More of Richard Russell dissing the WC

[James DiEugenio]

This is from Robert Morrow. Almost comical.

Richard Russell in 1968 or 1969 told a young Georgia political prodigy named Ellis Fielding Baxter that the Warren Report was “Bullshit… and I didn’t want to do it.”

Robert Morrow 3-2-15 interview with Ellis Fielding Baxter, born in 1948, and later a political associate of Sen. Herman Talmadge of GA.

In 1968 or 1969 Ellis Baxter, then age 20 or 21 and a political prodigy, asked Sen. Richard Russell “What do you think of the Warren Report?” Russell’s reply was “Bullshit…And I didn’t want to do it.”

[Robert Morrow interview with Ellis Fielding Baxter on March 2, 2015]

Ellis Fielding Baxter obituary https://obituaries.neptunesociety.com/obituaries/tempe-az/ellis-baxter-10547383

Ellis Fielding Baxter (Oct. 30, 1948 – January 24, 2022)

Ellis Fielding Baxter, 74 - Scottsdale, AZ - Has Court or Arrest Records (mylife.com)

 

[James DiEugenio]

This is so ironic.

The other side does not want to admit that even the people on the WC ended up not buying into it. Russell says its BS.

He was the first. But so did Boggs and Cooper.. Ford moved up the back wound and he told the NY Times why he had loaded up the Rockefeller Commission. To cover up assassinations.

So why should anyone buy what they did if they did not buy it themselves?

 

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Benjamin Cole]

Of course, Russell issued a dissent from the WC, which was not included in the report. 

Russell would then, on national TV, express bewilderment that the US was getting involved in Vietnam. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od0hqcaFyNc

Think about that. Russell, considered an authority on national defense, longtime chair of the Armed Services Committee, was out of the loop on Vietnam.  And appeared very loathe to get into Vietnam. 

Some of the old-time pols, like Russell, actually identified with their home state populations, and not globalist DC. 

That was the previous era. 

[Paul Jolliffe]

On 9/7/2023 at 7:24 PM, James DiEugenio said:

This is so ironic.

The other side does not want to admit that even the people on the WC ended up not buying into it. Russell says its BS.

He was the first. But so did Boggs and Cooper.. Ford moved up the back wound and he told the NY Times why he had loaded up the Rockefeller Commission. To cover up assassinations.

So why should anyone buy what they did if they did not buy it themselves?

 

 

Jim,

As you probably know, Russell told LBJ that after "fighting over that damn report", he rejected the single bullet theory ("Well, I don't believe it.")

Remarkably, President Lyndon Johnson immediately agreed with him ("I don't either.")

And it's all on tape.

From this recorded phone call on September 18, 1964, we can hear two of the most powerful men in America dismiss the single most important conclusion of the Warren Report.

Russell's most pertinent criticism begins around the 1:20 mark of this tape:

President Johnson Phone Call on the Warren Commission | C-SPAN.org

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Paul Jolliffe said:

Jim,

As you probably know, Russell told LBJ that after "fighting over that damn report", he rejected the single bullet theory ("Well, I don't believe it.")

Remarkably, President Lyndon Johnson immediately agreed with him ("I don't either.")

And it's all on tape.

From this recorded phone call on September 18, 1964, we can hear two of the most powerful men in America dismiss the single most important conclusion of the Warren Report.

Russell's most pertinent criticism begins around the 1:20 mark of this tape:

President Johnson Phone Call on the Warren Commission | C-SPAN.org

Right. 

I once compiled a list of high-ranking people who suspected the WC was not on target. Boggs, Russell, and Cooper to begin with, and then LBJ and RFK1.

The list got so long, it would be easier to make a list of high-ranking people who accepted the WC (at least in public). McCloy, Dulles and Ford. Possibly Warren. 

 

[James DiEugenio]

Richard Russell was really smart about the Warren Commission and Vietnam. 

He was really the guy who led the charge of what I call the Southern Wing: him, Cooper and Boggs.  

Does anyone have any ideas about who ran the charade at the final meeting?

 

 

[Benjamin Cole]

19 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Richard Russell was really smart about the Warren Commission and Vietnam. 

He was really the guy who led the charge of what I call the Southern Wing: him, Cooper and Boggs.  

