Which living person(s) knows the most about what actually happened in Dallas?

[Greg Doudna]

John Thomas Masen. I am not aware of any evidence or reason to consider it likely that he knew anything about the assassination or knew Oswald. But...

• He was knowledgeable of and a participant in an arms-obtaining activity in Nov 1963 for a plot by anti-Castro Cubans to do an imminent major action related to an attack on Castro and Cuba. This (apparently) same plot was stated by a credible Chicago witness as also assuming an imminent assassination of JFK.
• He was arrested on Wed Nov 20, 1963, released and (my interpretation here) "turned" or had been prior to that as an informant to ATTU Ellsworth; supposedly rearrested again on Fri Nov 22, 1963 although I have never seen any documentation of that; but Masen appears to be an extremely good candidate for the cellmate of Elrod in the Dallas jail on Nov 22 that was misidentified as Oswald. (Masen looked strikingly like Oswald, though that was accident.)
• His phone number appears in Jack Ruby's phone book by some kind of cipher (I forget the details but it seemed convincing). Masen appears to be confirmed known to Ruby in being the apparent identification of an unruly customer in the Carousel Club misidentified as "Oswald" who stood and accused an MC of being a communist and was thrown out by Ruby, in an incident of ca. early October 1963. And Masen was involved in the same gunrunning activity (I believe likely as an informant by that point) in which Ruby appears also maybe to have been involved though Ruby was never himself charged over that. 
• Based on my own separate studies, I believe it is certain that Masen was the Sports Drome shooting range mistaken ID of "Oswald" by witnesses there; and that Masen also was the Shasteen barbershop customer in Irving mistaken ID for "Oswald". There could be still further cases of Masen identifications of Oswald mistaken ID's (from the accident of physical resemblance) though these are two I personally am certain of. There is no evidence or indication that Masen ever impersonated Oswald or used any alias or claimed to be Oswald in these two instances or elsewhere, or even knew Oswald, or that either of the two "Oswald sighting" claims just noted had anything to do with Oswald or the assassination. These were simply post-Nov 22 sincerely mistaken identifications by witnesses based on memory of appearance and certain specifics of behavior of Masen. 
• Masen was a dealer in Mannlicher-Carcano rifles and ammunition, which was not very common, of obvious interest in light of the Nov 22 assassination and alleged murder weapon.

 

[Chuck Schwartz]

I would also add Larry Hancock to my list of very knowledgeable people about the Big Event.

[Robert Reeves]

The clues are there. The CIA is STILL blocking attempts to come clean. Smug Neocon crap like Max Boot will write a book about Gen. Lansdale, painting a picture of the sun shining from his holy ass. I've watched Boot sarcastically mockingly mention the Fletcher Prouty allegation that Lansdale was the commander on the ground in Dealey Plaza in the presence of morons like Bill Kristol (I have watched almost every Max Boot's sales pitch on Youtube of his Lansdale smoke screen: The Road Not Taken). These people know the truth about Lansdale being on the ground in Dealey Plaza.

They think they're in an exclusive club -- That only they know the truth about what really happened to JFK.

 

 

[Robert Morrow]

7 hours ago, Robert Reeves said:

The clues are there. The CIA is STILL blocking attempts to come clean. Smug Neocon crap like Max Boot will write a book about Gen. Lansdale, painting a picture of the sun shining from his holy ass. I've watched Boot sarcastically mockingly mention the Fletcher Prouty allegation that Lansdale was the commander on the ground in Dealey Plaza in the presence of morons like Bill Kristol (I have watched almost every Max Boot's sales pitch on Youtube of his Lansdale smoke screen: The Road Not Taken). These people know the truth about Lansdale being on the ground in Dealey Plaza.

They think they're in an exclusive club -- That only they know the truth about what really happened to JFK.

 

 

Noooooooooo, they don't know the truth about the JFK assassination. They intentionally DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THE JFK ASSASSINATION.

Why would Gen. Edward Lansdale murder JFK? Very simply, Lansdale was in a rage over the death of his friend Ngo Dihn Diem in a JFK-approved CIA coup assisted coup. Lansdale had worked with Diem for 10 years to stabilize Vietnam, keep it in the American orbit and he wanted to make Diem the "George Washingto" of Vietnam.

Lyndon Johnson, also pro Diem, considered Diem to be the "Winston Churchill" of Vietnam.

