Doug,
Why, then, was JFK popped?
Gene Coyle
I don't think we'll ever know the answer to that until after the socialist
revolution and when secret files are opened. I myself do not believe that
Oswald was a CIA operative but I don't think he was a leftist either. This
might just be a case of a psychopath who drifted in and around rightwing
circles and who had a security clearance in the army.
But Doug's point is essential. JFK was no threat to the ruling class in the
USA or even a rightwing fraction. Here's my take on him:
"We thank that whole generation for making America strong, for winning
WWII, winning the Cold War, and for the great gift of service which brought
America 50 years of peace and prosperity. My parents inspired me to serve,
and when I was a high school junior, Kennedy called my generation to
service. It was the beginning of a great journey - a time to march for
civil rights, for voting rights, for the environment, for women, and for
peace. We believed we could change the world. You know what? We did."
--John Kerry, Acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention Jul
29, 2004
When discussing the poor, the blacks, the Jews, "he used to say, 'Poor
bastards.' That was it. There were a lot of poor bastards in this world.
There were people who either didn't get jobs they wanted or they didn't get
programs they wanted. That phrase covered so many times when he would have
turned someone down for a job, or would have turned down some legislation
that was being pressed on him. You know, 'Poor bastard, they're going to
feel terrible.'" Kennedy seemed to believe that "people who are different
have different responses. The pain of poor people is different from 'our'
pain."
--An unnamed former lover of JFK, quoted in Seymour Hersh's "Dark Side of
Camelot"
On January 8, 2005, obituaries for JFK's 86 year old retarded sister
Rosemary appeared in all the major media. Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch of
this American dynasty, treated her like a character out of a 19th century
Gothic Tale. Associated Press reported that "In 1941, Joseph Kennedy was
worried that Rosemary's mild mental retardation would lead her into
situations that could damage the family's reputation, and he arranged for
her to have a lobotomy. She was 23." The AP obituary quotes Laurence
Leamer's "The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family": "Rosemary was
a woman, and there was a dread fear of pregnancy, disease and disgrace."
If the criterion were social propriety, then the one person who probably
should have suffered a lobotomy was Joseph Kennedy himself, rather than his
unfortunate daughter. (Nor would it have occurred to the patriarch to
control his son Jack's philandering in this fashion, who suffered from a
chronic venereal disease.)
In keeping with Balzac's epigraph to "Pere Goriot" that "Behind every great
fortune there is a crime," the Kennedy dynasty owed its place in history to
the ongoing criminal activities of Joseph Kennedy.
In "The Outfit," Gus Russo's definitive study of the Chicago mob, we learn
that Joseph Kennedy made his millions through a combination of white-collar
crime and bootlegging. Using the same kinds of illegal insider trading that
people like Michael Milken made infamous, Kennedy sold short just before
the 1929 crash and walked away richer than ever. As a banker-investor,
Kennedy plundered the stock of Pathé Films in the 1920s, giving insiders
like himself stock worth $80 per share, while leaving common stockholders
$1.50 per share. When Kennedy attempted a hostile takeover of the
California-based Pantages Theater chain in 1929, he paid a 17 year old girl
$10,000 to falsely claim that she had been raped by the chain's owner, who
then served part of a fifty-year prison sentence that was ultimately
reversed. Kennedy got control of Pantages at a bargain basement price.
With respect to bootlegging, Russo reports:
"Kennedy was up to his eyes in illegal alcohol. Leading underworld
bootleggers from Frank Costello to Doc Stacher to Owney Madden to Joe
Bonanno to Meyer Lansky to Lucky Luciano have all recalled for their
biographers or for news journalists how they had bought booze that had been
shipped into the country by Joseph Kennedy. On the receiving side of the
booze business, everyone from Joe's Hyannis Port chums to the eastern Long
Island townsfolk who survived the Depression by uncrating booze off the
bootleggers' boats tells tales of Joe Kennedy's involvement in the illegal
trade."
