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I happen to like (some of) John Lennon's music, and I was saddened at his death, but I do not care for his politics. I have been following the investigation of Lennon's murder since the late 1980s, when Fenton Bresler published a book called Who Killed John Lennon?, which discussed the US intelligence community's surveillance of Lennon and drew sinister, unsubstantiated conclusions from this. Contrary to Bresler's book and the present article, the US intelligence community had justifiable cause to monitor Lennon. In my previous post Hanoi John: Kerry and the Antiwar Movement’s Communist Connections, I included a footnote referencing the portions of Lennon's FBI file that had been released at that time:
While in contact with these foreign groups, the VVAW helped antiwar groups gather intelligence on US military installations, operations, and troop movements.281 Meanwhile to pressure the Nixon administration to halt US bombing against North Vietnam, the VVAW engaged in a series of increasingly militant actions beginning in late 1971. Over the 1971 Christmas holiday, VVAW members—among them Kerry’s associate Joe Bangert—protested US bombing by taking over several national monuments around the country, including the Lincoln Memorial and Statue of Liberty, and defacing them with antiwar messages.282 In April 1972, at Hanoi’s direction, the VVAW sent members to Washington to participate in “Dewey Canyon IV” and related demonstrations organized by the NPAC and PCPJ. In coordination with these demonstrations the NPAC staged a simultaneous demonstration in New York, at which Kerry spoke.283 In May 1972, to protest US bombing and mining operations, VVAW members cornered George H.W. Bush, then United States ambassador to the United Nations, and dumped blood on him.284 In August 1972, the VVAW helped a PCPJ-linked coalition of antiwar groups disrupt the Republican National Convention in Miami by physically attacking delegates and police.285 While this was going on outside the convention, Nixon’s Republican rival Senator Paul McCloskey—a VVAW ally whom Kerry had expressed support for in his January Dartmouth College speech286—gave three wheelchaired VVAW members passes so they could try to sneak in and make a scene by pretending to offer to shake President Nixon’s hand and then physically grabbing and detaining him until he agreed to listen to VVAW demands.287 Staying with VVAW member Sheldon Ramsdell in the hotel where the convention was held was John Kerry’s sister Peggy.288
285 Stacewicz, 305-313; Nicosia, Home to War, 229-282; FBI files, “Vietnam Veterans Against the War”, FBI HQ 100-448092, Sections 21-48, online at www.wintersolider.com, http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/fbifiles/100-HQ-448092/Section%20037/SECTION%20037.pdf, pdf file HQ 100-448092 Sections 21-48 (September 4, 2004). Cf. FBI files, “John Lennon”, online at Federal Bureau of Investigation—Freedom of Information Privacy Act, http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/lennon.htm (September 5, 2004).
It did not fall within the scope of my article to elaborate on this, though I considered it. But in the present context, I would like to draw attention to the file referenced here and mention that it describes Lennon's financial support of EYSIC, a group I have summarized in another commentary on the VVAW:
[Rennie Davis] After Dewey Canyon III helped VVAW and other antiwar groups plan disruption of 1972 Republican National Convention by organizing remnant of May Day Tribe into new group, first called the Allamuchy Tribe and then renamed the Election Year Strategy Information Committee (EYSIC; see entry for “Miami Convention Coalition”). While planning 1972 riot, took plane to attend Soviet-sponsored World Assembly for the Peace and Independence of the Peoples of Indochina (see entry) in Versailles, France from February 11-13, 1972. Intended after assembly to go to Vietnam and China, but on plane to France was introduced by friend Larry Canada and Canada’s associate Charles Cameron to Divine Light Mission cult of Guru Maharaj Ji, and instead decided to go to India to meet Maharaj Ji. Converted to Divine Light Mission cult and drifted away from activism into psychedelic mysticism over the course of 1972. Meanwhile participated in VVAW’s riot at Republican National Convention and in Hayden and Jane Fonda’s Indochina Peace Campaign (IPC).
The entry for the Miami Convention Coalition referred to here was omitted from the posted draft of this (at least in the copy I have saved on my computer), but my original reads as follows:
Miami Convention Coalition: Outgrowth of the San Diego Coalition, a plot by a coalition of antiwar groups to disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention, which was originally scheduled for San Diego but was moved to Miami after authorities discovered the plot. The coalition’s leaders included Rennie Davis of the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ--see entries for Davis and PCPJ) May Day Tribe faction and Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman of the Youth International Party (Yippies), who had previously helped organize the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the 1971 Mayday demonstration that followed the VVAW’s Dewey Canyon III rally. Modelled on the May Day Tribe, the core of the coalition was initially called the Allamuchy Tribe and then renamed the Election Year Strategy Information Committee (EYSIC). EYSIC was founded in the basement of former Beatle John Lennon, then associating with the Yippies and PCPJ and the Yippie-linked Committee to Free John Sinclair. Lennon donated $75,000 for the creation of EYSIC and planned to tour the country recruiting protestors for the convention, though he later cancelled for fear of being deported back to Britain. Lennon meanwhile paid for Yoko Ono’s Project YES to fund Rennie Davis’ trip to the Versailles, France February 11-13, 1972 World Assembly for the Peace and Independence of the Peoples of Indochina, a front for the Soviet front the World Peace Council. Accompanying Davis’ PCPJ associate Sidney Peck to Versailles was VVAW leader Al Hubbard. Upon returning to the United States on February 20, Hubbard joined a VVAW National Steering Committee meeting in Denver Colorado and participated in discussion of the San Diego VVAW’s role in planning the San Diego Coalition’s activities. VVAW leaders resolved that the VVAW would support the San Diego Coalition and that a San Diego veterans contingent would serve as a liaison between the VVAW National Steering Committee and the San Diego Coalition.
Lennon was also surrounded by other subversive groups--in some cases with his knowledge, as with his support for John Sinclair's White Panther Party, but also often without his knowledge, as the Beatles tended to attract a large amount of favor-seekers from various financial interests, political groups, and religious cults seeking to capitalize on the group's wealth and social contacts.
I mention all this to correct the misleading impression left by this article that "the national security claims that the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning". Lennon himself was probably not much of a national security threat-he was too stoned to be very politically engaged (he once said something to the effect that he was continuously high from about 1965 to 1976)--but he was in contact with people who certainly were.
Ping of Vietnam-era interest.
Thanks for taking the time to post all that Fedora. That is exactly what I was getting at, but too lazy to spell out.
"Lennon himself was probably not much of a national security threat-he was too stoned to be very politically engaged..."
As you undoubtedly know, this was the eventual conclusion from the FBI as well.
Thanks...