Does anyone have any ideas about who ran the charade at the final meeting?

 

 

Dulles or McCloy? Unless they detailed duties to Ford. 

[Paul Jolliffe]

6 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Richard Russell was really smart about the Warren Commission and Vietnam. 

He was really the guy who led the charge of what I call the Southern Wing: him, Cooper and Boggs.  

Does anyone have any ideas about who ran the charade at the final meeting?

 

 

 

ding found on page 19 of the Warren Report:

("Although it is not necessary to any essential findings of the Commission to determine just which shot hit Governor Connally, there is very persuasive evidence from the experts to indicate that the same bullet which pierced the President's throat also caused Governor Connally's wounds. However, Governor Connally's testimony and certain other factors have given rise to some difference of opinion as to this probability but there is no question in the mind of any member of the Commission that all the shots which caused the President's and Governor Connally's wounds were fired from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.")

Bird's biography makes it very clear that McCloy worked out the disputed language.

See page 565:

The chairman : John J. McCloy, the making of the American establishment : Bird, Kai : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

[Paul Jolliffe]

Somehow my response was shortened, but the important thing is that John McCloy worked out the infamous weasel words of page 19 of the Warren Report, as I quoted above. 

Kai Bird, McCloy's biographer, wrote precisely that on page 565 of his "The Chairman: John J McCloy The Making of the American Establishment" 

[Paul Jolliffe]

Of more interest to me is who hired the fake stenographer to sit in on the September 18, 1964 to (seemingly) take down a verbatim transcript. The only logical purpose for that person's presence was to fool Richard Russell into thinking that this session was identical to all of the other executive sessions for the Warren Commission. 

At that September 18, 1964, executive session of the Warren Commission, Richard Russell believed that his doubts about the shots were being transcribed into the permanent record.

They were not. 

Instead, Russell's doubts (as we all can hear in the phone call he made to LBJ in the link I provided earlier) were erased from the official records of the Warren Commission.

Russell had no idea that his dissent was suppressed. The only record of the September 18 meeting was a "structured account of general business being conducted by the Commission", not a verbatim transcript, according to the Archivist of the United States, James B. Rhodes.

When Harold Weisberg showed Russell in 1968 that Russell's dissent no longer existed, Russell was outraged.

So, who hired the fake stenographer?

The author of this paper, Dani Biancoli, speculates that it was J. Lee Rankin. Biancoli is undoubtedly correct, as far as the hiring goes. (See pages 62-65.)

The First Dissenter: Richard B Russell and the Warren Commission (wm.edu)

But the real question is "Who told Rankin to do this?"

I saw an interview (which at the moment I cannot find on the internet) with Gerald Ford in which he claimed that was Earl Warren's doing. Ford might have been correct, or he may have been covering up for McCloy and Dulles. Or maybe they did it with Warren's approval. 

I just don't know which version is correct.

 

[Benjamin Cole]

9 hours ago, Paul Jolliffe said:

Of more interest to me is who hired the fake stenographer to sit in on the September 18, 1964 to (seemingly) take down a verbatim transcript. The only logical purpose for that person's presence was to fool Richard Russell into thinking that this session was identical to all of the other executive sessions for the Warren Commission. 

At that September 18, 1964, executive session of the Warren Commission, Richard Russell believed that his doubts about the shots were being transcribed into the permanent record.

They were not. 

Instead, Russell's doubts (as we all can hear in the phone call he made to LBJ in the link I provided earlier) were erased from the official records of the Warren Commission.

Russell had no idea that his dissent was suppressed. The only record of the September 18 meeting was a "structured account of general business being conducted by the Commission", not a verbatim transcript, according to the Archivist of the United States, James B. Rhodes.

When Harold Weisberg showed Russell in 1968 that Russell's dissent no longer existed, Russell was outraged.

So, who hired the fake stenographer?

The author of this paper, Dani Biancoli, speculates that it was J. Lee Rankin. Biancoli is undoubtedly correct, as far as the hiring goes. (See pages 62-65.)

The First Dissenter: Richard B Russell and the Warren Commission (wm.edu)

But the real question is "Who told Rankin to do this?"

