Dangerous World The Kennedy Years

[Music] he had been in office less than three years but they were three of the most difficult years any president had faced [Music] conflicts simmering since the civil war crisis after crisis with the soviet union the constant threat of nuclear war through it all john f kennedy had proven himself to be a tough pragmatic and charismatic leader few laws were passed that bore his name but he had inspired people especially young people he was in texas looking to the future to the campaign for reelection and the chance to create a legacy he wanted his wife jacqueline with him in texas the first lady captivated americans she was one of his greatest political assets on november 22nd 1963 they reached dallas the president was here to be heard and seen and touched by the people who had come to admire him in the last 1000 days but there was another side to john kennedy that the public never saw and probably could not imagine a side that he kept secret president kennedy liked to live on the edge he liked to take chances and i think he was walking on the edge of issues that were dark and dangerous interesting to me to think in retrospect whether or not in light of today he would have gotten away with what he got away with he got away with an awful lot are two jack kennedys there's the good jack kennedy who was young he was articulate he talked about peace he talked about racial justice he supported his brother fighting organized crime it's the one everybody knew and there's a a bad jack kennedy and the bad jack kennedy was a very reckless man there were people loyal to the president who knew well the risks he had taken but on november 22 1963 there were others whose silence could not be guaranteed who knew secrets that could destroy his presidency in germany on a secluded farm a young woman was in hiding there were allegations that she was a spy who had slept with the president in paris an official in the cuban government was meeting with kennedy's cia to plot the murder of fidel castro in washington the fbi director knew that the president had always lived a double life he believed john kennedy was putting his presidency in danger in chicago one of the nation's most powerful criminals who had helped to get kennedy elected believed he had been betrayed by the president and his family in los angeles the fbi was hounding a woman who'd been kennedy's lover she feared having to reveal their secrets throughout his life john kennedy could count on one man to be his protector his father joseph p kennedy but a debilitating stroke had reduced this powerful man to a helpless witness it was here in hyannis massachusetts at the kennedy family compound that joe kennedy learned the fate of his son john f kennedy died at approximately one o'clock central standard time today here in dallas he died gunshot wound in the brain millions of people all over the world were stricken with grief when kennedy was murdered but no one could comprehend how deep was the grief of joseph kennedy it was his dream that died in dallas dangerous world the kennedy years now from new york peter jennings good evening tonight we're going to take a new look at the life of president john f kennedy tragically the moment of the kennedy presidency we most remember was its last it was his violent and sudden death which has been most difficult for us to understand and it remains a profound mystery we're not going to solve that mystery tonight but we will help explain why so many questions about president kennedy's death have gone unanswered we believe the answer lies in his life and most importantly in the parts of his life that have been kept secret it is a major undertaking to explore some of the tough questions about kennedy's public and private life to do this we have collaborated with the pulitzer prize-winning journalist seymour hirsch who has just published a book about kennedy called the dark side of camelot the john kennedy we have encountered was a man who led this country with intelligence and vision and restraint but also a man who lived his life with a recklessness that is hard to comprehend and impossible to ignore our report begins with the man who shaped john kennedy more than any other his father [Music] joseph kennedy was a profoundly ambitious man at 26 he was america's youngest bank president by 35 he'd earned millions on wall street at 40 he'd become a hollywood mogul and one of the country's most prominent irish americans throughout his rise to fame and riches there were suspicions that part of his large fortune came from bootlegging that he'd been in business with organized crime there was talk that he was an unfaithful husband that the image he projected of a proud family man surrounded by beautiful children and a beautiful wife masked a darker reality but the rumors did nothing to halt his rise in 1938 he became ambassador to great britain where he positioned himself to realize his greatest ambition to become america's first catholic president [Music] but during world war ii he urged accommodation with the nazis and the public turned against him and so for the rest of his life joe kennedy would devote himself to capturing the presidency for one of his sons [Applause] july the 15th 1960 the democratic convention in los angeles joseph kennedy's son john fitzgerald kennedy had just won the democratic presidential nomination at 43 he was one of the youngest presidential candidates in american history and here he celebrated his triumph let me say first that i accept the nomination of the democratic party watching john kennedy in los angeles it was hard to imagine that he was once a reluctant young candidate jack was not like his dad he wasn't burned up for the idea of being politics he wanted to be a writer his whole ambition was to become a great biographer or a writer but in 1946 he agreed with his father to run for congress from massachusetts gladhanding people and kissing babies was not a comfortable thing for him so that he gave up quite a lot when he went into politics but once having tasted it i think then he wanted to go for the pinnacle that was way he'd been trained to go for the first and his father of course was pressing it too joe kennedy directed and financed five massachusetts campaigns for his son in john's first race for the senate in 1952 he received a last-minute newspaper endorsement after his father promised to lend the publisher half a million dollars with his campaign manager his brother robert at his side john kennedy celebrated