John Simkin

I have been researching the activities of Paul Lional Helliwell recently. In 1943 Colonel Helliwell became head of the Secret Intelligence Branch of the OSS in Europe. Helliwell was replaced in this post by William Casey in 1945. After the war Helliwell became chief of the Far East Division of the War Department's Strategic Service Unit, an interim intelligence organization formed after OSS was closed down. In 1947 Helliwell joined the Central Intelligence Agency. He was involved with Tommy Corcoran, William Pawley and Claire Chennault in supporting Chaing Kai-shek's government in Formosa in the 1950s. Helliwell, via Corcoran, eventually took over the running of the Civil Air Transport (CAT). He also established the Sea Supply Corporation, a shipping company in Bangkok. It was Helliwell's idea to use these CIA fronted companies to raise money to help support Chaing Kai-shek. According to Joseph Trento (Prelude to Terror): "Through Sea Supply, Helliwell imported large amounts of arms for the KMT soldiers to keep the Burmese military from throwing them out of the country. The arms were ferried into Burma on CAT airplanes. CAT then used the "empty" planes to fly drugs from Burma to Taiwan, Bangkok, and Saigon. There the drugs were processed for the benefit of the KMT and Chiang Kai-shek's corrupt government on Taiwan." In late 1950s he worked for the CIA in Cuba. In the early 1960s he was based in Miami and was involved in the funding of anti-Castro operations. Helliwell was sent by the CIA to the Bahamas where he set up offshore banks for CIA use. At first he established the Mercantile Bank and Trust Company and then the Castle Bank and Trust Company. Helliwell also established the American Bankers Insurance Company in Galveston, Texas. This provided insurance cover for businessmen who cooperated with the CIA.

I have found evidence of Pawley’s involvement in the transport industry in Cuba. Was he involved in other areas such as sugar, hotels, gambling, etc? Are there any links between Pawley and the Mafia in Cuba. It might be the correct term in the U.S. but you have to remember I am writing this in the UK. We use the term estate agent to describe someone who is involved in buying and selling land and buildings. I am very interested in Pawley's relationship with the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Tommy Corcoran arranged for Brown & Root and the Betchel-McCone Corporation to make billions from arms contracts during the Second World War. I wonder if Pawley/Corcoran did the same for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. It definitely did very well from supplying the P-36 fighter aircraft, the P-40 fighter (Tomahawk, Kittyhawk, and Warhawk). Nearly 14,000 were built and sold between 1940 and 1944. They also sold large numbers of the C-46 Commando cargo plane. Overall, the company produced over 29,000 aircraft during the war. Have you got the dates for this?

I disagree. I think we should be trying to produce historians. Not because they will be historians (although many will be – family history is currently the fastest growing hobby in the UK) but because they need to become active citizens. The last thing I want them to be is passive consumers of culture.

I have spent the last two days reading the FBI files on William Douglas Pawley. Much of the information in the documents are still blacked out. This is especially true of his activities in the early 1960s concerning the overthrow of Castro. It seems that he worked very closely with Manuel Artime during this period. The FBI carried out its own investigation into Pawley in 1953. This provides a fairly detailed account of his activities up until this time. For example, he was born in Florence, South Carolina, on 7th September, 1896. His father was a wealthy businessman based in Cuba and Pawley attended private schools in both Havana and Santiago. He later returned to the United States where he studied at the Gordon Military Academy in Georgia. In 1925 Pawley began work as an estate agent in Miami. Two years later he began working for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. In 1928 Pawley returned to Cuba to become president of the Nacional Cubana de Aviacion Curtiss. He held this post until the company was sold to Pan American Airways in 1932. Pawley now became president of the Intercontinent Corporation based in New York. The following year he moved to China where he became president of the China National Aviation Corporation. Over the next five years he built three aircraft factories for the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek. Pawley also formed a business relationship with Tommy Corcoran. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had asked Corcoran to establish a private corporation to provide assistance to the nationalist government in China. Roosevelt even supplied the name of the proposed company, China Defense Supplies. He also suggested that his uncle, Frederick Delano, should be co-chairman of the company. Chiang nominated his former finance minister, Tse-ven Soong, as the other co-chairman. For reasons of secrecy, Corcoran took no title other than outside counsel for China Defense Supplies. William S. Youngman was his frontman in China. Corcoran's friend, Whitey Willauer, was moved to the Foreign Economic Administration, where he supervised the sending of supplies to China. In this way Corcoran was able to create an Asian Lend-Lease program. Pawley also worked closely with Claire Lee Chennault, who was military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek since 1937. Chennault told Tommy Corcoran that if he was given the resources, he could maintain an air force within China that could carry out raids against the Japanese. Corcoran returned to the United States and managed to persuade Franklin D. Roosevelt to approve the creation of the American Volunteer Group. William Pawley became involved and he arranged for one hundred P-40 fighters, built by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, that had been intended for Britain, to be redirected to Chennault in China. Pawley also arranged for the P-40 to be assembled in Rangoon. It was Tommy Corcoran's son David who suggested that the American Volunteer Group should be called the Flying Tigers. Chennault liked the idea and asked his friend, Walt Disney, to design a tiger emblem for the planes. On 13th April, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a secret executive order authorizing the American Volunteer Group to recruit reserve officers from the army, navy and marines. Pawley suggested that the men should be recruited as "flying instructors". In July, 1941, ten pilots and 150 mechanics were supplied with fake passports and sailed from San Francisco for Rangoon. When they arrived they were told that they were really involved in a secret war against Japan. To compensate for the risks involved, the pilots were to be paid $600 a month ($675 for a patrol leader). In addition, they were to receive $500 for every enemy plane they shot down. The Flying Tigers were extremely effective in their raids on Japanese positions and helped to slow down attempts to close the Burma Road, a key supply route to China. In seven months of fighting, the Flying Tigers destroyed 296 planes at a loss of 24 men (14 while flying and 10 on the ground). In 1944 Pawley became president of the Industan Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Bangalore, India. Pawley was responsible for building India's first ammonium-sulfate plant in Trannvancore. After the war Pawley became a diplomat. In 1945 Harry S. Truman appointed Pawley as U.S. Ambassador to Peru. Soon afterwards left-wing newspapers in Lima began to claim that Pawley was making "lucrative deals" for himself in Peru. This involved transporting unspecified goods in and out of Peru. In 1948 Pawley became Ambassador to Brazil. During this time he became a FBI informant. He passed information to J. Edgar Hoover claiming that Spruille Braden, the Ambassador to Argentina was under the control of communist advisers such as Gustavo Duran and George Michanowsky. In a document dated the 7th September, 1948, Pawley suggested that Braden was attempting to expose "non-existant and imagery Nazis in Latin America" as a cover for his communist sympathies. Pawley also claimed that William A. Wieland, who worked as a press officer for the embassy in Brazil, held "anti-capitalist" views. Pawley continued to be involved in various business projects. He was a close friend of President Rafael Trujillo and together with George Smathers, had invested in the bauxite industry in the Dominican Republic. He was also extremely friendly with Fulgencio Batista and in 1948 he established Autobuses Modernos in Cuba. On 7th November, 1949, Pawley sent a memorandum to the State Department suggesting that a small group of Americans should be sent to Formosa in order to help protect the government of Chiang Kai-shek. Pawley claimed that Dean Acheson rejected the idea after consulting with advisers such as Owen Lattimore, John C. Vincent and John Davis. In February, 1951 Pawley became special assistant to Acheson. Later that year he held a similar post under Robert A. Lovett. However, he discovered that the State Department considered him to be a reactionary and he was denied access to secret documents concerning Latin America. It seems that he was considered a security risk. Both the CIA and FBI were concerned about his attacks on Braden. He was in fact a right-wing supporter of the John Birch Society. Is it possible that Pawley was involved in Operation Bloodstone and was trying to protect Nazi agents in South America. Pawley played a role Operation Success, a CIA plot to overthrow the Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 after he introduced land reforms and nationalized the United Fruit Company. John Foster Dulles decided that he “needed a civilian adviser to the State Department team to help expediate Operation Success". Dulles selected William Pawley. In his book Peddling Influence, David McKean argues that Pawley's most important qualification for the job was his “long association with right-wing Latin America dictators.” Pawley continued to work closely with Fulgencio Batista. In March 1958, Eisenhower, disillusioned with Batista's government, insisted he held elections. This he did, but the people showed their unhappiness with his government by refusing to vote. Over 75 per cent of the voters in the capital Havana boycotted the polls. In some areas, such as Santiago, it was as high as 98 per cent. Some members of the State Department came to the conclusion that it would be in America's best long-term interest in Cuba to be seen as opposing Batista. William A. Wieland, Director of the Caribbean and Central American Affairs, was against America providing support for the Cuban dictator. As the U.S. Ambassador of Cuba, Earl E. T. Smith was later to tell a Senate Committee: "He (Wieland) believed that it would be in the best interest of Cuba and the best interest of the world in general when Batista was removed from office." Wieland was not the only one who took that view. According to Pawley and Smith, Roy R. Rubottom, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, John L. Topping, Chief of the Political Section and the Chief of the CIA Section, held similar opinions. Pawley and Smith also identified Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times as being an important figure in providing support for the idea of regime change in Cuba. Smith pointed out that "Matthews wrote three articles on Fidel Castro, which appeared on the front page of the New York Times, in which he eulogized Fidel Castro and portrayed him as a political Robin Hood." On 9th December, 1958, Pawley had a meeting with Batista. Pawley told Batista that he was losing the support of the American government. Pawley suggested that the Cuban dictator should resign and allow an anti-Castro and anti-Batista caretaker junta to take over. Batista rejected the idea and on 14th December, William A. Wieland, speaking for the State Department instructed Earl E. T. Smith, to inform Batista that he no longer had the support of the US government and that he should leave Cuba at once. On 1st January, 1959, Batista fled to the Dominican Republic. Pawley later told a Senate Committee on Latin American Affairs: "I believe that the deliberate overthrow of Batista by Wieland and Matthews, assisted by Rubottom, is almost as great a tragedy as the surrendering of China to the Communists by a similar group of Department of State officials fifteen or sixteen years ago and we will not see the end in cost of American lives and American recourses for these tragic errors." After Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro, Pawley pressurized President Dwight Eisenhower to provide military and financial help to anti-Castro Cubans based in the United States. Recently released FBI files suggest he worked closely with Manuel Artime in efforts to overthrow Castro. In the winter of 1962 Eddie Bayo claimed that two officers in the Red Army based in Cuba wanted to defect to the United States. Bayo added that these men wanted to pass on details about atomic warheads and missiles that were still in Cuba despite the agreement that followed the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bayo had originally fought with Fidel Castro against Fulgencio Batista. He disagreed with Castro's policies after he gained power and moved to Miami and helped establish Alpha 66. His story was eventually taken up by several members of the anti-Castro community including Gerry P. Hemming, John Martino, Felipe Vidal Santiago and Frank Sturgis. Pawley became convinced that it was vitally important to help get these Soviet officers out of Cuba. To help this happen he communicated with James Eastland, the chairman of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, about this story. Pawley also contacted Ted Shackley, head of the CIA's JM WAVE station in Miami. Shackley decided to help Pawley organize what became known as Operation Tilt. He also assigned William (Rip) Robertson, a fellow member of the CIA in Miami, to help with the operation. David Sanchez Morales, another CIA agent, also became involved in this attempt to bring out these two Soviet officers. In June, 1963, a small group, including Pawley, Eddie Bayo, William (Rip) Robertson, John Martino, and Richard Billings, a journalist working for Life Magazine, secretly arrived in Cuba. They were unsuccessful in their attempts to find these Soviet officers and they were forced to return to Miami. Bayo remained behind and it was rumored that he had been captured and executed. However, his death was never reported in the Cuban press. William Pawley died of gunshot wounds in January, 1977. Officially it was suicide but some researchers believe it was connected to the investigations being carried out by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKpawley.htm

