Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/jfk123.zip/CHAP11

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                               Chapter 11
               Nixon and Ford -- The Pardon and the Tapes

As  the  Power  Control  Group grew larger and  the  number  of  murders
increased  through the years, it became more and more difficult to  keep
the  veil  of  secrecy  surrounding the  takeover  intact.   As  Nixon's
instability increased, the danger of revealing the secret superstructure
to the American people increased.

Watergate  and Nixon's resignation from office nearly ruined  everything
for  the  Power  Control Group.  A splinter faction  in  the  CIA  began
showing strength and all of the dirt might have been leaked to the press
and to the people.  Nixon himself had pulled the most dangerous boner in
the  history  of the PCG.  He installed a secret tape  recording  system
that  recorded  a  number  of conversations  about  the  PCG's  murders,
assassinations and dirty tricks.  Even worse, Nixon did not destroy  the
tapes before the Congress found out about them and went after them.   As
soon as it became obvious that Nixon would be forced to resign, the  PCG
had to use a desperation strategy.

Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard M. Nixon on September 8, 1974: such  was
the  PCG's  strategy.  Many skeptical U.S. citizens nodded  their  heads
knowingly  and  assumed  Nixon had made his "deal"  with  Ford  when  he
nominated him for the vice presidency.  Evans and Novak[1] assumed  that
Julie  Nixon  Eisenhower  talked Ford into the pardon  on  grounds  that
Nixon's  health  was poor.  The Ford's fears for Nixon's  health  didn't
seem  to  convince very many news media people who saw  a  rosy-cheeked,
apparently robust ex-president in San Clemente.[2]

The  pardon seemed to most Americans and news editors a gross  error  in
judgment and a miscarriage of justice.  But once again the United States
was fooled.  This time, the PCG, Nixon and Ford managed to pull the wool
over the eyes of the public and to narrowly escape revealing what can be
called  "the  entire rotten crust at the top of  American  power."   Any
reasonable  hypothesis  about  what  actually  happened,  based  on  the
evidence  at  hand,  had  not been even  remotely  suggested  by  either
Congress or the media by 1976.

Any  explanation of the situation leading to the pardon begins with  the
relationship  between  Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon.  It goes  back  to
1960,  the  year Mr. Nixon planned the overthrow of Castro's  Cuba.   As
earlier  chapters have made clear, the U2 incident and the Bay  of  Pigs
was the beginning.

In  1960, Nixon and the White House action officer worked on  the  plans
for  what was later called the Bay of Pigs invasion.[3]  Prior  to  that
time the PCG and Nixon had accumulated plenty of reasons to want  Castro
overthrown.   The  anti-Communist attitude was the  superficial  reason.
Beneath  it were Nixon's connections with the Mafia and his  friendships
and financial holdings that were greatly damaged when Castro closed  the
casinos  run  by the mob in Havana.[4]  When Nixon and  Kennedy  debated
about the Cuban situation in the 1960 campaign, Nixon purposefully  lied
to  the  American people about U.S. plans for an invasion.[5]   When  he
narrowly  lost to Kennedy, it created a deep wound, and he and  the  PCG
spent much of the next three years planning revenge.

Nixon became a tool of a number of Cubans and Americans, both inside the
CIA and outside, who agreed with him that casting out Castro was  highly
desirable.  One of these men was E. Howard Hunt.[6]  Another was Bernard
Barker.[7]   A  third  was Carlos Prio  Socarras.[8]   Richard  Bissell,
Richard  Helms and Allen Dulles were the three higher level men  in  the
PCG.

