The Three Barons

by J. W Lateer

  JFK and Adenauer met for the first time in a meeting at the White House in November 1961. At the meeting, Adenauer promised that West Germany would not begin to “flirt” with the Communist Eastern Bloc. But then JFK decided to broaden the negotiations without consulting the Western allies. He now wanted to discuss the following:

  1. A West German (FRG) and East German (GDR) mixed commission to work out issues about Berlin.

  2. A nuclear non-proliferation agreement.

  3. A NATO-Warsaw Pact non-aggression treaty.

  At about this time, the idea was floated suggesting a United Nations role in running Berlin. In a possible show of JFK’s unfortunate tendency to double-cross, he suggested negotiating with Khrushchev about the above points. JFK had promised the West Germans that the above issues would be off-limits. This new agenda would diminish the importance of NATO and would also recognize the status quo of the “Iron Curtain.”

  On April 13, 1962, there was a meeting in Bonn between Paul Nitze, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security, the U.S. Ambassador to West Germany Walter Dowling and Konrad Adenauer. Adenauer expressed shock at recent developments. In the meantime, a new idea was being floated. This proposal would create a commission to deal with the issues of access to West Berlin and would consist of members from Sweden, Austria and Switzerland.

  Anger arose from the discussions. Adenauer thought the U.S. was going soft. In the heat of the discussions, JFK demanded that the West Germans recall their ambassador Wilhelm Grewe. The new West German ambassador Karl Heinrich Knappstein was privately dressed down by JFK as no other western ambassador had ever been. Charles de Gaulle opposed British entry to the EU on 1-14-1963, calling the UK a “Trojan horse” for the United States. In response to the open hostility, JFK made the ultimate threat against Bonn and de Gaulle: that the U.S. would just turn their back, withdraw the nuclear umbrella and allow to Soviets to “have at it” and take over the rest of Europe.

  On January 22, 1963, West Germany and France signed the Élysée Treaty in Paris. This Treaty established a new foundation for relations between France and Germany, who had fought wars over many centuries. The Germans claimed it was a good thing and represented a positive reconciliation between enemies.

  But officials in the U.S. were very concerned because the Treaty deliberately declined to mention NATO. This omission was interpreted as a slap against NATO. In general, the treaty also represented an overall threat that existed ever since the end of World War II. That threat was that France and Germany would get together and “go it alone.” That meant that they would try to plan a defense of Europe whereby they did not need the help of the U.S. and the U.K.

  One outcome of the Treaty was the establishment of a Franco-German military brigade. This brigade was not actually established until 1987, but was still in existence in 2016.

  The bottom line for U.S.-West German relations at the time of the JFK assassination was that there was a great deal of “rocking the boat” going on about West Berlin and German reunification. General Julius Klein, whose activities are discussed in several other chapters, was pressuring Senator Thomas Dodd to introduce a Senate Resolution calling for German reunification. But the over-arching issue was the personality of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Adenauer was considered by some historians to be a “mean old man.” It was not so much that Adenauer personally disliked or distrusted JFK. But Adenauer was ruthless. He clearly believed that JFK’s policies toward the two Germanys and toward the Soviet threat were inept or even dangerous.

  General Julius Klein was the bagman for much of the money involved in the JFK assassination through bribery of Senators and probably other things. General Klein’s main contact and most powerful supporter in West Germany was Adenauer. But Adenauer was not an ex-Nazi and his respect in Germany was based on his stable performance in office while surrounded by chaos. Would Adenauer have jeopardized his legacy by being a party to assassination and murder? This remains a question mark.

  Adenauer resigned as Chancellor on October 16, 1963. His successor was Chancellor Ludwig Erhard. Erhard was the first foreign leader to meet with LBJ after the assassination. He was quickly invited to the LBJ ranch. It would appear that Adenauer resigned just four weeks before the assassination so that he would not go down in history as a party to murder.

  It seems ridiculous to even state the obvious. Adenauer was surrounded by a large number of ex-Nazis in his government who had already murdered at least 12 million people. What if JFK were victim number 12,000,001?

  Israel’s Nuclear Program

  Some assassination authors have theorized that the assassination of JFK happened because he was trying to prevent Israel from getting the bomb and that Israel retaliated against him.

  In June, 1945, 17 Jewish-American millionaires met at the home of the wealthy Rudolph S. Sonneborn on 57th street in New York City. A group was formed to further the establishment of the State of Israel. It was given the code-name “The Sonneborn Institute.” In the JFK assassination research, two very prominent names belonged to this Institute. One was Louis Bloomfield, a Canadian lawyer and businessman who was considered the leader of the Canadian Jewish community. Significantly, the Sonneborn Institute was called a “North American” group, not an American one. The other famous member was General Julius Klein.

  Physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer was basically the inventor of the atomic and hydrogen bombs. (Thanks a lot). In 1952, he paid a visit to Israel. On May 12, 1955, France contacted the Israeli ambassador and took the first step in setting up a long-term cooperation agreement between Israel and France to develop nuclear weapons. Israel had the Jewish physicists, but France had the North African territory and the Pacific Islands upon which to test bombs which could not be done in tiny Israel.

  In 1956, Israel made an agreement with the U.K. and France. Israel would get a nuclear reactor capable of creating weaponized plutonium if they would agree to help in the seizure of the Suez Canal from Nasser’s Egypt. This was the Suez Crisis of 1956. By 1959, the Israelis had a 40 megawatt nuclear reactor which could produce enough plutonium for 4 or 5 bombs per year.

  For the JFK researcher, it is significant to note that the French Minister of Atomic Energy was Jacques Soustelle. He was considered a friend of Israel. Soustelle is frequently mentioned by assassination authors as being involved in the assassination. Soustelle was actually a close political ally of General Charles de Gaulle and his affiliation with the OAS, if any, is a complex issue in itself. Soustelle had, at least, some relationship with the OAS and a history of affiliation with British Intelligence. When the French-Israeli nuclear program kicked into gear, Israeli leader Shimon Peres and scientist Joseph Shalheret decided to bypass the French Government and go directly to Jacques Soustelle.

  The Israeli nuclear program was generally called Dimona after the name of their nuclear reactor. A secret fund-raising for the Israeli bomb was conducted from 1950 to 1960 in the U.S. and raised over $40 M. American lobbyist Abraham Feinberg was a leader in the fundraising. He was a confidante of Truman, Kennedy and LBJ. Feinberg asked for a list of the members of the 18 Sonneborn Institute members. The only names revealed were Samuel Zacks, Louis Bloomfield, Bernard Bloomfield, Samuel Bronfman (all four were Canadians) and Henry Morganthau (former U.S. Treasury Secretary). All the rest of the donor list is still secret today. Also donating were the British and French Rothschilds.

  For the nuclear program, Israel purchased ingredients from Norway, but had to supplement this with more material from the U.K., which was approved by the British Government. American intelligence was officially informed of the existence of the Israeli nuclear program by a University of Michigan professor in December 1960.

  When President Eisenhower first found out about a possible Israeli nuclear program, he called a meeting in his office. Present at the meeting were Secretary of State Christian Herter, Allen Dulles of the CIA, John McCone of the Atomic Energy Commission and Robert Anderson, Secretary of the Treasury. Ike want
ed to know where the money had come from. The list of contributors that was assembled has been kept secret ever since. Ike was most worried about a “domino effect” which would lead to nuclear proliferation.

  When JFK entered office, he met with David Ben-Gurion. The chemistry between the two was not as good as the LBJ-Levi Eshkol, Nixon-Golda Meir and the Clinton-Yitzhak Rabin chemistry. It is significant to note that as of 1962, the Mossad had no unit which was involved in operations. The Mossad was only engaged in collection of intelligence. Israeli General Meir Amit was head of Israeli military intelligence. On April 1, 1963, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion named General Amit to head the Mossad. Following that appointment, Amit went to West Germany to meet with the head of West German intelligence, General Reinhard Gehlen.

  In December, 1962, JFK met with Golda Meir in Palm Beach, Florida. Golda Meir then went to see Ben-Gurion to tell him that Israeli soldiers were being trained in West Germany, as was reported by the German News Agency. It was revealed that German Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss and Shimon Peres had made this agreement.

  Israel attained nuclear capability in the second half of 1966. According to U.S. sources, as of 1967 they had two bombs.

  So what is the conclusion which should be reached regarding the relationship between the Israeli nuclear program and the assassination of JFK? Most importantly, there were names involved in the history of the Israeli nuclear program which are also found in the JFK assassination literature. Examples are Major Louis Bloomfield, General Julius Klein, General Reinhard Gehlen and Frenchman Jacques Soustelle. But there is no information whatever regarding any particular attitude or policy which ties John F. Kennedy to the Israeli nuclear program. That statement also applies to any information whatsoever linking the JFK assassination to Israel, Israeli intelligence or the Israeli Mossad.

  These were the three most important international issues in 1963 which affected or could have affected the JFK assassination. The conclusion to be reached was that it was the foreign policy tension between the U.S., JFK, West Germany and Adenauer, which were the precipitating cause of the assassination.

  Another fact was very important. The West German “Shadow Ambassador” General Julius Klein almost certainly represented the giant German chemical company I G Farben. Klein was the “bag man” for bribing U.S. Senators and for dealing with the public relations challenges surrounding the assassination events from the standpoint of the West German ex-Nazis who were involved. As stated above, the GAF case was settled in December, 1963. The settlement, as alleged by Senator George Smathers, might well have put millions (billions in 2016 dollars) into the pockets of ex-Nazis.

  There was also a possible issue of unclaimed “dormant” accounts never repaid to the Jews by German banks. Klein stated that he only “got into trouble” when he began to fight for Hermann Abs. Abs was a former Nazi-affiliated banker under Hitler and was CEO of Deutsche-Bank both before and after World War II. Abs was on the itinerary of Senator Thomas Dodd and General Klein whenever either of them visited West Germany. They both went there often.

  It would be impossible to disentangle the relationships between Klein, Senator Thomas Dodd, IG Farben, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, General John B. Medaris, Roy Cohn and on and on and on. Suffice it to say that the international situation in the broadest sense was what brought on the assassination of JFK. This factor was at least co-equal to the factor of the exploding Civil Rights movement in the South. This mix led to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

  Notes:

  This is the source for the opening quote from General Julius Klein:

  Activities of Nondiplomatic Representatives of Foreign Principals in the U.S.: hearings before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Eighty-Eighth Congress, first session. PT.1-13 by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Published 1963.

  The Secret War on the United States in 1915: A Tale of Sabotage, Labor Unrest, and Border Troubles (2015) by Heribert von Feilitzsch.

  Cited in the text by reference to Zabludoff: The Plunder of Jewish Property During The Holocaust: Confronting European History, edited by Avi Baker, Chapter 7 “German Assets in Switzerland At The End Of The Second World War,” written by Sidney Jay Zabludoff, p. 136.

  President Kennedy: Profile of Power, by Richard Reeves, quoted by Mayer at page 7 of Adenauer and Kennedy.

  Referred to in the text is: Adenauer and Kennedy: A Study in German-American Relations 1961-1963 by Frank A. Mayer.

  A valuable resource for the issues presented in this chapter is: The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945-1968: A Handbook, Vol. 1: 1945-1968 by Detlef Junker (Editor), Philipp Gassert (Editor), Wilfried Mausbach (Editor), David B. Morris (Editor).

  Der Spiegel, 10-4-63 is the date for a very important article which sits in the middle of the JFK assassination information, based on its timing and subject matter. One can find it on the internet by searching on the name and General Klein as search terms, or find it in a major library such as the Memorial Library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

  The best source for Israel and the Bomb is: The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel Went Nuclear and What That Meant for the World, by Michael Karpin.

  Chapter 32

  Senator Thomas J. Dodd and the JFK Assassination

  The guilt of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in the assassination is shown by Dr. Jeffrey Caulfield in General Walker, and again by William J. Gill in The Ordeal of Otto Otepka, which is explained above in a prior chapter. Since Senators James O. Eastland and Thomas J. Dodd essentially shared the chairmanship of this committee, their guilt is undeniable.

  Thomas Joseph Dodd was born May 15, 1907. Dodd was a United States Congressman and later the Senator from Connecticut. He is the father of two sons well known in their own right as dedicated public servants. One was U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd and the other was Thomas J. Dodd, Jr. who served as the United States Ambassador to Uruguay from 1993-1997 and to Costa Rica from 1997-2001.

  Dodd was born in Norwich, New London County, to Abigail Margaret O’Sullivan and Thomas Joseph Dodd, a building contractor. All four of the grandparents of Senator Dodd were immigrants from Ireland. His paternal grandparents were farmers in the Housatonic River valley with large commercial tobacco leaf farms located near Kent and New Milford. He graduated from Saint Anselm College’s preparatory school which was run by Benedictine monks in Goffstown, New Hampshire, in 1926. He then graduated from Providence College [a Catholic religious college] in 1930 with a degree in philosophy, and from Yale Law School in 1933. In 1934, Dodd married Grace Murphy of Westerly, Rhode Island. They had six children.

  Dodd served as a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1933 and 1934. The highlight of his FBI career was his participation in the famous but unsuccessful attempt to capture John Dillinger at Little Bohemia Lodge in northern Wisconsin. He was then Connecticut director of the National Youth Administration from 1935 to 1938. The National Youth Administration was a New Deal program begun by the Administration of FDR.

  Dodd was the subject of a biography written by his former speechwriter James P. Boyd. In addition to being a very good writer, he was credited by his associates as being a very intelligent person, and was often described as such. His book about Dodd was called Above The Law, which we will refer to as (ATL).

  When World War II broke out, Tom Dodd was unable to serve in the armed forces because he was over 30, was supporting a family and had some disqualifying medical conditions. Dodd instead chose to work as a public prosecutor which he looked upon as duty he owed to his country.

  He was assistant to five successive United States Attorneys General (Homer Cummings, Frank Murphy, Robert Jackson, Francis Biddle and Tom Clark) from 1938 to 1945. Most names on that list are well known to historians of the period, having gained fame as jurists or in other offices.

  As a special agent for the Attorney General, Dodd was basically a trial-level federal prosecutor. He
worked primarily on criminal and civil liberties cases, including the prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1930’s. In 1942, he was sent to Hartford to prosecute a major spy ring case in which five men (Anastasy Vonsyatsky, Wilhelm Kunze, and others) were accused of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 by conspiring to gather and deliver U.S. Army, Navy and defense information to Germany or Japan. Four of the five pled guilty; Dodd tried and won the conviction of the fifth man, Reverend Kurt Emil Bruno Molzahn. Dodd played a major role in obtaining the conviction of the “American Fuhrer” Fritz Kuhn and also other German-American Bundists (Nazi sympathizers)(The Case Against Congress, hereinafter CAC, p. 37).

  Dodd was involved in a particularly noteworthy prosecution involving a problem which concerned the top leaders at the Teheran Conference during the war. The case in question began when Stalin was complaining to President Roosevelt about some communications cable which was defective. When the President first heard this, he thought it was just Stalin being overly particular. However, the next party to complain about the wire was General Eisenhower. Dodd got the FBI involved, then he tried officials of Anaconda Wire and Cable Company and gained their conviction for defrauding the U.S. Government .

  Following his success in these wartime prosecutions, Dodd became vice chairman of the Board of Review and later executive trial counsel for the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality at Nuremberg, Germany, in 1945 and 1946.

  Dodd considered the likely political benefit for his future career when he took this job in Nuremberg at the War Crimes tribunal. The post involved major inconvenience because he would be required to be absent from his family during the trials. Dodd would also be away from Connecticut politics for the duration.

  There was some criticism of the concept of the Nazi war crimes. “Mr. Republican” Robert Taft of Ohio felt that the war crimes as alleged violated the provision in the U.S. Constitutional prohibiting ex post facto laws. (ATL p. 11). These were laws which created a crime after the fact, or operated retroactively. Despite this type of criticism, Dodd saw the duty of prosecuting war crimes as a potential benefit to his future political career.