Message received about this thread. My father never fled the United States. All charges against him were dismissed. Mr. Simkin with all do respect the information in your forum is very inaccurate. I know the real story. I do not think you would be able to handle it. Please remove the comments posted by Mr. Turner.

Photos of Frank Wisner below, not sure if its the same guy as in John's post? Second Picture he's the guy in the middle. Are you sure that is Frank Wisner? This is definitely a picture of Wisner (confirmed by his son).

Namebase entry for Frank Gardner Wisner: http://www.namebase.org/main2/Frank-Gardner-Wisner.html Romania 1944 Turkey 1944 Albania 1949 Guatemala 1954 Hungary 1956 Indonesia 1958 Britain 1959-1962 Aarons,M. Loftus,J. Unholy Trinity. 1992 (260, 269-70, 278) Adams,J. Secret Armies. 1988 (29) Assn. National Security Alumni. Unclassified 1995-W (15) Bethell,N. Betrayed. 1984 (35, 39, 89, 143-4) Bill,J. The Eagle and the Lion. 1988 (87, 89) Bird,K. The Chairman. 1992 (304, 353-4, 427) Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (106) Bledowska,C. Bloch,J. KGB/CIA. 1987 (57) Bray,H. The Pillars of the Post. 1980 (140-1) Burleigh,N. A Very Private Woman. 1999 (118, 123-4) CIA. Studies in Intelligence: Index 1955-1992 (43) Chester,E. Covert Network. 1995 (27-9, 31, 44-5, 48, 132-3) Codevilla,A. Informing Statecraft. 1992 (248) Colby,G. Dennett,C. Thy Will Be Done. 1995 (241) Cookridge,E.H. Gehlen: Spy of the Century. 1972 (200-1, 203-4, 245-6, 280) Copeland,M. The Game Player. 1989 (111-5, 170-1) Corn,D. Blond Ghost. 1994 (38) Corso,P. The Day After Roswell. 1997 (87) Corson,W. The Armies of Ignorance. 1977 (306-9) CounterSpy 1981-04 (10) CounterSpy 1983-08 (44-5) Covert Action Information Bulletin 1986-#25 (7-9) Covert Action Information Bulletin 1989-#31 (26-7) Covert Action Quarterly 1999-#67 (57-8) Davis,D. Katharine the Great. 1987 (137-9, 186) DiEugenio,J. Pease,L. The Assassinations. 2003 (300-1) Dorril,S. MI6. 2000 (263, 362-3, 368-9, 395-9, 464, 476, 707) Epstein,E. Deception. 1989 (33-4, 39-40) Eveland,W.C. Ropes of Sand. 1980 (94-5, 229) Hersh,B. The Old Boys. 1992 Higham,C. American Swastika. 1985 (260) Hitchens,C. Blood, Class, and Nostalgia. 1990 (268, 337) Hunt,L. Secret Agenda. 1991 (132-3) Immerman,R. The CIA in Guatemala. 1982 (139) Intelligence/Parapolitics (Paris) 1987-09 (14-5) Jeffreys-Jones,R. The CIA and American Democracy. 1989 (56, 94) Kahin,A.& G. Subversion as Foreign Policy. 1995 (84-5) Kelly,T. The Imperial Post. 1983 (115-6) Leigh,D. The Wilson Plot. 1988 (16, 31) Loftus,J. Aarons,M. The Secret War Against the Jews. 1994 (222, 231-2, 252) Loftus,J. The Belarus Secret. 1982 Marchetti,V. Marks,J. The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. 1974 (333) Martin,D. Wilderness of Mirrors. 1981 (69) McCoy,A. The Politics of Heroin. 1991 (57, 166-7, 178) NACLA. Guatemala. 1974 (61, 63) NameBase NewsLine 1997-04 (1-2) Payne,R. Dobson,C. Who's Who in Espionage. 1984 (178-9) Petrusenko,V. A Dangerous Game: CIA and the Mass Media. 1977 (36, 38, 42-3) Pisani,S. The CIA and the Marshall Plan. 1991 (25, 30, 64, 71-4, 78-9) Powers,T. The Man Who Kept the Secrets. 1981 (28, 38-9, 91-7, 101, 107, 398) Prados,J. Presidents' Secret Wars. 1988 (33-7, 46, 80-3, 124-5, 144, 218, 283) Prouty,L.F. JFK. 1992 (26-7) Prouty,L.F. The Secret Team. 1973 (366) Quirk,J. Central Intelligence Agency: A Photographic History. 1986 (100) Reese,M. General Reinhard Gehlen: The CIA Connection. 1990 (120-1) Riebling,M. Wedge. 1994 (72, 98-100, 117) Robbins,C. Air America. 1985 (79) Russell,D. The Man Who Knew Too Much. 1992 (130, 682) Saunders,F. The Cultural Cold War. 2000 (35, 40-1, 54, 67-8, 70-2, 85-7, 106, 133, 167-8, 200-3, 304, 426-7) Sayer,I. Botting,D. America's Secret Army. 1989 (336, 341-2, 352-3) Schlesinger,S. Kinzer,S. Bitter Fruit. 1983 (109) Seagrave,S.& P. Gold Warriors. 2003 (101, 106-7) Shoup,L. Minter,W. Imperial Brain Trust. 1977 (196) Shultz,R. The Secret War Against Hanoi. 1999 (129) Simpson,C. Blowback. 1988 (8-9, 42, 90, 100, 103-4, 126, 132-3, 172, 195, 201-2, 266, 288-9) Simpson,C. Science of Coercion. 1996 (39-40, 45, 49) Smith,B. The Shadow Warriors. 1983 (351, 414) Smith,R.H. OSS. 1981 (126, 240, 366) Snepp,F. Decent Interval. 1978 (295-6) Summers,A. The Arrogance of Power. 2000 (132-4) Thomas,E. The Very Best Men. 1996 Trento,J. The Secret History of the CIA. 2001 (26-9, 44-8, 71, 167-9) Vankin,J. Whalen,J. The 60 Greatest Conspiracies. 1998 (68) Volkman,E. Baggett,B. Secret Intelligence. 1989 (89, 103-6) Volkman,E. Warriors of the Night. 1985 (37-9, 45-7) Washington Post Book World 1982-12-19 (1-2) Washington Post 1982-11-08 (A2) Washington Post 1985-02-19 (A7) West,N. Games of Intelligence. 1990 (11) Winks,R. Cloak and Gown. 1987 (54, 139, 396-9) Wise,D. Ross,T. The Espionage Establishment. 1967 (166) Wise,D. Ross,T. The Invisible Government. 1974 (95, 172, 235, 251-2) Wise,D. The Politics of Lying. 1973 (51) Yakovlev,N. CIA Target -- the USSR. 1984 (128-9) Yakovlev,N. Washington Silhouettes. 1985 (104-6, 192)

