrichstrasse.

Hi Richard, Thanks for your book-recommendation on the RFK case. I bought this book some time ago, but it is still unread by me. As I mentioned in my bio on this forum: it is easier to buy books then to read them. Especially because English is not my first language. Although I read a lot of books in English it still takes more time then reading in Dutch. But I will put this book on top of the " to read" pile of books now.

My main reason for becoming a member of this forum is the JFK assassination. But when browsing around I noticed that this forum has a lot more interesting subject to offer. And I am always interested in everything that has to do with the JFK era, so I guess the spaceprogramm falls into that as well :-)

I think that after the publication of the book Brothers by David Talbot a lot became clear about the behavior of RFK. That book gives a great insight in the Kennedy administration, and the believes the Kennedys have. When reading all those things I could not help to think that maybe RFK's assassination had something to do with his efforts to find out the truth. Maybe he was coming a little bit too close.

Hello John, I did some digging around on the internet at some German sites, but I only found some texts involving this Ewald Peters. I see that you have a Dutch article on the forum with a picture? But I could not read the article because the picture is too small. If you can make a better scan I can do a translation of this article because Dutch is my first language :-)

Jim, I do agree with your analyses of the Berlin crises. In recent years I read a lot about this crises, and as I mentioned above, I get the idea that Kennedy did a good job in handling the Berlin crises as he did. Some people in the military suggested military action, even with nuclear force. Kennedy did not go with that. Also he had to deal with France and Great Britain as well. Both countries were not willing to risk another war over Berlin. (According to W.R. Smyser in Kennedy and the Berlin Wall) Although it seemed to be a very tense situation, I think that both Kennedy and Khrushchev were perfectly aware of the situation. During the stand-off with the tanks near Checkpoint Charly general Clay informed president Kennedy that the Russians were there for a matter of their defense. Not for a moment did he think it would come to a real clash between America and the USSR. His reasoning was that the Russians brought in exactly the same amount of tanks as the Americans did. If they had any ideas of attacking they would have brought more tanks in. They had much more tanks then the Americans had. So basicly, when reading this books, it becomes clear in my mind that both Kennedy and Khrushchev were showing to the world that they are prepared to take a tough stand, while behind the scenes they both knew this was the best sollution of the problem. The building of the wall was for Kennedy a sign that the Sovjets acknowledges the rights of the US, UK and France to West-Berlin. And so Khrushchev's ultimatum of 1958 was not longer a hot political issue.

You're welcome! I did not even see that you already had a link included in your reaction. I guess that's because I am new here...

Thanks Evan for the welcome! I am really looking forward to get into the discussions. Off course I will have a lot of reading to do to catch up with the pro's here, but I will try to do the best I can. It is a good way of expanding my knowledge in the Kennedy case, and off course an excellent way to practice my use of English as well. Hopefully you all will forgive me when I make some mistakes in words or grammar :-)

I think that the Berlin Crisis is indeed a very important event in the Kennedy years. I did not read the book "Berlin 1961" from Kempe so far, as I only bought that book yesterday. For those wanting to read more on this crisis I can say that two books - which I both read in recent weeks - are very interesting and well documented: Kennedy and the Berlin Wall - W.R. Smyser This book has the complete story of what led to the crisis in 1961. Also the role of Lucius Clay is discussed in detail. Kennedy in Berlin - Andreas Daum This book zooms in to the visit to Berlin in June 1963. Very informative to read about the "ich bin ein Berliner" speech, and to see how politicians at that level behave. In this book Daum talks about the discussions between Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and West-Berlin-mayor Willy Brandt on who was to be the first one to shake hands with Kennedy, and who was allowed to stand next to Kennedy during the motorcade through Berlin. Another great book on the situation off Berlin is Berlinkrise und Mauerbau 1958 bis 1963 - Rolf Steininger. This book is written in German (I could not find any English translation, so I bought the German one. I just started to read it this week; as I am not that fluent in German it will take some time to finish that book). What I like about this book is that it has a look at the situation from a German point of view. What I learned from reading this books so far is that Kennedy did a lot of things "in his own way". He ignored some top - military advisers, and listened for a great deal to Lucius Clay and his own inner-circle advisers. After reading the books I think it is very fortunate that Kennedy did solve it this way. A lot of military advisers had a much stronger solution in mind which would have started a new World War. But also the books suggest that Kennedy made some people think he acted "weak" on this issue. So one might argue that some people on higher places in government were concerned about this. This crisis emerged not too long after the Bay of Pigs.

I am not sure he does. Russ Baker writes about George de Mohrenschildt's meetings with Willem Oltmans. However, those meetings began in February 1977. De Mohrenschildt's letter is dated September 1976. In his 1977 book (in Dutch) "Reportage over de Kennedy-moordenaars"(Report on the Kennedy-killers) Willem Oltmans writes about his contacts with George and Jeanne DeMohrenschildt. He did not only meet them a couple of times between 1967 and 1977, but they also sent letters to each other. In October 1967 Willem Oltmans did interview DeMohrenschidt for the NOS (Dutch television). During the time that DeMohrenschildt died they were in touch about doing another tv interview. Willem Oltmans testifies in his book (and later on on tv) that DeM. behaved strangly and afraid. So I think it is possible that he talks about Willem Oltmans. After finishing his book (1977) Oltmans was threatened (as he himself called "warned") from Washington. In US press a pamphlet circulated which was said to come from DeM. possessions. In it he is said to claim that both Oltmans, and Dutch tv boss Carel Enkelaar engaged in a gay-attack on DeM. If he would go ahead with his book this pamphlet would be published. Oltmans - who was well known in The Netherlands, and who had a legal fight with the Dutch government for decades - did finish his book anyway.

If this happens to be the case I think that will be a big step forward in the research to the truth. That would give much more weight to the story as told by Edward Haslam and Judyth Baker. By not releasing this document in full the government only gives more room for speculation.

I don't know if you are still interested in a scan from the book (the text is already up here), but just in case you wanted the scan anyway: I just made one :-) post mortem page 574.pdf

My name is Hugo Langendoen, born in Rotterdam (The Netherlands, Europe) on september 21st 1973, making me almost 38 years old now. In daily life I work as a math-teacher at a secondary school near Rotterdam. I teach math to the older students. I have got a masters-degree in teaching mathematics. I also am responsible for constructing the school time-table. My interest in the Kennedy family and assassination started when I was 15 years old. My parents just cleaned up the attack and they found an old scrapbook which my mother kept during november 1963. This was the first time I read about it, and I was interested immediately. I had to do an oral presentation at school in the week after that, so i decided that the subject would be JFK. And that interest never went away since. In the years from then I collected over 380 different books on the case and on the politics of JFK and LBJ. I have to admit that I did not read all the books so far (it always cost less time to buy a book then to actually read it; especially because English is not my main language. In Dutch there are not so many books on the case, that is why I also have the idea to write a book in Dutch). I did not write a book so far, but I did compile a little booklet in Dutch as a starting point for my Kennedy workshop in Berlin. In recent years we went on a school trip to Berlin, and each of the teachers had to prepare a workshop. Some choose to do it about the Wall, and I - off course - did it about the famous speech at Schoneberg Rathaus in June 1963. It was fascinating to see that the students were really interested. One of them also did a history assignment on the subject as well.