Paul Trejo

Evidently Erne Lazar is still smarting because I told him that he can no longer claim that Harry Dean pretended to be an FBI Agent until he shows documented proof from Harry Dean himself -- that would be the only proof. SInce Ernie Lazar fails to present that proof, he is frustrated beyond belief. He cannot present such a document, because he cannot find it anywhere, no matter how many HUNDREDS of FBI serials and files he sorts through. It doesn't exist. The lie was first put into public print by W.R. Morris -- but Harry Dean never at any time said any such thing. Harry flatly denies saying such a thing, again and again. Ernie Lazar, however, is on record -- countless times -- for alleging that Harry Dean is guilty of this behavior. WITHOUT PROOF. (And of course this is the same as saying that Harry is a xxxx.) So, because Ernie's lost that argument -- and he has no recourse but to keep searching (in vain) for a document that doesn't exist, he's now evidently committed to interrupting my freedom of expression on this thread. I therefore call for a Moderator to intervene. I think this is within my right to do so. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

ANYWAY...Getting back to the JFK Assassination...and to Harry Dean's account of the events that led up to it... I hope some folks have had a chance to actually hear Loran Hall's speech, "Cuba Betrayed," as he tells about his relationships with Fidel Castro, Che Guevarra and many other Cuban revolutionaries in 1959. It's free on YouTube now, as I posted it on YouTube: LORAN HALL: Side One: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6daWtQYlydQ LORAN HALL: Side Two: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kLVVHQ_Myg In that speech, Loran Hall tells about how he changed his own attitude from pro-Castro to anti-Castro -- and this was about the same time that Harry Dean changed his own attitude. This was also about the same time that Gerry Patrick Hemming, and David Ferrie, and Frank Sturgis all changed their attitudes. This was an American phenomenon, people. It was a common event in 1960-1961, and actually not a few American citizens lost their lives in that undertow. We should strive to remember them -- their struggle and the reasons that they fought and died the way that they did in Cuba. The story told by Loran Hall to right-wing groups across the USA is now available for all to see. Oh, yes, and I also told you about Dave Robbins who is the only one in that whole group that is still alive today, aside from Harry Dean. Dave Robbins told me personally that he did arrange for many speeches for right-wing groups in Southern California, including the JBS, and that Loran Hall was one of his speakers, and that Harry Dean was also one of his regular attendees as well as one of his speakers. Among his other speakers were Ex-General Edwin Walker and Guy "Gabby" Gabaldon. Dave Robbins is a mild-mannered Christian gentleman who still subscribes to Human Events and the Schwarz Report, after all these years. He is believable. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

ANYWAY;...Getting back to the topic of the JFK assassination, which we all know is the real purposes of the Education Forum... There is another character whom Harry Dean interacted with while a member of the John Birch Society in Southern California, namely, LORAN HALL. Harry Dean heard Loran Hall make his standard speech, "Cuba Betrayed," before the John Birch Society in 1961-1963, and Harry also purchased Hall's recording of himself giving this speech. Harry shared this recording with me, and I digitized it to share it on YouTube as follows: LORAN HALL: Side One: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6daWtQYlydQ LORAN HALL: Side Two: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kLVVHQ_Myg Listen to Loran Hall's speech when you have a spare hour sometime. This will take you right back to 1963, to the year in which JFK was assassinated, and perhaps even to the very group that organized the JFK assassination under the leadership of Ex-General Edwin Walker. This theory still has energy. Harry Dean was a close and personal friend of Loran Hall. If you wonder how Harry Dean could have been the friend of Fidel Castro in 1959, and then the friend of a radical right-wing speaker for the JBS like Loran Hall in 1962-1963, this recording will explain it all. See, Loran Hall was also a close associate of Fidel Castro and Che Guevarra. That's right. Loran Hall, in association with Larry Howard, also fought side by side with Gerry Patrick Hemming in Cuba, fighting for Fidel's victory. Yet we all know that Gerry Patrick Hemming was a right-wing fanatic! How is that possible? It is possible because the CIA at one point encouraged Americans and mercenaries to help Fidel Castro, so that the USA could play both sides in case Batista lost his hold on power in Cuba. So other rightist Americans, like Frank Sturgis and David Ferrie, were also part of a large number of Americans who supporte Fidel Castro in 1959 -- just like Harry Dean. We should not let ourselves get side-tracked by the continuing suppression of Harry's story. It deserves more and more of our attention. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

