Nixon Pressed CIA Chief on the 'Who Shot John?' Angle
Nixon Pressed CIA Chief on the 'Who Shot John?' Angle
An excerpt from Jefferson Morley's book, 'Scorpions' Dance'
Early in his first term, President Richard Nixon pressed CIA director Richard Helms for the Agency’s reporting on the Bay of Pigs thing, the Agency’s failed 1961 operation to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba. When Helms resisted, Nixon summoned him to the Oval Office to explain his interest. The conversation, which took place on October 8, 1971, was captured by Nixon’s secret recording system.
“What I want, what I want, Dick,” Nixon rasped, “regarding any understanding, any information, I do not want any information, that comes in from you on these delicate and sensitive subjects, to go to anybody outside . . .”
Helms said nothing.
“This is my information, me and you,” Nixon said. “Ehrlichman will be my ears.”
Helms, the butler of espionage, spoke for the first time. He limited himself to one word.
“Exactly.”
“I need it for a defensive reason,” Nixon explained. “For a negotiation.”
“I quite understand,” Helms said.
“The Who shot John angle,” Nixon began. In the context of a demand for secret records about the Bay of Pigs, Nixon’s meaning was clear. He wanted the Bay of Pigs files because they related to JFK’s assassination.
—From Scorpions’ Dance: The President, the Spymaster and Watergate (St. Martin’s Press, 2022).
For the Macmillan audiobook, click here.
There are multiple ways in which the Bay of Pigs could be related to the JFK assassination. One theory that emerged soon after Nov. 22, 1963 was that rabid anticommunist Cubans were involved. Depending on how credible one believes Marita Lorenz's testimony to be in Hunt vs. Liberty Lobby (1985, Southern District of Florida), there is even reason to think some of the assassination team's names are known.
Here is an attempt to refute her credibility, but it relies on taking the word of people like Frank Sturgis to be credible, which is incredible in itself!
www.jfk-assassination.net/denial.htm
Here's another version of what the case means for the JFK assassination. As Mr. Morley knows as well as anyone, you have to expect to read and compare and contrast many different accounts of the three murders (JFK, Officer Tippit, and Lee Harvey Oswald) to gain some idea of the numerous contradictions and complexities in the record:
spartacus-educational.com/JFKtrento.htm
And all of this is just one more in a plethora of reasons why we need ALL the files released as soon as possible, this year, not next year, not "sometime in the future."
I know this is pointless semantics on my behalf as it does not change the gravity of his statement, but isn't he saying "the 'Who Shot John' thing"? Whenever i see this quoted i often see the word "thing" instead of "angle". Just curious if there's an official transcript.