their victory [Music] by the time he was nominated for president kennedy had become a disciplined and self-assured political performer we stand at a turning point of history where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain the ocean and the tides the far side of space and the inside of men's mouths that is the question of the new frontier that is the choice that our nation must make words and ideas could carry moments like this and a stale but beyond the confines of the los angeles coliseum the rest of america would not be so easily won [Music] john kennedy had to do what no one had done before convince americans in every part of the country to accept a catholic as president no one doubted that the election would be close no one who knew joseph kennedy doubted that he would do whatever it took to win the election of 1960 was expected to be close senator kennedy had to overcome doubts about his youth and his religion strange as it may seem today many americans fear that a catholic president would take orders from the pope in kennedy's favor he had charm eloquence and a very strong political organization but the kennedy family didn't believe that was enough you're about to hear from first-hand witnesses who tell us that the kennedys made a deal with one of the most powerful criminals in america in the hope that they could guarantee an election victory september 26th 1960 [Music] john kennedy came to chicago to debate his republican opponent vice president richard nixon the debate was to be televised 75 million people were expected to watch nixon had served for eight years under a very popular president dwight eisenhower many americans saw nixon as more qualified than kennedy mr nixon and i disagreed i voted in favor of that proposal but from the moment the debate began it was clear to those watching that kennedy was outperforming his opponent one party is ready to move in these programs the other party gives them lip service mr nixon would you like to comment on that statement i have no comment nixon appeared uneasy and defensive that's the question before the american people kennedy appeared to be relaxed and confident what you want this country to be john kennedy became the first politician in america to harness this new force in american political life but here in chicago there was another force at work on kennedy's behalf an older darker force organized crime chicago was home to the wealthiest and most powerful crime syndicate in america its members were the heirs of the notorious bootlegger al capone they referred to themselves as the outfit they were chicago's shadow government the mob was a huge factor in chicago they could control a large section of the police department they had their their hands in politics they uh they could do almost anything they wanted to they were kings really joe kennedy knew how chicago worked it was here that he owned and operated the centerpiece of the kennedy family fortune the merchandise mart the largest commercial building in the world he understood that in chicago the outfit was more than just a criminal enterprise it was also a political power whose reach extended far beyond chicago in half a dozen cities through extortion bribery and violence the outfit controlled labor unions with thousands of members unions which could deliver money campaign workers and votes assets of enormous value to anyone running for office the new boss of the chicago outfit the man who commanded this corrupt power was sam mooney giancana no one promoted giancana because they liked his blue eyes or his personality or anything like that it was because he had simply killed enough people that he moved up through the mob and eventually got to the top as a boss if there were a a problem uh he'd listen to a very brief description of the problem and then say hit him hit him he was in almost every respect a savage giancana's toughest adversary was the federal bureau of investigation during the late 1950s the fbi was conducting the most aggressive investigation of the chicago mafia in its history by the time 1960 rolled around there was a great intensity of pressure and on an organized crime in chicago then we would follow them the mobsters knowing that they knew we were following them but that kept them from doing many of their activities because they knew the fbi was on top of them at all times all of the goons around giancana were all concerned about pressure from the fbi the agents were around there all the time and were surveilling him night and day and giancana was absolutely outraged he he went on and on with with cursing and hollering and complaining that that this country was like russia samji and kana had a problem that he believed only a president or his attorney general could fix there have long been suspicions that the chicago boss played a secret role in the 1960 elections he talked about helping the kennedys in conversations that were secretly recorded by the fbi but now there is evidence of a deal between the mob and the kennedys to influence the 1960 elections evidence that through the use of trusted intermediaries joseph kennedy mounted a coordinated effort with the mob to swing votes to his son the deal is believed to have originated during a secret meeting in this chicago courthouse between joe kennedy and sam giancana it took place in the winter of nineteen sixty the sensitive task of arranging the meeting is said to have been handled by a chicago circuit court judge william tui he was a trusted friend of joe kennedy judge toohey's role has remained secret until now two we knew that i was representing a certain element in the city and i received a call from bill tui and he said i i don't know how to pose this question he said do you know we'll need giancana i said yes i've met mr giancana but again i i'm not intimate with him he said how do you suggest that i arrange a meeting between mr giancana and joseph kennedy in 1960 robert mcdonald was a lawyer who defended many members of the outfit years before he had served as a state prosecutor and he still enjoyed good relationships in the legal establishment judge william tui was a friend and a mentor one night mcdonnell went to the armory lounge giancana's headquarters i met with oni in the back and when he asked me what it was all about i said i have no idea he said can you more or less guarantee that this will be a very very private meeting i said i'm not in control but i'll i'll certainly tell the the principles that it must be private two days later i went