These Nixon cronies and financial partners became involved with the PCG.
They  murdered John Kennedy.[9]  Whether Nixon was directly involved  in
the  PCG's  planning for the assassination is still  open  to  question,
although  one researcher believes that he was.[10]  There  certainly  is
substantial  evidence  that Nixon was out to at least  politically  sink
Kennedy  and  Johnson, and aimed to do so in Dallas  immediately  before
Kennedy was killed. (See section on evidence).[11]

Whether  Nixon  was directly involved in planning the  assassination  of
President  John  F. Kennedy does not have to be settled here.   What  is
important  is that Nixon was directly involved in covering up the  truth
about  who did kill Kennedy.  Evidence from the Nixon-Haldeman tapes  of
June  1972 indicated that Nixon knew the truth about  the  assassination
when he suggested Gerald Ford be part of the Warren Commission.[12]

A close personal friendship had developed between Ford and Nixon  during
their  days  together  in the Congress, when both  were  strong,  ultra-
conservative, "red, white and blue", anti-Communist, "religious" members
who thought and talked alike.

When  Nixon realized that John Kennedy had been killed almost under  his
nose in Dallas by some of his Bay of Pigs friends, the PCG convinced him
he had to do everything in his power to cover it up and to bide his time
until his powerful military and intelligence friends could place him  in
the White House.  It took one more murder by the PCG (Robert Kennedy) to
get  him  there, and still another attempted murder to  keep  him  there
(George Wallace).

Control over the investigations of these murders was essential for Nixon
and the PCG.  In order to guide a presidential commission away from  the
truth,  the closed small circle of people in the PCG who knew  what  had
happened  to  John  Kennedy had to be enlarged.   Allen  Dulles  was  no
problem.   He knew the cause was an intelligence/military one  from  the
day  it  happened.  Earl Warren was a different matter.  He  had  to  be
fooled  and  later  talked into remaining silent "for the  good  of  the
country."

A  ringleader  inside the Warren Commission was crucial.  It had  to  be
someone  the  PCG  and  Nixon could trust, one who  had  an  honest  and
trustworthy  appearance.  Nixon called on Gerry Ford, and  he  convinced
LBJ that Ford should be on the Commission.[13]

Nixon told Ford at some point prior to January, 1964 who killed JFK  and
why.   He convinced Ford that every effort should be made to  make  sure
Oswald  was found to be the lone assassin.  Ford did an  excellent  job.
He  not only steered the Commission away from the facts[14]  whenever  a
key witness was interviewed or an embarrassing situation developed,  but
he  also  nailed Oswald's coffin shut personally by publishing  his  own
book  on Oswald.[15]  This, coming from the chairman of the House  Armed
Services Committee, served to firmly plant in the American mind the idea
that  there  was no conspiracy, that Oswald was the lone  assassin,  and
that the Warren Commission had done a good job.

From  the day Ford's book was published, Nixon and Ford  became  totally
beholden  to each other.  They also both became totally beholden to  the
members  of the PCG who were at or near the top of things and  who  were
part  of  the small knowledgeable circle.  Other members  of  the  PCG's
inner circle included J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Helms.

No  one  could be permitted by the PCG to come into power in  the  White
House, the CIA, the Justice Department or the FBI unless they were  part
of  the PCG and willing to keep quiet and help suppress the truth  about
the JFK assassination.  The PCG's membership widened, of necessity, when
Robert  Kennedy  was  killed and Nixon  became  president.   The  people
involved in killing Robert Kennedy and Nixon's top aides had to be  told
the truth.  This included Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Kissinger, Mitchell (who
had the job of controlling Hoover's successors in continuing the  cover-
ups)  and  possibly others.  Mitchell was instrumental in  stopping  Jim
Garrison's  investigation  of  Clay Shaw and other PCG  members  and  in
totally  discrediting Garrison.[16]  He was aided by Richard  Helms  and
others  in the PCG through CIA support in the Clay Shaw  trial  cover-up
efforts.[17]

