C. Douglas Dillon and the Assassination of JFK

[Terry Mauro]

Mark Knight wrote:

If you truly believe Dillon to be innocent, step aside and let the investigation prove you correct, Tim.

I suspect Mark did not really mean what this sentence suggests.

Unless principles of justice and fair-play are turned inside-out for the assassination research committee, proof is need to prove someone guilty not innocent. Dillon is not presumed guilty until proven innocent!

Without holding my breath, I will await the introduction of one scintilla of evidence linking Dillon to the assassination. And while I am more than confident no secret service agents were involved, even if there was any SS involvement that fact is insufficient to link Dillon solely because the SS was under the Dept of the Treasury. I do not suspect CIA involvement either but even if I am wrong that would not link John McCone to the assassination. I mean, both the CIA and the Treasurer ultimately reported to the President so under that reasoning JFK must have approved his own assassination! Pure silliness!

******************************************************

"Some material on the relationship between IG Farben, Dupont, Dillon and the Bush family............

Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. had been chairman of the finance committee of the Du Pont Corporation (1930-40). In 1933, Carpenter oversaw Du Pont's purchase of Remington Arms from Sam Pryor and the Rockefellers, and led Du Pont into partnership with the Nazi I.G. Farben Company for the manufacture of explosives. Carpenter became Du Pont's president in 1940. His cartel with the Nazis was broken up by the U.S. government. Nevertheless, Carpenter remained Du Pont's president as the company's technicians participated massively in the Manhattan Project to produce the first atomic bomb. He was chairman of Du Pont from 1948 to 1962, retaining high-level access to U.S. strategic activities.

Walter Carpenter and Prescott Bush were fellow activists in the Mental Hygiene Society. Originating at Yale University in 1908, the movement had been organized into the World Federation of Mental Health by Montagu Norman, himself a frequent mental patient, former Brown Brothers partner and Bank of England Governor. Norman had appointed as the federation's chairman, Brigadier John Rawlings Rees, director of the Tavistock Psychiatric Clinic, chief psychiatrist and psychological warfare expert for the British intelligence services. Prescott was a director of the society in Connecticut; Carpenter was a director in Delaware.

Paul Mellon was the leading heir to the Mellon fortune, and a long-time neighbor of Averell Harriman's in Middleburg, Virginia, as well as Jupiter Island, Florida. Paul's father, Andrew Mellon, U.S. Treasury Secretary 1921-32, had approved the transactions of Harriman, Pryor and Bush with the Warburgs and the Nazis. Paul Mellon's son-in-law, David K.E. Bruce, worked in Prescott Bush's W.A. Harriman & Co. during the late 1920s; was head of the London branch of U.S. intelligence during World War II; and was Averell Harriman's Assistant Secretary of Commerce in 1947-48. Mellon family money and participation would be instrumental in many domestic U.S. projects of the new Central Intelligence Agency.

Carl Tucker manufactured electronic guidance equipment for the Navy. With the Mellons, Tucker was an owner of South American oil properties. Mrs. Tucker was the great aunt of Nicholas Brady, later George Bush's Iran-Contra partner and U.S. Treasury Secretary. Their son Carll Tucker, Jr. (Skull and Bones 1947), was among the 15 Bonesmen who selected George Bush for induction in the class of 1948.

C.Douglas Dillon was the boss of William H. Draper, Jr. in the Draper-Prescott Bush-Fritz Thyssen Nazi banking scheme of the 1930s and 40s. His father, Clarence Dillon, created the Vereinigte Stahlwerke (Thyssen's German Steel Trust) in 1926. C. Douglas Dillon made Nicholas Brady the chairman of the Dillon Read firm in 1971 and himself continued as chairman of the executive committee. C. Douglas Dillon would be a vital ally of his neighbor Prescott Bush during the Eisenhower administration.

Publisher Nelson Doubleday headed his family's publishing firm, founded under the auspices of J.P. Morgan and other British Empire representatives. When George Bush's `` Uncle Herbie '' died, Doubleday took over as majority owner and chief executive of the New York Mets baseball team.

George W. Merck,chairman of Merck & Co., drug and chemical manufacturers, was director of the War Research Service: Merck was the official chief of all U.S. research into biological warfare from 1942 until at least the end of World War II. After 1944, Merck's organization was placed under the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service. His family firm in Germany and the U.S. was famous for its manufacture of morphine.

A.L. Cole was useful to the Jupiter Islanders as an executive of Readers Digest. In 1965, just after performing a rather dirty favor for George Bush (see Chapter 9), Cole became chairman of the executive committee of the Digest, the world's largest-circulation periodical.

From the late 1940s, Jupiter Island has served as a center for the direction of covert action by the U.S. government and, indeed, for the covert management of the government. Jupiter Island will reappear later on, in our account of George Bush in the Iran-Contra affair."