a judge to east chambers i got there about five courts were just getting out and there i met joe kennedy and i would say within 20 minutes a half an hour we could hear the footsteps coming into the empty courthouse the darkened courthouse and i opened the chamber store signaled for munichian county come in i thereupon made the introductions and then judge to me and i both left now i have no idea what agreements were made and what promises were made or kept or unkept that i do not know but there is another mob insider who says she did learn what promises had been made a person speaking publicly for the first time who reports that a deal was proposed that would give giancana relief from the pressure of the fbi the guarantee was that the investigators would lay off of the outfit if kennedy got in that was the assurance same guy from joe kennedy gene humphreys wanted to be photographed in shadow she was married to one of the highest ranking members of the chicago outfit murray the camel humphries sam giancana needed humphreys connections to execute any plan to help joe kennedy for decades humphreys had been the man who managed the outfits dealings with businessmen labor leaders and politicians when humphreys heard about joe kennedy's proposition humphrey's reaction was not positive murray came home from a meeting one night he said that sam is nuts or words to that effect and i said what now and he said he's talking about getting that joe kennedy's kid elected president i left he sort of laughed and my husband was very much against it because he thought joe kennedy was a crook he was a bootlegger and couldn't be trusted you see joe kennedy had pulled some devil cross and he had sold some liquor to the outfit and then hijacked his own load that he'd already been paid for and took it and sold it somewhere else so that's why murray called him a double crosser and i think that's why murray was very much against the kennedy thing [Music] to push the kennedy thing through giancana needed the approval of the mob senior leaders they included two retired bosses and murray humphreys according to gene humphries they voted on joe kennedy's proposition they all decided to go for it except murray and then of course he was the one that had to do all the fixing fixing in this case meant that humphreys had to line up mob controlled unions to support kennedy labor racketeering was humphrey's dock and trade and arranging through labor unions to swing votes for kennedy in kansas city and milwaukee and other places is that was well within the limits of humphrey's capabilities but humphreys capabilities were put very much to the test because the kennedys had damaged their standing among many in organized labor both john and robert kennedy had been active on a senate committee which investigated mob control unions this is a strike breaking union busting bill in my opinion this bill is not a strike breaking union busting bill you're the best argument i know for it your testimony here this afternoon your complete indifference to the fact senator kennedy was a member of the committee his brother robert was the chief counsel joe kennedy was worried about the committee's attacks on prominent labor leaders he feared the defection of traditionally democratic union voters could spell defeat for his son you surrounded yourself with it became murray humphrey's job to help the kennedys overcome this political liability according to gene humphreys chicago's conrad hilton hotel was the site in july and october 1960 of a series of secret election meetings run by her husband fbi records confirm humphrey's presence in the hotel mrs humphrey says her husband summoned union leaders from across the country and ordered them to produce votes for john kennedy people came in from new orleans in kansas city and southern illinois and missouri and murray had conferences with him and told him do this do this mrs humphrey says means arranging for the unions to deliver votes to kennedy precisely that was the gist of it and i thought the election was a foregone conclusion and i made a joke well now that it's all set can i go out to vegas and put down a nice big bet and make myself some money he blows that it was supposed to be a big secret you know i mean no no one was supposed to know what was going on with the outfit the kennedys descended on washington for the first time in decades young children roamed the halls and the grounds of the white house the press was granted unprecedented access to the first family all the kennedys sisters brothers even the parents became subjects of intense national interest robert kennedy achieved a special status the president appointed his own brother as his attorney general there was talk that robert kennedy would be his brother's successor that the kennedys would become a political dynasty joseph kennedy's dream had become a reality jacqueline kennedy the president's young wife had played only a small role in the campaign but once in the white house she emerged as a woman of remarkable intelligence and grace americans were smitten there was something about the white house in that period it was just a charged atmosphere and it was more than just the beautiful mrs kennedy or the handsome president or something there was something about the white house that was glamorous they gave wonderful parties full of joyous spirit and it was hard to believe that you were where you were which was in the president's mansion he had this country wrapped up in a way that i haven't seen it wrapped up since that time let me tell you it was fun i mean it was a world that we'd never seen and they were so glamorous and they had all of these wonderful guests to the white house so that the president's personal dimensions his life around the white house all of that stuff became terribly important to us stories about the kennedys were everywhere in magazines and on television creating an enduring image of the kennedy presidency that would be remembered as camelot but for some who worked inside the white house the image did not ring true the first night or so i was there someone took me aside and said that it's a good idea to keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut because you're going to see a lot of stuff that doesn't belong outside the agent's information the secret service saw another side of camelot the dark side four of them have chosen to speak for the first time we protected him readily with our lives if we had to but there were times when he would go into private