-Caveat Lector-
an excerpt from:
The Breaking of a President 1974 - The Nixon Connection
Marvin Miller, Compiler
Therapy Productions, Inc.©1975
LCCCN 7481547
--[14]--
OTHER CONNECTIONS
Richard Nixon's contacts with organized crime, taken as a whole, are
like a brightly-colored thread forming a consistent back- ground pattern for
the events of his life: Chotiner the contact; Lansky the chairman; Rosentiel
the bootlegger; Annenberg the ambassador; Hoffa the labor racketeer; DeCarlo
the Mafia boss; Howard Hughes and the Las Vegas skim; Batista and the Cuba
casinos; Tom Dewey and Mary Carter Paint and Resorts Interna-tional and
International Intelligence and Caribbean gambling—and all the bright
Watergate lawyers and CIA operatives and influence -peddlers and Cuban exiles
and corporate pushers weaving a tangled web of campaign contributions across
the United States-with Richard Milhous Nixon appearing both as the mobile
spider and the trapped victim, as the wiretapper and the wiretapped!
NIXON AS A GAMBLER
The official biographies of Richard Nixon paint a picture of a hard-working
young man from a poor family, rooted in the brave colonial tradition whose
only aim was to do God's will on earth and become an honest lawyer after
working his way through college.
Amen. But a closer look at the young Nixon shows a frail human being dancing
to the thundering tune of an ambitious ego, having forgotten the old Quaker
Way taught him by his mother, of listening for the clear voice of God in the
heart. In a biography in Life magazine of November 6, 1970, for example, we
see "Gloomy Gus" (he was not always called Tricky Dick) striving to be at the
top of his class at Duke University Law School, with his two roommates, Fred
Albrink and Bill Perdue. The first-year class standings, published in the law
school bulletin, showed Perdue in first place, Nixon in third place and
Albrink not much further behind. But in his second year Nixon dropped out of
the top three in academic standing. He learned this when he and his two
roommates broke into the dean's office to see their grades.
According to Life, Perdue was lifted through the transom, found a key and
located the records. Another version of this story, published in a
sympathetic biography, has Nixon himself being lifted through the transom as
the smallest one of the three burglars. And this character-building episode
took place 36 years before the Watergate break-in! But Nixon didn't get
caught this first time. The law school Dean found out about the episode only
long after Nixon and his friends had graduated. Would the history of the
United States have been different if Nixon had learned 'way back in 1036 that
crime does not pay? Incidentally, William R. Perdue became vicepresident of
the Ethyl Corporation, while Fred Albrink rose to captain in the Navy.
As a Quaker, Nixon was eligible for exemption from military service as a
conscientious objector. But in the summer of 1942, Nixon abandoned the
gentleness of his faith and became a Navy lieutenant. Many Quakers have
manifested the dictates of their personal consciences by joining the military
during wars they have considered just, starting as far back as the
Revolutionary War against the British. But when a Nixon becomes a Navy
lieutenant, he becomes a Navy lieutenant! Stationed for six months as a cargo
officer on Green Island in the South Pacific, he opened "Nixon's Snack
Shack," a little gambling casino serving liquor, free coffee, fruit juice and
sandwiches. When officers would be rotated back from the distant front for a
brief rest-combat men loaded with pay and no place to spend it-they would
find "Nick" waiting. Nixon had again adapted to his surroundings and had
trained himself to play a cautious, calculating game of poker.
The poker games on Green Island were for high stakes. There was sometimes
more than $1000 in the pot, but one veteran of the Green Island games
recalled: "Nixon never lost, but he was never a big winner. He always seemed
to end up a game somewhere between $30 and $60 ahead." James Udall, another
officer on the island, said of Nixon: "He was the finest poker player I ever
played against. I once saw him bluff a lieutenant-commander out of $1500 with
a pair of deuces!"
By the time his tour of duty was up, Nixon had accumulated over $10,000 in
pre-inflation money from his gambling casino. In 1946 he was to take $5000 of
this money and invest it in his successful attempt to become a U. S.
Congressman.