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And, you see nothing skewed nor out of line with regard to the information divulged here concerning the actions of these people? Even if there is no direct umbilical cord connecting Dillon to the assassination, there's enough circumstantial evidence in the form of guilt by association here to warrant a thorough investigation and disclosure regarding the intended motives and prospective profits which stood to be gained by this individual. With respect to the Kennedy assassination, friend or no friend, it's quite obvious that another term with JFK in office might have proven detrimental to their plans, if not shut them down altogether. The reason being that the death of JFK finally paved the way for this group to wrestle the wheel away from a democratic house and replace them with the neocon mindset of 1994. It took 30 years from the coup in Dallas, for the transition to completely take hold and now it has come to fruition. My father used to refer to JFK as a conservative liberal. Maybe that's why he was slow to pick up on what the elites had in store for him. That was probably his own "Achille's Heel."

[Steven Gaal]

Dear Terro, From the Third Alternative Palamara book= one can assume Dillon stood aside while Gasper Belin was active at Treasury in assassination matters. Dulles knew Scribner and Belin =both Head Lawyers for Treasury dept. (see my post on Dulles and SS). Gasper Belin knew JJA,Bundy brothers and Dulles. There are mis-spellings

at electronic NARA - one is OZ tax records (for you Harvey & Lee fans) and Gasper. Dillion was also part of Rockefeller orbit (see diagram THY WILL BE DONE BOOK). The Stillman and regular Rockefeller families

were both on the board of Freeport Sulfur. Connections of the Rockefeller family to the coverup can be seen via the GSW corporation and ITEK.

The Duponts/Morgan group were the mainstay of the FDR coup plan. Recent info shows that Prescott Bush

was

one of main founders of the Liberty League = these would have help form troops to aid in FDR coup. Since I believe

Prescott & SON part of Dallas-it is very possible Dillon knew- but from Palamara work and other info on Gasper -DILLON stood aside IMHO. THANKS SG

[Terry Mauro]

Dear Terro, From the Third Alternative Palamara book= one can assume Dillon stood aside while Gasper Belin was active at Treasury in assassination matters. Dulles knew Scribner and Belin = both head lawyers for Treasury Dept. (see my post on Dulles and SS). Gasper Belin knew JJA, Bundy brothers, and Dulles. There are mis-spellings at electronic NARA - one is OZ tax records (for you Harvey & Lee fans) and Gasper. Dillon was also part of Rockefeller orbit (see diagram THY WILL BE DONE BOOK). The Stillman and regular Rockefeller families were both on the board of Freeport Sulfur. Connections of the Rockefeller family to the coverup can be seen via the GSW corporation and ITEK.

The Duponts/Morgan group were the mainstay of the FDR coup plan. Recent info shows that Prescott Bush

was one of main founders of the Liberty League = these would have helped form troops to aid in FDR coup. Since I believe Prescott & SON part of Dallas - it is very possible Dillon knew - but from Palamara's work and other info on Gasper - DILLON stood aside, IMHO. THANKS SG

************************************************************

"but from Palamara work and other info on Gasper - DILLON stood aside, IMHO."

In other words, he willingly "stood down", or stood by and let it happen. Another cowardly elitist perp.

Guilt by association.

Edited January 29, 2006 by Terry Mauro

[John Simkin]

Savor the moment!  John (who I, of course, consider a great guy and a scholar despite our political differences) agree that Dillon did not do it!

Tim,

You're a bit quick to savor the moment, aren't you? While John believes Dillon was not involved, there was a little rider in his statement wasn't there? Namely, "you need to ask why forces within the CIA were so keen to have Dillon in JFK's Cabinet". Well............why? Or do you deny this to be the case? Why?

I think I might have an answer to why Phil Graham wanted Dillon to become Secretary of the Treasury. In order to answer this we need to go back to the selection of Johnson as Kennedy's vice president.

In 1960 Lyndon Johnson’s closest political supporters urged him to enter the race when John F. Kennedy emerged as favourite to win the Democratic Party nomination. Sam Rayburn was especially keen for Johnson to defeat Kennedy. So was John Connally who established a Citizens-for-Johnson Committee. As Ralph G. Martin, pointed out, Johnson felt no need to campaign against Kennedy as he was convinced he “would destroy himself on the religious issue”. (1)

Theodore H. White argued in “The Making of the President” that it was impossible for Johnson to win by taking on Kennedy from the beginning. “These men (Johnson, Rayburn and Connally) knew that the Johnson candidacy could not be muscled by seeking individual Convention delegates…. Their plans rested squarely on their control of Congress, on the enormous accumulation of political debts and uncashed obligations that, between them, Johnson and Rayburn had earned over years of the legislative trade.” (2)

It was not until 5th July, 1960, that Johnson finally declared himself an official candidate. Johnson had been forced to leave it as late as this because he was unwilling to resign as Majority leader of the Senate. He therefore had to wait until Rayburn and himself had recessed Congress on 3rd July. Johnson immediately went onto the attack by pointed out that: “Those who have engaged in active campaigns since January have missed hundreds of votes. This I could not do – for my country or my party. Someone had to tend the store.” (3)

Johnson now portrayed the front-runner as being “too young and “too inexperienced” (4) He also tried to get as Kennedy via his father. He described Joe Kennedy as being pro-Hitler. He was therefore opposing John Kennedy as he “did not want any Chamberlain umbrella man!” (5) Johnson also made reference to Kennedy’s health, pointing out that he had Addison’s disease. (6)

Despite this dirty tricks campaign, Johnson was unable to stop Kennedy being nominated. Johnson was obviously upset by this result but comforted himself with the fact that as Majority leader, he remained the second most powerful man in American politics. The great surprise is that Johnson was willing to sacrifice this power in order to become Kennedy’s running-mate.

