President Lyndon B. Johnson’s doctor, Dr. Joseph Eusterman, wrote on January 16, 2021:
Thank you CAM and Mr. DiEugenio for this superb and important essay.
I am a 91 years young retired internist. I was stationed at USNH-NNMC-Bethesda (now Walter Reed) from ’61 to ’63 caring for hi-ranking Navy, Marine and civilian govt. personnel. When then VP Johnson emergently returned from Pope John 23’s installation in Italy due to a painful kidney stone attack, I was assigned to oversee his case management. He was a challenging patient mainly due to his unwelcome, intrusive illness. I was able to quickly gain his trust and he asked me to accompany him over the 3 days of tests and treatments.
In discussing the challenges of his care and his case with our chief cardiologist, Cdr. J.J. Dempsey, who had assisted Dr. Willis Hurst of Emory caring for Mr. Johnson’s severe heart attack some years earlier, I will always remember his saying, “It is frightening to realize there is only a heartbeat between that man and the presidency of the United States.” (Jack’s experiences with LBJ are another interesting story.)
During those 2 years, I enjoyed meeting and caring for then AG RFK, USIA head Ed Murrow, Sen. Dirksen, Dr. Janet Travell among many other interesting people.
It all made me acutely aware over the ensuing years of the huge cost to America and the world from the assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK, Hammarskjold, and more recently, so sadly, Sen. Paul Wellstone. How much different, and better, things would be today if they had not been “taken out” by the warmongers of the military-industrial-political complex!
There MUST now be prompt and ongoing accountability to prevent further fascistic sedition here (e.g., arrest of Trump on Jan. 7) and abroad (CIA et al). As my wonderful father used to say to me, “No excuses are necessary, Joe, because none are acceptable.”
Dr. Joseph Eusterman
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Letters from CovertAction Magazine readers located around the world.
Well, both of you are right. During JFK’s first two years, he was a mediocre president. This is an irrefutable fact. He was on a typical glide path — enjoying the job but not doing much.
Think Barack Obama for eight years, and you have JFK — until the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.
JFK and Nikita Khrushchev had misjudged each other – badly. Both almost blew up the world. Both were able to pullback from this potential catastrophic disaster. And both men were irrefutably changed by the experience.
In truth, the JFK that everyone immortalizes was created during his last year in office in 1963. The “Peace Speech” at George Washington University in June. The nationally broadcasted Civil Rights speech the next night. The anti-nuclear test treaty with Russia in August. The NSAM 263 that foretold that the US was withdrawing from Vietnam in October. Folks, it was NOT a proposal. It was JFK’s administration’s new policy!
The JFK we all admired, and miss terribly, over the past 60 years was in truth the president for exactly one year. Then he was gone.
His record and policies were distorted by disingenuous historians, the obedient media and self-serving pundits because no one wanted anybody in America to ask the “inconceivable” question: Why was Jack Kennedy murdered?
Let’s be honest. Even today, this awkward (and dangerous) question can quiet a room in a hurry — especially in Washington DC.
JFK was not a warmonger. What got him killed was that he refused to send combat troops to Laos, Vietnam, Cuba (twice) and Berlin (when the wall was being built). The powers-that-be decided that he had to go. He was not doing what the “establishment” expected. Period.
Within 48 hours after JFK’s burial, LBJ countermanded JFK’s NSAM 263 with his own NSAM — 273. It completely reversed JFK’s decision to depart Vietnam.
Some of you may be saying this is total b.s. JFK was going to war in Vietnam. You are wrong! The White House tapes clearly show that LBJ did not like JFK and Robert McNamara “talking about” pulling out of Vietnam.
LBJ clearly stated this position on his recorded talks with McNamara a few days after JFK’s death. The documents and tapes are iron-clad proof and are indisputable.
Some day. Perhaps soon. We will find out “why” JFK was murdered. Upon which, at that time, we will have a pretty good idea by which elements within own government.
My guess: The CIA orchestrated the coup in Dallas. Over the past 60 years, a growing amount of evidence points toward Allen Dulles — as the architect.
When we finally do “discover” such information, we will be saddened because the perpetrators of this horrific crime got away with it.
And America has never been the same country since that dark day in Dallas.
JFK’s death continues to haunt this nation.
No one believes the “Magic Bullet” theory. Not then. Not now.
Tests showed on that day — Lee Harvey Oswald never fired a weapon.
All the major principals are dead. Just tell us the truth. We are ready!
Just because Chomsky says it does not make him to be representative of all-encompassing truth. I lived through that era, shall be 75 this summer, educated, veteran of that horrific Vietnam era. I was a senior in high school when JFK was killed. What you are saying when making your statement, is that because JFK was a war monger according to Chomsky, that his death was necessary; or that you believe his death was justified. That is dangerous thinking because this means you are perfect, and that any imperfection in your thought and action is punishable with death. I refute what you just stated with a few ideas, many of which I personally heard him say on radio and television, and read from authors that vetted and cited their sources: He wanted to cut military bases 50%; he favored replacing Shah of Iran with the deposed (by CIA) Mosaddegh; issued executive order to admiral of Pacific fleet to remove advisors from Vietnam; refused to endorse the Bay of Pigs debacle; did not endorse murder by CIA of Vietnamese president, Diem; approved of space exploration; endorsed NAWAPA; funded nuclear energy to further economic development; convinced De Gaulle to grant French colonies independence; granted the first foreign dignitary visit to the White House to Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, who wanted his country to prosper, JFK signed funding for dam on the Volta, completed in 1966; supported Patrice Lumumba of Congo against wishes of Belgium/England to divide the Congo, keeping the mineral rich part Katanga for themselves rather than part of the Congo, and JFK got the UN to send troops to preserve unity. And so for anyone that prefers to dwell other issues such as Marilyn Monroe, Chomsky, Cuba, certainly belongs in the camp of “divide and conquer” and destroying what is known as The American System defined by Alexander Hamilton (Federalist Papers #11), and Henry Clay.
Kennedy was a warmonger. Noam Chomsky provides ample evidence of this fact.