Just as a historical footnote, it was during this time in the Navy that Nixon
learned to use the expletives he was later to so carefully delete from his
edited version of the Watergate tape transcripts. His mother Hannah recalled
that when he came back from the service "he cursed like a sailor." Nixon's
friend and biographer Earl Mazo observed: "He can swear like a sailor, but
does it only among friends, mostly when it becomes necessary to open a
safety-valve on pent-up frustrations and anger."
As a politician, Nixon always tried to control his natural passions in
public. Even though he helped open some Bahamian gambling casinos, as has
been noted, persons present commented that Nixon stayed away from the
gambling tables. But other sources report that when he was not in public view
he did gamble. One time at the Mamora Beach Hotel Casino on the island of
Antigua in the British West Indies, Nixon lost money in a crooked card game
run by Charlie "The Blade" Tourine. And when Max Courtney testified before
the Royal Commission of Inquiry in 1967 about Bahamian gambling, the Lansky
lieutenant shocked the hearing by revealing that one of his bookmaking
clients was Richard Nixon.
The fact that Nixon was a card-sharp, gambler and user of foul language would
perhaps not be important if it were not for the fact that he, has always
pretended in public that he is a follower of the puritan Quaker Way. It took
the Watergate scandals and his own tape-recordings to reveal the true inner
man to the public who had selected him as their President.
THE BUSINESS CONNECTION
>From his earliest days in politics, Nixon has received financial support from
the oil industry. Reese Taylor, Chairman of the Board of Union Oil Company
was one of the major Nixon supporters in the 1946, 1948 and 1950 campaigns
for Congress and the Senate. That is why Nixon has always been concerned with
the question of giving the federal off-shore oil lands to the states. The
Supreme Court had ruled that all underwater land beyond the three-mile limit
off the coast belongs to the federal government. There was enough natural
wealth here to pay off the national debt, but Nixon led the fight to get
these underwater oil reserves turned back to the states, so his political
sponsors could obtain drilling rights at a fraction of their true value.
Nixon also has fought to retain the oil depletion allowance, a tax loophole
which allows the oil industry to accumulate its profits instead of paying
taxes. As long ago as 1933, President Roosevelt described this loophole as "a
pure subsidy to a certain class of taxpayers." Truman said in 1950: "1 know
of no loophole so inequitable." But in the 1968 campaign, Richard M. Nixon
declared of the depletion allowance: "As President, I will maintain it."
It is, therefore, quite understandable that in 1968 the Mellon family (Gulf
Oil) reportedly gave $215,000 to the Nixon campaign fund while Sun Oil
contributed another $84,000. In the 1972 campaign, the oil industry allegedly
contributed several million dollars to Nixon. Many oilmen were also behind
the secret fund given Nixon in 1952 to supplement his Congressional income.
When the country heard about this illegal fund, Eisenhower almost removed
Nixon as his vice-presidential running-mate. But then Nixon made his famous
"Checkers Speech," using the Chotiner technique of brutally attacking his
enemies while making emotional references to his wife's "Republican cloth
coat." Again using the Chotiner technique, Nixon insisted that he didn't
think he had done anything wrong in accepting the gift of his black cocker
spaniel Checkers, although that had nothing to do with the issue, of course.
Another business connection of Nixon's that explains some of his political
actions was his involvement in 1964 with Investors Diversified Services
(IDS), the $8 billion mutual fund complex. In 1964 Nixon became a director of
four mutual funds affiliated with IDS. The parent company of IDS was the
Alleghany Corporation (which had just been taken over by the Murchison
brothers Texas oilmen. One of the registered lobbyists for IDS at this time
was Nixon's future aide Charles Colson, then in private law practice.
When Nixon became President in 1968, he stopped all the efforts of the SEC to
regulate the mutual funds, which had been accused of fleecing their investors
by charging high management fees. He also supported efforts to let mutual
funds join the New York Stock Exchange so they wouldn't have to pay
commissions to brokers. Nixon probably got as far as he did in politics
because he never forgot his friends, whether they were oilmen, mutual fund
executives or organized crime figures.
THE BEBE REBOZO CONNECTION
Charles Gregory Rebozo, better known as Bebe, has become world-famous as
former President Nixon's best friend. Over the years it has been said that
the relation between the two men has demonstrated how political influence can
be abused for private gain. Rebozo has obtained loans from the Small Business
Administration and has profitably sold Florida land to the government in a
manner which critics say would not have been possible had Rebozo been an
ordinary citizen.
Rebozo has included Nixon in some of the profitable land deals he has put
together in the Miami area. In Volume Four of The Breaking of a President
these dealings are documented, along with other material about the relations
between Nixon and Rebozo. Rebozo has been accused of illegally using some
campaign contributions made to Nixon for personal purposes of himself and the
Nixon family. It has also been charged that when Howard Hughes gave him
$100,000 for Nixon's campaign, Rebozo did not simply hold this money for
three years and return it to Hughes, as Bebe has claimed. Rebozo did return
the money, but at this time it is not known whether he used this money while
it was in his possession.
The most important charge that has been made against Rebozo is that he is one
of Nixon's links with organized crime. It is absolutely true that Rebozo once
hired the construction firm of Big Al Polizzi to build a shopping center. As
recently as 1964, Polizzi was described by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics as
one of the most influential members of the underworld in the United States.
Furthermore Rebozo has had connections with the Major Realty, Worldwide
Realty and Keyes Realty firms in Florida, all of which allegedly had ties to
Meyer Lansky. Eugenio Martinez, one of the Watergate burglars, is a
vice-president of Keyes Realty-leaving open the interesting possibility that
Rebozo and even Nixon may have known Martinez before the Watergate break-in.
Rebozo's Key Biscayne Bank was involved in a complicated transaction
in which 900 shares of IBM stock stolen by organized crime agents on Wall
Street was used as collateral for a large loan by Rebozo's bank. After Rebozo
evidently knew that the stock was stolen (he had been visited by an FBI
investigator), be sold the shares and paid off the bank's loan with the
proceeds. The insurance company which had to pay the Wall Street brokerage
firm for the replacement value of the IBM stock has been unsuccessful in
attempts to collect this money from Rebozo. Appointees of Richard
Nixon in the court system have blocked any prosecution of Rebozo up to this
time, but now that Nixon is out of office and himself vulnerable to criminal
prosecution, Rebozo may no longer have the legal protection that his friend
Nixon was able to provide.
Bebe Rebozo got his first start toward becoming a millionaire by selling
re-treaded tires during the rationing of World War II. According to all the
"official" biographies, Nixon did not know Rebozo in the early 1940's.
However, it may be more than pure coincidence that just before he joined the
Navy in 1942, Nixon was working as an attorney for the Office of Price
Administration and was somehow involved with the rationing of tires in the
Southeast States. The mysterious thing is that investigators have claimed
that repeated efforts to examine OPA files in both Miami and Washington to
see whether Nixon ever helped Rebozo, or met him in those days, have not been
successful. It seems that the relevant files have disappeared or been
destroyed.
It now seems that at least some of the connections of Nixon to organized
crime may become public knowledge if Rebozo is actually prosecuted in this
post-Nixon period. Currently he is under grand jury investigation, but
because of this possible exposure, a lot of pressure will be exerted to block
any investigation of prosecution of Rebozo.
=====
IN CONCLUSION
This volume does not claim by any means that organized crime is the exclusive
or even the most important influence on the American President and
Administration today. The marvel of the American system-and its hope for
many-is that a President who seeks to represent the entire nation has many
influences pressing upon him, some of which are in conflict with each other.
So while 50 per cent of the country doesn't bother to vote at all, mostly
because the special business interests seem too powerful to buck, the other
50 per cent which does vote keeps the power shifting among the various
elements. It lets none of them dominate permanently, as heavy industry did in
both German fascism and Russian state capitalism (with the aid of
totalitarian mass parties adapted to the social and economic realities of
each country).
In these United States there is a building industry which wants low-interest
mortgages and a banking industry which wants high interest rates for its
loans. There are cotton mills pushing for protective tariffs to prevent
undercutting by cheap foreign labor. There is a milk industry which wants
higher support prices, and a defense industry which wants more cost-plus
contracts. There is the international telephone giant which urged that the U.
