Robert Harper

53 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

Many Americans tend to think of "Christian" morality in terms of Puritanism

Absolutely true and after decades of just taking it as a given, I punch out when I can. Interesting that for the first 175 years of this country, WASPs were the executives. Soon as the first change is  Catholic, he's killed. His possible successor, his brother, Catholic  is killed. A charismatic Southern Baptist, who started speaking out against  the Vietnam war, is killed. In a 5 year period, change was snuffed out. It's said that most roaches scatter when there is a light, while others go to  to eliminate the source of the light. We had some evil roaches running things.

I was surprised to recently learn that Martin Luther King Sr had declared he "would never vote for a Catholic" in 1960 when the issue came up. He changed his mind and became a backer of JFK, but I can't help but think about this good man who raised a saint - say he'd "never" vote Catholic. I thought that was part of the Reformation/ Counter Reformation spirit about the "popery" of Rome. Such thinking had overlapped with political selections as well I also knew--Al Smith 1928 - but like a lot of things in 1963, things were changing.

When reading a collection of the "Cold War Letters" of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, I came across a few between Ethel Kennedy and him. Eunice went to a Catholic college in the Bronx and introduced her brothers Bob and Ted to their spouses who also attended. There is the little known, but memorialized version by Norman Cousins, of letters exchanged between JFK and Pope John XXIII during the Cuban crisis. 

JFK didn't make a show of his religion, but the morning of his Inauguration attended Mass and saw his mother already there. This mother of nine who used to pray the rosary habitually. One's children are not immune to this influence. In 1962 when the SCOTUS ruled any prayer in school unconstitutional, JFK was asked his opinion on the ruling, he answered that perhaps families will pray more together at home. Can you imagine such a response from anyone else in the past 50 years? You would have heard "Judges making laws, about "the loss of God - the Christian God - in the culture".  You definitely would have heard a bashing of Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Instead, you hear a measured, acceptance of the rule of law with a practical, most appropriate response. Prayer starts and should exist in the home. 

It would also be helpful to talk more of the Sermon on the Mount - actually delivered-- than rules about sexual behavior - most derived. During the Republican primary debates of 2000, one questioner asked GWB "which political philosophers had been influential in his life." I sat up, oh good, I'll hear something about thought from each of these candidates. I wondered - briefly of course - Locke?Jefferson?Franklin? GWB says "Jesus Christ." Done. The wind went out of the question immediately. How do you "top" that one? So no one else was asked their favorite political philosopher and, of course, the questioner never pursued the answer about which particular tenets of Jesus Christ he was referring to.

On 8/10/2018 at 2:41 AM, Douglas Caddy said:

These books from 1967 are EXTREMELY rare and valuable

Thank you for this treasure which took most of a week to read. I spent more time on Carl Curtis than I had thoughts of him my whole life; I learned more about Bobby Baker, but the most impactful read for me was was the one by  JoachimJoesten challenging Robert Kennedy to start the search- with relentless energy - about his brother's murderers. Many people thought such thoughts. The date of the article stops all further inquiry--it's a week before RFK is killed and the urgency and context and appropriateness of the whole article evaporates.

On 10/4/2018 at 3:04 AM, Ron Bulman said:

This is the second F-you

It is the first time this whole umbrella thing made any sense; I never believed the guy showing up with the same umbrella at the HSCA 15 years later. It's spooky and evokes anger, but it's far more plausible, imho, than a guy protesting JFK's father's support of Anthony Eden.

Joe--thank you for sharing your response, which, as usual is succinct, and honest . We share on this site a sense that "something happened" in 1963 that was important and never resolved and that "something" had meaning beyond  its immediate effects. I read your comments and responses as similar to one by a member I used to enjoy reading very much - Bart (I think name is right, avatar with hardhat). In particular he and you and I share a status- with others - as affected and interested participants who have relied on the research and reasoning of many of the people on this site; I think we are appreciators, not researchers. I think we write to express ourselves within this structure of "something happened" and reading such from others assists that process. It is said that knowledge is accumulated bit by bit; and understanding from a grasp of the whole. We are are on the journey to understanding (belief) through the encounter with knowledge (facts).

