NSAM 261 Four Leaves

[William Kelly]

SUBJECT: Assignment of Highest National Priority to Project Four Leaves.

Edited January 2, 2009 by William Kelly

[William Kelly]

SUBJECT: Assignment of Highest National Priority to Project Four Leaves.

Could it be this?:

September 25, 1963

Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Saigon to investigate what effect the political problems in South Vietnam have had on the military situation. They are expected to visit the-country's four military regions. (3:1)

[Mark Knight]

SUBJECT: Assignment of Highest National Priority to Project Four Leaves.

Could it be this?:

September 25, 1963

Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Saigon to investigate what effect the political problems in South Vietnam have had on the military situation. They are expected to visit the-country's four military regions. (3:1)

Bill,

I don't think that's it. The Defense Production Act covers a lot of ground, but doesn't pertain to Vietnam per se.

Wikipedia: Defense Production Act

This link provides a little more information:

Defense Production Act of 1950

So just what part of the DPA were they invoking? Something to do with production of something? The phrase "...highest national priority category for development and production" seems to imply a product of some sort. Maybe Agent Orange or some other type of defoliant [hence the word "leaves"]? A Google-type search turns up absolutely NOTHING of value on "Project Four Leaves."

EDIT: Ok, maybe NOT Agent Orange...sources show that was being used in 'Nam as early as '61.

Edited January 2, 2009 by Mark Knight

[Robert Howard]

JFK Calender for September 23, 1963

5:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Meeting with Prince Souvanna Phouma, Prime Minister of Laos

More Events

President Kennedy's Foreword to Special Counsel Theodore Sorensen's book, Decision-Making in the White House, is published.

In a meeting in the White House Cabinet Room President Kennedy reads a statement on the government's manpower utilization program.

President Kennedy meets with a group of civic leaders from the city of Birmingham, Alabama.

President Kennedy meets with a group of clergy from the city of Birmingham, Alabama.

President Kennedy meets with Italian Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni. They issue a joint statement following their discussions in which they reaffirm "their mutual strong commitment to the related goals of a united and democratic Europe and Atlantic solidarity."

President Kennedy assigns the highest national priority to Project FOUR LEAVES to develop and produce a military communications system.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/White%2BHouse%2B...eptember/23.htm

[William Kelly]

JFK Calender for September 23, 1963

5:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Meeting with Prince Souvanna Phouma, Prime Minister of Laos

More Events

President Kennedy's Foreword to Special Counsel Theodore Sorensen's book, Decision-Making in the White House, is published.

In a meeting in the White House Cabinet Room President Kennedy reads a statement on the government's manpower utilization program.

President Kennedy meets with a group of civic leaders from the city of Birmingham, Alabama.

President Kennedy meets with a group of clergy from the city of Birmingham, Alabama.

President Kennedy meets with Italian Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni. They issue a joint statement following their discussions in which they reaffirm "their mutual strong commitment to the related goals of a united and democratic Europe and Atlantic solidarity."

President Kennedy assigns the highest national priority to Project FOUR LEAVES to develop and produce a military communications system.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/White%2BHouse%2B...eptember/23.htm

Thank you Mark and Robert for taking the time to follow up on this.

Knowing the assigned names to these projects have specific meaning, and the meeting with the group going to Vietnam to check on "the four military zones" in the morning, and issuing the NSAM shortly thereafter, cryptically called the Four Leaves, it appears that they are connected.

Robert gets another feather in his cap, now a vertible war bonnett, for coming up with the reference that "President Kennedy assigns the highest national priority to Project FOUR LEAVES to develop and produce a military communications system."

Why aren't there any other open source references to Four Leaves?

BK

[John Dolva]

Al Gore Sr & Jr -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore

"Gore was one of the Atari Democrats who were given this name due to their "passion for technological issues, from biomedical research and genetic engineering to the environmental impact of the "greenhouse effect."[23] On March 19, 1979 he became the first member of Congress to appear on C-SPAN.[41] During this time, Gore co-chaired the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future, along with Newt Gingrich.[42] In addition, he has been described as having been a "genuine nerd, with a geek reputation running back to his days as a futurist Atari Democrat in the House. Before computers were comprehensible, let alone sexy, the poker-faced Gore struggled to explain artificial intelligence and fiber-optic networks to sleepy colleagues."[43][23] Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn have also noted that, "as far back as the 1970s, Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship [...] the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises."[44]"

http://www.dei.isep.ipp.pt/~acc/docs/arpa.html

"The global Internet's progenitor was the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) of the U.S. Department of Defense.

...

