Memogate/Watergate parallel

The forged memos are an ironic parallel to Watergate. In '72, White House "plumber" E. Howard Hunt was involved in an effort to discredit JFK by linking the dead president to the 1963 assassination of Pres. Diem of South Vietnam. The reason this was relevant in 1972 (at least to Nixonian thinking) was that brother Ted was still a potential candidate, and dirt thrown at his brother might stick to him.

Anyway, like those Democrats pushing the "AWOL" meme, Hunt found the documentary evidence lacking in some regards. He had access to State Department memos and cables, but there were gaps. He theorized that the incriminating cables had been "abstracted from the chronological sequence" by Kennedy operatives sometime in the past. So, he fabricated the missing cables.

Then he shopped the cables to various media outlets hoping they would take the bait. Life magazine was interested, but declined to use them without further proof. NBC however used them to bolster a "white paper" documentary on Vietnam.

When Watergate broke, Hunt's White House safe was drilled and these documents and others were removed. They were said to be "explosive" and "should never see the light of day." John Dean was told to "deep six" them. Eventually they were burned by acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray.

Of interest to the present case would be the possibility that the DNC is ironically emulating Nixon's plumbers, 32 years later, in forging documents to influence the election. Or is it a "third rate forgery" by disgruntled third parties?

Alternatively, in the DU universe, it might indicate a standard RNC m.o., more convoluted this time--a Rovian brain-wave meant to discredit the larger body of evidence.

RE: effort to discredit JFK

I don't know your remembrances of JFK but mine are not what is pushed today. I have stated in the past (some forty years) that Kennedy's "greatness" was due to just one thing: TV was new and he was telegenic. Period. Period. Period.

As I recall (I did not google to confirm my memory) LBJ pushed through the legislation that is often credited to Kennedy. Kennedy accomplished virtually nothing with the Congress.

Did Vaughn Meador help E. Howard Hunt fake the evidence of Kennedy's involvement in the coup against Ngo Dinh Diem?

Anyone keeping up the news in those days knew of the Kennedy Administration's involvement in the affairs of South Vietnam. We accepted it. Everyone wanted "good" government for the people in South Vietnam. We also knew that Robert Kennedy was ruthless like few before him. John and Robert were not nice guys. Imagine two Ted Kennedys each with a brain and sober.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB101/

Here you will find a link to an audio file described as "President Kennedy Meets with His National Security Council on the Question of Supporting a Coup in South Vietnam (10 minutes 55 seconds) From John Prados, ed. The White House Tapes: Eavesdropping on the President (New York: The New Press, 2003, 331 pp. + 8 CDs, ISBN 1-56584-852-7)"

Beldar Blog nails it with the September 15 post. Read the whole thing.

Excerpt:
Dan Rather was complicit in defrauding the American public in an attempt to defeat a sitting President.

Rather must be fired now. Congress should subpoena CBS News' lawyers and all documentation of their advice.

But Dan Rather and CBS News had become co-conspirators by the time of their broadcast. ABC News has revealed that two of the experts whom CBS News consulted before running the broadcast — Emily Will from North Carolina and Linda James of Plano, Texas — could not and would not authenticate the fraudulent Killian memos, and expressly told CBS that.

The first witness must be an appropriate custodian of records from CBS News, who must be directed to bring every shred of paper, every email, every piece of videotape, every computer file, every outtake, every script, every memorandum of staff meetings — and every bit of advice rendered by inside or outside legal counsel to CBS News prior to the broadcast. There is no attorney-client privilege to shield advice rendered to assist a client in the perpetration of a crime or a fraud. See, e.g., Swindler & Berlin v. United States, 524 U.S. 399 (1998); United States v. Zolin, 491 U.S. 554 (1989).

Hi William,

I was less interested in the personality of JFK than the parallels in the "dirty tricks" campaigning department.

Clearly, Hunt believed that JFK was involved in Diem's assassination, just like Democrats believe that Pres. Bush was AWOL and defied direct orders, etc. Without much luck in either case of rehashing old spotty evidence, new forged documents were created to get the press excited,

Note the passive voice! We still don't know who created those "Killian" documents, but Watergate wasn't unraveled in a day either.

As far as "knowing" the extent of US involvement in the Diem assassination, I would say that what we, as the public, think we know is at least partially suspect because of such political operations by Hunt et al. After all, he was able to use the forged cables to influence an NBC "white paper" documentary on Vietnam. That documentary was seen by millions and has entered the public consciousness on "what really happened." Very few, in contrast, read the Watergate testimony in any detail on this point, or any reports on the same.

Recall that a large part of the public believes things such as UFOs and that Oswald was a patsy. Public opinion is not rational, and political dirty tricksters play into that. Who knows how many millions never read blogs and such, but do see the CBS nightly news and in the final analysis just retain that Bush is lying about his National Guard service, deserted, whatever. Hopefully though, "this time it's different," and blogs, talk radio and so on will do a much better job getting the true story out to the masses, whatever that true story may yet turn out to be.

Here is some of what Hunt told the Watergate Committee:

Senator Talmadge: Now, you related yesterday about the fabrication of
cables from this country to Saigon, relating to the
Diem government. Could you state who directed you
to go to the State Department and look at those
cables?

Mr. Hunt: It was my suggestion initially. I was authorized
to do so by the State Department itself at the
request of Mr. David Young.

...

Senator Talmadge: Now, you got there and you found that you thought
some of those cables needed a little beefing up to
implicate the Kennedy administration [in Diem's
assassination]; is that what you recited?

Mr. Hunt: In effect, Senator, yes.

...

Senator Talmadge And the object of that fabrication was to alienate
the Catholic vote in the Presidential election of
1972?

Mr. Hunt: That would have been part of the thrust of the
cable; yes, sir.

Senator Talmadge: Who worked with you and directed your efforts in
that fabrication?

Mr. Hunt: I was directed solely by [White House counsel] Mr.
Charles Colson. No one worked with me.

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