Was the TFX Case a Scandal?

[James DiEugenio]

Did some work on this F-111 angle.  Came to some differing conclusions than others did.  Based on some different data.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/was-the-tfx-case-a-scandal

Some takeaways:  

1.) The F-111 was originally an Eisenhower project not a Kennedy administration one.

2.) Contrary to popular knowledge,  the Pentagon had the General Dynamics/Grumman bid winning in their own scoring system.

3.) McNamara, in reality, restored what the Pentagon reversed. 

4.) Incredibly, all the commentators leave out the real  bad guy of the affair, Henry Jackson, "the Senator from Boeing".  This was astonishing to me.

5.) McNamara did have written reports upon which he based his beliefs that Boeing had deliberately understated its costs.

6.) Contrary, again, to the accepted wisdom, the F-111 fighter/bomber was an exceptional plane.  If not for the Clinton Pentagon cuts, it would have been flying for a half century.  The AIr Force did not want to give it up and would have rather renovated it rather than accept the F-15 Strike Eagle, which they thought was an inferior plane.

On Black Op Radio this week, I go into a couple of other elements, like what the Korth case was really about, and what Seymour Hersh says about the episode in his trash can of a book.  Whatever you think, there is a lot of new info in this piece.  I conclude that this was not about what most people think it was about. It was about something much bigger.

Edited February 7, 2020 by James DiEugenio

[Ron Bulman]

Wasn't it a scandal over LBJ taking a bribe to fix the contract going to General Dynamics vs Boeing?  Or that being the generally accepted version?

I've not yet read the article.

Edited February 7, 2020 by Ron Bulman

[David Andrews]

What about the allotment of GD's TFX manufacturing plants to states that would pull for JFK in the 1964 election, mentioned as a black mark against Kennedy among his enemies in Stone's JFK and preceding published research?  The article's great - does it need a brother?

[James DiEugenio]

Ron:

There was never anything proven against anyone.

In my BOR talk, I spoke about just how bad Henry Jackson was on this and how he was out to get anyone and everyone involved. 

Dave, thanks.  Also on that program, Len Osanic, through Prouty, mentioned how the White House was planning on spreading the sub contracting all over the country so it would not just be in Texas, or in Washington had Boeing gotten the deal.

Edited February 7, 2020 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

Greg Parker says Australia was pressured into buying the plane.  I did not read that while prepping the article.  But I did see stories saying how the Pentagon was pressuring other countries into NOT buying it.

That is how determined they were to stigmatize the aircraft.  Yet, as I note in the essay, it was a very good plane.  

[W. Niederhut]

Very interesting article, but I don't understand the back story on JFK and McNamara being smeared for favoring General Dynamics and the F-111 proposal.

Was it mainly a case of Scoop Jackson resenting Boeing not getting the contract?

A family friend was an exec at General Dynamics from Fort Worth back in the 60s, and I always had the impression that LBJ was simply garnering business deals for the Lone Star State, as in the case of Bell Helicopter.

Edited February 7, 2020 by W. Niederhut

[Michael Clark]

On 4/8/2018 at 11:05 AM, Michael Clark said:

At 3:00

RFK: The TFX, Have you been watching that? The newspapermen think that there's something there. They think that something funny went on."

JFK: " Well you know what went ON, nobody wanted to go to Topeka, Kansas! That's all that went on!"

 

 

 

[James DiEugenio]

William:

Jackson started the hearings for the explicit purpose to try and show that somehow, because McNamara did not choose Boeing, something was wrong with the process. Like I said, that was his nickname, the senator from Boeing.

The other thing is, the Pentagon supported him and the hearings, since they did not like the whole inter-service sharing of projects that McNamara was trying to initiate with the plane. They also did not like how McNamara was trying to reform the procurement process and the cost plus contracts. (BTW, if I recall correctly, I think Kennedy might have mentioned these kinds of things in his Inaugural address.)

Drew Pearson printed every piece of Jackson/ Pentagon rumor and innuendo he could get his hands on.  But somehow he never wrote anything about what McNamara was trying to do or how the Pentagon was trying to resist it with everything they could muster.

Edited February 7, 2020 by James DiEugenio