1964, September 24 – Cabinet Room – The White House – Washington, DC – John McCloy, J. Lee Rankin (General Counsel), Senator Richard Russell, Representative Gerald Ford, Chief Justice Earl Warren, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Allen Dulles, Senator John Sherman Cooper, and Representative Hale Boggs – Warren presenting report to Johnson; others standing, watching – Presentation of the Warren Commission Report to President Johnson
Divorcing the Warren Commission
While 50 year anniversaries are normally ones to celebrate in relationships, the relationship many in the world still have with the Warren Commission should have been annulled 49 years ago.
50 years ago this week the commission appointed by newly sworn in president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, submitted their 26 volume report. The love affair between a governmental cover-up and many in the world began.
The matchmakers for this relationship were Nicholas Katzenbach, Bill Moyers and J. Edgar Hoover, those great lovers of all things true and good for the benefit of the people. They decided that in order to ensure the American public’s normalcy be restored after the murder of JFK, the Commission must be a convincing paramour, capable of making even an eyewitness believe what they saw that horrible day in Dallas wasn’t true. Katzenbach wrote the promise:
“The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large; and that evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial.”[1]
The romance the American people and the world were asked to accept was a dysfunctional one. People with astute minds, research skills and home movie makers were asked to believe this romantic fairy tale forged by the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone as a lone nut. No one helped him. “Please love us” the findings alluded. Love the Warren Commission’s findings, no matter how skewed and haphazard they may be. Do this, and the government will take care of your worries that a coup d’etat has never happened in the history of our great country and never will. We, the politicians, federal agencies, local police, justice system and tax payer paid experts of the Warren Commission will put your belief in the American system of justice on a pedestal and steal away your worries that there’s something wrong with our great country. Here are the relationship vows the Warren Commission made to the world:
- We will intimidate witnesses by using mainstream media to woo you. (As they did my grandfather, Orville Nix).
- We will not force our intelligence agencies to give us all the information we need under the veil of National Security.
- We will alter films, lose films,[2] mutilate and destroy frames, stills and movies because we don’t want you to worry. The truth is a scary thing and we don’t want you to be scared. Besides, we have a secret photography plant in Rochester called Hawkeye that can do fantastic things with films.
- We will accidentally lose records, evidence and reports.
- We will not call key witnesses to testify before us. Because the truth is a scary thing and we don’t want you to be scared.
- We will block staff lawyers from asking key questions of the death of JFK that might allude to a conspiracy; because we would never lie to you.[3] We promise Oswald acted alone.
- We will have the CIA continue their agenda, again using the mass media, to make fun of those who use logic to dispute our promises to you. Why would we lie? We love the people! We’ll even give it a cute name: Operation Mockingbird
- We will seal the records for at least 75 years, because you don’t need to worry about such things as records. Besides, in 75 years, death will have probably made us part. Besides, truth is a scary thing and we don’t want you to be scared!
- We will have all the people you look up to, like Gerald Ford, Earl Warren, President Johnson, long-term senators, distinguished news people and news anchors woo you with their support of us.
For this relationship to work, you must promise to do this for us, the unimpeachable Warren Commission: (remember, we’re doing all this FOR YOU, the people we love)
- You must humbly swear to not question what we say: You’re just the people, we’re the power and the people should accept what we tell them as true. In other words, like women who should stay in the kitchen, just keep working, paying your taxes and allowing us to spend them the way we see fit.
- If you rebel, and DO ask questions, bad things might happen. We’re not saying they will, but they could. Did you see what happened to Jim Koethe, Dorothy Kilgallen and Hank Killam? Maybe they were just coincidences.[4]
- Never ask questions about the autopsy. Besides, medical terms are beyond your grasp…and those pictures are far too graphic for your delicate sensibilities. We will protect you from the pith of evidence in death. Leave it to the experts we choose to believe and you believe them too.
- Never, ever ask about Mexico City. That’s not even our country so why should we care? Besides, we all know that Mexican government is far behind ours. You can’t trust those people!
- Pay no mind to General Edwin Walker, The John Birch Society or the American Nazi Party. They are all harmless and we have a handle on them. Besides, look how many Dallas Police Department and Dallas Political leaders were members of the John Birch Society. Would preachers, decorated military leaders and rich people lie? Never!
- Don’t question whether it was a Coke or Dr. Pepper Oswald was drinking. Texans call every soft drink a Coke. What does it matter anyway? He shot the president. Believe us, we can prove it!
The Warren Commission didn’t ask much of us did it? All they asked was for us to set aside our logic and believe them. All great relationships have that type of foundation don’t they?
Lyndon Baines Johnson officiated the proceedings of this doomed romance using these words:
“Pursuant to the authority vested in me as President of the United States, I hereby appoint a Commission to ascertain, evaluate and report upon the facts relating to the assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy and the subsequent violent death of the man charged with the assassination.”
Did you notice that the words used were “ascertain, evaluate and report”? Do you think, like Orville Nix did that the Warren Commission and President Johnson committed logical adultery by being untrue to the people?
It is time we divorce our relationship with the Warren Commission findings. Even the House Select Committee admits it was wrong. So did the ARRB. Why do we want to stay in such an abusive relationship of lies? Haven’t we had enough? This has been a corrupt relationship from the start built on deceit, fakery and agendas. Stand up for yourselves people and use your logic. Explore those questions that are haunting you about the death of JFK. Break the circle of 50 years of abuse and demand the truth. You deserve it. So did JFK.
Nota bene: I know I don’t have to tell the majority of you that this article is an extended metaphor, but for those who aren’t familiar with rhetoric, it is a style used to make a point.
[1] Read more about this in the excellent article by Staffan H Westerberg & Pete Engwall http://assassinationofjfk.net/the-warren-commission-a-brilliant-deception/
[2] www.gaylenixjackson.com or read “Orville Nix: The Missing JFK Assassination Film”
[3] Westerberg & Engwall
[4] http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/crs.htm#death11