gatherings in private activities where i felt that he opened himself to danger the hazard and things that weren't very mildly not becoming the president united states to say the least he was like a rough cut diamond you just dug out of the dirt if you cut it or strike it you see one facet which makes you want to go out and fall under a car for him and love and admiring and you see another facet that would make you not want to ever associate with him off the job in a bar a restaurant or spend time certainly not letting babysit your sister agents report that the president often spent private time with young women on the white house staff two of them were secretaries known by the nicknames fiddle and fatal fiddle and fatal joined the kennedy campaign in los angeles and after he was elected they were assigned to work in the white house but it became apparent that they were there to uh be scooped up and taken into the pool at noon with jfk and the term we heard they would go skinny dipping with with jack and they appeared to be the sole afternoon entertainment for the president and occasionally one of the white house staff members would take one or two of them upstairs when the president was up there but this never happened when jacqueline kennedy was in town or when she was in the white house one time warning didn't come to the white house that mrs kennedy was actually on her way and uh just in the nick of time the agent in charge was able to run into the pool and warn the president and the door opened and people scattered and as he ran out he he was holding a bloody mary in his hand and i i had to be on the post there and he he said here take this he didn't know what to do with it and so i took it and upstairs he he went and everybody parted and everybody left so that she didn't know i never in my real mind figured that for the two years i was there that she really didn't know what's going on it would have been impossible but uh strange situation it was camelot you don't you don't rock the boat i'm not sure how fully jackie knew of the extent to which he was womanizing she probably knew that he was doing some and i thought that it was a shame because she was an awfully nice girl and he liked her in fact he's made many admiring comments about her plus the fact that i didn't see why i mean jackie had been more than enough of a wife she had been a great deal of an asset to him and i thought he really doesn't have any uh he's not being mistreated at all by his wife why should he be looking elsewhere but i followed his father for a great deal of this his father had uh established apparently mistresses in different areas and got around in hollywood and certainly without mrs kennedy by his side so this womanizing was uh really a dreadful legacy that he left to his boys i think one of the things i remember about old man joe was in palm beach about 1956. senator kennedy's mother invited lyndon and miss johnson and myself to lunch at their home in palm beach and we were just ready you know for coffee and dessert here comes old man joe candy with the most gorgeous looking little french girl you've ever seen and he's got his uh golf bag with him and he doesn't say boo or damn you or nothing he just takes her and goes right upstairs in the bedroom so that was astonishing to me that he could be that crude and rude to you know bring an 18 year old girl i understand later that she was his caddy that he brought over from france john kennedy grew up as a privileged son of this extremely rich man and that that degree of wealth creates its own morality as a matter of fact once i was doing a piece for the old life on kennedy's reading habits and kind of an afterthought we asked him about his 10 favorite books and without hesitating he said melbourne's my favorite book i'd never heard of melbourne well this is the story of lord melbourne who was one of queen victoria's prime ministers and it basically it was a story about the young aristocracy that ruled the world and all through the book the stories about these young aristocrats who gave their lives in military campaigns or devoted themselves to parliament who held the ideal of empire and national honor above all else served but on the weekends when they went to their country estates it was broken field running through the bedrooms i mean they've swapped wives they've slept with others all of that sort of thing but then when they came back to town at the end of the weekend they were these upright of honorable leaders of the empire ready to die for queen and country ready to orate and they were brilliant people these young people i think when i got through the book i remember i was saw kennedy once and i said listen now i know now i know you better than anything so what do you mean i said i read that i said that's that tells me more about you than anything else but he just laughed [Music] like his father before him john kennedy was drawn to hollywood 30 years earlier joseph kennedy had carried on an affair with one of the biggest stars of the day gloria swanson president kennedy had the same ambitions i understand jfk's fascination with hollywood because you know like willie sutton rob banks because that's where the money is this is where the beautiful girls are you know that's why jfk loved it out here the president's hollywood social life centered around his brother-in-law peter lawford husband of his sister pat peter lawford was a popular figure in hollywood he wasn't a big star but when kennedy became president peter was after all his brother-in-law and if the president said he was coming to town he'd like to be introduced to such and such a lady why peter was only too happy to introduce this or that movie star to the president in a way it was a little glow of power that reflected on peter the president was a frequent guest at the lawford's los angeles home another frequent guest was the most famous actress in the world marilyn monroe the president's affair with monroe was not a secret in hollywood and it posed the risk of scandal we knew about meryl monroe's relationship with jack kennedy because it was our job to make sure that no one else knew about it in those days it was a much smaller town in hollywood than it is now there were only a couple of reporters there was vernon scott and jim bacon people like that who she knew very well all of whom knew about the kennedy's association with her but in those days you did not attack a sitting president one time we were at a party at peter's and we were all waiting for the