Photograph of LBJ posting like Napolean on 11/19/1963?

[Micah Mileto]

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11933#relPageId=18

 

Is there a higher quality version of the photo from this unpublished article?

This is a low-quality scan found in the files of the FBI, from an unpublished and undated draft of an article meant to be published in Liberty magazine, before it went out of business following the publication of it's last issue dated 7/15/1964. Both the 7/17/1964 issue and the unpublished article focus on photographer Norman Similas, a witness who was implied by Vincent Bugliosi to have lied about seeing LBJ attend a convention for the carbonated soda industry, because Johnson "wasn't even in town that day". But we know that Johnson attended this convention on 11/19/1963, and newspaper reports state that he gave a speech where said that sodapop was good for the economy and needed to be taxed less (Coca-Cola, anyone?). In the two articles from Liberty Magazine on Similas, Similas claims that while he was photographing LBJ, Johnson jokingly turned to him, put his hand partway in his coat and said "should I pose like Napolean?".

This might be an important photo to find because, if we are to use the logic that LBJ had foreknowledge of the assassination, one would probably need to believe that he was thinking about it at that very moment.

 

 

Link to part 1: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11933#relPageId=12

Edited December 31, 2023 by Micah Mileto

[Miles Massicotte]

16 hours ago, Micah Mileto said:

But we know that Johnson attended this convention on 11/19/1963.....

For what it is worth, 11/19/1963 is the same day JFK allegedly had this conversation with his secretary Evelyn Lincoln which I pasted below. Hopefully somebody knows about this photo, very interesting....

"You know, if I am reelected in '64," he said, "I am going to spend more and more time making government service an honorable career." He considered it absurd that in the Space Age someone who had become chairman of a congressional committee because of his longevity could tie up a bill and prevent it reaching the House floor for a vote. In his second term, he said, "I am going to advocate changing some of the outmoded rules and regulations in Congress, such as the seniority rule," adding, "To do this I will need as a running mate in '64 a man who believes as I do." As if thinking out loud, he continued, "I am going to Texas because I have made a commitment. I can't patch up those warring factions. This is for them to do, but I will go because I have told them I would. And it is too early to make an announcement about another running mate - that will perhaps wait until the convention."

"Who is your choice of a running mate?" Lincoln asked.

Staring straight ahead, he said without hesitation, "At this time I am thinking about Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina. But it will not be Lyndon." Sanford was a logical choice. Kennedy was impressed with his economic and antipoverty programs, and he represented the enlightened "New South" that the President needed to court in 1964.

Lincoln had not seen Johnson in the Oval Office for almost a month and had already suspected that the president was considering replacing him. Sanford would later say that although he and Kennedy had never discussed the vice presidency, he did not doubt that the conversation had occurred as Lincoln had reported it. He knew that the president had become exasperated with Johnson, but thought his comments might have been "one of those things that you say... just to get it off your chest."

-found in JFK's Last Hundred Days by Thurston Clarke. Citation for this is Evelyn Lincoln's book My Twelve Years with JFK p. 203-206. Clarke notes that some authors have doubted this conversation's authenticity, but that it is corroborated by contemporaneous notes available in Box 6 in Lincoln's papers in the JFK library. Some of these are digitized but not the notes referenced so I am unable to confirm this independently. Nevertheless, I find it a bit of a coincidence worth noting given Micah's post.

P.S.: I knew I recognized the name Similas from somewhere: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jfk-assassination-did-toronto-man-s-photo-show-2-shooters-1.2435610

It seems as though Norman Similas has passed away but his son is alive. Maybe he could be contacted?

Edited December 31, 2023 by Miles Massicotte

[Pat Speer]

While putting together my website I came across some 11-29-63 photos of Johnson speaking to his advisors that come across like propaganda photos.

 

[Robert Morrow]

5 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

While putting together my website I came across some 11-29-63 photos of Johnson speaking to his advisors that come across like propaganda photos.

 

Gen. Maxwell Taylor on left, then Sec. of State Dean Rusk (who hated the Kennedys, especially Robert, and who JFK was going to replace), Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (who LBJ steamrolled over) ... who is the white haired man standing over Lyndon Johnson?

[Pat Speer]

3 hours ago, Robert Morrow said:

Gen. Maxwell Taylor on left, then Sec. of State Dean Rusk (who hated the Kennedys, especially Robert, and who JFK was going to replace), Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (who LBJ steamrolled over) ... who is the white haired man standing over Lyndon Johnson?

Like I said it's a propaganda photo. It shows Johnson lording over the entire military intelligence establishment. Rusk, Sec of State, McNamara, sec of Defense, Taylor, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and McCone, the white haired man, Director of Central Intelligence. It was clearly created to send a message around the world. Johnson is large and in charge.

 

[Anthony Venturella]

Frightening photo.

Can you imagine what Robert Kennedy thought when he saw that.

[Ken Davies]

What did Napoleon post?

Is he a member of the history forum?

[Robert Morrow]

On 1/1/2024 at 1:05 AM, Pat Speer said:

Like I said it's a propaganda photo. It shows Johnson lording over the entire military intelligence establishment. Rusk, Sec of State, McNamara, sec of Defense, Taylor, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and McCone, the white haired man, Director of Central Intelligence. It was clearly created to send a message around the world. Johnson is large and in charge.

 

You are 100% right on that: LBJ in charge of CIA, JCS, Sec. of State, Sec. of Defense.

Note that in the aftermath of the JFK assassination the Kennedys, RFK or Jackie, made no statements accepting the ascension of Johnson to power.

That is because the Kennedys hated Lyndon Johnson, they were trying to destroy LBJ in November of 1963 and they all immediately suspected (correctly) LBJ as a top suspect in the JFK assassination.

 

 

Edited January 5 by Robert Morrow
add a date

[James DiEugenio]

John McCone did not care for LBJ's style.

He left pretty soon, early 1965, and then  Bundy left..

As hawkish as Bundy was on Indochina, he thought LBJ was around the bend on Vietnam.

Edited January 5 by James DiEugenio

[Ron Bulman]

Not what your getting at Jim, but LBJ had no style.  He was coarse, crude and blunt, jmo.