Street Spirit

Volume 16, No. 12 December 2010 $1.00 A publication of the American Friends Service Committee

JUSTICE NEWS & HOMELESS BLUES IN THE B AY A REA

CONFRONTING THE JFK ASSASSINATION

Where do we find hope when a peace- making president is assassinated by his own national security state?

President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office. Cecil Stoughton, White House photo

When President Kennedy stood up to the Pentagon and the CIA, he was treated as a traitor. A president was murdered by our own government agencies because he was seeking a Amateur snapshot, made with Kodak Brownie, of the Kennedys and Connallys in the motorcade about two minutes before the shooting in Dealey Plaza. more stable peace than relying on nuclear weapons. by James W. Douglass murder. That document, National Security Council directive 10/2, on June 18, 1948, on December 22, 1963: n the years that I have spent in Assassinations in America “gave the highest sanction of the [U.S.] “For some time I have been disturbed by researching and writing my book, government to a broad range of covert the way the CIA has been diverted from its First in a three-part series on political JFK and the Unspeakable, I have original assignment. It has become an oper- operations” 1 — propaganda, sabotage, eco- assassinations by James Douglass. See learned about the hope that comes I nomic warfare, subversion of all kinds — ational and at times a policy-making arm of the January and February 2011 issues from our confronting the truth of the that were seen as necessary to “win” the the Government. This has led to trouble and of Street Spirit for parts 2 and 3. assassination of President John F. Cold War against the Communists. may have compounded our difficulties in Kennedy. Concerned friends have asked The government’s condition for those several explosive areas. president, but with no genuine account- me over the years if engaging in such a covert activities by U.S. agencies, coordi- “We have grown up as a nation, ability to anyone. probe into darkness hasn’t made me pro- nated by the CIA, was that they be “so respected for our free institutions and for Plausible deniability became a rationale foundly depressed. On the contrary, it has planned and executed that... if uncovered our ability to maintain a free and open for the CIA’s interpretation of what the given me great hope. the U.S. government can plausibly dis- society. There is something about the way executive branch’s wishes might be. But for As Martin Luther King said, the truth the CIA has been functioning that is cast- claim any responsibility for them.” 2 the Agency’s crimes to remain plausibly crushed to earth will rise again. Gandhi In the 1950s, under the leadership of ing a shadow over our historic position deniable, the less said the better — to the spoke hopefully of experiments in truth, 4 CIA Director Allen Dulles, the doctrine of and I feel that we need to correct it.” point where CIA leaders’ creative imagina- because they take us into the most power- Truman later remarked: “The CIA was “plausible deniability” became the CIA’s tions simply took over. It was all for the ful force on earth and in existence — set up by me for the sole purpose of get- green light to assassinate national leaders, sake of “winning” the Cold War by any truth-force, satyagraha. That is how I ting all the available information to the conduct secret military operations, and means necessary and without implicating think of this work, as an experiment in president. It was not intended to operate overthrow governments that our govern- the more visible heads of government. truth — one that will open us up, both as an international agency engaged in ment thought were on the wrong side in One assumption behind Kennan’s pro- personally and as a country, to a process strange activities.” 5 the Cold War. “Plausible deniability” posal unleashing the CIA for its war of nonviolent transformation. Truman’s sharp warning about the meant our intelligence agencies, acting as against Communism was that the I believe this experiment we are doing CIA, and the fact that his warning was paramilitary groups, had to lie and cover Agency’s criminal power could be con- into the dark truth of Dallas (and of published one month to the day after their tracks so effectively that there would fined to covert action outside the borders Washington, D.C.) can be the most hope- JFK’s assassination, should have given be no trace of U.S. government responsi- of the United States, with immunity from ful experience of our lives. But, it does this country pause. However, his state- bility for criminal activities on an ever- its lethal power granted to U.S. citizens. require patience and tenacity to confront ment appeared only in an early edition of widening scale. That assumption proved to be wrong. the unspeakable. We, first of all, need to The Washington Post, then vanished with- THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE take the time to recognize the sources in TRUMAN WARNS ABOUT THE CIA out comment from public view. 6 During the Cold War, the hidden our history for what happened in Dallas What George Kennan and Harry The man who proposed this secret, growth of the CIA’s autonomous power on November 22, 1963. Truman realized much too late was that, subversive process in 1948, diplomat corresponded to the public growth of what in the name of national security, they had ‘PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY’ George Kennan, said later, in light of its was called a fortress state. What had been unwittingly allowed an alien force to The doctrine of “plausible deniability” consequences, that it was “the greatest a struggling post-war democracy in our 3 invade a democracy. As a result, we now in an old government document provides us mistake I ever made.” President Harry country was replaced by the institutions of had to deal with a government agency with a source of the assassination of Truman, under whom the CIA was creat- a national security state. authorized to carry out a broad range of President Kennedy. The document was ed, and during whose presidency the plau- President Truman had laid the founda- issued in 1948, one year after the CIA was sible deniability doctrine was authorized, criminal activities on an international established, and 15 years before JFK’s had deep regrets. He said in a statement scale, theoretically accountable to the See Confronting the Unspeakable page 5 2 S TREET S PIRIT December 2010 Ugly Laws, Bum Blockades and Sundown Towns segments of the working and unemployed Today’s anti-homeless laws poor, scapegoating those from other places for the high unemployment and have their roots in the prej- long welfare rolls wracking the state. udicial laws that fueled Jim In 1936, Police Chief Davis took mat- ters into his own hands, enforcing an Crow segregation and anti- aggressive fingerprinting and deportation Okie discrimination. campaign for anyone arrested on vagrancy charges in Los Angeles. He also took the extraordinary measure by Paul Boden, WRAP of sending well over 100 officers to the he Quality of Life ordinances borders of California and Oregon, enacted in cities across the Arizona, and Nevada. Officers set up nation to outlaw and banish blockades to question incoming travelers homeless people from certain if they had money or work. If they didn’t, T they were told to either go back to from areas are our contemporary version of the vagrancy laws that have been with us for where they came or face hard labor. centuries. In the South, they were used to Around the same time, California put an force freed slaves back to the plantation. anti-Okie law on the books that made it a In the North, they were used to instill a misdemeanor to bring an “indigent per- Protestant work ethic in indigent whites. son” who wasn’t a resident into the state. This compulsion to control labor and Such measures directed at “Okies” separate the “worthy” from the “unwor- spurred John Steinbeck to write in The thy” is deeply ingrained in our culture and Grapes of Wrath, “Well, Okie use’ta institutions. By drawing comparisons mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it between today’s anti-homeless legislation means you’re a dirty son of a bitch. Okie and three specific episodes in U.S. histo- means you’re scum.” ry, we hope to shake the complacency The Bum Blockade eventually failed surrounding our present civil rights fail- because it was too expensive and the ures. If we don’t, future generations will Supreme Court struck down California’s surely ridicule our hypocrisies as we do anti-Okie Law as a violation of the those who came before us. Interstate Commerce Clause. A WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING Hailey Giczy writes, “In order to pre- serve the homogeneity of Los Angeles’ How ugly is too ugly? How dark is too ‘imagined community’ of wealthy and dark? How poor is too poor? These per- “The Lord Provides” Lithograph, 1934, by Jacob Burck, courtesy of M. Lee Stone Fine Prints culturally advanced Anglo-Saxons, tactics verse questions were at the heart of ugly used to exclude racial groups were laws, sundown towns, and the Bum employed to attack class groups, raising Blockade — unconstitutional predeces- L.A. Police Chief James Davis hurled invectives at Dust Bowl exclusionary sentiment in Angelinos sors of today’s Quality of Life ordinances. refugees. He linked the influx of “Okies” with crime and which fueled a fear of moral and aesthetic Unlike the above policies of segrega- degradation.” tion that brazenly named the objects of financial loss to scare up support for his “Bum Blockade.” their scorn — “masterless men,” “crip- AN EMPHATIC “NO!” ples,” “Negroes,” and “Bolshevik bums” ed, or in any way deformed, so as to be an Known as sundown towns, these white Vestiges of the ugly laws, sundown — today’s vagrancy laws are dressed up unsightly or disgusting object, or an supremacist redoubts got their name from towns, and Bum Blockade persist in our in post-civil rights legalese. By targeting improper person to be allowed in or on the customary signs placed at the entrance current Quality of Life ordinances. They behaviors like sleeping, lying down, sit- the