On 10/4/2018 at 3:26 PM, Joe Bauer said:

Even though I cannot articulate this anywhere near as well as you.

Please cut these words from your post? They do not apply; you express yourself quite well.

Thank you for the great article as well as the informative comments. I too would love to have access to the pdf.

31 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:

From the sounds of it, it looks like Macarthur would have subscribed to the theories of Alfred Thayer Mahan as opposed to the theories of Halford Mackinder.

I was aware of the Mahan influence and theory, but not Mackinder

1 hour ago, David Andrews said:

Can somebody point me to a link for the JFk/MacArthur conversation transcript .pdf?

ditto.

On 10/5/2018 at 6:44 AM, Roy Wieselquist said:

Army man MacArthur's stress on the Navy

your comments very helpful.

With the justifiable use of the word “witch-hunt” to describe certain incidents of the past few years, one is inevitably drawn to the echoes from the 1692 trials in Salem, Massachusetts and it’s brilliant dramatization by Arthur Miller in 1953.

At that time, I was only 2 years old and living in Manhattan, near Fort Washington . My personal recollection of the concepts “Salem” and “Arthur Miller” would emerge about the same time as my concept of “John Kennedy.”   All intersected when my Irish-Catholic family moved from “the Heights”  viewing the George Washington Bridge, to the town near the Bay where Nathanial Hawthorne was an icon and the Witch House and The House of the Seven Gables were  local attractions. I received my First Holy Communion in Salem—dressed all in white, unlike my brothers who had worn blue blazers at theirs in Manhattan.

 “Salem” was the American version of “JeruSALEM” and religious affiliations were involved from the very beginnings of its formation.  People might not know that of the 8 original America colonial colleges, 7 of them  provided  training for Anglican/Protestant preachers and ministers, and the 8^th prepared those of the Dutch Reform branch. The 7 schools eventually became the Ivy League; the other 1, became the public university of New Jersey—Rutgers, my alma mater.

 Miller, in his late 30’s, traveled to Salem, studied the transcripts and history and captured an intensely dramatic time in the lives of the Massachusetts citizens, in his play The Crucible. It is his most widely done play nationwide in amateur productions, and – astonishingly - was written within a 7 year period which also included his impressive debut,  All My Sons, as well as his brilliant Death of a Salesman .

Salem was also the place I first heard the name “John Kennedy.” The memory was always clear: my Dad, in white tee-shirt, going down the stairs loudly saying (don’t think he ever ‘screamed’ ) that  “John Kennedy was nominated last night.”

 So, unlike Dr Ford, for example, I can place my memory in time, place, location, with a consistent recollection over time.  It was  Thursday morning, July 14 1960, upstairs in one of the bunk bed bedrooms, on Loring Avenue in Salem, Massachusetts. It was the first time I recall any political expression by  my father, consequently, “nominated” and “Kennedy” were implanted.

 I had received a postcard from my father, dated February 4 1959, with a rendition of the Salem Custom House(image attached). We lived in Manhattan on a street called “Haven ” a Dutch word for “harbor” - a suitable association for a childhood home. He wrote that he “missed taking me to school each day – even when you rush me.”  Apparently, unlike some brothers, I wanted to get to school and get there early! My first day of school, is captured on home film, with the date and event, written with chalk on the sidewalk, as a sort of subtitleJ

 Jacket and tie, briefcase in hand; there was no day-care or even kindergarten at that time available; I went right to first grade. I’d walk home with friends or even alone. I had a local girl friend and played house with her, and walked with a pal in the building, a kid who went to a Jewish school, and recall talking of the 100^th birthday of A&P supermarket chain celebrated that year. I’d go past the Audubon Ballroom where a few years later Malcolm X would be killed as I walked from the same school both my parents graduated from in 1931.

But back to Salem,  Kennedy and Miller.

 I learned JFK was the same age as my father; that he too came from a large Irish-Catholic family, that some of them had lived for awhile  in New York and were living now about 30 miles away.  Years later, I would also find that our great-great grandfather, Patrick Harper, had moved from Wexford County, Ireland – with his 11 children – to Brooklyn, NY in 1868.  A similar route taken by the Kennedy clan from Wexford  25 years earlier. Years further down the road, when we traveled to Ireland, my wife and I stopped by the church where they were married  in 1845, and visited the grounds of their home and  hospitality/pub,  while meeting the current owners and finding information on the graves of other ancestors. I found that the spelling of the name was often described as   “always with an e”  as opposed to the French Harpur who also settled  there, and who frequently replaced the “u” “with an e.”

  The Lodge family was well known in Massachusetts and during the campaign I recall one of the candidates came through town and we wore  tee-shirts saying “I like Ike.” I remember thinking I wish it was Kennedy & Lodge rather than him and Johnson. Lodge seemed to be classier.

 Kennedy’s father – born in the late 19^th century - had a huge influence on him and his siblings.  My Dad’s father - generation of Joseph P. Kennedy – got an accountancy degree, formed a firm,  married and then  moved up to Washington  Heights , way up  “in the country,”  and had 2 children, then died from the Flu epidemic of 1918.

 So I saw similarities in the families, and related to them. Later, I’d understand the great differences between the starting gates available for each of them, but essentially their value system overlapped with ours. Family, the discipline of learning, the understanding of Christianity. The dedication to excellence and character formation were prioritized over the accumulation of wealth.  My own father had the large family of the  Harper Brooklyn  landing - 9 children - and all 9 of his were parochially  schooled and college educated.  Difficult to pull off when one has money; very  difficult to pull off when one doesn’t. But I think  about large families the way F. Scott Fitzgerald felt about the very rich: They are different. They have  rewards and understandings and confrontations all of their own devising. They have  constant mental and physical stimulation unknown to the “normal” American household and they form fragmented loyalties at the dinner table unavailable to those without enough participants.

  My father was raised by a 30 year old widow, who worked as a sales lady on Fifth Avenue, and sent him to a private Catholic High school.  All Hallows was the first school founded by the Christian Brothers in the United States. The order founded the school upon the principles of its Irish leader Edmund Rice - which center on providing moral and scholastic training, especially to the children of the poor. Originally located at 13-15 West 124th in Manhattan, the school moved to the Bronx in 1928.Its motto, the Latin phrase Pro fide et patria means For faith and country.

 Themes of Family, church and country were similarly combined with the Kennedy’s.  They even had a “Robert Francis” – and that was my name too!( I chose Xavier for a Confirmation name, when I was 13. Francis Xavier was a founding member of the Jesuits and was the first Christian missionary to Japan and India and died while en route to China. Like JFK, he did a lot before dying at age 46.

When I got to college I was active in the Theater Arts Department and in the Spring of 1973 played the lead role of John Proctor in The Crucible and in the Fall of 1974 made my professional debut as the walk-on waiter in Salesman. Miller visited the cast afterwards and I was in jaw-drop time. Six years after that, in the Spring of 1980, I worked with Miller as we prepared the debut of his play The American Clock, off-Broadway, and  at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC later that summer, and on Broadway in the Fall.

I adored Miller. Once I got past the anxious stage, I loved working on his material and discussing things with him. I recall  talking about our shoes and that broke a barrier so that I could get out of hero worship mode and become a colleague. He had a wonderful sense of humor and although there is only one laugh in The Crucible when you play Proctor, the scene in Clock was a riot and got whoops of laughter and scene ending applause. People who only know the “serious” Miller are bereft if they ignore his comic or tragic-comic impulses in such plays as The Price or The Man Who Had All the Luck.

By the time I was 30 years old, I had studied Miller  and performed him. But I also followed the history of the McCarthy Hearings and his refusal to name names. I knew of him working with Elia Kazan both before and after Kazan testified against others, so I knew that his esthetic integrity matched his political one. He was a defender of the group PEN which defended the rights of writers and was banned in Russia for this activity.

