Larry Stern

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

Finally made it up to the research library with the two big lions in order research the Larry Stern articles.

There were lots of them but, the computer seemed end with an article just before Wounded Knee in 1973. There was nothing listed under Lawrence Stern or Laurence stern btw. 1973 and his death by the footnoted bee-sting described by Mr. Seagrave in the posts above. This is the

article I was looking for most of all:

.. In 1965 a firm called Psychological Assessment Associates Inc., was established with headquarters in Washington D.C.

Founded by two retired CIA psychologists, the firm's mains source of funding was the CIA. See Laurence Stern, "Behind

Psychological Assessment's Door, a CIA Operation," Washington Post, June 21, 1974, p A3. (footnote 22, Chapter 3,

Secret Agenda, p. 53 by Jim Hougan)

This footnote occurs in the context of Hougan's description of a possible second CIA psychological operation that plumbers +2 may have

tripped-been-pushed -over? in the course of their otherwise also disputed itinerary.

This article was nowhere to be found. So far.

There were a number of articles on federal vs state control of oil industry regulations, written by Stern. The States seem to have won that battle after JFK died. JFK wanted stronger federal control. One article is about the resignation of John M. Kelly as assistant secretary of the interior. (Kelly Quits Oil Post, Governor Try Hinted, July 3, 1965) Stern hints at serious conflict between the Kennedy appointed Kelly and Johnson's Sec. of Interior Udall:

In recent months Kelly has been away from Washington when major oil policy decisions were announced by Udall. He was in Paris last

April when Udall made the controversial announcement that he would not ease restrictions on importation of residual fuel oil-- a move

that was bitterly decried by New England members of Congress.

Last month, Kelly was again out of town when the Secretary announced tht there would be no changes in the crude-oil import-control

program.

Although Kelly coveted anonymity, he became embroiled in several controversies since his selection by President Kennedy in 1961.

At the time of his nomination he was criticized in grounds that he failed to divest himself of considerable New Mexico oil holdings,

although he did dipose of his Federal oil leases.

Kelly left Washington by automobile Thursday for his home town of Roswell, NM., and was unavailable for comment.

Another Stern article (Report Hits Oil Firms Influence: Attorney General Hints at Stricter Antitrust Action, May 17, 1963) provides important context for these "controversies" around Kelly. Apparently the Kennedy admin. was favoring smaller independent oil companies in a way that the big boys did not like! More on this article later.

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

Finally made it up to the research library with the two big lions in order research the Larry Stern articles.

There were lots of them but, the computer seemed end with an article just before Wounded Knee in 1973. There was nothing listed under Lawrence Stern or Laurence stern btw. 1973 and his death by the footnoted bee-sting described by Mr. Seagrave in the posts above. This is the

article I was looking for most of all:

.. In 1965 a firm called Psychological Assessment Associates Inc., was established with headquarters in Washington D.C.

Founded by two retired CIA psychologists, the firm's mains source of funding was the CIA. See Laurence Stern, "Behind

Psychological Assessment's Door, a CIA Operation," Washington Post, June 21, 1974, p A3. (footnote 22, Chapter 3,

Secret Agenda, p. 53 by Jim Hougan)

This footnote occurs in the context of Hougan's description of a possible second CIA psychological operation that plumbers +2 may have

tripped-been-pushed -over? in the course of their otherwise also disputed itinerary.

This article was nowhere to be found. So far.

There were a number of articles on federal vs state control of oil industry regulations, written by Stern. The States seem to have won that battle after JFK died. JFK wanted stronger federal control. One article is about the resignation of John M. Kelly as assistant secretary of the interior. (Kelly Quits Oil Post, Governor Try Hinted, July 3, 1965) Stern hints at serious conflict between the Kennedy appointed Kelly and Johnson's Sec. of Interior Udall:

In recent months Kelly has been away from Washington when major oil policy decisions were announced by Udall. He was in Paris last

April when Udall made the controversial announcement that he would not ease restrictions on importation of residual fuel oil-- a move

that was bitterly decried by New England members of Congress.

Last month, Kelly was again out of town when the Secretary announced tht there would be no changes in the crude-oil import-control

program.

Although Kelly coveted anonymity, he became embroiled in several controversies since his selection by President Kennedy in 1961.

At the time of his nomination he was criticized in grounds that he failed to divest himself of considerable New Mexico oil holdings,

although he did dipose of his Federal oil leases.

