Reply #13: "The Bay of Pigs thing"

[Minstrel Boy]

Just posted about this on my blog a few days ago.

Post-Watergate, when it looked like some concession to the truth on the JFK assassination was unavoidable, the CIA floated the "problem" of Hunt's presence in Dallas as a possible limited hangout for the involvement of "rogue elements" of the Agency conspiring in Kennedy's murder. He lost a libel suit in 1978 - the jury was convinced he was lying; that he had indeed been in Dallas on November 22. The trial is the subject of Mark Lane's Plausible Denial.

From Watergate's "smoking gun" tape of June 23 1972, it's evident that Nixon feared what an investigation could reveal about Hunt:

Of course, this is a, this is a Hunt, you will- that will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab there's a hell of a lot of things and that we just feel that it would be very detrimental to have this thing go any further. This involves these Cubans, Hunt, and a lot of hanky-panky that we have nothing to do with ourselves.

But that's not the most interesting revelation on the tape.

HR Haldeman, in his book The Ends of Power, cites several conversations where Nixon expressed concern about the Watergate affair becoming public knowledge and where this exposure might lead. Haldeman writes that he was puzzled when Nixon said, "'Tell Ehrlichman this whole group of Cubans (involved in the break-in) is tied to the Bay of Pigs.' After a pause I said, 'The Bay of Pigs? What does that have to do with this ?' But Nixon merely said, 'Ehrlichman will know what I mean,' and dropped the subject."

Later in the book, he reveals that he discovered that Nixon spoke in code about Kennedy's murder. He writes that Nixon's code for the assassination was "the Bay of Pigs."

Now here's Nixon again on the tape:

When you get in these people when you...get these people in, say: 'Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that" ah, without going into the details... don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, "the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And, ah because these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case," period!

Over and over on the tapes, Nixon talks about Hunt, the Cubans, the Texans, and the "Bay of Pigs thing."

See what's going on here?

Nixon is directing Haldeman to warn the FBI off probing Watergate because it'll touch Hunt, and that could reopen the Kennedy assassination. He expects the FBI, since it has a vested interest in perpetuating the cover up, not to pry any further for the good of the country.

some more here:
http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/10/ballad-of-eduardo.html