The history of ARPA leading up to the ARPANET

A climate of pure research surrounded the entire history of the ARPANET. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was formed with an emphasis towards research, and thus was not oriented only to a military product. The formation of this agency was part of the U.S. reaction to the then Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957. (ARPA draft, III-6). ARPA was assigned to research how to utilize their investment in computers via Command and Control Research (CCR). Dr. J.C.R. Licklider was chosen to head this effort. Licklider came to ARPA from Bolt, Beranek and Newman, (BBN) in Cambridge, MA in October 1962. (ARPA draft, III-6)

...

Various research outside of ARPA had been done by Paul Baron, Thomas Marill and others. [This history is covered well in the article "From ARPANET to USENET" by Ronda Hauben..ref] This led Lawrence Roberts and other IPTO staff to formally introduce the topic of networking computers of differing types (incompatible hardware and software) together in order to share resources to the early 1967 meeting of ARPA's Primary Investigators (PI).

...

In order to develop this network of varied computers, two main problems had to be solved:

" 1. To construct a 'subnetwork' consisting of telephone circuits and switching nodes whose reliability, delay characteristics, capacity, and cost would facilitate resource sharing among computers on the network.

2. To understand , design, and implement the protocols and procedures within the operating systems of each connected computer, in order to allow the use of the new subnetwork by the computers in sharing resources." (ARPA not draft, II-8)

...

ARPA's Program Plan for the ARPANET was titled "Resource Sharing Computer Networks". It was submitted June 3, 1968, and approved by the Director June 21, 1968.

The Completion Report explains that the Program Plan was, "an interesting document. The stated objectives of the program were to develop experience in interconnection computers and to improve and increase computer research productivity through resource sharing. Technical needs in scientific and military environments were cited as justification for the program objectives. .."

-----------

http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/qsl-ham-history15.htm

"Clover was released in 1993 by HAL Communications as a means to gain new fans on HF bands in creating a product able to break through the worst band conditions, as well as to detect weak signals. Clover is a PSK mode, full duplex, coding the signal in 4 or 8 tones (Clover-2000 or XClover). It uses the DSP technology in its last version Clover-II. Unlike Pactor, it includes a very narrow bandwidth of 500 Hz at -50 dB below the peak amplitude, where PACTOR needs from 1.5 to 2.4 kHz for each station, HF packet signals 2 kHz, and AMTOR 1 kHz.

Clover offers a great efficiency and error-correction. Unlike the other mode, thanks to DSP Clover is able to adapt to conditions on bands by constantly monitoring the received signal. Expensive in its first version, Clover-II is today much more accessible although it required always a dedicated HAL processor."

Edited January 3, 2009 by John Dolva

[Charles Drago]

Four Leaves equals/inspires "ECOMCON"???

[William Kelly]

Thanks for your comments Robert, Mark, John and Charles, but don't you think it curious that the President of the United States could issue a National Security Action Memorandum on a topic that isn't even discussed in public, anywhere?

At this cold war communications group, someone suggests that the NSAM actually refers to Project Falling Leaves, rather than Four Leaves, and they make a strong case for it, but....

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coldwarcomms/message/7124

I don't think Bundy or JFK would allow Mrs. Lincoln, God bless her, to type in Four Leaves when they are talking about Falling Leaves, though it does sound like a plausible audio miss-read.

That's not like Bundy however, to allow a secretarial or typographical mistake go through, especially on something as critical as a National Security Action Memo, and especially something that is requiring such a national priority.

Falling Leaves was a Cuban Missile Crisis era project, a year previous, and it was a radar not a communications program.

Other NSAMs are written in related seqences, sometimes issued immediately after a National Security Council meeting, so there should be a relationship between the reported subject of the memo (military communications) and what was being discussed at meetings that day or the day previous - September 24, 1963.

Of course this is the day Oswald leaves New Orleans for Mexico City, and the day before Des Fitz briefs the JCS on Cuban operations and mentions the Valkarie plot.

It is also the day Gen. Taylor, chairman of JCS and others leave on a Vietnam tour of "the four military districts," hence my hunch they called it Four Leaves.

But that doesn't hold too much water either, and I suspect that Four Leaves is a separate project that we will still have to figure out what it is.

Is it related to Pendilum?

And is the NSAM the letter from Bundy that was delivered to the JCS by Gilpatrick and orally read to them before being given back to Gilpatrick? Gilpatrick is the one who issued the orders to create the NRO.

And John, I don't think it has anything to do with the internet, though maybe the Advanced Projects group, and possibly the earlier NSAM on a natonal communications system, and of course, Collins Radio. My personal feeling, at this point, is that Four Leaves is about military communications satalites.

There's a reference to Project Four Leaves in Scott D. Sagan's 1993 book "The Limits of Safety" on military nuke accidents.

I'm sure the people at the JFK Library, who declassified it, and others have also noticed the lack of any other reference to Project Four Leaves.

Are there any other possibilities?

BK

Edited January 4, 2009 by William Kelly

[John Dolva]

Well, it does in a way. The internet did develop out of the military net that scientist recognised as a way of transmitting data and speeding up research. When it became wide open, the military shifted to a new 'intranet'. The protocols that leads to tcp/ip was a development that involved scientists and gifted students (often californian 'nerds') from early on, has a history bound up with ARPA NET and its search for a suitable protocol. By mid seventies* a computer was a 'standard issue' to operatives ( eg. Bruce Jones in Costa Rica. A computer on top of a stack of Soldiers of Fortune Mags photo in magazine article 1975*).

Pehraps in the early (from 1957 on) progenitors there are names of persons of interest. (Clover is simply a De Bonoesque speculation).

EDIT: *correction eighties, 1985.

re Roberts post below : this triggers off a speculation, Holmes said he was in constant communication with his superior in Washington post assassination while others report a blackout. This may lead to credence to previous unconfirmed post by Peter that Holmes was named by source, wishing to maintain anonymity, as being ONI et.c..

Edited January 4, 2009 by John Dolva

[Robert Howard]

Well, it does in a way. The internet did develop out of the military net that scientist recognised as a way of transmitting data and speeding up research. When it became wide open, the military shifted to a new 'intranet'. The protocols that leads to tcp/ip was a development that involved scientists and gifted students (often californian 'nerds') from early on, has a history bound up with ARPA NET and its search for a suitable protocol. By mid seventies a computer was a 'standard issue' to operatives ( eg. Bruce Jones in Costa Rica. A computer on top of a stack of Soldiers of Fortune Mags photo in magazine article 1975).

Pehraps in the early (from 1957 on) progenitors there are names of persons of interest. (Clover is simply a De Bonoesque speculation).

There is a possibility of a less sinister explanation, that Four Leaves was simply a project that JFK initiated the never reached fruition because of the impending events in Dallas.

Having said that there is another point that should be made and that is that "Four Leaves" might possibly have been JFK's idea of a communication system in which very secretive communications amongst our military/Pentagon etc., would have not been secret even to the President himself, a suggestion, I admit is sheerly of a speculative nature.......

Reasoning behind such a sinister idea would be the point that is addressed by the question.

Was JFK aware before he died of individuals like Eugene Dinkin who was frantically trying to alert someone that Kennedy was about to be assassinated?

Curiously, confirmation of Dinkin's crypto clearance was provided by Lt. Colonel John C. Lipincott of the Pentagon's Legislative Liason Office, according to Exhibit B Dinkin lawsuit February 10, 1964 letter from John C. Lipincott to Honorable Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Senate

See

footnote citation #32 ref. page 349 The Man Who Knew Too Much 2003 edition

Arguments to the contrary, would no doubt cite the NSA Reports to the President as precluding the need for such an idea, but if Kennedy had individuals around him aware of what was about to happen to him, that would have been rendered as about as useless as Dinkin's efforts to alert someone, proved to be in the first place.

Like Caesar he is surrounded by enemies?

Edited January 4, 2009 by Robert Howard

[Mark Knight]

As with John, the term "four leaves" suggests in my mind, by simple association, the term "clover."

And then there's that other definition of "leave," which is "to depart." In "Four Leaves," I can figure out leaving Vietnam...and Cuba...but not necessarily two other locales in the 1963 timeframe.

Just brainstorming...since I've come up emptyhanded searching otherwise 'round and about the 'net.

[John Dolva]

As with John, the term "four leaves" suggests in my mind, by simple association, the term "clover."

And then there's that other definition of "leave," which is "to depart." In "Four Leaves," I can figure out leaving Vietnam...and Cuba...but not necessarily two other locales in the 1963 timeframe.

Just brainstorming...since I've come up emptyhanded searching otherwise 'round and about the 'net.

Brainstorming has its place. It doesn't have to lead anywhere in particular but can do so indirectly which in turn may or may not do the same.. The four leaf clover? Three, yes, but ever chasing the Shamrock? (One can make a convincing enugh four leaf clover out of a couple of three leaves (convincing enough to make the other kids go wow. (Of course this is only after a fruitless search that is at least made funny (or it seemed so at the time...))).

re earlier mention of celtic in other post there is the ole' celtic cross, often adopted by Ubermenshen types, (KKK for example). http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=69420 "An even higher decoration, the Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, was intended to be presented to the most successful German general of World War II once Germany achieved victory. Awarded only twice to Field Marshals Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and Paul von Hindenburg, a prototype 1939 Star was discovered by the Allies in 1945. It is currently on display with Göring's Reichsmarschall baton in the West Point Military Collection." "The German Law about Titles, Orders and Honourary Signs (German language: "Gesetz über Titel, Orden und Ehrenzeichen") (BGBl. I S. 334) [ [http://bundesrecht.juris.de/ordeng/BJNR008440957.html BGBl. I S. 334 @ Bundesministerium der Justiz] ] regulates the wearing of the Knight's Cross in post World War II Germany. The reason for this is that German law prohibits wearing a swastika, so on July 26, 1957 the West German government authorized replacement Knight's Crosses with an Oak Leaf Cluster in place of the swastika, similar to the Iron Crosses of 1813, 1870, and 1914, which could be worn by World War II Iron Cross recipients."

http://landscaping.about.com/cs/lawns/a/clover_lawns.htm p2

"I'm looking over a four-leaf clover

That I overlooked before.

One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain,

Third is the roses that grow in the lane.

No need explaining the one remaining

Is somebody I adore.

I'm looking over a four-leaf clover

That I overlooked before.

Considering the St. Patrick's Day traditions surrounding shamrocks and four leaf clovers, it is surprising that the clover is often looked upon as a weed, the killing of which we deem central to the care of our lawns. But it was not always so. Indeed, the University of Minnesota Extension Service points out that, until relatively recently, it was standard practice to include clover seed in lawn seed mixes:

"Until the 1950s, clover was included in lawn seed mixes as it was regarded as a prestigious lawn plant. It may be considered an attractive, low-maintenance ground cover that is soft to walk on, mows well and will fill in thin spots in a yard."

Landscaping enthusiasts believe in making their own luck through solid decision-making, rather than relying on Celtic charms and the proverbial "luck of the Irish." The information on Page 3 may not send you scurrying to find any four leaf clovers. But it may make you re-think your attitude toward your lawn...."

[William Kelly]

St. Patrick's Shamrock was a three leaf-clover to designate the trinity.

He used the three leaf shamrock to explain the trinity to the Irish pagans.

I think the answer to the question is in the make up of previous NSAM concerning military communications, and the most recent National Security Council meeting before it was issued - prior to Sept. 24, 1963, and what was discussed.

The idea that the president of the USA issued a National Security Action Memo on a secret topic that was not only kept out of the media at the time, but remains unknown forty five years later, is quite astounding, in my opinion.

I think it does have something to do with the letter from Bundy and delivered by Gilpatrick that was orally read to the Joint Chiefs of Staff the following day, as mentioned in the Higgins memo of Sept. 25.

BK

[Charles Drago]

JFK, in recognition of the treason around him at the highest levels, sets up a ... what's the word ... private executive communications system and restricts access (which is to say, acknowledges it for tactical reasons)???

[Robert Howard]

JFK, in recognition of the treason around him at the highest levels, sets up a ... what's the word ... private executive communications system and restricts access (which is to say, acknowledges it for tactical reasons)???

Bill wrote

I think it does have something to do with the letter from Bundy and delivered by Gilpatrick that was orally read to the Joint Chiefs of Staff the following day, as mentioned in the Higgins memo of Sept. 25.

BK

Citing the document and locating it seems to be the problematic part of it....

Maryferrell has a very extensive collection of JCS/Califano-Cuba/OPLAN-34 Papers. The JCS/Califano papers are subdivided into the Wheeler/Taylor/Lemnitzer papers, and there are SACSA papers.....

I have been perusing NARA and MFF without any success, but I did run across something that involved secured radio communications, but it was in relation to radio frequencies that were secure, as in radio frequencies secure from being jammed by Cuba, I tend to agree with Bill, in his perception of what the memo states, the problem is at NARA the only Gilpatrick/Bundy memos I found were dated January 10, 1963, which presents a problem since the document in question would have to have been on or no earlier than 9/25/1963.

There are 3 of the January 10, 1963 Gilpatrick Bundy memo's

one of them is reproduced below:

AGENCY : ARMY

RECORD NUMBER : 198-10008-10111

RECORDS SERIES : CALIFANO PAPERS

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

ORIGINATOR : OSD

FROM : ROSWELL GILPATRIC

TO : MR. MCGEORGE BUNDY

TITLE : INTERDEPARTMENTAL ORGANIZATION FOR CUBAN AFFAIRS

DATE : 01/10/1963

PAGES : 1

DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

SUBJECTS : POLICY AND PLANNING, CUBA; INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE

ON CUBA PERSONNEL; NSAM NO. 213

CLASSIFICATION : UNCLASSIFIED

RESTRICTIONS : OPEN IN FULL

CURRENT STATUS : OPEN

DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 05/01/1998