The Assassination of James Forrestal

by David Martin

  Two and a half years after the death, Time magazine reissued some of the original “suicide attempt” lies. It also implied that Forrestal’s mind had slipped, as evidenced in a habit he had developed of scratching his head while thinking.

  Note that Forrestal’s enemies, even long after his death, continued to print lies designed to establish not only that he had frequently tried to kill himself but had been hopelessly out of his mind, all of which served to discredit his entire anti-Communist stand.80

  Indeed it did, but as we have seen, the Forrestal smears and misrepresentations keep coming, right up to the present day, and they are not coming from the Communists. They were neatly packaged by Arnold Rogow in a book that was published three years before Simpson’s, which Simpson chose to ignore, perhaps because he was unable to paint Rogow as a Communist or Communist sympathizer.

  One must wonder why Cornell Simpson is so intent on steering his readers away from the obvious prime suspects in Forrestal’s death. It was not the Communists who were known to have threatened Forrestal, Robert Lovett, and other government officials in the last months of Forrestal’s life.81 And though they might have had some small influence with the American press that slandered him, distorted the facts about his last few weeks of life, and failed to raise a hue and cry about the ongoing secrecy of the investigation of his death, it was minor compared to that of the Zionists, and it is now non-existent.

  Simpson actually gives himself away in the fourth paragraph of his book’s foreword:

  ...on November 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, president Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, a mysterious young American Communist recently returned from a lengthy stay in Soviet Russia. While in Russia, Oswald, according to his own writings, had been paid large sums of money by the Soviet secret police, which is the terrorist “enforcement” arm of the Soviet government and which is notorious for political assassinations both inside and outside Russia. Why the Soviet secret police would have had the future assassin of a U.S. president on its payroll never has been disclosed.82

  To be sure we have learned a great deal more about the Kennedy assassination than we knew in 1966, but it is very hard to believe that a man as perspicacious and as skeptical of the government and the press as Cornell Simpson has shown himself to be in the Forrestal death, could accept as face value the official line that Oswald killed Kennedy. Here he reminds us of no one so much as the reporter and now Newsmax editor and publisher and most recently President Donald Trump crony, Christopher Ruddy. Ruddy, with his reports in the New York Post and the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, and his book, The Strange Death of Vincent Foster, has been the only American journalist to challenge the official verdict of suicide in the death of Deputy White House Counsel, Vincent W. Foster, Jr., but he scoffs at skeptics of the Warren Report and other apparent cover-ups, calling them “conspiracy theorists.” One can only conclude that Ruddy is an operative for someone, and the fiercely pro-Israel orientation of Newsmax strongly suggests who that someone might be.83 May not the same suspicion be raised of Simpson, who gives voice to the skepticism over the Forrestal death felt by many of his contemporaries, but then directs that doubt and skepticism down a rabbit trail leading away from the most likely suspects?

  Seasoned Assassins

  The Communists are hardly the only ones noted for political assassinations. Just eight months before Forrestal's death, members of future Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's "Stern Gang" gunned down the United Nation's chief mediator in Palestine, the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte. In November of 1944 that same organization was responsible for the murder of Lord Moyne, a high British official supervising that country's Mandate over Palestine. In July of 1946, agents of another Zionist terrorist organization, Irgun, led by another future Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, blew up the building where the British had their headquarters in Jerusalem, the King David Hotel, killing 35 people, including 17 Jews.

  The most extreme of the Zionists in Israel have always had an inordinate amount of power and influence in the United States, right up to the present day. Criticism of their actions is much more prominently voiced in Israel, itself, than it is in this country.

  Only a few months before James Forrestal’s confinement to the Bethesda Naval Hospital (also famous, or infamous, we might remind readers, for the autopsy of John F. Kennedy and the rather suspicious death of Senator Joe McCarthy84) a group of the most illustrious Jewish intellectuals in the United States were moved to warn the country with the following message:

  Letters to The Times

  New York Times December 4, 1948

  New Palestine Party Visit of Menachem Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed

  Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.

  The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.

  Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin's behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.

  The public avowals of Begin's party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.

  Attack on Arab Village

  A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants-240 men, women, and children-and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.

  The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.

  Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have them-selves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.

  During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.

  The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in
the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.

  Discrepancies Seen

  The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a "Leader State" is the goal.

  In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin's efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.

  The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.

  ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ, HANNAH ARENDT, ABRAHAM BRICK, RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO, ALBERT EINSTEIN, HERMAN EISEN, M.D., HAYIM FINEMAN, M. GALLEN, M.D., H.H. HARRIS, ZELIG S. HARRIS, SIDNEY HOOK, FRED KARUSH, BRURIA KAUFMAN, IRMA L.LINDHEIM, NACHMAN MAISEL, SEYMOUR MELMAN, MYER D. MENDELSON, M.D., HARRY M.OSLINSKY, SAMUEL PITLICK, FRITZ ROHRLICH, LOUIS P. ROCKER, RUTH SAGIS, ITZHAK SANKOWSKY, I.J. SHOENBERG, SAMUEL SHUMAN, M. SINGER, IRMA WOLFE, STEFAN WOLFE.85

  Would men like Menachem Begin and his followers have hesitated at assassinating the most popular, outspoken, and powerful critic of the nascent state of Israel in the United States if given the opportunity? It certainly did not stop them when the perceived obstacles to Israeli ambitions were members of the British or the Swedish leadership and nobility. Would someone like David Niles have used his power and influence to assist the assassins, and did he have sufficient power and influence to see that the deed was accomplished? From the evidence we have presented, we believe the answer would have to be in the affirmative.

  Would President Truman have countenanced such a thing? One likes to think that he would not, had it been in his power. But from his earliest days in politics as a member of the political machine, that is, the organized criminal conspiracy, of “Boss” Tom Pendergast of Kansas City, Truman had learned how to make the kinds of compromises that would leave him eventually, though President, powerless to prevent such an atrocity. (Do an Internet search of various combinations of “Truman” “corruption” “Pendergast” and “John Lazia” for evidence of the sort that you will not find heavily emphasized by Truman hagiographers like David McCullough.). We have seen the assertion, after all, by Zionist apologists John Loftus and Mark Aarons that David Ben-Gurion would freely use blackmail to advance Israel’s interests.

  Would America’s press have participated in the cover-up of such a heinous crime? Considering what we have learned of the role they have played in the aftermath of the assassination of the Kennedy brothers, Martin Luther King, Vincent Foster, and Thomas Merton, the temptation to engage in sarcasm at this point is almost irresistible. Let us simply say that, considering who the most likely suspects would have to have been, one would sooner expect Pravda of the old days to question the official verdict in the Jan Masaryk “suicide.”

  __________

  6 The MacMillan Company, 1963.

  7 From our home in Fairfax County, Virginia, outside Washington, DC, we find searching worldcat.org that only five libraries within 100 miles have the book. The National Defense University and Howard are the only college libraries in the nation’s capital that have it, and the former is not exactly a regular college library. It’s in only one library in Virginia, the Jerry Falwell Library of Liberty University. Only one library in Maryland has it, the Lewis J. Ort Library of Frostburg State University.

  8 We were able to obtain a used copy through the Internet at a reasonable price in 2002, something less than $20. Now, thanks in large measure to our reawakening of interest in the case of Forrestal’s death at http://www.dcdave.com, no copy of this book, which has long been out of print, can be obtained for less than $100 when shipping and handling costs are figured in.

  9 Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. From their Wikipedia pages we learn that Hoopes, a former Under Secretary of the Air Force, among many government positions he held, was a member of the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale University and that Brinkley, who is a commentator on CNN, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was also the protégé of popular historian, Stephen E. Ambrose. As establishment historians, Hoopes and Brinkley’s credentials are impeccable.

  10 Hoopes and Brinkley, p. 468.

  11 Ibid., pp. 464-465. The authors have no explanation for the ellipsis after the word, “grave,” suggesting that something is missing. Examining the original poem we see that, in fact, lines 11-20 are not there. We are not told whether those lines were skipped in the original transcription. In all likelihood, neither Hoopes nor Brinkley, nor even Rogow, whose section they were practically copying verbatim, knew the answer to that question. Editor Walter Millis (with the collaboration of E.S. Duffield) had it that way in The Forrestal Diaries, The Viking Press, 1951, p. 555, and Rogow, no doubt, was just copying Millis. The contemporary press, as we shall discuss in Chapter Four, was inconsistent as to which lines of the poem were transcribed.

  12 John Loftus, The Belarus Secret, Alfred A. Knopf, 1982.

  13 Hoopes and Brinkley, pp. 463-466.

  14 “Who Killed James Forrestal, Part 1,” November 10, 2002, http://dcdave.com/article4/021110.html.

  15 “Who Killed James Forrestal, Part 2,” September 19, 2004, http://dcdave.com/article4/040922.html.

  16 This is the only mention that we have seen of any Surgeon General’s report. That office knew nothing of any such report upon our inquiry in 2002.

  17 Simpson writes on page 185, “...the entire report issued on this brief, token inquiry was illegally classified as secret and is withheld from the public to this day.” Readers can hear the author call in to C-SPAN and question Douglas Brinkley about his book’s crucial omission by scrolling to just past the 2:47 mark of this televised interview on December 7, 2003: https://www.c-span.org/video/?179432-1/depth-douglas-brinkley.

  18 Simpson, pp. 29-30.

  19 Ibid., p. 9.

  20 Hoopes and Brinkley, pp. 462-463; Simpson, pp. 8-9.

  21 Simpson, p. 10.

  22 Ibid., p. 11.

  23 Hoopes and Brinkley, p. 431.

  24 Ibid., p. 462.

  25 Jeffery M. Dorwart, Eberstadt and Forrestal: A National Security Partnership, Texas A & M University Press, 1991, p. 169.

  26 Ibid., p. 159.

  27 Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, Interview of Marx Leva by Jerry N. Hess, https://trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/leva.htm.

  28 Rogow, p. 6.

  29 Hoopes and Brinkley, p. 456.

  30 Ibid, p. 450.

  31 Rogow, pp. 8-9.

  32 Hoopes and Brinkley, p. 454.

  33 Truman Library Oral History Interviews with Matthew Connelly, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/connly.htm.

  34 Rogow, pp. 9-10. Wikipedia brings us down to earth with these words: “Involutional melancholia is not recognized as a psychiatric disorder by the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) classification and diagnostic tool.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involutional_melancholia. See also the common-sense rejoinder to Rogow by Oklahoma State University sociologists, Mary Akashah and Donald Tennant, “Madness and Politics: The Case of James Forrestal,” (Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science, Vol. 60, 1980) available online at http://digital.library.okstate.edu/oas/oas_pdf/v60/p89_92.pdf. The following paragraph provides a good summation of their conclusions: “We do not deny that Forrestal was under great stress at the end of his career. However, we have found
no convincing evidence that he was dangerously psychotic or incapable of discharging his duties while in office. There is no justification for saying that his policies and positions were somehow the products of a diseased mind, unless we are willing to make the same assumptions about literally millions of people who have entertained similar beliefs. Nevertheless, they have been interpreted as such in Forrestal's case.”

  35 Rogow, p. 45.

  36 Ibid., p. 46.

  37 Quoted by Akashah and Tennant.

  38 Hoopes and Brinkley, p. 426.

  39 Ibid., p. 447.

  40 Ibid., p. 451.

  41 Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA, Alfred A. Knopf, 1979, p. 361; the Yergin reference is to Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War and the National Security State, Houghton Mifflin, 1977, p. 208.

  42 Concerning the various locations where that list of psychiatrists was said to have been found, see David Martin, “Vince Foster’s Valuable Murder,” November 26, 2000, http://www.dcdave.com/article3/001126.html.

  43 John Loftus and Mark Aarons, The Secret War against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People, St. Martin’s Griffin, pp. 212-213.

  44 David Martin, “Forrestal Ignored: China Lost to Reds, Korean War Fought,” http://www.dcdave.com/article5/110530.htm.

  45 David Martin, “James Forrestal and John Kennedy,” http://dcdave.com/article5/140806.htm.

  46 Concerning Truman’s reservations about the entire Zionist project, see David Martin, “’Jews’ Tried to Kill Truman in 1947,” http://dcdave.com/article5/120510.htm.