General Edward Lansdale And The Murder Of John Kennedy

A very unsavory figure Edward Lansdale (February 6, 1908–February 23, 1987) was a legendary Cold War character who was perhaps America’s most capable CIA spook operating in Asia. Ostensibly an Air Force officer he was more accurately a CIA officer heavily involved in Philippine and Viet Nam politics. He was also spotted in Dallas on November 22, 1963 during the immediate aftermath of the murder of President Kennedy. Putting his CIA skills to domestic use, he was in charge of the hit squad who assassinated Kennedy.

One cannot overstate the contribution of fellow Air Force officer Leroy Fletcher Prouty (January 24, 1917 - June 5, 2001) to our understanding of Lansdale whose career in intelligence began during World War II around 1943 and whom Prouty first met in 1952. Lansdale’s most important roles in Asia included the removal of Philippine president Elpidio Quirino and the fabrication of war in Viet Nam.

Prouty retells Lansdale’s story of how he had a blank check which he used to underwrite elaborate stage shows manipulating Philippine opinion in the removal of Quirino. His ability to effect regime change without excessive bloodshed endeared him to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Lansdale singled out Ramon Magsaysay who was captain in the Philippine army for elevation to the presidency but he first required a stint as Philippine Secretary of Defense.

Lansdale enabled this rise by staging Huk rebellions wherein a battalion of Magsaysay’s would split into two groups. The first would dress as rebels and attack a village by storming it, burning huts, firing weapons, and creating pure pandemonium which sent the natives fleeing from the village. Much of this pandemonium was augmented with sound systems and other cinematic equipment. Later, the other half of the battalion would follow up by capturing the “communist rebels.” Lansdale would make sure that press and video cameras were present reporting Magsaysay coming into the village and ordering that the rebels be shot and then dumped over the side of the truck. After they were certain that the villagers witnessed all of this, they loaded up and headed down the road for breakfast.

Lansdale applied a similar technique in Viet Nam where under orders from John Foster Dulles – but directly contrary to President Eisenhower – he relocated 1.1 million North Vietnamese to South Viet Nam in order to create the Viet Cong insurgency. These Northerners were peasants who were promised land and money for relocating. The CIA airline and Navy transport handled the migration. Of course when they got to the south they received nothing – not even food. So to survive they turned into bandits and were dubbed Viet Cong. Thus the “insurgency” was created to justify further intervention of the CIA and American military advisors in Indochina. We will explore the wherefores of this in another American Chronicle.

The success of these operations made Lansdale famous and valuable among multiple branches of the US government– military, CIA, and Department of State. On November 1, 1963 he “retired.” Where he retired to was Dallas and what he retired to was presidential murder. He had spent 1962 and 1963 working with Operation Mongoose at the American University. Mongoose was not about killing Castro as many think – its primary purpose was countering and checking Kennedy. At some point Landsdale was given orders to head up the hit squad – a Landsdale specialty – using Camp Athena agents who were flown in from Greece for the hit. Landsdale was also highly instrumental in the scenario management and cover-up which according to Prouty more than anything finger his involvement.

There is an astonishing photograph which proves that Lansdale was in Dallas at Dealy Plaza when the killers shot the President. Strange that a retired CIA and Air Force officer should be in Dallas on November 22 with the three actor tramps. We are prepared to conclude that, given Lansdale’s expertise at regime change, scenario planning, and physical evidence placing him in Dallas with the three decoy tramps, Lansdale was a central actor in the murder of John Kennedy. We feel yet that other powers issued the order but Lansdale took care of the hit team’s insertion and evacuation as well as key aspects of the cover-up.

Copyright 2010 Tony Bonn. All rights reserved.