On this week’s episode we spoke with our good friend Tom Secker the host of ClandesTime. Tom and I discussed John Frankenheimer’s 1964 classic, Seven Days in May. Made at the behest of John F. Kennedy, this incredible film follows a Marine Colonel’s efforts to stop a military coup from being implemented by a right-wing cabal led by the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General William Matoon Scott. Set amidst Cold War paranoia, Seven Days in May is in many ways one of the original truther films. Tom and I discuss several themes within the film that mimicked real life events: the fact that this film makes explicit mention of the parallel structure known as “Continuity of Government;” the fact that this movie mentions, in quite specific detail, the Mount Weather FEMA facility nearly fifteen years before its existence would ever be know to the American people. We move onto some of the real life coup d’etats within American history and how they relate to Seven Days in May. We focus on the alleged “Business Plot” against FDR and how it was ultimately foiled by General Smedley Butler. We also speak about the attempted Reagan assassination and how this really represented a coup by militarist neocons such as George Bush and Alexander Haig. We explore the real-life inspiration for the antagonist in Seven Days in May, right-winger General Edwin Walker, and his connection not only with the JFK assassination, but also with his role in supporting the narrative that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. Tom and I also get into the reality of who Kennedy was, and give our takes on why in fact he was murdered in Dealy Plaza. Later we move onto the numerous bizarre connections between director John Frankenheimer and the Kennedy family. Lastly we focus on Frankenheimer’s relationship with the RFK assassination, as well as Seven Days in May producer Edward Lewis’ foray into conspiracy culture. Let me just add that Seven Days in May is truly a spectacular, one-of-a-kind movie. There is nothing I can think of that really comes close to it in terms of bravery and substance. So please do watch the film before listening to this podcast.
Show notes:
Civil Defense Doomsday Hideaway
Is This Bush’s Secret Bunker
The White House Coup 1933 (BBC)
The Facist Plot to Overthrow FDR
McCormack-Dickstein Committee Hearings on “The Business Plot”
Mae Brussell: “Alexander Haig is angry. Time for a shoot out at the White House” (3/28/1981)
Mae Brussell: “Ronald Regan Assassination Attempt part 1” (4/5/81)
Mae Brussell: “Ronald Regan Assassination Attempt part 2” (4/12/81)
Mae Brussell: “Ronald Regan Assassination Attempt part 3” (4/19/81)
Edwin Walker
US House of Reps. Select Committee on Assassinations: George De Mohrenschildt
John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate Plays to a Full House After 26 Years
Music:
Jerry Goldsmith – “Seven Days in May”
Lou Reed – “The Day John Kennedy Died”
Porkins Policy Review 
Comments
wow, surprised to hear you gents repeating so much of the slander from the usual suspects against jfk
this may interest, notwithstanding the patton paranoia:
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/10/24/danger-of-conspiracy-theories/
incidentally google is so concerned about the “adult content” in 7 days that you can’t watch it on youtube without signing in
thanks for another very stimulating broadcast
I agree with the comment above. This was an interesting episode but it was disappointing to hear so many of the post-assassination smears being recycled for the millionth time. It would have been nice to hear more about the good stuff that Kennedy did; especially since the negative stuff has been given so much more coverage in the last 51 years.
One assassination attempt that you forgot to mention was the one against Jimmy Carter. Absurdly, the suspects in that case were a guy called Ray Lee Harvey and Osvaldo Ortiz. You can’t say that these people don’t have a sense of humour (albeit a sick one.)
More here:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=10378
Dave Emory has also covered this in one of his broadcasts but I can’t recall if it was the one about the Reagan attempt or George Wallace.
In Carter’s case it seems to have been more of a warning than a genuine assassination attempt, and it certainly appeared that he got the message.
Also, further to the discussion that you had about the various coincidences surrounding the JFK/RFK assassinations…
The scriptwriter for Seven Days in May was Rod Serling of The Twilight Zone. In 1964 Serling also wrote the anti-war TV movie A Carol for Another Christmas which was subsequently suppressed for 48 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Carol_for_Another_Christmas
As Wikipedia states, this was the only TV movie ever directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s brother, the recently deceased Frank Mankiewicz, was the person who announced the death of RFK to the world.
His other brother, Herman, c-wrote the movie Citizen Kane with Orson Welles. When Welles died he left behind numerous unfilmed screenplays, including Assassin, aka The Safe House, written in 1975-76, about the CIA brainwashing of Sirhan Sirhan to serve as a patsy in the RFK shooting.
A Carol for Another Christmas starred Peter Sellers, who also starred in the excellent film Being There. The end of the film Being There:
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bow1ZJTV4L4
Being There was based on a novel by Jerzy Kosinski. Per Wikipedia: “Kosiński was friends with Roman Polanski, with whom he attended the National Film School in Łódź, and said he narrowly missed being at Polanski and Sharon Tate’s house on the night Tate was murdered by Charles Manson’s followers in 1969, due to lost luggage. His novel Blind Date discussed the Manson murders.[4] Kosiński was also friends with Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger. He introduced the couple.”
For more on the various odd coincidences and connections around these events see also:
https://archive.org/details/InterviewPeterLevenda
https://deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-2306.html?s=1ba70ca90516cc8f3ffffa6cf13b06bd
And for more on Rod Serling:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=14520
And this is just scratching the surface.
I was happily listening to this podcast – until you got to a discussion about the JFK assassination. That is an area which sadly requires a pretty comprehensive study to be able to speak in an informed way on it. The recently re-published “Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy presidency” by Donald Gibson shows conclusively that JFK’s enemies were not limited to the “black ops” part of government, but included Wall Street heavy hitters. Speaking of black ops, I recommend Black Op Radio http://blackopradio.com/ and http://ctka.net/ for the latests in JFK research. Jim DiEugenio has recently done a lot of work on JFK’s foreign policy outside of CUBA and the USSR which shows that JFK was battling the State Dept, CIA and the Pentagon on those areas as well.
I see that Helter Skelter is referenced above. Jim DiEugenio has researched Vincent “Vinnie the Bug” Bugliosi extensively and has a great analysis of what was behind Bugliosi’s most famous book.
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