streets, highways, thoroughfares, or of town warning targeted ethnic groups create second-class citizenship, criminal- ting, and urinating in public, Quality of public places in this city, shall not therein “not to let the sun set on you” within city ize poverty and disability, close public Life laws attempt to sidestep the protec- or thereon expose himself to public view, limits. Government complicity, vigilante space, and encourage vigilante justice. tion afforded by the Civil Rights and under the penalty of a fine of $1 [about justice, and race riots backed these threats. The corporate media arouses fear and Americans with Disabilities Acts. $20 today] for each offense.” Lesser known than their southern coun- dehumanizes the poor and disabled, busi- In reality, this legal fine-tuning is the The laws specifically proscribed a per- terparts — Black Codes and Jim Crow — ness groups like the Chamber of same old wolf in sheep’s clothing. The son from exposing a disability in public sundown towns were far from being a mar- Commerce demand the state protect their ableism, racism, and classism that under- space for the purpose of begging. They ginal phenomenon. There were thousands interests, and police overstep the constitu- wrote yesteryear’s ugly laws, sundown were one of the country’s first panhan- of them and many could be found in elite tional limits of their power. towns, and the Bum Blockade can be found dling laws. A large percentage of ugly suburbs right outside of metropolitan areas Throughout this sordid history, coura- in today’s Quality of Life ordinances. laws had “poorhouse clauses” that ban- like New York City and Chicago. geous people have stood up and declared The words of Martin Luther King from ished disabled people to jails or almshous- James Loewen concludes, “From the an emphatic “no!” to policies that a Birmingham jail ring as true now as they es if they couldn’t pay the fine. towns that passed sundown ordinances, to exclude, segregate, and deny universal did in 1963: “We will have to repent in this Susan Schweik writes, “The crude ele- the county sheriffs who escorted black human dignity. Society can learn much by generation not merely for the hateful words ments of ugly law may be broken down would-be residents back across the county highlighting the work of those carrying on and actions of the bad people but for the roughly as follows: the call for harsh polic- line, to the states that passed laws this tradition of resistance, those who appalling silence of the good people.” ing; anti-begging; systemized suspicion set enabling municipalities to zone out ‘unde- today are demanding social justice. Many liberals and progressives, when up to winnow the deserving from the unde- sirables,’ to the federal government — Paul Boden is the organizing director of the aware of them, look back at past exclu- serving; suppression of acts of solidarity by whose lending and insuring policies from Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP). sionary practices with scorn and shame, and for marginalized urban social groups; the 1930s to 1960s required sundown yet they are silent when it comes to cur- and structural and institutional repulsion of neighborhoods and suburbs — our gov- rent battles over public space, freedom of disabled people, whether by design or by ernments openly favored white supremacy Street Spirit movement, and civil rights. We bring the default. None of these have disappeared and helped to create and maintain all- following history to public attention so since the demise of formally enacted white communities. So did our banks, Street Spirit is published by American that we may wake up to what Quality of unsightly beggar ordinances.” realtors, and police chiefs.” Friends Service Committee. The ven- Life ordinances really are. dor program is run by BOSS (Building The last known arrest stemming from THE BUM BLOCKADE What follows draws heavily on the an ugly law happened in Omaha only 36 Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency). “Bolshevik bums.” “Won’t workers.” scholarship of Susan Schweik, author of years ago. Ugly laws attempted to accom- Editor, Layout: Terry Messman “Migratory criminals.” “Two-legged “The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public,” plish what cities are now aiming to locusts.” Los Angeles Police Chief James Contributors: Victor Arnautoff, Paul James Loewen, author of Sundown Towns: achieve with sit/lie bans and anti-panhan- Davis hurled invectives like these at Dust Boden, Jack Bragen, Jacob Burck, James A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, dling ordinances: to reinforce social Bowl refugees in the pages of The Los W. Douglass, Ronnie Goodman, Carol and Hailey Giczy, “The Bum Blockade: boundaries and marginalize those consid- Angeles Times throughout 1935. Like Harvey, Victor Hugo King, Abbie Rowe, Los Angeles and the Great Depression.” ered “unsightly” in the newly preserved contemporary Quality of Life campaigns, Norman Solomon, Cecil Stoughton THE UGLY LAWS historic downtowns of the closed city. Chief Davis linked the influx of “Okies” All works copyrighted by the authors. Beginning in the second half of the 19th SUNDOWN TOWNS with crime and financial loss to scare up The views expressed in Street Spirit arti- century in San Francisco, other cities, In response to the upheaval in “race support for his “Bum Blockade.” cles are those of the authors alone, not including Portland, Chicago, Omaha, relations” caused by Reconstruction and The Los Angeles Chamber of necessarily those of the AFSC. Columbus, Cleveland, and Denver began the Great Migration following the Civil Commerce did its part by stoking nativist Street Spirit welcomes submissions of enacting “unsightly beggar ordinances.” War, white towns from Florida to Oregon resentment. They reported that migrants articles, poems, photos and art. These ordinances came to be known as barred African Americans and other were costing taxpayers millions of dollars “ugly laws.” Their main purpose was to despised ethnic groups like “Jewish, a month in state relief — aid that many Contact: Terry Messman control disabled people’s freedom of move- Chinese, Japanese, Native, and Mexican struggling Californians were unable to Street Spirit ment and speech in public space. Americans” from entering them. One such receive. The public relations campaign 65 Ninth Street, Chicago’s 1881 ordinance read: “Any town in Illinois went by the name “Anna,” around the Bum Blockade fueled a nasty San Francisco, CA 94103 person who is diseased, maimed, mutilat- short for “Ain’t No Niggers Allowed.” parochialism that drove a stake between E-mail: [email protected] December 2010 S TREET S PIRIT 3 Obama Woos the ‘Economic Royalists’

The last thing we need is further acquiescence to the economic royalists. What we need is exactly the oppo- site: leadership to push back against the right-wing ideologues and the forces they represent. by Norman Solomon sive activism at the grassroots. In moral and electoral terms, the status n his first term, President Franklin D. quo is indefensible. Economic realities Roosevelt denounced “the economic include high unemployment, routine home royalists.” He drew the line against foreclosures, huge tax breaks for large Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced the heartless rich. Art by Victor Arnautoff Ithe heartless rich: “They are unani- corporations, and widening gaps between mous in their hate for me — and I wel- the wealthy and the rest of us — in tan- come their hatred.” dem with endless war and runaway mili- FDR: “I Welcome Their Hatred!” What a different Democratic president tary spending. we have today. For two years — from Escalation of warfare in Afghanistan is “We know now that government by organized money is putting Wall Street operatives at the top of running parallel to escalation of class war— just as dangerous as government by organized mob!” his economic team to signaling that he’ll waged from the top down—in Washington. — Franklin Delano Roosevelt go along with extension of Bush tax cuts The presidentially appointed co-chairs of for the wealthy — Barack Obama has the deficit commission, Alan Simpson and Extract from FDR’s famous 1936 speech in Madison Square Garden increasingly made a mockery of hopes for Erskine Bowles, are pushing scenarios that “For twelve years this nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing a green New Deal. would undermine Social Security. government. The nation looked to government but the government looked away. The news from the White House keeps Let’s get a grip on matters of principle. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine getting grimmer. Since the midterm elec- More and more warfare in crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of tion, Obama has concluded that he must Afghanistan? Extending massive tax cuts mirage and three long years of despair! be more conciliatory toward the ascendant for the wealthy? Promoting plans to slash Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doc- Republican leadership in Congress — and Social Security and Medicare? Pretending trine that that government is best which is most indifferent. must do more to appease big business. that “clean coal” is not an oxymoron? For nearly four years, you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its Fifteen days after the election, the Failing to uphold habeas corpus and other thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up! Washington Post reported that Obama — precious civil liberties? We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial seeking a replacement for departing top The best way to fight the Republican monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profi- economic adviser Lawrence Summers — Party is to stop giving ground to it. The teering. They had begun to consider the government of the United States as a mere “is eager to recruit someone from the best way to defeat right-wing, xenophobic appendage to their own affairs. business community for the job to help “populism” is to build genuine progres- We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as gov- repair the president’s frayed relationship sive populism. In the process, we can ernment by