Harris Wofford and the Assassination of John Kennedy

[John Simkin]

Harris Wofford was a member of Martin Luther King's team and was involved in negotiations with John Kennedy and Richard Nixon during the 1960 Presidential Campaign. He later recalled: "He (King) was impressed and encouraged by the far-reaching Democratic civil rights platform, and preferred to use the campaign period to negotiate civil rights commitments from both candidates, but particularly from Kennedy." After his election victory John Kennedy appointed Wofford as as his Special Assistant for Civil Rights. Wofford also served as chairman of the Subcabinet Group on Civil Rights.

JFK agreed to move Wofford in April 1962. Robert Kennedy told Anthony Lewis: “Harris Wofford was very emotionally involved in all these matters and was rather in some areas a slight madman. I didn’t want to have someone in the Civil Rights Division who was dealing not from fact but was dealing from emotion… I wanted advice and ideas from somebody who had the same interests and motivation that I did.” Wofford became the Peace Corps Special Representative for Africa. Later he was appointed as Associate Director of the Peace Corps.

In his book, Of Kennedys & Kings (1980) Wofford wrote about the assassination of JFK:

In 1967, when Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson wrote a column reporting that the CIA may have conspired with the Mafia to murder Castro and that "Bobby, eager to avenge the Bay of Pigs fiasco, played a key role in the planning," Kennedy told his aides, "I didn't start it. I stopped it." The record available to the public, however, is not so clear.

The Attorney General certainly didn't start it, and before the Bay of Pigs he apparently had little to do with the CIA or Cuba. But in the aftermath of the invasion, he became the President's representative in Operation Mongoose, the ClA-led, interdepartmental secret campaign against Castro. He persuaded his brother to issue a top-secret order "to use our available assets... to help Cuba overthrow the Communist regime." In January 1962, Robert Kennedy assembled the Mongoose planners at the Justice Department and said that the operation had "top priority"; he urged that "no time, money, effort - or manpower... be spared." How could he be sure that his pressure had not encouraged the CIA to reactivate or intensify its assassination efforts?

His involvement may have gone deeper. At least one of those familiar with his role in Operation Mongoose thinks that his fascination with violent counter-insurgency and his frustration with Castro would have invited the assassination planners to make him privy to their plots (even as McCone's aversion to unsavory operations may have led them to keep him in the dark). Since the cost of the various expeditions of sabotage sponsored by Mongoose was excessive, in comparison to any damage they did in Cuba, the CIA planners needed an ally. They had one in the Attorney General. A rationale for Operation Mongoose was always inadequate, according to a non-CIA participant in the planning, but it was approved because of the Attorney General's insistence. In retrospect, that official thinks Mongoose made sense only as a cover for the attempts at murder. The assassination plotters needed just such a large unchecked budget, repeated landings of sabotage teams, and secret agents.

If Robert Kennedy understood and supported this secret plan within the larger covert operation, he himself may have been the source of "terrific pressure" for the assassination. Nothing in the testimony before the Senate committee suggests that the circumlocutious and evasive leaders of the CIA would have put such direct pressure on the President. Then who did? "Terrific pressure" is what anyone, including his brother the President, would have felt if he tried to resist a course strongly advocated by the Attorney General.

Wofford also commented on the House Select Committee on Assassinations:

From the findings of the Senate committee, we could begin to understand the burden of knowledge - even of guilt - that Robert Kennedy was carrying in the last years of his life. Together with the findings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979, these facts can account for the grief beyond ordinary grief with which Robert Kennedy wrestled for long months and years. They do not prove that John Kennedy was killed as a result of a conspiracy, but they do suggest that it was not a tragedy without reason.

Robert Kennedy must have considered the story those facts told to be worse than the most terrible fiction. Adding to his burden was the obligation he felt to keep all the key facts secret from most, if not all, of his family and friends, and to try to withhold them forever from the people of this country and the world. Those secrets provided motives for Castro, or the Mafia, or the ClA's Cuban brigade, or some people in the CIA itself to have conspired to kill the President, yet to preserve the good name of John Kennedy and of the government of the United States they had to be kept from the Warren Commission and from the eyes of history. Also weighing on Robert Kennedy's mind must have been the risks of blackmail against the government and the family of the murdered President which threatened to make a special hostage of the Attorney General.

