More JFK files released Friday, Dec. 15

            The latest JFK files, released yesterday by the National          Archives: https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/nr18-16      

I recently read two JFK assassination books for background to the 2017 JFK Files release

            MINNEAPOLIS- I love the library.

            For years, they have been a great source of refuge and calm from the rigors of everyday life. I feel fortunate that I was able to access the Ramsey County Library system growing up. I still use my library card very often, and so many books are available for rent.

            Low-cost, high value as the saying goes.

            I returned to the public library recently as the Trump administration released some of the JFK files. One of the things I’ve learned as a journalism major is that print media is often more in-depth and contextual for finding information compared to broadcast media.

The major television networks ran with the partial JFK files release. Some of the major topics included discussing juicy stories about Martin Luther King’s FBI files documenting his personal life; the alleged romantic connection between actress Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedy brothers; and the often bizarre, but dangerous plans the CIA hatched during the Cold War, including inciting an invasion of Cuba by blowing things up in Miami.

Funny photoshop from imgur.com, but darker forces could be at play in the JFK assassination. Why were there two prior attempts on JFK before Dallas, but rarely mentioned by media or government sources?

As I’ve discussed, I’m interested in the JFK files as well, but more along the lines of figuring out if the assassination was the work of someone or something besides the Warren Commission’s conclusion of Lee Harvey Oswald.

            If you like this whodunit as well, I’d recommend reading “Ultimate Sacrifice” by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann from 2005, and “JFK and the Unspeakable” by James W. Douglass from 2008. I rented these books from the public library, but if your library doesn’t contain them, they’re also available for sale online.

Ultimate Sacrifice and the Cuba Plan aka “C-Day”

            To give a quick analysis, this book was written over a decade ago, and relies heavily on documents formerly released as part of the JFK Records Act of 1992. During the 1990s, a review board was set up by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Clinton to de-classify and release records dealing with the JFK assassination. This Assassinations Record and Review Board (ARRB) spawned many of today’s researchers into angles of the assassination that were not publicly acknowledged by the US government for over 30 years.

            An interesting note about this book is that it was co-written by Thom Hartmann, a radio broadcaster who’s program is carried by Twin Cities station AM-950 weekday afternoons.

Photo from Goodreads.com

            Along with researcher Lamar Waldron, the authors use these declassified documents to show that at the time of the JFK assassination, several sections of the government were training anti-Castro Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba in December of 1963.

            The government wasn’t alone here: the authors also detail documents tying organized crime figures to the December invasion, code-named “C-Day”: Chicago-based mobster Sam Giancana; Dallas crime lord Carlos Marcello; and Tampa-based kingpin Santo Trafficante.

            

            These three underworld figures assisted the CIA in efforts to recruit hit men and anonymous underlings to try and overthrow Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba. In “Ultimate Sacrifice”, it’s noted that several areas throughout the United States in the 1960s were used as training grounds for mercenaries to do target practice, endurance tests, and covert sabotage on the Cuban island. Basically, these were military style boot camps not supposed to be known by the larger American population.

Pinterest photograb of Marcello and Trafficante, two of three main possible conspirators of the JFK assassination. Attempts were made on JFK in Dallas and Tampa, the home bases of these Mafia heads.

            These criminal elements were angry about lost business opportunities due to Castro nationalizing large swaths of lands and resources for the Cuban population. Casinos were closed, American business owners kicked out and in some cases arrested, and the overall criminal influence the mob had previously exerted severely handicapped.

            This book explains how what was originally gun-running and small sabotage operations run by CIA and Mafia-supported anti-Castro mercenaries eventually splintered into two important groups following the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion: paramilitary groups under the eye and purse of the Kennedy administration, and another Castro resistance sector dominated by unaffiliated criminal figures and rogue soldiers-of-fortune.

Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Cuba stymied the United States for decades. Photo from radio rebelde.

            The book notes how the CIA was operational in both sectors, and may have used this to facilitate the JFK assassination.

            The first paramilitary groups were eventually consolidated into the C-Day operations planned at the highest levels of the JFK administration. They were in the dark about the finer points of the covert plan, but the groups were supposed to be ready to land in Cuba by air and sea following a “coup” that would have taken place in December 1963, engineered by Juan Almeida of the Cuban military.

            However, “Ultimate Sacrifice” shows in detail and declassified documents how the plan never even came close, due to the Mafia and some members of the intelligence community opposed to Kennedy “turning” elements of the C-Day plan on Kennedy himself.

            I found the book a very detailed and exciting account of what may have led to the JFK assassination. Prior to reading, I didn’t know the US government was planning yet another Cuba operation after the Bay of Pigs failure in 1961, and the near nuclear exchange with Russia following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

            Also important was that “Ultimate Sacrifice” discusses attempts made on JFK before Dallas: in Chicago (early November) and Tampa (mid November). While studying at the University of Minnesota, I had a chance to interview Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden about this. Bolden was the first African-American Secret Service agent on White House detail, and he had a very important role to play in the attempted Chicago assassination on JFK.

            Organized crime was under intense scrutiny by the Justice Department, headed by JFK’s younger brother Robert Kennedy, during the 1960s. At the same time, hawkish members of the defense and intelligence communities weren’t satisfied with JFK’s moves regarding Cuba and Russia. They felt an invasion of Cuba and nuclear pre-emptive strikes in Russia or Southeast Asia were bound to happen, the sooner the better.

Historians believe the Kennedy Administration opened more investigations and got more prosecutions into organized crime than any presidential administration before the 1960s. Photo from KPBS.org 

            Large groups of anti-Castro exiles in the United States, particularly in Florida and Louisiana, felt betrayed by JFK when the president didn’t order an air attack on Castro’s military during the Bay of Pigs. Some of these groups also thought that JFK, and by extension parts of the military, were playing favorites with which exile groups to financially and materially support.

            Ultimately, “Ultimate Sacrifice” is a heavily documented account of how these seemingly different groups had the means, motive and opportunity to coalesce around a shared dislike of the JFK administration.

              

Observe JFK documents here:

https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/2017-release