In his book, The Making of the President, Theodore H. White, expresses shock at both Kennedy’s decision to offer Johnson’s the post, and his eventual acceptance of what appeared to be a demotion. White adds that this mystery will only be solved by “tomorrow’s historians”. (7)

The idea that Johnson should be Kennedy’s running-mate was first suggested by Philip Graham of the Washington Post. Graham, the key figure in the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird, had been campaigning strongly for Johnson to get the nomination. However, when Graham arrived at the Democratic Party Convention in Los Angeles on 8th July, Johnson told him that Kennedy would win by a landslide. Graham then had a meeting with Robert Kennedy and was finally convinced that Johnson had indeed lost his race to be the presidential candidate.

According to Katharine Graham, her husband and Joe Alsop, arranged a meeting with John Kennedy on 11th July. Alsop started the conversation with the following comment: “We’ve come to talk to you about the vice-presidency. Something may happen to you, and Symington is far too shallow a puddle for the United States to dive into.” Graham then explained the advantages that Johnson would “add to the ticket”. What is more, it would remove Johnson as leader of the Senate. (8)

Kennedy agreed that Johnson would be a great asset. He knew that Johnson could deliver Texas. As Victor Lasky pointed out: “Every phase of the state’s election machinery from precinct tally clerk to the State Board of Canvassers was in the hands of Organization (read LBJ) Democrats.” (9)

Hugh Sidey of Time Magazine, interviewed Kennedy on the eve of the Los Angeles convention. He later claimed that Kennedy told him: “if I had my choice I would have Lyndon Johnson as my running mate. And I’m going to offer it to him, but he isn’t going to take it.” (10)

After the meeting with Graham and Alsop, Kennedy told his aide, Kenneth P. O’Donnell, that it made sense to have Johnson on the ticket but he knew that he would never accept the position as it would mean he would lose his powerful position in the Senate. Kennedy assured O’Donnell that Stuart Symington, “who was acceptable to both the labor leaders and the Southerners” would be his running-mate. (11)

The mystery that has to be explained is not that Johnson was offered the post, but that he accepted it. Bobby Baker has provided an interesting account of the discussions that went on about the possibility of Johnson becoming Kennedy’s running-mate. Baker describes how Johnson told him that Kennedy was coming to see him at his hotel. John Connally was of the opinion that Kennedy would offer him the job. Johnson asked Baker what he should do. Baker replied: “It’s no disgrace to hold the second highest office in the land and be one heartbeat away from the presidency.” Connally added that Johnson would be able to deliver Texas for Kennedy.

At this stage Johnson appeared to be against the idea. He told Baker that he would have “trouble with some of my Texas friends if I decide to run.” Sam Rayburn was one of these “Texas friends” who was strongly opposed to the suggestion that Johnson should become Kennedy’s running-mate. He quoted another Texan, John Nance Garner, who held the post under Franklin D. Roosevelt, as saying: “The office ain’t worth a pitcher of warm spit.” However, according to Baker, John Connally and Phil Graham “worked on” Rayburn until he “came round” to the idea that Johnson should become Kennedy’s running-mate.

There still remained a significant number of opponents to Johnson’s strategy. Baker adds in his autobiography that “several Texas congressmen, spoiled by LBJ’s special attentions to their pet legislative schemes, begged him not to leave his powerful Senate post.” (12)

According to Baker, one of Johnson’s political friends resorted to threats of violence against Johnson if he became the vice-presidential candidate. This was oil millionaire, Robert S. Kerr. In their book, The Case Against Congress, Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson claim that “Robert S. Kerr, oil millionaire, uranium king, cattle baron and Senator from Oklahoma… dominated the Senate’s back rooms in the late 1950s and early 1960s.” (13) Pearson and Anderson point out that Kerr main concern in Congress was to preserve the oil depletion allowance.

In “Wheeling and Dealing” Baker described what happened when Kerr arrived at the meeting in Johnson’s hotel room: “Kerr literally was livid. There were angry red splotches on his face. He glared at me, at LBJ, and at Lady Bird. ‘Get me my .38,’ he yelled. ‘I’m gonna kill every damn one of you. I can’t believe that my three best friends would betray me.’ Senator Kerr did not seem to be joking. As I attempted to calm him he kept shouting that we’d combined to ruin the Senate, ruin ourselves, and ruin him personally.”

Johnson responded to this outburst by telling Baker to take Kerr in the bathroom and “explain things to him”. Baker did this and after hearing about the reasons for Johnson’s decision to accept the post, “Senator Kerr put a burly arm around me and said, “Son, you are right and I was wrong. I’m sorry I mistreated you.”

What did Baker tell Kerr that dramatically changed his mind on this issue? According to Baker, he told Kerr: “If he’s elected vice-president, he’ll be an excellent conduit between the White House and the Hill.” What is more, if Kennedy is defeated, Johnson can blame it on Kennedy’s religion and be the likely victor in the attempt to be the Democratic Party candidate in the 1964 election. (14)

Kerr would have been well aware of this argument before he entered the bathroom with Baker. If Kerr did change his mind about Johnson’s becoming Kennedy’s running-mate, then Baker told him something else in the bathroom. Maybe he explained that Johnson would become president before 1964.

What we do know is that Kennedy’s close political advisers were shocked when Johnson accepted the post. They, like Kennedy himself, expected him to reject the offer. Why would Johnson give up his position as the second most powerful position in the country? Kenneth P. O’ Donnell was highly suspicious of Johnson’s motives. When he mentioned this to Kennedy he replied: “I’m forty-three years old, and I’m the healthiest candidate for President in the United States. You’ve traveled with me enough to know that. I’m not going to die in office. So the Vice-Presidency doesn’t mean anything. I’m thinking of something else, the leadership in the Senate. If we win, it will be by a small margin and I won’t be able to live with Lyndon Johnson as the leader of a small majority in the Senate.” (15)

The problem with this argument is that Johnson was also aware that as Vice President he would lose his political power. This is why Kennedy told his aides that Johnson would turn the offer down. Yet there is evidence that Johnson was desperate to become Kennedy’s running-mate. One of Kennedy’s most important advisers, Hyman Raskin, claims that Kennedy had a meeting with Johnson and Rayburn early on the morning after his nomination. According to all other sources, at this time, these two men were strongly opposed to the idea of Johnson becoming Kennedy’s running-mate. However, Kennedy told Raskin a different story. Johnson was very keen to join the ticket and “made an offer he could not refuse”. Raskin took this to mean that Kennedy was blackmailed into offering Johnson the post. (16)

This view is supported by another of Kennedy’s close advisers. Pierre Salinger was opposed to the idea of Johnson being Kennedy’s running-mate. He believed that the decision would lose more votes than it would gain. Salinger believed that Kennedy would lose the support of blacks and trade unionists if Johnson became the vice-presidential candidate. Although Johnson would deliver Texas his place on the ticket would mean Kennedy would lose California. A few days after the decision had been made, Salinger asked Kennedy why? He replied, "The whole story will never be known. And it's just as well that it won't be." Salinger also got the impression that Kennedy had been blackmailed into accepting Johnson. (17)

Kennedy must have been very concerned about this development. Why would Johnson blackmail him into accepting a post that had less power than the one that he already had? It only made sense if Johnson was going to continue using this strategy as vice president. Maybe this was only the first of many threats of blackmail. Would Johnson use his position to force Kennedy to appoint his friends such as John Connally and Fred Korth to important positions in his administration?

Kennedy must also have considered another possibility. Did Johnson plan to replace him as president? This seems to have been on Kennedy’s mind when he told Kenneth O’Donnell that he did not intend to die in office.

Given these events, it is possible that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was considered as early as 1960. If so, it is important to look closely at those people who played important roles in obtaining for Johnson the post of vice president.

It is important to try and work out what was said in the meetings that went on between John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in the short period before the announcement was made concerning the vice presidency. We know from Kennedy’s political advisers that their poll results showed that Stuart Symington would make the best candidate. Johnson would win votes in the South but would lose a lot more in other parts of America. It was calculated that with Symington on the ticket they would lose Texas but win California. As a result of these discussions, Clark Clifford was dispatched to Symington to offer him the post. (18)

It is true that Kennedy did consider Johnson for the post. He told Hugh Sidey of Time Magazine that “if I had my choice I would have Lyndon Johnson as my running mate. And I’m going to offer it to him, but he isn’t going to take it.” (19) Kennedy said the same thing to Kenneth P. O’Donnell. Kennedy made clear he wanted Johnson as vice president because he did not want him as leader of the Senate. Kennedy was convinced that Johnson would block his legislation as majority leader. However, Kennedy added that Johnson would never be willing to accept the post because it would mean giving up the second most powerful position in American politics. (20)

Therefore, the story put forward by Hyman Raskin (21) and Pierre Salinger (22) that Kennedy was blackmailed into giving the post to Johnson is probably true. The next question was why would Johnson want this post? It was obviously a package deal. Johnson would want more than just being vice president. He would want other guarantees.

To answer this question we need to discover what the concerns were of Johnson’s backers. Some researchers have claimed that there were concerns about Kennedy’s policies on civil rights. This is not true. Kennedy was unwilling to give any commitment to pushing for new civil rights legislation. As Richard D. Mahoney points out in his book, Sons and Brothers: “As senator, Kennedy had zigzagged through the long obstacle course of civil rights legislation, siding in most cases, as a Ted Sorensen memo to Bobby proudly explained in December 1959, ‘with our friends in the South.’ He meant white friends.” (23)

As Mahoney goes on to point out: “The most entrenched and skilled leaders of that majority in the Senate – McClellan of Arkansas, Eastland of Mississippi, Ervin of North Carolina, and Fulbright of Arkansas – were all vehement opponents of civil rights as well as close friends of Bobby Kennedy.” Kennedy admits in several interviews that were recorded as part of the Oral History Project, that he had several conversations with people like McClellan and Eastland during the campaign to assure them that the Kennedy administration would not promote the “civil rights issue”. (24)

Harris Wofford, Kennedy’s special assistant for civil rights, supports this view in his memoirs, Of Kennedys and Kings. He points out that Kennedy was forced into taking a stand on the issue because of the activities of Martin Luther King and pressure groups like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). For example, Kennedy did all he could to get the Freedom Riders to call off their activities in 1961. (25)

The issue that most concerned Johnson and his backers was Kennedy’s threat to the Texas oil industry. Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson were the most important supporters of the oil industry in Congress. In the 1950s Dwight Eisenhower had shown himself to be a good friend of Texas.