president to come because we'd seen maryland show up well it went on until about 11 30 or midnight and the president still had not made an appearance and finally the party began breaking up and i asked peter why wasn't the president here he said oh he's come and gone i love the irony of having all the press there not all of us but a lot of us and having the president come in on an assignation and leave without us knowing about it on may the 19th 1962 monroe performed at a gala birthday celebration for the president at new york's madison square garden jacqueline kennedy did not attend to you happy birthday to you happy birthday happy birthday to you thank you i can now retire from politics after having had uh happy birthday sung to me such a sweet the president's obvious appreciation of marilyn monroe did more than raise the risk of exposing their affair she had come to expect a larger role in the president's life what happened was that uh she began to ask for uh opportunity to come to washington come to the white house that sort of thing and so that's when uh jack asked me to see what i could do to help him in that respect by talking to her i then got a fella named bill thompson whom jack kennedy liked very much so he got bill to go talk to marilyn monroe about putting the bridle on herself and on her mouth and that sort of thing and not talking too much because it was getting to be a story around around the country as you well know that could have been the biggest scandal of all time president united states the number one sex symbol having an affair a married president united states yeah the mounting concern that monroe was talking too much and too freely was heightened by her long history of emotional problems for many years she'd relied on psychiatrists and other doctors to stabilize her life at one point her mental condition required hospitalization no treatment however had been effective in reducing her chronic dependence on drugs and alcohol she was drinking very heavily and popping pills at the same time i think they were barbiturates and i said marilyn i said you know when you put those two together it's lethal and she says well hadn't killed me yet and that was five days before she died monroe died of a drug overdose sometime during the night of august 4th 1962 just hours later peter lawford called the president with the news john kennedy was spending the weekend visiting his father at the family compounded hyannis the president never commented publicly about monroe's death it's important to remember when reviewing john kennedy's presidency how dangerous the world was then we lived under the constant threat of a global nuclear war together the united states and the soviet union had enough weapons to destroy all of humanity and yet at this time of maximum danger the leader of the free world was taking risks that jeopardized his presidency in 1961 the soviet union was flexing its muscle but it proved to us they can build hydrogen bombs sent sputnik into the air and scared everybody so here was uh john kennedy worried about khrushchev's speech about the right of the soviet union to foment revolution around the world worried about four million soviet soldiers under arms that were staring across europe so you had this nation united states the most powerful the most wealthy on earth but suddenly questions each day the crises multiply each day their solution grows more difficult each day we draw nearer the hour of maximum danger the soviet union and the united states were locked in a global power struggle each seeking to weaken its adversary by every possible means with armies with political threats and propaganda and with spies spies whose mission it was to penetrate the inner workings of the opposing government one technique was to compromise a targeted official by exploiting a personal weakness in the kennedy white house members of the secret service were concerned that the president's private behavior made him a potential target many people came to the white house who did not know who they were he had a tendency to surround himself with ladies sometimes that were a little worrisome these women were of questionable character most the other secret service agents of myself were worried about the fact that uh the russians or communists or any people like that could bring in a ringer so to speak we didn't know if these women were carrying listening devices if they had syringes that that carried some type of poison or if they had pintx cameras that would photograph the president for blackmail possibility of blackmail and things like that are astounding who knows i never knew i never knew the name of one of the the outsiders one night in seattle we took the president up to the olympic hotel to secure for the night and as we were doing that a high-ranking law enforcement official from king county had come out of the elevator with two prostitutes and was walking down toward the president's door and a senior staff member came out of the president's suite thanked him for bringing the girls up and took them into the suite so one of the policemen the lieutenant asked me he said does this go on all the time and i didn't know what to say and i said well we travel during the day this only happens at night prostitution that's illegal a procurement is illegal and if you have a procurer with prostitutes paraded in front of you then as a sworn law enforcement officer you uh you're asking yourself well what do they think of us you were on an elite assignment it was the most elite assignment in the secret service and you were there watching an elevator or a door because uh the president was inside with with two hookers and this continued constantly it was just not once every six months not every new year's eve but it was a regular thing and i remember one time i was with the president in honolulu during that trip he went to uh battleship arizona and and a few other things president arrived at the residence about on time i'd say within 10 minutes a staff member arrived in a car escorting two ladies and they marched in the house also this was sort of the usual routine and many stops and a colonel of the marines turned to me and said who were they and i turned to him i said well they're they're secretaries and i i assume there's some work the president once done this evening we've protected the president many different ways but the hallelujah episode made me angry it didn't make me angry we'll talk about the president of the united states and uh i'm not a holier-than-thou