Cold War Origins of the CIA Holocaust
by Len Hart
A new book by James W. Douglass [JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters] addresses an "an evil whose depth and deceit seemed to go beyond the capacity of words to describe." A few events, many of them very recent, qualify to be so described. The unspeakable "evil" in this case is the assassination of JFK, in fact, a cold-blooded murder in the streets. That it was a "President" so ignominiously gunned-down is in itself appalling, unspeakable but that it was a President who held out our best hopes to survive as a Democratic, free nation makes it all the more tragic in retrospect. The assassination succeeded, claims Douglass, because Americans can't handle the truth. Americans have not faced up to what has happened to our nation or what has become of our dreams of freedom, democracy, equal rights and liberty. Douglass' book is not another conspiracy book. Many books, articles, writers, and talk show hosts have proven to my satisfaction and that of millions of Americans that the cold-blooded murder of JFK could not have been anything other than a conspiracy. The "lone nut" theory is subscribed to only by lone nuts and legions of liars. Douglass not only affirms a "conspiracy" but speaks directly to jaded Americans, addressing in the subtitle: "Why He Died and Why It Matters." No murder but especially that of JFK can be understood in a vacuum. There is a fateful history leading up to that dreadful day in Dallas, when the United States lost a President, America lost a future, and every American lost the "Yankee" optimism that had made our nation great. John F. Kennedy began as a "Cold Warrior" and ended as and perhaps because he transcended that role, that label. He had become the embodiment of all our hopes for peace as well as prosperity, more mature relations with both allies and adversaries as well as more humane domestic peace with those citizens who had been denied a fair share of that dream. Today, anyone aspiring to any political office so lofty as that of President risks his/her life. This outcome may not, must not be tolerated if we are ever again to enjoy the blessings of competent government.
Since the murder of John F. Kennedy, it has become clear to every thinking American that the path toward peace is opposed by those who make war for profit. In the U.S., the group is called the Military-Industrial Complex, in short, the M.I.C., whose "living" is nothing else but industrialized murder. It is also clear to every thinking American that as long as there is a profit motive, as long as there are big bucks to be made manufacturing and selling arms, peace is but an elusive dream. As long as just one percent of the nation's population owns more than the rest of us combined, peace is but a hopeless dream. As long as there is oil in the Middle East, you will find either the American military and/or the CIA. Doulgass' book identifies a "designated patsy," the term used by Lee Harvey Oswald himself upon his arrest. Earlier, according to Douglass, there was a "second Oswald" who was moved about the country "like a pawn." This doppelganger was, in fact, setting Oswald up to "take the fall." It was, at the time, a mere sub-plot. The Soviet Union was "set up" as well. The Soviet Union and its satellite China had a role thrust upon them: "Evil Empire." As an ironic result, we are now owned by China. Again – ironically – it is the CIA's own World Fact Book which confirms and documents that fact. It was during the administration of President Harry Truman that the CIA was given near "unlimited powers." This event is referred to by Gore Vidal in his Decline and Fall of the American Empire. Sen. Arthur Vandenburg is quoted as having told Truman that if he expected to raise taxes in order to pay for "covert activities" then he must "...scare the hell out of the American people." Thus was born a "cold war," an incipient empire, and the Orwellian, non-ending war which has, at last, bankrupted America, enslaved its people, enriched but one percent of the population, and incurred the enmity of many throughout the world who see themselves as victim slaves because of it. They are correct. The goal was nothing less than the destruction of the Russian Communist State. In a shallow sense and in the shorter term, they succeeded. In the longer term, they failed. The costs of waging Orwellian war had not been assayed. In the end, the victory was merely pyrrhic, short-lived and did not justify the lives lost in Viet Nam and every other surrogate battlefield.
A summit meeting of U.S. President Eisenhower with Soviet Premier Khrushchev was canceled after a U.S U2 spy plane crashed in Russia. Eisenhower had ordered such flights canceled. So – who disobeyed or countermanded orders from the President? It was after this incident that Eisenhower issued his famous warning about the "Military-Industrial Complex" in his farewell address. It was, thus, left to John F. Kennedy to defy the "conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry." What is so clear today, in retrospect, may not have been so obvious at the time. Else, we might have avoided the tragic history that has resulted. Clearly, JFK's fate was sealed when he refused to support the CIA invasion of Cuba to regain control of Cuba for organized crime. Think of it this way: the CIA had hoped to hijack the apparatus of the U.S. government and its military in order to make Cuba safe for the Mafia. Kennedy was not buying it. He knew that he had been lied to by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA. He refused to provide air support for the Cuban brigade. It was not the only time that JFK had run afoul of the military. During the Cuban-Missile Crisis, he resisted "tremendous pressure" on him to take military action, which in retrospect, it is clear would have plunged the nation into a nuclear Armageddon. JFK intended to end the cold war, establish peaceful relations with the Soviet Union. At this time in our history, the bumper sticker: "better dead than red" was seen on millions of vehicles. This is the political atmosphere that prevailed in the short years and months preceding his cold-blooded murder.
The bumper stickers, however, were just the political atmosphere that was promoted and exploited. The real power opposing JFK was the arms industry which still controls the United States. At the time, the war machine generated billions of dollars. It was then as now, the producer of America's chief exports: death and destruction. JFK learned to trust Khrushchev more than the "people" within his own government. Traitors to the Constitution and the President, they had embarked upon a strategy in which they would oppose him, isolate him and subvert his policies. The gang of traitors included Richard Bissell, Charles Cabell, Henry Cabot Lodge, Lyman Lemnitzer, Curtis LeMay and perhaps the most contemptible of all, Allen Dulles. On June 10, 1963, JFK spoke about his desire for world peace, a new relationship with the Soviet Union and Nikita Khrushchev with whom he had hope to form a new relationship with the Soviet Union. To these ends, he said that nuclear disarmament was a necessity and to that end proposed a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. And, as "we are all mortal," he most certainly infuriated the American right wing by declaring that the Russian people wanted peace as much as did the American people. Just as Dwight David Eisenhower was, as I have called him, the last honest Republican, JFK died a martyr for the cause of peace. The speech also certified JFK's death warrant. With so many powerful enemies opposing his policies and hating him, JFK didn't have a chance as he was being maneuvered into the crossfire in Dallas. The CIA was infuriated when it learned that JFK had exchanged private letters with Khrushchev and had, in secret, planned to seek "rapprochement" with Cuba. Castro was interested and was, in fact, meeting with American representatives when JFK was murdered. Douglas rightly claims that "JFK died a martyr" to the causes of freedom and peace. Douglass is right to claim that if JFK had not been murdered, the Cold War would have ended amid "peace talks" with Khrushchev. The tragedy of Viet Nam might have been avoided or cut short. They're might never have been a "War on Terrorism." Within a month of JFK's assassination, Harry Truman wrote an article for the Washington Post warning of a CIA take-over of the United States. Harry was right! Reprinted
with permission from The
People's Voice. September 16, 2010 Len Hart blogs at The Existentialist Cowboy. Copyright © 2010 The People's Voice
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