JFK warned of "Right Wing Extremism" in Dallas?

[MattCary]

Watching "Secret Service Secrets" on Discovery...

They say that Kennedy was warned that Dallas was "a hotbed of Right Wing Extremism."

I've never heard RWE associated with JFK.

Is this the case or is this some interesting revisionist history?

[Guest mustangdave]

I'm thinking REVISIONIST History...but it was well known that TEXAS wasn't that "friendly" to JFK...thats one reason he took LBJ as his VP...so he could "get in good"...LBJ was NOT a JFK fanboy...didn't like any of them Kennedy boys

As far as rightwing extremists go....think KLAN...and civil rights..the south...JFK was catholic....he was FUBAR any way you spin it

Edited February 13, 2012 by mustangdave

[Steelharp]

That's the one scenario that never gets discussed; possible religion involved. And that's what it was.

[Guest cardcutter]

That's the one scenario that never gets discussed; possible religion involved. And that's what it was.

My Father in law was a staunch party line Democrat. He refuse to vote for JFK because he was Catholic.

I think he was the First Catholic to be POTUS or is it the only one.

[Steelharp]

First and only.

[Guest bkelm18]

But what about the second gunman on the grassy knoll?!?!?

[Smith]

I'm thinking REVISIONIST History...but it was well known that TEXAS wasn't that "friendly" to JFK...thats one reason he took LBJ as his VP...so he could "get in good"...LBJ was NOT a JFK fanboy...didn't like any of them Kennedy boys

As far as rightwing extremists go....think KLAN...and civil rights..the south...JFK was catholic....he was FUBAR any way you spin it

.... and yet he was killed by an avowed extreme LEFTIST socialist Communist. Some people just can't get the easy stuff right. Had nothing to do with the South, Klan, Catholicism (directly), or any other thing the left wants to pin on their perceived "RWE". He was killed by their own nut job.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

No way to tell. I personally believe that aliens from planet Brongalak IV did it, for reasons so obvious that it need not even be once again laboriously explained.

Didn't one of the several follow-up congressional investigations a decade or two ago, conclude that there was a high probablity that it was a mob hit, because kennedy and bro was pushing too hard on organized crime?

Perhaps there were many factions gunning for the guy, all for their own disparate and contradictory reasons, and maybe it doesn't really matter which one took him out?

[kieefer]

http://www.orwelltoday.com/jfk.shtml

[runningfree]

Come on now we know it's Bush's fault.

[MattCary]

Not really delving into which conspiracy here.

More interested in modern media saying that "Right Wing Extremism" was involved.

It seems like they are trying to tie 1963 to Right Wing Extremism.

With everything there is out there about JFK, I've never heard the phrase "RWE" associated with Dallas.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

It seems like they are trying to tie 1963 to Right Wing Extremism.

With everything there is out there about JFK, I've never heard the phrase "RWE" associated with Dallas.

I don't pay much attention to the topic except after near 50 years one would absorb a little by osmosis.

One of the bigger theories, IIRC, was that it was a CIA/Military Complex hit because jfk was soft on communism. Those hard-tails were also labeled right-wing extremists, though presumably they belonged to a different frat house than the KKK.

[Jonnin]

If I had been born when JFK was shot, I would be nearly 50. If I could remember it even vaguely (say, elementary school), I would be about to retire. If I had voted for him, I would be at least 65. They say everyone can tell you where they were when he was shot. I sure can, and my answer is probably very similar to most these days: "unborn".

[Guest mustangdave]

If I had been born when JFK was shot, I would be nearly 50. If I could remember it even vaguely (say, elementary school), I would be about to retire. If I had voted for him, I would be at least 65. They say everyone can tell you where they were when he was shot. I sure can, and my answer is probably very similar to most these days: "unborn".

I was in 2nd grade...lived outside DC in Laurel, Maryland...was home sick with CHICKEN POX....saw the whole darn thing play out in glorious black and white TV...it was on EVERY CHANNEL (3)...4 if you count Public Broadcasting...don't remember it like it was yesterday, but my mom does...she has magazine and newspaper clipping of the entire event. oh...and I'm 54....LOL

[leroy]

I vote for "revisionist history". Remember that today, anyone who believes in what this country was founded on is considered a "Right Wing Extremist" by the big media and hollywood crowd. I'm old enought to well remember all this stuff (...wuz 17 years old...). The real interestin thing about this is the speed at which it went away from an investigatory perspective.

There are those who believe that JFK won the election with the help of organized crime. His dad (...Joseph Kennedy...) was a big time prohabitionist bootlegger. That's how the Kennedy clan made their vast fortune. RFK sandpapered Hoover and vowed to go after organized crime. There are those (...me included...) who believe JFK and RFK were caused to assume room temperature because of this doublecross. That's a long way from "right wing extremism".

Check around a bit and note just how fast the "Warren Commission" came to a recommendation on this and closed it out.

The truth was never told about this because of the organized crime tie; or the possible tie to Castro. I think the dirty nose guys either hired Lee Harvey Oswald (...a commie, by the way...) or Fidel Castro hired him. The result is the same. If the dirty nose guys hired him, there was an organized crime connection that couldn't be made public. If Fidel hired him, the deal on the Cuban Missile Crisis deal would be breached (...we promised the Ruskies we wouldnt invade Cuba...). We couldnt afford to go back on our deal with the Ruskies and take reprisal on Cuba.

suspicious leroy

Edited February 13, 2012 by leroy

[Spook]

In 1963 Dallas, and alot of Texas, was hard to the right. It was called a "bastion of rigid conservatism." Extreme? Not sure, but the John Birch Society was very active and there were numerous local and state politicians that were part of the Goldwater wing of the Republican party. They may have been rabid conservatives but extreme was probably the descriptor used by those of the far left, as it is done today.

It amazes me that the subject conjures up such debate still today, even among those who weren't born at the time.

This is an interesting article written for "The Nation" magazine about the subject a few months after President Kennedy was assassinated.

http://www.kenrahn.com/JFK/history/wc_period/pre-wcr_reactions_to_assassination/Pre-WCR_reactions_by_the_left/Tussle_in_Texas/Tussle_in_Texas.html

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I was in jr high school in new orleans and they announced the news over the intercom system. No class work was done the rest of the day, kids stayed in whatever class they happened to be in, and they piped in radio news over the intercom. Maybe my classroom, had a TV to watch but can't recall. Maybe false memory.

On one hand conspiracy seems more reasonable than lone nut, but some conspiracy theorists include such a large cast of characters that it doesn't seem feasible that the "true facts" could have remained unknown for 50 years.

Theories are all over the place. Google curtis lemay kennedy autopsy. Leroy's version may be as good a guess as any (am being serious, not mocking leroy).

Some versions include the kitchen sink-- johnson, crazy generals, cia, castro, and the mafia all in cahoots. May as well include the KKK I suppose. On the other hand, perhaps the Pope did it because JFK wasn't following orders.

Many otherwise disparate right wing groups shared a few beliefs. It was difficult to know the players without a scorecard.

The Birchers were somewhat proto-libertarian and not obviously racist, including jews and blacks among the membership. Overall benign though they were twitchier about the Red Menace than the average citizen. Birchers were the first proponents that flouridation is a commie conspiracy, as far as I can recall. But overall not a dangerous element.

The Birchers published innumerable pamphlets explaining Red Menace plots and the pamphlets were everywhere. I recall the pamphlets at least as common as church pamphlets or rosicrucian advertisements. Would love to have a complete set to re-read. Some was nutty, some not, but I don't recall it racist or traitorous. About 1968 one JBS pamphlet explained that the music of the Beatles is a commie plot. Ain't joking. Dad wasn't a bircher but gave me that pamphlet because he was worried that I liked the Beatles. Wish I'd saved that pamphlet because ya'll are gonna think I made that up.

A friend in 1963 New Orleans, his dad was a TV repairman involved with the minutemen or some other Red Scare group. My friend told me his dad and fellow patriots were caching military hardware in order to resist in case the Reds ever invade. Of course back then the laws were lax enough that a feller could cache all sorts of hardware without breaking the law, assuming they didn't otherwise endeavor in criminal activity.

The KKK and other racist groups shared a few political opinions with the above-mentioned right-wing extremists, except the odds are nil that the KKK had any blacks or jews in the organization. Most likely no catholics either, but perhaps in places like New Orleans the KKK would have needed catholics to help fill out the membership? Just because so many New Orleans residents were catholic? Dunno. Never thought about it.

Just sayin, the various right-wingers shared a few beliefs but not all. It would be easy to select a particularly nasty set of knuckle dragging miscreants and use them as an example to discredit the less vile groups. Kinda the same as is done today.

Edited February 14, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Definite revisionist history and the modern use

of catch phrases like RWE, which was never

mentioned until probably the 90's.

I doubt the media has really ever gotten anything

right. They're too tied up in political correctness

and slanting it to favor the left.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Guest mustangdave]

Its just anything to take the HEAT of the LEFT WING Marxists and Social Democrats point the finger at the OTHER Guys