Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

JFK Assassination: One Month After JFK’s Murder, Former President Truman Called For Abolishing CIA
International Business News ^ | January 13, 2014 | Joseph Lazzaro

Posted on 01/15/2014 10:24:56 AM PST by RetiredArmy

JFK Assassination: One Month After JFK’s Murder, Former President Harry Truman Called For Abolishing The CIA

One month to the day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, former President Harry Truman recommended that the U.S. abolish the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

In an op-ed column published in the Washington Post on Dec. 22, 1963, Truman never linked the CIA to President Kennedy’s murder, but the timing of the explicit and strongly worded column and complaint implied a connection.

“For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment,” Truman wrote. “It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas.”

Truman continued:

“This quiet intelligence arm of the President has been so removed from its intended role that it is being interpreted as a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue -- and subject for cold war enemy propaganda,” the former president wrote.

Truman: No Distant Observer

Truman was no distant, uninformed public policy professional when it came to the CIA: In July 1947, then-President Truman signed into law the legislation that created the agency, which replaced the former U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

In 1944, William J. Donovan, the OSS’ creator, suggested to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the nation should create a new, centralized organization/agency directly supervised by the president -- "which will procure intelligence both by overt and covert methods and will at the same time provide intelligence guidance, determine national intelligence objectives, and correlate the intelligence material collected by all government agencies."

Donovan also proposed that the new agency should have authority to conduct “subversive operations abroad.”

In December 1963, Truman articulated in no uncertain terms what he thought of the CIA’s covert operations dimension:

Truman said they should “be terminated.”

Later, in 1964, Truman would reiterate his call for removing covert operations from the CIA in a letter to Look magazine -- underscoring that he never intended the CIA to get involved in “strange activities” when he signed the legislation creating the institution.

Further, Truman is not the only high-profile U.S. public official to call for the abolition of the CIA’s operational activities. Former U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., wanted to abolish the agency and transfer its intelligence functions to appropriate existing U.S. government departments. For example, weapons intelligence would be under the U.S. Department of Defense, political intelligence under the State Department and non-public economic intelligence under the Commerce Department.

What’s more, placing intelligence gathering and covert operations in separate government institutions helps prevent the government’s covert operations wing from influencing or distorting the intelligence-gathering wing’s reports to support its own goals. This separation addresses the inherent or at least potential conflict-of-interest problem that occurs when one institution is home to both research and operations functions.

Equally significant, placing the covert operations function in the U.S. Department of Defense would give the president more direct oversight of those operations than if they remain with the CIA. In other words, covert operations as part of the U.S. DOD -- whose secretary of defense regularly speaks with the president -- would improve their visibility and accountability via more-frequent policy reviews. It would also make it harder for an improvisational or rogue/unauthorized group in the department to create a “shadow operation” -- literally, an unauthorized covert foreign policy or para-military policy.

Truman: An Agency For Intelligence-Gathering Only

The risk of the potential creation of covert operations and para-military policies not authorized by and hidden from the U.S. president is at the core of Truman’s Dec. 1963 complaint about the CIA: By that point, the CIA had created numerous covert operations, missions and projects -- the sort of “strange activities” in which Truman never intended the CIA to get involved.

In other words, to Truman in Dec. 1963, the CIA was an agency that had run amok, and although the former president could have called for the end of the CIA’s operational duties at any time, the fact that he timed his complaint to be published one month after the JFK assassination is significant. At minimum, Truman’s column is an expression of his concern about a CIA that had strayed far from its creators’ intent. At maximum, Truman’s column -- published when a stunned nation was still grieving and exhibiting shock and confusion over JFK’s death, and as suspicions of a plot reverberated across America -- is one of the earliest expressions of doubt concerning the government's official narrative that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and unaided to assassinate President Kennedy.

Further, the year-later release of the Warren Commission’s report on the JFK assassination -- which concluded that Oswald had acted alone in killing Kennedy with three rifle shots, and that Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald two days after Oswald’s arrest -- did little to dispel public concern that the report was implausible and unconvincing. In the months and immediate years that followed, assassination researchers would rebuke the Warren Commission for its grossly slipshod investigation procedures -- particularly for failing to collect 100 percent of the evidence, and for failing to analyze evidence it had collected -- and for other serious violations of basic protocols for criminal investigations.

Those doubts by the American people and by assassination researchers about the lone-gunman conclusion would increase in 1978, when a second investigation, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), concluded that President Kennedy was very likely assassinated as a result of a plot/conspiracy. However, the committee was unable to identify the other gunmen or the extent of the conspiracy.

Making Public JFK Assassination Files Held By The CIA Would Clarify Much

Further, as noted, Truman’s complaint is not an indictment of the CIA in the aftermath of the tragedy that occurred in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963 -- one of the darkest and most ignominious days in the nation’s history -- a day that changed the trajectory of both U.S. domestic and foreign policy.

