Major General Charles A. Willoughby

[Douglas Caddy]

Lee Shepherd posted this on Facebook today. The reference to JFK appears near its end.

 

Author Dick Russell writes:

“While his mentor, General [Douglas] MacArthur, passed into quiet retirement and was occasionally sought by Kennedy for advice, [Major General Charles A.] Willoughby [MacArthur’s Chief of Intelligence] approached his seventieth birthday with samurai swords placed strategically next to his desk. Willoughby's holy war against the "Red Menace" found him sitting on the boards of most of the major conservative groups, and reaching into Europe and Latin America to start his own International Committee for the Defense of Christian Culture…”

MacArthur often referred to his six-foot, three-inch aide as “My little Fascist.” The World Anti-Communist League (WACL), a far right-wing international non-governmental organization of politicians and group’s was the brainchild of Gen. Willoughby. He also sat on the board of the Young Americans for Freedom, alongside Gen. Edwin Walker and was a good friend of H. L. Hunt. After WWII ended, Willoughby worked counterintelligence with Edward Lansdale to ruthlessly suppress the guerrilla resistance movement in the Philippines. In 1951, Gen. Willoughby retired from the army after 41 years, but maintained a relationship with Military Intelligence G-2. Willoughby was a staunch supporter of Sen. Joe “Tailgunner” McCarthy and was also associated with the American Security Council (ASC), an outfit founded in 1955 by ex-FBI agents. The ASC was instrumental in targeting nearly 20,000 leftists during the 1950s, the period of the McCarthyite witch-hunts lead by mob attorney Roy Cohn, McCarthy’s grand inquisitor and close friend of J. Edgar Hoover. Its policy-advising board, the National Strategy Committee, was managed by Gen. Curtis LeMay and supported by Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer. The ASC was the “leading public group campaigning to use U.S. military force to oust Castro from Cuba, and to escalate the war in Vietnam.” Willoughby, the man the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Hall of Fame calls “The Most Prominent American Intelligence Officer of World War II, lobbied the U.S. Congress to authorize $100 million for Gen. Francisco Franco’s government in Spain, which he described as “a cradle of supermen,” lead by the “second greatest general in the world (MacArthur being the greatest).” E. Howard Hunt and William D. Pawley, were instrumental in forming the top-secret army unit called Field Operations Intelligence (FOI), that worked jointly with Willoughby and the CIA. Double-agent Richard Case Nagell’s connection to Willoughby has been firmly established. Pawley helped lift the boycott against Spain that resulted in the U.S. pouring billions of dollars into Franco’s dictatorship. In 1975, President Nixon toasted the Fascist tyrant’s death stating, "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States.” Dick Russell wrote that Willoughby had ties to the anti-Castro Cuban exile community in the U.S. and served as a Washington representative of the National Advisory Committee while he was in Texas between October 31 and November 21, 1963. Cuban exile leader Felipe Vidal traveled to Dallas during this time on several occasions in order to “raise funds,” for the anti-Castro exiles, and was exclusively under the control of CIA. Vidal was also a member of a paramilitary group called, “InterPen,” or Intercontinental Penetration Force, which would do deeds the CIA did not want to be associated with. Authors J. Gary Shaw and Larry Harris wrote that Vidal’s CIA contact, Col. William Bishop, often met with extremists Loran Hall, Lewis Bloomfield, Edwin Walker and Charles Willoughby. Three years after the events in Dallas, Willoughby went to work full time for H.L. Hunt’s son, Nelson Bunker. As authors Sterling and Peggy Seagrave noted in their 2005 book, Gold Warriors, “For Willoughby, truth was always flexible.” Military intelligence men like Willoughby were never called to testify before the Warren Commission even though he worked closely with George Bush’s friend Alfred Ulmer and was associated with Clint Murchison, and Bircher John Rousselot. Willoughby died at his gated estate in Naples, Florida in 1972, and with him undoubtable the secret of who masterminded the state ordered execution of JFK. A longstanding member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame, Gen. Willoughby was entombed with full honors in Arlington Cemetery, not far from where the Kennedy brothers rest. (This will be my last posting. ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Paul Brancato]

Interesting, but much unsourced. What was the connection between Willoughby and Nagell?

[David Andrews]

2 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Interesting, but much unsourced. What was the connection between Willoughby and Nagell?

Nagell worked for FOI in Korea.  Dick Russell may have written more on Willoughby, but I don't recall it.  I'll check the book and edit if I can update that.

[Steve Thomas]

I read through this description of Willoughby and all I could think of was Gladio and the strategy of tension.

