a recap of chapter 2: “JFK and the unspeakable: why he died and why it matters.”
by james w. douglass. (for the review of chapter 1: click here.)
anti-communism was a “dogmatic theology” in the cold war. the worst thing imaginable was communicating with the enemy and compromising with “the satanic incarnation of evil.” anti-castro groups believed that “no one could talk with the devil in havana and remain in communion with the gods in washington.” this was especially true for the president of the united states. john kennedy knew this well, yet his response was to do exactly that, to “start thinking along more flexible lines.” this was such rogue thinking that even bobby kennedy tried to pressure his brother out of doing it.
like the bay of pigs invasion, the CIA once again tried to force JFKs hand by sabotaging cuba, trying to provoke them into retaliating, which would leave JFK with no other choice but to go to war. david atlee phillips (aka maurice bishop) publicized an alpha 66 raid on cuban boats. once kennedy learned of this, he called the CIA’s bluff and actually did the opposite of what they expected. he had the justice department arrest the perpetrators and impound the american boats in cuban waters. the CIA hatched numerous devious plots, including one to assassinate castro by giving him a contaminated diving suit that would produce a debilitating disease. this plan was thwarted when it was learned that washington’s envoy to cuba, james donovan, had already given castro a diving suit as a gift of good will after the two had become friends. such failure was a black eye for the CIA because a properly carried out plan could accomplish their three biggest objectives at once (a) kill castro, (b) discredit kennedy and (c) escalate soviet-american tensions. meanwhile, kennedy kept pushing the world closer to peace. the government thought he was crazy and painted him as a castro ally. he thought the government (which he had inherited from eisenhower) was crazy to not want to achieve peace.
for castro’s part, he was not about to trust america, but he was coming to see kennedy as an honorable person. the bay of pigs, the freezing of cuban assets in the united states and other actions had put him off of any dialogue, but kennedy’s american university address had given castro a new hope. the book gives a detailed look at how kennedy and castro planned a secret correspondence the way that kennedy and kruschev had and invloves a french interviewer meeting with castro with the understanding that interview be somewhat of a mediation. this occurred on november 19, 1963…
castro told him, “i believe kennedy is sincere. i also believe that today the expression of this sincerity could have political significance… i haven’t forgotten that kennedy centered his electoral campaign against nixon on the theme of firmness toward cuba. i have not forgotten the machiavellian tactics and the equivocation, the attempts at invasion, the pressures, the blackmail, the organization of a counter-revolution, the blockade, and above everything, all the retaliatory measures which were imposed before, long before there was the pretext and alibi of communism. but i feel that he inherited a difficult situation; i don’t think a president of the united states is ever really free. and i believe kennedy is at present feeling the impact of this lack of freedom. i also believe that he now understands the extent to which he has been misled, especially, for example, on cuban reaction at the time of the attempted bay of pigs invasion.” castro then gave his feelings of the agreements made between kruschev and kennedy during the missile crisis. above all, kruschev and castro were both eager for a second JFK term of office and felt that would be more productive than anyone else, such as lyndon johnson. the assassination occurred while the reporter was with castro, and castro said, “everything has changed. everything is going to change.” and it did. LBJ ignored all contact castro tried to make. no other president in the twentieth century would try to establish dialog with cuba. the question castro posed, while the war in vietnam was heating up, what sense did it make to fight a war on the other side of the world against a very formidable enemy and not close to home against the tiny island nation of cuba? the answer to that to come in chapter three…
meanwhile…
william b. reilly, who had been a CIA contact for many years and situated his coffee shop in close proximity to the CIA offices in new orleans, met with lee harvey oswald and immediately got him a job with his cohort, guy banister. banister himself had sent guns to miami for the alpha 66 raids. suddenly, oswald was passing out pro-castro leaflets on the streets of new orleans. when an employee notified banister of this, his response was “don’t worry, he’s working for us.” (oswald was shown to be on the CIA payroll at $200 per month for the two years leading up to the assassination of kennedy.) ostensibly, oswald was in new orleans as part of a plan to subvert the fair play for cuba committee as well as to put oswald in a position to be hated by people on both sides of the fence. this put CIA director allen dulles in position to be a prime suspect in the assassination, as if we needed more dirt on him. plans for oswald became two-fold, set him up as a scapegoat and draw the u.s. into war with cuba – the very thing that kennedy was trying to avoid.
one of maurice bishop’s insiders considered spilling the beans on meetings he had observed with oswald and to make bishop’s real identity of david atlee phillips known. he was told he would be killed, and sure enough he was shot in the head, though he survived the attack, yet the FBI and the police did no investigation. bishop was the head of the mexico city divison of the CIA, where Oswald next went to put on his pro-castro act at the soviet and cuban embassies asking for immediate visas to the two countries. however, the CIA documents of events were quite sketchy and cast much doubt on whether it was even oswald who was in mexico. there was even a “fake dialog” in a recorded phone call of oswald asking for his own address, which he apparently didn’t know himself, so that he could give it to the soviets. when “oswald” was denied visas, he was removed from the offices several times. the idea that an oswald impostor was sent to contrive a soviet-cuban plot to kill kennedy was admitted by j. edgar hoover. stay tuned for more on the lee harvey oswald saga of the making of a scapegoat…
chapter three “kennedy and vietnam” will begin on thursday night.
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