C. Douglas Dillon: Operation Mockingbird

[John Simkin]

In her book Personal History (1997) Katharine Graham admits that her husband Philip Graham, persuaded JFK to appoint C. Douglas Dillon as Secretary of the Treasury. This was a strange request. Dillon was a major contributor to the Republican Party. As Graham was CIA (Operation Mockingbird) can anyone explain why this organization wanted him as Secretary of the Treasury?

The other person Graham wanted was David Bruce, as ambassador to London. He held the post throughout JFK's time in office. He also supplied JFK with regular reports on the John Profumo scandal that eventually brought down the UK government.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKdillonD.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmockingbird.htm

[James Richards]

John,

It probably should be pointed out that Eisenhower and Nixon were not keen that Dillon accept the President-elect's offer without a guarantee that Dillon be given a free hand in fiscal and monetary policies. It would certainly be interesting what JFK did indeed offer at the end of the day.

Sidebar: In August of 1960, Dillon went public with a prediction that Rafael Trujillo would suffer a serious downfall. Dillon called Trujillo a tyrant, a torturer and a murderer. At the same time, Democrat James Eastland was calling Trujillo a good friend of the United States. As we know, Trujillo was assassinated in May of 1961.

As a footnote to that, Arturo Espaillat in September of 1962, accused the United States of assisting in the assassination of Trujillo. Specifically that the CIA provided the weapons via an American liason man who was living in the Dominican Republic at the time.

The following image I post as a curiosity. Far left is Douglas Dillon. He is receiving applause after making a speech at the Inter American Ecomonic and Social Conference in Punta del Estes, Uruguay 1961. On the far right is the unimpressed Che Guevara. Moments after the image was snapped, Guevara led a Cuban walk-out.

James

[Shanet Clark]

Interesting Photo of Clarence Douglas Dillon and Che Guevara, James.

You all know my views on this angle, thanks for pursuing it further.

John,

It probably should be pointed out that Eisenhower and Nixon were not keen that Dillon accept the President-elect's offer without a guarantee that Dillon be given a free hand in fiscal and monetary policies. It would certainly be interesting what JFK did indeed offer at the end of the day.

Sidebar: In August of 1960, Dillon went public with a prediction that Rafael Trujillo would suffer a serious downfall. Dillon called Trujillo a tyrant, a torturer and a murderer. At the same time, Democrat James Eastland was calling Trujillo a good friend of the United States. As we know, Trujillo was assassinated in May of 1961.

As a footnote to that, Arturo Espaillat in September of 1962, accused the United States of assisting in the assassination of Trujillo. Specifically that the CIA provided the weapons via an American liason man who was living in the Dominican Republic at the time.

The following image I post as a curiosity. Far left is Douglas Dillon. He is receiving applause after making a speech at the Inter American Ecomonic and Social Conference in Punta del Estes, Uruguay 1961. On the far right is the unimpressed Che Guevara. Moments after the image was snapped, Guevara led a Cuban walk-out.

James

[James Richards]

Hi Shanet,

The fact that Dillon was vehemently opposed to Trujillo and publically vocal about it is most interesting, especially when several Democrats were singing Trujillo's praises.

During a press conference in Ottawa in 1962, Arturo Espaillat said that one of the Trujillo assassination plotters, Luis Amiama Tio, made contact with a CIA agent named Plato Cox. Gotta love that name. This of course was Robert Emmett Johnson (handler/cut-out/author) who obviously thought highly of his writing skills to assume the handle of one of history's great composers of philosophical dialogue. From this contact, the weapons to be used in the assassination entered the country.

The other surviving plotter/assassin is Antonio Imbert Barreras. I made email contact with this guy and his response was less than friendly. If anyone wants to go down this path of research, I will pass on his address.

FWIW.

James