In the 1952 presidential election, the oil industry backed the Republican Party. This was reflected in Eisenhower’s appointment of Robert B. Anderson as Secretary of the Treasury. Before his appointment, Anderson was president of the Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. In this post he introduced legislation beneficial to the oil industry. (26)

One of Eisenhower’s first actions as president was to stop a grand jury investigation into the “International Petroleum Cartel”. Eisenhower justified his action as the need to maintain “national security”. Eisenhower’s behaviour had an impact on the oil lobby. “In 1956, officials at the nations biggest oil companies gave nearly $350,000 to Republicans while giving less than $15,000 to Democrats.” (27)

Eisenhower was personally rewarded by the oil industry. Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson reported that Eisenhower’s farm was paid for by three wealthy oilmen, W. Alton Jones, Billy Byers and George E. Allen. The Internal Revenue Service discovered that these three oilmen gave Eisenhower more than $500,000 at the same time he was making decisions favourable to the oil industry.

In their book, The Case Against Congress, Pearson and Anderson point out that on 19th January, 1961, the day before he left the White House, “Eisenhower signed a procedural instruction on the importation of residual oil that required all importers to move over and sacrifice 15 per cent of their quotas to newcomers who wanted a share of the action.” One of the major beneficiaries of this last-minute executive order was a company called Cities Service. The chief executive of Cities Service was W. Alton Jones, one of the men who helped pay for Eisenhower’s farm.

Three months later, Jones flew in a small plane to visit the retired president. The plane crashed and Jones was killed. In his briefcase was found $61,000 in cash. No one was ever able to explain why Jones was taking such a large sum of money to Eisenhower. (28)

As a U.S. senator, John F. Kennedy voted to reduce the depletion allowance. (29) Texas oilmen were obviously concerned when Kennedy became the front-runner in the 1960 presidential election. It is true that Lyndon Johnson and Sam Rayburn were in a position to try and block the move in Congress. However, Kennedy had the potential to draw attention to this unfair tax loophole. As Sam Rayburn pointed out, if the oil depletion allowance was debated in Congress: “They’d cut it to fifteen, ten, five percent – maybe even take it away altogether. Do you think you could convince a Detroit factory worker that the depletion allowance is a good thing? Once it got on the floor, it would be cut to ribbons.” (30)

In order to win votes in Texas, Kennedy changed his position on the oil depletion allowance. This was probably something that was negotiated by Johnson. In October, 1960, Kennedy wrote a letter to his Texas campaign manager outlying his policies on the oil industry. He said he wanted to make “clear my recognition of the value and importance of the oil depletion allowance. I realize its purpose and value… The oil-depletion allowance has served us well”. (31)

Kennedy’s support for the oil industry was reflected in the appointment of John Connolly as Navy Secretary. Connolly was of course Sid Richardson’s attorney and a long-time lobbyist for the oil industry. This was a post that brought with it the power to issue lucrative contracts to Texas oil companies. When Connolly resigned to become governor of Texas, he was replaced by another one of Johnson’s Texan friends, Fred Korth. He was of course forced to resign in October, 1963, as a result of another Texan corruption scandal, the awarding of the TFX contract to General Dynamics. (32)

The person who decided on the oil depletion allowance was the Secretary of the Treasury. This post was held by Clarence Douglas Dillon. This was a surprising appointment because Dillon had been a major contributor to the presidential campaign of Dwight D. Eisenhower. As a reward Dillon was appointed as Ambassador to France. In 1959 Eisenhower appointed him as Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. He was therefore responsible for the economic policies and programs of the Department of State and for coordinating the Mutual Security Program. Dillon attended several Foreign Ministers meetings. In 1959 he was one of the founders of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Why then did Kennedy appoint someone who was clearly someone who had spent his adult life attacking the policies of the Democratic Party? The answer appears in Katharine Graham’s book, Personal History: “Right after the election, he (Phil Graham) started talking to and writing the president-elect about appointments to the new administration. Both Phil and Joe Alsop thought Kennedy ought to appoint our friend Douglas Dillon as secretary of the Treasury. Dillon was a liberal Republican who had served as undersecretary of state in the Eisenhower administration and had contributed to the Nixon campaign, so this didn't seem like a strong possibility.” (33)

Therefore, the same people, Phil Graham and Joe Alsop, who convinced Kennedy to take Johnson as vice president, were also behind the appointment of Clarence Douglas Dillon. Were they also working on behalf of Johnson and Rayburn when they put forward Dillon’s name? Was his role to block any attempts to reduce the oil depletion allowance?