From the reconstruction of the record made possible by the Senate and House reports, and from everything we know about the character of Robert Kennedy, I believe that the shock of these discoveries and his realization of what violence, crime, and secret conspiracies can lead to were significant factors in his transformation. Thus, in order to understand Robert Kennedy and his times, the truth about these stories must be sorted out and the painful facts faced. That is what I believe Robert Kennedy did.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwofford.htm

[Guest Robert Morrow]

I am coming around to the point of view that Robert Kennedy knew of and approved of assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. I did not used to think so, but I am more and more coming of that opinion.

[J. Raymond Carroll]

I am coming around to the point of view that Robert Kennedy knew of and approved of assassination attempts on Fidel Castro.

When JFK fired Allen Dulles, he replaced him with a civilian, John McCone. BOth JFK & RFK trusted McCone to be their watchdog at CIA, because they did not trust the Dulles loyalists who still held key positions.

I believe it is an undisputed fact that John McCone knew nothing about the Castro assassination plots that were ongoing during his tenure, so the logical inference is that those who relied on McCone to be their watchdog were kept equally in the dark.

But of course you are free to ignore logic and believe any nonsense that you CHOOSE to believe.

[David Lifton]

I am coming around to the point of view that Robert Kennedy knew of and approved of assassination attempts on Fidel Castro.

When JFK fired Allen Dulles, he replaced him with a civilian, John McCone. BOth JFK & RFK trusted McCone to be their watchdog at CIA, because they did not trust the Dulles loyalists who still held key positions.

I believe it is an undisputed fact that John McCone knew nothing about the Castro assassination plots that were ongoing during his tenure, so the logical inference is that those who relied on McCone to be their watchdog were kept equally in the dark.

But of course you are free to ignore logic and believe any nonsense that you CHOOSE to believe.

I, too, used to believe that neither RFK (nor JFK) could (or would) have anything to do with plots to kill Castro. But I came to change my view, starting around 2001. I came to believe not only that they did, but also why. I can cite you chapter and verse that Bobby Kennedy were involved in some of the plots. Yes, the AG of the USA, and that's what's so upsetting (and tragic) about it. An important book to read is Joseph Califano's "INSIDE", published around 2004--and specifically, his chapter "Getting Fidel." Extremely revealing. Califano was an eyewitness to what was going on.

Another important item: "The Old Man and the CIA: A Kennedy Plot to Kill Castro?" by David Corn and Gus Russo published in the March 26, 2001 Nation Magazine. A critical part of this article arose out of the discovery of the March, 1962 "Lansdale memo" which came to me as part of a large FOIA order, and which I copied for Professor Larry Haapanen. He discovered the memo, spotted its significance, and we decided we could not just "sit on it," even though we knew how it would be interpreted.

The bottom line (imho): The Kennedy brothers believed that Castro was a reckless out-of-control Marxist who had already brought the world to the precipice of nuclear war, and didn't ever want to go near that situation again. That's my personal opinion. They had a two-track policy--diplomatic (if possible) but overthrow if not. They had no intention of going into the 1964 election with Castro still in power. Again, imho. (But you can find plenty of support for this in Evan Thomas' bio of RFK.)

DSL

4/8/11; 6:40 PDT

Los Angeles, CA

[John Simkin]

I, too, used to believe that neither RFK (nor JFK) could (or would) have anything to do with plots to kill Castro. But I came to change my view, starting around 2001. I came to believe not only that they did, but also why. I can cite you chapter and verse that Bobby Kennedy were involved in some of the plots. Yes, the AG of the USA, and that's what's so upsetting (and tragic) about it. An important book to read is Joseph Califano's "INSIDE", published around 2004--and specifically, his chapter "Getting Fidel." Extremely revealing. Califano was an eyewitness to what was going on.

Another important item: "The Old Man and the CIA: A Kennedy Plot to Kill Castro?" by David Corn and Gus Russo published in the March 26, 2001 Nation Magazine. A critical part of this article arose out of the discovery of the March, 1962 "Lansdale memo" which came to me as part of a large FOIA order, and which I copied for Professor Larry Haapanen. He discovered the memo, spotted its significance, and we decided we could not just "sit on it," even though we knew how it would be interpreted.

The bottom line (imho): The Kennedy brothers believed that Castro was a reckless out-of-control Marxist who had already brought the world to the precipice of nuclear war, and didn't ever want to go near that situation again. That's my personal opinion. They had a two-track policy--diplomatic (if possible) but overthrow if not. They had no intention of going into the 1964 election with Castro still in power. Again, imho. (But you can find plenty of support for this in Evan Thomas' bio of RFK.)