Kelly left Washington by automobile Thursday for his home town of Roswell, NM., and was unavailable for comment.

Another Stern article (Report Hits Oil Firms Influence: Attorney General Hints at Stricter Antitrust Action, May 17, 1963) provides important context for these "controversies" around Kelly. Apparently the Kennedy admin. was favoring smaller independent oil companies in a way that the big boys did not like! More on this article later.

-----------

Here is some of the May 17, 1963 article about RFK and Oil Anti-trust.

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy poured a stiff dose of ctiricism yesterday on the Nations's troubled oil

industry.

He charged that the industry has achieved an "undesirable and increasing degree" of control over state oil-

conservation agencies.

Also he hinted at stricter antitrust action in the future to cope with the "problems" growing out of ownership

of the national pipeline network by the oil industry's corporate giants.

Kennedy's politically explosive assessment was made in the first Attorney General's report in four years on the

operations of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission a body established by Congress to help conserve and

stabalize the Nation's oil supply. Its 30 members include the major oil producing states.

CONSERVATION ISSUE

The report comes at a time of fierce infighting within the industry and among the oil states on the issue of

conservation methods and oil allocations.

These differences have boiled into a major squabble within the Compact Commission on a study of efficiency

in oil production it was asked to perform by Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall.

Kennedy waid that the loose and widely varying system of state controls over oil production that now exists

tends to favor large interstate companies and to penalize operators in strictly controlled areas.

Hardest hit by the system, said Kennedy, are independent producers and refiners whom he described as

"significant to the effectivness of competition in this industry"

PUSH ON INDEPENDENTS

Sharp decreases in oil allocations within the major control states, the report said, has brought heavy pressure

on independents to sell out to the big companies.

"This not only contributes towards concentration of existing production resources, but also poses a threat to adequate

development of new production capacity," Kennedy said.

Under the allocation system the state agencies-- in order to avoid a glut on the oil market-- assign production quotas

to individual fields. The states also try to guide productivity by such means as regulating distance between wells and

fixing a number of "shut-down" days for oil producers.

But the large "integrated" companies--those with their own exploration, production, refining and distribution systems--

with pipeline access can easliy evade state regulation, the Attorney General noted.

"Necessarily, therefore, many state agencies find it necessry to use cajolery rather than compulsion, and to tailor

production limitations to what major companies would like," said the report.

Kennedy's statement is especially significant in that it breaks a long silence by the Justice Department on oil policy.

The Attorney general has come under sharp criticism in Congress for not following a 1955 Congressional directive that

he report each year on the activities of the Compact Commission. The last report was in 1959.

The Attorney General also suggested that the Federal Government should have more clearly defined control over the

the entire oil control supply system, a proposal which is certain to draw fire from oil men.

At present while the states largely control domestic production, the Interior Department is empowered to regulate the

flow of foreign oil into the United States. Since the total U.S. demand for oil is fixed, the Federal Government's import

control power could be used to regulate domestic production.

This mixed bag of Federal and state control, the Attorney general indicated, "suggets the need for possible revision

of the system it more realistically responsive to the needs of industry, the individual states and the Nation."

Kenedy's report comes as Congress is beginning to consider a four-year extension of the Compact Commission.

Legislation to extend the life of the compact has already been introduced by Sen. Clinton Anderson (D-N.Mex.).

Anderson's state ranked sixth in oil production last year.

The New Mexico Democrat said yesterday he saw no need for public hearings on the new extension since, as he put it,

the Compact Commission "hasn't resulted in monopolies."

One of the chief responsibilities of the Attorney General, in keeping tabs on the Compact Commission under the 1955

act of Congress, is to insure that it is not used to fix prices or create monopolies"

--------------

Hmmmmmm.

What role did LBJ have in the creation of the 1955 Compact? What was his role in attaining the provision that the

the AG make an annual report back to Congress? Wondering whether Mr. Caro will happen upon this article. Its just the sort of subcommittee intrigue he thrives on, but will this one be a bit hot to handle?

[Guest Robert Morrow]

Finally made it up to the research library with the two big lions in order research the Larry Stern articles.

There were lots of them but, the computer seemed end with an article just before Wounded Knee in 1973. There was nothing listed under Lawrence Stern or Laurence stern btw. 1973 and his death by the footnoted bee-sting described by Mr. Seagrave in the posts above. This is the

article I was looking for most of all:

.. In 1965 a firm called Psychological Assessment Associates Inc., was established with headquarters in Washington D.C.

