The Three Barons

by J. W Lateer

  Chairman: In a memo dated January 28, 1961, from Julius Klein to Heinrich von Brentano, “I recommend you visit Washington and also visit with Humphrey, Bridges and Javits.”

  Klein: “I am always accused of being a representative working for the return of confiscated German property which is not true and that I am a front for IG Farben [an accusation made by Senator Smathers in an op-ed] which is also not true.”

  Chairman: Quoting from the Frankfurt Bank letter which says “we are pleased to confirm that we act as payees for you in regard to any and all fees paid to you in the Federal Republic of Germany in connection with your P.R. work, activities or related orders – such payments com in from circles of trade or industry and through the Deutsche Bundesbank for account of Government Offices.”

  Some money which was received by the Frankfort Bank was used to pay off loans that the Frankfort Bank had made to Julius Klein, in effect transferring money to Klein for his services.

  Chairman Church: The money apparently came “for account of government offices.”

  Chairman: This must mean for the FRG government.

  Klein: I don’t know what that means and haven’t been able to find out.”

  Chairman Church: I am asking, did Justice [department] write you a letter asking you to itemize your expenses and disclose your principals?

  Klein: My contract with Mannesmann Co. I had that client for 10 years … I represented Schenley for many years and the income was more than this year $150,000 or $160,000.

  On page 1909 of the hearings, the following heading appears:

  LETTERS AND DRAFT RESOLUTION CONCERNING GERMAN REUNIFICATION

  Letters on May 14, 1962 from Julius Klein to Hon. Thomas Dodd and Senator Scott. Letter from Julius Klein to Dodd “DRAFT OF PROPOSED RESOLUTION” Welcoming the statement of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of September 16, 1959 “On March 5, 1960 the above chairman said in Moscow (the right of self-determination of all peoples) approving of the above chairman as expressed at the Geneva Summit July, 1955 that the four powers be charged with ‘principles regarding German Re-unification.’” “Requesting a plebiscite in East Germany as to whether the East Germans want to be under the USSR, be independent, or join West Germany.”

  Chairman: Is this resolution made [drafted] in pursuance of your employment by a foreign principal?

  Klein: No. It’s only my point of view.

  Chairman: Does that letter in any way indicate it is being submitted by a registered agent of a foreign principal? Was this letter introduced in the Senate by either Senator Dodd or Senator Scott?

  Klein: I really do not know, Senator.

  To-do list from Julius Klein Public Relations, which describes the upcoming agena of the P.R. firm:

  Start a stream of cablegrams to German former Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano from Senators Hruska, Kefauver, Javits, Dodd and Bridges. Dirksen and Morton have declined for political reasons.

  Work on a Cuban deal.

  [deleted]

  [deleted]

  [deleted]

  [deleted]

  Work on Uberseebericht [Oversees Report] items.

  We are working on getting a JFK appointee to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information.

  Office details.

  Service Operations.

  As you know, General Buchanan [Klein’s assistant] is also busy with Hispano-Suiza, Mannesman, working on Rheinmetall and sometimes calls on us to assist him with Lionel.

  We have made a $31,000 per year proposal to the Government of Pakistan.

  Chairman: What was the “Cuban deal?”

  Farkas [Farkas is the Julius Klein P. R. firm bookkeeper who was also a witness]: The deal in this memo was with Cuban refugees who approached us to help them against Castro.

  Klein: I will say that at the same time, we were offered a contract…for a P.R. job for the Dominican Republic but I turned it down because it was headed by a dictator.

  “Proposal for Group Protest of Cuban Confiscation of Property.”

  Chairman: Then it was not the refugees [ in re Cuba] but the return of [Cuban] property?

  Klein: Both.

  Chairman: Tell us, how did you assist the public relations for Mr. Nixon?

  Klein: I gave advice to Nixon not to accept the TV debate because it would give Kennedy (an unknown) free TV time. Also, JFK was immature and lacking the needed experience for the office of President.

  Next in the record was a transcription of an interview with Julius Klein in the Armed Forces Network, Europe, December 3, 1960 presented by correspondent Bill Marsh. In the interview, Klein relates that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs C. Douglas Dillon and Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson, both in the Eisenhower Administration, went to Germany in an attempt to get $600 M in troop support [from West Germany] only to be refused because people in Germany would think they were paying for foreign occupation of their country.

  In an inter-office memo of 12-21-61, it is stated “we are working on pulling strings to get Julius Klein appointed to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information.”

  Chairman: Were those who proposed you for this told of your status as a foreign agent?

  Klein: Yes, those who proposed me starting with Speaker of the House John W. McCormack. I would have gotten the post, but it was filled by Robert Kennedy’s own public relations man.

  At page 1941 appears a letter inviting German Ambassador Karl Heinrich Knappstein and Dr. and Mrs. George A. Federer to a dinner “Salute to Senator Javits.”

  Chairman: Is making political contributions to Senators part of your work for your foreign principals?

  Klein: I paid from my personal money.

  Senator Gore: How many tickets did you buy?

  Klein: I bought a whole table.

  Senator Gore: Would you say your are a rich man?

  Klein: A well-to-do man, Senator. I was an editor for Mr. Hearst. I was a story editor for Universal Studios and RKO studios. I used to make $50,000 to $75,000 per year.

  On pages 1951 to 1957 are miscellaneous auditing and expense items regarding work done for Daimler-Benz AG, Mannesman.

  Then follows this quote: “Send copies of this to branches marked confidential. Now send Hoppe same letter re Medaris we wrote to others, as he hopes that Medaris will visit Stuttgart and if you have already written Hitzinger on Medaris, then all you need to do is to send copies to Hoppe…also, they have been selling engines to the Army and Navy, especially the Navy and that would be something for Washington and strictly confidential; they also hope to make a deal with Boeing on missile program.”

  Memo from [General Kenneth] Buchanan to Klein in re Mannex. Mannex was a Julius Klein client which was seeking defense contracts. Mannex was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mannesmann [a large German company].

  RECEIPT OF FEES FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC

  Chairman: You mentioned earlier that you advised Chancellor Adenauer many times; you are a very good friend of his, did you not?

  General Klein: I said I am a very good friend of his. I didn’t say I advised him. I am a very good friend of his.

  Chairman: You said you advised him.

  General Klein: No; I would feel very flattered, and I hope he takes my suggestions, but I wouldn’t say I advised him.

  Chairman: Were you in any way reimbursed for this advice?

  General Klein: I was not.

  Chairman: And it is quite clear—I want the record to show that you testified that you have not received any funds any fees from the Government of West Germany?

  General Klein: I didn’t testify to this, Mr. Chairman.

  Chairman: Well, let’s make it clear, then.

  General Klein: “…to the best of my knowledge, they do contribute, on the contrary.”

  Chairman: Oh, they do?

  General Klein: But I have no evidence for it … they are contributing and subsidizing a lot of these funds like our own United St
ates is doing in Europe, too. Our own Government has the largest group of foreign agents in foreign countries. They are doing the same thing.

  Chairman: Do you have any evidence for that?

  General Klein: I just happen to know it. You mentioned before the U.S. Trade Center yourself, Mr. Chairman. I tried to get the public relations for it. An Italian public relations man got it in Rome. The people in Germany don’t know [that the U.S. Government funds certain groups]. I mean for Amerika House.

  At page 1994: A letter to J.W. Fulbright from Frederick G. Dutton, Assistant Secretary of State, concerning the identity of German principals of Julius Klein. “Inquiries in Bonn and Dusseldorf indicate little or no awareness of the organization ‘Foerderkreis Fur Deutsch-Amerikanische Zusammenarbeit.” [literally Society for Germany and America Working Together]. The board of directors:

  1. Secretary-General’ Dr. Gerhard Hempel.

  2. Dr. Walter L. Leiske, Deputy Mayor of Frankfurt, 1948-1959.

  3. Toby E. Rodes, former U.S. Embassy employee in Bonn; European executive of Knoll International, a U.S.-owned firm with an office in New York, a resident of Basel Switzerland.

  4. Dr. Othmar Zeigler, an associate of Max Klein, brother of Julius Klein, Director of European Operations for Exchange National Bank of Chicago with offices in Frankfurt, a partner in Banking House of Hermann and Hauswedell, Hamburg, Germany 1953-1956 and executive manager Deutsche Transport Bank, Frankfurt, 1955-1957, born in Britain in 1896 and holds a British passport and is married and holds a U.S. Visa.

  5. Udo Boeszoermeny, full partner in finance brokering from Deutsche Kredit Versicherung in Duesseldorf.

  6. Dr. Paul Schroeder, director of a medical co-operative bank (Deutsche-Apotheker & Aerzt Bank).

  It is clear from all the above information that when Senator Dodd’s biographer James Boyd characterizes Klein as a buffoon and an incompetent con man, that Boyd is dissembling in a major way. General Julius Klein was deeply involved with the relationship between the U.S. and Germany and was operating in an out-of-control manner. It’s no stretch to suggest that he was probably involved with bribing Senators and that he was also working directly for the faction in Germany graphically described by author T.H. Tetens in The New Germany and the Old Nazi’s. These were former Nazis or pro-Nazis such as Ludwig Erhard, Gerhardt Schroeder, Hans Globke and Heinrich von Brentano. We will see the rest of this sordid arrangement unfold in the hearings before the Senate Ethics Committee on the matter of the Censure of Senator Thomas J. Dodd. It is the strong belief of this author that Klein and Dodd were involved in the procurement of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with the aid and comfort of key persons in the Government of the FRG, West Germany.

  Notes:

  For the citation for the hearing on General Klein, see the following publication: 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.

  Der Spiegel, October 4, 1963, see: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45143029.html [retrieved 09-25-2017 by author].

  See the following unpublished Master’s Degree thesis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: A History of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 and the Role of Public Relations Representatives Serving Foreign Clients by Louis J. Haugh, University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967.

  Cited in text is: The New Germany and the Old Nazis, by T.H.Tetens, p. 100.

  Chapter 37

  General Julius Klein And The Dodd Censure Investigation

  Immediately prior to the 1964 Senatorial election, Dodd’s own staff began to covertly investigate him for corrupt financial practices. By December, 1964, the staff had proven that Dodd had siphoned off $200,000 from the campaign for his personal use. Around the same time, Dodd’s relationship with other Senators began to suffer.

  In Above The Law, James Boyd involves the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee counsel Julian G. Sourwine in questionable activities. Boyd relates that Sourwine wrote a bad check in Las Vegas for $2500 and was able to ask Senator Dodd to cover the bad check as a loan. Boyd characterized the transaction as a shakedown of Dodd by Sourwine because the loan was never intended to be repaid. Boyd infers that Sourwine had something to hold over the head of Dodd. In light of the Dodd staff mutiny and the prior statements about Kennedy on the part of Senator Dodd, the most obvious theory would be that Sourwine knew something about Dodd and the JFK assassination. That act [the assassination] was in all likelihood at least in part, the dirty-work of SISS and would have involved more than any other two persons, cooperation between Dodd the chairman and Sourwine the chief counsel.

  Senator Dodd encountered problems in his relations with the U.S. Senate. In 1967 Dodd became the first Senator censured since Joseph McCarthy in 1954. Dodd was one of only six people censured by the Senate in the 20th century. After Dodd’s pursuit of gun restrictions, the outraged firearms industry, which Dodd represented, also, along with Dodd’s staff, Drew Pearson and the Ethics Committee, investigated Dodd for misbehavior. The resulting censure was a condemnation of Dodd and a finding that he had converted campaign funds to his personal accounts and spent the money.

  In fact, when one reads the testimony in the Dodd censure hearings, there is very little regarding his financial dealings. In fact, the only overt mention of any financial misdeed centered on a certain oriental rug which Dodd and his wife were given by a lobbyist. This lone rug would be a thin pretext for which to censure a Senator.

  The testimony in the censure hearing in fact focused on Dodd’s mysterious relationship with West German public relations representative Julius Klein. The Senate Ethics Committee believed that Klein had some strong but invisible power over Dodd, almost describing Klein’s power as suggesting blackmail of some kind. Klein was sometimes labeled, in effect, a lobbyist for the West German Government and German private interests.

  Klein had enmeshed Dodd with German individuals living in Germany. Klein had insisted on Dodd making a trip to Germany just before November 22, 1963. At the time, there was some (possibly minor) tension between West Germany and the U.S. over the issue of NATO. Some evidence suggests that the West German connection with Dodd was made up of “bankers,” other evidence points to “industrialists.” Still others would emphasize relations with Adenauer and von Brentano, the German Secretary of State. Also, the case of Stashynsky, the Soviet defector, assassin and spy was involved. Dodd was to gather information over in Germany about Stashynsky. There was at least one accused former Nazi V.I.P. for whom Klein was advocating in the U.S. The true nature of Dodd’s relationship with the diverse West German interests was explored but never explained or solved.

  In hearings before the Senate Ethics Committee in November 1966, it came to light that Dodd employed over forty members of his various staffs. The Senate censure investigation focused mostly on Klein.

  It is here that the facts regarding Julius Klein were obviously misrepresented by Dodd’s biographer James Boyd. It is the opinion of this author that Boyd essentially admits that the mutiny of Dodd’s employees was inspired by the knowledge that Dodd was involved in the Kennedy assassination. Dodd’s staff staged their investigation of Dodd’s finances out of a true motive of revenge against Dodd for his inexcusable complicity in a murder and a desire on their part to avoid suspicion of their own complicity in the JFK assassination.

  The Boyd information involves a common strategy of authors writing about the JFK assassination. Let’s take for example, The Ordeal Of Otto Otepka, by William J. Gill. It is the opinion of this author that Gill had inside knowledge of the true assassination conspirators in real time. Yet in his book about Otto Otepka there is only one reference to any theory which could be taken to explain the truth of what happened to JFK. That theory, per Gill, was that Kennedy had ordered the destruction of certain nuclear facilities in China, and that t
he Soviets had therefore ordered JFK killed. But author Gill then explains that even Otto Otepka didn’t necessarily believe that story. In his book, Gill sets out the entire sequence of events regarding the assassination. But to protect himself, he leaves out the smoking-gun evidence. Hence, the reader has to bring to Boyd’s book a background knowledge of the facts to complete the picture. This gets authors Boyd and Gill off the hook for possibly spilling sensitive national security information. Thus Boyd and Gill are protected from punishment for “spilling the beans.”

  Boyd pointedly mentions that Dodd essentially cheered the death of JFK. (Boyd in ATL, p. 106). Taking that fact as truth, there must have been a whole bunch of related background facts known to Boyd which he did not present in his biography of Dodd.

  To explain away the role of Julius Klein in the Dodd story, Boyd tried to portray Klein as a buffoon.

  Putting two plus two together, combining the information in the Executive Intelligence Review article cited above together with the information from the Dodd hearings on censure and Boyd’s biography, the bottom line was that Julius Klein was primarily a “bag man.” In other words, his main role was in bribery and laundering money. Permindex, with which Klein had been associated, was primarily a complex money-laundering appartus for Germany, ex-Nazis, Italian fascists, the CIA and similar interests. And Boyd recounts that Klein moved around carrying thousands of dollars in cash on his person and delivering envelopes full of cash to members of Congress. One of the Senators who used his Essex House suite had appointed him for a time to the staff of a Senate committee, so he could travel to Europe with official credentials.

  Senator John Stennis, the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee investigating Dodd asked the most important question. What kind of influence did Klein seem to have over Dodd, considering the abusive tone of Klein’s letters to Dodd? (See Boyd, p. 209).