Frank Wisner was born in Laurel, Mississippi, in 1910. He was educated at Woodberry Forest School in Orange and the University of Virginia. He was a good sprinter and hurdler and in 1936 was asked to compete in the Olympic trials. After graduating Wisner worked as a Wall Street lawyer. However, he got bored and enlisted in the United States Navy six months before Pearl Harbor. He worked in the Navy's censor's office before managing to get a transfer to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In June. 1944, Wisner was sent to Turkey. Two months later he moved on to Romania where his main task was to spy on the activities of the Soviet Union. While in Bucharest he became friendly with King Michael of Romania. Later he became an informal adviser to the royal family. OSS agents penetrated the Romanian Communist Party and Wisner was able to discover that the Soviets intended to take over all of Eastern Europe. Wisner was disappointed by the US government's reaction to this news and he was forced to advise the Romanian royal family to go into exile. Wisner was transferred to the OSS station in Wiesbaden. While in Germany he served under Allen W. Dulles. Wisner also met Arthur Schlesinger, an OSS sergeant serving in Germany. He later claimed that Wisner had become obsessed with the Soviet Union: "He was already mobilizing for the cold war. I myself was no great admirer of the Soviet Union, and I certainly had no expectation of harmonious relations after the war. But Frank was a little excessive, even for me." During the war William Donovan as head of the OSS, had built up a team of 16,000 agents working behind enemy lines. The growth of the OSS brought conflict with John Edgar Hoover who saw it as a rival to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He persuaded President Harry S. Truman that the OSS in peacetime would be an "American Gestapo". As soon as the war ended Truman ordered the OSS to be closed down leaving a small intelligence organization, the Strategic Services Unit (SSU) in the War Department. After leaving the OSS Wisner joined the Wall Street law firm, Carter Ledyard. However, in 1947, he was recruited by Dean Acheson, to work under Charles Saltzman, at the State Department's Office of Occupied Territories. Wisner moved to Washington where he associated with a group of journalists, politicians and government officials that became known as the Georgetown Set. This included Frank Wisner, George Kennan, Dean Acheson, Richard Bissell, Desmond FitzGerald, Joseph Alsop, Stewart Alsop, Tracy Barnes, Thomas Braden, Philip Graham, David Bruce, Clark Clifford, Walt Rostow, Eugene Rostow, Chip Bohlen, Cord Meyer, James Angleton, William Averill Harriman, John McCloy, Felix Frankfurter, John Sherman Cooper, James Reston, Allen W. Dulles and Paul Nitze. Most men brought their wives to these gatherings. Members of what was later called the Georgetown Ladies' Social Club included Katharine Graham, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Sally Reston, Polly Wisner, Joan Braden, Lorraine Cooper, Evangeline Bruce, Avis Bohlen, Janet Barnes, Tish Alsop, Cynthia Helms, Marietta FitzGerald, Phyllis Nitze and Annie Bissell. Wisner remained concerned about the spread of communism and began lobbying for a new intelligence agency. He gained support for this from James Forrestal, the Defense Secretary. With the help of George Kennan, the Office of Special Projects was created in 1948. Wisner was appointed director of the organization. Soon afterwards it was renamed the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). This became the espionage and counter-intelligence branch of the Central Intelligence Agency. Wisner was told to create an organization that concentrated on "propaganda, economic warfare; preventive direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the free world." Later that year Wisner established Operation Mockingbird, a program to influence the American media. Wisner recruited Philip Graham (Washington Post) to run the project within the industry. According to Deborah Davis (Katharine the Great): "By the early 1950s, Wisner 'owned' respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles." After 1953 the network was overseen by Allen W. Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency. By this time Operation Mockingbird had a major influence over 25 newspapers and wire agencies. These organizations were run by people with well-known right-wing views such as William Paley (CBS), Henry Luce (Time Magazine and Life Magazine), Arthur Hays Sulzberger (New York Times), Jerry O'Leary (Washington Star), Barry Bingham Sr., (Louisville Courier-Journal), James Copley (Copley News Services) and Joseph Harrison (Christian Science Monitor). According to Alex Constantine (Mockingbird: The Subversion Of The Free Press By The CIA), in the 1950s, "some 3,000 salaried and contract CIA employees were eventually engaged in propaganda efforts. One of the most important journalists under the control of Operation Mockingbird was Joseph Alsop, whose articles appeared in over 300 different newspapers. Other journalists willing to promote the views of the Central Intelligence Agency included Stewart Alsop (New York Herald Tribune), Ben Bradlee (Newsweek), James Reston (New York Times), Charles Douglas Jackson (Time Magazine), Hal Hendrix (Miami News), Walter Pincus (Washington Post), William C. Baggs (Miami News), Herb Gold (Miami News) and Charles Bartlett (Chattanooga Times). These journalists sometimes wrote articles that were unofficially commissioned by Meyer was based on leaked classified information from the CIA. During this period Wisner worked closely with Kim Philby, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) liaison in Washington. Wisner grew very fond of Philby and was unaware that he was a Soviet spy betraying all his operations to his masters in Moscow. However, he began to get suspicious in 1951 and he asked William Harvey and James Jesus Angleton to investigate Philby. Harvey reported back in June 1951 that he was convinced that Philby was a KGB spy. As a result Philby was forced to leave the United States. The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) was funded by siphoning of funds intended for the Marshall Plan. Some of this money was used to bribe journalists and publishers. Wisner was constantly looked for ways to help convince the public of the dangers of communism. In 1954 Wisner arranged for the funding the Hollywood production of Animal Farm, the animated allegory based on the book written by George Orwell. Another project started by Wisner was called Operation Bloodstone. This secret operation involved recruiting former German officers and diplomats who could be used in the covert war against the Soviet Union. This included former members of the Nazi Party such as Gustav Hilger and Hans von Bittenfield. Later, John Loftus, a prosecutor with the Office of Special Investigations at the U.S. Justice Department, accused Wisner of methodically recruiting Nazi war criminals. As one of the agents involved in Operation Bloodstone, Harry Rositzke, pointed out, Wisner was willing to use anyone "as long as he was anti-communist". Wisner began having trouble with J. Edgar Hoover. He described the OPC as "Wisner's gang of weirdos" and began carrying out investigations into their past. It did not take him long to discover that some of them had been active in left-wing politics in the 1930s. This information was passed to Joseph McCarthy who started making attacks on members of the OPC. Hoover also passed to McCarthy details of an affair that Wisner had with Princess Caradja in Romania during the war. Hoover, claimed that Caradja was a Soviet agent. In August, 1952, the Office of Policy Coordination and the Office of Special Operations (the espionage division) were merged to form the Directorate of Plans (DPP). Wisner became head of this new organization and Richard Helms became his chief of operations. The DPP now accounted for three quarters of the CIA budget and 60% of its personnel. At this time Wisner began plotting the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. He had upset the US government by nationalizing Iran's oil industry. Mossadegh also abolished Iran's feudal agriculture sector and replaced with a system of collective farming and government land ownership. On April 4, 1953, Wisner persuaded Allen W. Dulles to approve $1 million to be used "in any way that would bring about the fall of Mossadegh." Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, was put in charge of what became known as Operation Ajax. According to Donald N. Wilber, who was involved in this CIA plot to remove Mossadegh from power, in early August, 1953, Iranian CIA operatives, pretending to be socialists, threatened Muslim leaders with "savage punishment if they opposed Mossadegh," thereby giving the impression that Mossadegh was cracking down on dissent. This resulted in the religious community turning against Mossadegh. Iranians took to the streets against Mossadegh. Funded with money from the CIA and MI6, the pro-monarchy forces quickly gained the upper hand. The military now joined the opposition and Mossadegh was arrested on August 19, 1953. President Dwight Eisenhower was delighted with this result and asked Wisner to arrange for Kermit Roosevelt to give him a personal briefing on Operation Ajax. Wisner's other great success was the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz. He had been elected as President of Guatemala in March, 1951. Arbenz began to tackle Guatemala's unequal land distribution. He said that the country needed "an agrarian reform which puts an end to the latifundios and the semi-feudal practices, giving the land to thousands of peasants, raising their purchasing power and creating a great internal market favorable to the development of domestic industry." In March 1953, 209,842 acres of United Fruit Company's uncultivated land was taken by the government which offered compensation of $525,000. The company wanted $16 million for the land. While the Guatemalan government valued $2.99 per acre, the American government valued it at $75 per acre. United Fruit main shareholder, Samuel Zemurray, United Fruit Company's largest shareholder, organized an anti-Arbenz campaign in the American media. This included the claim that Guatemala was the beginning of "Soviet expansion in the Americas". The Central Intelligence Agency decided that Arbenz had to be removed from power. Wisner, as head of the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), took overall responsibility for the operation. Also involved was Richard Bissell, head of the Directorate for Plans, an organization instructed to conduct covert anti-Communist operations around the world. The plot against Arbenz therefore became part of Executive Action (a plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power). Jake Esterline was placed in charge of the CIA's Washington task force in the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. Tracy Barnes was field commander of what became known as Operation Success. David Atlee Phillips was appointed to run the propaganda campaign against Arbenz's government. According to Phillips he initially questioned the right of the CIA to interfere in Guatemala: In his autobiography Phillips claims he said to Barnes: "But Arbenz became President in a free election. What right do we have to help someone topple his government and throw him out of office?" However, Barnes convinced him that it was vital important that the Soviets did not establish a "beachhead in Central America". The CIA propaganda campaign included the distribution of 100,000 copies of a pamphlet entitled Chronology of Communism in Guatemala. They also produced three films on Guatemala for showing free in cinemas. Phillips, along with E. Howard Hunt, was responsible for running the CIA's Voice of Liberation radio station. Faked photographs were distributed that claimed to show the mutilated bodies of opponents of Arbenz. William (Rip) Robertson was also involved in the campaign against Arbenz. The CIA began providing financial and logistic support for Colonel Carlos Castillo. With the help of resident Anastasio Somoza, Castillo had formed a rebel army in Nicaragua. It has been estimated that between January and June, 1954, the CIA spent about $20 million on Castillo's army. The Guatemalan Foreign Minister, Guillermo Toriello, asked the United Nations for help against the covert activities of the United States. Toriello accused the United States government of categorizing "as communism every manifestation of nationalism or economic independence, any desire for social progress, any intellectual curiosity, and any interest in progressive liberal reforms." President Dwight Eisenhower responded by claiming that Guatemala had a "communist dictatorship.. had established... an outpost on this continent to the detriment of all the American nations". Secretary of State John Foster Dulles added that the Guatemala people were living under a "communist type of terrorism". On 18th June, 1954, aircraft dropped leaflets over Guatemala demanding that Arbenz resign immediately or else the county would be bombed. CIA's Voice of Liberation also put out similar radio broadcasts. This was followed by a week of bombing ports, ammunition dumps, military barracks and the international airport. Guillermo Toriello appealed to the United Nations to help protect Guatemalan government. Henry Cabot Lodge tried to block the Security Council from discussing a resolution to send an investigation team to Guatemala. When this failed he put pressure on Security Council members to vote against the resolution. Britain and France were both initially in favour but eventually buckled under United States pressure and agreed to abstain. As a result the resolution was defeated by 5 votes to 4. The UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold was so upset by the actions of the USA that he considered resigning from his post. Carlos Castillo's collection of soldiers now crossed the Honduran-Guatemalan border. His army was outnumbered by the Guatemalan Army. However, the CIA Voice of Liberation successfully convinced Arbenz's supporters that two large and heavily armed columns of invaders were moving towards Guatemala City. The CIA was also busy bribing Arbenz's military commanders. It was later discovered that one commander accepted $60,000 to surrender his troops. Ernesto Guevara attempted to organize some civil militias but senior army officers blocked the distribution of weapons. Arbenz now believed he stood little chance of preventing Castillo gaining power. Accepting that further resistance would only bring more deaths he announced his resignation over the radio. Castillo's new government was immediately recognised by President Dwight Eisenhower. Castillo now reversed the Arbenz reforms. In July 19, 1954, he created the National Committee of Defense Against Communism and decreed the Preventive Penal Law Against Communism to fight against those who supported Arbenz when he was in power. Over the next few weeks thousands were arrested on suspicion of communist activity. A large number of these prisoners were tortured or killed. The removal of Jacobo Arbenz resulted in several decades of repression. Later, several of the people involved in Operation Success, including Richard Bissell and Tracy Barnes, regretted the outcome of the Guatemala Coup. Wisner managed to get a copy of the speech that Nikita Khrushchev made at the 20th Party Congress in February, 1956, where Khrushchev launched an attack on the rule of Joseph Stalin. He condemned the Great Purge and accused Stalin of abusing his power. He announced a change in policy and gave orders for the Soviet Union's political prisoners to be released. Wisner leaked details of the speech to the New York Times who published it on 2nd June, 1956. Khrushchev's de-Stalinzation policy encouraged people living in Eastern Europe to believe that he was willing to give them more independence from the Soviet Union. Over the next few weeks riots took place in Poland and East Germany. In Hungary the prime minister Imre Nagy removed state control of the mass media and encouraged public discussion on political and economic reform. Nagy also released anti-communists from prison and talked about holding free elections and withdrawing Hungary from the Warsaw Pact. Khrushchev became increasingly concerned about these developments and on 4th November 1956 he sent the Red Army into Hungary. Wisner expected the United States would help the Hungarians. As Thomas Polgar later pointed out: "Sure, we never said rise up and revolt, but there was a lot of propaganda that led the Hungarians to believe that we would help." Wisner, who had been involved in creating this propaganda, told friends that he felt the American government had let Hungary down. He pointed out that they had spent a great deal of money on Radio Free Europe "to get these people to revolt". Wisner added that he felt personally betrayed by this behaviour. During the Hungarian Uprising an estimated 20,000 people were killed. Wisner told Clare Boothe Luce, the American ambassador in Italy: "All these people are getting killed and we weren't doing anything, we were ignoring it." In December, 1956, Wisner had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed as suffering from manic depression. During his absence Wisner's job was covered by his chief of operations, Richard Helms. Wisner's friends believed the illness was triggered by the failure of the Hungarian Uprising. A close friend, Avis Bohlen said he "was so depressed about how the world was going... he felt we were losing the Cold War." The CIA sent Wisner to the Sheppard-Pratt Institute, a psychiatric hospital near Baltimore. He was prescribed psychoanalysis and shock therapy (electroconvulsive treatment). It was not successful and still suffering from depression, he was released from hospital in 1958. Wisner was too ill to return to his post as head of the DDP. Allen W. Dulles therefore sent him to London to be CIA chief of station in England. Dulles decided that Richard Bissell rather than Richard Helms should become the new head of the DPP. Wisner arrived in England in September, 1959. His work involved planning a coup in Guyana, a country that had a left-wing government. In April 1962 Richard Helms recalled Wisner to Washington. Four months later he agreed to retire from the CIA. Frank Wisner killed himself with one of his son's shotguns on 29th October, 1965. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwisner.htm

Frank Wisner's son has joined the Forum. He has pointed out that the photograph below that appears in C. David Heymann's book, The Georgetown Ladies Social Club, is not of his father. Does anyone know who he is?

A new vocational GCSE history course is beginning in September 2006. It includes a compulsory unit on medieval history and a list of options including one entitled “Heritage management and marketing”. How does a subject become vocational by including units like this? Anyone thinking of doing the course?

Olaudah Equiano is one of our best primary sources on early life in Africa and the slave trade. Chinua Achebe called him “the father of African literature”. Another critic has described him as being the “founding father of the Afro-American literary tradition”. Equiano’s importance concerns his autobiography. It includes a detailed account of his birth and childhood in Nigeria. His account of crossing the Atlantic on a slave ship is used by virtually every one who teaches the subject in the classroom. However, recent research by the historian, Vincent Carretta (Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man) has established that Equiano was actually born in Carolina on 9th February, 1759. It is now believed that his account of his early life in Africa and his journey on a slave ship is pure fiction. That it is a work of propaganda (Equiano was active in the abolition movement). However, Carretta, claims that Equiano’s autobiography is “a monumental 18th century text, a unique mixture of travel-writing, sea lore, sermon, economic tract and fiction.” Does this mean that Equiano's writings should be used in the same ways as in the past? Is it a primary or secondary source (it is based on interviews with people who did live in Africa and did endure the slave trade)?

Are you looking for links or new work? I have a lot of source material on my website on black history. Hopefully, one day I will find the time to produce some teaching materials to go with it. I would especially like to do some work on Olaudah Equiano. He is one of our best primary sources on early life in Africa and the slave trade. Chinua Achebe called him “the father of African literature”. Another critic has described him as being the “founding father of the Afro-American literary tradition”. Equiano’s importance concerns his autobiography. It includes a detailed account of his birth and childhood in Nigeria. His account of crossing the Atlantic on a slave ship is used by virtually every one who teaches the subject in the classroom. However, recent research by the historian, Vincent Carretta (Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man) has established that Equiano was actually born in Carolina on 9th February, 1759. It is now believed that his account of his early life in Africa and his journey on a slave ship is pure fiction. That it is a work of propaganda (Equiano was active in the abolition movement). However, Carretta, claims that Equiano’s autobiography is “a monumental 18th century text, a unique mixture of travel-writing, sea lore, sermon, economic tract and fiction.”

The current White Paper is also being discussed here: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5205

I first began teaching in 1977. It is my view that for the next eight years or so we saw a significant improvement in academic standards. This was mainly due to comprehensive education. During this period I taught in a true comprehensive school that included mixed ability teaching groups. Some of our best students would have failed their 11+. However, our mixed ability system enabled us to build up their confidence and by the time they reached the age of 18 they were ready for a university education. Around the mid 1980s I saw a change in direction. This was partly the result of changes in culture. Even the brightest students began to find it more and more difficult to find the time to read books. This was partly due to technological changes. There were now more demands on their time with the availability of computer games, televisions and videos in their bedrooms, etc. However, I think teachers were also partly to blame for this. We accepted defeat on book reading far too easily. I also began to observe a decline in their ability to express themselves orally. This had always been a problem for students from certain types of background. By the mid 1980s it was becoming a problem from middle class students. One of the major factors in this was a change in eating habits. My questioning revealed that it was extremely unusual for my students to eat evening meals with their parents. Instead they tended to have their meals on trays in their bedroom (usually while watching television – and it was not the news they were watching). Research has shown that for the child, talking with their parents plays a vital role in their intellectual development (the first five years are the most important). It seemed that the pressure of time had made it more and more difficult for parents to spend time talking with their children. I believe this has had a dramatic impact on student’s language skills. This is most obvious during conversations with students. However, it can also be seen in their written work. Despite what I have said, official statistics show that there has been a substantial improvement in student achievement since the mid 1980s. This can be seen by looking at exam results, SAT test scores, etc. Are these statistics reliable? Have teachers joined forces with the examination boards, government agencies, etc. to fiddle the results? I believe they have. In fact, given the situation they found themselves in, this is not surprising. The main reason for this is the introduction of league tables and the increased power of government inspectors. If teachers do not take part in this scam, they face the prospect of having their school closed down. The teachers’ role in this conspiracy has been to concentrate their teaching on helping the students pass the test. Therefore, the emphasis of what goes on in the classroom has changed. It has become less about education but more about exam grades. Most of us have become very good at it. We have been helped by those who set the exams. It is in the interests of examination boards to make it as easy as possible for their candidates to get high grades. If they don’t do this, schools will arrange for their candidates to transfer to another examination board. I know of several chief examiners who have come under pressure to make it easier for students to get higher grades. Others have commented on this after they have retired from the job. When these stories appear in the media, government ministers and officials from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority are quick to say that people saying such things are attempted to undermine the success of teachers and students. But what about the devaluing of student achievement in the 1970s? For example, I believe that ‘A’ level students I taught in the 1970s who got Ds would have got Bs if they took the exam in the 1990s. As a result of this grade inflation, students are getting to university who are completely incapable of this level of work. Many drop out but some keep at it and eventually acquire a degree. This is I suspect another example of falling standards. Most of this evidence is anecdotal. However, research published by Michael Shayer at the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) seem to suggest that these observations are indeed correct. In 1976 a group of academics began measuring student intellectual abilities. These tests on 10,000 children were designed to “assess a child’s exact ability on the Piagetian scale.” These assessments have been carried out on regular intervals over the last 30 years. Shayer’s research shows that children in Year 7 (11-12 year olds) are now on average two or three years behind where they were 15 years ago. In other words, there is a marked decline in a children’s developmental skills. The fall in ability is more marked in boys but girls have followed the same trend. The research team have looked at their stats and compared them with other forms of school testing. Shayer concludes that there is considerable evidence of teachers teaching to the tests. This has improved test results. However, all this tells us is that students can perform well in tests without understanding the underlying concepts. This is supported by Paul Black’s research at King’s College. He has studied the academic performance of children all over the world. He argues that when the “stakes are high, teachers teach to the test”. He gives the example of the US, where every state is above the national average in its test scores. He points out that we need to ask what the tests test. “Do they measure what’s important or what doesn’t matter?”

Let us go back to the original thread. As we know, you were an active member of the right-wing group, Young Americans for Freedom (YOF). The founder of this organization has recently joined the Forum. You will find several contributions from him here: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5892 Over the years Doug has moved to the left because of the corrupt activities of the Republican Party. He has been especially concerned about the way that Republican politicians have worked with the CIA to undermine and remove progressive leaders in the Third World. When you read about what Republican presidents have done in countries like Guatemala and Chile, don't you begin to have doubts about the way that right-wingers have used the cover of anti-communism to act on behalf of corrupt corporations like United Fruit and ITT? http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5945

Several researchers have pointed out that there could be a connection with the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954 and the assassination of JFK. It is true that many of the CIA suspects in the death of JFK were also involved in the overthrow of Arbenz: David Atlee Philips, E. Howard Hunt, David Morales, Rip Robertson, Richard Bissell, Tracy Barnes, Allen Dulles and Henry Hecksher. There is also another connection. The operation was organized by Tommy Corcoran, William Pawley and Whiting Willauer on behalf of the United Fruit Company. The same company was also very keen to overthrow Castro in Cuba. It is therefore not surprising that the same CIA operatives were called in to remove Castro. Is it possible that when the CIA failed to come up with the goods, the United Fruit Company and others suffering from Castro’s new regime, came up with another plan to solve their problems? In 1949 Sam Zemurray asked Corcoran to join the United Fruit Company as a lobbyist and special counsel. (1) Zemurray had problems with his business in Guatemala. In the 1930s Zemurray aligned United Fruit closely with the government of President Jorge Ubico. The company received import duty and real estate tax exemptions from Ubico. He also gave them hundreds of square miles of land. United Fruit controlled more land than any other individual or group. It also owned the railway, the electric utilities, telegraph, and the country's only port at Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic coast. Ubico was overthrown in 1944 and following democratic elections, Juan Jose Arevalo became the new president. Arevalo, a university professor who had been living in exile, described himself as a "spiritual socialist". He implemented sweeping reforms by passing new laws that gave workers the right to form unions. This included the 40,000 Guatemalans who worked for United Fruit. Zemurray feared that Arevalo would also nationalize the land owned by United Fruit in Guatemala. He asked Corcoran to express his fears to senior political figures in Washington. Corcoran began talks with key people in the government agencies and departments that shaped U.S. policy in Central America. He argued that the U.S. should use United Fruit as an American beachhead against communism in the region. In 1950 a committee headed by Frank M. Buchanan, began investigating lobbying activities. Buchanan reported that “In the 1870’s and 1880’s, lobbying meant direct, individual solicitation of legislators, with a strong presumption of corruption attached.” (2) According to Buchanan, the “business of influencing legislation is a billion dollar business.” However, he added that lobbying had undergone a transformation that made it very difficult to show that corruption had taken place. (3) Tommy Corcoran also remained a paid lobbyist for Sam Zemurray and the United Fruit Company. Zemurray became concerned that Captain Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, one of the heroes of the 1944 revolution, would be elected as the new president of Guatemala. In the spring of 1950, Tommy Corcoran went to see Thomas C. Mann, the director of the State Department’s Office of Inter-American Affairs. Corcoran asked Mann if he had any plans to prevent Arbenz from being elected. Mann replied: “That is for the people of that country to decide.” Unhappy with this reply, Corcoran paid a call on the Allen Dulles, the deputy director of the CIA. Dulles, who represented United Fruit in the 1930s, was far more interested in Corcoran’s ideas. “During their meeting Dulles explained to Corcoran that while the CIA was sympathetic to United Fruit, he could not authorize any assistance without the support of the State Department. Dulles assured Corcoran, however, that whoever was elected as the next president of Guatemala would not be allowed to nationalize the operations of United Fruit.” (4) In November, 1950, Arbenz received more than 60 per cent of the popular vote. Corcoran then recruited Robert La Follette to work for United Fruit. Corcoran arranged for La Follette to lobby liberal members of Congress. The message was that Arbenz was not a liberal but a dangerous left-wing radical. (5) This strategy was successful and Congress was duly alarmed when on 17th June, 1952, Arbenz announced a new Agrarian Reform program. This included expropriating idle land on government and private estates and redistributed to peasants in lots of 8 to 33 acres. The Agrarian Reform program managed to give 1.5 million acres to around 100,000 families for which the government paid $8,345,545 in bonds. Among the expropriated landowners was Arbenz himself, who had become into a landowner with the dowry of his wealthy wife. Around 46 farms were given to groups of peasants who organized themselves in cooperatives. (6) Corcoran contacted President Anastasio Somoza and warned him that the Guatemalan revolution might spread to Nicaragua. (7) Somoza now made representations to Harry S. Truman about what was happening in Guatemala. After discussions with Walter Bedell Smith, director of the CIA, a secret plan to overthrow Arbenz (Operation Fortune) was developed. (8) Part of this plan involved Tommy Corcoran arranging for small arms and ammunition to be loaded on a United Fruit freighter and shipped to Guatemala, where the weapons would be distributed to dissidents. When the Secretary of State Dean Acheson discovered details of Operation Fortune, he had a meeting with Truman where he vigorously protested about the involvement of United Fruit and the CIA in the attempted overthrow of the democratically elected President Arbenz. As a result of Acheson’s protests, Truman ordered the postponement of Operation Fortune. In February 1953, 209,842 acres of United Fruit Company's uncultivated land was taken by the government which offered compensation of $525,000. Later the figure was increased to over a million dollars. As David McKean has pointed out: This figure was “in line with the company’s own valuation of the property, at least for tax purposes” (9). However, the company wanted $16 million for the land. While the Guatemalan government valued it at $2.99 per acre, the company now valued it at $75 per acre. Samuel Zemurray, United Fruit Company's largest shareholder, ordered Corcoran to organize an anti-Arbenz campaign in the American media. This included the claim that Guatemala was the beginning of "Soviet expansion in the Americas". Tommy Corcoran’s work was made easier by the election of Dwight Eisenhower in November, 1952. Eisenhower’s personal secretary was Anne Whitman, the wife of Edmund Whitman, United Fruit’s public relations director. (10) Eisenhower appointed John Peurifoy as ambassador to Guatemala. He soon made it clear that he believed that the Arbenz government posed a threat to the America’s campaign against communism. Corcoran also arranged for Whiting Willauer, his friend and partner in Civil Air Transport, to become U. S. ambassador to Honduras. As Willauer pointed out in a letter to Claire Chennault, he worked day and night to arrange training sites and instructors plus air crews for the rebel air force, and to keep the Honduran government “in line so they would allow the revolutionary activity to continue.” (11) Eisenhower also replaced Dean Acheson with John Foster Dulles. His brother, Allen Dulles became director of the CIA. The Dulles brothers “had sat on the board of United Fruit’s partner in the banana monopoly, the Schroder Banking Corporation” whereas “U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge was a stockholder and had been a strong defender of United Fruit while a U.S. senator.” (12) Walter Bedell Smith was moved to the State Department. Smith told Corcoran he would do all he could to help in the overthrow of Arbenz. He added that he would like to work for United Fruit once he retired from government office. (13) This request was granted and Bedell Smith was later to become a director of United Fruit. According to John Prados, Corcoran’s meeting with “Undersecretary of State Walter Bedell Smith that summer and that conversation is recalled by CIA officers as the clear starting point of that plan.” (14) Evan Thomas has added that: “With his usual energy and skill, Corcoran beseeched the U. S. government to overthrow Arbenz”. (15) The new CIA plan to overthrow Arbenz was called “Operation Success”. Allen Dulles became the executive agent and arranged for Tracey Barnes and Richard Bissell to plan and execute the operation. Bissell later claimed that he had been aware of the problem since reading a document published by the State Department that claimed: “The communists already exercise in Guatemala a political influence far out of proportion to their small numerical strength. This influence will probably continue to grow during 1952. The political situation in Guatemala adversely effects U. S. interests and constitutes a potential threat to U.S. security.” (16) Bissell does not point out that the source of this information was Tommy Corcoran and the United Fruit Company. John Prados argues that it was Barnes and Bissell who “coordinated the Washington end of the planning and logistics for the Guatemala operation.” As Deputy Director for Plans, it was Frank Wisner’s responsibility to select the field commander for Operation Success. Kim Roosevelt was first choice but he turned it down and instead the job went to Albert Hanley, the CIA station Chief in Korea. (17) Hanley was told to report to Joseph Caldwell King, director of the CIA’s Western Hemisphere Division. King had previously worked for the FBI where he had responsibility for all intelligence operations in Latin America. King suggested Hanley meet Tommy Corcoran. Hanley did not like the idea. King replied: “If you think you can run this operation without United Fruit you’re crazy.” (18) Although Hanley refused to work with Corcoran, Allen Dulles kept him fully informed of the latest developments in planning the overthrow of Arbenz. Tracey Barnes brought in David Attlee Phillips to run a “black” propaganda radio station. According to Phillips, he was reluctant to take part in the overthrow of a democratically elected president. Barnes replied: “It’s not a question of Arbenz. Nor of Guatemala. We have solid intelligence that the Soviets intended to throw substantial support to Arbenz… Guatemala is bordered by Honduras, British Honduras, Salvador and Mexico. It’s unacceptable to have a Commie running Guatemala.” (19) Barnes also appointed E. Howard Hunt as chief of political action. In his autobiography, Undercover, Hunt claims that “Barnes swore me to special secrecy and revealed that the National Security Council under Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon had ordered the overthrow of Guatemala’s Communist regime.” Hunt was not convinced by this explanation. He pointed out that 18 months previously he had suggested to the director of the CIA that Arbenz needed to be dealt with. However, the idea had been rejected. Hunt was now told that: “Washington lawyer Thomas G. Corcoran had, among his clients, the United Fruit Company. United Fruit, like many American corporations in Guatemala had watched with growing dismay nationalization, confiscation and other strong measures affecting their foreign holdings. Finally a land-reform edict issued by Arbenz proved the final straw, and Tommy the Cork had begun lobbying in behalf of United Fruit and against Arbenz. Following this special impetus our project had been approved by the National Security Council and was already under way.” (20) Albert Hanley brought in William (Rip) Robertson to take charge of the paramilitary side of the operation. Robertson had been Hanley’s deputy in Korea and had “enjoyed going along on the behind-the-lines missions with the CIA guerrillas, in violation of standing orders from Washington.” (21) One of those who worked with Robertson in Operation Success was David Morales. (22) Also in the team was Henry Hecksher, who operated under cover in Guatemala to supply front-line reports. John Foster Dulles decided that he “needed a civilian adviser to the State Department team to help expediate Operation Success. Dulles chose a friend of Corcoran’s, William Pawley, a Miami-based millionaire”. David McKean goes on to point out that Pawley had worked with Corcoran, Chennault and Willauer in helping to set up the Flying Tigers and in transforming Civil Air Transport into a CIA airline. McKean adds that his most important qualification for the job was his “long association with right-wing Latin America dictators.” (23) The rebel “liberation army” was formed and trained in Nicaragua. This was not a problem as President Anastasio Somoza and been warning the United States government since 1952 that that the Guatemalan revolution might spread to Nicaragua. The rebel army of 150 men were trained by Rip Robertson. Their commander was a disaffected Guatemalan army officer, Carlos Castillo Armas. It was clear that a 150 man army was unlikely to be able to overthrow the Guatemalan government. Tracy Barnes believed that if the rebels could gain control of the skies and bomb Guatemala City, they could create panic and Arbenz might be fooled into accepting defeat. (24) According to Richard Bissell, Somoza was willing to provide cover for this covert operation. However, this was on the understanding that these aircraft would be provided by the United States. (25) Eisenhower agreed to supply Somoza with a “small pirate air force to bomb Arbenz into submission”. To fly these planes, the CIA recruited American mercenaries like Jerry DeLarm. (26) Before the bombing of Guatemala City, the rebel army was moved to Honduras where Tommy Corcoran’s business partner, Whiting Willauer, was ambassador. The plan was for them to pretend to be the “vanguard of a much larger army seeking to liberate their homeland from the Marxists”. (27) Arbenz became aware of this CIA plot to overthrow him. Guatemalan police made several arrests. In his memoirs, Eisenhower described these arrests as a “reign of terror” and falsely claimed that “agents of international Communism in Guatemala continued their efforts to penetrate and subvert their neighboring Central American states, using consular agents for their political purposes and fomenting political assassinations and strikes.” (28) Sydney Gruson of the New York Times began to investigate this story. Journalists working for Time Magazine also tried to write about these attempts to destabilize Arbenz’s government. Frank Wisner, head of Operation Mockingbird, asked Allen Dulles to make sure that the American public never discovered the plot to overthrow Arbenz. Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the publisher of the New York Times, agreed to stop Gruson from writing the story. Henry Luce was also willing to arrange for the Time Magazine reports to be rewritten at the editorial offices in New York. (29) The CIA propaganda campaign included the distribution of 100,000 copies of a pamphlet entitled Chronology of Communism in Guatemala. They also produced three films on Guatemala for showing free in cinemas. Faked photographs were distributed that claimed to show the mutilated bodies of opponents of Arbenz. David Atlee Phillips and E. Howard Hunt were responsible for running the CIA's Voice of Liberation radio station. Broadcasts began on 1st May, 1954. They also arranged for the distribution of posters and pamphlets. Over 200 articles based on information provided by the CIA were placed in newspapers and magazines by the United States Information Agency. (30) The Voice of Liberation reported massive defections from Arbenz’s army. According to David Atlee Phillips the radio station “broadcast that two columns of rebel soldiers were converging on Guatemala City. In fact, Castillo Armas and his makeshift army were still encamped six miles inside the border, far from the capital.” As Phillips later admitted, the “highways were crowded, but with frightened citizens fleeing Guatemala City and not with soldiers approaching it.” (31) As E. Howard Hunt pointed out, “our powerful transmitter overrode the Guatemalan national radio, broadcasting messages to confuse and divide the population from its military overlords.” (32) There was no popular uprising. On 20th June, the CIA reported to Eisenhower that Castillo Armas had not been able to take his assigned objective, Zacapa. His seaborne force had also failed to capture Puerto Barrios. According to John Prados, it all now depended on “Whiting Willauer’s rebel air force”. (33) However, that was not going to plan and on 27th June, Winston Churchill, the British prime minister berated Eisenhower when a CIA plane sank a British merchant vessel heading for Guatemala. The bombing had been ordered by Rip Robertson without first gaining permission from the CIA or Eisenhower. Robertson had been convinced that the Springfjord was a “Czech arms carrying freighter” (34). In reality it had been carrying only coffee and cotton. Frank Wisner had to make a personal apology for the incident and the CIA later quietly reimbursed Lloyd’s of London, insurers of the Springfjord, the $1.5 million they had paid out on the ship. (35) Arbenz had been convinced by the Voice of Liberation reports that his army was deserting. Richard Bissell believes that this is when Arbenz made his main mistake. Arbenz decided to distribute weapons to the “people’s organizations and the political parties”. As Bissell later explained: “The conservative men who constituted the leadership of Guatemala’s army viewed this action as the final unacceptable leftward lurch, and they told Arbenz they would no longer support him. He resigned and fled to Mexico.” (36) The American media continued to provide cover for its role in overthrowing Arbenz. Newsweek claimed: “The United States, aside from whatever gumshoe work the Central Intelligence Agency may or may not have been busy with, had kept strictly hands off.” The New York Times reported that the United States had only supplied “moral support” to Armas just as the Soviet Union had provided “moral support” to Arbenz. (37) However, one story did get out. The New York Journal-American reported that "one of the most hush, hush stories of the year has finally leaked. Tommy the Cork... has for some time been employed on a huge retainer by the United Fruit Company to look after their interests." (38) Once in power, Castillo Armas cancelled Arbenz’s land and tax reforms, gave United Fruit back its holdings, restored the secret police, introduced rigid censorship, tortured political opponents and imposed a military dictatorship. In later years, Tracy Barnes, Frank Wisner and Richard Bissell would regret the outcome of the Guatemala coup. Bissell pointed out that using covert action to overthrow a government was only half the story: “ultimate success depends on how your people (in this case, Castillo Armas and his successors) run the country and how to make it a productive society.” (39) David Atlee Phillips claimed that after the removal of Arbenz he was invited along to a meeting with Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon at the White House. Allen Dulles, Albert Hanley and Rip Robertson also attended the de-briefing. According to Phillips, at the end of the meeting Eisenhower said: “Thanks Allen, and thanks to you all. You’ve averted a Soviet beachhead in our hemisphere.” (40) Joseph Trento argues in The Secret History of the CIA, that the overthrow of Arbenz was so successful that it became the “template for future covert operations”. (41) The operation was to have some undesirable long-term effects. As I. F. Stone pointed out in an article written several years later: “We helped overthrow the Arbenz government in 1954 and then looked on complacently as its successors undid the Arbenz reforms, reforms we claim to favour. Arbenz enacted a moderate income tax in 1954, it was soon afterwards abolished by Castillo Armas, the Agrarian reform was halted and most of the land expropriated under the Arbenz regime was returned to the land-owners. Is it any wonder that Castro is a hero in Latin America, and that we appear to be the main obstacle to aspirations for a more decent life below the border? Yankee imperialism, to our shame, is not just a propaganda slogan in Central America.” (42) Notes 1. David McKean, Peddling Influence, 2004 (page 214) 2. David McKean, Peddling Influence, 2004 (page 209) 3. A full account of the history of lobbying since 1870 can be found in Jeffrey H. Birnbaum’s book, The Lobbyists, 1992. 4. David McKean, Peddling Influence, 2004 (page 220) 5. David McKean, Peddling Influence, 2004 (page 221) 6. John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations, 1986 (page 98) 7. David McKean, Peddling Influence, 2004 (page 221) 8. John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations, 1986 (page 99) 9. David McKean, Peddling Influence, 2004 (page 221) 10. Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA, 1995 (page 110) 11. Stephen Schlesinger & Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit, 1982 (page 140) 12. Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA, 1995 (page 110) 13. David McKean, Peddling Influence, 2004 (page 222) 14. John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations, 1986 (page 99) 15. Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA, 1995 (page 110) 16. Richard M. Bissell, Reflections of a Cold War Warrior, 1996 (page 81) 17. John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations, 1986 (pages 99-100) 18. Stephen Schlesinger & Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit, 1982 (page 110) 19. David Atlee Phillips, The Night Watch, 1977 (pages 42-43) 20. E. Howard Hunt, Undercover, 1974 (pages 96-97) 21. John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations, 1986 (page 101) 22. Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked, 2003 (page 5) 23. David McKean, Peddling Influence, 2004 (page 223) 24. Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA, 1995 (page 113) 25. Richard M. Bissell, Reflections of a Cold War Warrior, 1996 (page 87) 26. Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA, 1995 (page 113) 27. John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations, 1986 (page 101) 28. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mandate for Change: The White House Years, 1965 (page 493) 29. Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA, 1995 (page 117) 30. John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations, 1986 (page 104) 31. David Atlee Phillips, The Night Watch, 1977 (page 60) 32. E. Howard Hunt, Undercover, 1974 (page 100) 33. John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations, 1986 (page 88) 34. E. Howard Hunt, Undercover, 1974 (page 100) 35. John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations, 1986 (page 88) 36. Richard M. Bissell, Reflections of a Cold War Warrior, 1996 (page 88) 37. Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA, 1995 (page 123) 38. David McKean, Peddling Influence, 2004 (page 227) 39. Richard M. Bissell, Reflections of a Cold War Warrior, 1996 (page 90) 40. David Atlee Phillips, The Night Watch, 1977 (pages 63-64) 41. Joseph Trento, The Secret History of the CIA, 2001 (page 168) 42. I. F. Stone, I. F. Stone Weekly, 21st November, 1960

What is your opinion of William F. Buckley?

How would Sven know anyway?? He's England coach he doesn't deal in transfers and has no backhanders to give As Harry Harris pointed out on television on Sunday, Sven was told by the same people who told him and other journalists. That is other managers and club chairman. The point is that it is almost impossible to obtain evidence of managers and chief executives taking bungs. The only one convicted so far was based on a confession by George Graham. The FA need to make it illegal for managers to be offered bribes from agents. Then you would get some convictions. My judgements are based on the transfer activities of the managers above. It is generally believed that Harry got the sack from West Ham for this reason. The employing of sons as agents (West Ham and Manchester United) is also a clue.

http://www.ahora.cu/english/SECTIONS/speci...o/23-01-06b.htm Cuba Offers Free Eye-Surgery for 150,000 US Patients Ahora.cu / 23-01-2006 Cuban President Fidel Castro offered free eye-surgery for 150,000 poor US citizens including air transportation and their accommodations on the island. President Castro made the announcement during a TV appearance on Sunday, which is part of a series of live appearances in which the Cuban leader provided details on the energy revolution underway in Cuba, an initiative he says will save one billion dollars annually. He said the eye patients could travel to Florida from where they would be brought to Cuba by plane. President Castro said he took on the offer of free eye-surgery for 100,000 US people made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a recent visit to New York. Fidel said he decided to add another 50,000 and ask the US organization Pastors for Peace to choose poor people from any religion, political trend or that simply need the treatment. The Cuban leader said that by practicing 500 daily eye surgeries all those 150,000 US citizens can receive the benefit of recovering their sight in just a 300-day period. Cuba has all the equipment and specialized personnel considered among the best specialists in the world, said Fidel. He asked if the US government would prohibit those people from traveling to the island and sentence them to blindness. Fidel Castro said such eye-operations by no means bring any financial benefit to the Cuban government and he recalled that Florida is closer to Cuba than countries like Guyana or Grenada, also benefiting from the Operation Miracle eye-surgery program. He recalled that tens of thousands of people from 22 South and Central American nations have been benefited by Cuban health services. "Will the United States fine those sick US citizens for coming to Cuba for eye surgery?," Fidel asked in direct reference to the arbitrary fines imposed by the Bush administration on US citizens that have traveled to Cuba. In that respect he recalled that during November the US Treasury sent letters to some 200 members of the Venceremos Brigade and to Pastors for Peace requesting information on their latest trips to Cuba, as an initial step that could lead to the imposition of heavy fines. Thousands of other US citizens have been threatened with huge fines if they violate Washington's travel ban, said Fidel Castro. The Cuban leader then went on to denounce ongoing US maneuvers to release terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, author of the 1976 bombing of a Cubana airliner that claimed 73 innocent lives. Posada, 77, is only charged with illegal entry to US territory and he could be released following a hearing slated for January 24 in El Paso, Texas, where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office will revise his status in the US. Posada Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, is wanted in Caracas to stand trial in the plane bombing, but the US government has ignored its longstanding extradition treaty with the South American country. In his speech, Fidel described as a strange coincidence the recent exhibition of a German documentary that tries to accuse Cuba for the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy. He called the film a total fabrication of the CIA. He also referred to other aggressions mounted by the Bush administration gainst the island, including a committee for the so-called democratic transition in Cuba, which has been assigned a huge budget for subversive activities against the island. Fidel Castro said that Cuba is the most stable country in the world while the Bush administration has the largest number of criminals in an empire similar to the one Adolph Hitler dreamed of. The Cuban President noted the 500 billion dollar war budget approved in the United States, a considerable part of the total 2.6 trillion dollar annual budget. He pointed out that the growing fiscal deficit is balanced with the money deposited in US banks by Third World Nations. Fidel Castro also said that the US budget includes nearly 38 million dollars dedicated to anti-Cuba radio and TV transmissions, and includes a 10 million dollar increase in order to purchase a plane to beam such illegal transmissions to the island.