Lansdale was in a rage that at the precise moment he was being ushered out of the military on 10/31/63 - at that precise moment on 11/1/1963 half way across the world in Vietnam, his pal Diem was being overthrown and was soon to be murdered the next day with his brother on 11/2/63. THAT is why Lansdale would participate 3 weeks later in the JFK assassination. In return for this, LBJ rehabilitated Lansdale's career and gave in a portfolio in Vietnam in 1965.

Max Boot just does not want to accept the ugly truth that is staring him right in his face.

Author Max Boot: Senator Thomas Dodd – a man who celebrated the death of JFK and who was a close friend of LBJ – was Lansdale’s top congressional sponsor in 1965

 QUOTE

           Luckily for Lansdale, he did find another supporter: Senator Thomas Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, a friend of Humphrey’s, a former Nurenberg prosecutor, and a Cold War hawk who would soon experience a precipitous downfall – he would be censured by the Senate in 1967 for diverting campaign funds to personal use. (His son Christopher would later follow him into the Senate.) Dodd wrote to the president on February 23, 1965, urging the dispatch of a “special liaison group” to help the embassy in Saigon “to establish the broadest and most effective possible liaison with the army leaders, with the Buddhists, with the intellectual community, and with the Vietnamese political leaders.” Attached was a list of eight men whom Dodd suggested sending. The very first name on the list was Edward Lansdale, who “enjoys a near legendary reputation in the Far East.”

          As normally happens, this missive wound up on the desk of the Vietnam expert at the National Security Council, a post formerly filled by Roger Hilsman and Michael Forrestal and now held by CIA officer Chester L. Cooper. His reaction as both wary and weary. “I know the President sometimes must get the feeling that he is being pursued by Lansdale or, at least, by the advocates of Lansdale,” he wrote to National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy. “For whatever it’s worth, I am in close contact with the General and am on the receiving end of a considerable number of ideas and projects which he and his friends have advanced. Some of these are quite interesting, and we are exploring them. It may well be Lansdale could be more effectively used than he is a present – either here or in Saigon. But Lansdale is one thing – a platoon of Lansdales is another.

          On July 27, 1965, five months after his first letter, Senator Dodd tried again, writing to the president, “Because of the grave situation in Vietnam, I again wish to urge that some consideration be given to assigning Major General Edward G. Lansdale to Vietnam.” This time, however, the response was not a curt dismissal. At the bottom of Dodd’s letter, Lyndon Johnson scrawled, “Tell him I’m going to get Lansdale out to Viet Nam.”

 UNQUOTE

 [Max Boot, The Road Not Taken, pp. 452-453]

   By December 30, 1964 Lyndon Johnson  was specifically asking for men like Gen. Edward Lansdale and Lucien Conein to be sent to Vietnam

 QUOTE

 On December 30, 1964, the president wrote to Ambassador Taylor suggesting that “we ought to be ready to make full use of the specialized skills of men who are skillful with Vietnamese, even if they are not always the easiest men to handle in a country team…. To put it another way, I continue to believe that we should have the most sensitive, persistent, and attentive Americans that we can find in touch with the Vietnamese of every kind and quality.” (italics added). The original draft of Johnson’s letter had included the words “of the general type of Lansdale and Conein” in place of “men who are skillful with the Vietnamese”; McGeorge Bundy must have blown a gasket and taken the names out, but the meaning remained clear.

 UNQUOTE

 [Max Boot, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, p. 448]

 Edward Lansdale and Rufus Phillips were totally against the coup against Diem

 [“I lost my oldest friend in 2021. Rufus was the ‘good American,” Max Boot, 1-11-2022]

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/11/i-lost-my-oldest-friend-2021-rufus-phillips-was-good-american/

 QUOTE

 In a White House meeting on Sept. 10, 1963, Rufus told John F. Kennedy, “I am sorry to tell you, Mr. President, but we are not winning the war.” Rufus argued that the United States should pressure Diem to sideline his autocratic brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, by sending Lansdale back to Saigon. Instead, the Kennedy administration supported a military coup against Diem that exacerbated the instability — and led directly to a massive military intervention that Lansdale and Rufus had warned against.

 UNQUOTE

 WHOLE ARTICLE

 It was such an awful year in 2021. It was entirely fitting that it ended with the death on Dec. 29 of my oldest friend, Rufus C. Phillips III. I call him my “oldest friend” not because I had known him longer than anyone else but because he was 92 when he died of complications of pneumonia at a hospital in northern Virginia.