Kennedy was to change his mind on the oil depletion allowance when he became president. One study showed that the depletion allowance was saving oilmen in the region of $300 million a year. (16) An investigation by “representatives on Capitol Hill estimated that the depletion allowance had cost American taxpayers $140 billion in revenue” (over 700 billion in today’s prices). (34)

In 1963 Kennedy announced his intention to close a number of corporate tax loopholes, including the depletion allowance. Was this the policy that got Kennedy killed? What we do know is that Johnson cancelled Kennedy’s tax reforms and the oil depletion allowance remained in operation. (35)

Notes

1. Ralph G. Martin, A Hero For Our Time, 1983 (page 155)

2. Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960 (page 53)

3. Alfred Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, 1968 (page 524)

4. Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960 (page 160)

5. Alfred Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, 1968 (page 525)

6. Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1961 (page 160)

7. Alfred Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, 1968 (page 525)

8. Kenneth P. O’Donnell & David F. Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1972 (page 117)

9. Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960 (page 206)

10. Katharine Graham, Personal History, 1997 (pages 282-283)

11. Victor Lasky, It Didn’t Start With Watergate, 1977 (page 58)

12. Seymour Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot, 1998 (page 122)

13. Kenneth P. O’Donnell & David F. Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1972 (page 218)

14. Bobby Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, 1978 (pages 123-126)

15. Drew Pearson & Jack Anderson, The Case Against Congress, 1968 (page 132)

16. Bobby Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, 1978 (pages 126-127)

17. Kenneth P. O’Donnell & David F. Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1972 (page 221)

18. Seymour Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot, 1998 (page 126)

19. Pierre Salinger, With Kennedy, 1966 (page 87)

20. Ralph G. Martin, A Hero For Our Times, 1983 (pages 156-7)

21. Seymour Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot, 1998 (page 122)

22. Kenneth P. O’Donnell & David F. Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1972 (page 221)

23. Seymour Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot, 1998 (page 126)

24. Pierre Salinger, With Kennedy, 1966 (page 87)

25. Richard D. Mahoney, Sons and Brothers, 1999 (page 117)

26. Edwin Guthman and Jeffrey Shulman (ed.), Robert Kennedy in his Own Words, 1988

27. Harris Wofford, Of Kennedy and Kings, 1980 (pages 103-200)

28. Robert Sherrill, The Accidental President, 1967 (pages 142-147)

29. Robert Bryce, Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, 2004 (page 91)

30. Drew Pearson & Jack Anderson, The Case Against Congress, 1968 (pages 438-440)

31. Jim Marrs, Crossfire, 1989, (page 277)

32. Anthony Champagne, Congressman Sam Rayburn, 1984 (page 151)

33. Robert Sherrill, The Accidental President, 1967 (page 144)

34. Katharine Graham, Personal History, 1997 (page 292)

35. Robert Bryce, Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, 2004 (page 92)

36. Jim Marrs, Crossfire, 1989, (page 277)

37. Robert Bryce, Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, 2004 (page 93)

[Ron Ecker]

More dirt on Dillon. He was allegedly a looter of antiquities for the Metropolitan Museum.

According to this article, it was Robert Lovett, a partner of Prescott Bush, who recommended to JFK that Dillon join his cabinet.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0603/S00081.htm

Edited March 6, 2006 by Ron Ecker

[John Simkin]

More dirt on Dillon. He was allegedly a looter of antiquities for the Metropolitan Museum.

According to this article, it was Robert Lovett, a partner of Prescott Bush, who recommended to JFK that Dillon join his cabinet.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0603/S00081.htm

Kate Graham claims that it was Phil Graham approached JFK about this appointment. However, it is possible he was working on behalf of Lovett or the Bush family.

Here is some other interesting information from this article:

As a Jupiter Island, Florida neighbor of Prescott Bush, US President George W. Bush's grandfather, Dillon was also part of America's shadow government - and a major US intelligence figure....

For all his good deeds, Prescott Bush's son, US President and former CIA Director George H.W. Bush, awarded Douglas Dillon the Medal of Freedom in July 1989.

Finance guru Catherine Fitts reminds us in her excellent series now running on Narco News that Dillon helped "Wild Bill" Donovon start up the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the forerunner of the CIA. Dillon was also Naval Intelligence during WWII.

As Ike's Under Secretary of State, Dillon advised the Senate's Church committee in 1960 about the threat posed by Patrice Lumumba, the Congo's first democratically elected leader, who was assassinated, saying Lumumba was a "very difficult if not impossible person to deal with, and was dangerous to the peace and safety of the world".

The late author Jon Kwitny, who I had the pleasure of knowing in the 1980s, commented on Dillon's statement:

"How far beyond the dreams of a barefoot jungle postal clerk in 1956 that in a few short years he would be dangerous to the peace and safety of the world! The perception seems insane, particularly coming from the National Security Council, which really does have the power to end all human life within hours."Newly elected President John F. Kennedy asked Dillon to join his cabinet as treasury secretary on the recommendation of another Jupiter Islander, Robert Lovett, the Brown Brothers Harriman partner of Prescott Bush. Lovett had declined Kennedy's cabinet offer but later advised President Lyndon Johnson to terror bomb civilians in Vietnam, a policy he successfully pushed in WWII as Assistant Secretary of War (Air).

Dillon was the only Republican in Kennedy's cabinet. As JFK's treasury secretary he was also in charge of the US Secret Service whose job it was to protect the president in Dallas on November 22, 1963 when Kennedy was assassinated

General Counsel J. Lee Rankin: Can you tell us briefly the nature of your supervision of the Secret Service prior to the assassination?