Castro discussed the Luis Posada Carriles case in a speech on Sunday. Cuba Offers Free Eye-Surgery for 150,000 US Patients Ahora.cu / 23-01-2006 Cuban President Fidel Castro offered free eye-surgery for 150,000 poor US citizens including air transportation and their accommodations on the island. President Castro made the announcement during a TV appearance on Sunday, which is part of a series of live appearances in which the Cuban leader provided details on the energy revolution underway in Cuba, an initiative he says will save one billion dollars annually. He said the eye patients could travel to Florida from where they would be brought to Cuba by plane. President Castro said he took on the offer of free eye-surgery for 100,000 US people made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a recent visit to New York. Fidel said he decided to add another 50,000 and ask the US organization Pastors for Peace to choose poor people from any religion, political trend or that simply need the treatment. The Cuban leader said that by practicing 500 daily eye surgeries all those 150,000 US citizens can receive the benefit of recovering their sight in just a 300-day period. Cuba has all the equipment and specialized personnel considered among the best specialists in the world, said Fidel. He asked if the US government would prohibit those people from traveling to the island and sentence them to blindness. Fidel Castro said such eye-operations by no means bring any financial benefit to the Cuban government and he recalled that Florida is closer to Cuba than countries like Guyana or Grenada, also benefiting from the Operation Miracle eye-surgery program. He recalled that tens of thousands of people from 22 South and Central American nations have been benefited by Cuban health services. "Will the United States fine those sick US citizens for coming to Cuba for eye surgery?," Fidel asked in direct reference to the arbitrary fines imposed by the Bush administration on US citizens that have traveled to Cuba. In that respect he recalled that during November the US Treasury sent letters to some 200 members of the Venceremos Brigade and to Pastors for Peace requesting information on their latest trips to Cuba, as an initial step that could lead to the imposition of heavy fines. Thousands of other US citizens have been threatened with huge fines if they violate Washington's travel ban, said Fidel Castro. The Cuban leader then went on to denounce ongoing US maneuvers to release terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, author of the 1976 bombing of a Cubana airliner that claimed 73 innocent lives. Posada, 77, is only charged with illegal entry to US territory and he could be released following a hearing slated for January 24 in El Paso, Texas, where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office will revise his status in the US. Posada Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, is wanted in Caracas to stand trial in the plane bombing, but the US government has ignored its longstanding extradition treaty with the South American country. In his speech, Fidel described as a strange coincidence the recent exhibition of a German documentary that tries to accuse Cuba for the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy. He called the film a total fabrication of the CIA. He also referred to other aggressions mounted by the Bush administration gainst the island, including a committee for the so-called democratic transition in Cuba, which has been assigned a huge budget for subversive activities against the island. Fidel Castro said that Cuba is the most stable country in the world while the Bush administration has the largest number of criminals in an empire similar to the one Adolph Hitler dreamed of. The Cuban President noted the 500 billion dollar war budget approved in the United States, a considerable part of the total 2.6 trillion dollar annual budget. He pointed out that the growing fiscal deficit is balanced with the money deposited in US banks by Third World Nations. Fidel Castro also said that the US budget includes nearly 38 million dollars dedicated to anti-Cuba radio and TV transmissions, and includes a 10 million dollar increase in order to purchase a plane to beam such illegal transmissions to the island.

That seems a fair scoring position. It seems that Dan and Andy have overestimated the abilities of their own teams and underestimated the teams that they hate. I think I should get an extra point for predicting Spurs would be in the top four. I think Ed and Andy should lose a point for being so wrong about Wigan and West Ham.

Welcome to the Forum. Would be very interesting in reading your views on Rip Robertson, Tony Cuesta, and Gray Lynch. Did you ever hear any of these three people talking about JFK? Did they blame him for the Bay of Pigs failure?

Thought it might be worth looking at our pre-season predictions: Current Situation 1. Chelsea 2. Manchester United 3. Liverpool 4. Tottenham 18. Birmingham 19. Portsmouth 20. Sunderland John Simkin 1. Chelsea 2. Manchester United 3. Tottenham 4. Arsenal 18. Fulham 19. Sunderland 20. Portsmouth Ed Waller 1. Chelsea 2. Manchester United 3. Arsenal 4. Liverpool 18. Portsmouth 19. Sunderland 20. Wigan Andy Walker 1. Arsenal 2. Chelsea 3. Liverpool 4. Bolton 18. Newcastle 19. Everton 20. West Ham Dan Lyndon 1. Chelsea 2. Arsenal 3. Liverpool 4. Manchester United 18. Sunderland 19. Portsmouth 20. West Brom

Sven-Goran Eriksson has apparently named three corrupt Premiership clubs. Who do you think they are? According to football journalists discussing this on Sky Sports, all three are well-known to be managed by men who regularly take backhanders from agents. Here are my three predictions: Manchester United Portsmouth Newcastle

Self-destructing bombshell Did the mob kill JFK? Holes riddle book's claim http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs....ves/CAT=Lives04 MICHAEL GRANBERRY The Dallas Morning News "The year 2000 will see men still arguing about the president's death." -- journalist Harrison Salisbury in 1964 Having uttered those words more than 40 years ago, Salisbury, who died in 1993, had no way of knowing how stunningly right he would be. Who killed President John F. Kennedy and why has become so much more than "arguing." It's a raging inferno of international debate and always has been. Dallas' darkest moment, the assassination on Elm Street, has fueled thousands of inquiries. They range from the daringly noble to the comically idiotic, and every point in between. A lull of sorts occurred after Gerald Posner's riveting 1993 account, "Case Closed," the best book by far supporting the Warren Commission's conclusion that a sad, deranged loner named Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the president. The lull recently screeched to a halt with the release of "Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK" (Carroll & Graf, $33). Authors Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann contend that the Mafia killed Kennedy, while insisting -- though falling far short of proving -- that there is so much more to the story. "Ultimate Sacrifice" weighs in at 904 pages and 2,700 footnotes and is, say the authors, the carefully tended product of 17 years of research and interviews. The book could not have been written, they say, without access to thousands of documents freed up by the 1992 JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, which was passed into law after the public outcry surrounding Oliver Stone's 1991 pro-conspiracy manifesto, "JFK." "Ultimate Sacrifice" is not without virtues; much of it is compelling, often breathless reading. The book's thesis that three Mafia chieftains -- Santo Trafficante of Tampa, Fla.; Carlos Marcello of New Orleans (and, by extension, Dallas); and Johnny Rosselli of Chicago -- engineered the president's slaying as retribution for the dogged pursuit of their activities by the president's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, is nothing new. What is new is the book's bombshell, that the Mafia believed it could get away with the president's assassination because it had inside knowledge of the Kennedys' dark secret -- that, on Dec. 1, 1963 (nine days after JFK came to Dallas), they would overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in a violent coup and replace him with a pro-U.S. puppet regime. The authors' logic: The assassination would render U.S. officials powerless in conducting an investigation for fear of jeopardizing national security and risking a scarier second act of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which had taken the U.S. and Cuba's Marxist benefactor, the Soviet Union, to the brink of nuclear war. How did the mob know about the Cuban plot? They had been told by the CIA, the authors say. Do the writers prove their case? Not by a long shot. Further eroding their credibility is the fact that they call the Cuban coup plot "C-Day" -- "a name entirely of our own invention." Which is not to say the book isn't entertaining. They contend that Trafficante had tried to assassinate President Kennedy in Tampa four days before his visit to Dallas. They even name a "patsy" who they say would have taken the fall: a Cuban named Gilberto Policarpo Lopez. They also quote former Kennedy aide Kenneth O'Donnell, who was in the motorcade and who told Tip O'Neill, former speaker of the House, in 1968 that "he had heard two shots" from the grassy knoll. They also quote former Kennedy aide Dave Powers, who was in the motorcade and who spoke to the authors before his death in 1998, that he felt they were "riding into an ambush" because of shots from the grassy knoll and that he was pressured to change his story by the Warren Commission. But this is just one of the problems with this book. Powers never testified before the Warren Commission. So when was he pressured? "Ultimate Sacrifice" pins much of its thesis on interviews with former Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Enrique "Harry" Ruiz-Williams, a veteran of the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Ruiz-Williams was believed to be Robert Kennedy's closest friend and ally in the Cuban exile community. (Both men have since died.) Rusk had long been considered a fierce loyalist of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who succeeded President Kennedy. Rusk was apparently no fan of either Kennedy, Bobby in particular. As for Ruiz-Williams, he may have wanted, with all his heart, for such a coup to take place. But neither he nor the authors do an adequate job of convincing the reader that such a bold (crazy?) political and military stroke was really going to happen. Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, has given recent interviews claiming not to know of any such plot and rejecting any notion that such a plan was in the works. If it was, why would the president never bother to tell McNamara, one of his closest aides? He hasn't exactly lacked for candor in recent years, as anyone who saw the documentary "The Fog of War" can tell you. But "Ultimate Sacrifice" has deeper problems. There exists an overriding flaw that bedevils all pro-conspiracy tales, one the authors never come close to answering: Why would any band of conspirators, hoping to gun down the president of the United States, put so much faith and trust in the likes of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby -- Ruby in particular?