 Had you met him, you would never have noticed his advanced age. He was active to the end, working on a book that will come out this year from the University Press of Kansas: “Stabilizing Fragile States: Why It Matters and What to Do About It.” I have been reading it and find it a font of good sense based on the author’s firsthand knowledge not only of the war in Vietnam but also of the more recent conflict in Afghanistan.

It was because of Rufus’s role in Vietnam that I met him — and I quickly found that he was not only an invaluable source of historical insights but also a wonderful person, one of the truest gentlemen I have ever known. Meeting Rufus for the first time around 2010 helped inspire me to write a book about his mentor, the legendary counterinsurgency adviser Edward Lansdale, who helped to defeat a communist uprising in the Philippines in the early 1950s and went on to help create the state of South Vietnam in 1954-1956. I developed a close friendship with Rufus during the many hours he spent patiently answering my questions.

 As Rufus recounted in his memoir, “Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned,” he first arrived in Saigon in August 1954 as a young Yale graduate recently enlisted in the CIA. Taken under Lansdale’s wing, Rufus was given a crash course in political warfare — what would later become known, somewhat misleadingly, as the battle for “hearts and minds.” His instructions were simply to “make friends, see what they were doing, and figure out how to help.”

Against all odds, Lansdale and his small team helped the new prime minister, Ngo Dinh Diem, consolidate his authority against the challenges posed by both communist fighters and warlord militias. Serving as an adviser to the newly created army of South Vietnam, Rufus helped the troops in 1955 to pacify a region newly vacated by the communist-dominated Vietminh. His key advice was simply for the soldiers to treat the local people with kindness and respect — a reflection of the way that Rufus himself dealt with everyone he met.

Later, in 1962, Rufus returned to South Vietnam to work for the U.S. Agency for International Development as head of “rural affairs” — which, in effect, made him the U.S. director of counterinsurgency at a time when the communists, now known as the Vietcong, were on the march. Because he knew so many Vietnamese so well, he realized that the rosy assessments being advanced by the Pentagon bore little relation to reality — and he wasn’t afraid to say so.

 In a White House meeting on Sept. 10, 1963, Rufus told John F. Kennedy, “I am sorry to tell you, Mr. President, but we are not winning the war.” Rufus argued that the United States should pressure Diem to sideline his autocratic brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, by sending Lansdale back to Saigon. Instead, the Kennedy administration supported a military coup against Diem that exacerbated the instability — and led directly to a massive military intervention that Lansdale and Rufus had warned against.

After the publication of his memoir in 2008, Rufus was enlisted as an adviser to U.S. officials directing the Afghanistan War. He spent his 80th birthday in Kabul observing that country’s fraud-marred election in 2009. Seeing how deeply flawed the U.S. effort in Afghanistan was, as he writes in “Stabilizing Fragile States,” he became convinced that “some serious reform is needed regarding how our foreign policy apparatus works to help stabilize fragile, failed and failing states.” His new book is an important primer on the subject.

 But really all that future U.S. diplomats, military personnel and intelligence officers need to know is that they should act the way that Rufus would have. He had an inexhaustible font of decency and empathy for everyone he came into contact with. He made lifelong friends in Vietnam and everywhere else he went.

 While another legendary adviser in Vietnam, John Paul Vann, had a famously checkered private life, Rufus was a model of love and devotion to his wonderful wife of 59 years, Barbara, a top-level translator for the State Department who died in 2020. They had four children and six grandchildren — all of whom were with Rufus at the end.

Much has been written about “ugly Americans.” Rufus Phillips was the opposite. Like the aid worker Bob Gersony, who was profiled in a book by Robert D. Kaplan, he was a genuine “good American” — a gentle, decent man who served his country with humility and devotion and fearless truth-telling. Let us hope his example inspires others.

 A very good Max Boot 2018 article on Edward Lansdale and Operation Mongoose:

 [“Operation Mongoose: The Story of America’s Efforts to Overthrow Castro,” Max Boot, The Atlantic, 1-5-2018]

 https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/01/operation-mongoose/549737/  

A very good twitter thread (5/2/2022) on Gen. Edward Lansdale, Sen. Thomas Dodd and Lyndon Johnson:

 https://twitter.com/BarrySealDeath/status/1521109863463596034

 

 

[Robert Morrow]

On 5/11/2024 at 10:12 AM, Denny Zartman said:

I've read "Bond of Secrecy" Saint John Hunt's book about his father's confessions. Saint John seemed honest in his recounting. According to Saint John, it's clear that E. Howard knew his time was short and that he was looking for a sizeable amount of money for his confessions.