That said, the U.S. intelligence community in general, and the Central Intelligence Agency specifically, could resolve many of the questions/anomalies that form the mystery at the center of this case -- and fill in the dozens of gaps left by the Warren Commission -- by making public more than 1,100 classified files related to the JFK assassination.

In particular, when made public, the classified files -- of CIA Officer George Joannides; CIA Officer David Atlee Philips, who was involved in pre-assassination surveillance of Oswald; Birch D O’Neal, who as counter-intelligence head of the CIA, opened a file on defector Oswald; and the files of CIA Officers Howard Hunt, William King Harvey, Anne Goodpasture, and David Sanchez Morales -- will help the nation determine what really happened in Dallas, who Oswald was and how the CIA handled Oswald’s file.

However, the CIA says the Joannides’ files and the files of the CIA officers -- which the Agency said are “not believed relevant” to the JFK assassination -- must remain classified until at least 2017, and perhaps longer, due to U.S. national security. But the CIA’s national security claim has never been independently verified, according to JFKFacts.org Moderator Jefferson Morley.

Morley v. CIA – An Attempt To Obtain The Full Truth

Morley is the plaintiff in the ongoing Morley v. CIA suit, which seeks to make public Joannides’ classified files.

In Morley’s suit, his attorney has responded to the CIA’s latest brief, on the issue of court fees. Having won on appeal twice, Morley argued that the standard practice of the U.S government paying court fees for a successful appeal should apply. The CIA countered that the litigation has not generated any significant new information, and therefore the government should not have to pay the court fees. The issue is now in the hands of U.S. Judge Richard Leon.

It must be underscored that, to date, there is no smoking gun or incontrovertible evidence of a plot or conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy, but there is a pattern of suspicious activity, along with a series of anomalies and a commonality of interests among key parties, that compel additional research and the release of non-public documents.

Further, the CIA probably is not covering up some tectonic, systemic crisis-triggering secret about the assassination of President Kennedy, or even evidence of a colossal Agency operational failure that would prompt the American people to call for a dismantling of the national security state apparatus.

However, until all of the JFK assassination files are made public, the pattern of suspicious activity, anomalies, and commonality of interests, along with the observations of the investigators and public officials -- including former President Harry Truman's Dec. 1963 call for the elimination of the CIA’s operational duties -- form a preponderance of evidence that strongly suggest that -- at minimum -- the American people do not know the full truth regarding the assassination of President Kennedy, and that the Agency is hiding something.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: cia; jfkcia; jfkmurder; truman
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last
To: RetiredArmy

M16, not the A1 version quite yet, right? Also, that model didn’t have the forward assist on it yet either, correct?

Like the M14 better... my personal favorite. Heavy, yes, but wood and metal are just wonderful together. Also love the M1 Garand; first rifle I ever learned how to shoot.

However... that being said... I saw a beautiful wood furniture set for the AR15, and it just transforms that firearm into something sweet...


41 posted on 01/15/2014 12:42:35 PM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

Thanx


42 posted on 01/15/2014 12:45:55 PM PST by knarf (I say things that are true .. I have no proof .. but they're true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: NFHale

Gun porn.

43 posted on 01/15/2014 12:47:52 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: central_va

THAT’S the furniture set I was talking about!!! Beauty!

Thank you brother! There’s a darker wood set too that I’ve seen. Just sweet.


44 posted on 01/15/2014 12:52:37 PM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: NFHale

So many theories I really don’t know. But wasn’t the CIA responsible for a number of assassinations of So. American leaders around that time? Until a law was passed that “we aren’t going to do that any more”.

I really don’t see JFK as having done anything that bad — unless of course you’re Mafia and then it is his brother that’s the big problem. Stone implies that Robert Kennedy was more the target — get JFK and you get rid of RFK as Atty General and put “friend” LBJ in power.

Still fascinating after all these years, isn’t it.


45 posted on 01/15/2014 12:53:23 PM PST by bunster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: topher
from the freemason website

Lyndon B. Johnson was initiated on October 30, 1937 in Johnson City Lodge No. 561, at Johnson City, Texas, but completed only the Entered Apprentice, or first, of the three Masonic degrees. For this reason, he is not included in the gallery(of freemason presidents)

46 posted on 01/15/2014 12:55:32 PM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: RetiredArmy

Interesting. Never knew this about Truman.


47 posted on 01/15/2014 1:10:53 PM PST by OldNewYork
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bunster

“For you gun experts, Stone stated that Oswald’s rifle was NOT even Sighted. And yet he was able to pull off 3 shots in 6.? seconds — that was an eye-opener to me.”

