Posted on 08/17/2006 3:07:06 PM PDT by Fedora
John Kerry and Ned Lamonts Common Ancestry
Corliss Lamont and the VVAW
By Fedora
When John Kerry threw his political machines fundraising support to Ned Lamont this week, he was in a sense returning a favor the Lamont family had once done for Kerrys old organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Prior to Kerrys affiliation with that group, Ned Lamonts great-uncle Corliss Lamont and his great-aunt Helen had actually helped finance the creation of the VVAW in 1967.
In August 1972, as US government prosecutors were preparing a case against VVAW members indicted in the Gainesville Eight case, FBI headquarters collected its field offices reports on the VVAW into an Information Digest Special Report. In the process of documenting the VVAWs links to the Communist Party (CP) and Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the report mentioned the role Corliss and Helen Lamont played in funding the creation of the VVAW.
The text of the report, taken from Section 32 of FBI File HQ 100-448092, is available online at Winter Soldier.com, along with a guide to key individuals and groups mentioned in the report (Scroll down the Whats New section to the link for August 20, 2005). The first passage in the report mentioning the Lamonts begins as follows [bracketed text in italics indicates the FBIs notes handwritten on the typed original document]:
On May 8, 1967, Corliss Lamont [C.P. Member], identified as a member of CPUSA in sworn testimony before a Senate Committee in August, 1951, wrote to a Bernard Koten stating that he would contribute $1,000 [the first of several large payments to be made during the next year] toward the cost of the New York Times advertisement calling for the Memorial Day action.The Lamont letter concluded, "We [Helen and Corliss] agree with you and Wolins that the Vets can be very important in stopping Johnson's war of aggression in Vietnam.
The Memorial Day action mentioned here refers to the event which spawned the VVAW. The event was a May 30, 1967 Memorial Day demonstration organized by Veterans for Peace (VFP), an antiwar group founded in Chicago in 1966 by Leroy Wolins, a Communist Party member and leader of the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. (NOTE: There is also a present-day group called Veterans for Peace that was formally founded in 1985.) Wolins, New York antiwar groups linked to the CP and SWP, and Vietnam veteran Jan Barry Crumb planned to use the demonstration to attract Vietnam veterans to the antiwar movement. The demonstration was promoted through an ad placed in the New York Times, paid for by the Lamonts as mentioned above. During the demonstration Crumb recruited five veterans, who joined him to convene the first meeting of the VVAW on June 1, 1967. VFP continued to support the VVAW as it grew and expanded, and remained particularly close to the VVAW in certain regional branches such as the Chicago VVAW.
After mentioning Lamonts letter to Koten, the FBI report goes on to emphasize the considerable significance of Kotens background. It notes Kotens links to Soviet front groups and his 1956 appearance before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. During Kotens appearance he was represented by Joseph Forer, a member of the CP-linked National Lawyers Guild and law partner of identified CP member David Rein. The FBI report observes, In 1966-67, David Rein was president pro tem of the VFP Washington, D.C. organization.
The report then discusses Wolins background before continuing:
On June 30, 1967, a check for $488.52 was sent to Corliss Lamont by the VFP organization with a covering letter which said:"The contributions on the ad came to something under 50% of its cost. Pursuant to our commitment, we're accordingly returning to you herewith our check for $488.52. Thanks again for your help in making the ad possible. Its effectiveness in turn helped ensure the success of the Memorial Day action in Washington."
An addendum to the FBI report notes that Lamont later sent Koten payments for another ad in the New York Times to promote the VVAW in fall 1967:
On 10/3/67 Corliss Lamont sent a second contribution of $500 to Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) via Bernard Koten toward the cost of an antiwar advertisement which appeared in the New York Times 11/19/67 headed "Vietnam Veterans Speak Out."
From the seed of the Lamont familys contributions, the VVAW eventually grew into the organization that helped propel John Kerry to a Senate seat and Presidential candidacy. In this way, John Kerry also can be said to represent the lineage of Corliss Lamont, and his support of Ned Lamont can be seen as returning an old family favor to a distant political cousin.
Ping.
Thanks for posting..
His great uncle, Corliss Lamont, a humanist philosopher and civil liberties advocate was also an avowed Socialist and served as a Director of the ACLU from 1932 to 1954.
Hmmmm..."Coreless" Lamont. How fitting.
Damn, you people are good!
A direct link to the FBI report is here.
So, does this make Ned Lamont a red diaper baby of sorts?
Corliss Lamont (1902-1995): Professor, writer, and activist. Son of J.P. Morgan executive Thomas Lamont, who invited left-wing celebrities and intellectuals to the Lamont household and held liberal views on foreign policy and US-Soviet relations. Introduced to socialism by family friend H.G. Wells in the early 1920s, became sympathetic towards socialist philosophy over the course of the 1920s, and converted in 1928. Travelled to the Soviet Union in 1932 and afterward associated with numerous front groups and fellow-travelling groups, including the Friends of the Soviet Union/National Council on Soviet Relations/National Council of Soviet-American Friendship, the American Civil Liberties Union, the World Congress Against War, the New School for Social Research, the American Humanist Association, the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, the American Labor Party, and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Identified as CP member in 1951 Senate testimony. Contributed several thousand dollars via Bernard Koten (see entry) of Veterans for Peace (VFP) to help attract Vietnam veterans to antiwar cause through New York Times ad promoting VFP Memorial Day 1967 demonstration, which resulted in the creation of the VVAW. In October 1967 made contribution via Koten to help pay for VVAW recruitment ad that ran in the New York Times November 19, 1967.
I've been wondering that, too. I don't know for sure, but IIRC, in the wake of the Church Commmittee hearings Corliss sued the intelligence community in the 1970s over surveillance of him, and I believe the VVAW and a number of other antiwar groups/individuals (such as Fonda) were also participants in that suit or a related suit. So it may be they continued to travel together into the 1970s.
There is no need to impeach Hanoi Kerry from the US Senate
He is there illegally!
WAKEUP AMERICA!
For those who "forgot" what Hanoi Kerry
did in the past read on and learn the truth.
Hanoi Kerry was still a USNR officer while he:
gave false hearsay testimony to Congress
negotiated with the enemy
helped the US lose a war
abetted in the deaths of millions
created a hostile environment for all servicemen
Why is Kerry still in the US Senate?
This is in violation of
U.S. Constitution Amendment 14 Sec 3 (1868)
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress,
or elector of President and Vice President,
or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States,
or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath,
as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States,
or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer
of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States,
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same,
or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxiv.html
I think it raises the possibility, but we'd need more evidence about other members of the Lamont family and their relationship to Ned to say for sure.
ping.
Disregard last ping. You already posted.
Thanks for the ping
hanoi kerry went before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1971
to accuse the United States military
of committing massive numbers of war crimes in Vietnam.
hanoi kerry 1971 TESTIMONY
http://www.c-span.org/vote2004/jkerrytestimony.asp
Legislative Proposals Relating to the War in Southeast Asia Thursday, April 22, 1971
United States Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Washington, D.C.
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