S. government intervene in Chile, and the multi-national oil companies that
deliberately stopped the flow of fuel to the U.S. Navy to please their Arab
partners. There are consumer industries, capital goods industries, consumer
groups, worker groups, and trade associations. And added to this bewildering
pluralistic pressure on the President and on all levels of government is what
is actually only a new, special form of business: organized crime.
Organized crime in 1974 is still fumbling around, is still only one kind of
business among many kinds of businesses, basically still serving the nation's
"need" for narcotics and gambling and sex, and still learning lessons about
controlling politicians, which the traditional business corporations mastered
decades ago. But the danger of organized crime is that it displays the
potential for becoming the most important political, economic and social
influence in the country, and thereby could conceivably destroy American
democracy as we know it today. Tracing the connections between Richard Nixon
and organized crime is important not only because it helps us understand
better what happened in the Watergate affair, but because it educates us to
observe what organized crime may do tomorrow in relation to the President and
the federal government.
Organized crime already has such enormous wealth at its disposal to intervene
in politics, that the Republican slush-funds of 1972 may ultimately appear
tiny. Organized crime has a violent tradition, actual immunity from many laws
because it is already skilled in illegality and invisibility, contempt for
normal debate and public protest, and a psychological appeal to those who
believe in strong leadership and national unity at all costs. In short,
organized crime is already pushing its disciplined tentacles into so many
facets of national life, from legitimate business to mass communications to
political parties, that it could totally destroy the existing pluralism and
radically change American society in unexpected ways. The arrogance displayed
by the White House Watergaters, the frustrated Cuban exiles, the Howard
Hugheses and Richard Nixons, is but a pale shadow of what could develop under
the dictatorship of the National Crime Syndicate.
There are some factors which may slow down any attempt by organized crime to
control the federal government. It is not known how successfully the National
Crime Syndicate is dealing with the obvious problem that the old-line leaders
like Meyer Lansky are on their death-beds, if not already gone. Like any
other large corporation, the NCS is going to be seriously crippled if the
younger leadership is not adequately prepared to take the reins. Any
weakening of the top crime leadership might also cause friction with the
so-called Black and Brown Mafias that have been permitted to take over the
rackets in the big cities as the Sicilians have moved into more lucrative and
respectable crime activities.
It is probably impossible to expect that the federal government itself will
ever set up an effective program to stop the corruption of federal officials.
There have been a lot of investigations of how the mob infiltrates into local
and state government, but the investigation of federal officials themselves
has been very piecemeal. However, anything done in this direction, or which
would lead to the actual full-scale control of campaign contributions, would
be very helpful.
The simple fact is that organized crime is going to win—unless the American
people begin to exercise more control over their government and, more
immediately, their political parties. This would be a drastic change from the
present passivity and apathy, and it is not easy to see how this can happen.
The people would have to become thoroughly disgusted with the way things are,
and become involved in community and political organizations in a totally new
way. If that happened, no political leader would be able to dominate them,
whether he was backed by "ordinary" business or the special business of
organized crime.
In this volume we have dated the beginning of today's organized crime from
the conference held in 1934, which established jurisdictional divisions for
the various crime groups and set up areas of cooperation. In 1974, after 40
years of cooperation, the National Crime Syndicate must be judged a success.
And if it continues being successful, its 50th birthday, in 1984, may well
mean that the totalitarian society predicted by George Orwell for that year
will have materialized—but from an unexpected direction.
=====
ADDENDUM:
THE SPECIAL INTERESTS
OF GERALD FORD
This volume was almost complete when Richard Nixon resigned as President of
the United States on August 8, 1974. But even though there is naturally a
focus on the former President, this is really not so much a book about
Richard Nixon as it is about a relatively new economic force in these United
States: the strange multi-billion-dollar illegal business of organized crime
and how it is reaching out to control the political process for its own ends.
Although the Nixon era had ended, the influence of organized crime is only
starting.
President Ford does not have the connections with organized crime that marked
Nixon's career from the very beginning. But like any other politician, he has
had special interest groups giving him money and expecting favors. For
example, when in November 1970 Ford successfully ran for re-election to
Congress, Michigan law limited him to spending $10,500 on his campaign.