organized mob! Never before in all our history have these forces been so with corporate America.” draw on the spirit of the New Deal. united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for The last thing we need is further acqui- Back in the 1930s, millions of progres- me — and I welcome their hatred!” escence to the economic royalists. What we sive activists — under all sorts of names need is exactly the opposite: leadership to — fought for economic equity, while cal imperatives. A much better world is possible. push back against the Republican Party’s FDR became willing to make common These days, progressives have plenty Si se puede! right-wing ideologues and the forces they cause with them. Today, our scope of of reasons to feel discouraged. But we Norman Solomon is co-chair of the represent. We need principled backbones in understanding has grown to include more have a lot more good reasons to rededi- Healthcare Not Warfare campaign, launched high places — and much stronger progres- dimensions of social justice and ecologi- cate ourselves to the vital tasks ahead. by Progressive Democrats of America. The Government’s War on Disabled People ly. Soon on the coattails of this, her rent that At the same time, food prices have If your field of self-employment is jani- President Obama was sup- she was responsible for under HUD was gone up, and a gallon of gas is a couple torial or some type of manual labor, good posed to redistribute the raised. These reductions in benefits were dollars more. The renter’s credit, some- luck performing the job while taking based on gross pay, not on the take-home thing that gave a few hundred dollars of Zyprexa, Abilify, Depakote, or other of the wealth, yet this looks more amount. Additionally, she was responsible relief to the poor on an annual basis, is new medications. These drugs can alleviate like stealing from the poor for steep union dues. Within a few months gone. The amount that Section 8 housing some of the symptoms of mental illness. of working as an IHSS caregiver, it became will pay for a one- or two-bedroom apart- Yet, coincidentally, they cause severe and giving to the rich. Once clear that this worker had less total income ment has been reduced, and disabled peo- lethargy, which will slow down your work again, the poor and disabled as a result of getting a job. ple have to make up the difference. pace to below a competitive level. have been shortchanged. On top of this is the fact that our overall If a person is ambitious enough to try President Obama was supposed to benefits have become more scarce under a self-employment, since no one will give redistribute the wealth, yet this looks series of ruthless cuts. The SSI dollar them a job, try paying for bonding, licens- more like stealing from the poor and giv- by Jack Bragen amount has been slashed several times in a ing and insurance out of your startup capi- ing to the rich. Once again, the poor and t seems that those legislators who make row, by a total, for some, of over $100 a tal, and then see how much you will need to disabled have been shortchanged even by the state and federal laws would rather month. When you’re getting a total income earn to pay that overhead. And just where our own Democratic Party. Ithat all disabled people fade out of exis- of $800 a month to begin with, losing $100 does this startup capital I am talking about The struggle of the mentally ill or oth- tence, or go live in an institution. Not only of it is significant. come from? I haven’t answered that yet. erwise disabled is multifaceted, difficult, does the government want to eliminate the Our benefits under Medi-Cal for eye If you feel clever and your field of self- and sometimes lonely. It seems there are public benefits that allow us to barely get and dental care have been eliminated. I employment is going to be computers, keep few allies in this battle, other than our dis- by in society, but at the same time they guess now we are supposed to go around in mind that it is likely that your advertising abled peers, as well as family members have increased the barriers that exist toward toothless and blind. And under SSDI, costs will be more than your gross receipts who may not completely understand what holding part-time employment. there has been no cost-of-living increase for a given time period: The field is saturat- it’s like to deal with a disability and sub- For most people with disabilities, it is for about the last three years. ed with unemployed techies. sist on such a severely limited income. too much to expect that we get a regular nine-to-five job, should such a job be available to us, which normally it isn’t. It Donate or Subscribe to Street Spirit! seems that, short of winning the lottery Street Spirit is published by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Homeless vendors receive 50 papers a day for free, (and we can’t afford lottery tickets and at earn income and find a job providing a positive alternative to panhandling, and educate the community about social justice issues. the same time pay rent), our only alterna- Please donate or subscribe to Street Spirit ! Help us remain an independent voice for justice! tive is to get part-time employment to try to supplement the meager benefits that we ❒ I enclose $25 for one year's subscription. get from the government. ❒ I enclose a donation of ❒ $100 ❒ $50 ❒ $ 25 December 2010 I know someone who tried to work at a part-time job by becoming an IHSS (In Send Donations to: Name: ______AFSC Home Support Services) caregiver for Address: ______another disabled person. Almost immedi- 65 Ninth Street, ately, her SSI income was slashed drastical- San Francisco, CA 94103 City: ______State:______Zip: ______4 S TREET S PIRIT December 2010 Creative Acts of Housing Liberation in San Francisco by Carol Harvey n November 26, Black Friday, Creative Housing Liberation held Oa “Housing Harvest” rally at 16th and Mission in San Francisco, with songs and speeches followed by a tour of four vacant neighborhood properties. The event was preceded on Thursday by a housing takeover intended to show- case some of the 36,000 housing units currently wasting away vacant in San Francisco and to publicize the quiet sav- agery of 36,000 unused spaces in a city where, officially, more than 6,000 city dwellers sleep on cold concrete, with an estimated count of 15,000 homeless. Paul Boden, organizing director of Western Regional Advocacy Project, reminded the crowd of “allies in Portland, Seattle, Santa Cruz, L.A., Oakland, and Berkeley,” poor Chicagoans, public hous- ing residents losing homes through bad mortgages — all “resisting, and fighting back.” Millions across the country and this world are being dehumanized by the “Housing Is A Human Right.” Protesters take over a vacant building in San Francisco on Black Friday. Carol Harvey photo commodification of housing, he said. In a Wednesday night promotion for the In response to the closing of the home- perity and abundance, when not only did manager or police. Black Friday occupation, housing occupier less shelter at 150 Otis, a sit-in was held we steal the land, but we annihilated an “In lieu of the open occupation,” Crain Jeremy Miller told JR of KPFA’s Hard at 170 Otis, the Health and Human entire race of our fellow man.” said, “we did a tour around the 16th and Knock Radio that housing occupations are Services Administration Building, orga- Before the more public demonstration Mission neighborhood to draw attention being conducted worldwide, including nized by “Direct Action To Stop The on Friday, Thursday’s action was to be a back to the Phoenix School, then to 80 Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. Cuts” with help from Food Not Bombs private occupation by people taking care Julian Street owned by a nonprofit, vacant Kiilu Nyasha told the crowd that home- and leaders in the homeless and housing of themselves, learning from each other, and squatted for many years, then to 180 lessness kills. “They don’t want you to rights movement in San Francisco. sharing the space, a meal, and one day Dolores, a beautiful but fortified condo, know how many people are literally dying On July 18, 2010, Direct Action To together. Then they tried to sleep. then a few doors away to 200 Dolores.” on the streets of this very rich city,” Kiilu Stop The Cuts successfully, and with Creative Housing Liberation would Kim Rohrbach, a volunteer tenant’s said. “People of the city, of the world, we much publicity, occupied the Sierra Hotel like to invite “all kinds of folks, including counselor at the S.F. Tenant’s Union, have to unite. We have to embrace each at Mission and 20th. According to City families,” to be involved in future housing explained how landlords use various legal other’s differences and come together records, the multi-unit property had been occupations. Families are the largest new constructions, like the Ellis Act, to appear based on our common human rights. We vacant almost 20 years. This action homeless group, a number that is skyrock- to get out of the housing market, but instead have a right to a home.” protested slashes in the City budget to eting since the housing foreclosure scan- empty a building so it’s more attractive to After S’Bu Zikode showed a film housing and homeless services that are dals and the economic crisis began. wealthier prospective buyers. Wednesday in San Francisco about the expected to result in an increased number Families and immigrants are the most They’re not actually getting out of the South African shack dwellers movement, of homeless deaths this year. invisible segments of the population experi- housing market, Rohrbach said, merely he told Kiilu, “The young people are say- On October 10, 2010, the first World encing homelessness in San Francisco. The “using a legal construction to evict people ing, ‘No land. No house. No job. No Homeless Day, Creative Housing network is reaching out to all people expe- so they can turn over the property with bread. No vote.’” Liberation led an occupation of the Leslie riencing homelessness for their voices to be more ease to landlords who can then jack “The next time these horrible politi- Hotel on Eddy. After a Civic Center rally, heard, and their stories to be told. up