ANYWAY -- Getting back to the theme of the JFK assassination -- the real purpose of the Education Forum... ...We were speaking of Ex-General Edwin Walker, whom Harry Dean recalls as the lead person in the Southern California JBS to reveal a September 1963 plot to kill JFK and to frame Lee Harvey Oswald at the same time. This is unique in JFK assassination research. For his contributions to history, Harry Dean has been trashed and abused for 49 years. The FBI firmly tried to stop Harry Dean from going public in 1965 -- and we can still feel the aftershocks 49 years later -- right here in this thread. What does the FBI have to hide with regard to this topic? Just ask any long-time JFK assassination researcher, and you will find the fingerprints of J. Edgar Hoover all over the deception of the Warren Commission. That's the problem. Fans of J. Edgar Hoover simply hate for his name to be subjected to these sorts of doubts and questions. The FBI has suppressed Harry Dean starting in 1965. When will Harry Dean finally get a full and complete hearing? We must have access to the 63 FBI Serials on Harry Dean now available from NARA. Does anybody already have these? Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Another reason I'm glad that Ernie Lazar is leaving this thread is that we can finally get back to the issues at hand (which have nothing to do with Harry Dean allegedly "inflating his credentials"). Perhaps the main issue is the core of Harry Dean's story, namely, the status of Ex-General Edwin Walker in the assassination of JFK. Malcom shared the recent release of a CIA document about Edwin Walker on the Mary Ferrell site, only to see revealed that this document was merely Walker's resignation letter of November 1961. In that resignation letter, however, Edwin Walker revealed many things, including: (1) his intense hatred for JFK; (2) his JBS conviction that JFK was a Communist; and (3) his desire to enter politics. Walker also revealed that he was hot-headed enough to reject his US Army pension that he had built up over 30 years (even though he would later plead with the US Army to have it back). That's what happens when a US General resigns his post. It's not the same as retirement. Although most documents about Ex-General Walker will describe him as "retired", that is merely being polite about it, in deference to his high post in the US Army. In fact, Walker was not "retired" nor was he asked politely to step down, but he aggressively "resigned" which means that he lost his US Army pension by doing so. Walker was the only US General in the 20th century to make that hot-headed move. So, Walker revealed many things about himself in his resignation letter to the JFK Administration, which he referred to as "little men." Walker tried to compare himself with General MacArthur (who graduated from West Point at the top of his class, while Walker himself graduated West Point near the bottom of his class). Walker also revealed in that resignation letter that he was very much a follower of the John Birch Society (JBS), which arose after Joseph McCarthy died, and took his place to accuse US officers in Washington DC of being Communists. Going further than McCarthyism, however, the JBS openly and boldly accused FDR, Truman and Eisenhower of being Communists themselves. When Walker joined the JBS in 1959, while serving as a Major General overseeing Little Rock high school in Arkansas, he learned this crypto-treasonous doctrine, and actually resigned from the US Army in October, 1959 -- however Eisenhower refused to accept his resignation. Yet the very first month that Walker landed in Augsburg, Germany to command 10,000 troops there, defending the Berlin Wall, he also began his so-called "Pro-Blue" training program, which included a stiff dose of JBS doctrines directed to the troops -- he had the nerve to teach his troops that sitting US Presidents were Communists taking orders from Moscow -- the ENEMY! Then, Walker defended himself on grounds of Freedom of Speech and "truth dictated by conscience". Yet the US Army has strict rules about Officers in Politics, and the US Army itself (with the approval of JFK) demoted Walker from his command in Germany. He was an embarrassment to the US Military -- not in his heroism in WW2, or in Korea, but in his command in Augsburg, Germany in 1960-1961. Walker does not admit all these details in his resignation letter -- he simply implies that the JFK Administration acted in favor of the Communists in getting him dismissed, because he and all Communists were afraid of the JBS message. From one viewpoint, Walker was already showing some paranoia. His paranoia showed more clearly in his Senate Subcommittee testimony in March, 1962, when he read his resignation letter into the record, as well as two other speeches, and tried to explain why the US Army newspaper which tattled on him, the Overseas Weekly, was "subsersive." (I would note here the theory of Sigmund Freud about homosexuals who live in the closet too long -- they can easily become paranoid; afraid that people are trying to guess their secret, and so are "out to get them." It is significant in this context that Walker never married or had a girlfriend, and that late in life he was arrested twice for lewd, homosexual acts in public.) So, IMHO, Walker also reveals his paranoia in his resignation letter. Why do I bother go mention this? Harry Dean never mentions this. Yet for me, this goes to the heart of the matter -- Walker was just off-balance enough, although still functioning well enough, to carry off a paranoid scheme like the JFK assassination. (That is my opinion, and it will be interesting to see how history finally deals with my opinion.) Walker refuses to admit that JFK is even an American; he says of the JFK White House, "They are not America!" And he blames them for losing his command in Germany. Ex-General Edwin Walker's resignation letter is a clear example of right-wing extremism when it accuses US schools, universities and the entertainment industry of supporting Communism. And like the Tea Parties of today, Walker also accused the Free Press of being part of this vast left-wing conspiracy. Walker's obvious support of the JBS shows in this letter when he stated that "30 years ago" the Communists invaded the US government. That was the time of the election of FDR to the White House, and the JBS has always claimed that FDR was the first Communist in the White House. Walker wanted nothing more than to indoctrinate all US soldiers into the JBS web of lies -- because then a right-wing revolution to overtake the White House would have been inevitable. How could it be otherwise? If the President is the Communist Enemy, common sense dictates that a violent revolution is necessary to maintain the Constitution! This was not rhetoric with Ex-General Walker -- he truly believed this in every fiber of his being. That is why Walker ended his 1961 resignation letter as he did, saying, "My objective henceforth will be to try to do as a civilian what it is no longer possible for me to do wearing the uniform." WALKER DECIDED TO ENTER POLITICS. And his main target would be JFK. Walker's concluding words: "War has been declared. Every man is a soldier," in my reading, flies directly in the face of JFK. Who declared war by dismissing Walker from his command in Germany? JFK! So, JFK declared war on Walker, and now Walker would seek to dismiss JFK from his command. This is only the start. Matters become more interesting when Walker runs for the office of Governor of Texas in early 1962. He loses in May, 1962. Yet matters really become interesting when Ex-General Edwin Walker leads a massive race riot at Ole Miss University on 29 September 1962, in which hundreds were wounded and two were killed. And then the drama unfolds even more from that point forward. All JBS readers were aware of these events -- even Harry Dean himself. But the JBS didn't interpret these events the way normative Americans interpret them today. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Thank God in heaven that Ernie Lazar is finally leaving this thread. I, for one, have had quite enough of his incessant insults combined with his online whining. (Ernie should learn that people who live in tin houses shouldn't throw can openers.) Anyway, getting back to the 63 FBI serials that NARA is now offering for sale for $200, I'm willing to pony up 20% of the cost, so that others on this thread may also contribute, if they wish. Following up my previous scrutiny of the NARA index, we see that four FBI serials are from 7/1962 thru 9/1962. I wonder what those are about. Also, there is one FBI serial from 4/1963 - this was the month that Lee Harvey Oswald tried to kill Ex-General Walker at his home in Dallas. Also, there are four FBI serials from 11/22/1963 through 12/10/1963, the period of the JFK assassination and its immediate aftermath. I wonder what those FBI serials say about Harry Dean. Also, there are fourteen FBI serials in 1964, bunched mainly at the beginning (1/1964 thru 3/1964). These are probably related to the Warren Commission's first months of operation -- but what do they say? Another bunch of FBI serials from 1964 is concentrated around December, the month that Harry Dean decided to go public with his story on the Joe Pyne Show. It will be interesting to see those serials. But there were more FBI serials in 1965 than at any other time -- twenty-one of them, from 3/1965 to 10/1965. What is going on here? I think we all want to see these. I think all this FBI activity about Harry Dean -- 55 FBI serials from 1962 through 1965 -- is hard evidence that the FBI never considered Harry Dean to be just another gadfly who went around claiming he was an FBI agent just to "inflate his credentials", as Ernie likes to portray it (post #545). That's a lot of interest in a five year period. The bulk of that FBI interest is also bunched around the period of the JFK assassination and the Warren Report. I simply must see what's contained in those FBI serials! Why was the FBI so interested in Harry Dean? WHY?!? Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

You're quite mistaken, Ernie. I'm completely open to facts. You, however, are all-too-willing to throw allegations around and ignore demands for PROOF. Although I consider Harry Dean my personal friend, and I'm not going to watch his name get trashed by amateurs, I remain open-minded and I will consider any and all FACTS that are presented about his case. So far, I hear only accusations and rumors and innuendos! So what if this or that FBI Agent claimed this or that? WE DEMAND PROOF!! The sad part about your posts, Ernie, is that you fail to present FACTS, and you present only ALLEGATIONS and you expect them to be accepted as FACTS. Then, when somebody points this out to you, your textual behavior in public becomes emotional. And -- there you go again. I'm not surprised that you now refuse to share your FBI files about Harry Dean with hundreds of EF readers, Ernie -- because what if you're PROVEN totally WRONG !! Could you stand it? What if you had to publicly apologize to Harry Dean? Could you stand it? Also -- your claim that Harry Dean is a public figure -- like a politician who runs for public office -- or like a movie star or a rock star -- is simply laughable. No, you don't get to trash Harry Dean just because you FEEL LIKE IT, Ernie. The truth is -- you could have had all your answers from Harry Dean any time you wanted -- all for free and with a smile -- if you had only been COURTEOUS toward him in the past. Harry is one of the friendliest persons I've ever met. He's intelligent and charming and FRIENDLY. It takes lot to get on the wrong side of Harry Dean, Ernie -- but somehow you've done it. So, now you're going to run away and hide? Tsk. It seems that you can dish it out but you just can't take it. Oh well, then GOOD RIDDANCE! I'm absolutely certain that we will eventually obtain these FBI materials about Harry Dean from NARA in one of many other ways. Sincerely, --Paul Trejo

Well, Ernie, insofar as you have no rights of any kind to ask Harry Dean such personal questions -- and since you haven't befriended yourself in any way to Harry Dean, then I suggest that you and your "someone" also work out a fitting price you should be willing to pay Harry Dean for taking the time out of his busy day to answer your personal questions. I suggest say, $80 an hour, which is a fairly average legal fee in the USA. The only question I'd have, then, is how many hours Harry Dean would require to dig up the answers to all these questions to your satisfaction. But of course, since Harry Dean is the only person who can answer these questions, perhaps we should ask for Harry's opinion about a fair price. Your "someone" did give you one bit of good advice though -- all these ALLEGATIONS that you're making are leading nowhere. Sincerely, --Paul Trejo

