LBJ's "captain of the ship" remark

[Robert Morrow]

2 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

So that’s not urban legend, but actually was LBJ quoted April 24, 1963, in Dallas, in print in the Dallas Times Herald, “at least wait until next November before you shoot him down”, referring to the president, JFK.

Who were LBJ’s remarks—overtly a call for support for JFK pending the next election—directed against… who did he have in mind, who were characterized by “hate” and who were saying the US govt led by Kennedy was “disloyal” to America and that Kennedy had to go?

His audience, Democrats of Dallas, are reported as cheering his remarks (condemning those who hated JFK). 

I can’t read it other than that he was talking of the Walker types, Bircher types, southern racist wing of the Democrats types … but above all squarely Walker. 

Overtly he is urging Democrats (? Or does he mean the whole country including Republican critics of JFK?) to be united in support of the president through the four-year term to which he had been elected. If the ones to whom he is referring are dead set on thinking JFK was a bad “pilot” of the plane which was America, in the analogy, wait until the next election cycle to nominate and/or elect someone different … constitutional process. 

But it is a very eery double-entendre in retrospect, the kind that brings a gasp reading the words in light of Nov 22, 1963 Dallas. 

It also is reported that LBJ’s prepared remarks for the next stop after Dallas if the assassination had not intervened—I think Austin (?)—had LBJ’s first words being congratulations to JFK for having gotten that far in his Texas trip without being shot dead, or words to that effect, alluding to sentiment in Texas critical of the Kennedy administration. Big laugh line—what a card LBJ was—start off with that joke before going serious in remarks. Remarks that of course were not delivered because JFK was shot dead … in Dallas, “next November” from LBJ’s April 1963 Dallas words. 

Said by the #1 figure with motive. But lacking, on his own, means, but not lacking alignments inside the ruling circles of the country which regarded JFK as having crossed invisible lines, who did have ability—means—to have something done operationally. 

Accidental words?… Freudian slips?… or…?

50 years ago: Austin was ‘all agog’ to greet JFK by Patrick Beach 11-22-13, Austin-American Statesman

https://www.statesman.com/news/20131122/50-years-ago-austin-was-all-agog-to-greet-jfk

LBJ was going to OPEN his speech with a reference to Dallas not conclude his speech.

QUOTE

Johnson, in his remarks at the Austin dinner, intended to mention the pockets of antipathy directed at Kennedy from political extremists in Dallas and elsewhere. He was to conclude: “And thank God, Mr. President, that you came out of Dallas alive.” The line was sure to get a great reception.

UNQUOTE

“And, thank God, Mr. President, you came out of Dallas alive.” - prepared remarks for Lyndon Johnson for a presidential fundraiser in Austin the night of November 22, 1963

https://www.washingtonian.com/projects/JFK-AF1/layout1.html

Angel is Airborne

Aboard Air Force One—during one of America’s most searing, perilous moments—a government was formed and a presidency begun.

By Garrett M. Graff

Introduction

“And thank God, Mr. President, you came out of Dallas alive.”

The joke was prepared, the words typed, ready to place on the Vice President’s lectern in Austin, Texas, later that evening. Lyndon Johnson was planning to close his speech on November 22, 1963, with a punch line about how John F. Kennedy had survived the city of hate.

Fears for Kennedy in Dallas had been widespread. The place was filled with extremists who thought JFK was soft on Communism and the United Nations was a red front. Just a few weeks earlier, Adlai Stevenson had been physically assaulted during a speech there; in 1961, one of Bobby Kennedy’s speeches in Dallas had been interrupted by circling cars full of noisy protesters; and in 1960, images of a crowd jostling and jeering Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson as they crossed a Dallas street had horrified the nation.

In the days leading up to the Kennedy visit, homemade posters bearing the President’s face circulated with the headline “Wanted for Treason.” That morning at their hotel suite in Fort Worth, after seeing a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News accusing him of being a Communist lover, JFK said to his wife, Jackie, “We’re heading into nut country today.”