Connections made in this period would prove useful during JFK's 1960
Presidential bid. Murray "Curley" Humphreys, the brains behind Al Capone,
and his chief executioner Sam Giancana (nicknamed "Moony" because of his
psychopathic reputation) had inherited control of the Chicago mob after
Capone's death and built up powerful alliances in the trade union
bureaucracy all around the country that helped to tip the balance in
Kennedy's favor in the 1960 primaries race.
Using mob lawyer and ex-state attorney general Robert J. McDonnell as a
liaison, the Kennedys met with Giancana in Chicago in 1960. According to
Russo, a quid pro quo was worked out at this meeting. In exchange for the
mob's help, a Kennedy Justice Department would go easy on them. According
to Humphreys' widow, the mobster was leery of making a deal: "Murray was
against it. He remembered Joe Kennedy from the bootlegging days--called him
an untrustworthy 'four flusher' and a 'potato eater.' Something to do with
a booze delivery that Joe had stolen. He said that Joe Kennedy could be
trusted as far as he, Murray, could throw a piano."
The gangsters focused their efforts on West Virginia, a key swing state.
Mob-controlled jukeboxes all across the state began featuring Jack
Kennedy's campaign song, while a Kennedy aide paid tavern owners $20 each
day to play it over and over. Meanwhile, a Giancana associate doled out
$50,000 across the state to cash-starved local politicians. These bribes
paid off handsomely, as Kennedy beat Senator Hubert Humphrey by a 60-40 margin.
In the general election, the same pattern could be seen. Trade union
bureaucrats poured into Curley Humphreys' office to receive their marching
orders. According to Russo, "Among the regular visitors were Murray Olf,
the powerful Washington lobbyist, Teamster official John O'Brien, and East
St. Louis boss of the Steamfitters Union, Buster Wortman."
Sam "Moony" Giancana would turn up again in another capacity. After John
Kennedy became President, he would call on Mafia figures to assassinate
Fidel Castro. Apparently, the Kennedys had as much respect for Cuban
democracy as they did for their own. What could not be won through bribes
on the revolutionary island would have to be taken through outright violence.
Connections between the CIA and such hired assassins had already been made
during the Eisenhower presidency. Top Howard Hughes aide Robert Maheu, who
had freelanced for the CIA over the years, was asked to assemble a hit
squad to kill Castro. Maheu then contacted Giancana and Santo Trafficante,
a top figure in the New Orleans Mafia. Both men had a vested interest in
toppling the new Cuban government, since they owned substantial assets in
Havana through partnerships with Meyer Lansky.
Just as Robert J. McDonnell served as a go-between in the earlier contact
with the Chicago mob, Kennedy's mistress Judith Exner would play the same
role now. Since Exner was having an affair with Sam Giancana at the very
same time she was sleeping with JFK, she was made to order. Exner became a
bagwoman for Kennedy during the 1960 campaign, taking up to $250,000 in
cash to Giancana on trips to Chicago. These payments were intended as
bribes for trade union bureaucrats that Giancana and Humphreys had lined
up. Eventually Exner would split up with Kennedy when he showed up at one
of their trysts with another woman for a threesome.
If none of the mobsters had any success in getting rid of Fidel Castro,
neither would the counter-revolutionary army assembled and supported by the
Kennedy White House at the Bay of Pigs. Although Kennedy has been portrayed
as a dove in comparison to Richard Nixon, the truth is that Kennedy
positioned himself as a hawk on Cuba, blaming the Republican incumbents for
inaction on Communist subversion in the Western Hemisphere. Since Nixon was
forced to keep the impending invasion a secret, he could not defend himself
from JFK's hawkish attack. Kennedy himself had learned of the plans from
Richard Bissell, a CIA official who was friendly with his father. He
hammered away at Nixon cynically, knowing full well that the Republican
candidate could not reveal the secret plan. Appalled by Kennedy's
bellicosity, some liberals actually kept their distance from him, while
falling short of supporting Nixon. Liberal icon Murray Kempton wrote in the
New York Post that "I really don't know what further demagoguery is
possible form Kennedy on this subject, short of announcing that, if
elected, he will send Bobby and Teddy and Eunice to Oriente Province to
clean Castro out."
full: http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/american_left/JFK.htm
