Mary Haverstick's Important New Book on the JFK Assassination

[Evan Marshall]

Anybody, of course, can claim anything

[Leslie Sharp]

Thank you Michael. Will do. 

 

[Leslie Sharp]

In the 1970s, 'Tarzan of the Amazon' MikeTsalickis "employed his aerial services and SIL friend Jerry [sic] Cobb’s piloting skills to penetrate the tribe's forbidding forest with drilling supplies." -- Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil  by Gerard Colby with Charlotte Dennett.

 

Anyone who has read and absorbed the material presented in the exhaustive study by Gerald Colby with Charlotte Dennett of the Rockefeller's in the Amazon of course appreciates the ideological implications that Jerrie Cobb was flying for Cam Townsend's Summer Institute of Linguistics which is still headquartered in Dallas.  SIL's sister org., Wycliffe Bible Translators had been contracting MAF pilots since 1946. 

In 1989, apparently having finally succumbed to temptation, Jungle Mike Tsalickes ended up in prison for his part in the then largest cocaine bust in US history. The bust went down in Pinellas County in 1988. 

 

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[David Boylan]

Good doc on the recruitment of Viola June Cobb.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=35494#relPageId=2

 

June passing on some info - https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=35481#relPageId=2

[Evan Marshall]

Fascinating how this happens to pop up just in time the 60th anniversary.

[Leslie Sharp]

23 hours ago, Michael Griffith said:

Leslie,

I can certainly ask Mary about taking a call from you. Please email me to work out the details. michael.t.griffith@gmail.com.

 

@Michael Griffith Pls let me know you received my email to pass along to Mary?  I trust she'll be open to a phone call.

[Leslie Sharp]

@David Boylan Notice the subtle derision:  “affair” “hazy” “despondent”.  Similar was introduced into records related to John Wilson-Hudson, Eugene Dinkin, Tom Davis, William Dalzell, to name but four in addition to June Cobb, who were tied to the plot to kill Kennedy in Dallas to varying degrees. 

 Albarelli frequently said, read the documents, then go find the facts.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

4 hours ago, Evan Marshall said:

Fascinating how this happens to pop up just in time the 60th anniversary.

Your point is well taken. We were ready to meet the 2019 pub deadline, and following Albarelli’s untimely passing and in spite of being justified in doing so, I pushed to meet at least a 2021 pub date to avoid any hint of exploitation of the 60th. Had all interested parties been on board, we could have released Hank’s investigation in 2020.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Jonathan Cohen]

28 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Notice the subtle derision:  “affair” “hazy” “despondent”. 

So you're claiming those adjectives can't possibly be an accurate use of the English language in this case, and that they were only included to make her and other assassination plotters look bad?

[Leslie Sharp]

Documents of keen interest are those June Cobb handed over to John Newman personally. I’ve not spoken to John directly but it’s my understanding his office was broken into and June’s file was stolen; I’ve heard that he had stored one doc. in an area the thieves failed to look and that he planned on sharing its contents publicly.

Perhaps Dr. Newman considered June’s generosity as intended for him exclusively and that it is his prerogative whether, if ever, he releases that surviving document.

I would ask him, if I had direct access, if the break-in was directed solely at Cobb’s files? If not, what other documents were stolen?  Was there a pattern?

 

@Michael Griffith I hope you recognize this is not intended to hijack the focus of this thread. The questions posed of Dr. Newman’s history with Viola June Cobb are directly germane to Mary Haverstick’s research.

[Leslie Sharp]

@Jonathan Cohen 

June Cobb was not an assassination plotter.

Apparently you aren’t familiar with the terms “tied” and “varying degrees.”

The five were restricted to a particular situation on different levels.

The agency is infamous for discrediting characters to the same degree they are infamous for inflating importance.  You only need study the files of the perfect patsy to recognize the methodology.

John Wilson-Hudson was a player, implicated in operations from the mid-‘50s “tied” to events under consideration in fall of 1963. Read the documents, then go find the facts.

June Cobb was an observer and filed her observations to memory. Read the documents, then go find the facts, Jonathan.

now, back to the subject at hand: Mary Haverstick’s research into Viola June Cobb.

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Jonathan Cohen]

25 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Read the documents, then go find the facts, Jonathan.

I have read them. And I think your interpretations of them are complete nonsense.

[Leslie Sharp]

@Jonathan Cohen your prerogative, but not exactly a substantive argument.

 

now, back to discussion of Mary Haverstick’s research into Viola June Cobb.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Greg Doudna]

Working both sides of the 1960 presidential election to achieve foreign policy objectives

(From Mary Haverstick, A Woman I Know, 223-241)

"In the run-up to the 1960 election, the success or failure of the Bay of Pigs and Orta operations hinged on both candidates supporting the plan. Vice President Richard Nixon had championed the authorization of the CIA's covert program to train the exiles to overthrow Castro, but Kennedy's position was still a question mark (...)

"So in the lead-in to the presidential election, June Cobb turned her attention to Kennedy--specifically, to determining his level of commitment, or lack thereof, to overthrowing Castro. The setting was New York City in the final four weeks of the 1960 presidential campaign. That's when the covert operation I discovered in the June Cobb file began, where she (1) attempted to discern Kennedy's position on the invasion, (2) tried to influence him to support it, and then (3) met with an adviser who was helping Nixon after Kennedy failed to support the invasion (...)

"[I]t's absolutely explosive that in October 1960, June Cobb wrote a speech to be delivered by John F. Kennedy in the final days of his campaign, and a draft of that speech resides in her CIA file. Cobb's speech, written in Kennedy's voice in a way that could be delivered only by him, announces his full-throated support for the Cuban exiles in their effort to regain their freedom from Castro. It was the position that many in the CIA's leadership, who were then hip-deep in Bay of Pigs planning, wanted Kennedy to take, and she penned this speech just ten days before Americans would go to the polls.

"John F. Kennedy never delivered June's speech, but it wasn't for lack of her trying. She was in direct contact with his presidential campaign, and she sent the speech to Kennedy's foreign policy speechwriter (...)

"[N]ot only did [June Cobb's CIA case officer Jean Pierson] accept the speech, she went into Cobb's suite to secure her typewriter carbons after she wrote it (...) 

"But wait--wasn't June Cobb supposed to be sympathetic to communist leaders and a starry-eyed supporter of Latin American revolutions? (...)

"The most salient portion of this speech, and the one that is so provocative, is the paragraph where Cobb has Kennedy say he was 'supporting the fight of the Cuban people to regain the freedom they've been losing more and more every day during Castro's regime.' That language would put Kennedy dangerously close to supporting the overthrow, but that was not his position. Kennedy was always careful to avoid overthrow language or anything close to it. So why was Cobb mouthing that position for him just weeks before the election?

"Incredibly, June wasn't the only one typing up overthrow language for Kennedy--so was the candidate's own speechwriter. What's more, that speechwriter was in direct contact with June Cobb, and he was receiving her materials on behalf of the Kennedy presidential campaign.

"Richard Goodwin, dubbed the 'boy wonder' by the Washington press, was plucked from obscurity and placed in the role of writing Kennedy's speeches throughout the 1960 campaign. Goodwin quickly vaulted from fledgling speechwriter to the architect of Kennedy's policy on Latin America, even though he had never set foot in Latin America, spoke no Spanish, and was fresh out of law school ...

"Cobb expressed to [CIA case officer Pierson] that she felt her submissions through Goodwin had influence, to the point of being 'almost exactly what [an April 1961 State Department] White Paper got on the record now" (...)

"June's only known foreign policy credential was working for Castro (...) 

"June had been hedging her bets. While she was submitting a speech hoping to move Kennedy's position, she was simultaneously meeting with another political strategist. His goal wasn't to influence Kennedy. His goal was to get Nixon elected."

(continued)

Edited December 6, 2023 by Greg Doudna

[Greg Doudna]

(Continued)

"In the final weeks of a presidential campaign, political actors normally jockey to affect the outcome of the election. But CIA agents who specialize in government overthrows aren't supposed to ply their skills in presidential elections. That's why Cobb's submissions to Goodwin, combined with her business with [Harvard Law School dean] William S. Barnes, a policy adviser who was working to get Nixon elected, are so problematic. And just as with her Kennedy speech, Cobb reported on her dealings with Barnes to her CIA case officer. 

October 13, 1960, Cobb's notes to Pierson

William S. [Barnes] had apparently spent the day down in your hometown [Washington, D.C.] precisely discussing our troublesome friends. He is about ready to come to the conclusion that it is too late to carry out the kind of attempt we discussed last summer. He discussed with me the advantages of making one last effort and then finding some new tenants for the house. He is interested in what can be done to improve the whole neighborhood.

"(...) The meaning of the open code becomes clearer in Cobb's next report. Goodwin's misstatement [Goodwin improperly represented JFK to the press without JFK's knowledge or permission as recommending overthrow of Cuba, which JFK staff had to walk back] had just hit the news when Cobb and Barnes reconvened, and the topic between them was how Barnes would help Nixon capitalize (...)

"This would be a good time to ask why, early on the morning of the presidential debate, Barnes would have stopped by Cobb's apartment to share his plan to approach Nixon. Cobb was meeting simultaneously with an adviser who was helping to shape Nixon's response to Kennedy, while also writing a speech to bolster Kennedy's position on Cuba (...)

"That evening, after the meeting between Barnes and Cobb, Nixon drew blood in the debate, citing that Kennedy's position [the Goodwin misrepresentation] violated international law. Had Barnes helped Nixon write his winning response? (...) let's lay out a simplified timeline.

October 12. The CIA installs Cobb in a bugged hotel suite in Manhattan.

October 13. Barnes and Cobb meet to discuss one last attempt and new tenants for the house.

October 20, P.M. Goodwin misstates Kennedy's position without waking the candidate.

October 21, A.M. Barnes and Cobb meet to discuss Kennedy's error, Barnes rushes to help Nixon.

October 21, P.M. Nixon draws blood in the debate, based on Goodwin's mistake

October 23. "Kennedy Plan Risks World War" is the New York Times headline.

October 29. June reads aloud her speech affirming JFK's support for the exiles.

October 30. When JFK retracts exile support, Cobb is furious and calls Kennedy headquarters.

"(...) Goodwin's mistaken position didn't end Kennedy's candidacy. Americans went to the polls on November 8, 1960, and voted for John F. Kennedy as the thirty-fifth president of the United States. The tally was so close that Nixon didn't concede until the next day. He wired his congratulations to Kennedy while the CIA was rolling up the surveillance net on June Cobb's hotel."

(Mary Haverstick, A Woman I Know, 223-241)

Edited December 6, 2023 by Greg Doudna