Mockingbird Historiography?

[W. Niederhut]

       Any free historical advice from the forum?

       Since I retired two years ago, I've been reading a long series of Presidential biographies, and I've worked my way up to 1945, having just finished James MacGregor Burns' two volume Definitive FDR opus.   (Incidentally, I was impressed to learn more about FDR's Atlantic Charter anti-colonialism, including his belief that the French needed to get out of Indochina.)

      Now I'm entering the era of American history-- and significant "untold history"-- when the CIA and Operation Mockingbird became active in the mass media and academe.

      Many journalists and "historians" writing about controversial matters of national security and the U.S. military after 1947 were, apparently, associated in some way with the CIA's Operation Mockingbird.   Well known examples include the likes of Gerald Posner, Vincent Bugliosi, David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, and even tele-historian Ken Burns.

      But what about celebrated historians like David McCullough, (Truman) Stephen Ambrose, (the Eisenhower biographies) Dallek, (JFK) and Robert Caro (LBJ?)

      Any opinions about the reliability of their well known Presidential biographies?

      Or, to phrase it differently, any recommendations for accurate biographies of Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, and Nixon?

     Thanks, in advance.

      

Edited May 11, 2021 by W. Niederhut

[Benjamin Cole]

I think you might have to read "bit and pieces" rather than whole biographies. 

Biographies tend to either become hagiographies, or hatchet jobs, or personality profiles, but all sidestep a key point: The postwar ascendance of the globalist security state, and globalist macroeconomic policies. 

Forgotten today is the US demobilized after WWII, so much so the US entered the Korean War short of certain materials and weapons. It was considered normal to limit the military in peacetime. 

For a window into Nixon, read Ken Hughes, "Chasing Shadows." 

Don Fulsome has written about Nixon and the Mob. Another interesting window.

Caro's biographies of LBJ are pretty good history, but again, the angle that there is a Deep State with global ambitions, on behalf of multinationals, is just absent. The JFKA is not treated as a conspiracy. Caro's book on Vietnam is yet to be published, and Caro is entering the ninth  inning of his life....

What is remarkable is how much the globalist perspective, and the attendant panopticon surveillance state has triumphed, in academia and media (and books you read). Today, it is considered normal for left- or right-wing news outlets to hire former CIA and intel guys as newspeople. The fine points of occupying Syria are debated.

Some news outlets appear eager to become part of the surveillance state.

Good luck and let us know if you come across some good reads. 

Again, I really recommend "Trade Ware are Class Wars" by Michael Pettis for a deeply insightful perspective on "free" trade, which has defined US policy since the 1960s. 

"JFK vs. Dulles" by Greg Poulgrain is essential also. 

But a whole presidential biography, which includes the "Deep State" perspective....not sure that animal exists yet. 

But hey, you are retired and smart. You could write such a biography. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[W. Niederhut]

13 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I think you might have to read "bit and pieces" rather than whole biographies. 

Biographies tend to either become hagiographies, or hatchet jobs, or personality profiles, but all sidestep a key point: The postwar ascendance of the globalist security state, and globalist macroeconomic policies. 

Forgotten today is the US demobilized after WWII, so much so the US entered the Korean War short of certain materials and weapons. It was considered normal to limit the military in peacetime. 

For a window into Nixon, read Ken Hughes, "Chasing Shadows." 

Don Fulsome has written about Nixon and the Mob. Another interesting window.

Caro's biographies of LBJ are pretty good history, but again, the angle that there is a Deep State with global ambitions, on behalf of multinationals, is just absent. The JFKA is not treated as a conspiracy. Caro's book on Vietnam is yet to be published, and Caro is entering the ninth  inning of his life....

What is remarkable is how much the globalist perspective, and the attendant panopticon surveillance state has triumphed, in academia and media (and books you read). Today, it is considered normal for left- or right-wing news outlets to hire former CIA and intel guys as newspeople. The fine points of occupying Syria are debated.

Some news outlets appear eager to become part of the surveillance state.

Good luck and let us know if you come across some good reads. 

Again, I really recommend "Trade Ware are Class Wars" by Michael Pettis for a deeply insightful perspective on "free" trade, which has defined US policy since the 1960s. 

"JFK vs. Dulles" by Greg Poulgrain is essential also. 

But a whole presidential biography, which includes the "Deep State" perspective....not sure that animal exists yet. 

But hey, you are retired and smart. You could write such a biography. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Benjamin.  Your points are well taken.

I'll probably proceed with the popular Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, and LBJ biographies by McCullough, Ambrose, Dallek, and Caro, without expecting much in the way of Deep State history.

It's somewhat funny that the only biographies of LBJ that I've ever read are Joachim Joesten's The Dark Side of Lyndon Johnson, (written shortly after JFK's assassination) and Phillip Nelson's LBJ-- Mastermind of the JFK Assassination-- both highly unflattering, to say the least.

People I know who have read Caro's hagiography have been puzzled when I have raised the subject of LBJ's possible complicity in JFK's murder.

Edited May 12, 2021 by W. Niederhut

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, W. Niederhut said:

Thanks, Benjamin.  Your points are well taken.

I'll probably proceed with the popular Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, and LBJ biographies by McCullough, Ambrose, Dallek, and Caro, without expecting much in the way of Deep State history.