Unlike most candidates, Ford handled his own campaign money as treasurer of
his own campaign committee and filed sworn reports in his state and to the
Clerk of the House of Representatives, that he had not spent more than that
amount.
However, in February 1971, the Associated Press reported that Ford had failed
to report $11,500 that had been given to him in November by "stockbrokers, an
oil man, bankers, doctors, and a union group." Ford then admitted receiving
the checks but said that, instead of retaining them, he had endorsed the
checks over to the Republican Congressional Boosters Committee. This was a
party fund set up for candidates who had difficulty raising their own money.
Technically this was entirely legal but the law was somewhat strained when
the Boosters Committee and other Republican groups promptly sent various
checks totalling $12,233 back to pay the bills of two of Ford's campaign
committees—Latvians for Ford and Veterans for Ford. Ford disclaimed any
knowledge of these payments and insisted that his action was "within the
law." Indeed it was because according to the old 1925 Corrupt Practices Act,
a candidate was not accountable for expenditures of independent committees
organized on his behalf.
Another case involiving Ford which demonstrates how he functions as a
politician concerns Earl "Red" Blaik, who had been one of Ford's football
coaches in college. Blaik had become a Washing-ton lobbyist for Avco, a
division of Philco. One day Blaik visited Fred Black, a lobbyist for North
American Aviation. From Black's hotel room, Blaik called Ford on a telephone
that was being tapped by the FBI. The conversation showed that Ford was
trying to stop an investigation of a defense contract that had been awarded
to Avco. However, Ford had already become powerful enough so that no one with
the ability to uncover all the facts looked further at the situation.
A third compromising situation which embarrassed Ford developed when he was
appointed a director of the Old Kent Bank and Trust Company of Grand Rapids
on January 22, 1968. This is the largest bank in Ford's district and one of
the most powerful in the entire state of Michigan. Richard M. Gillett, the
bank's president, bad been a close friend of Ford's for many years and a
personal contributor to Ford's election campaign funds.
To qualify as director of the bank, Ford had to buy a hundred shares of the
bank's stock at the current price of $33 per share. Gillett made a cash loan
to Ford for the required amount. Ford was to be paid $1000 for attending four
board meetings per year.
When public objections to Ford's connection with the bank began to develop,
Ford said: "I don't see any ethical problems whatsoever ... I can be in Grand
Rapids for the meetings, and in my judgment it is a mutually beneficial
association that will contribute to my knowledge." However, given Ford's
position as Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, it was obvious
that the Old Kent Bank, already heavily involved in the federal urban renewal
program for downtown Grand Rapids, would get special consideration in federal
matters that concerned it. Ford, still believing that he had done nothing
wrong but admitting that the circumstances could be held against him, finally
resigned from the bank-but kept the bank stock.
Ford was involved in helping Watergate burglar Gordon Liddy get his first job
with the federal government. Liddy bad achieved some fame in New York State
as the local prosecutor who bad organized the raid on Dr. Timothy Leary's
psychedelic drug research center at Millbrook. Liddy was using this public
recognition to try to unseat Republican Congressman Hamilton Fish Jr. in a
1968 upstate New York Congressional race. As Ford explains his involvement:
"I went up to campaign for Ham. While I was there, the local politicials in
Dutchess County came to see me and said. 'We're trying not to divide the
vote, and would you help Ham get Mr. Liddy a job if Mr. Nixon wins?" "Liddy
was persuaded not to run against Congressman Fish, and Ford called Eugene
Rossides, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, to get Liddy a job. "He got a
job over there," Ford said later. "I don't know what is was. I had nothing to
do with it after that first job."
Ford is also known to have helped Thomas 0. Paine, a General Electric
executive, get an appointment by Nixon on March 5, 1969 to the position of
director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In,
1970 it was charged that Paine allowed General Electric to look at the bid of
another company for a $50,000,000 satellite program so that GE could make
adjustments in its own estimates and submit a winning bid. On August 15, 1970
Paine resigned from NASA because of the scandal, and was immediately re-hired
by General Electric as a vice-president.
"JUST PLAIN OLD JERRY"
According to his college yearbook, "Jerry never smokes, drinks, swears or
tells dirty stories, qualities quite novel among the rest of his fraternity
brothers. He's exceedingly bashful, but broke forth in the middle of his
senior year with a date. He's not a bit fraudulent, and we can't find
anything really nasty to say about him."
Gerald Ford Jr. was born Leslie King in Omaha in 1913. Two years after he was
born, his parents were divorced. The boy was later renamed after his
stepfather, a paint salesman. Ford grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and
while in high school became captain of the football team.
When he went to the University of Michigan, Jerry Ford was the star center on
the college football team and made All-American. He worked his way through
college as a forest ranger. He also earned $25 a month as a blood donor.
Ford then worked his way through Yale Law School as an assistant football
coach. He received a law degree in 1941. Ford spent four years in the Navy
during World War II and was discharged as a lieutenant commander. After his
discharge he practiced law in Grand Rapids for several years. In 1948 he
married Betty Bloomer, a Grand Rapids divorcee who had been a student of
modern dancer Martha Graham. He was late to his own wedding because he was
out campaigning for the Congressional seat of isolationist Bartel Jonkman.
Ford won.
Ford's first ten years in the House were uneventful. As a conservative
Republican, he voted regularly against poverty funds, minimum wage bills,
model cities programs, mass transit, Medicare, and aid to farmers. In 1966 he
made a speech in Congress urging that more money be spent in Vietnam and less
be spent at home. He said that a vote for more domestic spending was a vote
"for higher prices, higher wages, higher deficits and higher costs." Ford has
opposed busing, sought the re-introduction of prayer into public schools, and
has been a strong backer of a Constitutional amendment banning abortion. He
was a leader in the attempt to impeach the leading liberal on the U.S.
Supreme Court, William 0. Douglas, after the Senate had rejected Nixon's two
segregationist nominees to the Court, Clement F. Haynsworth and G. Harrold
Carswell, Ford says of his Congressional voting record: "I've cast more than
4000 votes and I can't think of one that I'd change."
When Nixon was nominated for President at the 1960 Republican convention,
Ford was suggested as the vice-presidential candidate, but he lost out to
Henry Cabot Lodge. In 1964 there was talk of a Goldwater-Ford ticket but that
idea was dropped because neither of the two men could claim to represent the
more moderate wing of the Republican Party. Ford was elected House Minority
Leader in 1965. He was a close associate of Senate Minority Leader Everett
Dirksen. The New York Times observed that: "Ford used to call Dirksen
'coach,' which in his lexicon, is the ultimate accolade." The Times went on
to say that: "Ford is something of a loner, with many casual friends but few
close ones.
Ford says of himself: "I'm just Plain Old Jerry ... a moderate on domestic
issues, a conservative on fiscal affairs, and a dyed-in-the-wool
internationalist in foreign affairs ... I like to travel the high middle road
of moderation." Fortune magazine commented in March 1974: "If some writer
tried to put together a book entitled 'The Wit and Wisdom of Gerald Ford' it
would have to be a pretty slim volume, even with large type and thick paper
... Ideas are not his bag."
Ford was a member of the Warren Commission that investigated the
assassination of President Kennedy, and he has said: "After taking millions
of words of testimony from hundreds upon hundreds of witnesses, the Warren
Commission has established that there is not a scintilla of credible evidence
to suggest a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. The evidence is clear and
overwhelming: Lee Harvey Oswald did it. There is no evidence of a second man,
of other shots, of other guns."
"MONEY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME"
Robert N. Winter-Berger, a former Washington lobbyist who worked closely with
Gerald Ford from 1966 to 1970, reports on several illuminating conversations
with Ford in his 1972 book The Washington Pay-off. Although Ford later denied
that he had any close relations with Winter-Berger, the lobbyist had
campaigned in Michigan for Ford's re-election, had arranged a vacation for
him, and had almost daily telephone and mail contacts with Ford's office for
much of their four-year relationship.
Winter-Berger reports that on first meeting Ford, he was impressed with the
honesty of the man. Once when he was writing a speech for Ford, the name of
House Speaker John W. McCormack came up, and Ford told Winter-Berger: "When I
first became Minority Leader, McCormack tried to give me some fatherly
advice. He said I should keep a little black book, listing all the people I
did favors for across the country. He said that every once in a while I, or
my assistant, should call up these people and put the bite on them for
campaign contributions. And he said that I should make a point of putting a
little aside for myself. I like John, but I'm still a bit shocked by that
advice."