Ernie, I read your replies, and there was no WHOPPER exposed. I say that you fail to provide PROOF of Harry claiming to be an FBI agent. I stand by that. You ask what I claim to be PROOF, and I already said it, but I'll say it again; hopefully you'll pay attention this time. You must show a document from Harry Dean himself, claiming to be an FBI Agent. PERIOD. Nothing more, and nothing less. As for those ALLEGED transcripts from the Tomorrow Show that you cited, even if they are accurate (which is highly debatable if W.R. Morris was in any way involved) then they are still easily explained by a simple misunderstanding, especially under the pressure of a live TV program. I've said it before and I'll say it again. You need to show PROOF before you harp on and on about these allegations that Harry Dean claimed to be an FBI agent. You cite HEARSAY and mostly from FBI sources. That's not good enough! Thank goodness that 55+ FBI serials are going to be released soon to hopefully enable us to get down to the bottom of this problem. Yet without PROOF, what you're alleging amounts to -- at the very mildest, an INSULT, and at the worst, well, let's just say there's a legal term for that. So, please be careful, Ernie, and suspend your judgment until you've seen all the facts. Sincerely, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Ernie, (1) First, thanks for the correction on dates. Harry indeed moved to Los Angeles in June 1961 (not 1962) and so it was 13 months before the first FBI serial was filed about him. That was my mistake. Still, in the absence of further information, I stand by Harry's claim that FBI SAC Wesley Grapp contacted Harry "out of the blue" in July of 1961. The fact that we see no FBI files released from the Los Angeles FBI in this cache of records will remain mysterious for me until we see more information. (2) I acknowledge your remarks about the FBI serials of 1964, namely, that if Harry was an FBI informant we should expect to see a non-disclosure affidavit by him. I personally expect to see that, eventually. Harry also claims that he gave the FBI plenty of notice before he came forward on the Joe Pyne Show with his story involving Walker, the John Birch Society and the FBI. (3) If anybody misunderstood Harry to claim that he was an "agent of the FBI," their misunderstanding cannot be blamed on Harry. The Joe Pyne Show executives did contact the FBI to alert them that they were going ahead with that program. At no time in that program did Harry claim to be an FBI agent. (4) Ernie, you say that there were "no hostile reports by the FBI," but actually we haven't seen those FBI serials yet, so how can you be so sure? Since we haven't seen the FBI serials yet, you don't really know what's in them, and so your conclusions are hasty and therefore unreliable. Also, if the FBI did ask Harry for information (and if we get documented confirmation of that) and if the FBI later denies that they asked Harry for that service, then I am fully justified in calling that denial "a hostile report." We must simply wait and see the actual FBI serials themselves, to know the full truth. (5) As for your claim that "there are FBI memos which state that even Harry himself acknowledged to the FBI that he falsely described himself when he made contacts," we should demand proof. We cannot tell if these are truthful accounts by the FBI or not until we see all of the FBI serials in question. So, don't be hasty. (6) You claim that, "the FBI's problem with Harry was his false description of his relationship to the FBI." You keep claiming that, but you haven't yet seen all the evidence. Wait until the evidence is in, Ernie, before you make a hasty judgment. (7) You ask me, Ernie, if I ever thought about what the FBI *should* say to announce that somebody falsely claimed to be associated with them? The answer is, yes! The first thing the FBI should do is PROVE that the person actually said that! But I've seen zero proof from the FBI that Harry ever said that. It's all hearsay, allegation and innuendo! Show me the proof! Show me one place where Harry himself (and not the FBI) wrote that Harry was an FBI agent! The FBI was hostile because Harry broke his silence! I have repeatedly asked you for this proof, Ernie, and you keep promising it, yet you never deliver! Show me the proof! I don't mean to show me the FBI allegations -- I've seen them! I mean show me the proof that Harry himself claimed this! Anybody can make allegations -- even (or especially) the FBI. (8) My opinions and reports are intellectually honest. I continue to question the veracity of the FBI with regard to Harry Dean. Your continued faith in the FBI's veracity is touching, but proves nothing much. (9) You say that "an intellectually honest writer accurately summarizes (in context) what documentary evidence reflects," so then, I say, let's see the documentary evidence and settle this once and for all! (10) You charge me with making "hyperbolic assumptions" but in fact all I did was summarize the fact that there are at least 55 FBI serials about Harry Dean with at least 164 pages, files by the FBI from 1962-1967, and I demanded to know WHY! What's so hyperbolic about that? It's a simple fact. Do you object because I pointed out that this is a lot of interest in somebody who is allegedly just a gadfly claiming to be an FBI agent? Nonsense. Again, with regard to your examples, you only show the FBI allegations about Harry, and you don't seek to verify proof (i.e a document from Harry Dean in which he clearly claims to be a paid FBI agent). That's your enduring mistake. You never show it, but you keep the faith -- you're sure it must exist because the FBI said so. Yet I reserve the right to doubt the FBI in the case of Harry Dean. Finally, if you need somebody on the EF to help post your FBI serials, Ernie, I'll volunteer to do that. Regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Well, Paul B., that's the question of the hour, isn't it? Ernie Lazar, despite all our disagreements, is clearly providing historical material of value here. I know too, Paul B., that you were interested in the question of Harry's letter to J. Edgar Hoover in November, 1963, of which we have two versions -- the version that the FBI offered (ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS) and the one published in Harry's 1990 manuscript, Crosstrails. Well, here's a blockbuster from Harry. After careful examination of the FBI version of the letter, Harry recently told me that the FBI memo looks familiar to him, and that he probably wrote it! Yes, this is a sea change on this thread. Under pressure from hostile posts, Harry went into denial mode. But with patience, and taking his time, Harry slowly and carefully examined that FBI document, taking into account all of its words, phrases and ideas -- and finally recognized that it contained his own thoughts. So, that part of our debate is officially closed, and I admit that I was mistaken. I no longer claim that the FBI version of Harry's letter to Hoover is a forgery by the FBI. (Now we can all look forward together to read the 63 FBI files that NARA is releasing about Harry Dean. It's been a long time coming.) To anybody I might have offended in my defense of Harry, I offer an apology only on behalf of myself, and not for Harry, if I was too strident. In defense of Harry Dean, the tone of attacks in this thread remain too hostile for a gentleman of 87 years, who after all, deserves some respect for his enduring and continuing efforts in this hostile field of JFK research. I can assure you personally, nobody is making any money on Harry's contribution. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Ernie, thanks for the update of this list of FBI files on Harry Dean. NARA has identified 63 serials so far. There are probably more, but let's just sort through what you've shared so far. 1962 -- There are four FBI serials from 1962, with a total of 7 pages. The serials start with July 18th and stop at September 28th. This corresponds to the second year <not the first> that Harry Dean moved to Los Angeles from Chicago. Actually this was a year and a few weeks after Harry settled in town, since he moved in June, 1961 on the same day he wrote to JFK and then drove his family from Chicago to Los Angeles. So, we see that within a year and a few weeks the FBI made some sort of file on Harry Dean. Why? Did Harry initiate the contact? Harry's Confessions say that the FBI initiated the contact a few weeks after he arrived in Los Angeles, asking about people involved with Fidel Castro's Cuba. Harry said that he cooperated with the FBI at that time. We look forward to seeing these four serials and we ask if there might be earlier serials still withheld by the FBI. 1963 -- There are five FBI serials from 1963, with a total of 8 pages. The first serial is from April 1963. Perhaps this was also about Castro, but we should wait to read it. The next four FBI serials are more interesting, because they begin with November 22, 1963 which is the day JFK was assassinated. The next file appears four days later; and in six days the next file; and in eight more days the final file of the year. I think we can safely say that all of these four FBI serials on Harry Dean were about the JFK assassination. (We may remember, too, that Harry said that he met with FBI SAC Wesley Grapp around this time, so it will be interesting to see what these FBI files contain.) 1964 -- There are fourteen FBI serials from 1964, with a total of 81 pages. There are apparently three groups -- the first group starts in January and ends in March. The second group contains only two serials (the first in May, the second in October) but one is by far the largest serial, with 23 pages all by itself. The third group starts in late November and ends in December. As we know, 1964 was the year of the Warren Commission hearings. I think we might reasonably presume that the first group of FBI serials on Harry Dean in 1964 has to do with the JFK assassination on some level. The second group (one large file in May) occurs in the middle of the Warren Commission sessions, and might be a summary of Harry Dean's story for the Commission -- it will be interesting to see. The third group interests me more, because it appears after the Warren Commission was finished, so has nothing to do with it. Further, it is mainly concentrated in December, the final month of the year. Harry's Confessions suggest that this was when he was in negotiations with the Joe Pyne Show to tell the world his story about General Walker, the JBS and all the rest of it. The FBI was very much against Harry's actions at this time. My guess is that section will consist largely of hostile reports and actions against Harry Dean for breaking his silence. 1965 -- There are twenty-one FBI serials from 1965, with a total of 45 pages. The serials begin at the end of March and are fairly evenly dispersed through the end of October. There are more FBI serials about Harry Dean in 1965 than in any other year. The reason is unclear -- all we know at this point is that Harry Dean has already broken his silence about General Walker and the John Birch Society and has been telling his story in the public media in 1965, and that FBI was displeased with this behavior. Yet with the end of October, 1965, the serials suddenly stop. 1966 -- There are only five FBI serials from 1966, with a total of 15 pages. The serials begin at the in mid-October and end in early December. The reason for this FBI interest is hard to guess. 1967 -- There were six FBI serials from 1967, with a total of 8 pages. Again, it is unclear what interest the FBI might have had in Harry Dean in 1967. After 1967 there is apparently no FBI interest in Harry Dean until 1975, when Harry is somehow relevant to the William Atwood Testimony in one file. Then in 1977 there is one serials. In 1990 there is one serial. Also, there are five FBI serials that are undated, so we must catalog those later. What is clear from this NARA report is that the Los Angeles FBI was clearly interested in Harry Dean from 1962 through 1967 with a whopping 55 serials (holding 164 pages) about Harry Dean in less than six years. The interest we have revolves around the question -- WHY? Regards, --Paul Trejo <edit correction of 1962 period>