Steve Thomas

[Joe Bauer]

43 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:

I read through this description of Willoughby and all I could think of was Gladio and the strategy of tension.

Steve Thomas

Agreed.

[Douglas Caddy]

MacArthur was a childhood hero of mine and is today. I also thought highly of Willoughby and still do. I think the posting above is a worthwhile contribution to history because it focuses on how and why America's right wing in those days was so consumed and rightfully so with the threat of international communism.

[Steve Thomas]

Charles Willoughby always reminded me of James Wilkinson.

Steve Thomas

[Matt Allison]

I don't think there's ever been a connection to Nagell proved outside of the FOI angle. Russell got an anonymous tip to look into Willoughby, and took it seriously. But I know of no actual evidence that was ever found tying him to the assassination.

[Robert Montenegro]

On 12/31/2020 at 6:17 PM, Paul Brancato said:

What was the connection between Willoughby and Nagell?

Alleged Soviet double-agent and United States Army 2nd Lt. Richard Case Nagell was purportedly a member of a clandestine counter-intelligence unit known as "Field Operations Intelligence", the brainchild of fascist-ideologue Maj. Gen. Charles Andrew Willoughby (a man, who in my humble opinion, coordinated elements of the plot to murder President Kennedy).

Field Operations Intelligence supposedly came under the control of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Here is a micro-synopsis of it's brief structural history:  

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Robert Montenegro

[Joe Bauer]

21 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

MacArthur was a childhood hero of mine and is today. I also thought highly of Willoughby and still do. I think the posting above is a worthwhile contribution to history because it focuses on how and why America's right wing in those days was so consumed and rightfully so with the threat of international communism.

Doug, at least one member here thinks of Willoughby as a right wing extremist to a fascist degree who had something to do with JFK's assassination. And someone who was associated with violent covert teams, close to Lansdale, justifying hard line action as a means to a communist threat defending end.

An ardent promoter of  "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice?"

Someone G. Gordon Liddy would consider a hero.

MacArthur himself called Willoughby "My little facist?"

Yet, you say you thought highly of him and still do?

Someone who some feel was so fervent in confronting the communist threat that perhaps he and his like minded high powered brethren like General Curtis LeMay probably thought JFK was a communist sympathizer. Possibly to the degree that he and them felt JFK's brutal murder was a righteous thing in the context of communist threat removal?  And in the least, were not feeling very much sorrow over JFK's death?

Please explain further if you will, why you still feel the admiring way you do about this Lansdale type man? MacArther's "my little fascist." You obviously do not feel he would have anything to do with JFK's tragic end. 

One aspect of our military and political policy mind set right after WW II I have learned to understand more now in my older age is the reality of the times. How oblivious I was in this regards.

Something I and I am sure tens of millions of my baby boomer peace and love generation just didn't understand ( innocently) was how aggressively the Soviets truly really were in trying to subvert as much of the world's nations as possible into Soviet influenced, following and sympathetic regimes.

Their ultimate enemy in this battle for world influence domination was of course, the United States. We really were at war with Russia in this way and they were playing hard ball more than I previously understood.

It seems to me now that I have read much more about those times that we were in the ring with charging, raging bull whose one focused intent was to knock us down and out. I understand now ( to a degree) why the Lansdales felt they had to do what they did in third world countries to keep them from being Soviet controlled.

That said, we obviously went too far with this Communist boogie man threat fear mindset as well. McCarthyism being a perfect example. Excesses in starting covert actions that resulted in the deaths of thousands. Placing brutal dictators in power. Marcos, etc. 

In my mind, JFK was in some ways trying to end this war between the Soviets and the U.S.. I think he actually believed it was possible. 

What he was proposing and doing however was too radical for the old guard. They obviously felt JFK was out of his mind, dangerously so.

I know this is a very simplistic essay. Too simplistic I am sure.

But at least more understanding of our post WW II communist threat mindset and how we came to be so aggressive in the Ugly American way. To the point of paranoia ( McCarthyism ) and excess in extreme right power groups...JBS, General Walker and countless others of the highest and wealthiest positions.

A question I still ponder is whether these old guard communist threat extremists would go so far as to initiate a coup. Something that had been tried before as Major General Smedley Butler reported against FDR.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Joe Bauer

[Paul Brancato]

13 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

Doug, at least one member here thinks of Willoughby as a right wing extremist to a fascist degree who had something to do with JFK's assassination. And someone who was associated with violent covert teams, close to Lansdale, justifying hard line action as a means to a communist threat defending end.

