Little Known History: 1968 October Surprise

[G_j]

(for those who blame Humphrey's loss on the '68 Democratic Convention protests)

November 13, 2000

Who Should Concede?
The Secret History of Modern U.S. Politics

By Robert Parry

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/111300a.html
(it was very hard to convey this story in four snips)

<snip>
For the past four decades, the Republicans have built a record of dirty tricks and October Surprises in presidential contests. And typically, it is the Democrats who stay silent after learning of the schemes – to avert constitutional crises and avoid public disillusionment with the political process.
<snip>

The Vietnam War was raging and was creating deep divisions within the Democratic Party. In October 1968, President Lyndon Johnson was maneuvering to achieve the framework for a peace settlement with North Vietnam and the Viet Cong through negotiations in Paris.

<snip>
Journalist Seymour Hersh described the initiative sketchily in his biography of Henry Kissinger, The Price of Power. Hersh reported that U.S. intelligence “agencies had caught on that Chennault was the go-between between Nixon and his people and President Thieu in Saigon. … The idea was to bring things to a stop in Paris and prevent any show of progress.”

<snip>

“In the end, though, Johnson’s advisers decided it was too late and too potentially damaging to U.S. interests to uncover what had been going on,” Summers wrote. “If Nixon should emerge as the victor, what would the Chennault outrage do to his viability as an incoming president? And what effect would it have on American opinion about the war?”
<snip>

A late Humphrey surge fell short. Nixon won the election.
<snip>

[Solly Mack]

1. k/r

[ramapo]

2. Detailed in the literature

I've read this before although I can't recall where...one of the many Nixon/Kissinger-related books from over the years.

Funny that Nixon was perceived as the peace candidate. How sick is that? Humphrey of course was linked with LBJ's disastrous war record.

Then Nixon goes on to use the war as a means to re-election, at the cost of some tens of thousands of American soldiers. Peace with honor was his big slogan, and all the idiots bought into it.

[H2O Man]

3. Humphrey refused

to distance himself from LBJ's Vietnam policy for too long. He was intimidated by Johnson, largely as a result of his experience as VP. Johnson had not fully supported Humphrey in the primaries, because he kind of wanted the party to "draft" him. In the general election, though he was publicly for Humphrey, Johnson's friendship with Nixon continued behind the scenes.

Had there been another 24-48 hours, things were shifting enough that Humphrey may have actually won. I think our country would be more than a little different as a result.

[loudsue]

13. Johnson & Nixon were both in a meeting in Dallas where it was discussed about JFK

being assassinated. Johnson & Nixon both had their hands dirty on that one. This went beyond a "heads up". Johnson & Nixon both knew it was going down the next day, and Johnson would be taking over as president.

They're all slime balls.

:kick:

[Help me help Earth]

16. Humphrey lost for the same reasons the Rep's will loose in 08;

war burnout. 1968 was not a good year to be running as a democrat.

Also, Nixon's first challenger was named George W Romney.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. My take.

Nixon almost won in '60 and with some justification he believed he lost due to the political intrigue created by John Kennedy's father who called in all his markers to get his son elected. Nixon learned a cruel and harsh lesson that you only win by cheating and manipulating.

1968. Nixon used everything available, even stuff that wasn't necessarily kosher/ethical, to win the general election. I'm not endorsing what he did, but I also understand his motivation. He HAD TO win. I think otherwise he felt he had no reason to exist as a two-time loser. A modern day Greek tragedy and we've paid the price for it.

[WinkyDink]

5. My mother has a simpler reason: America would never elect a "Hubert".

A "Dick", apparently so.

[independentpiney]

6. Anna Chennault

was the wife of Claire Chennault, who commanded the AVG Flying Tigers in China before the US entry in WWII.

[HeraldSquare212]

7. At least he was dealing with an ally

Unlike Reagan's campaign, which was dealing with the Iranians to delay the release of the hostages till after the election.

[formercia]

8. The son Joe Kennedy really wanted for President.

I'm sure Joe Kennedy's name was redacted from Smedley Butlers testimony before Congress as well.


The Knights of Malta fascination with radio controlled aircraft....

http://www.b-29s-over-korea.com/kennedy_story/kennedy_story01.html


THE SECRET MISSION OF JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, JR.

THE STORY
From 1939 thru 1945 there were many secret missions by the allies to destroy the Nazi war machine. On Aug. 12, 1944, one of our most tragic secret missions occurred. A PB4Y-1, the Navy version of the B-24, loaded with 374 boxes of high explosives weighing over 20,000 pounds, took off from England. This flying bomb was piloted by Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.

[Octafish]

17. I thought FDR liked Joseph Kennedy Sr. because he was a rich guy who supported FDR.

Of course, I could be wrong:

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box34/t311l01.html

Joe didn't think England would be able to beat the NAZIs. He probably also remembered the slaughter of millions of conscripts on both sides during World War I. Perhaps he was afraid of seeing the lives of his own sons wasted in the latest "war to end all wars."

Please, what makes you think Kennedy Sr. would side with the DuPonts and the Morgans? I thought they hated Catholics, especially Democrats?

One thing I do know, my Friend formercia, Joe Kennedy's children made a great American family.

Something I believe, only one nation detests royalty more than the Irish: Patriots of the United States of America.

An example, for those who don't know about Joseph Kennedy Jr., the big brother to a President, two Senators, and a bunch of other achievers, who, unlike most of the Bushes, actually SERVED the nation:



Ensign Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. with his Navy flight trainer.

Joe Jr.

The President’s big brother was the one being groomed for a life in politics by their father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Joe Jr. was preparing for just such a career, serving as a delegate from Massachusetts voting for FDR at the 1940 Democratic convention.

A brave, athletic and conscientious man, he volunteered for service in the US Navy before World War II. After completing his training in multi-engine aircraft, JPK was assigned command of a US Navy B-24 Liberator on anti-submarine warfare duty, flying missions out of an airbase in the UK over the North Atlantic from 1943-44.

On one mission, Kennedy’s four-engine aircraft was attacked by a Focke-Wulf 190, the German’s best single-prop fighter. Instead of hightailing it for a cloudbank, Kennedy turned his ship toward the fighter and ordered his crew to open up. The surprised FW tore off.

After completing his tour of 35 missions, IIRC, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. was ready to be rotated stateside. Instead, he volunteered for a top-secret mission in which he would pilot an experimental version of the B-24 bomber.

The target was the V-2 launch sites along the coast of France. The V-2 was developed by Werner von Braun and his team at Peenemünde. One of Hitler's super-weapons, history's first ballistic missiles were used to rain death, destruction and terror upon London. The allies were worried that if the Nazis continued developing their super-weapons, the V-2’s descendants would be delivering bombs — possibly atomic — to New York City.

So the US Navy and Army Air Corps developed a secret weapon to use against the German V-2 sites along the coast of France. The plan was called: Operation Aphrodite and its objective was to knock out the V-2 sites along the coast of France.

The plan called for developing, basically, history’s first guided cruise missiles (Hey, Condi! You reading this?). The entire fuselage was filled with Torpex and gelignite, IIRC, and was to be armed by a rather elaborate, and untested, electronic arming panel. The giant plane had been converted from being a bomber capable of carrying sixteen 500 pound bombs and requiring a 10-man crew into one giant flying bomb.

Kennedy’s job was to get the ship airborne from its airfield in Great Britain, point it toward Europe, and bail out over the countryside. Sounds simple, but it was anything but. It was state-of-the-art science, engineering, and warfare. Joe Kennedy’s plane was among a few Liberators and Flying Fortresses modified for a very early version of remote control.

Like something out of Buck Rogers, the Navy equipped the airplane with a primitive 2-channel remote-control pilot. One radio signal could make the plane dive and climb and another signal could make it turn left and right. A prototype video camera would also send information to the Mother Ship, where the remote pilot sat before a tiny TV monitor.

Joe Kennedy and his fellow volunteer pilots were needed to get the flying bombs airborne. One aloft, they were to turn on the radio-guidance controls and arm the flying bomb. Then, somewhere over the English countryside, the pilot and bombardier were to bail out at an altitude of about ONE THOUSAND FEET.

The scientists and engineers in the Mother Ship would take over and signal on two radio frequencies: One to turn the stick RIGHT or LEFT; or push the stick FORWARD or pull the stick BACK. Primitive today, they were the first remote-controlled weapon of mass destruction. The Mother Ship would follow two miles or so back and then fly it over the English Channel and guide it down into the rocket launch sites.

It was dangerous work. Because of the modifications to the B-17s, one pilot was killed and another lost an arm in the process. By the time it was Joe’s turn in the B-24 there was reason for concern about a plan that was seeming to look like a suicide mission.

For the Kennedys and the future of American politics, the tragedy was that the Navy ship used a rather primitive arming panel. The regular engineer/co-pilot refused to fly and instead the Navy sent aloft the engineer who designed and installed the system.

Over the English countryside, the ship exploded, killing the two flyers and changing American political history. Joe's younger brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy then became the heir to the family's political ambitions.

John F. Kennedy made an outstanding President, living up to his brother’s promise of greatness. JFK, it should be remembered, saved the world from nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

While he never lived to see the dream realized, JFK also stretched mankind’s imagination and reach to the moon. Ironically, he even used the NAZI rocket scientist who developed the V-2 to do so. The same von Braun who the allied air command sent his lost brother, Joseph, to destroy.

— Octafish

# # #

Two outstanding books on the subject of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and his service in World War II:

“Aphrodite: Desperate Mission” by Jack Olsen

and

“The Lost Prince: Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy” by Hank Searls.

[formercia]

18. John Roskob, one of the leaders of the attempted coup

was the head of the Democratic party and a Catholic.

The coup was an operation of the Knights of Malta, a right-wing reactionary Catholic lay group.


The operation was in parallel with the operation of Franz Von Papen, another Knight of Malta who had hitler installed as Chancellor.

Roskob was affiliated with the Dupont organization and General Motors.


The attempted coup had little to do with party affiliation. The boys infest whatever party has the majority and can give them the most leverage.

The New World Order almost came into being in 1933.

[formercia]

19. This was not meant to be an anti-catholic rant

I grew up in a right wing reactionary Catholic family and know what a destructive environment it was.

The SMOM/KOM and related groups should not be regarded as religious. They are gangsters in the true sense. Many high level Italian mafiosi are KOM. They are all interconnected and strive only for power, wealth and the return to the era of the Robber Barons.

Genuine Catholics don't behave as they do.

My apologies to anyone offended by this rant of mine but the truth has to be spoken. These people are sworn to destroy our constitutional form of government and impose their own myopic view of the World on the Human Race.

[Octafish]

20. Thanks for the information, formercia. No offense taken at all.

There are people and groups of people who think they are better than others. Whether kings (or pretzeldents) who think they were appointed by God or slavemasters who consider themselves worthy of owning human property, they are the same: evil.

I appreciate you taking the time to tell us more about what was happening in those days and continues today. It's no mystery for me to see how the rich would conspire against FDR, just as the rich today love the crazy monkey. It's business. What I can't fathom are the routes by which the rich could "change sides" in the 30s through the 50s back and forth.

For example: One day Averell Harriman is making money off the Hamburg-Amerika Line, another he's ambassador to the Soviet Union, later he's elected Governor of New York and looks like Presidential timber, then he's again a roving ambassador now helping get us mired in Vietnam. Not that Skull & Bones didn't have anything to do with it...