Ernie, as usual I thank you for posting this FBI information about Harry Dean on this thread. It is extremely valuable to historians. Yet in this case it seems that although NARA found 63 "hits" for your query, there are only 25 items listed inside this single PDF file you posted. Did I miss something? Thanks, --Paul Trejo

In his resignation document of 1961 that I reproduced above, Edwin Walker celebrates 30 years of distinguished service in the US Army, yet at the same time he resigns his post, giving up his 30-year pension, and making himself the only US General in the 20th century to do something so self-destructive. Later in life Walker would plead with the US Army to restore his pension, and his pension would be restored twenty years later. It is bizarre that Walker would reject his pension -- as if there were strings attached. Walker seems ignorant of the fact that he could have retired from the US Army and become a leader of the KKK if he wanted to, and still collect his pension. A military pension makes no demands on one's political orientation. Yet Walker played the martyr -- most likely because he was playing directly to the public. If so, this tells us his motive for quitting the military, for giving up his pension, and for writing this "Case" letter -- namely, Walker wanted to enter politics. Walker will not forgive the JFK White House for removing him from his post in Germany. Walker wrote: "I leave the military career with an intolerable disappointment." This will be his running platform. Walker had in mind the JFK White House when he wrote: "I must free myself from the authority of little men who, in the name of my country, punish its most loyal servants." In this way, Walker even separated the JFK White House from "the name of my country." Walker will not spell out his politics in this writing. He only hints at it, but historians can make out the contours from the hints. Walker's politics begin with Joseph McCarthy and the HUAC. We know this by sentences like the following; "...public opinion was already aware of the flagrant conflict...on the occasion of the clamorous cases like those of General...MacArthur..." This recalls the era when Truman fired MacArthur. Walker not only compares himself with General MacArthur here, but also reminds the public of Joe McCarthy who started his crusade by accusing Truman of helping the Communists when he fired MacArthur. In 1957 through 1959 General Walker was stationed in Little Rock, Arkansas, in order to lead federal troops to support the Brown Decision to racially integrate Little Rock High School. Yet by October 1959, the complaints of racist right-wingers in Arkansas had convinced Walker to quit. In fact, Walker submitted his first resignation to the Eisenhower White House in 1959, citing some mysterious "fifth column conspiracy." We should note that General Walker had joined the John Birch Society (JBS) during this same period. That is why he said, "As far as I know, everything began in October 1959 when I noted among the men of the division whose command had been entrusted to me a complete lack of awareness not only of the power of the Enemy but of his intentions with relation to us." In the context of Little Rock, Arkansas in 1959, Walker's troops suffered "a complete lack of awareness" of the power and intention of the Communists -- according to JBS propaganda. Walker's troops were unaware of the JBS teaching that the Eisenhower White House was really the Communist Enemy, and took its orders from Radio Moscow. That is what Robert Welch suggested in his book, THE POLITICIAN, in those days, and General Walker swallowed that bait, hook, line and sinker. This explains why General Walker resigned from the US Army in October, 1959. But Ike would not accept Walker's resignation, and instead, promoted Walker to a command over 10,000 troops in Augsburg, Germany. Walker started this command in December, 1959, and in one more month, the JFK White House would take over, and according to the JBS, the JFK White House was just as Communist as Ike's, if not more so. Walker again tried to compare himself with General MacArthur, and thus to portray JFK as a weakling civilian who manipulates US Generals in favor of the Communists. That is why Walker wrote: "I deplore, like Douglas MacArthur, the fact that the executive power has been given prerogatives so boundless that the members of the armed forces have been treated in the most arbitrary and brutal manner for having dare to tell the truth dictated by their conscience." When he says, "executive power," Walker means the White House. Truman fired MacArthur. JFK fired Walker. This was "brutal" he says. They weren't fired because they disobeyed orders -- oh no -- they were only trying to "tell the truth as dictated by their conscience." Walker fails to tell the whole story here. What frustrated Walker was that 'all he wanted to do' was to teach his troops about anti-Communism. But he fails to admit openly that his definition of Communism was the JBS definition of Communism, namely, that all US Presidents since FDR have been Communists. If Walker had openly admitted that, he would have become a laughing-stock in the USA. But as long as he only hinted at it, lots of people believed he was being unfairly silenced -- and so some portion of those people concluded that JFK *must* be a Communist! Notice the way that Walker, like the JBS, patronized the JFK White House; in the context that the JFK White House dismissed Walker from his post, Walker writes: "My accusers are only individual voices. They are not America. They separate me from the soldiers that I know and from the office that is mine." Even though JFK and LBJ were elected by America, Walker had the nerve to say that "they are not America." And even though he was duly and officially dismissed from his post for military infractions, he insisted that the office was still "mine." Walker is clearest in his imitation of Joe McCarthy and HUAC when he begins to accuse US schools, universities and the entertainment industry of supporting Communism. Walker wrote: "Communism is the enemy. We employ its agents in our schools and in our universities, permitting them to plant seeds in the fertile minds of our youth. They infest our entertainment industry." But Walker clearly imitates the JBS when he began to accuse the White House itself of supporting Communism. Walker wrote: "Some time ago, they infiltrated our government, where subversive elements have been active for 30 years." Walker's sentence is a bit clumsy -- he begins, "some time ago," but ends with a precise figure, "30 years." So it all started around 1932, when FDR was elected President. This retells the standard JBS doctrine that all US Presidents since FDR have been Communist. In this very resignation letter, Walker continued his JBS propaganda by writing: "Even our free press is exploited by Communist propagandists." So we can't even trust our newspapers -- who can we trust? General Walker trusted the JBS magazines with his life. By attacking the free press in this way, Walker affirmed his case that JBS literature should be more widely disseminated -- not only among US military troops, but also among all US citizens. Walker wrote: "Many Communist aggressions...could never have happened if we had been...informed." Who is preventing US troops from learning the JBS opinion about Communists which Walker claimed was the only correct opinion? The free press! So, for Walker, the free press must also be a part of the Communist Conspiracy. Further, the JFK White House prevented General Walker from teaching his troops the JBS doctrines about Communists in the White House, so this means that the JFK White House was also helping the Communists! With his circular logic, Walker wrote: "Intending to discourage those among us who try to alert us...the enemy and the aides under his orders will stop at practically nothing." Walker accepted the job to "unmask" the JFK White House as the Enemy -- not now, but sometime soon. In the meantime, Walker builds his case that he was an innocent victim, and did not deserve to be dismissed from his command in Germany. Walker wrote: "An instruction dictated by the National Security Council in 1958...made an appeal to all the services...to mobilize within the framework of the Cold War." In other words, 'all General Walker was trying to do' was obey this NSC directive to teach his troops about Communism. But instead of being thanked he was fired. (So JFK must be afraid of anybody who wants to teach the troops the JBS opinion about Communism. This was Walker's conclusion. Walker was no intellectual, but that never prevented anybody from having political ambitions.) Walker fails to tell us exactly what he was teaching his troops. However, Walker did write this: "If it is now established that the unit commanders have the right to express themselves only on a limited number of subjects when they are speaking to their troops, then it will be impossible to remedy the lack of training of the soldiers." Walker argues that if right-wing extremists can't teach troops anything they want, then troop training is "impossible." Walker argues that he was only trying to teach his troops about Communism. So what if he also believed that FDR, Truman, Ike and JFK were all Communists, too? That should be a matter of freedom of speech! Yet the truth is that the US Military has always had a policy that nobody holding a Military post could engage in politics. To engage in politics, the individual must first retire from the US Military. That simple. But Walker could not wait -- Walker chose to enter politics right there in Germany, and teach his troops that "Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt" were "definitely pink." Well, this is all that was officially reported -- what he really told his troops from 1960 through 1961 we can probably guess based on his firm support of the JBS. It was the strain of this Anti-American message, this crypto-treasonous assault on the US White House that caused the scandal in Germany and reached the US newspapers. In any case, Walker resigned from his US Army post in November, 1961, and he wrote: "My objective henceforth will be to try to do as a civilian what it is no longer possible for me to do wearing the uniform." This, in my reading, is a clear declaration that Edwin Walker was going to enter politics. That is about the only thing a US civilian can do which a US military person cannot do. Walker concludes with these words: "War has been declared. Every man is a soldier." This, in my reading, is a direct confrontation in the face of JFK. Walker suggests here that JFK declared war on Walker when he dismissed Walker from his command. Now Walker will seek to dismiss JFK from his command. IMHO, by saying that "every man is a soldier," Walker was reducing JFK down to his own level -- man to man -- and may the best man win. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Malcom, I believe that your sharing of this material is so relevant to the Harry Dean thread that it deserves much fuller attention. The title as given in the Mary Ferrell Foundation is as follows: Oswald 201 File, Volume 38B NARA Record Number: 1993.06.12.11:25:09:340000 TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK "A CONSPIRACAO" (THE CONSPIRACY) BY NEWTON CAR -- THE WALKER CASE (pp. 33-36) To move this thread along, I typed in the entire section entitled, "The Walker Case." It consists almost entirely of a resignation document written by Edwin Walker when he resigned from the US Army in November, 1961. I'll comment on this writing in a separate post. Best regards, --Paul Trejo ----------------------- BEGIN EDWIN WALKER CASE -------------------------- PAGE 33 The agitation of the right in the United States is stimulated by the noisy "Walker case". Relieved of command of an infantry division for imposing anti-Communist concepts of the John Birch Society on his troops, General Edwin Walker requested transfer to the reserve, saying: "I must be freed from the power of those little men who in the name of my country punish its loyal servants." The statement that General Walker sent to the US Senate requesting transfer to the reserve is one of the most important documents of the time of profound changes in the structure of the society of the United States. It is worthwhile to be familiar with all of it. "Through the grace of God and the will of the Congress, I had the honor of serving as officer of the United States Army for the past 30 years. My life and my service record testify to my purposes, my hopes, and my devotion to the troops. I hope there is no possible doubt about the origin and depth of the sentiments that inspire my conduct. "I was relieved of command of the 24th Infantry Division. My career, through which I was able to be useful to the country, was cut short. I cannot accept the pension that they offered to me, with pay and benefits, for this would be to go against my principles. "I leave the military career with an intolerable disappointment. I have to find other means to serve my country in a time of such urgency, to stay faithful to the ideal of my whole life. "For this reason, I must free myself from the authority of little men who, in the name of my country, punish its most loyal servants. "Even before that subcommittee was entrusted with finding out the facts about censorship of higher officers, public opinion was already aware of the flagrant conflict of that censorship with the needs of the struggle for our survival. That awareness was demonstrated on the occasion of the clamorous cases like those of Generals Stilwell, Patton, Patch, MacArthur, Walton Walker and Van Fleet. "As far as I know, everything began in October 1959 when I noted among the men of the division whose command had been entrusted to me a complete lack of awareness not only of the power of the enemy but of his intentions with relation to us. A response had to be given to his continued threats, to his challenges, to the harangues directed at our troops by Radio Moscow every night. PAGE 34 "All the members of Congress who visited the advance posts of our army where our soldiers stand guard day and night, year after year, recognized the situation and the seriousness of that problem. As for us, the superior officers, it was our concern for every hour of the day and for every day of the year. Would our men have a correct idea of the power and the brutality of the enemy? "My main objective and my daily task were to see that the boys of my unit knew how to use their weapons efficiently and realistically. They should learn to kill and to destroy, to live and to protect. Each man is a source of intelligence, resolution, and comfort. He must know how to see and hear, to shoot and not to shoot. He must live in hope and fear, with courage and conviction. "We are at war, and the enemy is infiltrating our ranks. Every day that passes we lose that war a little more. Shall our hands and yours be tied? For he have to avoid defeat. If the Congress is not capable of taking care of this, then it is because the people of the United States are not faithfully represented. "I deplore, like Douglas MacArthur, the fact that the executive power has been given prerogatives so boundless that the members of the armed forces have been treated in the most arbitrary and brutal manner for having dare to tell the truth dictated by their conscience. It is of that usurpation of the authority of the legislative power, which should control the conduct of the military, that I am today the victim. "In this disgrace, I am in good company. "Lack of knowledge of the enemy, lack of understanding of his actions on all fronts, lack of power to face him, up to the ultimate consequences in defense of the United States, can only aid him and encourage him – this constitutes treason, according to our Constitution. "There can be no coexistence on a battlefield. "My accusers are only individual voices. They are not America. They separate me from the soldiers that I know and from the office that is mine. They use my oath against me. "Everything now depends on the courage of the patriots who understand the conditions of our survival. It is useful to point them out here once again. "Our objective is not peace but freedom. If we are watchful, vigilant, strong, and desirous and worthy of defending our freedom, peace will be preserved. If we make the Soviet leaders understand that we are ready to fight, there will be no need for us to go into battle. PAGE 35 "Communists are not fighters. They are not even consummate conspirators. It is another type of people who do most of the work for them. "No nation has ever chosen Communism in free elections. We know that wayward forces are collaborating for the establishment of the Communist authority over such a large number of men. We know that the Communists want to reduce all others to servitude. And the Kremlin knows well that the smallest flame of freedom that continues to glow can set fire to the rest of the world. "Speeches on coexistence are only concessions to the timid and the gullible. With the others, the Kremlin resorts to other methods. "One of the great conflicts of history is the one that opposes man to the state. An example of the road that we are traveling in this field is the following: even a short time ago, a liberal was one who believed in the protection of individual freedoms against usurpations of the state. Every man no doubt has to obey a higher authority. But I do not believe that one should leave to these usurpers the task of deciding whether that higher authority should be the President or the palace guard, God or the Kremlin. "In Korea, where I commanded the artillery on Heartbreak Hill, and later, when I commanded the infantry in Gibraltar, for 20 months I saw victory being replaced, little by little, by deadlock. "In 1955, in Formosa, as adviser of the Chief of Staff of the Chinese Nationalist Army, I had the opportunity to measure the consequences of a hesitating policy. "There cannot be coexistence on a battlefield. "It is still up to us to agree among ourselves and with our allies about a simple definition: Communism is the enemy. We employ its agents in our schools and in our universities, permitting them to plant seeds in the fertile mind of our youth. They infest our entertainment industry. Some time ago, they infiltrated our government, where subversive elements have been active for 30 years. "Even our free press is exploited by Communist propagandists. The collaborators of Communism find ardent and militant defenders among certain groups of citizens, many of whom are sincerely deceived and led astray. The governments that the leaders of those groups fight are described as reactionary. In other nations of our hemisphere, we have seen those groups take over absolute power. In Cuba, we even helped them. PAGE 36 "Nations whose governments are solidly anti-Communist are always receiving rocks from the United States thrown by elements who succeeded in entrenching themselves within our government in such positions that they can claim to speak in our name. I write that with sadness, but with conviction. "Many Communist aggressions now considered to be accomplished facts could never have happened if we had been vigilant and informed -- and to be vigilant we would have to be informed. Intending to discourage those among us who try to alert us by informing us, the enemy and the aides under his orders will stop at practically nothing, but always running the risk of being unmasked if they should go too far. "During the past two years, the chiefs of military units worked under terribly difficult conditions. The boys who came to us from the schools, from the churches, and from the American homes were not informed about their enemy. The teaching and training that they should have received had been seriously neglected. We consider it necessary then to remedy that insufficiency. "The effort of mobilization of the 24th Infantry Division for the cold war had in its favor the authority of an instruction dictated by the National Security Council in 1958, which made an appeal to all the services – civilian, diplomatic and military – to mobilize within the framework of the Cold War. Nevertheless, my efforts in this direction led to my being removed from command. "If it is now established that the unit commanders have the right to express themselves only on a limited number of subjects when they are speaking to their troops, then it will be impossible to remedy the lack of training of the soldiers. "The higher organs decided expressly that I should no longer pass one to my comrades in arms the information that I consider necessary to strengthen their morale and their capability to survive. "My objective henceforth will be to try to do as a civilian what it is no longer possible for me to do wearing the uniform. "War has been declared. "Every man is a soldier. "Let us remember the words of a Marine general to his men: "We are surrounded. Let us not let them escape." ----------------------- END EDWIN WALKER CASE -------------------------- <edit typos>

Well, Harry, it's a bit late to turn back now. You're already on a Senate record as a past Secretary of the FPCC in Chicago. You're also in FBI records as a figure in extreme right-wing circles in Southern California (e.g. the JBS). Your life is one of the most colorful lives of the 1960's, IMHO, because your personal experiences cover the gamut of left-wing extremism and right-wing extremism -- although you yourself were a moderate Republican through the entire experience. You're basically a social person, Harry -- and you make friends easily. This took you to Fidel's Cuba and it took you to a meeting in Southern California where you heard Ex-General Edwin Walker plot against JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald in the same minute. I'm continually amazed at your sense of adventure, and I think your readers will be amazed with your true story as well. (By the way, your eBook is now available to everybody for $4.99 at Smashwords, at this URL: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/367550 ) It's also true that you have suffered lots of opposition for telling your true story, e.g. from the FBI when they began opposing you in 1965 for coming out with your story to the public in the Joe Pyne Show in Los Angeles, and later in the Tomorrow Show in New York. Jealous writers like W.R. Morris scrambled your story beyond recognition for decades. Now that your eBook, Harry Dean's Confessions, came out, it's little surprise that advocates of J. Edgar Hoover will panic at your true story, and accuse you of lying. The FBI itself has little interest in your story, fifty years later, but jealous individuals who lead lonely, colorless lives will still try to resurrect those old FBI hostilities. Don't give up, yet, Harry. Keep heart. Your story will one day enjoy the wide circulation it deserves. I hope that day comes soon. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Many thanks for this historic citation, Malcom. The CIA 201 File on Lee Harvey Oswald -- partially recovered by the Mary Ferrell Foundation, and generously made available to the reading public free of charge -- contains a five-page narrative about Ex-General Edwin Walker. However, we have seen this before. Those who have read Edwin Walker's testimony given in March 1962 before the Senate Subcommitee on Military Preparedness, and are aware that Walker was allowed to read multiple documents into the record, will recognize this document in those Senate records. Ex-General Edwin Walker is, IMHO, one of the most important persons in 20th century US History -- but to tell the whole story about him one has no choice but to challenge the Warren Commission and its FBI sources. It is not only Harry Dean that challenges the Warren Commission conclusions. General Walker himself -- in letter after letter and speech after speech, called the Warren Commission a pile of falsehoods. As I told John Dolva -- I believe that General Walker was an honest man -- deep inside -- and he really wanted to confess the truth about his role in the JFK assassination, and about what he truly believed regarding global politics. This is why, IMHO, Walker called the German newspaper, Deutsche NationalZeitung in the wee early morning hours after JFK was assassinated, and told them -- a week before the FBI had any clue -- that Lee Harvey Oswald was really his shooter on 10 April 1963. (This isn't speculation; this was part of the questioning of Edwin Walker before the Warren Commission.) In his personal papers Edwin Walker claimed to have known about Lee Harvey Oswald only days after the 10 April 1963 shooting at his back window in Dallas. He wrote about this fact many times in his newsletters. Walker, IMHO, wanted to confess the truth for his entire life after 1963. He continually said that the Warren Commission conclusions were simply false. I believe Walker wanted to confess -- deep down inside. He was a proud US General and, though internally conflicted with personal demons (e.g. he was a homosexual in the closet) -- otherwise he was a courageous and honest man. Harry Dean did not despise General Walker. Harry was a volunteer for his local Republican Party in Southern California, and Harry held Edwin Walker in high respect until the aftermath of 22 November 1963. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Ernie, the simple fact is that I don't lie. You keep calling me a xxxx on the EF, and working yourself into an emotional tizzy -- but it doesn't change the fact. I tell the truth. Everyody can see it except yourself, evidently. You are clearly incapable of self-criticism, just as you appear to be incapable of self-control. Have you considered asking your doctor about Valium? Sincerely, --Paul Trejo