An ardent promoter of  "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice?"

Someone G. Gordon Liddy would consider a hero.

MacCarthur himself called Willoughby "My little facist?"

Yet, you say you thought highly of him and still do?

Someone who some feel was so fervent in confronting the communist threat that perhaps he and his like minded high powered brethren like General Curtis LeMay probably thought JFK was a communist sympathizer. Possibly to the degree that he and them felt JFK's brutal murder was a righteous thing in the context of communist threat removal?  And in the least, were not feeling very much sorrow over JFK's death?

Please explain why you feel the admiring way you do about this Lansdale type man? MacArther's "my little fascist." You obviously do not feel he would have anything to do with JFK's tragic end. 

One aspect of our military and political policy mind set right after WW II I have learned to understand is the reality of the times. How oblivious I was in this regards.

Something I and I am sure tens of millions of my baby boomer peace and love generation just didn't understand ( innocently) was how aggressively the Soviets really were in trying to subvert as much of the world's nations as possible into Soviet influenced, following and sympathetic regimes.

Their ultimate enemy in this battle for world control domination was of course, the United States. We really were at war with Russia in this way and they were playing hard ball even more than we were.

It seems to me now that I have read much more about those times that we were in the ring with charging, raging bull whose one focused intent was to knock us down and out. I understand now ( to a degree) why the Lansdales felt they had to do what they did in third world countries to keep them from being Soviet controlled.

That said, we obviously went too far with this Communist boogie man threat fear mindset as well. McCarthyism being a perfect example. Excesses in starting covert actions that resulted in the deaths of thousands. Placing brutal dictators in power. Marcos, etc. 

In my mind, JFK was in some ways trying to end this war between the Soviets and the U.S.. I think he actually believed it was possible. 

What he was proposing and doing however was too radical for the old guard. They obviously felt JFK was out of his mind, dangerously so.

I know this is a very simplistic essay. Too simplistic I am sure.

But at least more understanding of our post WW II communist threat mindset and how we came to be so aggressive in the Ugly American way. To the point of paranoia ( McCarthyism ) and excess in extreme right power groups...JBS, General Walker and countless others of the highest and wealthiest positions.

A question I still ponder is whether these old guard communist threat extremists would go so far as to initiate a coup. Something that had been tried before as Major General Smedley Butler reported against FDR.

 

 

 

 

Very simplistic. Nice of you to try for common ground with Mr. Caddy, if that’s what it is. I don’t believe that the Communist threat explains the Ugly American foreign policies after WW 2. We were just as ugly before the war. 

[Joe Bauer]

31 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Very simplistic. Nice of you to try for common ground with Mr. Caddy, if that’s what it is. I don’t believe that the Communist threat explains the Ugly American foreign policies after WW 2. We were just as ugly before the war. 

Yes, I was trying to find some common ground with Doug Caddy. Whom I respect and admire greatly.

Edited January 2, 2021 by Joe Bauer

[Douglas Caddy]

Joe:

General Willoughby and J. Edgar Hoover and a small number of others completely understood what communism was about and its unending threat to America and the free world. Communism did not die when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990-92. Its leaders and the KGB merely withdrew from visibility much like the Iraq army did when we invaded. 

Now communism is re-emerging and poses an ultra serious threat to the free world. Please read today's New York Times article about Russia's hacking of our computer system governing national security that I just posted  in another forum topic.. The article hints that maybe Russia even hacked our classified information system. Up until recently it was thought only the unclassified information had been hacked. 

2021 will soon reveal that our nation is in deadly peril from both Russia and China. Our very existence is at stake.

History will show that those patriots of yesterday who were totally consumed by their anti-communism were right. At no time did they never plan to initiate an internal  coup. 

But there are others today who are planning a coup and it will take place in a few days on January 6 in both houses of Congress.

 

 

[Paul Brancato]

Doug - are today’s coup planners in Congress working for the Russian/Chinese Communists? Where do you fit Trump into your scenario?

 

[Paul Brancato]

5 hours ago, Robert Montenegro said:

Alleged Soviet double-agent and United States Army 2nd Lt. Richard Case Nagell was purportedly a member of a clandestine counter-intelligence unit known as "Field Operations Intelligence", the brainchild of fascist-ideologue Maj. Gen. Charles Andrew Willoughby (a man, who in my humble opinion, coordinated elements of the plot to murder President Kennedy).

Field Operations Intelligence supposedly came under the control of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Here is a micro-synopsis of it's brief structural history:  

 

Boy, those old threads can be difficult. I’m not done yet, but thanks.