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This broadcast was recorded in one, 60-minute segment [4].
Introduction: This broadcast continues our review of the profound connections between the Watergate scandal and the assassination of President Kennedy. For purposes of convenience and continuity, we recap an overview of some of these links from the description of FTR #961 [5]:
With Watergate being bruited about by our media in conjunction with the “investigations” into Trump and “Russia-gate,” we are taking time to dig into the archives and recap information about one of the factors that underlay the Watergate scandal–the Assassination of JFK.
The first of these programs excerpts The Guns of November, Part 3 [6](recorded on 11/15/1983) at length. From the description for that program:
Richard Nixon’s political demise came through the Watergate scandal. Nixon initiated the Watergate cover-up because he feared that “the whole Bay of Pigs thing” would come out. In his political memoir The Ends of Power, Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman wrote that the phrase “Bay of Pigs” was a code-word within the Nixon White House for the Kennedy assassination.
The program documents many of the areas of overlap between the Watergate and Kennedy investigations.
Nixon himself was in Dallas on November 22, 1963, as a lawyer for Pepsico (the parent company of Pepsi Cola.) Flying out of Dallas roughly two hours before Kennedy was slain, Nixon told the FBI in February of 1964 that the only time he had been in Dallas in 1963 had been “two days prior to the assassination.” This blatant lie is negated by a wire service interview Nixon gave in Dallas on November 21. Text of the interview ran in the New York Times and other major newspapers.
(A Pepsi Cola executive said that Nixon was present in Dallas at a company meeting when the announcement came that President Kennedy had been killed.)
Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski was selected by Nixon to replace the illegally fired Archibald Cox. Jaworski had previously served as a Warren Commission Counsel, while at the same time serving as director of a CIA domestic funding conduit.
Nixon named former Warren Commission member Gerald Ford to replace Vice President Agnew. Ford then replaced Nixon as President and pardoned him of all crimes he may have committed. . . .
. . . . The program discusses evidentiary tributaries connecting numerous other figures to the both investigations, including Watergate Judge John Sirica and Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis.
To attempt selective erasure of the all-important Watergate tapes, Nixon sought the assistance of Gordon Novel, a veteran intelligence agent, electronics expert, anti-Castro veteran and a figure in Jim Garrison’s investigation in New Orleans. At least one key tape was partially erased (the famous 18 1/2 minute gap), though no culprit was ever identified.
In this second broadcast of the series, we draw on Miscellaneous Archive Show M59–Richard Nixon’s Greatest Hits: Highlights of Richard Nixon’s Political Career [7]. In that program (recorded on 5/1/1994), we reviewed an addendum to the original The Guns of November, Part 3 [6]. That addendum–recorded in June of 1972 (the 20th anniversary of the original Watergate break-in)–builds on the information from FTR #961. [5]
After reviewing information about Nixon’s presence in Dallas, Texas on 11/22/1963, the program presents research by the late Penn Jones that maintains that Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover, among others, were present at a gathering at oilman Clint Murchison’s home the evening before the assassination–a meeting Jones felt was a planning session for the JFK assassination.
The bulk of this program is gleaned from Bernard J. Fensterwald’s Coincidence or Conspiracy [8]. (Fensterwald was Watergate Burglar James McCord’s chief defense attorney.)
Among the many links between Watergate and the JFK assassination are the Warren Commission members and counsels who were tabbed by Nixon and/or other figures in the investigation to serve in various capacities:
- Nixon first selected J. Lee Rankin to serve as Watergate Special Prosecutor. Rankin was subsequently tabbed to review the Watergate tapes and determine which would be released. Rankin was the Warren Commission’s liaison between the commission and both the CIA and the FBI. Rankin was a key proponent of the so-called “Magic Bullet Theory.”
- Warren Commission counsel Arlen Specter, the author of the “Magic Bullet Theory”–was Nixon’s first choice as his personal defense attorney in the Watergate case
- Nixon also attempted to requisition Warren Commission member John J. McCloy as Watergate Special Prosecutor.
- Former Warren Commission counsel Albert Jenner was Nixon’s first choice to serve as the GOP’s minority counsel before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Jenner later withdrew from that position.
- John Dean selected former Warren Commission counsel Charles Shaffer as his attorney.
- White House aide John Ehrlichmann tabbed former Warren Commission counsel Joseph Ball to represent him.
- Nixon’s secretary Rose Marie Woods selected former Warren Commission counsel Charles Rhyne to represent her in a possible investigation of the famous 18 1/2 minute gap in one of the tapes.
- Nixon Treasury Secretary John Connally’s obstruction of Jim Garrison’s extradition request for Sergio Archacha Smith.
Program Highlights Include:
- The Nixon White House’s interest in the assassination attempt on George Wallace, which eliminated the Alabama Governor as a possible third-party threat to Nixon’s so-called “Southern Strategy.” Exactly who shot Wallace remains a mystery, but it was most assuredly NOT Arthur Bremer [9].
- Two long-time Nixon friends and political associates’ sponsorship of the family of Sirhan Sirhan into the United States. Sirhan did NOT kill Robert F. Kennedy [10], however the creation of the false cover story to set up the patsy is important. Nixon, of course, won the 1968 election, after Robert Kennedy’s murder eliminated him as a front runner.
- The role of former Lockheed director of security James Golden as chief of security for Nixon’s 1968 campaign. Many researchers of the RFK assassination [11] believe that the actual shooter of Robert Kennedy was American Nazi Thane Eugene Caesar, who was employed at Lockheed’s Burbank facility, in an area involved with the U‑2 spy plane project. (Oswald was also involved with the U‑2.)
- A veritable trove of Warren Commission letter and memoranda pertaining to the above figures involved in the Warren Commission and tabbed by the Nixon team for roles in Watergate that were missing from the National Archives.