Founded by two retired CIA psychologists, the firm's mains source of funding was the CIA. See Laurence Stern, "Behind

Psychological Assessment's Door, a CIA Operation," Washington Post, June 21, 1974, p A3. (footnote 22, Chapter 3,

Secret Agenda, p. 53 by Jim Hougan)

This footnote occurs in the context of Hougan's description of a possible second CIA psychological operation that plumbers +2 may have

tripped-been-pushed -over? in the course of their otherwise also disputed itinerary.

This article was nowhere to be found. So far.

There were a number of articles on federal vs state control of oil industry regulations, written by Stern. The States seem to have won that battle after JFK died. JFK wanted stronger federal control. One article is about the resignation of John M. Kelly as assistant secretary of the interior. (Kelly Quits Oil Post, Governor Try Hinted, July 3, 1965) Stern hints at serious conflict between the Kennedy appointed Kelly and Johnson's Sec. of Interior Udall:

In recent months Kelly has been away from Washington when major oil policy decisions were announced by Udall. He was in Paris last

April when Udall made the controversial announcement that he would not ease restrictions on importation of residual fuel oil-- a move

that was bitterly decried by New England members of Congress.

Last month, Kelly was again out of town when the Secretary announced tht there would be no changes in the crude-oil import-control

program.

Although Kelly coveted anonymity, he became embroiled in several controversies since his selection by President Kennedy in 1961.

At the time of his nomination he was criticized in grounds that he failed to divest himself of considerable New Mexico oil holdings,

although he did dipose of his Federal oil leases.

Kelly left Washington by automobile Thursday for his home town of Roswell, NM., and was unavailable for comment.

Another Stern article (Report Hits Oil Firms Influence: Attorney General Hints at Stricter Antitrust Action, May 17, 1963) provides important context for these "controversies" around Kelly. Apparently the Kennedy admin. was favoring smaller independent oil companies in a way that the big boys did not like! More on this article later.

-----------

Here is some of the May 17, 1963 article about RFK and Oil Anti-trust.

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy poured a stiff dose of ctiricism yesterday on the Nations's troubled oil

industry.

He charged that the industry has achieved an "undesirable and increasing degree" of control over state oil-

conservation agencies.

Also he hinted at stricter antitrust action in the future to cope with the "problems" growing out of ownership

of the national pipeline network by the oil industry's corporate giants.

Kennedy's politically explosive assessment was made in the first Attorney General's report in four years on the

operations of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission a body established by Congress to help conserve and

stabalize the Nation's oil supply. Its 30 members include the major oil producing states.

CONSERVATION ISSUE

The report comes at a time of fierce infighting within the industry and among the oil states on the issue of

conservation methods and oil allocations.

These differences have boiled into a major squabble within the Compact Commission on a study of efficiency

in oil production it was asked to perform by Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall.

Kennedy waid that the loose and widely varying system of state controls over oil production that now exists

tends to favor large interstate companies and to penalize operators in strictly controlled areas.

Hardest hit by the system, said Kennedy, are independent producers and refiners whom he described as

"significant to the effectivness of competition in this industry"

PUSH ON INDEPENDENTS

Sharp decreases in oil allocations within the major control states, the report said, has brought heavy pressure

on independents to sell out to the big companies.

"This not only contributes towards concentration of existing production resources, but also poses a threat to adequate

development of new production capacity," Kennedy said.

Under the allocation system the state agencies-- in order to avoid a glut on the oil market-- assign production quotas

to individual fields. The states also try to guide productivity by such means as regulating distance between wells and

fixing a number of "shut-down" days for oil producers.

But the large "integrated" companies--those with their own exploration, production, refining and distribution systems--

with pipeline access can easliy evade state regulation, the Attorney General noted.

"Necessarily, therefore, many state agencies find it necessry to use cajolery rather than compulsion, and to tailor

production limitations to what major companies would like," said the report.

Kennedy's statement is especially significant in that it breaks a long silence by the Justice Department on oil policy.

The Attorney general has come under sharp criticism in Congress for not following a 1955 Congressional directive that

he report each year on the activities of the Compact Commission. The last report was in 1959.