the rent seeing that the previous rent- cians come banging on your door,” Kiilu activists led the public on tours through a Creative Housing Liberation organiz- controlled tenants have been removed said, “you just tell them, ‘My vote is a beautifully appointed, 68-room apartment ers, Crain said, “look forward to engaging from the property.” vote of no confidence.’” building left vacant two years by a landlord with, and giving voice to, all members of One organizer summarized the occupa- James Chionsini, an MC and organizer, living in Europe. Unhoused folks regularly our community who are experiencing tion: “We successfully occupied for 27 explained how he clarified for his four- sleep on the vestibule and surrounding homelessness, most especially families hours. We shared Thanks-Taking Day year-old daughter Helen that the deprived Tenderloin sidewalks. and those who are undocumented.” together. We were unfortunately unable to rich don’t understand that people enjoy Matt Crain noted that 14 out of the 18 The best way for people to find out proceed with the entire demonstration sharing things like cookies and housing. occupiers were committed to taking a vol- about their next action is by intermittently which would have included an open occu- He felt the American Psychiatric untary arrest if they had collectively cho- checking the Indy bay calendar “where pation.” But he looks to future actions. Association’s DSM IV should classify sen to do so. However, the residents made our events are always listed.” “We have these resources,” he said. greed as a treatable emotional disorder. a decision to vacate the premises before The occupation was interrupted when a “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be Lydia Heather Blumberg asked the eviction, demonstrating that housing property manager did a random check at sharing them equitably throughout all ele- 100-strong crowd, “Aren’t you guys glad occupations need not end with arrest if the about 6:30 a.m. Friday morning. All occu- ments of society.” we had something more fun to do than go occupiers choose otherwise. piers were able to collect their resources And, he added, “No one is illegal.” shopping today?” “The fact is, these folks care about a and vacate, avoiding interaction with the A LOOSE-KNIT COALITION lot of issues; housing is very personal to Creative Housing Liberation is not a them,” Crain said, adding that 16 of the Ronnie Goodman: The Color of Hope formal organization. It is the organizing 18 folks who occupied on World name for one or more events conducted Homeless Day were formerly homeless or Linocuts, Drawings, & Paintings from San Quentin and Folsom State Prisons by a loosely knit network of like-minded currently without housing. citizens distressed by San Francisco’s Crain said, “Many are squatters who December 4 – 30, 2010 housing crisis. Participants agree that civil choose to occupy and take direct action every day — not just Housing Demo Day Reception: Saturday, Dec. 4, disobedience and direct action are neces- 7:00 - 11:00 pm sary to defend the right to housing for — by living in abandoned buildings and working-class people. In the spring of not going through the system.” Precita Eyes Mural Arts & 2010, they utilized their First Amendment Now that San Francisco voters and Visitors Center rights and right of dissent, participating in merchants have passed Proposition L, the 2981 24th Street, San Francisco at least six “open occupations” of vacant sit/lie law, even sitting or sleeping in pub- residential San Francisco buildings. lic while poor has become a crime. Ronnie Goodman created a large At Easter, Homes Not Jails, another Resting, in itself, has become an act of body of artwork while doing time at housing activist group, occupied the San civil disobedience. San Quentin and Folsom State Jose Avenue home of Jose Morales, 78, THANKS-TAKING DINNER Prisons. It has only been a month evicted after 42 years through an Ellis Act On the Thursday before the Black since his release. takeover by a landlord acting in bad faith. Friday rally, in an act of “creative audaci- For most artists in prison the ten- After 18 years of disuse, on May Day, ty,” participants “pre-occupied” a vacant dency is to create work about life on 2010, the Phoenix School at 15th and residential property. They moved in, took a the outside. But Ronnie Goodman is Mission was squatted. One occupier said, quick look around, and shared a quiet an exception to this. His work is “The State used a sickening display of force “Thanks-Taking” dinner. “Thanks-Taking” about life in prison. Sometimes his — two SFPD battalions.” Eighty riot cops, was an alternative to a day when so many work is about the beauty that an “disappointed they didn’t get to discharge celebrate an illusion, said one occupier: artistic eye can find in the day to their weapons,” overwhelmed “eight people “That our country was founded by brave day. Sometimes his work is about the struggles of life in a cage. who were voluntarily arrested.” settlers who created a nation of peace, pros- Ronnie Goodman “San Quentin Jazz” December 2010 S TREET S PIRIT 5

KENNEDY SACKS CIA LEADERS Confronting the We know how JFK reacted to the CIA’s setting him up. He was furious. Unspeakable When the enormity of the Bay of Pigs dis- from page 1 aster came home to him, he said he want- ed “to splinter the CIA in a thousand 10 tions for that silent takeover by his pieces and scatter it to the winds.” momentous decision to end the Second He ordered an investigation into the World War with a demonstration of whole affair, under the very watchful eyes nuclear weapons on the people of of his brother, Attorney General Robert Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to stop a Kennedy. He fired CIA Director Allen Soviet advance to Japan. Truman’s fur- Dulles, Deputy Director Richard Bissell, ther, post-war decision for U.S. nuclear Jr., and Deputy Director General Charles dominance in the world — rather than Cabell. That was a huge decision — firing allowing for international control of the top of the CIA’s hierarchy, including nuclear weapons — was his second disas- the legendary leader who had come to trous mistake, in terms of initiating the personify the agency, Allen Dulles. nuclear arms race in the world and sub- The president then took steps “to cut verting democracy in the United States. the CIA budget in 1962 and again in A democracy within a national security 1963, aiming at a 20 percent reduction by 11 state cannot survive. The president’s deci- 1966.” He was cutting back the CIA’s sion to base our security on nuclear power in very concrete ways, step by step. weapons created the contradiction of a We know how the CIA and the Cuban democracy ruled by the dictates of the exile community regarded Kennedy in Pentagon. A democratic national security turn because of his refusal to escalate the state is a contradiction in terms. battle at the Bay of Pigs. They hated him The insecure basis of our security then for it. They did not forget what they became weapons that could destroy the thought was unforgivable. planet. To protect the security of that illu- In terms of JFK’s own analysis of the sory means of security, which was threat of an overthrow of his presidency, absolute destructive power, we now need- Kennedy delivers the commencement address at American University in he saw the Bay of Pigs as the first strike ed a ruling elite of national security man- Washington, D.C., on June 10, 1963. Saturday Review editor Norman Cousins against him. It was the first big stand he agers with an authority above that of our summed up the significance of this remarkable speech: “At American University took against his national security elite, elected representatives. on June 10, 1963, President Kennedy proposed an end to the Cold War.” and therefore the first cause of a possible So from that point on, our military- Photo by Cecil Stoughton, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. coup d’etat. industrial managers made the real deci- However, in terms of our Constitution, A PROFOUND SOURCE OF HOPE integrity of the nation, and only God sions of state. President Truman simply our genuine security, and world peace, the knows just what segment of democracy ratified their decisions and entrenched Why President Kennedy was murdered position Kennedy took in facing down the they would be defending if they over- their power, as he did with the establish- can be, I believe, a profound source of CIA and the military at the Bay of Pigs, threw the elected establishment.” ment of the CIA, and as his National hope to us all, when we truly understand rather than surrendering to their will, was in Pausing a moment, Kennedy went on, Security Council did with its endorsement his story. itself a source of hope. No previous post- “Then, if there were a third Bay of Pigs, it of plausible deniability. Now how can that possibly be? The war president had shown such courage. could happen.” His successor, President Dwight D. why of his murder as a source of hope? Truman and Eisenhower had, in effect, Waiting again until his listeners Eisenhower, also failed to challenge in his Let’s begin with the way Kennedy turned over the power of their office to their absorbed his meaning, he concluded with presidency what he warned against at its himself looked at the question. national security managers. an old Navy phrase, “But it won’t happen end — the military-industrial complex. One summer weekend in 1962 while Kennedy was instead acting like he on my watch.” 