[formercia]

21. It's the 'Old Boy' network

that's why I stressed that it's not about political affiliation. These people are like Chameleons, they change their colors to suit the environment they're in, but inside, that long tongue is ready to strike at their prey.

[roamer65]

9. It's also detailed in Hitchens' book...

"The Trial of Henry Kissinger." Its my present reading.

[Gregorian]

10. Dallek was interviewed on his new book last night on the Daily Show with similar info.

His new book Nixon and Kissinger chronicles the 20,000 pages of phone records that Kissinger made back in his Nixon days. And evidently Kissinger is really upset about it. If anyone wants to see one of the better Daily Show interviews, see it.

What a bombshell that was. And then some. Like Nixon being so bombed out, he let Kissinger effectively be president.


But I've digressed from the thread. Sort of.

[Summer93]

11. Nixon

Does anyone have the background on the "shenanigans" pulled by Nixon during his run for congress?

My Mom once said if people did know he handled his campaign the first time they would not elect him to be president.

[formercia]

12. The Democrats paid him back

A group of pregnant black women in front of a Nixon venue carrying signs with Nixons campaign slogan:

Nixon's the One.

[hootinholler]

22. Nixon was the protege of Prescott Bush.

He later passed the touch on to Poppy Bush.

-Hoot

[G_j]

14. k

[TheCentepedeShoes]

15. All this nostalgia for the Nixon years

The present situation almost makes one long for the days of Watergate (sigh).
At least then, IMHO, there was more of a :popcorn: feeling and less :scared:

[hootinholler]

23. It's not nostalgia, it's the recognition that this is simply a third wave in the effort

Subjugate a free nation. the first wave was dealing with FDR and the New Deal. Persistent bastards they are.

-Hoot

[Octafish]

24. New Study: Nixon 'Wrecked Early Peace In Vietnam'

Here's a good overview on this episode of GOP Treason:

New Study:
Nixon 'Wrecked Early Peace In Vietnam'

by Martin Kettle in Washington

On the eve of his election in 1968, Richard Nixon secretly conspired with the South Vietnamese government to wreck all-party Vietnam peace talks as part of a deliberate effort to prolong a conflict in which more than 20,000 Americans were still to die, along with tens of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians.
The devastating new charge against Nixon, which mirrors long-held suspicions among members of President Lyndon Johnson's administration about the Republican leader's actions in the autumn of 1968, is made by the authors of a new study of Nixon's secret world in the latest issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

"The greatest honour history can bestow," reads the inscription on Nixon's black granite tombstone in California, "is the title of peacemaker." But if the charges by authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan are correct, Nixon better deserves to be called a peacewrecker than peacemaker.

At the heart of the new account was Nixon's fear that Vietnam peace efforts by President Johnson in the run-up to the November 1968 US presidential election could wreck Nixon's bid to oust Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic candidate, and capture the White House.

Nixon's response to Johnson's efforts was to use a go-between, Anna Chennault, to urge the South Vietnam's president, Nguyen van Thieu, to resist efforts to force them to the peace table.

Nixon's efforts paid off spectacularly. On October 31, Johnson ordered a total halt to the bombing of North Vietnam, the precondition for getting the North and their Vietcong allies to join the talks. Two days later, under intense secret urgings from Nixon and his lieutenants, Thieu announced his government would not take part. Less than a week later, Nixon was elected president with less than a one-point margin in the popular vote over Humphrey.

Playing with US lives

The Vanity Fair article charges that Johnson knew what was going on. Intelligence reports to the president told him that Nixon and his running mate, Spiro Agnew, were playing politics with the lives of US soldiers. "Had it been made public at the time, it would surely have destroyed Nixon's presidential hopes at one stroke, and forever," the authors write.

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/080900-01.htm

The article by Parry in the OP is a must-read. I'll pop-in the stuff referenced above from Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan ASAP.

Nixon and his ilk were -- and are -- TRAITORS. Thank you for another excellent thread, G_j!