John Herbers was in Dallas reporting for the NYT in the aftermath of the JFK assassination

QUOTE

The first place I went looking for an answer was the First Presbyterian Church just blocks from where President Kennedy was shot, hoping to find some semblance of sanity.

          “We are proud of our heritage and our image,” Dr. Thomas A. Fry told his congregation from the pulpit. “But something has happened like a cancer you cannot quite put your finger on. We have allowed the apostles of religious bigotry and the purveyors of political pornography to stir up the weak-minded.” The pastor also denounced the literature branding President Kennedy a communist that had been distributed by extremists throughout the city before his arrival. I spoke to the minister’s wife after the service, and she had a much simpler, and more direct explanation: “We think it’s the western tradition. They are used to shooting at everything they don’t like.” …

          I also quoted another minister, this time a Methodist, who said, “At a nice, respectable dinner party only two nights before the President’s visit to our city, a bright young couple with a fine education, with a promising professional future, said to their friends that they hated the President of the United States - and that they would not care one bit if somebody did take a potshot at him.

UNQUOTE

[John Herbers, Deep South Dispatch: Memoir of a Civil Rights Journalist, p. 121]

[Joe Bauer]

35 minutes ago, Robert Morrow said:

50 years ago: Austin was ‘all agog’ to greet JFK by Patrick Beach 11-22-13, Austin-American Statesman

https://www.statesman.com/news/20131122/50-years-ago-austin-was-all-agog-to-greet-jfk

LBJ was going to OPEN his speech with a reference to Dallas not conclude his speech.

QUOTE

Johnson, in his remarks at the Austin dinner, intended to mention the pockets of antipathy directed at Kennedy from political extremists in Dallas and elsewhere. He was to conclude: “And thank God, Mr. President, that you came out of Dallas alive.” The line was sure to get a great reception.

UNQUOTE

“And, thank God, Mr. President, you came out of Dallas alive.” - prepared remarks for Lyndon Johnson for a presidential fundraiser in Austin the night of November 22, 1963

https://www.washingtonian.com/projects/JFK-AF1/layout1.html

Angel is Airborne

Aboard Air Force One—during one of America’s most searing, perilous moments—a government was formed and a presidency begun.

By Garrett M. Graff

Introduction

“And thank God, Mr. President, you came out of Dallas alive.”

The joke was prepared, the words typed, ready to place on the Vice President’s lectern in Austin, Texas, later that evening. Lyndon Johnson was planning to close his speech on November 22, 1963, with a punch line about how John F. Kennedy had survived the city of hate.

Fears for Kennedy in Dallas had been widespread. The place was filled with extremists who thought JFK was soft on Communism and the United Nations was a red front. Just a few weeks earlier, Adlai Stevenson had been physically assaulted during a speech there; in 1961, one of Bobby Kennedy’s speeches in Dallas had been interrupted by circling cars full of noisy protesters; and in 1960, images of a crowd jostling and jeering Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson as they crossed a Dallas street had horrified the nation.

In the days leading up to the Kennedy visit, homemade posters bearing the President’s face circulated with the headline “Wanted for Treason.” That morning at their hotel suite in Fort Worth, after seeing a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News accusing him of being a Communist lover, JFK said to his wife, Jackie, “We’re heading into nut country today.”

John Herbers was in Dallas reporting for the NYT in the aftermath of the JFK assassination

QUOTE

The first place I went looking for an answer was the First Presbyterian Church just blocks from where President Kennedy was shot, hoping to find some semblance of sanity.

          “We are proud of our heritage and our image,” Dr. Thomas A. Fry told his congregation from the pulpit. “But something has happened like a cancer you cannot quite put your finger on. We have allowed the apostles of religious bigotry and the purveyors of political pornography to stir up the weak-minded.” The pastor also denounced the literature branding President Kennedy a communist that had been distributed by extremists throughout the city before his arrival. I spoke to the minister’s wife after the service, and she had a much simpler, and more direct explanation: “We think it’s the western tradition. They are used to shooting at everything they don’t like.” …

          I also quoted another minister, this time a Methodist, who said, “At a nice, respectable dinner party only two nights before the President’s visit to our city, a bright young couple with a fine education, with a promising professional future, said to their friends that they hated the President of the United States - and that they would not care one bit if somebody did take a potshot at him.

UNQUOTE

[John Herbers, Deep South Dispatch: Memoir of a Civil Rights Journalist, p. 121]

WOW!

[Robert Morrow]

Joe Bauer, the question I have for YOU is, if Lyndon Johnson was so acutely aware about the dangers that the Right Wing posed to JFK in Dallas, then why did LYNDON JOHNSON IMMEDIATELY BLAME A COMMUNIST FOR THE JFK ASSASSINATION (30 minutes before the patsy Oswald was arrested)? Shouldn't LBJ be positing, like so many Americans did, that that the Dallas Right Wing had just murdered JFK as the most likely guess (the LBJ and JFK insiders were *immediately* thinking LBJ Did It).

Before John Kennedy’s body is in rigor mortis, a “very cool” Lyndon Johnson, by 1:20 PM is immediately telling JFK assistant press secretary Mac Kilduff: “We don’t know what kind of a communist conspiracy this might be…”

           Go to the 11 minute mark of this very important Mac Kilduff interview (11-22-91): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSpw9w5GGYk Mac Kilduff was filling in for JFK press secretary Pierre Salinger who did not make the Dallas trip.

          Thirty minutes before Oswald’s arrest at 1:50 PM or more likely 2PM, Lyndon Johnson is immediately pushing the “communists did it” narrative.

          The political world in America and the Kennedy entourage were thinking it was a far right Dallas conspiracy that had just killed JFK - one of the “nuts” from “Nut Country” as John Kennedy had described Dallas just two hours before his death,after reading an assault ad accusing him of treason in the Dallas Morning News, on the plane ride over from Fort Worth. (JFK to Jackie: “We’re heading into nut country.”)

          So, how does Lyndon Johnson, with his legendary political ken, immediately deduce with his paranormal abilities that it was a “communist conspiracy” within mere minutes (or seconds) of his finding out (1:20PM) that JFK was deceased and a full 30 minutes before patsy Oswald was arrested at 1:50PM or 2PM in the Texas Theater? Didn’t Lyndon Johnson himself have a nasty experience with Dallas’s Mink Coat Mob in the 1960 presidential campaign?

Just one month before in October, 1963, Adlai Stevenson had been assaulted by the far right of Dallas: https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,875296,00.html 

  Because of that Adlai Stevenson had in fact personally implored JFK to not go to Dallas. Not only that, a Dallas citizen Nelle Doyle had written JFK and begged him not to come to Dallas because of fears over his safety in the far right Dallas atmosphere.

Did Lyndon Johnson have divination powers the equal of Carnac the Magnificient  to immediately *know* that the communists  must have murdered John Kennedy?

LBJ left Parkland Hospital at 1:26 PM. U.S. intelligence agent and patsy Oswald not arrested until 1:50PM. LBJ’s comments to Kilduff were made sometime just after 1:20PM when he found out JFK was deceased.

1991 MAC KILDUFF INTERVIEW:

MAC KILDUFF:

It was interesting to note in retrospect what his reaction was, Bob. You will recall that Adlai Stevenson had been to Texas a few weeks before that. And we had the far political right was very active in General Walker … and Adlai Stevenson had been belted with rotten eggs in Dallas. So we all though this was some sort of you know right, far right activity. Lyndon Johnson was very cool. He said, “Well now Mac [LBJ said] before you make that announcement we don’t know what kind of a communist conspiracy this might be.” He was thinking a communist conspiracy.

INTERVIEWER BOB HENSLEY OF WTVQ:: “He is saying that it was a conspiracy. He wants to know who was involved.”

MAC KILDUFF:

That’s right. But he [LBJ] thought said ”this could be a communist conspiracy. And I think the best thing for me to do is get back to Air Force One before you make that announcement.”

I said “alright.”

He [LBJ] said then “We will wait back there. For whatever you are going to to. And then to go back to Washington.” So with that we left the trauma room with Johnson, went out the emergency exit of the hospital, put him in his car and he took off for Love Field, to go back to Love Field and Air Force One.

Edited February 3 by Robert Morrow

[Greg Doudna]

That’s an interesting point Robert Morrow—on Kilduff remembering LBJ’s first thought at ca 1:00 or 1:15 pm Fri Nov 22 being “Communists did it” (in agreement with the DRE/Miami-station attempts to falsely implicate Castro via an Oswald connection as a casus bellus for retaking Cuba), and not as more expected and feared in Dallas, from right wing hatred or fanatics. 

But before running too far with it, does Kilduff’s statement on that have independent support or verification? This is Kilduff in 1991 saying that. Is that claim (of LBJ’s earliest reaction going to communist conspiracy, prior to the arrest of Oswald) attested earlier than 1991? 

Still, Kilduff’s account even standing alone in 1991 has some force, in that Kilduff is credible, and raises the question whether the always-wily LBJ was purposely planting to Kilduff, the acting press secretary whose words minutes later would be echoed and reported nationwide shaping news coverage to follow, the idea of a Castro or Russian role. As if without directly telling Kilduff so, LBJ was giving something for Kilduff to tell if it came up. 

Which raises another question. It is well known that LBJ and Hoover cooperated in killing the Castro conspiracy idea very quickly that weekend, against what looked like a serious attempt of some agency actors to have made that the narrative. Accepting that change (from communist conspiracy to LN Oswald narrative) as fact, which nobody now disputes, the question is why. 

The accepted narrative reason why, is LBJ et al did not want a risk of World War III. That is the benign coverup explanation. 

But is it excluded a different explanation—that somehow, awareness that an intended false flag was not going to work on strictly pragmatic or operational grounds, a cover blown or something, whatever (maybe even the unknown wild card of how much Oswald might have talked or could talk?), and it was that pragmatic knowledge that caused that LBJ/Hoover decision from the top to abandon a false flag narrative accusation and go LN focus? 

If LBJ’s first planted reaction with the acting press secretary that the assassination was a Communist conspiracy is true, before there had been any arrest or known focus on Oswald as suspect, it seems that could add weight to the idea of LBJ foreknowledge. 

[Robert Morrow]

Quick point here: Lyndon Johnson was speaking with Macolm Kilduff between 1:20 PM and 1:26PM, which was the time that Lyndon Johnson left Parkland Hospital to head over to Air Force One at Love Field. Earlier LBJ had found out that JFK was dead.

Lyndon Johnson to Malcolm Kilduff, after Kiduff asked if he could make a statement that the president was dead:

"No, wait. We don't know if it's a communist conspiracy or not. I'd better get out of here and back to the plane. Are they prepared to get me out of here?" [Sam Johnson's Boy, Steinberg, p. 606, published in 1968]

Alfred Steinberg:

QUOTE

          When they reached the hospital, Johnson jumped out of the car and held his left bicep with his right hand while he rushed indoors with five Secret Service agents, leaving Lady Bird with Yarborough.  Rumors spread that he had been shot, that he had suffered a heart attack. Once inside the hospital, Johnson and the agents were ushered to the rear of the Minor Medecine area, where between deep sniffs from his nasal inhalator, he said repeatedly, “The International Communists did it!” …Nor had Salinger’s chief assistant Andrew Hatcher, gone to Texas, because Kennedy had been considerate of the anti-Negro bias in that Southern state. This was the reason Malcolm Kilduff, another assistant press secretary, was present at the hospital and became the first person to call Johnson “Mr. President.” Kilduff had come to Booth 13 to ask his permission to make a statement that Kennedy was dead, but Johnson barked at him, “No, wait. We don’t know whether it is a Communist conspiracy or not. I’d better get out of here and back to the plane. Are they prepared to get me out of here?”

UNQUOTE

          [Alfred Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy: A Close-Up of the President from Texas, pp. 605-606, published in 1968]

           Alfred Steinberg was a seasoned journalist who knew Lyndon Johnson very well, up close and personal. One could rightfully call Alfred Steinberg a journalist insider of his era.   

Pat Speer on Lyndon Johnson telling Mac Kilduff early on 11-22-63 that “we don’t know what kind of a communist conspiracy this might be” and “we don’t know whether this is a worldwide conspiracy, whether they are after me as well… or whether they are after Speaker McCormick, or Sen. Hayden.”

Pat Speer:

QUOTE

Acting Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff, for one, admitted in a 11-22-91 interview on WTVQ that he immediately suspected a Dallas-based right-wing conspiracy had killed Kennedy, but that when he spoke to Johnson to ask if he could announce Kennedy's death, Johnson told him, coolly, "Well, now Mac, before you make that announcement, we don't know what kind of a communist conspiracy this might be" and then asked him to hold off the announcement until he (Johnson) was safely aboard Air Force One.

And this wasn't the first time Kilduff had said such a thing. No, not by a long shot. A 12-23-63 radio interview of Kilduff (quoted by UPI in a syndicated article, which can be found in the next day's Lewiston Morning Tribune) supports that Johnson's first concern was of an international conspiracy. Kilduff quotes Johnson as follows: "I think I had better get out of here and get back to the plane before you announce it" (Kennedy's death) ..."We don't know whether this is a world-wide conspiracy, whether they are after me as well as they were after President Kennedy, or whether they are after Speaker McCormick, or Sen. Hayden. We just don't know." Then, as if to confirm the infirmity of human memory, Kilduff recounts how he waited for Johnson to leave the hospital before announcing Kennedy's death (as opposed to his later claim he'd waited till Johnson had arrived on the plane).

UNQUOTE

Also, JFK Facts has an interesting article and even more interesting comments section on what Lyndon Johnson told Mac Kilduff in the immediate aftermath of the JFK assassination - Motorcade witness: Malcolm Kilduff on announcing the death of JFK – JFK Facts

Lyndon Johnson was the one insisting that JFK go to Texas

From Jeff Sheshol’s Mutual Contempt, p.137:

Jeff Sheshol:

QUOTE

        Among the late president’s inner circle, this was the conventional wisdom: the Dallas trip was nothing but a political errand for LBJ. “Absolutely, absolutely,” said JFK aide Ralph Dungan. “Kennedy made that trip, I can say for all history and posterity, without a doubt, as a favor to Lyndon Johnson,” as a party-building exercise at “Lyndon’s strong urging.” So persuasive was Johnson, by this account, that his influence outweighed the reservations of the White House staff. Noting the rise of the right wing in Texas and recalling the ugly reception to Adlai Stevenson’s recent visit to Dallas, staffers sparred over the merits of a trip. This was hostile territory, protested Ken O’Donnell. But to each objection Kennedy’s response was reportedly the same: “Lyndon Johnson really wants me to do it, and I’ve got to do it.”

UNQUOTE

[Jeff Sheshol, Mutual Contempt, p. 137]

Edited February 4 by Robert Morrow

[Robert Morrow]

John Connally (in 1982 to Doug Thompson): "You know I was one of the ones who advised Kennedy to stay away from Texas," Connally said. "Lyndon (Johnson) was being a real asshole about the whole thing and insisted."

Web link:

https://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?f=opedne_doug_tho_060330_is_deception_the_bes.htm

 March 29, 2006

Is deception the best way to serve one's country?

By Doug Thompson for Capitol Hill Blue

The handwritten note lay in the bottom drawer of my old rolltop desk, one I bought for $50 in a junk store in Richmond, VA, 39 years ago. "Dear Doug & Amy," it read. "Thanks for dinner and for listening." The signature was a bold "John" and the letterhead on the note simply said "John B. Connally" and was dated July 14, 1982.

The handwritten note lay in the bottom drawer of my old rolltop desk, one I bought for $50 in a junk store in Richmond, VA, 39 years ago.

"Dear Doug & Amy," it read. "Thanks for dinner and for listening." The signature was a bold "John" and the letterhead on the note simply said "John B. Connally" and was dated July 14, 1982.

I met John Connally on a TWA flight from Kansas City to Albuquerque earlier that year. The former governor of Texas, the man who took one of the bullets from the assassination that killed President John F. Kenney, was headed to Santa Fe to buy a house.

The meeting wasn't an accident. The flight originated in Washington and I sat in the front row of the coach cabin. During a stop in Kansas City, I saw Connally get on the plane and settle into a first class seat so I walked off the plane and upgraded to a first class seat right ahead of the governor. I not only wanted to meet the man who was with Kennedy on that day in Dallas in 1963 but, as the communications director for the re-election campaign of Congressman Manuel Lujan of New Mexico, I thought he might be willing to help out on what was a tough campaign.

When the plane was in the air, I introduced myself and said I was working on Lujan's campaign. Connally's face lit up and he invited me to move to the empty seat next to him.

"How is Manuel? Is there anything I can do to help?"

By the time we landed in Albuquerque, Connally had agreed to do a fundraiser for Lujan. A month later, he flew back into New Mexico where Amy and I picked him up for the fundraiser. Afterwards, we took him to dinner.

Connolly was both gracious and charming and told us many stories about Texas politics. As the evening wore on and the multiple bourbon and branch waters took their effect, he started talking about November 22, 1963, in Dallas.

"You know I was one of the ones who advised Kennedy to stay away from Texas," Connally said. "Lyndon (Johnson) was being a real asshole about the whole thing and insisted."

Connally's mood darkened as he talked about Dallas. When the bullet hit him, he said he felt like he had been kicked in the ribs and couldn't breathe. He spoke kindly of Jackie Kennedy and said he admired both her bravery and composure.

I had to ask. Did he think Lee Harvey Oswald fired the gun that killed Kennedy?

"Absolutely not," Connally said. "I do not, for one second, believe the conclusions of the Warren Commission."

So why not speak out?

"Because I love this country and we needed closure at the time. I will never speak out publicly about what I believe."

We took him back to catch a late flight to Texas. He shook my hand, kissed Amy on the cheek and walked up the ramp to the plane.

We saw Connally and his wife a couple of more times when they came to New Mexico but he sold his house a few years later as part of a bankruptcy settlement. He died in 1993 and, I believe, never spoke publicly about how he doubted the findings of the Warren Commission.

Connnally's note serves as yet another reminder that in our Democratic Republic, or what's left of it, few things are seldom as they seem. Like him, I never accepted the findings of the Warren Commission. Too many illogical conclusions.

John Kennedy's death, and the doubts that surround it to this day, marked the beginning of the end of America's idealism. The cynicism grew with the lies of Vietnam and the senseless deaths of too many thousands of young Americans in a war that never should have been fought. Doubts about the integrity of those we elect as our leaders festers today as this country finds itself embroiled in another senseless war based on too many lies.

John Connally felt he served his country best by concealing his doubts about the Warren Commission's whitewash but his silence may have contributed to the growing perception that our elected leaders can rewrite history to fit their political agendas.

Had Connally spoken out, as a high-ranking political figure with doubts about the "official" version of what happened, it might have sent a signal that Americans deserve the truth from their government, even when that truth hurts.

Originally published at and © Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill Blue