Anyway, in summary: E. Howard Hunt pointed the finger at LBJ as being at the top of the pyramid, and implicated others such as Cord Meyer (often misspelled as "Myer" in the book), William Harvey, Frank Sturgis, David Morales, and Antonio Veciana. He has Lucien Sarti shooting from the grassy knoll. I believe E. Howard didn't confess to any of his own personal involvement in the actual assassination day.

Was E. Howard Hunt involved in some capacity in the JFK assassination? Probably.

But I can tell you who most definitely was NOT involved in the JFK assassination: Antonio Veciana.

I, along with Scott Kaiser, met Antonio Veciana in the back office of his fishing supply store in summer 2013 in Miami, FL.

Veciana, far from being the Alpha 66, Castro-hating radical of the 1960s, was a chastened man. He pretty much admitted that Kennedy was "right" on Cuban policy and if JFK had listened to folks like him, we probably would have had nuclear war in the 1960s.

Veciana did not act like a man who was hiding anything, his demeanor was transparent, he was relatively pro JFK, the foaming hatred of the man from decades ago was gone, and I think the odds of him being personally involved in the JFK assassination ARE LESS THAN ONE PERCENT.

 

[Greg Doudna]

8 hours ago, Robert Morrow said:

Was E. Howard Hunt involved in some capacity in the JFK assassination? Probably.

But I can tell you who most definitely was NOT involved in the JFK assassination: Antonio Veciana.

I, along with Scott Kaiser, met Antonio Veciana in the back office of his fishing supply store in summer 2013 in Miami, FL.

Veciana, far from being the Alpha 66, Castro-hating radical of the 1960s, was a chastened man. He pretty much admitted that Kennedy was "right" on Cuban policy and if JFK had listened to folks like him, we probably would have had nuclear war in the 1960s.

Veciana did not act like a man who was hiding anything, his demeanor was transparent, he was relatively pro JFK, the foaming hatred of the man from decades ago was gone, and I think the odds of him being personally involved in the JFK assassination ARE LESS THAN ONE PERCENT.

Thanks Robert for this human side of Veciana from your experience. So far as I know, I am not aware that there were claims that Veciana was implicated in the JFK assassination. It seems the main issue was Veciana’s claim that Phillips was involved with Oswald (claimed to be debunked by Tracy Parnell at his website). 

But the anecdote of a chastened thoughtful Veciana in later years regretting his earlier views and activities has redemptive value, in that some people do grow and learn with time. Thanks for telling this. 

Edited Saturday at 02:51 PM by Greg Doudna

[Stu Wexler]

I am confused why someone could not simply have a change of heart from what they did decades before. Larry and I wrote about just such a person in our MLK assassination book: Tommy Tarrants. Went from self-described top terrorist for the White Knights of the KKK to an anti-racist evangelist.

A key question is did Veciana stike you as being evasive or mendacious re: his personal account of the JFK assassination (meeting Oswald)?

Stu

 

 

[Jonathan Cohen]

16 hours ago, Robert Reeves said:

These people know the truth about Lansdale being on the ground in Dealey Plaza.

There's no evidence whatsoever that Lansdale was in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963.

[Jonathan Cohen]

1 hour ago, Stu Wexler said:

A key question is did Veciana stike you as being evasive or mendacious re: his personal account of the JFK assassination (meeting Oswald)?

Stu, doesn't it seem like Veciana's entire account involving "Bishop" and allegedly meeting Oswald has fallen apart under closer, modern scrutiny?

[Robert Morrow]

6 hours ago, Stu Wexler said:

I am confused why someone could not simply have a change of heart from what they did decades before. Larry and I wrote about just such a person in our MLK assassination book: Tommy Tarrants. Went from self-described top terrorist for the White Knights of the KKK to an anti-racist evangelist.

A key question is did Veciana stike you as being evasive or mendacious re: his personal account of the JFK assassination (meeting Oswald)?

Stu

 

 

I was in Veciana's office while Scott Kaiser was interviewing him on videotape. I did not see a foaming, hateful JFK hater at all. Then man, Veciana, had mellowed considerably. There were OTHER old anti-Castro Cubans in Miami at that time who still had their hate for both Castro and JFK ... but not Veciana.