Well, Ernie, you keep asking for examples of how you insult Harry Dean, and this post is a perfect example. Your hostility reaches new heights here. Everybody can see this, Ernie -- but evidently you are incapable of self-criicism. As for your presumption that Harry had access to all the writings by Hoover and so on -- you jump to conclusions. Not everybody 50 years ago was as well read as people today. Particularly people who stopped school at 8th grade, as did Harry Dean and millions of others in the pre-War period. Harry Dean did the best he could with the hand that he was dealt. I'm proud of this fine American named Harry J. Dean. So, your statements there are merely unkind and boasting. Harry was taken in by Castro's people when he was in Chicago, and Harry was taken in by the John Birch Society when he was in Los Angeles. There's nothing unusual about that -- tens of thousands of Americans were also taken in -- and yet you spill hostility upon hostility on top of Harry Dean for these rather common characteristics. It only shows your arrogance, Ernie. Furthermore, not every GOP official in California denounced the JBS, Ernie, you're simply mistaken about that (as you're mistaken about most of what you conclude). In fact, Congressman John Rousselot of California was not only a defender of the John Birch Society, but he was also a member of the JBS, and more than that, he was a sponsor and donated his own real estate to the JBS cause. Nor was he alone. So, either you're ignorant about the facts of California politics, Ernie, or you're deliberately spreading disinformation. In other words, we must doubt your intellectual honesty. As for your accusing Harry Dean of Communism -- I'm not the only reader who took your baited barbs that way, and they appear deliberately constructed to make the innuendo. So, I think perhaps you're deliberately spreading disinformation -- and now we need to explore exactly why. Also, with regard to the FPCC, since Harry Dean was intimately close to their leadership, anything Harry says about them is ten times more valid than anything you say about them fifty years later -- you are simply ignorant of their Communist danger and their use of weapons to further their cause, as Harry Dean explains. But you don't admit your ignorance -- instead, you insist that you're the key authority here. What nonsense. Also, when you use filthy language in a Forum like this, you are showing your extreme arrogance. If it is indeed true that "NOBODY on Planet Earth" has "devoted more time, energy and personal financial resources to obtaining and sharing FBI files (and other agency files) than" Ernie Lazar, one must wonder what your motives are. One must also realize that this puts you in a perfect position to spread disinformation, and to twist the facts for underhanded purposes. Your extreme arrogance makes many readers wonder about you. I will admit this -- you are sharing FBI files with the Education Forum, and that is indeed useful to everybody. That's why I can't understand your continual barrage of attacks against Harry Dean, and your continual insisting that you're not attacking him! As for your "conclusions," Ernie, you have no right to make any at all until you've seen all the empirical evidence. So, you should really be more humble. Sincerely, --Paul Trejo

Bump

Well, Ernie, I think Harry objects to your one-sided and relentless attacks on him. It isn't just disagreement -- you attack him, and then you claim that you're not attacking him. It's insidious. As for Harry's confessed support of Castro in 1959-1960, it is a matter of record, not only in Harry Dean's Memoirs, but also in FBI records, and even in Senate hearings. But it's also a matter of record that Harry sent messages to the FBI about Castro's regime. You, Ernie, neglect that Harry made an underground resistance against Castro. That's the part you wish to downplay, so that you can continue to accuse Harry Dean of Communism. But Harry Dean was and remains far, far from a Communist. Harry Dean, like many Americans in 1959-1960 -- including TV show host Ed Sullivan -- was taken in by Fidel Castro in 1959-1960, when it was still unclear that Castro was going to side with the Communists. After it became glaringly clear to Harry Dean that Fidel Castro had taken the Communist side, Harry ran to the Chicago FBI to give them information. You don't have enough records about this event, Ernie, so perhaps you're justified in your, "prove it" attitude. That's because you still haven't seen all of the FBI records that are now available under FOIA requests. But those will all come in due time. Let's all remember, instead, that Harry's political journey includes a red-blooded American service in the US Navy during World War 2, and a daring underground series of reports to the FBI about the Communist regime of Fidel Castro. That is the TRUTH about Harry, no matter what you're incessant attacks say, Ernie. I suppose we'll simply have to hold our noses and wait until the FBI finally releases to you all of their records about Harry Dean, so that we can all see them and realize the TRUTH of the matter. I agree that Harry is sometimes overbearing in his patriotism -- that was the fault of Ex-General Walker as well. Harry sometimes jumps to conclusions. I've cautioned him about that, and he does calm down. Yet Harry is 87 years old this year, and he has been sharing his views about the JFK assassination for nearly 50 of those years, and has been slammed and slammed by the public media and the FBI during that entire time. Harry doesn't want his TRUTH about the JFK assassination to be scattered away by the FBI. This is how Harry probably perceives you, Ernie. As an objective observer, I can see his point. Yet I don't see you as a "sadistic swine" Ernie. I do think you're one-sided, relentless and even callous to personal feelings -- but I also draw the line with public insults. Sincerely, --Paul Trejo

Well, John, the complexity of Ex-General Edwin Walker is somewhat amazing. Yes, he was a homosexual in the closet even as he rose to the rank of Major General in the US Army (1931-1961) at a time when it was an instant court-martial offense to be homosexual in the US Army. Yes, he lied to the Mississippi Grand Jury, and claimed that he was at Ole Miss on the night of the race riots there in order to "keep the peace," Yes, he lied to the Warren Comission when he claimed that he never heard of Lee Harvey Oswald until the JFK assassination. Even H.L. Hunt's butler told Dick Russell (TMWKTM) that he overheard Hunt and Walker talking about Lee Harvey Oswald in the weeks before the JFK assassination. We must remember, however, that there are extenuating circumstances. First, we must remember the Clyde Watts was at Walker's side before the Mississippi Grand Jury and before the Warren Commission. Watts had to fight Walker continually to keep Walker from being candid. This is very clear in the Grand Jury transcripts, when Walker obviously gets excited and joyful when describing the race riot and all the wonderful things that the kids did to the US marshals. Watts interrupts Walker often -- that's my reading of it. The same was true, by the way, during the early 1962 Hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Military Preparedness by Senators John Stennis and Strom Thurmond, who set this up to defend Ex-General Walker from the stigma of being dismissed from his Augsburg post in 1961. Walker showed then and there that he was a loose cannon and would say the wackiest things -- unless Clyde Watts stopped him and advised him continually. Walker was being groomed by H.L. Hunt, Dixiecrat Senators, the White Citizens' Councils, NIC, Kent Courtney, Phoebe Courtney, Robert A. Surrey, Robert DePugh and the John Birch Society. Even if Walker didn't have much of a chance in politics (which was unclear from late 1961 through early 1962 when Walker was getting headlines) Walker was still useful as a tool to manipulate public opinion on a nationwide scale (especially in the South) in those years. Yet again -- Walker was a loose cannon when he wasn't being tightly controlled by his lawyers. Walker was not very well educated -- but he was as shrewd as a jungle tiger. He had powerful instincts and when he moved into action, even his handlers could not stop him. The story that Kelly Brown tells about Edwin Walker -- that Walker expected a nationwide race riot to tear the USA apart and give the US Military total dictatorial powers forever -- this is plausible in my opinion, given the fact that in just a few more months Walker would buy radio and TV time to call for "ten thousand strong from every state in the Union" to join him in a massive racial showdown at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi in late September 1962. It seems to me that Walker bet the farm that the national race riot that he predicted would begin at Ole Miss and carry him to power as a newly restored General of the US Military Dictatorship controlled from the Deep South. Some might call Walker a looney toon and ridicule him for his nerve in suing MAD Magazine. But if he had been correct about a race war -- or if JFK and RFK had backed down -- we might actually be living in a very different America today. IMHO, the race riot at Ole Miss in 1962 is one of the key moments of US history in the 20th century. There is film about the riots existing at NARA -- but sealed under FOIA "exceptions" I'm told by them. It's still too sensitive to talk about today. And there is no movie about the Ole Miss riot. Nor is there any full-length book about it (except by the John Birch Society, which portrays it as the aggression of a Communist JFK, and the heroism of General Edwin Walker). The Ole Miss riot might be mentioned as a single chapter in a few obscure books here and there -- but there really should be a movie about it. IMHO, the seeds of the JFK assassination are there. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

