Nixon and the assassination.

[Cory Santos]

Very interesting interview.   
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/hess-discusses-nixons-reaction-to-the-kennedy-assassination/

[Douglas Caddy]

This is important history. Thanks for posting it.

[W. Niederhut]

5 hours ago, Cory Santos said:

Very interesting interview.   
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/hess-discusses-nixons-reaction-to-the-kennedy-assassination/

So, it sounds like J. Edgar Hoover told Nixon, fairly promptly on November 22nd, that the assassin "was someone connected to Castro."

[Jonathan Cohen]

6 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

So, it sounds like J. Edgar Hoover told Nixon, fairly promptly on November 22nd, that the assassin "was someone connected to Castro."

That hardly means it was true, or that he even believed it himself.

[W. Niederhut]

Just now, Jonathan Cohen said:

That hardly means it was true, or that he even believed it himself.

True.  But, if this gentleman's account of his November 22nd meeting with Nixon is accurate, Hoover was promptly pushing that narrative.

[Cliff Varnell]

Hoover memo to senior staff, 12/12/63:

<quote>

I said I personally believe Oswald was the assassin; that the second aspect as to whether he was the only man gives me great concern; that we have several letters, not in the report because we were not able to prove it, written to him from Cuba referring to the job he was going to do, his good marksmanship, and stating when it was all over he would be brought back to Cuba and presented to the chief; but we do not know if the chief was Castro and cannot make an investigation because we have no intelligence operation in Cuba; that I did not put this into the report because we did not have proof of it and didn't want to put speculation in the report; that this was the reason I urged strongly that we not reach conclusion Oswald was the only man. 

<quote off>

[Cory Santos]

3 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

This is important history. Thanks for posting it.

I agree.  Your welcome.  

[Cory Santos]

2 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

True.  But, if this gentleman's account of his November 22nd meeting with Nixon is accurate, Hoover was promptly pushing that narrative.

Correct.  

[Benjamin Cole]

6 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Hoover memo to senior staff, 12/12/63:

<quote>

I said I personally believe Oswald was the assassin; that the second aspect as to whether he was the only man gives me great concern; that we have several letters, not in the report because we were not able to prove it, written to him from Cuba referring to the job he was going to do, his good marksmanship, and stating when it was all over he would be brought back to Cuba and presented to the chief; but we do not know if the chief was Castro and cannot make an investigation because we have no intelligence operation in Cuba; that I did not put this into the report because we did not have proof of it and didn't want to put speculation in the report; that this was the reason I urged strongly that we not reach conclusion Oswald was the only man. 

<quote off>

Do you have link to that memo? 

[Cliff Varnell]

2 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Do you have link to that memo? 

I think Larry Hancock may have it.

[Benjamin Cole]

13 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

I think Larry Hancock may have it.

LH may advance a thesis that LHO was in fact part of a conspiracy, but one involving exiles who duped LHO into believing he was part of an pro-Castro op.

This may not be popular with the JFKA research community, but it should be fleshed out along with other viewpoints. 

 

[Sandy Larsen]

17 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Hoover memo to senior staff, 12/12/63:

<quote>

I said I personally believe Oswald was the assassin; that the second aspect as to whether he was the only man gives me great concern; that we have several letters, not in the report because we were not able to prove it, written to him from Cuba referring to the job he was going to do, his good marksmanship, and stating when it was all over he would be brought back to Cuba and presented to the chief; but we do not know if the chief was Castro and cannot make an investigation because we have no intelligence operation in Cuba; that I did not put this into the report because we did not have proof of it and didn't want to put speculation in the report; that this was the reason I urged strongly that we not reach conclusion Oswald was the only man. 

<quote off>

 

Wow. This is very important.

For Hoover to take these letters seriously, mustn't they have actually been sent to Oswald? Or at least, made to look like they had been sent to Oswald?

How would the FBI have gotten a hold of letters that had been in Oswald's possession? I haven't studied this aspect of the assassination. The DPD searched his belongings, right? Did the FBI also do so?

Does someone have a list of things Ruth Paine handed over? It's not very long is it? I mean, how could she explain coming up with a lot of stuff that hadn't been found by the DPD? I ask about Ruth because I wonder if the authorities (and thus Hoover) got the letters from her.

 

[Robert Morrow]

On 12/19/2023 at 4:00 AM, Cory Santos said:

Very interesting interview.   
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/hess-discusses-nixons-reaction-to-the-kennedy-assassination/

Richard Nixon, on 11-22-63, at Idlewood Airport in New York, to reporters and photographers, just before he finds out JFK has been shot in Dallas:

“The President may have to drop Johnson as his running mate. In the fight for civil rights, Lyndon Johnson has become a liability to the ticket. He may be more of a hindrance than an asset.”

[Jim Bishop, The Day Kennedy was Shot, 1968 edition, pp. 178-179]

Note that by Wednesday of the next week, on November 27, 1963, Lyndon Johnson addressed the nation and came out forcefully for civil rights for black Americans.

[Robert Morrow]

On 12/19/2023 at 4:00 AM, Cory Santos said:

Very interesting interview.   
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/hess-discusses-nixons-reaction-to-the-kennedy-assassination/

Unlike LBJ who was immediately blaming a “communist” for the JFK assassination at 1:20 - 1:26PM long before Oswald's arrest (see Malcolm Kilduff), Richard Nixon’s first comments were that a “right-wing nut” had killed JFK

QUOTE

Although Lee Harvey Oswald would not be charged with the president’s murder until 2:30 the following morning, J. Edgar Hoover had already decided that Oswald was guilty. Late that afternoon former Vice-President Richard Nixon had called the FBI director and, getting right through, had asked, “What happened? Was it one of the right-wing nuts?”

        “No,” Hoover replied, “It was a Communist.”

UNQUOTE

[Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets, p. 542]

[Ron Bulman]

I've wondered for several years if Nixon was set up on 11/22/63.  Lured to Dalas to the Pepsi Convention with Joan Crawford for a speech the night before.  So he would be there the next morning?  Something that could be held over his head regarding his political future?  The newspapers and magazines could have doomed him.  "Why were you in Dallas on November 22, 1963".