It's somewhat funny that the only biographies of LBJ that I've ever read are Joachim Joesten's The Dark Side of Lyndon Johnson, (written shortly after JFK's assassination) and Phillip Nelson's LBJ-- Mastermind of the JFK Assassination-- both highly unflattering, to say the least.

People I know who have read Caro's hagiography have been puzzled when I have raised the subject of LBJ's possible complicity in JFK's murder.

I guess Caro would be puzzled too, and his books are great reading. Just deficient in the regards I mention. 

As I have said, I think the JFKA was executed by a small number of people, but there was a great deal of complicity in the LHO murder, and then a tsunami of complicity in the entire WC-media cover-up.  

LBJ had a role in the cover-up---but in the JFKA itself? Less likely, but who knows? 

I enjoyed the McCullough books too. But the modern Deep State was not there in Washington's time, and just getting started under Truman. 

 

[W. Niederhut]

11 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I guess Caro would be puzzled too, and his books are great reading. Just deficient in the regards I mention. 

As I have said, I think the JFKA was executed by a small number of people, but there was a great deal of complicity in the LHO murder, and then a tsunami of complicity in the entire WC-media cover-up.  

LBJ had a role in the cover-up---but in the JFKA itself? Less likely, but who knows? 

I enjoyed the McCullough books too. But the modern Deep State was not there in Washington's time, and just getting started under Truman. 

 

Benjamin,

      At the very least, LBJ was "complicit" in the JFK assassination in the sense that he was the POTUS that the Cold Warriors wanted in the Oval Office -- the guy who would escalate the war against Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, and against the PKI in Indonesia.  LBJ also put the kibosh on JFK's diplomatic outreach to Khrushchev and Castro. 

       LBJ signed NSAM 273 on 11/25/63 and, allegedly told the Joint Chiefs in December of 1963, "O.K., gentlemen, you can have your war (in Vietnam.)  Just make sure I get re-elected next year."

     Who had the clout to influence J. Edgar Hoover to shut down the FBI investigation of JFK's assassination, and to actively assist the Warren Commission cover up?

     And LBJ's disagreements with JFK and RFK on Vietnam and other Cold War issues were common knowledge in the JFK administration.

     There is also the Altgens photo evidence, emphasized by Phillip Nelson, that LBJ was, apparently, ducking down in his limo in Dealey Plaza while Lady Bird and Senator Ralph Yarborough were waving and smiling at the crowd.

Edited May 12, 2021 by W. Niederhut

[Ron Bulman]

Regarding LBJ I read Mastermind by Nelson out of a University library several years back and don't have it available for reference.  It seems like I did the same with the first book in Caro's ongoing series and found it lacking.  In one of them the story that comes to mind for me is of him in his youth chunking rocks at the black kids at "his" swimming hole at a stock tank to run them off.  I could never reconcile this with his taking credit for the Civil Rights act in 1964 among other things.  Like the yearbook thing at Texas State (Lyin Lyndon).  Dead voters  to get into the senate.

Joan Mellen's Faustian Bargains and Blood in the Water are insightful as well (I don't give a damn if the ship sinks and they all die). 

[Benjamin Cole]

7 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Benjamin,

      At the very least, LBJ was "complicit" in the JFK assassination in the sense that he was the POTUS that the Cold Warriors wanted in the Oval Office -- the guy who would escalate the war against Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, and against the PKI in Indonesia.  LBJ also put the kibosh on JFK's diplomatic outreach to Khrushchev and Castro. 

       LBJ signed NSAM 273 on 11/25/63 and, allegedly told the Joint Chiefs in December of 1963, "O.K., gentlemen, you can have your war (in Vietnam.)  Just make sure I get re-elected next year."

     Who had the clout to influence J. Edgar Hoover to shut down the FBI investigation of JFK's assassination, and to actively assist the Warren Commission cover up?

     And LBJ's disagreements with JFK and RFK on Vietnam and other Cold War issues were common knowledge in the JFK administration.

     There is also the Altgens photo evidence, emphasized by Phillip Nelson, that LBJ was, apparently, ducking down in his limo in Dealey Plaza while Lady Bird and Senator Ralph Yarborough were waving and smiling at the crowd.

Agreed. 

The LBJ ducking photo...well, if the shots were to be aimed at JFK, then LBJ would not need to duck.  Perhaps he could be expected to stand up in his car to get a better view. 

[W. Niederhut]

7 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Regarding LBJ I read Mastermind by Nelson out of a University library several years back and don't have it available for reference.  It seems like I did the same with the first book in Caro's ongoing series and found it lacking.  In one of them the story that comes to mind for me is of him in his youth chunking rocks at the black kids at "his" swimming hole at a stock tank to run them off.  I could never reconcile this with his taking credit for the Civil Rights act in 1964 among other things.  Like the yearbook thing at Texas State (Lyin Lyndon).  Dead voters  to get into the senate.

Joan Mellen's Faustian Bargains and Blood in the Water are insightful as well (I don't give a damn if the ship sinks and they all die). 

Ron,

     My impression is that LBJ abruptly championed Civil Rights legislation after JFK's murder as a way of wooing Democratic Party liberals, and reducing suspicion about his complicity in JFK's assassination.  After all, he had, repeatedly, colluded in the sabotage of Civil Rights legislation during his tenure in Congress.

     He also skillfully concealed the fact that he had reversed JFK's foreign policy directives, including JFK's decision to get out of Vietnam.