Noah's Ark - Nov. 22, 1963

[Octafish]

"Noah's Ark" is a play by Ginny Cunningham, based on the book "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters" by James Douglass. The book makes an excellent case that individuals within the United States national security apparatus were, literally, at war with JFK and carried out his assassination in order to maintain political, military, and economic power.

The play's title is from a letter from Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev to President Kennedy in which he described the miracle of existence on earth -- a vessel traveling through space like Noah's Ark traveled the waters of the Flood and protected the fragile life it carried. It was performed two weeks ago at Oakland Community College -- Royal Oak campus. The play was performed yesterday in Dallas by a group that included Martin Sheen and last week in Birmingham, Alabama, where Mr. Douglass works.



Ms. Cunningham, pictured on the far left of the photo above, was in the Detroit area community to hear a staged reading of her work. She discussed the play, which brought to life much of the history of Kennedy's struggles with the Pentagon and CIA, with the audience after the reading. Mr. Douglass is on the far right side of of the photo. He spoke earlier in the day about his book and was present for the reading. He also answered questions from the audience, many of whom were students of an OCC history class on the Kennedy administration.

The odds are there would very likely have been a different outcome had Richard Nixon been in office during the Bay of Pigs, the Berlin Wall crisis, or the Cuban Missile Crisis. Perhaps a President Nixon in 1962 would have listened to Gen. Lemnitzer and CIA Director Dulles when they counseled all-out nuclear sneak attack on the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. If there had been a nuclear war, something that the warmongers considered a win "if only one American survives," perhaps life would not have survived. I know the world would be a very different place had he not served as president those 1,037 days.

So, I just wanted to say "thank you" to President John F. Kennedy. He's a big reason why we are all here today to enjoy our lives.

[villager]

1. Thanks for letting us know about this play, Octafish!

As a lapsed playwright myself, I hope I get a chance to see/hear it...

[Octafish]

3. Please do. I did not think I would enjoy a staged reading...

...but it was so well written and read, it was like hearing a radio program.

PS: Please keep writing villager. Including narrative, the world today needs truth more than ever.

[RufusTFirefly]

2. K&R

I too want to thank President John F. Kennedy (and Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev) for realizing that the fate of humanity was far more important than political differences.

Plus a tip of the hat to Octafish, for fighting the good fight against all odds.

BTW, JFK and the Unspeakable is really a hauntingly beautiful, elegiac book.

[Octafish]

4. I didn't want to interrupt Mr. Douglass as he signed books...

...I was going to bring my copy and ask him to autograph it, but I forgot as I was so excited at going. Afterwards, my wife and I got close to him and could have bugged him, but I didn't want to stop him from signing other people's copies.



The guy and his book are profound. The great DUer minm turned me on to him. The guy humbly explained how he came to his work and how grateful he is that it has been so well received. I promise to go over what he said in the coming days and add on to this thread.

The thing that most got to me was how much of a religious figure he presented, an aura of peace surrounds him. I wanted to just touch his jacket...

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Douglass

I'm not religious at all (although you could argue that I'm a secular Christian). Nonetheless, Douglass' case for JFK's redemption and mending of his ways moved me deeply.

The DUer who wrote very long, thoughtful and well-annotated posts (name escapes me) was the one who first inspired me to read the book. He wound up writing a book himself as I recall.

[Octafish]

6. What George H. W. Bush said on the White House ''smoking gun'' tape...

From "The Unauthorized Biography of George Bush"...

EXCERPT...