Contact Scott Kaiser to get the full details.

Veciana did not seem to be mendacious or evasive and nor was he filled with JFK hate. He seemed to admit that Kennedy was right in the 1960s and we could have had nuclear war if not for JFK.

Contact Scott Kaiser and he will give you the full context of his summer, 2013 interview with an aging Antonio Veciana.

As far as his seeing Oswald with David Atlee Phillips, he stuck by that story.

 

 

[Robert Morrow]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Cohen said:

Stu, doesn't it seem like Veciana's entire account involving "Bishop" and allegedly meeting Oswald has fallen apart under closer, modern scrutiny?

I think John Newman did a lot of debunking on that, eh?

[Robert Morrow]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Cohen said:

There's no evidence whatsoever that Lansdale was in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963.

There is EVIDENCE but you don't have to believe it. Prouty, Krulak and Morrow all think that was Lansdale in that pic with the three tramps. You are welcome to have a different point of view.

I do know this: LYNDON JOHNSON IMMEDIATELY RESURRECTED LANSDALE'S CAREER. Read Max Boot's book and you and learn all about that. And Lansdale's top congressional sponsor was Senator Thomas Dodds- an inner circle LBJ friend who CELEBRATED THE DEATH OF JOHN KENNEDY.

[Jonathan Cohen]

2 hours ago, Robert Morrow said:

There is EVIDENCE but you don't have to believe it. Prouty, Krulak and Morrow all think that was Lansdale in that pic with the three tramps. You are welcome to have a different point of view.

Unfortunately, I don't believe it, and hardly any veteran researcher I know does either.

[Robert Morrow]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Cohen said:

Unfortunately, I don't believe it, and hardly any veteran researcher I know does either.

Around 1990 or so, John Newman and David Lifton went out to the Hoover Institution to go through the Lansdale papers to see if they gave Lansdale ANY ALIBI FROM BEING PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN DALLAS ON 11/22/63.

Instead, they found Lansdale correspondence with Gen. "Hanging Sam" Williams with Lansdale telling him I am coming down to Texas to visit you this fall. Lansdale was cashiered out of the military 10/31/63.

Gen. Sam Williams lived in DENTON, TEXAS with is a 38 mile car ride from Dealey Plaza.

By 11 days after the JFK assassination, Lansdale has a job on White House grounds in the "Old Executive Building" which was where VP Lyndon Johnson kept his vice presidential offices. (See Max Boot's book).

Newman and Lifton also found a "bumpstock" or a "paper writing pad" from the Hotel Texas which is located in Fort Worth and it happens to be the same hotel that JFK and LBJ stayed at the night before the JFK assassination.

After John Newman had returned home from Hoover, he got a call from the librarian at Hoover. She told Newman that multiple GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ARE HERE AND THEY ARE GOING THROUGH ALL THE PAPERS THAT YOU AND LIFTON LOOKED AT AND THEY ARE CLASSIFYING THEM AS SECRET!!

Source on that story is John Newman who told it to me directly.

[Joe Bauer]

3 hours ago, Robert Morrow said:

Around 1990 or so, John Newman and David Lifton went out to the Hoover Institution to go through the Lansdale papers to see if they gave Lansdale ANY ALIBI FROM BEING PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN DALLAS ON 11/22/63.

Instead, they found Lansdale correspondence with Gen. "Hanging Sam" Williams with Lansdale telling him I am coming down to Texas to visit you this fall. Lansdale was cashiered out of the military 10/31/63.

Gen. Sam Williams lived in DENTON, TEXAS with is a 38 mile car ride from Dealey Plaza.

By 11 days after the JFK assassination, Lansdale has a job on White House grounds in the "Old Executive Building" which was where VP Lyndon Johnson kept his vice presidential offices. (See Max Boot's book).

Newman and Lifton also found a "bumpstock" or a "paper writing pad" from the Hotel Texas which is located in Fort Worth and it happens to be the same hotel that JFK and LBJ stayed at the night before the JFK assassination.

After John Newman had returned home from Hoover, he got a call from the librarian at Hoover. She told Newman that multiple GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ARE HERE AND THEY ARE GOING THROUGH ALL THE PAPERS THAT YOU AND LIFTON LOOKED AT AND THEY ARE CLASSIFYING THEM AS SECRET!!

Source on that story is John Newman who told it to me directly.

Very interesting facts.