 He was what we rarely see anymore—a playwright.

 He loved the theater and anyone other than Ed Koch as Mayor of NYC would never have allowed the Morosco Theater—the place where Salesman debuted in 1949—to be torn down to “improve” Times Square by building a Marriot Hotel. Letters from him to me – typed as well as hand written—are among my most treasured mementos. Reading his book Salesman in Bejing is a treat should anyone be interested to read about the author directing his masterpiece with Chinese actors in China.

There is a another element to this Salem-Kennedy-Miller triangle.  I hope to explore it in a forthcoming essay.  That element is the witch.

.

res ipsa loquiter:    "It speaks for itself" is usually the legal usage of this Latin phrase. "The thing itself speaks"  is another translation .

Teresa Teng released 2006; recorded C. 1995

She recorded songs not only in Mandarin but also in Taiwanese Hokkien, Cantonese, Japanese, Indonesian and English. She also spoke French fluently.Teng died from a severe respiratory attack while on vacation in Thailand in 1995, at the age of 42.

ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN - TERESA TENG -

Joe, I have been enriched reading many of your personal posts.When I don't respond, it just means I've been reading a lot. Particularly meaningful to me has been your ability to step outside your immediate and influential upbringing  to be able to see and understand the essence of JFK. I've been away for a bit, but when I saw this thread,  all I could think of was a comment from Sparky Anderson when managing the Reds in the 1976 World Series:  "Munson is an outstanding player and he would hit .300 in the National League, but don’t ever embarrass anybody by comparing him to Johnny Bench.”

That sort of sums up my take on any comparison with these two New England families. One might have a "dynasty" of 12 years in the White House, but they could have 20 terms in the White House and not have what the other family had in 1000 days and then for a few years afterwards.

50 minutes ago, Wade Frazier said:

  Like JFK, he came from a rich background, so did not have to sell his soul to play the game.   If Trump has not figured it out yet, he may be beginning to suspect.  

I think this is very important  as a study in character.  The Clintons, surely, are  living proof that money is more valuable than integrity in political life. I don't think IKE cared, although he had friends build the home at Gettysburg, it can't really  be said that he saw the government position for its money or power. Nixon, LBJ, Ford, Bush I and II and Obama all owed people and institutions. Carter, we've discussed on a current thread didn't. Neither did JFK. I thought Trump was going to be in that circle of disinterested and impartial figures, but I simply roll my head each day when trying to grasp what Trumpness means.

On 7/10/2018 at 11:29 PM, Jeff Carter said:

Media literacy and critical thinking skills taught in the school system would go much further i

 Of course,  such should start within a family unit. As for the government, I think the system I see here in Holland is much better than that of America's. I grew up where my parents paid for parochial schools and were heavily property-taxed to pay for the schools. Didn't seem fair to me then and still doesn't. My father agreed with the existing principle, when I once brought it up since, he felt that the separation of government and religion was properly maintained by such. At a press conference JFK was asked aboutthe Court decision banning prayers in schools and he suggested that perhaps the children could pray more at home. He didn't use the decision - or the timing - to attack the "godlessness" of the move. I was well into my 30's before I found out that In God we Trust was only added to coins and other stuff during the early 1950's when communism = no God. 

Here,  the concept of religion as an integral part of character formation is recognized; so is interest in language,  mechanical arts, and theater as well as proximity to where one lives. What are the families priorities? It's a  voucher system; every child gets one, every school accepts it; all schools are monitored for academic standards; and all students take the same tests. It's accepted that religion  can be a part of schooling as can yoga; there is no need to penalize those who wish a focus.

California provides tenure to school teachers after 3 years of teaching. Can you imagine? Many are C students at best. Summers off.Pension. Health care. You want a  school that mentions religion? Pay for it yourself, has been the American way.  Once religion = philosophy in the minds of people, they can see that a voucher system can work and that the most important teachers - those for ages 5 through 10 - can be paid well if good or fired if bad. 