(1) Ernie, it sounds like you're finally admitting that the JBS claim that JFK was a Communist is similar to Walker's nutty claim in 1961-1963. I think history shows that Walker got this idea from Robert Welch, first and foremost, front and center. It is fascinating to reflect on the fact that Ex-General Walker also rejected the Warren Commission conclusions thoroughly. In my opinion, Walker knew that the Warren Commission conclusions were wrong because he knew far more about the real facts of the JFK assassination than most people on the Warren Commission panel. (2) We agree that the rise of the Minutemen and other extreme-right-wing paramilitary "gun clubs" corresponds with the right-wing paranoia that the Communists were taking over Washington DC. I appreciate your quote of Walker at the 1963 Annual Leadership Conference of the [White] Citizens Councils: “The Kennedy’s have liquidated the Government of the U.S. It no longer exists." Despite his intellectual shortcomings, there were many charming aspects about Ex-General Walker, even beyond the fact that he was a hero of WW2 and Korea. For instance, except for the times that he lied under oath (i.e. to the Mississippi Grand Jury and to the Warren Commission, when he could have been executed for telling the truth, IMHO) Walker was a very patriotic and honest man. Walker was brutally honest and he called 'em like he saw 'em. He had to be tightly controlled by his lawyers, Clyde Watts and Robert Morris, before the Grand Jury as well as the Warren Commission, otherwise his frankness could have ended in a court-martial or even the death penalty. Otherwise he believed in what he said 100%. (3) You say, Ernie, that there are "literally DOZENS" of comparable comments to General Walker's claims of a coming race war in the USA -- and that is true. However, there was only ONE case of a secret plot against JFK that involved Lee Harvey Oswald. All the cases that you cite from other right-wing fanatics (and that others have named over the decades) all fail to name Lee Harvey Oswald as the centerpiece. Only the JFK plot by the allegedly "nuts" Ex-General Edwin Walker (according to J. Edgar Hoover) actually named Lee Harvey Oswald, and Harry Dean personally heard these very words come from Walker's mouth. This is what makes Harry Dean's memoirs a truly historical treasure. Here is the last place to find the truth regarding the JFK assassination, which the official HSCA admitted involved more people than Lee Harvey Oswald, although they failed to name them. Only Harry Dean names these JFK plotters with "eye-witness" precision. Sincerely, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

John, this is fascinating about MAD Magazine and General Walker. I sorted through all 80 boxes of the Edwin Walker personal papers at UT Austin and saw lots of references to US newspapers that were being sued by Walker and Watts -- but I never saw any reference to MAD Magazine there. It's possible that I missed it, but it's also possible that Walker didn't store those documents because he lost that case against MAD Magazine. It's hard to sue a humor magazine. After General Walker lied to the Mississippi Grand Jury about this role in the race riots of 1962 at Ole Miss, he was acquitted of all charges -- and then, to further cover-up his lie, he went about suing every US newspaper in America who told the truth about his involvement. The truth was that Walker started the riots himself by going on radio and TV to call for "ten thousand strong from every State in the Union" to meet him there in Oxford, Mississippi, to loudly protest the admittance of a Black American, James Meredith, as a student there. Many thousands did come from all over the USA, from the East Coast of Florida to the West Coast of California -- and many of them brought weapons (as FBI files show). Anyway, to cover his lie, he and attorneys Clyde Watts and Robert Morris started a lawsuit campaign in 1963 that ended in 1967, and if they would have won every case they would have been awarded $30 million (which amounts to $300 million today, adjusted for inflation). They lost most of the cases, but in local courts they won enough cases to amass $3 million in "libel" charges against US newspapers that told the truth. No doubt the MAD Magazine lawsuit in question was related to this very same set of cases. The irony came in 1967 when none other than Chief Justice Earl Warren overturned all of Walker's winnings -- using the precedents of Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts (388 U.S. 130) and Times v. Sullivan, and sided with the Associated Press against Walker. Warren sent Walker and Watts home empty-handed. (It was around this time that Walker began pleading with the Army to restore his pension, although he'd officially resigned. It would take another fifteen years before the Army granted his pension.) Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Since the discussion here has turned to the topic of the sanity of resigned Major General Edwin A. Walker, I'll chime in some new information that was shared with me by Robert Morrow and his elderly friend, Kelly Brown. Kelly Brown was a young, Southern political candidate attempting to make his mark in Southern politics in 1962, and went about collecting information on the two main players in the South, as he saw them, namely, Ex-General Walker and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. In early 1962, Ex-General Walker made a speech at the University of Georgia during his NIC Tour. Kelly Brown met privately with Walker after the speech, and asked for Walker's candid opinions about the State of the Union. He got an earful. Ex-General Walker told Kelly Brown to expect a race war in the USA. Walker predicted that blood would run in the streets until it was ankle deep. Walker predicted that White Americans would demand that the US Military intervene to forcibly resolve the race war in their favor, and that the US Military would oblige White Americans. In doing so, however, the US Military would cancel the US Constitution, establish a Military dictatorship, and never again give up their control of the USA to civilians, simply because the civilians would have asked to be taken over. Walker also told Kelly Brown that he was convinced that JFK was personally a Communist who was conspiring directly with Nikita Khrushchev to undermine the US Constitution and bring about World Communism. So, no matter which way the world leaned, right or left, the US Constitution was doomed, according to Ex-General Edwin Walker. I don't know if Kelly Brown took that information to the FBI, but I do note that in the 1967 Correlation Summary that the FBI compiled on ex-General Edwin Walker which Ernie shared two days ago, there is lots of "redaction," that is, blacked-out lines and paragraphs. Usually the blacked-out lines are the names of informants whom the FBI wants to withhold -- but sometimes a whole paragraph is blacked-out, so even the content remains a secret. If Kelly Brown did take his story to the FBI, then perhaps this is one reason that J. Edgar Hoover remarked that "Walker is nuts." Finally, this portrait of Ex-General Walker as a wild extremist harmonizes very well with Harry Dean's claim that Ex-General Walker organized a plot around Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate JFK. Best regards, --Paul Trejo