During the preparation of the present work, there was one historical moment
which more than any other delineated the character of George Bush. The
scene was the Nixon White House during the final days of the Watergate
debacle. White House officials, including George Bush, had spent the
morning of that Monday, August 5, 1974 absorbing the impact of Nixon's
notorious "smoking gun" tape, the recorded conversation between Nixon and
his chief of staff, H.R. Haldemann, shortly after the original Watergate
break-in, which could now no longer be withheld from the public. In that
exchange of June 23, 1972, Nixon ordered that the CIA stop the FBI from
further investigating how various sums of money found their way from Texas
and Minnesota via Mexico City to the coffers of the Committee to Re-Elect
the President (CREEP) and thence into the pockets of the "Plumbers"
arrested in the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building.
These revelations were widely interpreted as establishing a "prima facie"
case of obstruction of justice against Nixon. That was fine with George,
who sincerely wanted his patron and benefactor Nixon to resign. George's
great concern was that the smoking gun tape called attention to a
money-laundering mechanism which he, together with Bill Liedtke of
Pennzoil, and Robert Mosbacher, had helped to set up at Nixon's request.
When Nixon, in the "smoking gun" tape, talked about "the Texans" and "some
Texas people," Bush, Liedtke, and Mosbacher were among the most prominent
of those referred to. The threat to George's political ambitions was great.

The White House that morning was gripped by panic. Nixon would be gone
before the end of the week. In the midst of the furor, White House
Congressional liaison William Timmons wanted to know if everyone who needed
to be informed had been briefed about the smoking gun transcript. In a
roomful of officials, some of whom were already sipping Scotch to steady
their nerves, Timmons asked Dean Burch, "Dean, does Bush know about the
transcript yet?"

"Yes," responded Burch.

"Well, what did he do?" inquired Timmons.

"He broke out into assholes and shit himself to death," replied Burch.

In this exchange, which is recorded in Woodward and Bernstein's "The Final
Days," we grasp the essential George Bush, in a crisis, and for all
seasons.

SOURCE: http://www.padrak.com/alt/BUSHBOOK_1.html

Thank you, RobertEarl! Very much appreciate what you said about the Flock's team.

[alfredo]

8. My first thought was that Lemnitzer was behind the assassination.

He was a royal ass, and it was clear that he hated JFK. Read "Body of Secrets" by James Bamford for insight into Lemnitzer and other "Super Patriots." it also gives insight into the Bay of Pigs and the USS Liberty murders.

[Octafish]

16. JFK vs. the Military

Last edited Sun Nov 24, 2013, 04:41 AM - Edit history (1)

by Robert Dallek
The Atlantic, Sept. 10 2013

EXCERPT...

From the start of his presidency, Kennedy feared that the Pentagon brass would overreact to Soviet provocations and drive the country into a disastrous nuclear conflict. The Soviets might have been pleased—or understandably frightened—to know that Kennedy distrusted America’s military establishment almost as much as they did.

JFK Special Issue

The Joint Chiefs of Staff reciprocated the new president’s doubts. Lemnitzer made no secret of his discomfort with a 43-year-old president who he felt could not measure up to Dwight D. Eisenhower, the former five-star general Kennedy had succeeded. Lemnitzer was a West Point graduate who had risen in the ranks of Eisenhower’s World War II staff and helped plan the successful invasions of North Africa and Sicily. The 61-year-old general, little known outside military circles, stood 6 feet tall and weighed 200 pounds, with a bearlike frame, booming voice, and deep, infectious laugh. Lemnitzer’s passion for golf and his ability to drive a ball 250 yards down a fairway endeared him to Eisenhower. More important, he shared his mentor’s talent for maneuvering through Army and Washington politics. Also like Ike, he wasn’t bookish or particularly drawn to grand strategy or big-picture thinking—he was a nuts-and-bolts sort of general who made his mark managing day-to-day problems.

To Kennedy, Lemnitzer embodied the military’s old thinking about nuclear weapons. The president thought a nuclear war would bring mutually assured destruction—MAD, in the shorthand of the day—while the Joint Chiefs believed the United States could fight such a conflict and win. Sensing Kennedy’s skepticism about nukes, Lemnitzer questioned the new president’s qualifications to manage the country’s defense. Since Eisenhower’s departure, he lamented in shorthand, no longer was “a Pres with mil exp available to guide JCS.” When the four-star general presented the ex-skipper with a detailed briefing on emergency procedures for responding to a foreign military threat, Kennedy seemed preoccupied with possibly having to make “a snap decision” about whether to launch a nuclear response to a Soviet first strike, by Lemnitzer’s account. This reinforced the general’s belief that Kennedy didn’t sufficiently understand the challenges before him.

