McGeorge Bundy and the Assassination of John Kennedy

McGeorge Bundy was not exactly a household name among Americans even during his tenure as National Security Advisor to President Kennedy and later to Lyndon Johnson. However, we have documented evidence showing a pattern of activity which places him near the inner circle of men who ordered the murder of Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

Commentary Magazine famously linked Bundy with George F. Kenan as co-author of a seminal paper outlining the United States’ need to maintain eternal vigilance against its communist foes in a policy subsequently known as containment. We could say that Bundy at one time belonged to the old Henry Jackson wing of the Democrat party which acknowledged the need for military preparedness and did not see America as the evil boogey man of self loathing of the modern Democrat establishment.

Born to a prominent, privileged, and wealthy Boston Brahmin family Bundy was educated at elite schools. After graduation from Yale he worked in policy and academic positions including the Council on Foreign Relations and Harvard University. After his stint in government in the 1960s he became president of the Ford Foundation and later professor of history at New York University. He always maintained an influential role in the Democrat party as well as in foreign policy think tanks.

With such a dignified background we can see how he would fit well in government and indeed as a former classmate of John Kennedy in grade school he seemed a natural choice to the new President as a national security advisor. Although Bundy comes across as a mid to high ranking administration official his influence far exceeded his position. His true paymasters were not the President but the power elite of institutions from which he owed his allegiances.

With such a relatively low profile, it seems improbable that Bundy would be palpably involved with the murder of his boss but as we pull the evidence together it become abundantly clear that he was positioned to make astoundingly important decisions which were important in the sabotaging of the Kennedy administration and in taking the man’s life. It is the classic tale of Julius Caesar whose immortal line, et tu Brute, could be said to apply aptly to Bundy.

We reported in a previous Daily Jeremiad how McGeorge Bundy unilaterally acted to rescind a decision which President Kennedy made earlier on Sunday April 16, 1961 authorizing the Bay Of Pigs invasion which included a pre-dawn attack on Castro’s 3 remaining T-33 jet aircraft. The story of the Bay of Pigs has been both written about and misreported extensively. However we show that Bundy was the man who called off the air attack without consultation or authority from the President. Amazingly Bundy managed to keep his position because whether through naivety or impressive tap dancing from Bundy, Kennedy chose to believe that Bundy was not responsible in any sinister way for the sabotaging of the attack. Instead Kennedy vented his wrath toward the CIA. However much involved the CIA was in undermining its own operations, Bundy’s role was even more important in part because of its subtle nature.

The effects of the failed Bay Of Pigs invasion was the creation of animosity towards Kennedy from the Cuban Exiles specifically but from conservative Americans generally who saw the president as weak, ineffectual, and pink. Thus the willful compromise of the invasion cost Kennedy considerable political capital – all achieved by a vaguely worded communiqué from Bundy to the CIA operations officers, of whom Richard Bissel and General Cabell were chief, telling them that they “should not” launch the air attack on the T-33s.

All of the foregoing could be dismissed as innocent incompetence if it were an isolated event. However, given the details we present elsewhere such a conclusion is unwarranted especially in the case of Bundy who has been acknowledged far and wide as a brilliant man who suffered fools contemptuously. These types of actions of Bundy were not isolated. To see the pattern we must fast forward to November 21, 1963.

At this time we again see Bundy undermining his boss. In October of 1963 Kennedy issued NSAM 263 ordering the CIA and Military to remove all US personnel from Indochina by 1965. The first down payment of that action was the ordered removal of 1000 personnel by Christmas of 1963. But strangely enough a draft NSAM countermanding NSAM 263 was discovered circulating 11/21 by none other than our faithful public servant McGeorge Bundy. This new document known as NSAM 273 would be signed by President Johnson on November 26, 1963.

This raises the interesting question of why would Kennedy reverse himself so soon after the issuance of orders to begin withdrawal? Well the answer is rather simple. Kennedy had not reversed himself but his NSA advisor had reversed him because Bundy’s superiors ordered the reversal of policy. And if you are not alert to subtlety Bundy’s superior was not the President of the United States.

Bundy had already shown in a very high profile situation willingness and capacity to countermand the president. But to repeat ourselves, Bundy did not do this because he was calling the shots – he did so on orders of his superiors. As brilliant and gifted as was Bundy his mental constitution and other qualities did not make him leadership caliber although he certainly advised such people. Bundy showed the same weasely traits John Dean would show in his treason against President Nixon.

In repetition of the Bay of Pigs behavior Bundy crafted new policy in the President’s name without authorization or guidance from Kennedy. Between 11/21 and 11/25 NSAM 273 went through several drafts, as Colonel Fletcher Prouty demonstrates, being ready for Johnson’s signature on the 26th. Thus a 180 degree reversal of US foreign policy had been achieved in about 40 days’ time from the issuance of NSAM 263. That is called a coup d’etat. There is no innocent explanation for it. It was treason pure and simple with Bundy playing an important role in the policy change.

What this change also implies is Bundy’s advance notice of the murder of Kennedy. It is conceivable that Bundy received a request to draft a new policy from someone in the administration and our current view is that Bundy did so in anticipation of a new President. We may change our opinion when we better understand the reporting structures in the Kennedy White House.

Another area fertile for study is the Yale Cabal and its relationship to US intelligence and the Kennedy assassination. We will titillate you just a bit by noting that others have observed a strong relationship between Yale University and the CIA and its predecessor organization. Such central managers as James Jesus Angleton, George Bush, and William Buckley along with our primary subject McGeorge Bundy all claim Yale as their alma mater. They are tied together in a blood pact to govern the United States whether they hold office or not – the elite will not be ruled over by the plebeian.

Copyright 2009 Tony Bonn. All rights reserved.