I saw an interview (which at the moment I cannot find on the internet) with Gerald Ford in which he claimed that was Earl Warren's doing. Ford might have been correct, or he may have been covering up for McCloy and Dulles. Or maybe they did it with Warren's approval. 

I just don't know which version is correct.

 

PJ--thanks for these comments. 

Like many government investigations, the WC was a kangaroo court-show trial.  

[James DiEugenio]

See, either Warren or Rankin had to approve of the phony stenographer.  Probably Rankin.

But the point is who dreamt up this scheme in the first place.

See none of those guys were in Dallas when Russell was trying to lead the charge against Marina.  It was just Boggs and Cooper with him.  The one exception was Rankin. He was the only one there.  And then they go to the TSBD and Russell walks up to the 6th floor with a rifle, though not the real one. He comes back down, and tongue in cheek says, Yep that sure was easy.

IMO, Rankin reported all this back to the Troika--McCloy, Dulles, Ford--and to Warren also.  So they were warned.

BTW, Willens once admitted that this was all there was to the Commission: Warren, McCloy, Dulles and Ford.  It was in a Willens' diary entry on Morley's old site. He said he had gotten approval for an agenda item or something from Warren and Ford.  he then added I just need to get the other two now.

LOL, Howard, the others don't count?  You just gave it away.

Edited September 16, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

See, either Warren or Rankin had to approve of the phony stenographer.  Probably Rankin.

But the point is who dreamt up this scheme in the first place.

See none of those guys were in Dallas when Russell was trying to lead the charge against Marina.  It was just Boggs and Cooper with him.  The one exception was Rankin. He was the only one there.  And then they go to the TSBD and Russell walks up to the 6th floor with a rifle, though not the real one. He comes back down, and tongue in cheek says, Yep that sure was easy.

IMO, Rankin reported all this back to the Troika--McCloy, Dulles, Ford--and to Warren also.  So they were warned.

BTW, Willens once admitted that this was all there was to the Commission: Warren, McCloy, Dulles and Ford.  It was in a Willens' diary entry on Morley's old site. He said he had gotten approval for an agenda item or something from Warren and Ford.  he then added I just need to get the other two now.

LOL, Howard, the other don't count?  You just gave it away.

You know, Garrison said you cannot investigate the Deep State through the court system (although he felt honor bound to do so).

Here, in Russell, we see an example that even Congressmen are flummoxed when examining or reporting on the Deep State.

From Russell's commentary (and he was the most senior Congressman regarding national defense) it is obvious that, after the JFKA, getting into the Vietnam was entirely an executive branch decision and operation, which is to say a Deep State action. Russell himself is surprised and taken aback by what is happening in Vietnam. 

If even a President crosses the Deep State, they are not long for office. 

And if a Presidential candidate emerges who is seen unfavorably by the Deep State....expect a tsunami of negative media coverage. And that is putting it mildly. 

 

 

[James DiEugenio]

If you take a look at the examination of Marina by Russell, Boggs and Cooper, which is in I think Volume 5, you will see what the Commission should have been.

Its really obvious that they do not buy her story in almost any way.

Yet she was deemed a prime witness by the Commission.  And, it was probably Marina and Ruth Paine who the Commission used to smear Oswald the most.

But if you read that examination which I think took place in August, you will see that these guys had some real problems with her.

As I said, no one else is there, except Rankin.  I think he was the rat.

[Mike Aitken]

On 9/7/2023 at 7:24 PM, James DiEugenio said:

This is so ironic.

The other side does not want to admit that even the people on the WC ended up not buying into it. Russell says its BS.

He was the first. But so did Boggs and Cooper.. Ford moved up the back wound and he told the NY Times why he had loaded up the Rockefeller Commission. To cover up assassinations.

So why should anyone buy what they did if they did not buy it themselves?

 

 

Even Ford later allegedly told former French President Valery Giscard:

“We first concluded that it was not an isolated crime, it was something organized. We were sure that it was organized. But we were unable to find out by who it was organized’
 

“We came to the conclusion that this assassination had been prepared. There was a conspiracy. But we were not able to identify which organization had sponsored it. ”

https://jfkfacts.org/president-ford-spoke-jfk-plot-says-former-french-president/