The  White  House plumber section of the PCG decided in  1972,  with  or
without  Nixon's knowledge and approval, to assassinate George  Wallace,
so  that Nixon would be assured of the conservative vote.  The  PCG  and
its  debts  once again grew.  E. Howard Hunt and Charles  Colson,  along
with  Tony Ulasewicz, Donald Segretti and others, were in a position  to
make  demands  in exchange for their silence.  The  Hunt  million-dollar
blackmail  threat  to reveal "seedy things" or  "hankypanky"  was  never
explainable in terms of Watergate or the Ellsberg break-ins.  But  three
assassinations  would  certainly be worth a cool million  to  keep  Hunt
silent.    Again,   the   Haldeman-Nixon  June  23,   1972   tapes   are
revealing.[18]

When the Watergate crisis occurred, Nixon was trapped by his own  tapes,
and  the PCG was in grave danger.  Discussions with  Haldeman,  Mitchell
and others mention the Kennedy assassination conspiracy and the  Wallace
murder  attempt  on tape.  The PCG was suddenly threatened as  a  group.
The  tapes  couldn't all be destroyed because too  many  Secret  Service
people  knew  about  them.   Haldeman and Nixon  managed  to  erase  one
revealing 18 1/2 minute section about the assassinations, but who  could
remember exactly what telephone calls or Oval Office conversations might
have mentioned the truth about the three murders?

The  PCG and Nixon again sensed the need for a successor who would  keep
quiet.   They called on Gerry Ford when Agnew was forced out.  Ford  and
Nixon,  bound  inextricably  together by their mutual  cover-up  of  the
assassinations, worked out a deal.  Nixon nominated Ford to be his  Vice
President.   The Senate, completely bamboozled by Nixon and Ford,  never
asked  Ford  any important questions about the  assassinations  nor  his
performance  on the Warren Commission.  When they asked Ford  about  his
book, he committed perjury twice before the Senate (see item # 15 in the
list ennumerated below).

Nixon  and  Ford  agreed that Ford would keep quiet  if  Nixon  remained
silent and that Ford would succeed Nixon if he were forced to resign  or
be impeached.  They agreed to a pardon afterward.  But the most critical
part  of the arrangement was that those tapes revealing the truth  about
the  assassinations be kept out of circulation.  When the Supreme  Court
ruled that the tapes must be turned over, it was then time to  implement
their agreed-upon strategy.

In   addition,   Jaworski,  Colson,   Mitchell,   Kissinger,   Haldeman,
Ehrlichman, the Warren Commission, Hunt, Helms, Shaw and anyone else  in
the  PCG had to be bought off, pardoned, protected or killed  to  insure
their silences.

Leon  Jaworski resigned.  People asked why.  The real answer was  buried
in the fact that Jaworski knew what had been going on.  He knew  because
of information passed on to him by the Ervin Committee and Cox regarding
the assassination and the cover-up.  He was also personally involved  in
1964 in the JFK cover-up.

Jaworski  could have been a problem, even though he helped with the  JFK
cover-up from the beginning.[19]  Hunt was taken care of by getting  him
out  of jail, buying him a large estate in Florida and paying him a  lot
of  money.[20]   Helms could be counted on.  Kissinger may have  been  a
problem,  but he finally agreed.  His wiretaps were ordered to find  out
who  knew  about the assassinations.  Hoover was dead.   Clay  Shaw  was
murdered.[21]  Warren was dead.  Richard Russell was dead.  John Sherman
Cooper  was bought off (he received an important ambassadorship).   John
J. McCloy was too old to worry about.

That  left Colson, Mitchell, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman, plus  some  other
small fry.  The PCG strategy as planned with these men involved  pardons
for  all of them in exchange for their silence, especially Haldeman  and
Mitchell,  who  not only knew what happened to JFK, but  who  also  took
overt actions to cover-up.  (Haldeman erased the 18 1/2 minutes of  tape
and Mitchell nailed Jim Garrison.)

Newer members of the PCG may cause some problems.  They all have to know
the  truth by now.  Rockefeller and Alex Haig must know.   George  Bush,
William  Colby,  Edward Levi and Clarence Kelly knew  because  of  their
access   to  the  records,  and  they  must  have  agreed  to   cover-up
continuance.  Ford and his cronies in the House had to continue to knock
out  any  efforts  by Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas to start  a  new  House
Committee  investigation  of  the JFK  assassination.   They  were  very
successful  in their control of the House Rules Committee.  Haig  seemed
to have been bought off with the promise of a top NATO post in  exchange
for  his  silence.   And  control  over  Frank  Church  and  the  Senate
Intelligence Committee was necessary.

Gerald Ford remained committed to the PCG and to Nixon.

The tapes had to be controlled and edited at all costs.  Nixon no  doubt
required  help  in  listening to the tapes after Haldeman  left  and  in
sorting out those in which assassinations and cover-ups were  discussed.
General  Haig was undoubtedly the man he selected to do the dirty  work.
It was almost certain that no tapes would be turned over to Judge Sirica
or  to Jaworski with any assassination references left on them.  One  of
the  tapes  demanded  by  Jaworski had such  references.   This  is  the
recording  made  on  June  23, 1972 in  which  Nixon  and  Haldeman  are
discussing Watergate just six days after the break-in.

The  Nixon  transcript  of that tape turned over to  Judge  Sirica  upon
orders   of   the   Supreme  Court   showed   many   sections   labelled
"unintelligible."   It  is a near certainty that the  critical  sections
were  edited out by Nixon and General Haig before they were turned  over
to  Sirica and prior to their transcription.  Judge Sirica was the  only
person  in  the  chain of possession of that tape who  could  have  been
counted  on to make a scientific analysis of the tape to see whether  it
was  tampered with before he received it.  His near brush with death  in
1975  must be viewed in that light and in the light of the PCG's use  of
weapon-induced heart attacks.

The  rest of Nixon's tapes that were still in Gerald  Ford's  possession
and  control might have contained many references to assassinations  and
cover-ups.   Rather  than go through all of them and edit or  erase  the
critical  material, it was more likely that Ford would either turn  them
over  to  Nixon for total destruction or sit on them as long as  he  was
president.

The evidence for the Power Control Group's and Ford/Nixon's strategy  is
as follows:


1.  Nixon  was  White House action officer on Cuban  invasion  plans  in
    1960.

2.  Nixon  was  in contact with Hunt and others during the Bay  of  Pigs
    planning.

3.  Nixon lied to the American people by his own admission about the Bay
    of Pigs during his TV debates with Kennedy in 1960.

4.  Nixon  was  financially  linked to the Mafia  and  to  Cuban  casino
    operations before Castro took over.

5.  Nixon  was  acquainted with Hunt, Baker, Martinez,  Sturgis,  Carlos
    Prio Socarras, and other Watergate people and anti-Castro people  in
    Florida,  and  he  was financially linked  to  Baker,  Martinez  and
    Socarras.

6.  Hunt,   Baker,  Sturgis  and  Socarras  were  connected   with   the
    assassination group in the murder of JFK.

7.  Nixon was in Dallas for three days, including the morning of the JFK
    assassination.  He was trying to stir up trouble for Kennedy.

8.  Nixon  went  to Dallas under false pretenses.  There  was  no  board
    meeting  of the Pepsi Cola Company as he announced his law firm  had
    had to attend.

9.  Nixon did not admit being in Dallas on the day Kennedy was shot  and
    did  not  reveal the true reason for his trip.  He  held  two  press
    conferences on the two days before the assassination, attacking both
    Kennedy  and  Johnson  and  emphasizing  the  Democratic   political
    problems in Texas.

10. Research   indicates  that  Nixon  either  knew  in  advance   about
    assassination   plans,  or  learned  about  them  soon   after   the
    assassination.

11. Nixon  proposed  to  Lyndon Johnson that Gerald Ford  serve  on  the
    Warren Commission.

12. Ford  led the Commission cover-up by controlling the questioning  of
    key witnesses and by several other means.

13. Ford helped firmly plant the idea that Oswald was the only  assassin
    and  that there was no conspiracy by publishing his own  book,  "Lee
    Harvey Oswald:  Portrait of the Assassin."

14. Ford  purposefully covered up the conspiracy of the PCG in  the  JFK
    assassination  and also covered up the fact that Oswald was  a  paid
    informer for the FBI.  He did this by dismissing the subject in  his
    book as worthless rumor and by keeping the executive sessions of the
    Commission  (where  Oswald's  FBI  informer  status  was  discussed)
    classified Top Secret.

15. Ford  continued  the cover-up when he was  questioned  before  being
    confirmed by the Senate as Vice President. He lied under oath  twice
    to  the  Senate Committee.  He stated that he had written  his  book
    about Oswald with no access to classified documents.  He lied  about
    this  because his book used classified documents about Oswald's  FBI
    informer  status.  He lied when he said that the book was  entitled,
    "Lee   Harvey  Oswald:  Portrait  of  *an*  Assassin."    This   was
    significant  in  1973  because the public by then  had  become  very
    skeptical about a lone assassin.  By changing one word in the title,
    Ford made the book seem a little less like what it actually  was--an
    effort to make Oswald the assassin.

16. Jaworski  aided  in  the  JFK cover-up by  sitting  on  evidence  of
    conspiracy accumulated by Waggoner Carr, Texas Attorney General, who
    he  represented  in  liaison with the Warren  Commission.   He  also
    stopped the critical testimony of Jack Ruby when he testified before
    the  Warren  Commission,  and diverted attention  away  from  Ruby's
    intent to reveal the conspiracy to kill both Kennedy and Oswald.

17. Nixon  became  president  in 1968 only because  Robert  Kennedy  was
    killed  by  a conspiracy.  Nixon was well aware  of  the  conspiracy
    whether or not he approved of it in advance.

18. John  Mitchell and J. Edgar Hoover joined Nixon and the lower  level
    members  of the PCG in covering up the RFK murder conspiracy.   They
    classified the evidence "Top Secret" and murdered several witnesses,
    controlled  the judge in the Sirhan trial and the district  attorney
    and  the chief of police in Los Angeles during and after the  trial.
    They still control these people and the Los Angeles County Board  of
    Supervisors.  Clarence Kelly also became involved.

19. The  plumbers group ordered the assassination of George  Wallace  in
    1972 to insure Nixon's election by picking up Wallace's vote  (about
    18%, according to polls).

20. J.  Edgar  Hoover and Richard Helms were aware of  who  killed  John
    Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.  They helped cover-up both conspiracies.

21. John  Mitchell  controlled the trial of Clay Shaw and  the  Garrison
    investigation  and  discredited  Garrison by framing him  in  a  New
    Orleans gambling case.

22. Nixon and Haldeman discussed the assassination of John Kennedy,  the
    conspiracy,  Hunt's  involvement, the possibility  that  Hunt  might
    talk, the cover-up, the Bay of Pigs relationship between Nixon, Hunt
    and the other PCG members, and the briefing Nixon might have had  to
    give  anyone  running against him in 1972, on matters  of  "national
    security".

23. Nixon  and Mitchell discussed the assassinations and the attempt  to
    assassinate  George Wallace.  Mitchell executed orders  to  suppress
    the truth about these events.

24. Gerald  Ford  had  possession of the most critical  tapes  on  which
    assassinations and cover-ups were discussed.

25. Jaworski  could  be counted on to keep  the  assassination  material
    under  wraps  even  after  his resignation.  He  was  aware  of  the
    conspiracy  evidence  and  cover-up in all three  cases  (JFK,  RFK,
    George Wallace).

26. Hunt  was  taken care of and will keep silent.  He had been  out  of
    jail  and  living  on a beautiful $100,000 estate  in  Florida  with
    plenty  of  money, across the street from his Bay  of  Pigs  friend,
    Manuel Artime.

27. Clay  Shaw  was murdered by the PCG, undoubtedly to  keep  him  from
    talking once the truth about his CIA position was revealed by Victor
    Marchetti.   He was embalmed before the coroner could determine  the
    cause of death. Evidence indicates he was killed somewhere and  then
    brought back to his apartment.

28. Hale Boggs, a Warren, Commission member, was possibly killed by  the
    PCG.   Bogg's  airplane disappeared in Alaska.  No trace of  it  was
    ever  found and no explanation of how the plane could  have  crashed
    has ever been given.  Mrs. Boggs has expressed doubts about it being
    an accident.

29. Four  of  the  seven Warren Commission  members  are  dead:  Warren,
    Dulles,  Russell  and  Boggs.  Of the remaining  members,  Ford  was
    President,  John  McCloy is retired and living in  Connecticut,  and
    John Sherman Cooper was made ambassador to East Germany.

30. Richard  Russell,  Hale  Boggs  and  Cooper  believed  there  was  a
    conspiracy in the JFK assassination.  Russell and Boggs both said so
    publicly.

31. Haldeman  erased  18 1/2 minutes of a taped discussion  with  Nixon.
    This  tape undoubtedly contained "national security"  matters.   The
    fact  that  Haldeman  did the erasing can easily  be  determined  by
    tracing  the  trail of possession of the tape from the  day  it  was
    taken out of the vault to the day the gap was discovered.   Haldeman
    had  the tape with the recorder alone for nearly 48 hours.   No  one
    else had the tape alone long enough to do the erasing.

32. Ford  and  the  PCG contemplated  pardons  for  Mitchell,  Haldeman,
    Ehrlichman and possibly others who know the number one secret.

33. Ford's  statements  to  the sub-committee  of  the  House  Judiciary
    Committee  concerning  his pardon of Nixon dodged  the  real  issue.
    Only  Elizabeth Holtzman asked questions coming close to the  number
    one  secret.  When she asked about a prior agreement, Ford said,  "I
    have  made  no  deal,  there  was no  deal,  *since  I  became  Vice
    President*."   Those last few words were not reported by the  press,
    but a large number of Americans watched and heard him say them.   Of
    course  he spoke truthfully because the "deal" was made *before*  he
    became Vice President.
____________________
[1] Evans & Novak column -- September 12. 1974.

[2] "Paris Herald Tribune" -- September 12, 1974.

[3] "Compulsive Spy," Tad Szulc, Viking Press, 1974.

[4] "Nixon and the Mafia," Jeff Gerth, "Sundance," December, 1972.

[5] "My Six Crises," Richard M. Nixon.

[6] "Compulsive Spy."

[7] "Nixon and the Mafia."

[8] "Nixon,  Bay of Pigs & Watergate," -- R.E. Sprague,  "Computers  and
    Automation," January, 1973.

[9] "Nixon, Bay of Pigs & Watergate."

[10] Trowbridge Ford, Holy Cross College, Boston, MA, Several papers and
     articles.

[11] Warren Commission Hearings & Exhibits -- Vol. 23, Pages 941-943.

[12] Nixon Transcript of June 23 1972 tape  -- "New York Times,"  August
     6, 1974.

[13] Trowbridge Ford -- Article on Gerald Ford & Warren Commission.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Gerald Ford "Lee Harvey Oswald:  Portrait of the Assassin."

[16] "The  Framing  of  Jim  Garrison",  R.E.  Sprague,  "Computers  and
     Automation," December, 1973.

[17] "The  CIA and the Kennedy Assassination" -- Unpublished article  by
     R.E. Sprague.

[18] Nixon tape, June 23, 1972.

[19] Warren Commission Exhibits -- Testimony of Jack Ruby, Vol. V, Pages
     181-213 and Vol. XIV, pages 504-571.  Also Trowbridge Ford  article
     on Jaworski.

[20] "Washington Watch" and Triss Coffin newsletter, August 10, 1974.

[21] Zodiac News Service release -- August 20, 1974.

                          *  *  *  *  *  *  *