On 7/29/2018 at 10:28 PM, Dan Doyle said:

Thanks.

On 7/30/2018 at 5:54 AM, Joe Bauer said:

Bravo

On 7/31/2018 at 4:29 PM, Steve Thomas said:

Thanks,

On 7/31/2018 at 2:04 PM, Gene Kelly said:

Thanks for sharing,

21 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Ive been reading the book. I think it’s fantastic.

I second that. He writes clearly and is unsentimental in tone. He lets facts speak for themselves. He is particularly good on the family dynamics - activity, loyalty, pursuit of excellence, the gospels. Reading of the routines of family life had a personal impact, because of its specificity.  You cannot be ignorant of the principles involved, when your Mother attends daily Mass and often says the rosary. Any couple that stays together and raises a family of 9 is loved by their children.It is obvious such was the case with the Kennedy family and Robert Jr. captures small gems of that living. As one of nine children myself - whose ancestors also came from Wexford County and who also lived in Massachusetts and New York and Washington DC growing up, I might add that he evokes a sense of the authentic.

On film, when JFK rises a bit from his seat, and tips his hat to his father as he passes him in the stands on Inauguration Day, he's doing what most sons of such fathers would do I imagine. I have not encountered too many depictions of the activity of a busy, interesting family life in modern culture. Off the top of my head, only Susan Minot's book Monkeys or Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, come to mind.

Once you know how the CIA used the media - and still does - it's not hard to see them orchestrate a diminishment of the father or the son.The recent biography by David Nasaw of Joe Sr. dismissed the bootleg stories, and his grandson echoes that. He was a bright and driven young guy from the family's 3rd generation in America, who became the country's youngest bank president at age 25. He was picked to head the SEC because FDR knew that this newcomer could outfox the foxes on Wall Street. He and his wife stayed together for life and raised 9 children, who were guided to the production of value in all areas of life including public service. The Bush family may have created a longer serving dynasty, but they can't come close to the fabric of the Kennedy dynasty. This son of sons of Ireland, gave value to psychic income as well as to the other kind of income; they understood both sides of Adam Smith  - that the marketplace and the moral sentiments are - or should be - intertwined in any transaction.

On 6/23/2018 at 9:56 PM, James DiEugenio said:

Happened with Obama, and also Trump.

On 7/16/2018 at 7:51 PM, Joe Bauer said:

The audio just confirms again in my mind that the LBJ / Bobby Baker problem and LBJ's concern about it was as serious as some suggest it was and maybe even a possible motive in any involvement LBJ may have had in the "Big Event" as E. Howard Hunt stated in his close to death confessional.

On 7/23/2018 at 12:47 AM, Jim Hargrove said:

Starting at about the 13:15 mark in the audio, the name “McLendon,” or a name that sounds like it, comes up repeatedly.  Anyone know if this is a reference to reporter Sarah McLendon, or to KLIF’s Gordon McLendon, or to someone else entirely?

Maj. Lennox P. McLendon, the North Carolina lawyer who guided the Senate Rules Committee investigation into the financial affairs of Robert G. Baker

22 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

When you look through a telescope and see the light from a supernova, you’re not actually seeing a star erupt in real time — you’re seeing something that happened eons ago, whose effects are only now reaching us. And, similarly, when you watch Trump undermine the idea of provable truth, what you’re really watching is the reverberation of something that began 30-plus years ago, a slow burning out of public faith that the president merely exists to exploit.

Wonderfully put - although I'd change the "30-plus years ago"  to " 55 years ago." 

On 7/20/2018 at 7:29 PM, Rick McTague said:

What a great and impartial 3 man team we were coincidentally blessed with to immediately take over after JFK was murdered

I don't know how this tape even survived. The way these President Libraries operate, well, I still often think of Rex Bradford's discovery a few years ago that LBJ's telephone conversation with J Edgar the weekend of the murder lasting 14 minutes had been erased. 