DSL

4/8/11; 6:40 PDT

Los Angeles, CA

I completely agree David. All the evidence suggests this is the case. Several senior figures in the CIA insisted that the plot to kill Castro came from the White House. It was also claimed that it was RFK who was the main player in these events. Although I don't believe it, I suspect RFK believed the plots against Castro was the reason for the assassination of JFK. This helps to explain why he was willing to believe the Warren Report.

[William Kelly]

I, too, used to believe that neither RFK (nor JFK) could (or would) have anything to do with plots to kill Castro. But I came to change my view, starting around 2001. I came to believe not only that they did, but also why. I can cite you chapter and verse that Bobby Kennedy were involved in some of the plots. Yes, the AG of the USA, and that's what's so upsetting (and tragic) about it. An important book to read is Joseph Califano's "INSIDE", published around 2004--and specifically, his chapter "Getting Fidel." Extremely revealing. Califano was an eyewitness to what was going on.

Another important item: "The Old Man and the CIA: A Kennedy Plot to Kill Castro?" by David Corn and Gus Russo published in the March 26, 2001 Nation Magazine. A critical part of this article arose out of the discovery of the March, 1962 "Lansdale memo" which came to me as part of a large FOIA order, and which I copied for Professor Larry Haapanen. He discovered the memo, spotted its significance, and we decided we could not just "sit on it," even though we knew how it would be interpreted.

The bottom line (imho): The Kennedy brothers believed that Castro was a reckless out-of-control Marxist who had already brought the world to the precipice of nuclear war, and didn't ever want to go near that situation again. That's my personal opinion. They had a two-track policy--diplomatic (if possible) but overthrow if not. They had no intention of going into the 1964 election with Castro still in power. Again, imho. (But you can find plenty of support for this in Evan Thomas' bio of RFK.)

DSL

4/8/11; 6:40 PDT

Los Angeles, CA

I completely agree David. All the evidence suggests this is the case. Several senior figures in the CIA insisted that the plot to kill Castro came from the White House. It was also claimed that it was RFK who was the main player in these events. Although I don't believe it, I suspect RFK believed the plots against Castro was the reason for the assassination of JFK. This helps to explain why he was willing to believe the Warren Report.

I don't believe Califano was a witness, I think he's a suspect in both the plots to kill Castro and the specific plot that resulted in what happened at Dealey Plaza.

And he's very much alive and head of a non-profit Security Think Tank at Columbia University in NYC, if anyone wants to invite him to the forum to discuss this.

Yes, the plots to kill Castro are entwined with the JFK assassination, but not the Mafia plots that predated JFK's administration, and not the AMLASH plot, although its related, but consider the specific plots to kill Castro that are directly tied to the JFK assassination - the plot that led to the arrest of Amador Odio, the Rex Plot, the Hemingway Plot that Lansdale mentions in his memo and is falsely drawn out by "They Call Me Gus" Russo in the Nation article "The Old Man and the CIA," and most significantly, the Valkyrie Plot that is mentioned in the Califano papers, that were included among the ARRB releases and include a dozen dynamite smoking records.

The key that most people look for is evidence that JFK or RFK were aware of the plots - or were briefed on them, or directly approved or ordered them, but for me, I look at the plots that are directly connected to Dealey Plaza, and can see how RFK was brought in to meet the Cubans at JMWAVE that were on the Rex (See: Brad Ayers, The Zenith Secret), and was made aware of the Valkyrie Plot, and may have even discussed them with JFK at Glen Ora.

But those who claim that because JFK and RFK were in on the plots devised by the CIA - and US Army - Califano was asst. Sec of Army - only to conclude that they- JFK and RFK therefore deserved to be assassinated themselves - or that Castro became aware of the plots and turned them on JFK at DP, well that was the intention. That was the intention of the plotters who briefed RFK on the details and introducing him to the Cubans who went in on the Rex, so he would be compromised by the assassination of his brother. That's what's upsetting and tragic, not that RFK agreed to the plots, but that those who killed JFK set RFK up, so he knew but couldn't do anything about it.

