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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLetter warning JFK away from Dallas
Slate ?@Slate 35m
Just wow--this is a letter from a Dallas citizen begging JFK not to visit--PHOTO: http://slate.me/17Ztbuo pic.twitter.com/5omkv0Amxs
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)If only...
treestar
(82,383 posts)Nothing she says points to Oswald. It could be a coincidence.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)...including those charged with protecting President Kennedy. Plots were broken up in Miami, Tampa and Chicago.
All that was after Joseph Adams Milteer was taped by an FBI informant detailing what was to come.
Yet, JFK was encouraged to travel to Dallas.
Schema Thing
(10,283 posts)referenced had anything to do with Kennedy being killed or even being in greater-than-usual danger that day.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)...and plots in Chicago and possibly other towns that were broken up are relevant. Milteer was taped by the FBI describing the ambush, rifles in high rises and the arrest of a "patsy" afterward.
As for warnings from Texas, we should get around to asking George Herbert Walker Bush why he phoned THIS one in to the FBI AFTER President Kennedy was dead:
Here's a transcript:
TO: SAC, HOUSTON DATE: 11-22-63
FROM: SA GRAHAM W. KITCHEL
SUBJECT: UNKNOWN SUBJECT;
ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT
JOHN F. KENNEDY
At 1:45 p.m. Mr. GEORGE H. W. BUSH, President of the Zapata Off-Shore Drilling Company, Houston, Texas, residence 5525 Briar, Houston, telephonically furnished the following information to writer by long distance telephone call from Tyler, Texas.
BUSH stated that he wanted to be kept confidential but wanted to furnish hearsay that he recalled hearing in recent weeks, the day and source unknown. He stated that one JAMES PARROTT has been talking of killing the President when he comes to Houston.
BUSH stated that PARROTT is possibly a student at the University of Houston and is active in political matters in this area. He stated that he felt Mrs. FAWLEY, telephone number SU 2-5239, or ARLINE SMITH, telephone number JA 9-9194 of the Harris County Republican Party Headquarters would be able to furnish additional information regarding the identity of PARROTT.
BUSH stated that he was proceeding to Dallas, Texas, would remain in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel and return to his residence on 11-23-63. His office telephone number is CA 2-0395.
# # #
What's relevant? "President" Bush is a witness who's never revealed why he ratted out the puke Parrot AFTER the assassination. For a warning to be effective, it should be given BEFORE the assassination.
Schema Thing
(10,283 posts)...a few years ago. I judged it not substantial enough to pass on to the SS.
If anything had happened in my area, A) I'd have felt really shitty (even though the "hearsay grapevine" this nut hung from would strongly indicate that no way was there any capability or even planning, and it was all just talk), and B) even so, I'd go ahead and contact the authorities - even though again, it would still be highly unlikely there was anything to what I heard.
So, is there some evidence I'm unaware of that Parrott killed JFK?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)You want to learn more about the innocent Parrott and his ties to the not-so-innocent Poppy:
Bush and the JFK Hit: Barbara's Hair-Raising Day
LuvNewcastle
(16,856 posts)I have to remind myself that the President has enemies all over the country, though. Besides, the Secret Service is light years ahead of where they were when JFK was alive. But I'm well aware how much a lot of the people down here hate Obama, and it scares me to think about what a lot of them would do if they ever got the chance.
AndyA
(16,993 posts)I know all precautions are taken, but how can you anticipate what a crazy person might do?
The level of disrespect for President Obama seems much higher than it has been for previous Presidents, and many no longer feel it's necessary to even feign respect for the office, much less for the man in it. Even members of Congress and past Executive Branch office holders show President Obama little respect.
It's shameful.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)It's sad.
ananda
(28,876 posts)Dallas was a hotbed of very emotional hate and craziness at that time.
Think: John Birch Society, General Walker, and the fundie Baptists
northoftheborder
(7,574 posts)Stevenson's attempted attack? Did the FBI, or Secret Service follow up on this? The Republicans in Texas hated JFK's guts, openly; I remember the days when huge billboards with "impeach Earl Warren" decorated the streets. (And Kennedy had only tepidly sympathized with the civil rights movement going on in the South.)
That's why going to Texas, especially Dallas, was supposed to be symbolically successful for Kennedy, with many thousands greeting him joyfully on the streets. The real enemies were grinding their teeth in the highrise buildings all around. So sadly ironic for this horrible thing to happen in Dallas.
dem in texas
(2,674 posts)Back in those days, Dallas was a hot bed of political hate. The good Christina republican ladies in their neat dresses and little hats attacked Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird, even spit on them! And they also attacked A. Stephenson. There was a full page latter filled with hate printed in the front section of the Dallas Morning News.
I was born in Dallas and still live in Dallas and I am a life Democrat. I am sorry to say that same kind of hate and right wing dogma is still here.
Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)and hardly remarkable. Everyone knew about Dallas.
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)And what did Obama do about it then? Nothing. He was off playing golf and laughing with Khrushchev while watching it all happen on a satellite linkup he had in Kenya at the time.
We need Ted Cruz, Boehner, and FOX/Beck to investigate it.
griloco
(832 posts)Earhart what made her "disappear"?
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)That was Kennedy's response to seeing this ad in the Dallas Morning News, then published by a Mr. E. M. "Ted" Dealey. Dealey plaza was named after George Dealey, founder of the paper, according to a 1967 book by William Manchester discussed in the links below:
http://www.orwelltoday.com/jfkjbsdallasad.shtml
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19670123&id=hAMrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vZcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5889,3551194
napkinz
(17,199 posts)I heard that quote too in several JFK specials this month.
Kennedy made the statement to Jackie as they headed for Dallas.
The only thing I don't understand, he knew he was heading into "nut country" and he chose not to put the top up on the car. (It had been raining earlier that morning and if it had continued raining, the top would have been up, according to most of the JFK documentaries I've been watching the past month.)
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)On the very day JFK visited Dallas and died, the local newspaper, The Dallas Morning News, featured a full page, black-bordered anti-Kennedy advertisement prepared and paid for by persons affiliated with the John Birch Society, one of the most infamous right-wing extremist organizations of the 1960s. The ad claimed to be the work of The American Fact-Finding Committee, in reality a nonexistent organization. Bernard Weissman, listed on the ad as the chairman of the Committee, however, did exist; he was the person who actually placed the ad. Weissman later testified before the Warren Commission. He was one of the few witnesses before that body who deemed it prudent to appear accompanied by an attorney.
The ad began with a sarcastic Welcome Mr. Kennedy to Dallas, a city which had been the victim of a recent Liberal smear attempt and which had prospered despite efforts by you and your administration to penalize it for non-conformity to New Frontierism. The ad then posed a series of belligerent, insulting loaded questions, including:
Why has Gus Hall, head of the U.S. Communist Party, praised almost every one of your policies and announced that his party will endorse and support your re-election bid?
Why have you ordered or permitted your brother Bobby, the Attorney General, to go soft on Communists, fellow-travelers, and ultra-leftists in America, while permitting him to persecute loyal Americans who criticize you, your administration, and your leadership?
Why have you scrapped the Monroe Doctrine in favor of the Spirit of Moscow?
Later that morning there were disparaging protests by right-wingers against JFK along the route of the presidential motorcade as it traveled from the airport to downtown Dallas. As the motorcade drove through the suburbs, with President Kennedy only minutes from death, an unfriendly-looking man in a business suit stood on a sidewalk in an aggressive posture holding a protest sign which screamed: Because of high regard for the presidency I hold you JFK and your blind socialism in complete contempt. (A photograph of this right-wing protestor with his sign, taken by Dallas newspaper photographer Tom Dillard, is reproduced on p. 438 of Richard B. Trasks Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy (1994).)
In Dealey Plaza, at the time of the actual assassination, there was at least one right-winger present publicly expressing his scorn for the president. On the sidewalk near the Stemmons Freeway traffic sign, only a few feet from the slow-moving presidential limousine during the very moments rifle bullets were slamming into JFKs body, a mysterious man stood wearing a suit and, unlike anyone else there, holding up an open, black umbrella on this warm, sunshiny day. (The Umbrella Man, as this enigmatic character soon was dubbed, is visible in the Zapruder film. He also can be seen in a famous still color photograph of the assassination taken by amateur photographer Phil Willis. The Willis photo is reproduced on p. 190 of Robert J. Grodens The Killing of a President (1993).)
The identity of the Umbrella Man remained a secret for 15 years. Then, in September 1978, a man named Louie Steven Witt appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations and admitted that he was the Umbrella Man. He told the Committee that he been there in Dealey Plaza to heckle JFK, and that he displayed the umbrella because he was under the impression that brandishing an umbrella would irritate JFK. He testified: I was going to use this umbrella to heckle the Presidents motorcade. ... Being a conservative-type fellow, I sort of placed him [JFK] in the liberal camp, and I was just sort of going to kind of do a little heckling. ... I just knew it was a sore spot with the Kennedys. ... I was carrying that stupid umbrella, intent [on] heckling the President. Witt denied that the umbrella he had in Dealey Plaza symbolized the appeasement practices of English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (who often sported a black umbrella), or that the umbrella was intended to suggest that JFK was appeasing Communism the way Chamberlain had appeased Hitler. This denial is not credible. Among right-wingers, it was an article of faith that JFKs supposedly soft, weak-kneed policies against the threat of Communism were the equivalent of Chamberlains futile attempts to appease Adolf Hitler.
..........................................
http://www.law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/jfk_24blownaway.html
Boomerproud
(7,964 posts)and yes, JFK showed the ad to Jackie that morning as been quoted in many books as saying "We're heading into nut country today."
dmr
(28,349 posts)I didn't know what the Adlai Stevenson reference was about in the OP's letter, so I Googled, and found this:
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/jfk50/reflect/20131012-extremists-in-dallas-created-volatile-atmosphere-before-jfks-1963-visit.ece
The article describes how rabid the right wing was down there. It's an excellent read.
Birchers were/are crazy and dangerous. I consider the Koch Bros and their tea bagging "activists" as Birchers (whether the 'grassroots' know it or not).
I've no doubt the Birchers conspired in President Kennedy's murder; and the Warren Commission gave them a pass.
I just want to scream. Today they're becoming more and more powerful and certainly they have unlimited money to back them.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)It should.
A bit off-topic: Note the old-school typeface, margins, modified-block format, plus the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and generally lucid writing style. A blast from the past.