8 He left the critical task of resisting that out sailing with friends, President really was the president of this country — Let’s remember that JFK gave himself anti-democratic power in the hands of the Kennedy was asked what he thought of by saying a strong no to the security elite three strikes before he would be out by a next president, John F. Kennedy. Seven Days in May, a best-selling novel on a critical issue. If we the people had that described a military takeover in the coup, although he bravely said it wouldn’t truly understood what he was doing then SAVING THE PLANET IS TREASON United States. JFK said he would read the happen on his watch. on our behalf, we would have thought the When President Kennedy then stood book. He did so that night. The next day, As we know, and as he knew, the young president’s stand a deeply hopeful one. up to the Pentagon, the CIA, and the mili- president did have a Bay of Pigs. The pres- Kennedy discussed with his friends the JFK ALIENATES CIA AND MILITARY tary-industrial complex, he was treated as ident bitterly disappointed the CIA, the possibility of their seeing such a coup in In terms of his Seven Days in May a traitor. His attempt to save the planet military, and the CIA-trained Cuban exile the United States. These words were spo- analysis of a coming coup, John Kennedy from the weapons of his own nation was brigade by deciding to accept defeat at the ken by him after the Bay of Pigs and did have a second “Bay of Pigs.” The regarded as treason. The doctrine of Bay of Pigs rather than escalate the battle. before the Cuban Missile Crisis: president alienated the CIA and the mili- “plausible deniability” allowed for the Kennedy realized after the fact that he had “It’s possible. It could happen in this tary a second time by his decisions during assassination of a president seen as a been drawn into a CIA scenario whose country, but the conditions would have to the Cuban Missile Crisis. national security risk himself. authors assumed he would be forced by be just right. If, for example, the country JFK had to confront the unspeakable in The CIA’s “plausible deniability” for circumstances to drop his advance restric- had a young president, and he had a Bay the Missile Crisis in the form of total crimes of state, as exemplified by JFK’s tions against the use of U.S. combat forces. of Pigs, there would be a certain uneasi- nuclear war. At the height of that terrify- murder, corresponds in our politics to He had been lied to in such a way that, ness. Maybe the military would do a little ing conflict, he felt the situation spiraling what the Trappist monk and spiritual in order to “win” at the Bay of Pigs, he criticizing behind his back, but this would out of control, especially because of the writer Thomas Merton called “the would be forced to send in U.S. troops. be written off as the usual military dissat- actions of his generals. Unspeakable.” Merton wrote about the But JFK surprised the CIA and the mili- isfaction with civilian control. Then if For example, with both sides on hair- unspeakable in the 1960s, when an elu- tary by choosing instead to accept a loss. there were another Bay of Pigs, the reac- trigger alert, the U.S. Air Force test-fired sive, systemic evil was running rampant “They couldn’t believe,” he said, “that a tion of the country would be, ‘Is he too missiles from California across the through this country and the world. The new president like me wouldn’t panic and young and inexperienced?’ The military Pacific, deliberately trying to provoke the Vietnam War, the escalating nuclear arms try to save his own face. Well, they had would almost feel that it was their patriot- Soviets in a way that could justify our race, and the interlocking murders of John ic obligation to stand ready to preserve the me figured all wrong.” 9 Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther superior U.S. forces blanketing the USSR King, and Robert Kennedy were all signs with an all-out nuclear attack. As we of the unspeakable. JFK and the Unspeakable know from Kennedy’s secretly taped meeting with his Joint Chiefs of Staff on For Merton, the unspeakable was ulti- Why He Died and Why It Matters mately a void, an emptiness of any mean- October 19, 1962, the Joint Chiefs were ing, an abyss of lies and deception. He by James W. Douglass pushing him relentlessly to launch a pre- emptive strike on Cuba, and ultimately the wrote the following description of the A new paperback edition published Soviet Union. In this encounter, the Joint unspeakable shortly after the publication of by Simon & Schuster (518 pages). The Warren Report, which he could have Chiefs’ disdain for their young comman- been describing: “[The Unspeakable] is the der-in-chief is summed up by Air Force James Douglass is a longtime peace Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay void that contradicts everything that is spo- activist and one of the most important ken even before the words are said; the when he said: theologians of his generation. He is void that gets into the language of public LeMay: “This [blockade and political the author of The Nonviolent Cross and official declarations at the very action] is almost as bad as the appease- and Resistance and Contemplation. moment when they are pronounced, and ment [of Hitler] at Munich... I think that a makes them ring dead with the hollowness Douglass organized nonviolent blockade, and political talk, would be of the abyss.” 7 campaigns to resist the Trident considered by a lot of our friends and neu- The void of the unspeakable is the dark nuclear submarine and to protest the trals as being a pretty weak response to abyss, the midnight reality of plausible White Trains carrying nuclear this. And I’m sure a lot of our own citi- deniability, that we face when we peer weapons. With his wife Shelley, he is zens would feel that way too. into our national security state’s murder the cofounder of Mary’s House, a “In other words, you’re in a pretty bad of President Kennedy. And that is precise- Catholic Worker house of hospitality fix at the present time.” ly where hope begins. in Birmingham, Alabama. See Confronting the Unspeakable page 6 6 S TREET S PIRIT December 2010

us?” He said, “Our attitude [toward peace] Confronting the is as essential as theirs.” What about our attitude to the nuclear Unspeakable arms race? Within the overarching theolo- gy of our country, a theology of total good from page 5 versus total evil, that was a heretical ques- tion, coming especially from the president of the United States. President Kennedy responded: “What Kennedy said he wanted to negotiate a did you say?” nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet LeMay: “I say, you’re in a pretty bad Union in Moscow — in their capitol, not fix.” ours — as soon as possible. To clear the President Kennedy: [laughing] way for such a treaty, he said he was sus- “You’re in with me, personally.” pending U.S. atmospheric tests unilaterally. As the meeting drew to a close, Kennedy’s strategy of peace penetrated Kennedy rejected totally the Joint Chiefs’ the Soviet government’s defenses far arguments for a quick, massive attack on more effectively than any missile could Cuba. The president then left the room but have done. The Soviet press, which was the tape kept on recording. Two or three accustomed to censoring U.S. government of the generals remained, and one said to statements, published the entire speech all LeMay, “You pulled the rug right out across the country. Soviet radio stations from under him.” broadcast and rebroadcast the speech to LeMay: “Jesus Christ. What the hell the Soviet people. In response to do you mean?” Nikita Khrushchev and John Kennedy meet in Vienna, June 1961. Kennedy’s turn toward peace, the Soviet Other General: “He’s finally getting Photo from U. S. Dept. of State in John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. government even stopped jamming all around to the word ‘escalation.’ If some- Western broadcasts into their country. body could keep ‘em from doing the god- Kennedy and Khrushchev, the Cold War enemies, each Khrushchev was deeply moved by the damn thing piecemeal, that’s our prob- American University Address. He said lem...” 12 now had more in common with his opponent than either Kennedy had given “the greatest speech The White House tapes show Kennedy had with his own generals. As a result of that turn toward by any American President since questioning and resisting the mounting Roosevelt.” 19 pressure to bomb Cuba coming from both peace, one leader would be assassinated 13 months later. His speech was received less favorably the Joint Chiefs and the Executive The other would be overthrown the following year. in his own country. The New York Times Committee of the National Security reported his government’s skepticism: Council. At the same time, John Kennedy was treason. Yet, when they encountered the void, then “Generally there was not much optimism in and Nikita Khrushchev, the two men most When Nikita Khrushchev had received by turning to each other for help, they official Washington that the President’s responsible for the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy’s plea for help in Moscow, he turned humanity toward the hope of a conciliation address at American University seemed locked in a hopeless ideological turned to his Foreign Minister Andrei peaceful planet. would produce agreement on a test ban conflict. The U.S. and Soviet leaders had Gromyko and said, “We have to let treaty or anything else.” 20 been following Cold War policies that JFK’S NEXT BAY OF PIGS Kennedy know that we want to help him.” In contrast to the Soviet media that now seemed to be moving inexorably John Kennedy’s next “Bay of Pigs,” Khrushchev stunned himself by what were electrified by the speech, the U.S. toward a war of extermination. his next critical conflict with his national he had just said: Did he really want to security state, was his American media ignored or downplayed it. For the KENNEDY AND KHRUSHCHEV: TWO help his enemy, Kennedy? Yes, he did. University Address. Saturday Review edi- first time, Americans had less opportunity ENEMIES BECOME PEACEMAKERS He repeated the word to his foreign minis- tor Norman Cousins summed up the sig- to read and hear their president’s words Yet, as we have since learned, ter: nificance of this remarkable speech: “At than did the Russian people. A turn- Kennedy and Khrushchev had been “Yes, help. We now have a common American University on June 10, 1963, around was occurring in the world on dif- engaged in a secret correspondence for cause, to save the world from those push- President Kennedy proposed an end to the ferent levels. Whereas nuclear disarma- 16 over a year that gave signs of hope. Even ing us toward war.” Cold War.” 17 ment had suddenly become feasible, as they moved publicly step by step How do we understand that moment? I believe it is almost impossible to Kennedy’s position