And who are those who John Simkin says claim that the plots to kill Castro "came from the White House"? Let me see, there's Califano, the Army liason with the CIA operators, Halpern, in the CIA, and RFK's "cousin" Des Fitzgerald, who was in on the AMLASH and Valkyrie Plots, two of the four plots directly connected to Dealey Plaza, and who else? Lansdale? Shackley? Evan Thomas and Corn and Russo have it in for RFK, and play the guilt card, when in fact it was a set-up, just like the assassination itself.

http://www.maryferre...absPageId=49622

"….The Attorney General then mentioned Mary Hemingway,commenting on reports that Castro was drinking heavily in disgruntlement overthe way things were going, and the opportunities offered by the "shine" toHemingway. I commented that this was a conversation Ed Murrow had had with MaryHemingway, that we had similar reports from other sources, and that this wasworth assessing firmly and pursuing vigorously. If there were grounds foraction, CIA had some invaluable assets whichmight well be committed for such an effort. McCone asked if his operationalpeople were aware of this; I told him that we had discussed this, that theyagreed the subject was worth vigorous development, and that we were inagreement that the matter was so delicate and sensitive that it shouldn't besurfaced to the Special Group until we were ready to go, and then not indetail. I pointed out that this all pertained to fractioning the regime. If ithappened, it could develop like a brush-fire, much as in Hungary,and we must be prepared to help it win our goal of Cubafree of a Communist government."

Of course the rest of the article is pure speculation on the part of everyone quoted who hates Kennedy - who merely state that what was so "delicate and sensitive" had to be an assassination plot that they were going to launch to kill Castro when he visited Hemingway's house again, if he ever did, and that is the "proof" or what DK calls the "smoking gun" that doesn't smoke.

The real "smoking gun" doc is the Valkyrie plot record, the Des Fitz briefing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - then headed by LeMay, in September 1963.

But don't just take the false summary of others that this is the proof of RFK and JFK knowledge of CIA/Army plots to kill Castro, or my own conclusion that RFK was set up by those doing the plotting, but read the actual record and judge for yourself.

Bill Kelly

The Old Man and the CIA: A Kennedy Plot to Kill Castro? | The Nation

Inside: A Public and Private Life - Google Books

Army - Califano Papers

http://www.maryferre...o?docSetId=1024

JFKcountercoup: Were Castro Plots Hatched at Glen Ora?

Were Castro Plots Hatched at Glen Ora? - The Education Forum

JFKcountercoup: Valkyrie At Dealey Plaza

JFKcountercoup: JFK Coup - The Administrative Details

Edited April 9, 2011 by William Kelly

[William Kelly]

Okay, then let's put it this way. If this quote from the 1962 Lansdale memo is the best evidence that JFK and RFK knew about, approved or ordered the assassination of Castro, then they didn't.

"….The Attorney General then mentioned Mary Hemingway,commenting on reports that Castro was drinking heavily in disgruntlement overthe way things were going, and the opportunities offered by the “shine” toHemingway. I commented that this was a conversation Ed Murrow had had with MaryHemingway, that we had similar reports from other sources, and that this wasworth assessing firmly and pursuing vigorously. If there were grounds foraction, CIA had some invaluable assets whichmight well be committed for such an effort. McCone asked if his operationalpeople were aware of this; I told him that we had discussed this, that theyagreed the subject was worth vigorous development, and that we were inagreement that the matter was so delicate and sensitive that it shouldn’t besurfaced to the Special Group until we were ready to go, and then not indetail. I pointed out that this all pertained to fractioning the regime. If ithappened, it could develop like a brush-fire, much as in Hungary,and we must be prepared to help it win our goal of Cubafree of a Communist government.”

Consider that Ed Murrow was a close, personal confidant of JFK, former CBS newsman who JFK appointed to head the USIA, and JFK got the Mary Hemmingway story direct from Murrow, who also personally nixed the CIA's "Balloon-Leafleting" campaign that had previously been approved and was almost operational, and included the "Act of God" putting a friend of the Cubans in office.

And that the Special Group would be informed about it when "we were ready to go," but apparently weren't, so it never actually went operational.

And that since this pertained to "fractioning the regime," if it happened, - presumably the assassination of Castro - they must be ready for a "brush-fire."

And also note that Hungary was sparked to revolt, and then when they did, they were abandoned and it failed.

Now come on, doesn't anyone want to argue that JFK and RFK knew about, approved or ordered the assassination of Castro?

Bill Kelly

[J. Raymond Carroll]

Several senior figures in the CIA insisted that the plot to kill Castro came from the White House.

