MAX LERNER THE KENNEDY PLOTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300040021-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 1999
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: November 27, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

S-279,928 Sani
NOV 2 7 1967,
U FOIAb3b
ized -hp'oved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
The Kennedy Plots'
on the river of books on It keeps rolling along. One man who,
oubtless has, been reading all the new ones is District Attorney
im' Garrison of New Orleans, who has entered on a monumental
nd endless hegira In quest of a New Orleans plot to kill the
resident. Certainly he has read Harold Weisberg's new paper-l
ack, "Oswald in New Orleans: Case of Conspiracy with the,
:IA" which I Infer from the fact that he wrote a foreword
~)r It, and also from his heavy reliance on Weisberg's. two
arlier books ("Wihtewash" and "Whitewash II"). -
If he has also read Sylvia Meagher's ? "Accessories Alter the l
-act," he will have found a good deal of common ground In her.
Dng, knowledgeable and highly detailed, indictment 'of the';
Warren Commission, although he will be depressed lit. thei
ulthor's blast in her closing pages : ;against Garrison's owni
-iethods and against the Warren critics who support him, "con-
oning tactics which they might not condone on the part of,
thers."
Finally he must have read Josiah Thompson's ."Six Seconds,
a Dallas," which I discussed In my last piece, and which_.recon-i
:ructs a death trap by three gunmen rather similar to the plant
ar a "tirangulated" firing which Garrison has attributed;_,to1
wave Ferrie, presumably the "mastermind" of the New Orleans':
1ct.'Ferrie either.died naturally or killed himself before' Garrison:l'
mould arrest him and Garrison has been trying ever since to nail;
own the plot without the master-plotter.
For most of the anti-Warren authors, as for . Garrison' hint-
1f, there are two plots that seem to,worry them: one is' what-'
-or version of an anti-Kennedy plotrthey plump for; the.: other'l
a presumed government plot (through the commission itself,,
e 1BI, the Justice Dept. and the CIA) to keep the truth about;
c assassination plot hidden from`thek`f4ople..
Some form of an anti-Kennedy plot now seems possible. to
a, but I confess that I cannot see a deliberate government plo '
cover up the crime and protect the' criminajs:'
What I see instead is a bias toward a single-assassin theo
the part of the commission and its staff, because they were
a hurry and because it fitted more facts than any other theory.:
nee they had adopted this position they were not overanxious'
follow up leads-that might unsettle It.
In. addition the underground agencies-FBI and CIA-may;
-11 have had additional reasons. for, not.wanting.'some of. their
st activities exposed to public, view, for' the same reason; that!
try secret- agency, in the world finds' ways' of shielding itself'
;m exposure and humiliation. -(For.-Instances from .;the :record:;
.the major nations.today;: see the shrewdly; informative:'lew
nk by David Wise and Thomas'-B.. Ross, aThe'espionage .Es=;
lishment.") ,.,
Garrison's foreword to the Weisberg bock, in which he says
(.nothing about the book itself, Is a brilliantly sulphurous attack.,.'
control project in the best traditions of '1984; "and intent on re-i
The excessiveness of his language may be an index also of`
the 'excessiveness of his methods In trying to. crack the New;
and redress. He has gone too far to retreat: "They-must con-i
I read Weisberg's new book eagerly, and was not even
with .him in New Orleans. :.; ?-~
What I found, to my delight, were two long documentary-, T-'.;
portraits of Dean Andrews, the "jive-talking lawyer" who. had'
donee some legal work for Oswald in New Orleans: This is the i-'
`"Andrews who told' of knowing a "Clay Bertrand," whom Gar-,
rison is intent on proving to have been Clay Shaw, now awaiting; . , ;
trial.' His Interview with Wesley Liebeler, the Warren Cpmmis-; j
slon staff member, and even more his telephone interview with
Bob Scott, of radio station WNAC in Boston, are the stuff oi.!,~`
great documentary literature, with a -racy Andrews style of,
"
~
ll i
that .
t
all th
1.
t no
eli
t
t
sh
ta
ng
u
s
e
ep-ca
v
s
s
o
ame
fl:
But tills gaiety is less than proor. xor uo the attacks
'Ithe. single-assassin version add un to an alternative scenario o&, It
The 'Warren Commission, whatever Its - detailed mistakes,t I~ I rf'
'
'
'
closing its Inquiry.
jnade one massive blunder-that of
i
It
should)
lave rendered, an Interim ,"Not Proven" repoit, and kept' they ' r
);inquiry open-ended 'until, the-pteces-fittedi .-into' a 'better 'patterlt0
( than they did then or now w ... i.t
Sanitized - Approved for Release ,:'CIA RQ,P75-0