guy but he just shouldn't be doing this in public like this there was no regard for who was there the marine colonel was there he knew what you know what's going on other people were there the navy people are in the house cooks are in the house he's the president he's the boss i didn't like it but what you gonna do about it nothing the concerns of the secret service went beyond the dangers that prostitutes might pose the agents learned that the president was using dangerous medication while i was working the white house there was a doctor i believe his name was jacobson who we used to call dr feelgood he'd periodically come to the white house with a case full of medications that possibly could have been harmful dr max jacobson had a loyal following among celebrities in new york and hollywood he injected his patients with what he called vitamin shots that boosted their energy and confidence we learned that jacobson would inject himself too so sometimes when he came to the white house his speech was slurred and he was going up to the floor or going to the pool room together the president is shot we assumed because he was a doctor and and had permission to go to see the president that he was it was okay for him to go in someone took out a sample of of what he was giving the president and the sample mysteriously got to bobby kennedy who had it analyzed and it turned out to be amphetamines official logs show that dr jacobson made more than 30 visits to the white house of course both russia and the united states at that time had the thermal nuclear bomb and if the president turns around and starts having hallucinations he was one reach from the red phone on his desk when he was taking these injections in fact when he was meeting khrushchev at the summit meeting feelgood went with him expressly to keep the injections going to the president the president depended on jacobson during his first summit meeting with khrushchev and he continued to depend on the doctor's treatment through some of the most difficult periods of his presidency both robert kennedy and the official white house physician janet travail tried to convince the president he should stop seeing jacobson but they failed according to jacobson's records he last saw the president in florida as he was preparing for the november trip to dallas max jacobson's medical license was revoked in 1975 after one of his patients died from acute amphetamine poisoning it shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launch from cuba against any nation in the western hemisphere as an attack by the soviet union on the united states requiring a full retardatory response on the soviet union one event above all others convinced americans that john kennedy was a capable and decisive leader the cuban missile crisis for seven days in the fall of 1962 the world stood on the brink of annihilation the soviet union had secretly installed missiles in cuba the site of the first communist government in the western hemisphere these missiles could carry nuclear weapons they could hit american cities within minutes the discovery of the missiles plunged the administration into crisis kennedy and his advisors considered taking military action to destroy the missiles but any confrontation with soviet forces in cuba could lead to an all-out war kennedy placed the army and the air force on high alert he ordered the navy to blockade cuba americans feared that a nuclear war was imminent in secret however kennedy struck a deal with the soviet leader nikita khrushchev america would remove its missiles based in turkey in exchange for a soviet withdrawal of the missiles in cuba publicly kennedy pledged only that the u.s would not invade cuba the threat of war was averted to americans this was john kennedy's finest hour most americans have always blamed the missile crisis entirely on nikita khrushchev what virtually no americans knew at the time was that khrushchev who was dedicated to the expansion of soviet power also installed the missiles in cuba as a response to what the u.s government had been doing ever since fidel castro seized power in 1959. the central intelligence agency under kennedy's predecessor dwight eisenhower had begun planning to overthrow the castro regime the cia had targeted castro himself for assassination and the agency had recruited members of the american mafia to organize castro's murder [Music] when john kennedy took office in january 1961 he implemented the plans to overthrow the castro regime and for the duration of his presidency he waged a secret war against cuba the kennedys were just absolutely obsessed with getting rid of the castro regime we were under tremendous pressure to get something done and they didn't care what ground rules were they didn't have any ground rules as far as i knew we were supposed to do what we had to do in period the cia had recruited two members of the chicago mafia to arrange castro's murder johnny roselli and his immediate boss sam giancana kennedy's secret ally in the 1960 election giancana had his own reason to want castro removed castro had closed cuba's mob controlled gambling casinos the casinos had thrived under the corrupt dictatorship of castro's predecessor robert mayhew a former fbi agent who done work for the cia was asked to be the agency's contact to giancana the plan was that samji and kana particularly sam giancana had presumably connections in in cuba that would be helpful in an outright assassination by a weapon or by poison historians have disputed whether president kennedy ever knew about the mafia plots but there is a trail of evidence that connects him directly to samji and kana's efforts the link once again was kennedy's lover judith campbell according to campbell kennedy used her to carry secret information to giancana sometimes when i went to the white house he would ask me to take some information to sam and i knew that they dealt with the elimination of of castro and that that sam and johnny had been hired by the cia i knew all of that that's what jack explained to me in the very beginning when he asked me would i do this for him we didn't know about judy campbell nobody knew about judy campbell one of the only andrew postel and david bushong discovered campbell's links to the president and giancana they were lawyers for the senate committee that investigated the cia's plots against castro they have never before spoken publicly not only did we discover that this was a woman who was in a person who was in contact with the white house on by telephone records uh but this was a person who was in contact with the white house simultaneously almost certainly contemporaneously with her contact with the mafia figures who were in fact lo and behold the people who were trying to kill castro according to a senior cia official richard bissell the cia expected castro to be assassinated before the invasion of cuba the cia explained that it was necessary for the invasion to be a success that castro be disposed of and the assassination plot was to take place hopefully just prior to the invasion hopefully april the 17th 1961 american train cuban exiles landed on a remote stretch of cuba's coastline at a place called the bay of pigs within hours they encountered heavily armed cuban troops more than a thousand of the invaders were captured 114 were killed fidel castro himself was still very much alive the mafia's murder plot had failed as far as we knew the mafia plans were attempted the poison pills were presumably delivered to that contact and it is that contact that we learned later had fallen feared for life and run away countries around the world immediately condemned the invasion the president took the blame i know that many of you have further questions about cuba we are continuing consultations with other american republics i do not think that any useful national purpose would be served by my going further into the cuban question this morning why is it not useful sir for us to explore with you the real facts behind this are our motivations there's an old saying that uh victory has a hundred fathers and defeated an orphan and uh i think the uh facts of the matter uh come out in due time the history i learned as a kid was that the bay of pigs was the end of the story i'm confining myself to my statement the historical facts were completely different leading up to the bay of pigs and substantially escalated after the bay of pigs the united states ran an undeclared war against cuba after the bay of pigs the president put his brother robert in charge of all covert operations against cuba the administration wanted castro out but the president he had a lot of other things on his mind so bobby decided that castro had rendered a personal insult to the kennedy family by the action at the bay of pigs and so bobby led to charge and he put steady unrelenting pressure on the agency to do something about castro dick bissell who was then the deputy director for plans and cia the cloak and dagger part of the building he'd been chewed out in the cabinet room of the white house by the president and the attorney general for not getting off his ass and doing something about getting rid of castro and the castro regime and that's almost a direct quote i'm not i'm not mistaken and when i asked him what it meant he said use your imagination he says there are no holes barred whatever you come up with and you can arrest a man you can put him on an island in the middle of the atlantic like they did with napoleon that's fine uh you've he's out of the way but the easiest way of course is to kill somebody and we felt that that's what they wanted and nobody said so in so many words and nobody's about to in those kinds of operations the us government arranged other assassination attempts staged more raids against cuba committed more acts of sabotage and train forces for a second invasion these actions fueled soviet and cuban fears and contributed to the missile crisis but even the trauma of the missile crisis did not put an end to the attacks against cuba kennedy continued to press his secret war throughout the last year of his presidency on the final day of the president's life november 22nd 1963 the c i a met secretly in paris with a cuban official named rolando cubella he was there to plot yet another attempt on fidel castro's life at the end of 1961 the president's father joseph kennedy had suffered a stroke that left him crippled and unable to speak robert kennedy was now his brother's most powerful protector robert kennedy was a different man than his father the attorney general had built his reputation as an outspoken antagonist of organized crime we have found no evidence that robert kennedy did anything to relieve the pressure on sam giancana in fact robert kennedy as attorney general encouraged the fbi's investigation and the investigation would eventually lead to his own brother in 1962 in chicago the outfit was still under siege the fbi's organized crime unit had increased from five to seventy agents the attorney general himself had visited chicago to encourage their efforts against the mob the mob hated bobby kennedy they felt that they were double crossed they felt that they had some brownie points that they'd made by exceeding to the demands of the kennedy administration and they had the fbi no hold fired containing their investigation gene conic complained about that frequently he claimed that he did a lot to help kennedy and nobody was grateful she and connor thought that he deserved some gratitude for doing what he did and uh nothing nothing would seem to turn off the uh the the investigations the fbi's hidden microphones in chicago recorded giancana's anger even his friend frank sinatra who'd been close to both kennedy brothers was unable to win any favors from the attorney general robert kennedy saw sinatra's association with the president as a political liability sinatra's friendships with mobsters could embarrass the administration in march 1962 john kennedy planned to spend a weekend in palm springs at sinatra's home robert kennedy convinced his brother he should change his plans they said it was due to security factors you know it was some lame excuse and dad knew it was bobby and said so to his inner circle and it was pretty clear that bobby was looking to sever any ties with the very people that helped get his brother in office and it was a very low point in my dad's life he felt very hurt very let down very disappointed he never he never blamed jack for it but i think he thought that there was a betrayal robert kennedy was determined to protect his brother to prevent any damaging revelations about the president's secret life but inside the government there was one man with the unique ability to uncover secrets the director of the fbi j edgar hoover hoover was now following a growing trail of evidence that the president was carelessly leaving behind hoover had run the fbi for nearly four decades he had acquired in his files confidential information about the most prominent figures in washington j edgar hoover had enormous power he knew who people had slept with he knew where the money was he he knew whether people were sleeping with people of the same sex uh and no political figure in this country could take hoover on directly and i think that the kennedys wanted to fire him but he was the keeper of the secrets he had the files hoover pressed the investigation of sam giancana and his associates which inevitably led the fbi to judith campbell hoover's discovery of this 27 year old woman and her affair with the president put the president on the defensive and changed her life forever in los angeles judith campbell was interrogated by fbi agents about her contacts with the chicago boss the fbi came to visit me and they treated me with such disrespect i finally just told them to leave and i called of course i called jack right away and he told he always said he always had the same pat answer for me he'd always say don't worry about them i mean even after they were harassing me so terribly and and following me everywhere questioning all my friends and he would always say don't worry about it you have nothing to be afraid of you've never done anything wrong in your life and you know sam works for us following the trail left by her phone records the fbi discovered that campbell spoke frequently with the white house more than 70 phone calls and several personal visits to kennedy were recorded in official white house logs i believe that the mafia plots involving sam g khan and johnny roselli and the involvement of judy campbell exner became one of the most critical bits of information that jade gohover acquired during the kennedy administration on march the 22nd 1962 the president and hoover had a rare private meeting hoover came to the meeting armed with damaging information that could expose john kennedy's links to the mafia andrew postal and david bushong examined the briefing memos that the fbi prepared for the director in fact he asked for briefing papers uh containing the information about the president's relationship with this woman that woman's relationship with organized crime figures who were being used by the c.i.a this gave hoover an opportunity to lay out for the president a story which involved him in official sanctioned assassination attempts involvement with the mob and a great many things which i think the kennedys were not prepared to have the director use publicly after the meeting with hoover jack called me and he said go to your mother's and call me and then i called him back and he said that he didn't think my phone was safe when i called him back from my mother's and he said that he had just had this meeting with hoover and he called him an sob and he said that that um he said he tried to use you know this information as leverage you know he said the really his his attitude was the gall of the man to to try to intimidate him he was he was livid he was absolutely livid we later learned that bobby did tell the president that he had to lay off uh judith extra had to stay away from her and as a result uh things did quite down considerably as a result of mr hoover knowing of that information and furnishing it to bobby so it did have a healthy effect in that regard but we also later learned that it didn't cease completely he did continue to see her jack was never concerned about the surveillance but it became really frightening they were living across the street from me um two fbi men and watching me 24 hours a day and i told jack that i was very troubled about the fbi surveillance and his treating it lightly and he he did say a couple of times that he would talk to bobby and see what they could do about it but it never seemed to me that anything was done the fbi's intense interest in campbell continued she became more and more fearful and in march 1963 she confided in a friend johnny grant a well-known los angeles television reporter i met judy uh quite by accident in the lobby of the riviera hotel i think around noon and there was a dramatic change in her appearance i mean she had aged and i said oh my lord what happened to this parcel and then she told me a little bit she said that j edgar hoover was giving her a bad time and she said that she was seeing jack and sam and i remember asking her i said well does one know about the other and she said yes jack had encouraged it and she went on to tell me later that she was the courier between jack and sam and she was scared to death um emotionally i wasn't holding up very well and i really almost had the feeling that decisions were being made as to whether i should live or die for some reason i sensed i was in terrible danger and i don't know whether it was i never felt danger from sam but i felt the situation maybe that i had found myself in that i had put my life at risk the fbi continued to investigate campbell even after the president's death i still care for the man that i knew yes i understand him i don't respect a lot that he did but then who of us have not made terrible mistakes in our lives and done things that you know that aren't exactly proper and i don't i think he was so influenced by his father that he couldn't live any other way i'm only sad so sad that he wasn't wiser he was so bright so did president kennedy's involvement with judith campbell make him vulnerable to blackmail this fbi document discovered during our reporting raises that question two fbi agents tell him watching a break-in at campbell's los angeles apartment while she was out the agents did nothing to stop it but they did trace the intruder's car it belonged to a man named ib hale hale was the former fbi agent who was now a security chief for one of the nation's largest defense contractors the general dynamics corporation three months after this break-in general dynamics was awarded the largest defense contract in american history to build the tfx fighter but general dynamics had not been the pentagon's choice the decision by the kennedy administration to give general dynamics the contract was so unexpected and so controversial that the senate launched an investigation but j edgar hoover never told the senate committee about the break-in at judith campbell's and the possibility that information obtained in her apartment was used to blackmail the president the committee was still conducting hearings when the president went to dallas in november 1963. [Music] you

Channel: Chuck Phillips

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Length: 67min 30sec (4050 seconds)

Published: Wed May 12 2021