Secretary C. Douglas Dillon: Yes. Prior to the assassination when I first took office as Secretary of the Treasury, I naturally tried to find out, in as much detail as seemed practical, how the various offices of the Department functioned. One of the important ones was the Secret Service. So I had a number of interviews with Chief Baughman who was the Chief of the Secret Service at that time. I got the general description from him of how the Secret Service operated, what their responsibilities were, what their problems were. After he retired, which was early, after I had only been there a few months, I spoke with the President about this matter - President Kennedy - and it was my responsibility to find a new Chief of the Secret Service.

He had known James Rowley very well as head of the White House detail, and he felt he would be an appropriate head of the Secret Service. I talked with Chief Baughman, and he thought there were two or three men, of whom Rowley was one, qualified to be head of the Secret Service, so I tided to appoint Rowley and thereafter talked with him considerably about the White House detail which he was more familiar with than Chief Baughman.

However, I did not in any sense conduct a day-to-day supervision, or close following, of its day-to-day operations. The Secret Service had been functioning for many years and the presumption from its record was that it had been functioning successfully. I think that the events that have developed since November have clearly shown that some of the procedures, many of them, need to be changed . . .

Mr. Rankin: Do you know of any credible evidence that would lead you or anyone to believe there was a conspiracy, foreign or domestic, involved in the assassination of President Kennedy?

Secretary Dillon: No. From all the evidence I have seen this was the work of one deranged individual.

Mr. Rankin: And who would that be?

Secretary Dillon: Lee Harvey Oswald. . . .

Mr. Rankin: Do you know of any evidence in regard to any connection between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald?

Secretary Dillon: No, no.

- Warren Commission Testimony of C. Douglas Dillon, September 2, 1964

Dillon was also a member of the Rockefeller Commission investigating the CIA's Operation CHAOS activities in the US, which targeted the Women's Liberation Movement, Students for a Democratic Society, Grove Press, etc. The irony was that most of the members of the commission had significant intel connections, including of course, Dillon.

[Mark Stapleton]

Ron wrote:

I would wager that the Dallas cops who planned the motorcycle escort, only to have the SS veto their plan the night before, saw it as security stripping.

Ron, what is your basis for that assertion?

I should add that rereading the article and examining the photo, there were two secret service agents riding on the trunk of the JFK limo in Tampa. Of course, this must be viewed in conjunction with the disclosure in "Ultimate Sacrifice" that security was extremely tight inm Tampa because there had been rumors of an assasination plot in Tampa.

Here is another photo of the Tampa limousine:

http://www.big13.net/Tommy%20Eure/tommy_eu...0%20seconds.htm

To Mark:

The fact that Dillon was the Secretary of the Treasury does nothing to make him a suspect in the JFK case. As I said before, by going up the chain of command from the head of the Secret Service to the Cabinet member, one would by the same logic continue up the chain of command and viola, JFK himself is a suspect!

Do you have any evidence whatsoever that Dillon involved himnself in the day-to-day operations of the Secret Service?

Surely suspicions would have been raised if Dillon had given an order to the Dallas Secret Serrvice Agents without going through the normal SS channels. Surely had that happened one of the SS agents "would have talked". And if you think Dillon went through the SS chain of command, do you contend that the head of the SS was himself involved in the plot?

This whole premise is so ridiculous it is no wonder that the news and history establishment does not take the assassination research community seriously!

Tim,

The link you provided in post #55 undermines your own argument (excellent photos and story btw). Tony Zappone himself recalls that the Tampa motorcade travelled so fast that he almost missed getting any snaps of JFK at all--in contrast to the slow turn and crawl into Elm Street in Dallas. Also, the photos of the Tampa motorcade indicate that it travelled past few, if any, clusters of high rise buildings--in contrast to the several high rise buildings with open windows which partially surrounded Dealey Plaza. The plaza almost resembles an amphitheatre, with many potentially lethal vantage points. By arguing that there was no security stripping, you're claiming that the SS were absolutely stupid. I'm surprised, as this must therefore raise a question concerning Dillon's competence in discharging his duties.

A couple of questions, if anyone can assist:

1. Who was the driver of the Presidential limo in Tampa? Was it Bill Greer?

2. Did Ken O'Donnell accompany JFK on the Tampa trip?

Just thought I might run this past the Forum again. Would anyone know the answers to these two questions. Dallek's bio of JFK doesn't mention the Tampa trip and I've loaned my copy of Manchester to someone.

[John Simkin]

The most detailed study of the Suite 8F Group appears in the book, “Builders: Herman and George R. Brown". Written by two local historians, Joseph A. Pratt & Christopher J. Castaneda, the book, published by the Texas A & M University Press, is very difficult to find. However, I have managed to get a copy and it includes some interesting information about the Brown brothers.

First it has to be pointed out that this is not an objective work of history. The authors got a great deal of help from the Brown family, including access to letters and photographs. To give you some idea of the subjective nature of the book, Robert A. Caro is described as “strident” as a result of his comments about the corruption of the Brown brothers. Pratt and Castaneda agree that they were corrupt, but no more than anyone else obtaining federal contracts before Watergate (they take the strange view that politics was cleaned up after the resignation of Nixon).

