Arthur Schlesinger's Memo Unredacted

[Fred Litwin]

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/the-schlesinger-memo-unredacted

Arthur Schlesinger's Memo Unredacted

Back in September, I wrote an article about what was contained in the redacted section of this memo. It wasn't hard to figure out. And I was totally right. Jefferson Morley made much too much of the redacted section - considering that the main conclusions of the memo were not redacted at all. In the end, JFK did not listen to Schlesinger, at least in terms of reorganizing the CIA.

[W. Tracy Parnell]

Great job Fred and kudos to your researchers as well. Very important to get this out there with Morley running wild everywhere.

[Mitch Todd]

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/the-schlesinger-memo-unredacted

Arthur Schlesinger's Memo Unredacted

Back in September, I wrote an article about what was contained in the redacted section of this memo. It wasn't hard to figure out. And I was totally right. Jefferson Morley made much too much of the redacted section - considering that the main conclusions of the memo were not redacted at all. In the end, JFK did not listen to Schlesinger, at least in terms of reorganizing the CIA.

What gets me is that the memo was written in June 1961. JFK had two and a half years to implement any or all of Schlesinger's recommendations, but it appears that not one of them was acted upon. So far, I also haven't seen any evidence that JFK even entertained any of Schlesinger's ideas for restructuring the CIA. 

BTW, what I get from the memo is, the CIA is created as an independent agency largely because State didn't want to get involved with ungentlemanly skullduggery. In fact, State initially would have rather not known about the CIAs clandestine activities any more than absolutely necessary. This led to a lack of cooperation which prompted the CIA to start generating its own covert diplomatic apparatus to make up for the lack of support from Foggy Bottom. At some point, the State Department wakes up and realizes that the CIA is seriously impinging on State's turf, and then the fun starts. The Bay of Pigs imbroglio gave State a change to push back. and Schlesinger's memo is an outgrowth of that.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

The obvious question, one that Morley doesn't answer is: "So, what happened to Schlesinger's proposals? Where did they go?" As anyone who has read a history of the JFK presidency - Dallek, Reeves, et al. - knows, Schlesinger was known for turning out memos from his cubby hole in the East Wing of the White House ("With the women" Rusk described it). Many were brilliant, smoothly written, good ideas; but some were eye rollers. Reeves says that JFK would sometimes get exasperated by them.

Schlesinger was a junior aide and not someone with any authority. He was more than a court historian (at least inside the WH; but his writings later about what went on were a series of apologias) but his power was intellectual, serving JFK's ego, protecting the president. I don't think a McCone or a Helms or an Angelton would be worried about such suggestions, which apparently went nowhere anyway.

To cite this memo and argue, as Morley does, that "The origins of the CIA’s role in the tragedy of November 22, 1963 as found in the last of the JFK files" is sheer hyperbole. But who's surprised anymore about Morley's serial exaggerations? It's all he has now.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

One sidebar point: Nowhere in Schlesinger's proposal does he mention moving the Cuban covert operations from Langley into the White House. Placing it under RFK's directions. Which is what happened after the Bay of Pigs. The Kennedys took the failure of the Bay of Pigs and Castro personally. As then Pentagon adviser Joe Califano - someone who attended the WH meetings where the policy was discussed - observed: "The Kennedys were obsessed with Castro." And as the memos indicate, getting rid of the Castro regime was the number one policy goal of the WH. Not Vietnam or Laos or Berlin or anything else. It was Cuba.

Morley conveniently doesn't mention this. If there's a connection between the CIA "reorganization" and Dallas, then the covert war on Cuba run out of the WH would be it. That is, Oswald getting back at JFK for it.

[W. Tracy Parnell]

Morley has painted himself into a corner. What is he going to do? Say that now the files are out the LNs were right? He is doing exactly what he has to-telling anyone who will listen that a "fact-pattern" shows a conspiracy by the CIA. And if every file that he wants (such as Joannides' personnel file) is not declared a JFK record and released, he will say that "they" are hiding even more. He is in for the long haul.

[Mitch Todd]

What gets me is that the memo was written in June 1961. JFK had two and a half years to implement any or all of Schlesinger's recommendations, but it appears that not one of them was acted upon. So far, I also haven't seen any evidence that JFK even entertained any of Schlesinger's ideas for restructuring the CIA. 

BTW, what I get from the memo is, the CIA is created as an independent agency largely because State didn't want to get involved with ungentlemanly skullduggery. In fact, State initially would have rather not known about the CIAs clandestine activities any more than absolutely necessary. This led to a lack of cooperation which prompted the CIA to start generating its own covert diplomatic apparatus to make up for the lack of support from Foggy Bottom. At some point, the State Department wakes up and realizes that the CIA is seriously impinging on State's turf, and then the fun starts. The Bay of Pigs imbroglio gave State a change to push back. and Schlesinger's memo is an outgrowth of that.

DisEngenuo dropped this document, a summary of discussions as to the CIAs role that started after the Bay Of Pigs fiasco. You can rad it here:

https://www.kennedysandking.com/images/2025/DiEugenioScheles-Adden-PFIABHighlights.pdf

One of the things that crops up is the recommendation that the CIA's paramiltary operations be moved eslewhere. According to the document, Allen Dulles agreed with this. And a few months later, JFK announced the formation of the Green Berets. Just sayin'

[Joe Knapp]

Schlesinger writes:

The Dulles-Correa-Jackson report stated in 1948, "The CIA should not use State Department cover as a simple answer to all its problems but should proceed to develop its own outside cover and eventually in this way and through increased efficiency of its overseas personnel, find a way to temper its demands upon the State Department."

The Dulles-Correa-Jackson report evidently has not been released in full, as the "sanitized" version (dated June 1976) in the "CIA Reading Room" https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP86B00269R000500040001-1.pdf does not contain that text.