JFK Assassination Forum

SMG-

We should probably start a new thread on this one. Holiday season, so this is a rush job:

Lucien Conein was CIA, detailed to Army, and provided large amounts of cash to Big Minh, as part of and to finance the coup.

Ambassador Lodge, essentially the proconsul of SV (unlike modern ambassadors), wanted the Diems out. Lodge warned JFK (in recorded sessions) that the coup would likely be lethal to the Diems. JFK ok'ed the coup.

Conein would complain later he asked for a plane to evacuate the Diems, but was told it would take a long time, a curiosity as the US had a big airbase at Danang. Something like a two-day delay.

The top U.S. Marine in South Vietnam was Major General Victor H. Krulak, and he is also on the record as stating he never heard of any plans to evacuate the Diems, by plane or otherwise.

It is known that Lodge did not want the Diems to establish a government in exile.

JFK had an unusual, nearly unhinged, dislike for Madame Nhu.

Some have suspected Ed Lansdale organized a "revenge" assassination, as Lansdale had been close to the Diems, and had worked with the Diems to establish SV.

The CIA station in Saigon backed the Diems, but Conein said he was under orders from Lodge.

I posted on this in the now dubious Education Forum, and will cross post shortly.

Happy New Year!

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/vietnam/2020-11-01/new-light-dark-corner-evidence-diem-coup-november-1963

https://prde.upress.virginia.edu/content/JFK_Vietnam2

https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/was-jfk-behind-the-assassination-of-diem

The above articles scratch the surface....

Some people say Gov. JBC was shot through the wrist while holding his cowboy hat.



The image above is Z-223. JFK was likely shot ~Z-220 in his upper back.

OK, JBC does not look injured, although, according to the SBT, a slug has passed through his chest, taking out part of rib, exited his front, leaving a large gaping wound, then entered the dorsal side of his wrist and fractured it, before penetrating his left thigh.

I don't see JBC's gray cowboy hat in Z-223, unless it is the blue-ish (not red!) smudge on his chest, below the tie of the necktie. If that is cowboy hat, then JBC is very likely holding it with the ventral side of his wrist facing his chest.

Could a bullet have passed through the wrist holding the cowboy hat, and then entered his left thigh? The wrist seems too close to the right side of JBC.

How did the bullet pass through JBC's wrist from the dorsal (wristwatch side)?

At Z-227, JBC appears to holding his cowboy hat in front of himself, although the image is blurry.

https://assassinationresearch.com/zfilm/

JBC and his wife both said the shot pattern was: JFK struck by the first audible shot, JBC by the second, and JFK by the third.

Something doesn't add up about the SBT.

Is his right shoulder significantly lower than his left shoulder?

Yes, and it could have been caused by a miniature UFO, too.

There was evidence of bone shards: 7-8 bone fragments, maybe more according to Dr. Gregory (4 H 120).  No evidence of a UFO, miniature or otherwise.

TG-

This is not speculation, but observation: The CIA often used personnel who were detailed from other defense agencies.

For example, when the Kennedy Administration decided to have the SV Diem brothers waxed, they turned over dirty work to Lucien Conein, US Army officer but actual OSS/CIA operative.

Same deal on Hemming?

I'm straying far from the original topic but I have to ask: You think Conein killed the Diem brothers? It wasn't the coup plotters?

The accounts I've read said that he was enraged and devastated at their deaths. And at the time of their deaths he was either at the American Embassy or the JGS headquarters. He certainly wasn't with the Diems or the plotters. So how could he kill them?

And who in the Kennedy Administration gave the order to "wax" the Diems? The evidence for me is that they certainly looked the other way, told the coup plotters that they couldn't endorse the act but had no opinion on it otherwise. That's essentially a green light (I'm surprised that JFK was stunned when he learned about their deaths). I think Lodge in particular was guilty of letting it happen. He could have ordered a flight for them to get them out. Anyway, it's my understanding that it was Big Mingh and his followers who killed them not Conein.

Here's an account by Rufus Phillips who was there during the coup (from his book: "Why Vietnam Matters"). Phillips was a CIA officer stationed at the US Embassy in Saigon. The "Lou" is Conein. Yes, for example isn't proof but I am not aware of contrary evidence that Conein endorsed the killing or called for it or okayed it much less did it himself.

The exit wound on the palm side of the wrist could have been made by a bone shard.

Yes, and it could have been caused by a miniature UFO, too.