in his own govern- toward a Cold War climax that would The two most heavily armed leaders in overemphasize the importance of ment had become precarious. history, on the verge of total nuclear war, almost take the world over the edge with President Kennedy’s American University NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY them, they were at the same time smug- suddenly joined hands against those on address. It was a decisive signal to both both sides pressuring them to attack. President Kennedy’s next critical con- gling confidential letters back and forth Nikita Khrushchev, on the one hand, and flict with his national security state, pro- that recognized each other’s humanity and Khrushchev ordered the immediate with- JFK’s national security advisers, on the drawal of his missiles from Cuba, in pelling him toward the coup d’etat he saw hoped for a solution. They were public other, that he was serious about making as possible, was the Partial Nuclear Test enemies who, in the midst of deepening return for Kennedy’s public pledge never peace with the Communists. After he told to invade Cuba and his secret promise to Ban Treaty that he signed with Nikita turmoil, were secretly learning something the graduating class at American Khrushchev on July 25, 1963, six weeks approaching trust in each other. withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey — as University that the subject of his speech he would in fact do. after the American University Address. On what seemed the darkest day in the was “the most important topic on earth: The president had done an end run around crisis, when a Soviet missile had shot ‘LOVE YOUR ENEMIES’ world peace,” he asked: the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He negotiated down a U2 spy plane over Cuba, intensi- The two Cold War enemies had turned, “What kind of peace do I mean? What the Test Ban Treaty without consulting fying the already overwhelming pressures so that each now had more in common kind of peace do we seek?” them, because they opposed it. on Kennedy to bomb Cuba, the president with his opponent than either had with his He answered, “Not a Pax Americana Kennedy was fiercely determined but sent his brother, Attorney General Robert own generals. As a result of that turn enforced on the world by American not optimistic that the Test Ban Treaty be Kennedy, secretly to Soviet Ambassador toward peace, one leader would be assas- weapons of war.” 18 ratified by the defense-conscious Senate. Anatoly Dobrynin. RFK told Dobrynin, as sinated 13 months later. The other, left Kennedy’s rejection of “a Pax In early August, he told his advisers that Dobrynin reported to Khrushchev, that the without his peacemaking partner, would Americana” was an act of resistance to getting Senate ratification of the agree- president “didn’t know how to resolve the be overthrown the following year. Yet the military-industrial complex. The mili- ment would be “almost in the nature of a situation. The military is putting great because of their turn away from nuclear tary-industrial complex was totally depen- miracle.” 21 He said if a Senate vote were pressure on him... Even if he doesn’t want war, today we are still living and strug- dent on “a Pax Americana enforced on the held right then it would fall far short of or desire a war, something irreversible gling for peace on this earth. Hope is world by American weapons of war.” the necessary two-thirds. could occur against his will. That is why alive. We still have a chance. That Pax Americana policed by the JFK initiated a whirlwind public educa- the President is asking for help to solve What can we call that transforming Pentagon was considered the system’s tion campaign on the treaty, coordinated by 13 this problem.” moment when Kennedy asked his enemy indispensable, hugely profitable means of Saturday Review editor Normal Cousins, In his memoirs, Khrushchev recalled a for help and Khrushchev gave it? containing and defeating Communism. At who directed a committee of activists. By further, chilling sentence from Robert From a Buddhist standpoint, it was his own risk, Kennedy was rejecting the the end of August, the tide of congressional Kennedy’s appeal to Dobrynin: “If the sit- enlightenment of a cosmic kind. Others foundation of the Cold War system. mail had gone from 15 to one against a test uation continues much longer, the might call it a divine miracle. Readers of In its place, as a foundation for peace, ban to three to two against. President is not sure that the military will the Christian Gospels could say that the president put a compassionate descrip- In September 1963, public opinion 14 not overthrow him and seize power.” Kennedy and Khrushchev were only doing tion of the suffering of the Russian people. polls showed a turnaround — 80 percent Sergei Khrushchev, Nikita’s son, has what Jesus said: “Love your enemies.” They had been our allies during World War of the American people were now in favor described his father’s thoughts when he That would be “love” as Gandhi under- II and had suffered mightily. Yet even their of the Test Ban Treaty. On September 24, read Dobrynin’s wired report relaying stood it, love as the other side of truth, a World War II devastation would be small 1963, the Senate approved the treaty by a John Kennedy’s plea: “The president was respect and understanding of our oppo- compared to the effects of a nuclear war on vote of 80 to 19 — 14 more than the calling for help: that was how father inter- nents that goes far enough to integrate both their country and ours. required two-thirds. No other single preted Robert Kennedy’s talk with our their truth into our own. In the last few COMMITTING HERESY FOR PEACE accomplishment in the White House gave ambassador.” 15 months of Kennedy’s life, he and In his speech, Kennedy turned around Kennedy greater satisfaction. At a moment when the world was Khrushchev were walking that extra mile the question that was always asked when On September 20, Kennedy spoke to falling into darkness, Kennedy did what where each was beginning to see the it came to prospects for peace — the the United Nations. He suggested that its from his generals’ standpoint was intoler- other’s truth. question, “What about the Russians?” It members see the Test Ban Treaty as a able and unforgivable. JFK not only Neither John Kennedy nor Nikita was assumed the Russians would take beginning and engage together in an rejected his generals’ pressures for war. Khrushchev was a saint. Each was deeply advantage of any move we might make experiment in peace: Even worse, the president then reached complicit in policies that brought toward peace. out to their enemy, asking for help. That humankind to the brink of nuclear war. Kennedy asked instead, “What about See Confronting the Unspeakable page 7 December 2010 S TREET S PIRIT 7

office. One thousand members of the Confronting the Society of Friends had been vigiling for peace and world order outside the White Unspeakable House. Kennedy agreed to meet with six of their leaders. from page 6 I have interviewed all three survivors of that meeting with the president 47 “Two years ago I told this body that years ago. They remain uniformly amazed the United States had proposed, and was at the open way in which Kennedy lis- willing to sign, a Limited Test Ban treaty. tened and responded to their radical Today that treaty has been signed. It will Quaker critique of his foreign policy. not put an end to war. It will not remove Among their challenges to him was a basic conflicts. It will not secure freedom recommendation that the United States for all. But it can be a lever, and offer its surplus food to the People’s Archimedes, in explaining the principles Republic of China. China was considered of the lever, was said to have declared to an enemy nation. Yet it was also one his friends: ‘Give me a place where I can whose people were beset by a famine. stand — and I shall move the world.’ Kennedy said to the Quakers, “Do you “My fellow inhabitants of this planet: mean you would feed your enemy when Let us take our stand here in this he has his hands on your throat?” 24 The Quakers said they meant exactly Assembly of nations. And let us see if we, John and Jacqueline Kennedy in the Dallas motorcade on Photo by Victor Hugo King, that. They reminded him it was what in our own time, can move the world to a Nov. 22, 1963, shortly before his assassination. placed in the public domain just and lasting peace.” Jesus had said should be done. Kennedy said he knew that, and knew that it was JFK REACHES OUT TO CUBA increasing conflicts between Kennedy and JFK’s Indonesian policy was also killed the right thing to do, but he couldn’t over- When he said these words, Kennedy his national security state. in Dallas, with horrendous consequences. We can add to the list a seventh Bay of After Lyndon Johnson became president, come the China lobby in Washington to was secretly engaging in another risky accomplish it. experiment in peace. That same day at the Pigs — the steel crisis, in which he pro- the CIA finally succeeded in overthrowing United Nations, Kennedy told UN foundly alienated the military-industrial Sukarno in a massive purge of suspected FEEDING THE ENEMY Ambassador Adlai Stevenson that his complex before the Cuban Missile Crisis Communists that ended up killing 500,000 Nevertheless, a year and a half later in assistant William Attwood should go even took place. The steel crisis was a to one million Indonesians. the fall of 1963, against overwhelming ahead “to make discreet contact” with showdown the president had with U.S. KENNEDY’S PROPOSAL FOR A JOINT opposition, Kennedy decided to sell wheat Steel and seven other steel companies over Cuba’s UN Ambassador Carlos Lechuga. U.S.