The Attorney General also suggested that the Federal Government should have more clearly defined control over the

the entire oil control supply system, a proposal which is certain to draw fire from oil men.

At present while the states largely control domestic production, the Interior Department is empowered to regulate the

flow of foreign oil into the United States. Since the total U.S. demand for oil is fixed, the Federal Government's import

control power could be used to regulate domestic production.

This mixed bag of Federal and state control, the Attorney general indicated, "suggets the need for possible revision

of the system it more realistically responsive to the needs of industry, the individual states and the Nation."

Kenedy's report comes as Congress is beginning to consider a four-year extension of the Compact Commission.

Legislation to extend the life of the compact has already been introduced by Sen. Clinton Anderson (D-N.Mex.).

Anderson's state ranked sixth in oil production last year.

The New Mexico Democrat said yesterday he saw no need for public hearings on the new extension since, as he put it,

the Compact Commission "hasn't resulted in monopolies."

One of the chief responsibilities of the Attorney General, in keeping tabs on the Compact Commission under the 1955

act of Congress, is to insure that it is not used to fix prices or create monopolies"

--------------

Hmmmmmm.

What role did LBJ have in the creation of the 1955 Compact? What was his role in attaining the provision that the

the AG make an annual report back to Congress? Wondering whether Mr. Caro will happen upon this article. Its just the sort of subcommittee intrigue he thrives on, but will this one be a bit hot to handle?

For those of you who question the role of Clint Murchison, Sr., H.L. Hunt, Nelson Rockefeller, George Herbert Walker Bush in the JFK assassination, just read the above article about RFK threatening anti-trust actions against the big oil companies in 1963. Add to that the Kennedys opposition to the very generous oil depletion allowance tax break the oil industry enjoyed. Yes, these folks would MURDER someone over that. And the oil industry lackeys - folks like LYNDON JOHNSON and ALLEN DULLES - both of whom had a LONG history of carrying water for the oil industry, both of whom were well versed in ASSASSINATIONS by fall of 1963 - may very well have been CO-CEOS of the JFK assassination. Look at those guys above and tell me how much you see oil and intelligence connections.

The flow chart goes like this:

OIL===>INTELLIGENCE ====>BULLET====>JFK'S HEAD

Is that a concept you folks can understand? Yes, there were other reasons to murder John Kennedy: Cuba, Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson's desperate fear of being dropped from the 1964 Democratic ticket as well as exposure and possible jail...but don't forget:

OIL!

Edited December 27, 2010 by Robert Morrow

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

--Larry Stern

--LBJ

--H.L. Hunt, LIfe Line Foundation, Inc.

--LBJ and Humphrey

The Musings of Mooney: What a Difference Time Makes In Political Biography by Laurence Stern Feb. 16, 1964

That is the title of the article I now want to briefly summarize. It is a very interesting one, which could be used as a primary source for many classes on US history.

It is about Booth Mooney a biographer of LBJ, and the differences between the 1956 and 1964 editions of his book: NOTE THIS IS NOT THE ENTIRE ARTICLE.

"Time and politics season all things-- even Presidential biographies.

Item-- A reference to the Americans for Democratic Action as a "left wing" organization in the 1956 edition of the Lyndon Johnson Story has disappeared from the recently issued 1964 edition of the Presidential biography.

Item-- The new edition also omits a statement in the previous version of the book that President Johnson, in an early Congressional campaign, "staunchly upheld the doctrine of State's rights..... As for the vanished reference to states rights, Mooney pointed out that 'during the years since 1955, the term states rights has come to have a different connotation.'

.....

On page 130 of the original edition, Mooney wrote: "Inevitably, there was some criticism of any Democratic cooperation at all with the President. The left-wing Americans For Democratic Action, for example, accused Johnson of acquiescing in a Republican 'assault on liberalism.' But the blast was promptly answered by a former ADA president, Hubert Humphrey...."

On page 116 of the new edition, the entire paragraph is omitted from an otherwise identical narrative, thus eliminating the reference to ADA.

Again in teh 1956 edition, Mooney wrote of how Senator Neuberger of Oregon, a new member of the Senate's 'liberal bloc' and one for whom Johnson had campaigned in 1954, also made it clear he did not agree with the ADA's criticism of the Majority Leader."

In the 1964 edition this paragraph was repeated identically, except for the deletion of two words-- 'the ADA's.'

.....

