JFK Assassination Forum

JFK Assassination Plus General Discussion & Debate => JFK Assassination Plus General Discussion And Debate => Topic started by: Benjamin Cole on September 19, 2025, 10:17:38 AM

Title: Joan Mellen and RFK?
Post by: Benjamin Cole on September 19, 2025, 10:17:38 AM
Someone recently herein wrote about Joan Mellen and her dubious theories about RFK and LHO.

I can't find it.

Mellen also wrote some full-on crackpot stuff about the USS Liberty event.

I am planning a post.
Title: Re: Joan Mellen and RFK?
Post by: Tom Graves on September 19, 2025, 12:49:00 PM
Someone recently herein wrote about Joan Mellen and her dubious theories about RFK and LHO.

I can't find it.

Mellen also wrote some full-on crackpot stuff about the USS Liberty event.

I am planning a post.

And this ties into the JFKA how?
Title: Re: Joan Mellen and RFK?
Post by: Steve M. Galbraith on September 19, 2025, 03:01:20 PM
Someone recently herein wrote about Joan Mellen and her dubious theories about RFK and LHO.

I can't find it.

Mellen also wrote some full-on crackpot stuff about the USS Liberty event.

I am planning a post.
Lance Payette had one most recently: https://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,4498.msg168592.html#msg168592
Title: Re: Joan Mellen and RFK?
Post by: Lance Payette on September 19, 2025, 08:34:46 PM
I also have one on here somewhere about Mellen's hallucinatory version of Oswald's brief stay in the New Orleans jail.
Title: Re: Joan Mellen and RFK?
Post by: Michael T. Griffith on September 20, 2025, 12:30:21 AM
Someone recently herein wrote about Joan Mellen and her dubious theories about RFK and LHO.
I can't find it. Mellen also wrote some full-on crackpot stuff about the USS Liberty event.
I am planning a post.

Joan Mellen was a mixed bag. The quality of her scholarship greatly depended on ideology. When her ideology overrode her objectivity on an issue, her scholarship was awful, such as her claims about the Vietnam War, the USS Liberty, Israel in general, and MLK's character. When her ideology did not override her objectivity, her scholarship was usually solid, sometimes outstanding.

Title: Re: Joan Mellen and RFK?
Post by: Tom Graves on September 20, 2025, 12:53:10 AM
Joan Mellen was a mixed bag. The quality of her scholarship greatly depended on ideology. When her ideology overrode her objectivity on an issue, her scholarship was awful, such as her claims about the Vietnam War, the USS Liberty, Israel in general, and MLK's character.

And her twisting and spreading CIA historian Kenneth J. McDonald's mistakes (due to a 1992 patchwork report put together by his staff) in asserting "Clay Shaw was a highly paid CIA contract source," when in fact he was a highly valued contact source from 1948 to 1956.
Title: Re: Joan Mellen and RFK?
Post by: Benjamin Cole on September 20, 2025, 01:12:07 AM
SG--
Thanks man
Title: Re: Joan Mellen and RFK?
Post by: Benjamin Cole on September 20, 2025, 01:56:26 AM
Joan Mellen was a mixed bag. The quality of her scholarship greatly depended on ideology. When her ideology overrode her objectivity on an issue, her scholarship was awful, such as her claims about the Vietnam War, the USS Liberty, Israel in general, and MLK's character. When her ideology did not override her objectivity, her scholarship was usually solid, sometimes outstanding.

My guess is Mellen "potted out" at some point. Some of her Garrison stuff was OK (although now I have my doubts on anything that cannot be verified), but after that...

Yes, you are correct, Mellen is in that vast legion of JFKA researchers for who ideology determines the agenda, and the agenda writes the JFKA narrative.

Unfortunately, in the early decades after the JFKA, 90% of the CT'ers were liberals, or even further left.

I have no problem with anyone's ideologies, from communist to libertarian. That is your point of view, and no one  cares.

But when your ideology colors the narrative....James DiEugenio is going deep down this route. Doing a Joan Mellen?

Mellen actually contends LBJ was part of the USS Liberty sinking, and had four fighter-jets headed towards Cairo, loaded with nukes, and ready to drop...when, not according to plan, the ship did not sink. So LBJ nixed the nuke job on Cairo at the very last moment.

If she believes that...should we believe her JFKA coverage? Or is that a warning sign?