Well if Stone said it has to be true /sarc

Assassination investigators had an Army specialist attempt to replicate Oswald’s 3 shots using Oswald’s rifle exactly as it was found in the Book Depository.

The specialist hit the moving target three times and did it more quickly than Oswald. It is not a difficult shot.

This is in the Warren Report, that thing that no one reads because they are too busy filling their little heads with juicy conspiracy stories that they take for gospel.


48 posted on 01/15/2014 1:19:35 PM PST by Pelham (Obamacare, the vanguard of Obammunism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Vaquero

...........

As far as individual guns go, Of the original Armalite Hollywood prototypes, S/N 1 and 2 definitely had the top handle, but S/N 4 had the charging handle in the typical location.

S/N 1 was much more similar to the early AR-10's than any other AR15 ever built. S/N 4 is essentially the design that went into production.


S/N 1


S/N 1 is 2nd from top, S/N 4 is 3rd from top.

Source

49 posted on 01/15/2014 1:30:11 PM PST by smoothsailing
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: knarf

From what he says, it sounds like he intended the CIA simply to be an intelligence gathering and analysis agency, not an agency that engaged in espionage operations and tried to shape government policy.


50 posted on 01/15/2014 1:41:29 PM PST by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: riverdawg

Yes, and I believe the SS agent in question sued that author for defamation and won a payout, as the assertion couldn’t be supported by evidence.


51 posted on 01/15/2014 1:43:06 PM PST by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: smoothsailing

Cool

I still like my Garands better....but cool..


52 posted on 01/15/2014 1:47:31 PM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: thestob

I have read that several claims made in the book have been refuted, but there has been plenty of support for the main hypothesis that one of the wounds, at least, was caused by a .223/5.56 round.


53 posted on 01/15/2014 2:14:37 PM PST by riverdawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Boogieman

Yes, I recall that the strongest evidence in the book was the wound ballistics discussion. The claim the SS agent accidentally fired the shot seemed much more speculative.


54 posted on 01/15/2014 2:20:38 PM PST by riverdawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: topher

JFK, like Lincoln, wanted to end private banking financing the nation. The true global oligarchs are at the top of the food chain, the international banking powers.


55 posted on 01/15/2014 3:12:20 PM PST by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Vaquero
I guess I was wrong about LBJ and Freemasons.

It is strange that Kennedy was killed in LBJ's state, and LBJ became president.

But using a secretive organization such as the CIA or the Freemasons would be a way to execute a conspiracy (if Kennedy's assassination was one of them).

Certainly, there are some strange tales of the Mafia and Kennedy at that time (Marilyn Monroe and the Mafia, and Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedy's, and the death of Marilyn Monroe).

56 posted on 01/15/2014 3:18:38 PM PST by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN
And the year after Kennedy was shot, our coins had a copper-silver sandwich.

Ironically, the 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar was 99% silver (or 100%).

I have heard that Kennedy wanted to put the US back on the Gold Standard... I imagine he would have allowed the opening of Gold mines that had been closed during FDR. (Some of which were not that economical to re-open because of flooding).

57 posted on 01/15/2014 3:21:26 PM PST by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: NFHale
I think a number of different folks wanted the Kennedy's out.

The Mafia did not like the Crooked Cop. They might have viewed the Kennedy's as such.

Joseph Kennedy (Sr) used the Mafia to get the Kennedy's elected.

Then Robert (RFK) went after the Mafia as Attorney General.

The CIA would have felt betrayed by the Bay of Pigs.

There were probably powerful people in Europe and elsewhere that were very upset that Kennedy took the world to the brink of Nuclear War over the Cuban Missile Crisis.

John F. Kennedy had made his enemies. He was working for Civil Rights, so the KKK would be on his enemies list as well.

In short, the list is not a short one.

58 posted on 01/15/2014 3:26:04 PM PST by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: topher

The only fact that the oligarchs will allow the common folks to know about that day in Dallas is that the President was murdered.


59 posted on 01/15/2014 3:31:14 PM PST by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: bunster; topher

“...Still fascinating after all these years, isn’t it...”

Yes, because they basically pulled off a coup in front of us, and got away with it so slickly and brazenly.

When I see the Zapruder film, it’s more than watching a man get murdered; it’s watching part of America, and what we all believe in and love, get murdered. Not Camelot, not any of that bullshit... just an American President that actually DID love his country, served it honorably in uniform and out, made some stupid decisions politically and personally (he’s human).

I’m not a fan of the Kennedys in general, but I AM a fan of the American ideal, and something in that died that day along with him.

Love him or hate him, JFK didn’t deserve to be murdered, and I’d like, before I leave the Earth, to know that whoever was involved with it got what THEY deserved, ultimately.

Guess that’ll never happen.


60 posted on 01/15/2014 4:12:02 PM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson