by Gus Russo
116 Taylor and Aguilar, 36-37.
117 Wofford, 347.
118 Richard Goodwin, 187.
119 Quoted in Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 147.
120 Wofford, 364.
121 Strober and Strober, 349.
122 Wofford, 373.
123 William Hundley, interview by author, 7 October 1993.
124 Hinckle and Turner, 108.
125 Hamilton, 356, 381.
126 Richard Goodwin, 187.
127 Taylor Branch and George Crile III, “The Kennedy Vendetta,” Harper’s Magazine, August 1975.
128 Christopher Marquis, “Kennedy Rejected Peace Talks,” Miami Herald, 29 April 1996.
129 Richard Goodwin, “Cigars & Che & JFK,” Cigar Afficianado, Fall 1996.
130 Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 132.
131 Bissell, 201.
132 John Davis, The Kennedys, 82.
133 David and David, 111.
134 Nicholas, 15.
135 Shannon, 44.
136 For more sources on the Kennedys’ upbringing, see: Nicholas; John Davis, The Kennedys; Shannon; Hamilton; Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys; Ralph deToledano; David and David; Collier and Horowitz; and Richard Goodwin.
137 Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, 660.
138 Ibid, 643.
139 Cited in Hinckle and Turner, 119.
140 Ibid, 214.
141 Ralph de Toledano, 32.
142 Joseph Kennedy Sr., quoted in Steven Brill, The Teamsters, 30.
143 Collier and Horowitz, 308.
144 “Cronkite Remembers,” videotape, 1996.
145 David and David, 138.
146 Evelyn Lincoln, interview by author, 10 May 1989.
147 David and David, 224.
148 Wofford, 340.
149 Branch and Crile, “The Kennedy Vendetta,” Harper’s Magazine, August 1975.
150 Ibid.
151 Burton Hersh, 426-427.
152 Parmet, 161.
153 Allen Dulles Oral History, 5 December 1964, JFK Library.
154 Cited in (among other sources) Signel, August 1993; and AFCEO (a journal of the Armed Forces Communication Electronics Association).
155 Colonel Alan D. Campen, interview by author, 18 August 1994.
156 Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 103.
157 See Koskoff, esp. 239-273.
158 Simpson, 122-123.
After World War I, Dulles ran the Berlin office of Sullivan & Cromwell, which in turn represented a firm owned by Marcus Wallenberg, who manufactured critical parts of the German Army’s communication system. When World War II broke out, S&C helped set up a “dummy” Swedish corporation, to make it appear as if the firm were foreign owned, thus permitting it to stay in business. Dulles, who was then in charge of the Bern, Switzerland headquarters of the Office of the Office of Strategic Services, has been roundly criticized for his profiteering from the war. This is not to imply that Dulles was pro-Hitler. Quite to the contrary, Dulles worked with the SS underground, which was trying to assassinate Hitler. In addition, Dulles’ espionage network was critical to the successful bombing of Hitler’s V-2 rocket research center. However, with Germans unilaterally hated in the West, Dulles’ friendship with any Germans was viewed as suspicious. To make matters worse, Dulles, after the war, helped negotiate sweetheart deals for his SS friends, who turned themselves in with no punishment (Operation Sunrise). These negotiations were kept secret from America’s Soviet allies. This operation then led to Project Paperclip, which repatriated Nazi scientists into the United States to assist in forming the backbone of the U.S. effort against the Soviet Union. Many (including the Russians) have therefore pointed to Dulles as being a critical component to the origins of the Cold War. It was, however, Dulles’ original isolationist stance that placed him in the same political universe as Joe Kennedy.
Excellent books on this subject are listed in bibliography: Mosely, Grose; Linda Hunt; Simpson, and Lisagor and Lipsius.
159 Allen Dulles Oral History, Dec 5, 1964, JFK Library, 159.
160 RFK, interview by John B. Martin, 1 March 1964, RFK Oral History at the Kennedy Library.
161 RFK, interview by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., 27 February 1965, RFK Oral History at the Kennedy Library.
162 Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 102-103.
163 Thomas C. Reeves, A Question of Character, 56.
164 Ironically, because of the transfer, JFK was stationed in the Pacific, aboard the PT-109, leading to the birth of his heroic legend—not exactly what Hoover had in mind.
165 Later, both President Kennedy and Johnson would express an interest in firing Hoover, but were prevented from doing so out of fear that Hoover would leak his “Official and Confidential” files.
LBJ aide Marty Underwood tells a typical story: “I remember a day not long after the assassination when I spoke with Johnson outside the Oval Office. He told me, ‘Today’s the day. Hoover’s coming in here soon and I’m giving him his walking papers. He’s out.’ It wasn’t long before Hoover arrived with this self-satisfied grin, and a stack of files under his arm. I waited in the hall. After about 15 or 20 minutes, Hoover left, strutting past me with the same smile, and still holding the files. After gathering my courage, I went into the office and encountered a limp Johnson seated behind his desk. He was pale as a ghost. It looked like his mother had just died. He said, ‘That son of a bitch knows everything. I could never fire him.’” (Marty Underwood, interview by author, 10 May 1993)
For more on Hoover’s use of blackmail, see Summers, Official and Confidential; Richard Powers; and Curt Gentry.
166 Dean Rusk, testimony before the Church Committee, 10 July 1975, 90.
167 E. Howard Hunt, interview on Jack Anderson’s TV special, “Who Shot JFK?” in 1988.
168 Peter Grose, 538.
169 JFK to Dulles, letter, JFK Library, WH Name File.
170 Bissell, 203-204.
171 Wise and Ross, 157.
172 Newfield, 79.
173 Ranelagh, 377-378.
Chapter Two (The Cuba Project)
1 Sam Halpern, interview by author, 15 September 1993.
2 Richard Goodwin, 172.
3 Bissell, 160.
4 Quoted in Wofford, 364.
5 Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 428.
6 David Wise and Thomas B. Ross, quoted in de Toledano, 262.
7 Rappleye, 196.
8 Wofford, 386.
9 Cited in Parmet, 215, based on a Bissell interview, 5 March 1982.
10 Quoted in Wyden, 23.
11 Thomas Powers, 174.
12 CIA Inspector General’s Report, 23 May 1967 (released in 1993), 33.
13 RFK Memo, 7 November 1961, RFK papers, quoted in Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 375.
14 Quoted in Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 341.
15 Field Circular (FC) 100-20, 1986, cited in McClintock, 417.
16 Cited in Michael McClintock, 34-35.
17 Ibid, p. xvii.
18 The details of the SOG units only surfaced in 1997, when SOG Major John Plaster wrote his detailed account, listed in the bibliography. See esp. 19.
19 Ibid, 164-165.
20 Fletcher Knebel, “Washington in Crisis,” Look, 18 December 1962.
21 Bissell, 202.
22 Currey, p. x.
23 Newman, JFK and Vietnam, 3-4.
24 Quoted in Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 985-986.
25 Currey, 224.
26 Ibid, 227.
27 Goodwin to President Kennedy, Memo, 1 November 1961, in FRUS vol. X, 664.
28 JFK to Special Group, Memo, 30 November 1961, in FRUS, vol. X, 688-689.
29 Guthman, 116.
30 Lansdale to Special Group, Memo, 20 Feb 1962.
31 Marguerita King, interview by author, 16 May 1998; Eloise King, interview by author, 20 June 1998.
32 Sam Halpern, interview by author, 26 January 1998.
33 In that position, Shackley was responsible, in part, for
the Agency’s efforts to overthrow Salvadore Allende of Chile.
34 Quoted in Taylor Branch and George Crile III, “The Kennedy Vendetta,” Harper’s Magazine, August 1975.
35 Grayston Lynch, interview on BBC production Time Machine, “The CIA,” broadcast on 13 November 1992.
36 Thomas Powers, 136.
37 Also, in Allen Dulles’ Oral History in JFK Library.
38 Pearson, 321-322.
39 Allen Dulles, “The Spy Boss Who Loved Bond,” in Lane, Sheldon, For Bond Lovers Only, 155-56.
40 Cited in Riebling, 165.
41 Thomas, The Very Best Men, 288.
42 CCIR, 139.
43 Harvey Notes, 19 January 1962; disclosed by the Church Committee.
44 This was the nickname given RFK by Bill Harvey and others at CIA.
45 Thomas, The Very Best Men, 297.
46 Blight and Kornbluh (ed.), 140.
47 Jack Hawkins, interview by author, 7 April 1998.
48 Harper’s Magazine, August 1975.
49 Wofford, 386.
50 Thomas Parrott, interview by Seymour Hersh, 19 June 1998. Notes of this interview are in the author’s possession.
51 Guthman and Shulman (ed.), 378.
52 Frank Sturgis, interview by author, 12 September 1993.
53 Ayers, 76-77, 146-147.
54 Corn, 66.
55 Dino Brugioni, interview by author, 27 January 1998.
56 Brugioni, 68.
Chapter Three (Murder and Missiles)
1 Lumumba was eventually murdered, but not by the U.S.. According to the Church Committee, which investigated Lumumba’s death, “[There was] no U.S. involvement in bringing about the death of Lumumba.” (CCIR, 52.)
2 Anthony Summers, “JFK and The Mob,” New York Daily News, 6 October 1991.
3 Allen Dulles, Meet the Press, 31 December 1961; cited in Szulc and Meyer, 103.
4 Richard M. Bissell to Lucien S. Vanden Broucke, in his article, “The Confessions of Allen Dulles: New Evidence on the Bay of Pigs,” Diplomatic History, Fall 1984.
5 Eloise King, interview by author, 20 June 1998.
6 Marguerita King, interview by author, 28 May 1998.
7 CCIR, 92.
8 Jake Esterline, interview by author, 28 March 1998.
9 Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, 127.
10 Constantine “Gus” Kangles, interview by author, 12 August 1996.
11 Paul Meskil, “How the U.S. Made Unholy Alliance with the Mafia,” New York Daily News, 23 April 1975.
12 Time Magazine, 9 June 1975.
13 Hinckle and Turner, 54
14 At the time of the Watergate break-in, prior to the 1972 Presidential election, Republicans worried that Maheu, a later partner of Democratic Chairman Larry O’Brien, might give the Democrats intelligence regarding what skeletons were in whose closets.
15 Maheu and Hack, 114-115.
16 Ibid, 116.
17 Rappleye and Becker, 190.
18 Jack Anderson, “Report to President George Bush: Who Murdered John F. Kennedy?” 1988.
19 Giancana told Rosselli that he thought the whole assassination idea to be a folly, and only volunteered a few names to Maheu. “I’m not in it,” Sam said. “Maheu’s conning the hell out of the CIA. . . How you gonna kill that guy over there? He’s an assassin. He knows all the tricks.” (Rosselli to Church Committee; also Rappeleye, All American Mafioso.) Giancana’s FBI case officer in Chicago, Bill Roemer, wrote that, “Giancana’s part in the scheme was a ruse,” the intention of which was to make the White House believe he held a “marker” on them— they owed him one. (Roemer, Man Against the Mob, 149-150). The CIA’s Bill Harvey suspected a Giancana scam when he terminated his contacts, calling him “untrustworthy.” Giancana’s son-in-law Robert McDonnell remembers the don mocking the plots. “Sam thought it was hilarious that the government was paying him to kill Castro, very humorous. He never took it seriously” (Interview of McDonnell, June 28, 1997). Even RFK’s Justice Department believed Giancana to be pulling a scam. In an August 1963 article, the Chicago Sun Times, quoting Department of Justice sources, concluded that Giancana only pretended to go along with the CIA operation. He did this, the article noted, “in the hopes that the Justice Department’s drive to put him behind bars might be slowed—or at least affected by his ruse of cooperation with another government agency.” (Chicago Sun Times, August 8, 1963.) The author has interviewed many of Giancana’s contemporaries, family and friends, all whom laugh at the con they believe Sam pulled on the Kennedy administration.
20 Rodriguez, Shadow Warrior, 65-66.
21 Flora May Stephens, interview by author, 22 December 1994.
22 John Henry Stephens, Church Committee interview by Bob Kelley, 30 May 1975.
23 Blight and Kornbluh (ed.), 86-87.
24 Cables, in Mason Cargill, Church Committee Memo, 21 May 1975, from DPD files, CIA.
25 Loch Johnson, A Season of Inquiry, 50-51.
26 CCIR (Elder not named in report), 142.
27 ONI Officer, interview by author, 10 August 1994.
28 “I’ve got three degrees, and John was the most knowledgeable historian I ever met—absolutely brilliant.” So says Mack Daniels, Gordon’s predecessor at the South Carolina college they both had directed (Mack Daniels, interview by author, 3 March 1994). His successor, Dr. Stewart Strothers, agreed: “He was a genius—a brilliant man” (Dr. Stewart Strothers, interview by author, 2 March 1994).
29 CCIR, 93.
30 Jack Anderson, column, “Break-in at naval hero’s office should be investigated,” 1995 [month unknown].
31 CCIR, 92.
32 Jack Modesset, interview by author, 10 April 1994.
33 Mack Daniels, interview by author, 5 March 1994.
34 Heather Gordon, interview by author, 21 February 1994.
35 Balbuena was interviewed by Miami Police Intelligence detective Charles Sapp in 1963. Sapp reported: “Early in 1959, Balbuena was the contact between U.S. Naval Intelligence and the Oriente (anti-Castro Cuban) underground.” In the 1970’s, respected researcher Paul Hoch supplied Senator Richard Schweiker with details about when the United States similarly utilized Cuban nationals in a Castro murder plot. CIA-sponsored Antonio Veciana and Reynol Gonzalez coordinated this failed attempt. Veciana escaped to Florida, while Gonzalez and others were arrested. Amador Odio was imprisoned in Cuba for harboring Gonzalez. Amador’s daughter, Sylvia Odio, would later say that Oswald showed up on her doorstep in September 1963 with two Cuban members of JURE, a group supported by Robert Kennedy. The veracity of the Odio account has never been established, but, if true, it raises the disturbing possibility that a Castro-worshipping Lee Harvey Oswald learned of the Kennedys’ Cuban plotting directly from those involved. For, as will be seen, immediately after the alleged “Odio incident,” Oswald went to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City and began formulating his attack on Kennedy.
36 Documents in the author’s possession were given to Senator George McGovern by Fidel Castro in 1972. They detail the extent to which Castro double agents had penetrated the Arleigh Burke/ ONI/Guantanamo plots.
37 Anti-Castro activist and sometime CIA contact Gerry Hemming told the author that he had a memory of a Marine Captain and a Lieutenant who “blew away” a Castro double agent who had picked up on the Guantanamo schemes and was going to blow the lid on Robert Kennedy.
38 F. Lee Bailey, interview by author, 20 March 1993 and 11 April 1993.
39 A 1976 Congressional investigation had access to information that verified many of Gordon’s allegations. That information would also cast doubt on the denials of Jack Modesset. However, in an effort to protect JFK’s image, the investigators would not disclose the evidence.
40 Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men, 310.
41 CCIR, 184-185.
42 Reeves, 713-714.
43 Jan Weininger, interview by author, 24 January 1994.
44 Jan Weininger, interview by author, 24 January 1994.
45 CIA Inspector Gener
al’s Report, 37.
46 Sidney Gottlieb, interview by Seymour Hersh, 1994, in Seymour Hersh, 191.
47 CIA file, in David C. Martin, 122.
48 Years later, this would change. “At lunch, he’d have five martinis before he took his first bite. But he was great to work for—very loyal,” remembers his assistant Sam Halpern (Sam Halpern, interview by author, 15 September 1993).
49 David Murphy, interview by author, 8 December 1997.
In 1997, Murphy collaborated on a book with his KGB Berlin counterpart Sergei Kondrashev in which both agree that the Berlin Tunnel was a coup for the West. See Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey, esp. 236 and 423-428; Darrell Garwood, Under Cover, 270-271.
50 Thomas Powers, 137.
51 William Harvey, testimony, 25 June 1975, Church Committee, 15.
52 Mankel was recruited by someone whose name has long been withheld—CIA contract agent David Dzitzichvili, also known as WI/ROGUE. ROGUE was described by the CIA as a man who “learns quickly and carries out any assignment without regard for danger. . . in a word, he can rationalize all actions” (CCIR, 46).
53 CCIR 43
54 CIA dispatch, 24 April 1964.
55 Congressional investigators would later locate documents in the CIA’s files which verified that ZR/RIFLE activity against Castro had operated out of the Miami area (Mason Cargill to David Belin, Memorandum, 1 May 1975).
56 Richard Helms, testimony, CCIR, in Rappleye, 198.
57 Davis, The Kennedys, 394.
58 Jake Esterline, interview by author, 29 November, 1993.
59 Congressional testimony, in Ranelagh, 385.
60 CIA 1967 Inspector General’s Report, 78.
61 CIA 1967 Inspector General’s Report, 78-132.
62 CCIR, 141.
63 Christopher Marquis, “Behind the Scenes after the Bay of Pigs,” The Miami Herald, 29 April 1996.
64 George Lardner, Jr., “Aide Tells JFK’s View on Killings,” New York Post, 21 July 1975, in Ralph G. Martin, Seeds of Destruction, 338.
65 Theodore Szulc, “Cuba on Our Mind,” Esquire, November 1975.
66 Senator George Smathers, in Anthony Summers and Robbyn Summers, “The Ghost of November,” Vanity Fair, December 1994, 100.
67 Grayston Lynch, interview by author, 1 January 1994.
68 CCIR, 143-144.
69 For more on Joe Kennedy’s contacts with the underworld, see forthcoming volume two of this book, Live By the Sword: Supplements and Key Documents, soon to be available from Bancroft Press. Also see Seymour Hersh.