-SOVIET MOON LANDING to the Russians, who had a severe grain their price-fixing violations of an agree- Was Fidel Castro interested in a dialogue Recently, I interviewed Sergei shortage. His outraged critics said in ment he had negotiated between U.S. Steel with John Kennedy? A strongly affirma- Khrushchev about an important late effect to him what he had said to the and the United Steelworkers. tive answer would come back from development in the relationship between Quakers: Would you feed an enemy who In a head-on confrontation with the rul- Castro, who had been repeatedly urged by his father and President Kennedy. In his has his hands on your throat? ing elite of Big Steel, JFK ordered the Khrushchev to begin trusting Kennedy. interview, Mr. Khrushchev confirmed that Vice President Lyndon Johnson said he Defense Department to switch huge mili- Kennedy and Castro actually began his father had decided in November 1963 thought Kennedy’s decision to sell wheat tary contracts away from the major steel that dialogue on normalizing U.S.-Cuban to accept President Kennedy’s repeated to Russia would turn out to be the worst companies to the smaller, more loyal con- relations, through the mediation of French proposal that the United States and the political mistake he ever made. Today tractors that had not defied him. After the journalist Jean Daniel who personally vis- Soviet Union fly to the moon together. JFK’s controversial decision “to feed the big steel companies bitterly backed down ited both men in the month leading up to In his September 20, 1963, speech to the enemy” has been forgotten. In 1963, the from their price raises, JFK and his broth- the assassination. Daniel was actually eat- United Nations, JFK had once again stated wheat sale was seen as a threat to our er, Robert, were denounced as symbols of ing lunch with Castro in his home on his hope for such a joint expedition to the security — feeding the enemy to kill us. “ruthless power” by the Wall Street power November 22, conveying Kennedy’s moon. However, neither American nor Yet JFK went ahead with it, as one more brokers at the center of the military-indus- hopeful words, when the Cuban premier Soviet military leaders, jealous of their initiative for peace. trial complex. was phoned with the news of Kennedy’s rocket secrets, were ready to accept his ini- The violent reaction to his decision was By an editorial titled, “Steel: The Ides death. Castro’s somber comment to tiative. Nikita Khrushchev, siding with his represented on Friday morning, November of April” (the month in which Kennedy Daniel was: “Everything is changed. own rocket experts, felt he was still forced 22, 1963, by a threatening, full-page adver- 22 faced down the steel executives), Henry Everything is going to change.” to decline Kennedy’s proposal. tisement addressed to him in the Dallas Luce’s Fortune magazine called to read- JFK was looking beyond the myopia of Morning News. The ad was bordered in JFK’STOP-SECRET ORDER TO BEGIN ers’ minds the soothsayer’s warning in the generals and scientists on both sides black, like a funeral notice. Among the WITHDRAWAL FROM VIETNAM Shakespeare of the assassination of Julius of the East-West struggle. He knew that charges of disloyalty to the nation that the On October 11, 1963, President Caesar. Fortune was warning Kennedy merging their missile technologies in a ad made against the president was the ques- Kennedy issued a top-secret order to that his actions had confirmed the worst peaceful project would also help defuse tion: “Why have you approved the sale of begin withdrawing the U.S. military from fears of corporate America about his pres- the Cold War. It was part of his day-by- wheat and corn to our enemies when you Vietnam. In National Security Action idency, and would have dire conse- day strategy of peace. know the Communist soldiers ‘travel on Memorandum 263, he ordered that 1,000 quences. As interpreted by the most pow- Sergei Khrushchev said his father talked their stomach’ just as ours do?” U.S. military personnel be withdrawn erful people in the nation, the steel crisis to him about a week before Kennedy’s JFK TALKS ABOUT ASSASSINATION from Vietnam by the end of 1963, and was a logical prelude to Dallas. It was a death on the president’s idea for a joint that the bulk of U.S. personnel be taken seventh Bay of Pigs. JFK read the ad before the flight from out by the end of 1965. lunar mission. Nikita Khrushchev had bro- Fort Worth to Dallas, pointed it out to JFK REACHES OUT TO THIRD WORLD Kennedy decided on his withdrawal ken ranks with his rocket scientists. He now Jacqueline Kennedy, and talked about the An eighth Bay of Pigs was Kennedy’s policy, against the arguments of most of thought he and the Soviet Union should possibility of his being assassinated that diplomatic opening to the fiery Third- his advisers, at a contentious National accept Kennedy’s invitation to go to the day. “But, Jackie,” he said, “if somebody World leadership of President Sukarno of Security Council meeting on October 2. moon together, as a further step in peaceful wants to shoot me from a window with a Indonesia. Sukarno was “the most outspo- When Defense Secretary Robert cooperation. rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry ken proponent of Third World neutralism 25 McNamara was leaving the meeting to In Washington, Kennedy acted as if he about it?” in the Cold War.” He had actually coined announce the withdrawal to the White already knew about Khrushchev’s hopeful President Kennedy’s courageous turn the term “Third World.” The CIA wanted House reporters, “the President called to change of heart on that critical issue. JFK from war to a strategy of peace provided Sukarno dead. It wanted what it saw as his him, ‘And tell them that means all of the was already telling NASA to begin work on many more than three Bay-of-Pigs-type pro-communist “global orientation” oblit- helicopter pilots, too.’” 23 a joint U.S.-Soviet lunar mission. On causes for his assassination. Because he erated. During Eisenhower’s presidency, In fact, it would not mean that at all. November 12, 1963, JFK issued his turned toward peace with our enemies, the the CIA repeatedly tried to kill and over- After JFK’s assassination, his withdrawal National Security Action Memorandum Communists, he was continually at odds throw Sukarno but failed. policy was quietly voided. In light of the 271, ordering NASA to implement his with his own national security state. JFK, however, chose to work with future consequences of Dallas, it was not “September 20 proposal for broader coop- Peacemaking was at the top of his Sukarno, hoping to win him over as an only John Kennedy who was murdered on eration between the United States and the agenda as president. That was not the kind ally, which he did. Sukarno came to love November 22, 1963, but 58,000 other USSR in outer space, including cooperation of leadership the CIA, the Joint Chiefs of Kennedy. The U.S. president resolved Americans and over three million in lunar landing programs.” Staff, and the military-industrial complex what seemed a hopeless conflict between Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians. That further visionary step to end the wanted in the White House. Given the Indonesia and its former colonial master, In his reflections on Seven Days in Cold War also died with Kennedy. The Cold War dogmas that gripped those the Netherlands, averting a war. To the May, John Kennedy had given himself United States went to the moon alone. dominant powers, and given Kennedy’s CIA’s dismay, in 1961 Kennedy wel- three Bay-of-Pigs-type conflicts with his U.S. and Soviet rockets continued to be turn toward peace, his assassination fol- comed Sukarno to the White House. national security state before a possible pointed at their opposite countries rather lowed as a matter of course. Most significantly, three days before coup. What about six? than being joined in a project for a more That is how he seemed to regard the his assassination, President Kennedy said (1) The Bay of Pigs. hopeful future. Sergei Khrushchev said, “I situation — that it would soon lead to his he was willing to accept Sukarno’s invita- (2) The Cuban Missile Crisis. think if Kennedy had lived, we would be own death. JFK was not afraid of death. tion to visit Indonesia the following (3) The American University Address. living in a completely different world.” As a biographer observed, “Kennedy spring. His visit to Indonesia would have (4) The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. JFK MEETS THE QUAKERS talked a great deal about death, and about dramatized in a very visible way 26 (5) The beginning of a back-channel In the final weeks of his presidency, the assassination of Lincoln.” Kennedy’s support of Third World nation- dialogue with Fidel Castro. President Kennedy took one more risky His conscious model for struggling alism, a sea change in U.S. government (6) JFK’s order to withdraw U.S. step toward peace. It can be seen in rela- truthfully through conflict, and being policy. That decision to visit Sukarno was troops from Vietnam. tion to a meeting he had the year before ready to die as a consequence, was an eighth Bay of Pigs. This, however, is a short list of the with six Quakers who visited him in his See Confronting the Unspeakable page 8 8 S TREET S PIRIT December 2010

Confronting the Unspeakable from page 7