Later on, Ford had occasion to tell Winter-Berger: "In Washington, money's
the name of the game. Without it, you're dead." Jerry Ford, however, was the
only Congressman who told him outright not to give presents of any kind to
him or his staff. But Ford wasn't being a Boy Scout. He added: "Just don't
band out anything in the office. And I don't want to know about anything you
band out to my people on the outside."
One of Winter-Berger's clients was Francis Kellogg, president and a major
stockholder of the International Mining Company in New York. Kellogg was on
the verge of retirement and decided in 1968 that be would like to become the
American ambassador to some African country as be owned a 15,000 acre ranch
in Kenya and liked to bunt big game. He hired Winter-Berger to help him get
an appointment.
Winter-Berger told Kellogg that there would have to be a Republican
administration in Washington for him to have any hopes of an ambassadorial
appointment, and be should start out by financially supporting Republican
candidates in New York State so they would own him their political support
when be needed it. Kellogg then contributed about $30,000 to the New York
State Republican Campaign Fund, headed by Maurice Stans, later Secretary of
Commerce. After the Republican victory in November, Winter-Berger told
Kellogg he was ready to continue with the campaigns, and reports the
following conversations:
"What do I do?" he asked.
"More of the same," I said. "Only now you give your support to the National
Committee."
"But I gave to Stans," he protested.
"That was to the state fund," I pointed out.
"Okay, then. How much?"
"What you gave the state, I'd say."
"my God, another thirty thousand?"
"At least."
"This is getting expensive. I don't know if I can afford it. It isn't tax
deductible you know."
"I know. It's up to you. But just think of all the fun you'll be having in
Africa for the next eight years."
He seemed to be listening to the sound of distant drums. "Don't the
regulations limit me to a $3,000 contribution?"
"Yes. Just like before. $3,000 at a time. You just write out ten checks for
$3,000 each and I'll dole them out to Jerry Ford one at a time, as we
progress." Now I could almost hear the drums.
"All right. Talk to Ford."
(But Winter-Berger was surprised by Ford's reaca////ction).
"No dice, Bob. An ambassadorship is too important to play games with.
Besides, I never heard of this man. Who is he? What's his background? What
are his qualifications for Africa?"
I said, "He can speak Kiswahili."
"Big deal."
"He's a crack shot."
"Is be planning on starting a war?"
"He's a good Republican."
"So are a lot of people."
"He contributed $30,000 to the campaign in New York."
"That money went to the state." He thought for a moment, then said: "I really
don't have the time to involve myself in this sort of problem anyway. I'm too
busy."
I said: "He's willing to give another thirty thousand to the National
Committee."
Without changing his tone or expression, Ford said: "He is? Tell him he can
see me whenever he wants. I'll try to help."
"Thanks." I turned and beaded for the door. Before I got there, I was hit by
that wave of nausea I had often carried out of a Democrat's office. I stopped
and looked back at Ford, and I guess my feelings showed. I said: "Jerry, this
is a hell of a note."
"Don't let it bother you, Bob," he said. "Money is the name of the game.
Without it, you're dead."
Kellogg, however, didn't get an ambassadorship that easily. Ford got him an
appointment to the Finance Committee of the Republican Party and a place on
the team that represented the United States at a conference of African
nations in Morocco. On April 10, 1968, Kellogg went to speak to then
Vice-President Spiro Agnew. After hearing Kellogg out, Agnew said, as Kellogg
later reported to Winter-Berger: "I'm helpless. You're talking to the wrong
man. You must cultivate the President. I am only a puppet on a string around
here. I do and I say what I'm told."