I'm pretty convinced that both the long tape erasures of LBJ and Nixon relate to JFK's killing.

In any case, I have listened twice to this tape and am still trying to follow who says what. But right off the bat, a few observations:

This is just weeks after the killing and this group is there to talk about the payment of a stereo by Don Reynolds? I don't think so. I think that is the immediate upcoming thing to deal with , but to have your future Supreme Court Justice and the National Security Adviser there to "handle" that? Of course after awhile, you can tell Jack Valenti's voic -e it uses the language of biblical proportions of blood and slaughter and the lusting for blood animals that LBJ's "enemies" . I think this is a test run of being asked questions about anything regarding LBJ. Moyers, Fortas, Valenti --better be on the same page. The first time I recall even encountering the name of George McB in the JFK case was whne reading Prof Gibson's book Battling Wall Street. Hearing him here, now, with this group, is creepy.

Also there is a mention of "Homer" who is Homer Thornberry another crony. He resigned from Congress in order to be the Judge in the Nagel case, which blew my mind when  I read it on Spartacus. Additionally, he was the Judge that LBJ put up for the Supreme Court when he also put Fortas (who was already on the Court) as Chief Justice. So Fortas is the one who "convinces" Hugo Black to void a lower Court order and help LBJ cheat to win in 1948 and 20 years later, he's the first nominee since 1795 to resign during hearings for Chief Justice. Thornberry gives up a seat in Congress to oversee a case involving Oswald and he was among those who attended the Bobby Baker shindigs with LBJ.These are the guys that LBJ has around him weeks after the murder. They are talking in hushed tones about the sale of advertising?

Thanks for this great post. I also just recently read in the released documents a letter written by his mother. When I attended the 50th in Dallas, i only asked one question from the audience and it was who knows what happened to Eugene Dinkin?

His story has always haunted. He was one of the Cassandra's of the tragedy. Unlike another who was a heroin addict, drug runner and prostitute, Dinkin was a graduate of the University of Chicago. His mother sounds pretty together also. Poor guy went running places to tell who he thought might pay attention. (Recall the MSU teen gymnasts who just wanted AN adult to step forward?). Last info I could find was that Dinkin had filed a lawsuit against the government, but I never could find anything else. The clip provided about the Canadian military figure - I think on this thread - was also chilling because it was so believable.

On 7/19/2018 at 11:19 PM, Paz Marverde said:

Yes, I subscribe. By the way, the right title is: Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

Thanks for info to both of you.

Paz, I've decided not to actually edit  the title of Carter's very readable book,  but will allow your comment to survive, as it properly informs the readers, but also allows me to  flash my Freudian slip.

On 7/20/2018 at 10:53 PM, Ron Bulman said:

I'll bump this

After all these years and after all the words read on the JFK case, this is the first time I encountered this information about the attempt and the use of those names. I'm still trying to absorb the recording of LBJ and cronies put up by Joe Bauer and my head is still spinning. Happened when I first read Harvey and Lee, so I have to deal , with this later, but thanks for the info, all.

Beat me to it Paul....great idea.

As a side-note, certainly Barry Scheck was the only individual who came out of the OJ Trial with any dignity or sense of integrity. I know that he was subject to criticisms for giving so much time and attention to that case, but surely time has proven him to be a media savvy lawyer with  barrels of intelligence and integrity who used the OJ trial to bring the very concept of "DNA" to a wider audience. It is now widely used of course and at least partially understood by juries. Scheck's Innocence Project has been one of the shining examples of  the original counter-cultrure commitment to the rights of the individual. Scheck's career has certainly had an impact comparable to that of Ralph Nadar's  impact with consumer rights. 

2 hours ago, John Kowalski said:

I prefer the word historical researchers because that is what we are doing, conducting historical research.

Your efforts and contributions, in Canada, has been noted and applauded by those seeking the truth around the world. Continued good wishes for recovery of what was intended to be seen by others.

Kelly: Anthony Lewis does not fill the profile of a compromised or biased journalist.