Mooney, who served as Mr. Johnson's executive assistant for six years during the President's career in the Senate, is now a Washington representative for the Hunt Oil Co.

After leaving Mr. Johnson's staff in 1958 Mooney helped his new boss, Texas oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, in the preparation of scripts for for the conservative television and radio forum, Life Line Foundation, Inc., formerly called Facts Forum, Inc.

The biographer said these scripts dealt with such matters as the electoral college.

Asked about a letter written over his signature inSeptember, 1958, to former LIfe Line preacher-commentator J. Wayne Poucher referring to the "need for curbing the Supreme Court," Mooney said he could not recall writing it."

The letter to Poucher said in part: "Enclosed are three suggested scripts on the need for curbing the Supreme Court. This makes a total of five scripts I have sent you, and I do not propose to send any more on this subject at present..."

In another letter written in the same month over Mooney's signature, Poucher was advised that: "Enclosed is a suggested radio script, which Mr. Hunt requested that I write and send you."

I may very well have done some scripts in the early days," Mooney acknowledged when asked about his relationship with Life LIne. He added, however that he has no recent association with the program.

He pointed out that LIfe Line now maintains separate offices from his own in Washington"

-------------------

Interesting that this guy could have been working for Hunt and then suddenly suddenly saw the ADA in a different light.

I found the direct connect between Hunt and LBJ's mass market biographer interesting. Also illuminating on the wrinkles that needed to be ironed out at a wrinkley time for The Democratic Party, LBJ, and the US.

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

The following was part of a series of articles that Laurence Stern wrote for the Washington Post in the Spring of 1963 on foreign lobbyists operating in the US. Sen. William Fulbright was

leading a Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee into the activities of these lobbyists, many of whom were skirting 1938 legislation regarding how foreign lobbyists should be registered and regulated by the US legislature. BELLOW I WILL TYPE THE PARAGRAPHS THAT STOOD OUT AS MOST INTERESTING

-----

EX-GENERAL, LOBBYIST FOR BONN, TESTIFIES AT CLOSED HEARING BY LAURENCE STERN MAY 15, 1963.

A retired Army major general whose public relations firm was paid at least 400,000 in the past two years by a mysterious group of West German industrialists was the subject yesterday of a secret Senate lobbying hearing.

Julius W. Klein, the West German lobbyist, testified at an all-day session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but chairman J. William Fulbright (D-Ark) declined to comment on the nature of the questioning.

However, according to Justice Department records Klein was hired by the group of industrialists shorty before the scheduled Eisenhower-Krushchev summit in 1960.

His mission, he reported to Justice, was to promote "the cause of West Germany in the summit conference," He was also to conduct a campaign to unite in the United States to inform the American people of the "serious problems facing Germany if there should be any compromise with the Soviets"

Official records indicate that Klein spent more than $300,000 to "advise" influential Congressman, business leaders and and press media in the United States. The money came from the West German group.

Kelin declined a request by the Justice Department to identity his foreign principals. He told US authorities that the Frankfurter Bank of Frankfurt, Germany, in which the group set up a special fund, "could not and would not under any circumstances be able to furnish a list of contributors"

...

His firm, he said, also "advises important German private visitors in the United States as to how to best interpret the Soviet threat to the Federal Republic of West Germany and Western cause to the American people."

Klein, a former newspaperman, Jewish veterans group leader, and one-time Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Illinois, is well known on Capital Hill. In 1954 he made a fact-finding mission to Europe for a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee.

Last fall when he was criticized in a German newspaper,Klein was promptly defended on the Senate floor by Sen. Edward V. Long (D-Mo.) as a "distinguished soldier and one of our leading citizens."

Klein's firm, Julius Klein Public Relations Inc., has received more than $200,000 in fees from property owners seeking to recover German assets seized by the United States during World War II, according to official records.

----

A couple of things came to mind in reading this.

1) the encounter JFK has with Nitze during the Excom meetings during the CMC. One of the tensest moments of the CMC this involved Nitze's seeking the authorization for NATO to respond to potential USSSR attacks on Western Europe without prior consultation with JFK.

2) Have we since learned who these businessmen, Congressmen and press media in the US who worked with Klein actually were?

3) Does anyone know anything else about his 1954 visit to Europe? Any other names of interest associated with this visit?

4.) What about the Frankfurter Bank. Any other information on intelligence ties re this bank?

Edited August 22, 2011 by Nathaniel Heidenheimer