I knew the names of most of the people mentioned by Pratt and Castaneda. However, there were a few surprises. For example, I did not realize that Sam Rayburn was so intimate with this group. Another interesting name that came up was C. Douglas Dillon. According to August Belmont IV, who worked for Dillon & Read in the 1940s, the company did a great deal of work for the Suite 8F Group. In fact, they seemed to be the New York branch of the operation. This helps to explain why Phil Graham and Lyndon Johnson were so keen that Dillon became JFK’s Secretary of the Treasury. (Maybe it also explains why Tim Gratz used to get so worked up when anyone linked Dillion to the assassination).

[Ron Ecker]

The Secretary of the Treasury was a key official in the annual joint meeting with the Japanese Cabinet on trade and economic affairs, which was always held late in the year and in 1963 was scheduled to begin November 25 in Japan. This put almost all the Cabinet members on one airplane over the Pacific and away from Washington at the time of the assassination. Convenient timing if an overt coup d'etat were to prove necessary, depending on how things went in Dallas. It is therefore possible that Dillon, with JFK's November 22 visit to Dallas in mind, played a role in deciding on what dates that year's joint meeting in Japan would be held.

[John Simkin]

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 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.

[Ron Ecker]

It's interesting that when asked by Rankin about the nature of his supervision of the Secret Service, Dillon made no mention of Robert A. Wallace, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in charge of the Secret Service.

One would think that Wallace, if he was doing his job, would have been Dillon's right-hand man with regard to the SS, but Dillon mentions only SS chief Rowley.

There isn't much in the literature or elsewhere about Wallace, except that he had been a speechwriter for JFK, and his son Bob Wallace became a pioneer in computer software (an early employee of Microsoft, and the inventor of "shareware").

According to Palamara (Gems from the 26 Volumes), at 3:40 pm on 11/22/63, assistant secretary Wallace reported, in reference to the rumor of a dead Secret Service agent, "No Secret Service man was injured in the attack on President Kennedy." Palamara calls this "a denial of sorts," as "it does not indicate if one was killed, or if there was violence away from 'the attack on President Kennedy'."

Manchester (p. 425) says that before the arrival of AF1 at Andrews on the evening of 11/22, Pat Moynihan "cornered" Wallace, an "old friend," at Andrews about the need to get all the facts about Dallas. Wallace replied, "We are in charge of the situation. My best man is in Louisville or Nashville, on his way to Dallas." Moynihan was "unsatisfied" and "pressed his case with others."

BTW I came across a reference to the dead SS agent rumor that I had not seen before. In a written narrative that he supplied to the ARRB, FBI agent Francis O'Neill said that in the motorcade from Andrews to Bethesda for the autopsy, he and FBI agent Sibert rode with Jackie's secretary Pamela Turnure and the WH valet (unnamed). Turnure asked "if we could shed any light on a rumor she heard in Dallas that a Secret Service Agent had been killed. She was advised that we had no information to furnished (sic) her at that time concerning the events that happened in Dallas."

[James Richards]

BTW I came across a reference to the dead SS agent rumor that I had not seen before. In a written narrative that he supplied to the ARRB, FBI agent Francis O'Neill said that in the motorcade from Andrews to Bethesda for the autopsy, he and FBI agent Sibert rode with Jackie's secretary Pamela Turnure and the WH valet (unnamed). Turnure asked "if we could shed any light on a rumor she heard in Dallas that a Secret Service Agent had been killed. She was advised that we had no information to furnished (sic) her at that time concerning the events that happened in Dallas." (Ron Ecker)

Hi Ron,

It makes one wonder exactly when and where in Dallas Pam Turnure heard this rumor. She was present during LBJ's swearing in but does anyone know her movements from after the shooting up until she boarded AF1?

James

[Ron Ecker]

James,

According to Manchester (pp. 174-175), Turnure rode in the "VIP bus" in the motorcade with Evelyn Lincoln, Mary Gallagher, Jack Valenti, Liz Carpenter, and Marie Fehmer. They went to the Trade Mart, and when told that JFK had been shot, they first thought it was a bad joke. Valenti and the women got a ride to Parkland with an unnamed off-duty deputy sheriff who was driving his own car.

During the wait at Parkland, Manchester says that Turnure, Lincoln, and Gallagher "sat helplessly in the cubicles of Major Medicine" (p. 181). Mac Kilduff informed Turnure that "They've called a priest" (p. 215).

Turnure rode to Love Field in a convertible left over from the motorcade with Kilduff, Lincoln, Gallagher, and several others (p. 307).

Ron

[James Richards]

Thanks, Ron.

It seems that she stayed with a reasonably small circle of people. She would had to have heard the dead SSA story either at Parkland, on the way to Love Field or on the plane ride back to Washington. Either way, she was with official people.

It would be interesting to know who the unnamed off-duty Deputy Sheriff was.

James

Edited April 11, 2006 by James Richards

[Ron Ecker]

Turnure would be 68 today. She married a Robert Timmons in the late 1960s. If living, I don't imagine she would object to being asked when and from whom she heard the rumor if someone were able to locate and ask her.