Abraham Lincoln. On the day when Kennedy and Khrushchev resolved the missile crisis, JFK told his brother, Robert, referring to the assassination of Lincoln, “This is the night I should go to the theater.” Robert replied, “If you go, I want to go with you.” 27 Kennedy prepared himself for the same end Lincoln met during his night at the the- ater. Late at night on the June 5, 1961, plane flight back to Washington, D.C., from his Vienna meeting with Nikita Khrushchev, a weary President Kennedy wrote down on a slip of paper, as he was about to fall asleep, a favorite saying of his from Abraham Lincoln — really a prayer. Presidential secretary Evelyn Lincoln discovered the slip of paper on the floor. On it she read the words: “I know there is a God — and I see a storm coming. If he has a place for me, I believe that I am ready.” 28 Kennedy loved that prayer. He cited it repeatedly. More important, he made the John F. Kennedy’s funeral procession leaves the White House on the way to St. Matthew's Cathedral on Nov. Photo by Abbie prayer his own. In his conflicts with 25, 1963. A color guard holding the presidential colors, and the riderless horse, “Black Jack,” follow behind. Rowe Khrushchev, then more profoundly with the CIA and the military, he had seen a Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath, understanding that story, from telling it, Their story is our story, a story of the storm coming. If God had a place for him, Where hushed awakenings are dear.... and from re-telling it to our children and courage to turn toward the truth. he believed that he was ready. But I’ve a rendezvous with Death grandchildren. Remember what Gandhi said that turned RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY At midnight in some flaming town, Because that’s a story whose telling theology on its head. He said truth is God. When Spring trips north again this year, can transform a nation. But when a nation That is the truth: Truth is God. We can For at least a decade, JFK’s favorite And I to my pledged word am true, is under the continuing domination of an discover the truth and live it out. There is poem had been “Rendezvous,” a celebra- I shall not fail that rendezvous. idol, namely war, it is a story that will be nothing more powerful than the truth. The tion of death. “Rendezvous” was written covered up. When the story can liberate us truth will set us free. by Alan Seeger, an American poet killed After Caroline said the poem’s final from our idolatry of war, then the wor- in World War I. The poem was Seeger’s word, “rendezvous,” Kennedy’s national REFERENCES shippers of the idol are going to do every- affirmation of his own anticipated death. security advisers sat in stunned silence. 1 Peter Grose, Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen thing they can to keep the story from The refrain of “Rendezvous” — “I have One of them said later the bond between Dulles (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1994), p. 293. being told. From the standpoint of a belief 2 Cited by Grose, ibid. a rendezvous with Death” — articulated father and daughter was so deep “it was as that war is the ultimate power, that’s too 3 Ibid. Kennedy’s deep sense of his own mortality. if there was ‘an inner music’ he was try- 4 Cited by Raymond Marcus, “Truman’s Warning,” dangerous a story. It’s a subversive story. He had experienced a continuous ren- ing to teach her.” 29 in E. Martin Schotz, History Will Not Absolve Us: It shows a different kind of security than dezvous with death in anticipation of his JFK had heard his own acceptance of Orwellian Control, Public Denial, and the Murder of always being ready to go to war. President Kennedy (Brookline, Mass.: Kurtz, Ulmer actual death: from the deaths of his PT boat death from the lips of his daughter. While It’s unbelievable — or we’re supposed & DeLucia, 1996), pp. 237-38. crew members, from drifting alone in the surrounded by a National Security 5 Letter from Harry S. Truman to William B. Arthur, to think it is — that a president was mur- dark waters of the Pacific Ocean, from the Council that opposed his breakthrough to June 10, 1964. Off the Record: The Private Papers dered by our own government agencies early deaths of his brother Joe and sister peace, the president once again deepened of Harry S. Truman, edited by Robert H. Ferrell because he was seeking a more stable (New York: Harper & Row, 1980), p. 408. Kathleen, and from the recurring near-death his pledge not to fail that rendezvous. If peace than relying on nuclear weapons. 6 Pioneer assassination critic Raymond Marcus has experiences of his almost constant illnesses. God had a place for him, he believed that written of the lack of response to Truman’s It’s unspeakable. He recited “Rendezvous” to his wife he was ready. December 22, 1963, article in Raymond Marcus, For the sake of a nation that must Jacqueline in 1953 on their first night So how can the why of his murder give Addendum B (published by the author, 1995), p. 75. always be preparing for war, that story 7 Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable (New home in Hyannis after their honeymoon. us hope? Where do we find hope when a must not be told. If it were, we might York: New Directions, 1966), p. 4. She memorized the poem, and recited it peacemaking president is assassinated by 8 Paul B. Fay, Jr., The Pleasure of His Company learn that peace is possible without mak- back to him over the years. In the fall of his own national security state? (New York: Dell, 1966), pp. 162-63. ing war. We might even learn there is a 1963, Jackie taught the words of the poem The why of Kennedy’s assassination 9 Kenneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers, force more powerful than war. How “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye” (Boston: Little, to their five-year-old daughter, Caroline. encircles the earth. Because John unthinkable! But how necessary if life on Brown, 1970), p. 274. I have thought many times about what Kennedy chose peace on earth at the 10 Tom Wicker, John W. Finney, Max Frankel, E. earth is to continue. then took place in the White House Rose height of the Cold War, he was executed. W. Kenworthy, “C.I.A.: Maker of Policy, or Tool?” That is why it is so hopeful for us to Garden one beautiful fall day. But because he turned toward peace, in New York Times (April 25, 1966), p. 20. confront the unspeakable and to tell the 11 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days On the morning of October 5, 1963, spite of the consequences to himself, transforming story of a man of courage, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), p. 428. President Kennedy met with his National humanity is still alive and struggling. That 12 Sheldon M Stern, Averting “The Final Failure” President John F. Kennedy. It is a story Security Council in the Rose Garden. is hopeful, especially if we understand (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2003), ultimately not of death but of life — all Caroline suddenly appeared at her father’s what he went through and what he has pp. 126, 129. our lives. In the end, it is not so much a 13 Sergei N. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev and the side. She said she wanted to tell him some- given to us as his vision. story of one man as it is a story of peace- Creation of a Superpower (University Park, Pa.: thing. He tried to divert her attention while Pennsylvania State University, 2000), pp. 618-19. A PROFILE IN COURAGE making when the chips are down. That the meeting continued. Caroline persisted. 14 Khrushchev Remembers, ed. Edward Crankshaw At a certain point in his presidency, story is our story, a story of hope. The president smiled and turned his full (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), p. 498. John Kennedy turned a corner and didn’t 15 S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, p. 622. IVING THANKS FOR A PEACEMAKER attention to his daughter. He told her to go look back. I believe that decisive turn G 16 Ibid., p. 630. ahead. While the members of the National toward his final purpose in life, resulting I believe it is a providential fact that 17 Norman Cousins, The Improbable Triumvirate Security Council sat and watched, Caroline in his death, happened in the darkness of the anniversary of President Kennedy’s (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972), p. 9. looked into her father’s eyes and said: 18 Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although assassination always falls around Kennedy, 1963, p. 460. I have a rendezvous with Death Kennedy was already in conflict with his Thanksgiving, and periodically on that 19 Schlesinger, Thousand Days, p. 904. At some disputed barricade, national security managers, the missile very day. This year the anniversary of his 20 Max Frankel, “Harriman to Lead Test-Ban crisis was the breaking point. death occurred on the beginning of the Mission to Soviet [Union] in July,” New York Times When Spring comes back with rustling (June 12, 1963), p. 1. shade At that most critical moment for us all, week of Thanksgiving. 21 Cousins, Improbable Triumvirate, p. 128. And apple-blossoms fill the air — he turned from any remaining control his Thanksgiving is a beautiful time of 22 Jean Daniel, “When Castro Heard the News,” I have a rendezvous with Death security managers had over him toward a year, with autumn leaves falling to create New Republic (December 7, 1963), p. 7. deeper ethic, a deeper vision in which the new life. Creation is alive, as the season 23 O’Donnell and Powers, p. 17. When Spring brings back blue days and fair. 24 James W. Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable: fate of the earth became his priority. turns. The earth is alive. It is not a It may be he shall take my hand Why He Died and Why It Matters (Maryknoll, NY: Without losing sight of our own best hopes radioactive wasteland. We can give spe- Orbis Books, 2008), p. 324. And lead me into his dark land in this country, he began to home in, with cial thanks for that. 25 O’Donnell and Powers, p. 25. And close my eyes and quench my breath— his new partner, Nikita Khrushchev, on the The fact that we are still living — that 26 Ralph G. Martin, A Hero for our Time: An It may be I shall pass him still. Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years (New York: hope of peace for everyone on this earth — the human family is still alive with a I have a rendezvous with Death Ballantine Books, 1983), p. 500. Russians, Americans, Cubans, Vietnamese, fighting chance for survival, and for much 27 Robert F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of On some scarred slope of battered hill, Indonesians, everyone — no exceptions. He more than that — is reason for gratitude the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: Signet, 1969), When Spring comes round again this year made that commitment to life at the cost of to a peacemaking president, and to the p. 110. And the first meadow-flowers appear. 28 Evelyn Lincoln, My Twelve Years with John F. his own. unlikely alliance he forged with his Kennedy (New York: Bantam Books, 1966), p. 230. God knows ‘twere better to be deep What a transforming story that is. enemy. So let us give thanks for John F. 29 Richard D. Mahoney, Sons & Brothers: The Days Pillowed in silk and scented down, And what a propaganda campaign has Kennedy, and for his partner in peace- of Jack and Bobby Kennedy (New York: Arcade, Where love throbs out in blissful sleep, been waged to keep us Americans from making, Nikita Khrushchev. 1999), p. 281.