Two weeks later Winter-Berger introduced Kellogg to Walter Taylor, a former
law partner of Nixon. Taylor, a man with personal access to Nixon, met with
Kellogg and said he would need $65.000 "to take care of his time, and the
needs of both Nixon and Flanigan," Nixon's personal aide. Kellogg agreed to
have the money later that day. When Walter Taylor arrived at Kellogg's
office, he was carrying a large attache case. Kellogg had the money ready, in
$100 bills, ten to the packet, 65 packets, and they were piled into Taylor's
attache case. As Taylor and Winter-Berger walked up Park Avenue, Taylor was
casually swinging the attache case and said he would keep $10,000 for
himself, give $10,000 to Peter Flanigan, and the remaining $45,000 he would
give to President Nixon. Taylor offered Winter-Berger $5,000 of the
President's share as a commission. Winter-Berger refused because Kellogg was
already paying him and he didn't want to take money from both sides. He says
he never learned whether Nixon and Flanigan actually got the money.
On Friday, August 8th, Kellogg received a telephone call from Presidential
aide Herbert W. Kalmbach to assure Kellogg that Nixon had not forgotten about
him and Kellogg should remain patient. On November 25th, Kellogg asked Taylor
to arrange a personal meeting between Kellogg and Nixon. In May 1970 Kellogg
had a private meeting with Nixon. At the end of the year he was given an
appointment as special assistant to the Secretary of State for Refuge and
Migration Affairs, which position carried a special ambassadorial title. He
was sworn into office by Secretary of State William P. Rogers in February
1971.
In one great moment of candor Ford is alleged to have said: "My platform,
gentlemen, is always to support truth and intelligent compromise."
While we wish him all the luck in the world as the new President of the
United States, we wonder if the "truth" as Gerald Ford sees it is enough to
solve the problems of the United States, and prevent him from becoming a tool
of special business interests and/or organized crime.
pps. 359-368
=====
<photo captions>
Richard Nixon in 1952, as he defended himself in the famous "Checkers" speech
from the charges that he had illegally and improperly taken funds for his
private use from the oilmen and bankers supporting him.
Richard Nixon is shown with Bebe Rebozo on the deck of the latter's
houseboat, the Coco Lobo, at Key Biscayne, Florida. At right is dockmaster
Captain Norman Riddle.
Kissinger, Nixon and Rebozo at Key Biscayne.
The IBM Stock: This is one of the replacement certificates that IBM issued in
the name of Charles Lewis when Rebozo asked for such a transfer. A person
seeking a loan on stock must be its owner. Normally a bank would not have the
name on stock changed without making a much more thorough investigation than
Rebozo made in this case.
Charles Gregory "Belie" Rebozo
Eugenio R. Martinez, (left) one of the convicted Watergate burglars, is
vice-president of a Florida realty company which does business with Rebozo.
Bernard R. Barker, another Watergate defendant, is shown with Martinez as
they arrived at the Senate Office building in Washington, D.C. for a meeting
with special investigators.
Meyer Lansky is shown in 1972 at the Miami International Airport. He had been
deported from Israel and was promptly arrested by the FBI upon returning,
because of various indictments against him for skimming gambling profits from
Las Vegas casinos and income tax evasion. In 1974 a federal judge refused to
put him on trial because he is seriously ill.
President Gerald R. Ford: What will he do about organized crime? Will the
National Crime Syndicate be able to influence the new Administration?
President Gerald Ford and his wife Elizabeth.
In April 1972 the House G. 0. P. leader, Gerald Ford (left), smiles as
Vice-President Spiro Agnew receives a crystal elephant from fellow
Republicans.
Earl "Red" Blaik, former college football coach of President Gerald Ford,
made a phone call monitored by the FBI, which revealed that Gerald Ford was
trying to stop an investigation into a defense contract.
The Late House Speaker John W. McCormack gave Gerald Ford some shocking advice
Lee Harvey Oswald was found by the Warren Commission to have been the lone
assassin of President John Kennedy, despite reports of a conspiracy.
President Gerald Ford, then a Congressman, was a prominent member of the
Warren Commission.
Former President Aide Herbert Kalmbach called Francis Kellogg to say that
Nixon had not forgotten Kellogg's contributions nor his desire to be a U.S.
ambassador to an African country.
Secretary of State William P. Rogers gave the oath of office to Francis
Kellogg, as Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Refugee and
Migration Affairs.
Maurice Stans received a $30,000 contribution from Francis Kellogg, would-be
U.S. ambassador to an African country but Gerald Ford said it wasn't enough.
--[fini]--
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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