Well they would, wouldn't they?

If Mandy Rice-Davies could see through such bullxxxx, and I 'm guessing Mandi never went to college, then John Simkin and David Lifton should too.

Recall the big lesson JFK learned from the Bay of Pigs: THe president is responsible; for him there is no such thing as plausible deniability.

Allen Dulles authored the assassination plots against Castro and Lumumba, all of which began while IKE was president. Lumumba was actually murdered while IKe was still president. If JFK approved of the castro plot, then by firing Dulles he left himself open to blackmail.

I submit that JFK was not that STUPID.

I further submit that the insinuation that JFK was an assassin is part of the Mockingbird program to discourage the JFK assassination inquiry.

[John Simkin]

"Several senior figures in the CIA insisted that the plot to kill Castro came from the White House."

The CIA said it, and you believe it....(sigh)...

Are you really saying that everything every CIA official says is a lie?

[William Kelly]

"Several senior figures in the CIA insisted that the plot to kill Castro came from the White House."

The CIA said it, and you believe it....(sigh)...

Are you really saying that everything every CIA official says is a lie?

I don't know what Norman George has to say about it, but I don't think "everything every CIA official is a lie."

I say it's a lie that Oswald killed JFK.

I say its a lie that Castro had JFK killed.

I say its a lie that JFK and RFK tried to kill Castro.

And I say that those who lie about JFK and RFK trying to kill Castro, or that Castro was behind the assassination,

are themselves part of the plot that killed JFK.

So who are these CIA officials who say that RFK and JFK tried to have Castro killed?

Let's look at them a little closer.

And Both Harris Wofford and Joe Califano are still alive. Let's ask them what they have to say about it now.

Bill Kelly

jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com

Edited April 11, 2011 by William Kelly

[B. A. Copeland]

Well said Mr Kelly. Lets also get one thing straight, Dulles was a servant. He served at the behest of very powerful special/banking interests. The CIA was never, ever "controlled" by either him or Donovan. They both served at the legal behest of those who were their masters so to speak. I think that really puts things into perspective. I usually am careful to state things in such a way where they are put in such high positions that they seemed to have been running things ultimately, the same goes for Bush Sr, Jr, etc. Understand the servants and the masters. Example (from mtwsfh.blogspot):

1923-1942: UNITED STATES. George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, is the Managing Director of the notorious investment bank, Brown Brothers, Harriman, from the 1920s through the 1940s and, like his father Samuel Bush, becomes a devoted lifelong minion of the Harrimans, one of the leading families in the U.S. ruling class. In league with Averell W. Harriman and his younger brother, E. Roland Harriman, Bush serves as front man for and facilitates investment in and for a score of Nazi businesses.

Bush, the Harrimans, the Rockefeller family, Standard Oil, the Duponts, the Morgans and the Fords provide funding for the Hitler Project, financing Adolf Hitler's rise to power and the takeover of Germany starting in 1923. This includes direct funding of the SS (Schutzstaffel or Black Shirts) and the SA (Sturmabteilung, storm troops or Brown Shirts).

The "approved" version of Hitler's rise to power has the German people, economically devastated by the First World War and the destructive terms of the Treaty of Versailles (written by the Dulles brothers, the Morgans and the Warburgs among others) embracing Hitler as their savior. In fact, it took some 300,000 SS and SA thugs, armed and financed by the Rockefellers, Fords, Bushes, Harrimans, Duponts et al to terrorize the German people into submission to the Nazis. These same thugs assassinated more than four hundred German politicians who had the courage to oppose Nazism.

The cash supplied by the American ruling class to the SS and SA is channeled through a variety of German companies by International Telephone and Telegraph (IT&T). Virtually all of the weapons used by the SS and SA to terrorize the German people, primarily Thomson submachine guns and pistols, are supplied by the Rockefellers' Remington Arms and carried to Germany by the Harriman-controlled Hamburg-Amerika line fronted by George W. Bush's great grandfather, Herbert W. Walker. The Rockefellers’ Chase Manhattan Bank serves as a major source of finance for the Nazis and, as the Nazis send Jews, Gypsies, socialists and other “sub-humans” to the gas chambers in accordance with the eugenics agenda promulgated by the American ruling class, closes the accounts of its Jewish customers. Chase will continue to serve as banker for the Nazis even after Germany declares war on the U.S.