David Talbot & The True Kennedy Story

The True Kennedy Story

I’M WRITING TO ENLIST YOUR SUPPORT for a project that I think is vital. I’m producing a feature documentary about John and Robert Kennedy that I hope will make a powerful statement about the true Kennedy legacy—and help counter the sludge of disinformation about the lives and deaths of JFK and RFK that has already begun pouring out of Hollywood as the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination approaches.

My documentary, “Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years,” based on my 2007 bestseller, will tell the most important story about the Kennedys — how they tried to shift the country from its path of Cold War militarism, and how they were killed by national security forces within their own government opposed to this peaceful strategy.

The United States was deeply damaged by the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy—twin traumas that set the country on a course of violence and greed from which we continue to suffer today. John and Robert Kennedy were not killed by lone nuts. They were murdered for a reason. No president since JFK or major presidential candidate since RFK has displayed the courage or commitment to challenge the permanent war complex that has ruled America since World War II. Until Americans fully understand their own hidden history, they will be doomed to keep repeating it.

And yet the dramatic movies and TV shows now being churned out by Hollywood including Joel Surnow’s trashy TV miniseries on the Kennedys and Tom Hanks’ forthcoming HBO miniseries about the JFK assassination—once again grossly distort the crucial Kennedy story. These Hollywood dramas continue to portray the Kennedys as corrupt playboys not worthy of America’s tears, or cover up their assassinations all over again as the work of crazy misfits.

Those of us who care deeply about this critical turning point in American history—and about the cause of truth—are locked in a culture war. And we’re losing. Back in 1991, Oliver Stone’s brave and powerful movie “JFK” shed a new light on the terrible crimes of Dallas and inspired a new round of public scrutiny.

But ever since then, we’ve been subjected to a media backlash of lies and distortions. The public has been barraged by deceitful books like Seymour Hersh’s “Dark Side of Camelot” and Vincent Bugliosi’s “Reclaiming History,” which propagated the CIA’s view of President Kennedy and his assassination. And now we’re bracing for “TV events” like Tom Hanks’ miniseries, which is based on Bugliosi’s 1,600-page coverup, and movies like “Ultimate Sacrifice,” an upcoming Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle based on a book that blames JFK’s murder on the Mafia and the Kennedys’ own policies on Cuba.

As the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination approaches, it is vital that the American public be given the opportunity to see the unprocessed truth. It is time, at long last, that we break through the hall of mirrors that the CIA constructed around the
violent deaths of both Kennedy brothers.

Fifteen years ago I founded Salon, in response to the corporate-managed news machine. I am now determined to challenge the official story by producing a beautiful and compelling feature-length documentary about the Kennedys. Like my book, “Brothers,” the documentary will tell the gripping story of Robert Kennedy’s search for the truth about the murder of his brother. In the course of this story, viewers will come to understand the Kennedys’ true heroism, as they confronted the military and intelligence forces that were pushing the world toward a nuclear inferno.

No Hollywood studio or network will touch the true Kennedy story. See the article I wrote for Salon about the ongoing Hollywood coverup, which you can find in
this brochure.

In order to tell the truth, we must raise enough money to make “Brothers” as an independent documentary feature. Working with an award-winning documentary team, I’m confident that I can produce a critically and commercially successful film that shifts the country’s understanding of this history.

Please join me in this effort by either contributing financially or connecting me to wealthy individuals who might be so inclined. If you’re willing to host fundraising parties at your home where we can make a presentation, this would also be very helpful. All
contributions will be tax-deductible.

The 50th anniversary of JFK’s death in 2013 provides us with what will likely be the final window in our lifetimes to tell the truth. The Kennedy family understands this, and two of Robert’s children have expressed their support for this project.

I will greatly appreciate any assistance you can offer. You can contact me or my colleague Karen Croft at the email addresses or the phone numbers below for more information.

Thank you.
David Talbot
david@talbotplayers.com
415-265-6473

Karen Croft
karen@talbotplayers.com
415-474-0667

Monterey Language Institute - Presidio

Dick Russell, in The Man Who Knew To Much wrote: The official record on Oswald makes no mention of his having received official tutelage in any language during his Marine years. However, at a Warren Commission executive session whose minutes were declassified in 1974, chief counsel J. Lee Rankin is quoted saying of Oswald: “We are trying….to find out what he studied at the Monterey School of the Army in the way of languages.”

California’s Monterey School, where Ricahrd Nagell had received his own extensive language training, was still quite active when Oswald was stationed in California in 1959...

In Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald
http://www.jfk-online.com/jfk100wholho.html
It is noted:

However, Lee Oswald wasn't trained in Russian, and his military file discloses no such training. Several of his fellow Marines recalled Oswald teaching himself Russian, and he apparently requested to take a written examination to test his knowledge. The examination is part of Oswald's USMC file, and no attempt was made to conceal it from the Warren Commission. The existence of the exam was voluntarily disclosed to the Commission during the deposition of Lt. Col. Allison G. Folsom of the Marine Corps's Personnel Department, Records Branch.(23)

23. Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. VIII, p. 307. There has been speculation that Oswald attended classes at the Army's Monterey Language School (now the Defense Language Institute), fueled by a statement of Lee Rankin, chief counsel to the Warren Commission, that the Commission was looking into a rumor that Oswald had attended classes at the school. The Commission investigated the matter and concluded that Oswald had not studied there. As author Gerald Posner notes, Monterey was not an intelligence facility, and its records show that Oswald never attended a single class there. (Gerald Posner, Case Closed [New York: Random House, 1993], p. 63.)

Apparently there are two Monterey Language Institutes - Monterey Language Institute
Graduate School of Middlebury College (since 2005) 460 Pierce St. Monterey, CA 93940
and the DLIFLC – Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center http://www.dliflc.edu/index.html

The Monterey Institute of International Studies was established in 1955 as the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies by founders Gaspard Weiss, Remsen Bird, and Dwight Morrow, Jr., who envisioned a graduate school that promoted international understanding through the study of language and culture. While the institute’s name has evolved, its core identity as an innovative leader in international professional education has remained constant. Over the decades the Institute has grown, adding new programs, faculty, and students to expand its global reach and educational mission. In 1961, the school moved to its current downtown Monterey location, where it presently occupies 14 buildings that house two graduate schools, multiple research centers, and numerous special programs.

Gaspard Weiss was apparently a Nazi collaborator during WWII.

1952:Teacher Denies Nazi Past : IN OUR PAGES:100, 75 AND 50 YEARS AGO
Published: December 7, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/07/opinion/07iht-edold_ed3__14.html

MONTEREY, Calif.: Gaspard Weiss, chairman of the French department of the Army's foreign language school, denied he was a "Nazi sympathizer" with a collaborationist record in France. He admitted that he and his wife Louise were convicted in absentia and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1945 by a court at Poiters, on a charge of "intelligence with the enemy." But he said the tribunal was a Communist-dominated "people's court" acting from "vengeance" over his clashes with the Communists during the war.

Remsen Bird was pals with Aldus Huxley, one of Oswald's favorite writers.

REMSEN DuBOIS BIRD President, Occidental College, 1921-1946 http://departments.oxy.edu/library/digitalarch/web/bird/bird_bio2.htm
(This Biography is adapted primarily from Joan P. Olson's Remsen DuBois Bird: A Biography, a Master of Arts thesis written in 1977...Bird's feelings were hurt by some of the criticism, particularly the publication in 1939 of After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley, whom Bird had regarded as a friend. In his satirical novel, Huxley portrays the character based on Bird...Bird announced his resignation from Occidental College in 1945, citing health reasons. For the next 25 years he and Helen resided in Carmel, California where he remained active in preserving the natural beauty of the Monterey Bay area and in the founding of the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies in 1955. Remsen Bird died of heart disease on April 9, 1971.

The third co-founder of the MLI Dwight Morrow, Jr. was the son of the US Ambassador to Mexico and the US Senator from New Jersey who replaced Walter Edge - the Press of Atlantic City Publisher who is a featured character in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

Morrow Sr.'s daughter married Charles Lindberg, and it was her son who was kidnapped, and it is her brother, one of the three founders of the MLI who was suspected of having committed the crime.

A Talent to Deceive: Who Really Killed the Lindbergh Baby?
http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Deceive-Really-Killed-Lindbergh/product-reviews/0744315948 Norris' take on the case is that Dwight Morrow's son, Dwight Morrow Jr. is responsible for the kidnapping/death of the Lindbergh baby.

More likely Oswald learned Russian from some affiliation with the Defense Language Institute

DLIFLC – Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center
http://www.dliflc.edu/index.html

The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) traces its roots to the eve of America’s entry into World War II, when the U.S.Army established a secret school at the Presidio of San Francisco to teach the Japanese language.

Colonel James L. Collins, Jr. was born in El Paso into a family steeped in Army tradition.North Dakota National Guardsmen ashore at Utah Beach during the 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy. He served in Vietnam during the war there and in Korea. A linguist who was fluent in French, Italian, German and Spanish, he was a former commanding officer of the Army language school at Monterey, California, and from 1959 to 1962 was the first director of a coordinated Defense Language Institute in Washington. He also spoke some Russian and was an intelligence officer at times during his career. http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jlcollinsjr.htm

At the Presidio of Monterey, the renamed Army Language School (ALS) expanded rapidly in 1947–48 to meet the requirements of America’s global commitments during the Cold War. Instructors, including native speakers of more than thirty languages and dialects, were recruited from all over the world. Russian became the largest language program, followed by Chinese, Korean, and German. After the Korean War (1950–53), the school developed a national reputation for excellence in foreign language education. ALS led the way with the audio-lingual method and the application of educational technology such as the language laboratory.

DLIFLC is a multi-service school for active and reserve components, foreign military students, and civilian personnel working in the federal government and various law enforcement agencies. Instruction takes place in eight separate LANGUAGE SCHOOLS. The present facilities at the PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY accommodate approximately 3,500 Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen, as well as select Department of Defense (DoD) members and the U.S. Coast Guard. To attend DLIFLC one must be a member of the Armed Forces or be sponsored by a government agency.

To further advance student knowledge in a particular language, DLIFLC has designed an IMMERSION PROGRAM which consists of an off site facility where students spend from one to three days in an isolated environment with their instructors and are not allowed to speak English. The facility is equipped with kitchens and sleeping quarters, while the program consists of real-world exercises, from bargaining for food and clothing at a market place, to going through customs, or making hotel reservations. DLIFLC also sends a number of students on 30-day in-country immersions to countries such as Egypt, Korea, China, the Ukraine, etc.

Non-resident, or Post-Basic instruction primarily takes place in the CONTINUING EDUCATION (CE) directorate, which is located near the Presidio at Ord Military Community in Seaside, Calif. Intermediate, advanced and refresher courses are conducted at this facility. DLIFLC also maintains LANGUAGE TRAINING DETACHMENTS (LTD) at 13 sites throughout the continental United States and Hawaii, where DLIFLC instructors are assigned to teach language sustainment and enhancement courses at the demand of the particular military service.

CE is also the home of the FIELD SUPPORT AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS DIVISION, which provides pre-deployment basic language and cultural awareness training to service members. Instructor MOBILE TRAINING TEAMS travel year-round to deliver from two days to four weeks of training, depending on the demands of the requesting unit. Additionally, DLIFLC instructors teach within the scope of the Professional Military Education System at military schools such as the Command and General Staff College, the Air War College, and Naval Postgraduate School.

To support the general purpose force, DLIFLC produces LANGUAGE SURVIVAL KITS (LSK) which are pocket size pamphlets with CDs designed to be used in the field and range in topics from search and cordon, to medical terminology. LSKs exist in more than 30 languages and can contain up to 12 different topical domains within one language. Each year the Institute ships more than 250,000 LSKs to deploying forces.

DLIFLC has designed a new program called HEADSTART, consisting of an interactive 80-hour self-paced DVD which teaches basic language, culture and limited reading and writing. The Avatar characters used in this product are designed to function along the lines of today’s interactive computer games. Headstart is currently available in Iraqi Arabic, and Dari and Pashto spoken in Afghanistan. These language materials can be ordered via DLIFLC’S LANGUAGE MATERIALS DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM website at https://lmds.dliflc.edu/

Besides Oswald, the Monterey Language Institute is mentioned in connection with a number of others related to the assassination, including Ralph Meyers, Richard Case Nagel and respected researcher Michael T. Griffith.

Ralph Meyers
Jack Ruby's friend Larry Meyers had a son Ralph, who was also said to be registered at the Cabana the night before the assassination. Ralph had served in the Army Security Agency, was trained in Russian and the Monterey Language Institute and served at a top-secret base in Turkey before working as a Chicago bus driver. Ralph was described as being a journalist living in Mexico City.

Richard Case Nagel
The man who knew too much
books.google.com/books?isbn=0786712422...Dick Russell- 2003
California's Monterey School, where Richard Nagell had received his own extensive language training, was still quite active when Oswald was stationed…

Michael T. Griffith - http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/the_critics/griffith/Why_Tippit_stopped_Oswald.html

Michael T. Griffith is a two-time graduate of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and of the U.S. Air Force Technical Training School in San Angelo, Texas. He is also the author of four books on Mormonism and ancient texts. His articles on the JFK assassination have appeared in The Dealey Plaza Echo, in The Assassination Chronicles, and in The JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly. In addition, he is the author of the book Compelling Evidence: A New Look at the Assassination of President Kennedy (Grand Prairie, Texas: JFK-Lancer Productions and Publications, 1996).

Von Edwin Peacock at Earlham College

http://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/t153-earlham

...Ruth Hyde Paine testified before the Warren Commission that she became a Quaker in 1951. She had been acquainted with Quakerism long before that, however, having attended Friends meetings in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio, since 1947 (when she would have been 14 or 15 years old). In that year, too, she attended a Young Friends Conference at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.

Although Ruth attended and graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio – not a Quaker institution – she appears to have maintained contacts with Earlham through the years. (Richmond, Indiana is only about 50 miles from Yellow Springs, Ohio.) In fact, Richmond was Ruth’s last stop before driving to New Orleans during her “vacation” of late summer, 1963. She was visiting two faculty members from Earlham College – Wilmer Joseph Stratton, a chemistry professor, and Paul Alvin Lacey, professor of English....

....And by the way, there is yet another interesting name on the Earlham alumni list:

Von Edwin Peacock, class of 1957.

Peacock, you will recall, was Acting Director of Casa de los Amigos in Mexico City at the time Lee Harvey Oswald – or an impostor – supposedly stayed there in the fall of 1963.

Did Ruth Paine know Von Peacock? Did Peacock study under E Merrill Root? Did either or both absorb his philosophy? Or were they in some other sense beholden to him or to other right-wing elements of the College?

Further note the name Virgil Peacock, class of 1933, Von’s father.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~peacockmoltrer/fam00317.htm

Virgil was a trustee of Earlham College, and a member of the board at Quaker Haven.

Finally, checking public records, we find that Von Peacock’s most recent address is in… ahem …northern Virginia.

NDC - National Declass Center on JFK Records

The National Declassification Center (NDC) was created when President Obama signed the new Executive Order released by the White House on December 29, 2009.

NDC began operations in early January 2010 under the direction of Dr. Michael J. Kurtz, Assistant Archivist for Records Services, Washington. Initially, the NDC will focus on the following:

- timely and appropriate processing of referrals between agencies for accessioned Federal records and transferred Presidential Records;
- general interagency declassification activities necessary to fulfill the requirements of sections 3.3 and 3.4 of this order;
- the exchange among agencies of detailed declassification guidance to support equity recognition;
- the development of effective, transparent, and standard declassification work processes, training, and quality assurance measures;
- the development of solutions to declassification challenges posed by electronic records, special media, and emerging technologies;
- the linkage and effective utilization of existing agency databases and the use of new technologies to support declassification activities under the purview of the Center

National Declassification Center - National Archives and Records Administration

NDC Blog Releasing All We Can, Protecting What We Must

http://blogs.archives.gov/ndc/

At the June 2010 public forum, Archives official Michael Kurtz stated that one percent of the five million pages of JFK assassination records is still withheld and that these records will be processed by the National Declassification Center as it tries to clear the backlog by the end of 2013.

In light of the public interest in these records, would the Archives consider establishing a project to ensure that these JFK assassination records are processed prior to the Fiftieth Anniversary of the JFK assassination in November 2013?

Answer: Records associated with the JFK assassination, having previously undergone appropriate government-wide declassification review and processing, are not technically part of our 400 million page processing back log; however, they do fall under the high interest, high historical value category.

Recall that these valuable records were subject to the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which mandated that all assassination records must be released in full by 2017, 25 years after the date of the passing of the Act in 1992.

To apply that requirement vigorously, the Act established the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), an independent agency set up to make sure all assassination-related records were identified and sent to NARA and that they were open to the greatest extent possible.

The power wielded by the ARRB meant that more records were declassified and made available under the JFK Act than would have been released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or under mandatory and systematic review provisions of the Executive Order.

[The work of the ARRB is well described in their Final Report:http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/]

The Collection includes over five million pages, and as noted by this and other questioners, less than 1% of the documents in the Collection are withheld in full.

NARA believes that the declassification review process on these withheld records was vigorously applied under the strictest standards and at great expense.

We believe Agencies were required to release documents that they would not have voluntarily released, or been compelled to release, under the previous Executive Order review guidelines.

That said, NDC will examine whether the recent changes reflected in the new Executive Order (13526) are likely to result in a change of declassification status for these historical records and if that change could allow for declassification of the remaining classified material prior to 2017 in an efficient manner.

I must caution you, however, that in prioritizing parts of the backlog, we look for collections of both high interest and “declassifiability.”

In the case of these records, that “declassability” standard may have already been surpassed.

As I must focus our and other government agency limited resources on the back log due December 2013, I have to take that into account before I ask other agencies to re-look at documents they may already feel they have re-reviewed sufficiently.

Brad Ayers - US Ranger - Trained Cubans at JM/WAVE

Brad Ayers: Exposing the truth

Stillwater Gazette – Dec. 15, 2006

By Elliot Mann
emann@acnpapers.com

STILLWATER – Inside his small Western Wisconsin cabin, Bradely Ayers furiously pounds the keys on a typewriter for four hours each day.

Forsaking the new technology of a computer or even a word processor, Ayers, 71, knows this is the only way “they” can’t touch his work.

Vox Pop Publishing is set to release the Stillwater native’s latest book “The Zenith Secret,” which details Ayers’ history with the Central Intelligence Agency and his links between the federal outfit and the Kennedy assassination.

Set to hit bookstores later this year, the book also describes Ayers’ life as a U.S. Army officer commissioned to work with the CIA during the 1960s, where Ayers was a trained killer, working in covert operations to overthrow Fidel Castro and Communist Cuba.

Ayers said that after years of harassment from the CIA – members of the agency ransacked his previous home, spread false assault charges about Ayers and censored a previous book, among other tactics – he is eager to finally release the book after several delays.

While working with the CIA in the ‘60s, Ayers trained at the CIA’s clandestine JM/WAVE base in Miami.

To the outside world, the extensive base was known only as Zenith Technological Enterprises.

He was privy to top-secret information and witness to acts few ever repeated.

“I feel compelled as my life’s mission to document what I know by personal observation and experience,” said Ayers, who now lives in Frederic, Wis. “It’s that sense of purpose that so many folks and family don’t understand.

“I am dedicated to fulfilling a mission,” Ayers continued. “I became aware of activities and personalities when I was with the CIA that caused me great concern.”

But after constant harassment, why would anyone take the risks associated with retelling such a story? For Ayers, it’s simple.

“For me, the media and the media exposure is a form of life insurance,” Ayers said. “And I’m nearing 72, it’s worked.”

A Start at the Gazette.

In the 1950s, Ayers worked as a junior reporter for the Gazette, where he covered the Stillwater Prison riots and was the first reporter to gain access inside the prison walls after the inmates rioted.

After graduating from Stillwater Area High School in 1953, Ayers sought full time employment at the Gazette and at the Associated Press, but businesses were reluctant to hire a 18-year old with a draft requirement hanging over his head, Ayers said.

In the 1960s, he served in the U.S. Army before working for the CIA. When President John F. Kennedy and his brother were assassinated, Ayers recalled his experiences with the CIA and became more and more sure of the agency’s involvement.

The killings involved one major aspect of assassination, Ayers said – bring the subject into a “killing zone,” a place where multiple shooters can easily pick off the victim.

Anyone who questions his credentials, Ayers said, should only refer to his past as a covert operative training to assassinate Fidel Castro.

Ayers decided to start his own investigation into the assassinations – he’s a licensed private investigator in Arizona and Florida – and found evidence linking principal parties from the CIA to the killing.

Ayers suggested that the CIA made Lee Harvey Oswald “a patsy,” taking the fall for a much larger conspiracy. But Ayers said he doesn’t fall into the Oliver Stone conspiracy theory subculture. That group is fraught with a variety of “low-lifers, ex-cons, and rip-off artists,” he said.

“I mistrust that whole subculture and I’ve tried to distance myself from it,” Ayers said. “They’re the most destructive force and they have brought ridicule on attempts to solve the domestic assassinations.”

“The information in this book is not based on wishful thinking, preconceptions, or ulterior motives,” he continued. “I brought the same kind of due diligence and intellectual integrity that I’ve ever brought to any of my investigative work.”

Living as a civilian

He quiet the CIA after watching one of his colleagues, who Ayers named “Karl,” plummet to his death from a helicopter.

During the flight, a fellow officer, brandished a pistol and moved towards Karl. Before the man could shoot, Karl rolled himself into a ball and plunged from an open helicopter door. After watching the gruesome display,Ayers decided to leave the agency and try his hand at civilian life.

Ayers said he felt similar to Robert Redford’s character in the 1975’s “Three Days of the Condor” – over the years he kept his alliances close and rare. Ostracized by his own family, some have half-jokingly compared Ayers’ scant lifestyle to that of the “Unabomer,” Ted Kaczynski.

“I’m estranged from my immediate family, they basically consider me a “Don Quixote,” Ayers said.

His life in cover operations, and the fallout in uncovering that life still separates the Stillwater native from his family. The former Army Ranger lives in a 500-square foot cabin on the shore of a relatively small 120-acre Somers Lake in Frederic. He’s the only full-time residence among his neighbors, who he sees only on summer weekends. His unlisted phone number changes often and the fax machine is his preferred mode of communications.

“I’m aware that the government or other dark forces have the technical ability to externally gain access to hard drives and electronic memory devices,” said Ayers, who stays off the Internet.

His seven cats and six dogs keep him company during the serene nights at the cabin. A large Army Ranger logo affixed to a woodcarving greets the few who amble onto his property. Ayers said he’s tried to live the life of a Boy Scout – any black mark to his name could completely compromise his life’s work.

But he isn’t hiding out in the woods. He walks his dogs, exercises daily and competes in various runs and snowshoe races every year. He’s competed in the Lumberjack Days 5K run 30 times and hangs several medals in his modest bedroom, which doubles as an office. The medals aren’t for show, he said, they simply provide Ayers with a visualization of his success.

“The fact of the matter is, if you look at what you did last year, and visualize it, you can do it again,” Ayers said.

The competition is a release for Ayers – he leaves the anger, frustration and anxiety of his past at the starting line.

Above all, Ayers finds his writing a release from the nightmares and aggravation that often bring him from sleep or take away from peering out into the calm waters of Somers Lake. In writing, the 71-year old said he escapes to days gone by, spent at the corner of Second Street South and East Myrtle.

“I always saw my future as a newspaper reporter,” Ayers said. “That’s why I always come back to the Gazette.”

Bradley Ear Ayers was born on March 7, 1935, in St. Paul, Minnesota, of second generation English/Scandinavian – French-Canadian/Cree Indian descent. He is the oldest of four boys. He attended a parochial grade school in St. Paul. His family moved to Stillwater, Minnesota in 1948 where he completed his primary schooling. During high school he was active in sports and as a junior reporter for the community daily newspaper. He graduated in 1953, shortly before the end of the Korean War.

Immediately following high school, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the U.S. Army paratroopers. This began a twelve year period of active duty military service during which he was promoted through the infantry ranks from private to captain. He served in command and staff assignments, from rifle company to Department of Defense level, at various stations in the United States and overseas. His military specialties were: unconventional and paramilitary warfare, ranger-command, anti-terrorist and covert operations. He is qualified as a master parachutist, underwater demolition swimmer, mountaineer, air craft pilot and flight instructor. He received various awards and decorations for his military service.

In early 1963 Ayers was selected by the Department of Defense for a sensitive undercover assignment with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Upon completion of this top secret mission he resigned his Regular Army commission. He was one of the first career officers to voice opposition to the Vietnam War and to speak out publicly against the influence of private and special interests in American foreign and domestic policy. He was honorably discharged from active duty in 1965 and was recommissioned in the United States Army Reserve. He continued to serve in paramilitary and intelligence fields as a government contract agent.

His comprehensive background in military and intelligence service led to the publication of his non-fiction book The War that Never Was – an insider’s account of CIA covert operations against Cuba, released by Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc. in 1976. An expanded paperback version of the book was published in 1980.

The War that Never Was was rewritten and reissued as an expanded, updated and uncensored format as The Zenith Secret.

Ayers is a graduate of the Minnesota Metropolitan University and holds a masters degree in education. He is conversant in Spanish and German. He remained active in the U.S. Army Reserves until early 1981. He maintained FAA certification as a commercial pilot and flight instructor until 1991.. Since then he has served on special assignments with the U.S. Justice and Treasury Departments.

JFK at Otis AFB for Patrick's birth

I first took interest in the premature birth and quick death of JFK's son Patrick Kennedy when Adele Edisen mention that Dr. Jose Rivera had expressed foreknowldge of the premature birth and death of Patrick, just as he had with JFK himself. I thought there must be a connection though I haven't found it yet.

Patrick is discussed here: Jackie and JFK's lost kids, Arabella and Patrick - The Education Forum

Jackie's obstetrician was John W. Walsh, who apparently was adopted by a doctor who also treated celebrities like Al Smith. Walsh's real last name was Nage. John W. Walsh, 87, Kennedy Obstetrician - New York Times

Walsh was in the motorcade with JFK's personal physician and also had a private office in Bethesda, where Dr. Rivera also had an office at NIH.

Here's an article that describes the premature birth in detail, and how JFK had to fly to Otis AFB in a small jet that had no communications equipment, and describes the Kennedy suite at the AFB as elaborate.

The Presidency: The Struggle of The Baby Boy - TIME

Since neither of the two presidential Boeing 707 jets was available for the rush trip to Cape Cod,Kennedy took a twinjet, eight-passenger Lockheed Jet-star — an airplane never before used by a President because it lacks the intricate communications facilities that go with the Chief Executive whenever he is in the air. While President Kennedy was still on the way, a ten-member military medical team assisted Dr. Walsh with the caesarean delivery. And at 12:52 p.m., a baby boy (4 Ibs. 10 oz., and 17 in. long) was born to Jackie Kennedy.

If the baby had not been premature, it would have been born at Washington's Walter Reed Hospital. But, just in case, the Air Force had long since readied a ten-room suite (nursery, kitchen, two lounges and six bedrooms) at Otis. By the time Jackie arrived, 200 special guards had been posted around the 22,000-acre base.

It appears however, that JFK was really pissed off at a WP report a month before that said the Air Force spent $5,000 for furniture for the suite, which instigated JFK to call an AF General (Not LeMay) and really lay into him - cursing - Silly Bastard - Obviously a Fuck Up....

Phone Call: JFK Cursing on Phone http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

July 24, 1963, the Washington Post reports that the US Air Force spent over $5,000 refurbishing a room at Otis Air Force Base for use as Mrs Kennedy's maternity suite."

July 25, 1963. President Kennedy phones an Air Force General in DC to express his displeasure with the Post's story.

General: Yes sir.

JFK:...that Air Force has caused itself more grief with that silly bastard…Did you see the Post this morning?

General:Yes sir, I'm looking at it.

JFK: Did you see that fella's picture by the bed. And did you see that furniture they bought from Jordan Marsh? What the hell did they allow reporters in there for? Are they crazy up there? Now you know what's going to do…any Congressmanis going to get up and they'll say, "If they can throw away $5,000 on this, lets cut them another billion dollars. You just sank the Air Force budget. They're crazy up there. Are they crazy? That silly bastard with his picture next to the bed. I want to find out who paid for that furniture and I want itto go back to Jordan Marsh. Then I want that fellow's incompetent who had his picture taken next to Mrs. Kennedy's bed, if that's what it is. He's just a silly bastard. I wouldn't have him running a Cat House. I hope they're not all incompitant. Is that the way they are throwing money around over there. You better look into it, especially after you told me it wouldn't cost a cent.

General: Well...this is obviously

JFK: Well this is obviously a fuckup.


John Judge notes: Otis is a longtime Strategic Air Command base under NEADS and one of two that survived all cuts after the Cold War ended. LeMay would have been in charge at some level at Otis as Secretary of the Air Force and as SAC designer. Otis planes went up late on 9/11. Premature birth can be induced with certain chemicals, how else could Riviera have foreknowledge? Unless Jackie had some history of aborted or premature births? JJ (She did)

Thanks to Mike Hogan for calling attention to this article that identifies the General JFK is talking to as his Air Force aide Godfrey McHugh.

“Imagine what they’d do if you didn’t stay on their ass!” -- JFK on Wasteful Air Force Spending

http://hnn.us/articles/52485.html

One of the great pleasures of my work is being able to find and read or listen to documents and recordings from the presidencies and congresses of the early Cold War era. Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon? They’re all still very much alive in my brain. So, too, is John F. Kennedy, most recently because of a story by R. Jeffrey Smith in the Washington Post (“Terrorism Funds May Let Brass Fly in Style,” July 18, 2008, page 1) on counterterrorism funds being spent by the Air Force on fancy furnishings for aircraft used for travel by high-ranking officers.

I'm as opposed to and appalled by arrogant, wasteful spending by government bureaucracies as anyone. But the Post story reminded me of two hilarious taped conversations1 from the Kennedy White House showing that, as Harry S. Truman often said, “The only thing new under the sun is the history you don’t already know.”

On July 25, 1963, the newspaper featured a story about how Air Force officials had spent $5000 on top-of-the-line bedroom furniture (from the Jordan Marsh Company) for a northeastern air base's hospital, in case the famously pregnant Mrs. John F. Kennedy would decide to have her baby there, should she be in Massachusetts when “the time” came. (Indeed, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy would be born, following premature labor and emergency caesarian section surgery, on August 7 of that year at Otis Air Force Base, the Massachusetts facility in question on the JFK tapes. The baby would die two days later in Boston Children’s Hospital.)

Fortunately, for those who love political history, the tape recorder was rolling when JFK telephoned two people just after seeing a photo in the morning's Post of an Air Force officer with the furniture. An absolutely furious JFK told Arthur Sylvester, the press spokesman for Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara: "I'd just like to send that goddamn furniture back…to Jordan Marsh in an Air Force truck this afternoon with that captain [who made the furniture purchase] on it…."

Further, JFK said, "What about transferring his ass out of here in about a month?…for incompetence, not for screwing us. And that silly fellow who had his picture taken next to the bed, I'd have him go up to Alaska, too." (Click here to listen.)

Kennedy felt great pressure from liberals in his party in Congress and elsewhere who thought military spending was too high. Meanwhile, most military leaders and conservatives on Capitol Hill thought the President (and his defense budget) were inadequate to meet the Soviet threat.

To his Air Force aide, General Godfrey McHugh, the President exploded: "Did you see the Post this morning?....You just sank the Air Force budget!" Kennedy predicted, “Any congressman’s gonna get up and say, ‘Christ, if they can throw $5000 away on this, let’s cut ‘em another billion dollars.’ ”

About the "silly bastard" featured in the Post photograph standing next to "Mrs. Kennedy's bed, if that's what it is…I wouldn't have him running a cat house!" 2

McHugh tried to respond, "Well sir, this is obviously a..." JFK didn't wait for McHugh to finish "--Well, this is obviously a fuck up!" (Click here to listen.)

1 I obtained the records at the Miller Center website . The two conversations are numbered jfk_dict_23d1 and jfk_dict_23d2. Note: The first 40 seconds of the first recording are mostly silent. Also, you and your computer may not find playing these audio files a user-friendly experience. Don’t email me for technical advice!

2 JFK obviously had an edition of the Post with the photograph, though the copy of the story I found did not have that photo.