Ultra-Liberal CTers Are Outraged Over New Book on JFK and Vietnam

[Michael T. Griffith]

Investigative journalist Jack Cheevers' new book Kennedy's Coup: A White House Plot, a Saigon Murder, and America's Descent into Vietnam has many ultra-liberal JFKA conspiracy theorists in an uproar.

This is a bit ironic because Cheevers is no rock-ribbed conservative. His book repeats some of the standard liberal falsehoods about the Vietnam War (that Diem was losing the war effort at the time he was murdered, that Diem's government was behind the May 8 "massacre," that Diem treated Buddhists unfairly, etc.).

Cheevers' sin in the eyes of many ultra-liberals is that he (entirely correctly) argues that JFK's decision to green-light the coup against Ngo Dinh Diem was not only a failure of leadership but an enormous disaster for the war effort. Cheevers also argues that the disastrous coup led to greater U.S. involvement after the assassination.

When a book on JFK and the Vietnam War receives praise from all across the spectrum, from National Review to H. R. McMaster to Max Boot to Christopher Goscha, as Cheevers' book has received, you know it must be a credible work of scholarship.

But, not to the ultra-liberal camp of the JFKA research community. To them, the book is a "hatchet job" (Chad Nagle).

[Tom Scully]

McMasters..... Ultra-Liberal?

https://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,5118.msg183153.html#msg183153
....

https://time.com/archive/6841111/investigations-the-inquest-begins-getting-closer-to-nixon/

//This automatic response to any White House request was also demonstrated by the State Department. In Au gust 1971 it cooperated with Hunt after receiving a memo from the White House and two calls from David Young, an Ehrlichman assistant on detached service from Henry Kissinger’s Nation al Security Council staff. Young telephoned William B. Macomber Jr., then a Deputy Under Secretary of State. Macomber granted Hunt full access to the most secret “back -channel” communications (meaning only the addressee and sender should see them) between the State Department and its embassy in Saigon for a period in 1963. Hunt copied 240 of these classified cables.

According to sworn testimony by Hunt, he then examined the cables to determine whether there was any indication, as he hoped, that President John Kennedy had ordered the assassination of South Viet Nam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem. Hunt said that this study was supervised by Charles Colson, then special counsel to Nixon. Hunt claimed that he showed Colson some cables that could conceivably have been interpreted as implied orders from the Kennedy Administration to “pull the trigger against Diem’s head.” According to Hunt, Colson declared: “Well, this isn’t good enough. Do you think that you could improve on them?” Hunt said he would need technical help to fabricate something more conclusive, but Colson replied: “This is too hot. See what you can do on your own.”

To draft a cable that sounded authentic, Hunt said that he then used a White House Xerox machine, a razor blade and a typewriter. Because it lacked the proper type face, however, he knew it would not stand careful scrutiny. He and Colson, Hunt testified, thereupon tried to convince a LIFE correspondent, William Lambert, that the cable was genuine. Lambert was impressed at first but later became doubtful and never wrote about it....

.....

New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/1973/09/25/archives/hunt-says-he-fabricated-cables-on-diem-to-link-kennedy-to-killing.html

Hunt Says He Fabricated Cables on Diem to Link Kennedy to Killing of a ...
Sep 25, 1973 E H Hunt Jr testifies before Sen Watergate com on his fabrication, on orders of C W Colson, of State Dept cables to show link between Pres Kennedy and assassination of S Vietnam Pres Diem; also ...

https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,907269-8,00.html
May 21, 1973
INVESTIGATIONS: The Inquest Begins: Getting Closer to Nixon
Young telephoned William B. Macomber Jr., then a Deputy Under Secretary of State. Macomber granted Hunt full access to the most secret "back -channel" communications (meaning only the addressee and sender should see them) between the State Department and its embassy in Saigon for a period in 1963.

Miss Alexandra Mills Is Bride of TJ Devine
https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/15/archives/miss-alexandra-mills-is-bride-of-t-j-devine.html
- New York Times - Apr 15, 1973
HOBE SOUND, Fla., April 14—Miss Alexandra Mills, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Wynne Mills of Locust Valley, L. I., and Hobe Sound, was married here this afternoon to Thomas J. Devine, son of....
William B. Macomber Jr., United States. Ambassador to Turkey, was best man. Mrs. Devine attended the Green

Thomas Devine was a close friend of GHW Bush. Devine's MIT Univ., Sigma Chi fraternity house mate, 16 students resided together,
beginning in summer, 1944, was Gary Coit, CIA "minder" of Priscilla Johnson.

Gary Coit's CIA report of interview of Priscilla Johnson.:

https://www.maryferrell.org/xdoc/95706#relPageId=1&search=coit
104-10135-10088: PARTIAL CONTACT REPORT ON MEETING WITH PRISCILLA JOHNSON, 30-31 JAN 2/4/64 report 17457 by Gary Coit, SR/CA: Coit interviewed Priscilla Johnson about a Soviet student named Aseev at Harvard who had decided to defect to the US.

Students Don Ear Muffs to Shut Out Band Music
Daily Boston Globe – Aug 14, 1947
… rhumba music yesterday asked the Boston Licensing Board to shut down
the Hotel … one of 16 Tech students livings in the adjoining Sigma Chi
fraternity house … Other student were Thomas Devine of Rochester who
told of taking refuge in ..

https://sigmachi.mit.edu/docs/beaver_sigs/1946_bsig_vol1946_no1.pdf


As Wubriny-1. Devine met with DeMohrenschildt in NYC just two weeks after DeMohrenschildt claimed he asked Oswald, "Lee, how could you miss?" (Shooting at Edwin Walker) On that same April, 1963 day, Joseph Dryer, Dervine's best friend in Rochester, met seperately in NYC with DeMohrenschildt and Joseph Clemard Charles.

From "Our man in Haiti" by Joan Mellen


After I discovered from Devine's 1944 high school yearbook that Dryer's brother Peter had been a member (20 boys) of Devine's K-8 class
before departing for Choate, I wrote to Joan to inquire whether Joseph Dryer had mentioned Devine.



What else do you have?



A.U.V. secret society house at Phillips Andover, pictured above, is described below as a "small cottage"!

Hooker's mother married DeMohrenschildt's brother, Dimitri, in 1936, DeMohrenschildt was married in a ceremony
in their home in 1943. George DeMohrenschildt and Hooker formed an oil exploration company in 1950.
Hooker was member of the DeMohrenschildt - Sharples 1951 wedding party, The Philip Sharples Palm Beach home on the end of a cul-de-sac
was two lots away from the architect who designed it, MS Wyeth, Sr., residing at 152 Woodbridge.

MS Wyeth Jr. was book editor for 14 years of the long awaited, Marina and Lee. Wyeth Jr.'s wedding party included Hawley Ward, a prep school classmate.
Hawley Ward, prior to meeting Wyeth, Jr., was a classmate of Thomas Devine for eight years in a class of 20 boys!

https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/L1NY-NL5/edward-gordon-hooker-1923-1967

Edward Gordon Hooker (1923-1967) - FamilySearch.org
Brief Life History of Edward Gordon Edward Gordon Hooker was born in 1923. Edward entered prep school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. There, he shared a small cottage with George H. W. "Poppy" Bush. Bush and Hooker became inseparable. They worked together on Pot Pourri, the student yearbook, whose photos show a handsome young Poppy Bush and an even more handsome

https://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,3098.msg116059.html#msg116059
Have I at least overcome "the propinquity" discounting? I opened this thread in an deliberately uncomplicated way.

1. Three names, George Bush, Tom Devine, Priscilla Johnson Macmillan

2. Tom Devine's wedding announcement, followed by a 1955 article on the back ground of Devine's "best man," William B. Macomber, Jr.

3. The 1940 roster of the house mates of A.U.V., a Phillips Andover secret society, highlighting three names,
George Bush, William B. Macomber, Jr., Edward Gordon Hooker (step-nephew and later business partner of George DeMohrenschildt.)

4. Out of this simple, three step introduction, DeMohrenschildt somehow became an "unknown" to Tom Devine and to his close Rochester friend, Joseph F. Dryer, Jr., and those two friends, even to each other, except for their good luck of holding separate meetings with DeMohrenschildt literally hours apart in NYC on or about April 25, 1963, two weeks after DeMohrenschildt was aware Lee Harvey Oswald had shot a rifle at Edwin Walker through a window in the latter's Dallas home! To top it off, Tom Devine's M.I.T. frat house mate, Garry Coit, is assigned to handle Priscilla Johnson MacMillan.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=52102#relPageId=7&search=nattily

"Bemis" was "fingered" by Billy Joe Lord in his 1977 letter to President Carter. The FBI claimed it could not locate him.
As Lord described, Bemis owned a "string of hotels" and was active in Virginia politics. We know now that Gerry Bemiss
matched Lord's description, was Bush's close friend since childhood, and was a first cousing of Henry Hurt's wife!
See: https://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,2735.msg112146.html#msg112146