Admiral Arleigh Burke, the 59-year-old chief of naval operations, shared Lemnitzer’s doubts. An Annapolis graduate with 37 years of service, Burke was an anti-Soviet hawk who believed that U.S. military officials needed to intimidate Moscow with threatening rhetoric. This presented an early problem for Kennedy, in that Burke “pushed his black-and-white views of international affairs with bluff naval persistence,” the Kennedy aide and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. later wrote. Kennedy had barely settled into the Oval Office when Burke planned to publicly assail “the Soviet Union from hell to breakfast,” according to Arthur Sylvester, a Kennedy-appointed Pentagon press officer who brought the proposed speech text to the president’s attention. Kennedy ordered the admiral to back off and required all military officers on active duty to clear any public speeches with the White House. Kennedy did not want officers thinking they could speak or act however they wished.

CONTINUED..

http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/08/jfk-vs-the-military/309496/

Bamford is great, a sage. The more we learn, the easier it isto see JFK was facing a "Seven Days in May" situation from Day One. Nixon the warmonger vp would've fitright in.

[alfredo]

20. As a former member of the ASA, I can attest to many of Bamford's accounts around the

late sixties. I was at the post in Ethiopia (Eritrea) during the six day war.

[Octafish]

31. Former President Harry S Truman's CIA Op-Ed that ran for PART of one day in The Washington Post...

Limit CIA Role To Intelligence

By Harry S Truman
The Washington Post, December 22, 1963 - page A11

INDEPENDENCE, MO., Dec. 21 — I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency—CIA. At least, I would like to submit here the original reason why I thought it necessary to organize this Agency during my Administration, what I expected it to do and how it was to operate as an arm of the President.

I think it is fairly obvious that by and large a President's performance in office is as effective as the information he has and the information he gets. That is to say, that assuming the President himself possesses a knowledge of our history, a sensitive understanding of our institutions, and an insight into the needs and aspirations of the people, he needs to have available to him the most accurate and up-to-the-minute information on what is going on everywhere in the world, and particularly of the trends and developments in all the danger spots in the contest between East and West. This is an immense task and requires a special kind of an intelligence facility.

Of course, every President has available to him all the information gathered by the many intelligence agencies already in existence. The Departments of State, Defense, Commerce, Interior and others are constantly engaged in extensive information gathering and have done excellent work.

But their collective information reached the President all too frequently in conflicting conclusions. At times, the intelligence reports tended to be slanted to conform to established positions of a given department. This becomes confusing and what's worse, such intelligence is of little use to a President in reaching the right decisions.

Therefore, I decided to set up a special organization charged with the collection of all intelligence reports from every available source, and to have those reports reach me as President without department "treatment" or interpretations.

I wanted and needed the information in its "natural raw" state and in as comprehensive a volume as it was practical for me to make full use of it. But the most important thing about this move was to guard against the chance of intelligence being used to influence or to lead the President into unwise decisions—and I thought it was necessary that the President do his own thinking and evaluating.

Since the responsibility for decision making was his—then he had to be sure that no information is kept from him for whatever reason at the discretion of any one department or agency, or that unpleasant facts be kept from him. There are always those who would want to shield a President from bad news or misjudgments to spare him from being "upset."

For some time I have been disturbed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas.

I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations. Some of the complications and embarrassment I think we have experienced are in part attributable to the fact that this quiet intelligence arm of the President has been so removed from its intended role that it is being interpreted as a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue—and a subject for cold war enemy propaganda.

With all the nonsense put out by Communist propaganda about "Yankee imperialism," "exploitive capitalism," "war-mongering," "monopolists," in their name-calling assault on the West, the last thing we needed was for the CIA to be seized upon as something akin to a subverting influence in the affairs of other people.

I well knew the first temporary director of the CIA, Adm. Souers, and the later permanent directors of the CIA, Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg and Allen Dulles. These were men of the highest character, patriotism and integrity—and I assume this is true of all those who continue in charge.

But there are now some searching questions that need to be answered. I, therefore, would like to see the CIA be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President, and that whatever else it can properly perform in that special field—and that its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere.

We have grown up as a nation, respected for our free institutions and for our ability to maintain a free and open society. There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.

SOURCE: http://www.maebrussell.com/Prouty/Harry%20Truman's%20CIA%20article.html

One month after the assassination, President Truman expressed public concern CIA had strayed off the reservation from intelligence gathering of foreign news sources to cloak-and-dagger operations. Time -- and the Church Committee -- has since shown CIA operated, illegally, domestically.

[alfredo]

32. It appeared to me that the intelligence professional was more like Colonel Flagg of MASH and

less like James Bond. The word Sociopath comes to mind when I think of some of the "lifers" in intel. That's why I got out. I really didn't like them.

[longship]

9. Inaccurate info? Dulles, Lemnitzer.

Allen Dulles was not CIA director in 1962. He was fired by President Kennedy and left the CIA on November 29, 1961.

Maxwell Taylor was CJCS during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis (appointed Oct 1, 1962), not Lemnitzer. Curtis LeMay was chief of staff of SAC, however. He was a "let's bomb the bastards" type of guy.

[Octafish]

12. Excellent observation. President Kennedy fired Dulles in 1961.

However, my contention is were Nixon president, Nixon wouldn't have fired Dulles in 1961. Nixon would've rewarded Dulles, as the Bay of Pigs was the excuse planned during the Eisenhower administration for a U.S. invasion of Cuba. In 1960, it looked like Vice President Nixon would be the next president.

You are correct, longship. I mistakenly wrote 1962 as the year when Lemnitzer, the Joint Chiefs and CIA director Dulles submitted their plan for an all-out nuclear sneak attack. I did correctly report that they recommended the best time for such an attack was "Fall 1963."

My source is Col. Howard Burris, USAF, who wrote a memorandum on the proceedings. Read the memo here and "The America Prospect" article James Galbraith and Heather Purcell here.

[longship]

13. Thanks for correcting. I have corrected an OP of yours, too, this afternoon.

The same kind of thing concerning Allen Dulles.

I don't go along with the JFK conspiracies, but I will no longer argue against them. But some facts are simple to verify and one should at least get them correct.

Best regards.

[ReRe]

10. That's it.

... I can't remember who it was that referred this book about a year ago or so (could have been you yourself, Octafish). Anyway, I bought two copies. I still have them, am giving one copy to my son for Christmas. I have yet to read the book, but since I seen your OP, have decided to take it off the shelf and read it NOW. Thanks!

GOTV 2014!

[Octafish]

14. Douglass was like beingwith Buddha...

...truly profound, humbling experience. I asked what we could do? Mr. Douglass said, keep spreading the word. It's making a difference.

He spoke of President Kennedy in the Oval Office. A rainy day, JFK was looking out the window. He and his science advisor had been talking about fallout from the nuke tests. JFK asked if the rain contained radioctivity and learned it did.

President Kennedy worked to get a nuclear atmospheric test ban treaty worked out with the Soviets and through Congress in record time by enlisting the cooperation of all the various factions interested in peace - from the Quakers to moms of young kds to readers of The Saturday Evening Post.

Interestingly, the PBS profile on JFK, "The American Experience," included the fact Edward Teller virulently opposed the nuclear test ban and JFK didn't care. Teller got all he wanted under Teagan, plus more with his Start Wars scheme.

[ReRe]

22. Personally...

... I have long felt that peace would have been far more lucrative for the USA than the tragic turn it took in 1947 with the creation of the CIA. I don't read very fast because I stop and think and re-read too much. I hope to have this book read by the end of the week. Chapter at day.

[Octafish]

27. We could have rebuilt the energy grid with 100% renewable systems for the cost of the Iraq war...

Of course, this would impact our nation's strategic petroleum industry's annual revenues...

For the Price of the Iraq War, The U.S. Could Have a 100% Renewable Power System

By Washington's Blog
Global Research, April 11, 2013

What Are We Choosing for Our Future?

Wind energy expert Paul Gipe reported this week that – for the amount spent on the Iraq war – the U.S. could be generating 40%-60% of its electricity with renewable energy:

Disregarding the human cost, and disregarding our “other” war in Afghanistan, how much renewable energy could we have built with the money we spent? How far along the road toward the renewable energy transition could we have traveled?

The answer: shockingly far.

Cost of the Iraq War

The war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion through fiscal year 2013, according to Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. That’s trillion, with a “t”. Including future costs for veteran’s care, and so on, raises the cost to $2.2 trillion.

SNIP...

If we had invested the $2.2 trillion in wind and solar, the US would be generating 21% of its electricity with renewable energy. If we had invested the $3.9 trillion that the war in Iraq will ultimately cost, we would generate nearly 40% of our electricity with new renewables. Combined with the 10% of supply from existing hydroelectricity, the US could have surpassed 50% of total renewables in supply.

However, this is a conservative estimate. If we include the reasonable assumptions suggested by Robert Freehling, the contribution by renewables would be even greater.

Freehling’s assumptions raise to as much as 60% the nation’s lost potential contribution by new renewables to US electricity supply by going to war in Iraq. With the addition of existing hydroelectric generation, the opportunity to develop as much as 70% of our nation’s electricity with renewable energy was lost.

And unlike the war in Iraq, which is an expense, the development of renewable energy instead of war would have been an investment in infrastructure at home that would have paid dividends to American citizens for decades to come.

CONTINUED...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/for-the-price-of-the-iraq-war-the-u-s-could-have-a-100-renewable-power-system/5330881

Our "capitalist system" has become a form of slavery. I am most grateful to know so many are not afraid to see it for what it is.

[ReRe]

30. The only forward thinking in this country...

... is how much money The Corporation can get its hands on. Money, money, money, money, money. More, more, more, more, more. They will juice this earth dry and pollute it until every living thing is effing dead. Then they will come up with some excuse to blame it on The People, er, the slaves.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. I think shit would've turned out VERY different w/ Nixon in the WH during the Cuban Missile crisis.

The operative word being, shit.

[Octafish]

15. For decades, Nixon dreamed of nuking Vietnam.

Once, when vice president in 1954, to help the French, surrounded at Dien Ben Phu. Operation VULTURE.

The other times, he was President and wanted to blow the dikes and flood the country, among other things.

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB195/

A real sweetheart. Went onLaugh-In.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Have heard nothing but praise and respect for this book.

Thanks for the info. on movement based on the book after it was published.

Hope it continues for a very long time.

[Octafish]

18. There's nothing like a good story to aid memory.

Dr. Bauer says we use two approaches to convey knowledge: Maps and Stories.

Two Kinds of Knowledge: Maps and Stories

HENRY H. BAUER
Chemistry & Science Studies
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Blacksburg, VA 24061 02/2
J

Abstract—The most reliable knowledge is map like: "If you do this, then that will always follow." But such knowledge carries little if any inherent human meaning. Most meaningful is story like knowledge, which teaches about morals and values; but about that, agreement cannot be forced by demonstration. Failure to distinguish between the meaningfulness and the re¬liability of knowledge helps to make arguments intractable. It would be very useful always to ask about a bit of claimed knowledge, "Is this more like a story or more like a map ?"

PDF to full article:

http://www.henryhbauer.homestead.com/2kndsweb.pdf

So, to make something memorable requires a good story. Think, "Hansel and Gretel." Parents can't feed kids and are forced to abandom them in the forest. Kids, being human, don't want that and leave bread crumbs to get back. Birds eat bread trail. Kids get lost and find witch's cottage...etc." The details may not be the same on each telling, but the basic elements are the same.

Complicated things require maps: Owners manual for a car, a map showing the location of towns, roads, bridges, etc. Almost no one can memorize all the details required, hence they must be written down and referenced. The thing is, until the advent of smartphones, no one could carry around a reference library with them.

OTOH: Hear a good story ONCE -- as a kid or as an adult -- and we don't forget. That's why Karl Rove and his ilk were so quick to attack Joseph Wilson through Valerie Plame: No way could the truth get into the public mind before their twisted version of reality -- Saddam Hussein and Iraq were behind 9-11 and planned to use WMDs.

In the case of the assassination of President Kennedy, the story that the "specialists" wanted heard first and loudest was that Oswald did it alone. Seeing what's happened to the country in the intervening 50 years, the fact the "Money trumps peace" crowd get ahead, shows the effectiveness of their story and the magic bullet theory on which it's based.

The assassinations of President Kennedy, Dr. King, and Sen. Kennedy hold so much information, they each require library shelves to hold all the information known and written about them. No mind I know can hold, let alone cross-reference, all the information known about each of them. It's why discussion and sharing of ideas is so important: The free sharing of information, ideas and perspectives why democracy works.

Putting the complex into a story form requires an artist or an expert in information science. Edward Tufte comes to mind.



Another guy who grokked it was Mark Lombardi. We talked about him on DU, way back when. Thank you, too, Judi Lynn, for grokking -- and sharing.

[KoKo]

36. Mark Lombardi....I remember that from old DU Days...Amazing stuff...

I had bookmarked a link to his work and then lost it in a computer crash aways back. I couldn't remember his name so I never researched to find a link.

That was really an eye opener and can't wait to go over to link and check it out again.

The Tufte article was interesting. It was a bit OTT on accolades. I worry he might have a flaw in his work somewhere when there's such overwhelming praise for his methods....Still, he's a fascinating person. I wish there had been visual examples in the article of how his charting/graphic design was an improvement over earlier, or other ways, of exhibiting data for those of us unenlightened about the various existing ways charting statistics though. But, still a good read and talking about how "Power Point" slides might have caused the "Challenger" disaster and how much he dislikes Excell and Power Point/Microsoft to display complicated data.

[CanSocDem]

19. kicking...

...for obvious reasons. Good work the last couple of weeks Octafish.



.

[Octafish]

23. ''ut nihil non iisdem verbis redderetur auditum.''

"Thus, nothing that has been heard can be retold in the same words."

Thank you, CanSocDem. It was amazing.

One of the important points covered in the discussion and play was Kennedy and his policy toward Vietnam. A member of the audience asked Douglas how he could be so certain that JFK would have pulled U.S. military support from South Vietnam? Douglass quoted Bobby Kennedy, who had been asked the same question by Arthur Schlessinger. RFK pounded the table and shouted:

"Because we were there!"



The Politician: In 1951, JFK (in rear right) in Vietnam on a fact finding tour with the French. Kennedy was critical of U.S. support of the French there, saying, "We have allied ourselves to the desperate effort of a French regime to hang on to the remnants of empire."

ETA Source: http://www.historyplace.com/kennedy/politician-vietnam-tour.htm

[hootinholler]

21. I think we can assume that the Bay Of Pigs operation

Would have been militarily supported were Nixon in the Oval at the time and would have succeeded in ousting Castro.

I think there would likely not have been a Cuba Missile issue had that happened.

Thankfully, Nixon's plans were useful to JFK in that they demonstrated where he stood with the MIC and even more amazingly it seems he took the lesson to heart.

Thanks for pissing off the right people, Der Fishie.

[Octafish]

25. Highly probable.

From DUer Bill Kelly:

David Atlee Phillips - The Ultimate Spook

Sunday, October 31, 2010

EXCERPT...

We went to the White House in the morning. Gathered in the theater in the East Wing were more notables than I had ever seen: the President, his Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of State - Alien Dulles's brother, Foster - the Attorney General, and perhaps two dozen other members of the President's Cabinet and household staff....

The lights were turned off while Brad used slides during his report. A door opened near me. In the darkness I could see only a silhouette of the person entering the room; when the door closed it was dark again, and I could not make out the features of the man standing next to me. He whispered a number of questions: "Who is that? Who made that decision?"

I was vaguely uncomfortable. The questions from the unknown man next to me were very insistent, furtive. Brad finished and the lights went up. The man moved away. He was Richard Nixon, the Vice President.

Eisenhower's first question was to Hector (Rip Robertson): "How many men did Castillo Armas lose?" Hector (Rip Robertson) said only one, a courier... . Eisenhower shook his head, perhaps thinking of the thousands who had died in France. "Incredible..."

Nixon asked a number of questions, concise and to the point, and demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the Guatemalan political situation. He was impressive - not at all the disturbing man he was in the shadows.

Eisenhower turned to his Chief of the Joint Chiefs. "What about the Russians? Any reaction?"

General Ridgeway answered. "They don't seem to be up to anything. But the navy is watching a Soviet sub in the area; it could be there to evacuate some of Arbenz's friends, or to supply arms to any resisters."

Eisenhower shook hands all around. "Great," he said to Brad, "that was a good briefing." Hector and I smiled at each other as Brad flushed with pleasure. The President's final handshake was with Alien Dulles. "Thanks Allen, and thanks to all of you. You've averted a Soviet beachhead in our hemisphere." Eisenhower spoke to his Chief of Naval Operations "Watch that sub. Admiral. If it gets near the coast of Guatemala we'll sink the son-of-a-bitch. ' The President strode from the room.

CONTINUED...

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2010/10/david-atlee-phillips.html

Pissing them off, indeed.



Why does the truth seem to hurt some more than others?

[avaistheone1]

24. Octafish, do you know if this play is coming to other parts of the U.S.?

I would love to see it. I live between two big cities, San Francisco and San Jose.

BTW I tried googling the play and all I seem to find are reviews for it on the east coast.

[Octafish]

26. The play is still a work in progress...

...Ms. Cunningham said she has written more than a dozen drafts -- and is still re-writing and editing. The play was read in about a dozen towns, including Dallas on Nov. 21 with a cast led by Martin Sheen:

Martin Sheen Leads JFK Reading in Dallas

The Emmy-winning actor joins locals in a reading of the JFK-related Noah's Ark for the Dallas Peace Center.

by Mark Lowry
published Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Dallas — The Dallas Peace Center joins in this week's many commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with a staged reading of Ginny Cunningham's new play Noah's ark, inspired by a book about JFK by James Douglass. The big news here is that the cast is headed up by Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now, The West Wing). Among the locals in the cast are Mark Oristano, Vickie Washington, James Kille, T.A. Taylor, Bruce DuBose and Linda Coleman. It's directed by Matt Clark of Austin, who directed Sheen in the film Da (adapted from the the Hugh Leonard play).

SNIP...

Here's more from the news release from the Dallas Peace Center:

Martin Sheen will participate in the staged reading in Dallas of Noah’s Ark, a new play inspired by James Douglass’ bestselling book, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.

Noah’s Ark, by Pittsburgh playwright Ginny Cunningham, has been three years in development and will have a public staged reading at Unity Church of Dallas, 6525 Forest Lane, at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 21, the eve of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. James Douglass will join Sheen and Cunningham for a talk-back following the 90-minute reading.

Noah’s Ark revolves around Colonel Elliott Benson, the consummate CIA and military insider and advisor to the President, who is tortured by the thought that he may have been unwittingly complicit in the assassination. Determined to redeem himself, Benson journeys into his past, where he must confirm or deny his loyalties, patriotism, and faithfulness. Has he betrayed his values? Can he live in peace with his choices? The story sails the rough waters of the Kennedy presidency—the Bay of Pigs, the summit with Khrushchev in Vienna, a line in the sand in Berlin, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the prelude to Vietnam. Global peril and unremitting tension force Benson to assess his own depths and shallows and seek his own redemption.

Director/actor Matt Clark of Austin will direct the staged reading, assisted by John Fullinwider. Local actors in the play include Mark Oristano, Vickie Washington, James Kille, T.A. Taylor, Bruce DuBose and Linda Coleman. The event is co-sponsored by Pax Christi Dallas.

The Dallas performance is one of eight readings of Noah’s Ark in U.S. cities this November, including New York City; Seattle; Pittsburgh; Birmingham, Ala.; Glens Falls, N.Y.; Erie, Penn., and Royal Oak, Mich.

An award-winning actor and political activist, Martin Sheen’s films include Apocalypse Now (1979), Badlands (1973), Gandhi (1982), Wall Street (1987), Da (1988), The American President (1995), Catch Me If You Can (2002) and The Way (2010); he starred in the television series The West Wing (1999-2006).

Matt Clark, actor and director, began his career with the experimental company The Living Theater and has appeared in more than fifty feature films. He directed Martin Sheen in the film Da (1988).

James W. Douglass is a longtime peace activist and writer whose works include “The Nonviolent Coming of God” and “Resistance and Contemplation”. With his wife Shelley, he is cofounder of Mary’s House, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality in Birmingham AL, as well as the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Paulsbo, WA.

CONTINUED...

http://www.theaterjones.com/ntx/news/20131119142828/2013-11-19/Martin-Sheen-Leads-JFK-Reading-in-Dallas

The last few weeks have been an extremely busy time for me. As time permits, I promise to follow-up with the principles and report on the play and future performances.

[avaistheone1]

35. I look forward to the info when you have the time.

Thanks as always Octafish!

[LongTomH]

28. Thanks Octafish! "JFK and the Unspeakable" was a wonderful book

Mr. Douglass gave us a look inside JFK's head. Like a good historian, he showed the events and influences that shaped JFK's movement toward peace and his growing compassion for the poor and dispossessed.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was definitely a person growing and evolving; unfortunately, the directions he was evolving in were intolerable to the mighty, and so he had to die.

We can wonder about an alternate history, where JFK lived to serve out both terms. World history, as well as US history, would have taken different directions. For one thing, we might be well on our way to the stars now, as well as living in a more peaceful world.

[Octafish]

29. We are using technology developed for the manned space program right now...

... integrated- and micro-circuitry were developed for the LEM now enable democracy.

http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/benefits.html

The 450,000 scientists, engineers, manufacturing workers employed during Project Apollo helped build the modern world. And they were well paid.



Imagine if we put the trillions wasted on the Carlyle Group warmonger class over the part 50 years to work for We the People instead?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/business/17leonhardt.html?_r=0

Health care and meaningful work from cradle to grave for everybody, for starters.

[MinM]

33. Jim DiEugenio mentioned a production of this in Dallas

last week on this podcast. Apparently it was very well attended and Jim Douglass was on hand signing copies of his book.

[Octafish]

34. Thank you, MinM. Mr. Douglass is remarkable...

Last edited Sat Dec 7, 2013, 11:17 AM - Edit history (1)

...I will download and listen this weekend. Dramatization is an excellent way to convey complex information in a memorable way.

Here's a presentation Mr. Douglass made at Marquette University: