1898 Remember the Maine. Cuba was fighting for
independence from Spain; the United States was looking for a pretext to
intervene. The U.S.S. Maine blew up and sank in Havana harbor. The U.S. blamed Spain and thus began the
Spanish-American War. The U.S. acquired
Puerto Rico and, for a time, the Philippines.
1941 The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Hawaii commanders General Walter Short and
Admiral Husband Kimmel are impugned for dereliction of duty but denied courts martial. Between ‘41 and ‘45, nine investigations
follow. Congress will eventually release
a 39-volume compilation of evidence and testimony.
1942
The office of Coordinator of
Information becomes the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the Central
Intelligence Agency.
Early
50s The C.I.A. begins a heavily
funded effort to gain influence in the arts and media. The program will last nearly 20 years. In the late 1950s, the Select Committee on
Improper Activities in Labor and Management, the [John] McClellan Committee,
investigates the influence of organized crime.
Senator John F. Kennedy sits on the Committee, and Robert F. Kennedy serves
as counsel. In R.F.K.’s subsequent book,
The Enemy Within, he describes what he calls the Private Government.
1951 With the help of officer Everette Howard
Hunt, Jr., the C.I.A. acquires film rights to George Orwell’s novels, Animal
Farm and 1984.
1959 The U.S. begins anti-Cuba plots. These will lead to Operation Zapata, the 1961
Bay of Pigs invasion, and to conspiracies to kill Fidel Castro.
1962 The Joint Chiefs of Staff present Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara with a report on Operation Northwoods — proposals for
creating pretexts for action against Cuba, including some “Remember the Maine”
scenarios.
1964 The President’s Commission on the
Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Warren Commission, issues a
report and 26 volumes of evidence and testimony. The U.S.S.
Maddox is apparently attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin by the Vietnamese. The ensuing Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
effectively transfers war powers from Congress to the presidency.
1968 Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. is
killed in Memphis, allegedly by James Ray.
Senator and presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy is shot to death in
Los Angeles, allegedly by Sirhan Sirhan.
1970 Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. “retires” from
the Agency to take a job with the Robert R. Mullen Company. James McCord also retires to strike out on
his own. Both men will soon figure
prominently in the Watergate scandal.
1971 The Pentagon Papers reveal the secret
history of the Vietnam war. The U.S.S. Maddox had been part of Operation
Plan 34A. 34A included bombings by Thai
pilots flying U.S. planes, coastal raids, and kidnappings; the military denies
that provocation was the goal. The
wording of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was prepared by unidentified figures
in the administration four months before the “attacks” occurred.
1977 Carl Bernstein reports on intelligence
assets in the news media. The New York Times reports on the
Agency’s role in the publication of over 1000 books.
1979 The House Select Committee on
Assassinations issues a report and 24 volumes of evidence and testimony in the
murders of President Kennedy and Dr. King.
The Committee concludes that conspiracies were behind the crimes but is
curiously unable to pin down details.
The Department of Justice remains inert.
Critical documents on the assassinations are classified for 50 years.
The
1980s American hostages in Iran are
released on the day President Ronald Reagan takes office. Exposure of the Iran-contra-cocaine operation
will continue into the 1990s.
1985 Liberty Lobby, the publisher of Spotlight, prevails against a defamation
suit brought by Everette Howard Hunt, Jr.
A Spotlight article concerned
Hunt’s lack of an alibi for November 22, 1963, and a possible C.I.A. strategy
of “limited hang-out” during the House Select Committee on Assassinations
hearings. If the Committee learned too
much or broke free of control, Hunt could be sacrificed.
1988 The investigative files on the murder of
Senator Robert F. Kennedy are opened only to find they have been eviscerated.
The
1990s become the Decade of Disclosure.
New details emerge in the J.F.K. murder, Pearl Harbor, the Gulf of
Tonkin Incident, Operation Zapata, the killing of Malcolm X, and other events.
1991 Oliver Stone’s movie, JFK, ignites intense interest in the assassination of President
Kennedy. Congress responds in 1992 with
powerful new disclosure legislation. By
the time the Assassinations Records Review Board expires in 1998, they have
compiled an archive of over 4.5 million pages, covering a breath-taking range
of details.
1993 Elderly and ailing Loyd Jowers confesses
his part in the King assassination on A.B.C.’s Prime Time with Sam Donaldson.
Jowers names others involved, some of them Memphis policemen.
1995 Critical documents on Pearl Harbor are
declassified, including a 1940 action proposal from the Office of Naval
Intelligence which laid out an 8-step plan to provoke the attack. In the next few years, Congress and the
military will posthumously exonerate Short and Kimmel without admitting
foreknowledge of the attack.
1996 300 surviving Vietnamese commandos,
recruited decades ago by the C.I.A., are belatedly compensated for their work
in Op Plan 34A, which included the “attacks” in the Gulf of Tonkin. The legislatively arranged payments prevent a
trial. A second group of commandos is
paid for Op Plan 35A.
1998 James Ray dies in prison. 1999 — Loyd Jowers is found guilty in a
civil suit brought by the King family, who ask for $100 in damages. 2000 — Jowers dies without ever facing
questioning from state or federal authorities.
2001 Vice-President Dick Cheney heads secret
meetings on energy. The committee maps
oil fields and drilling sites in Iraq and develops a list of buyers. Henry Kissinger is named in a suit by the
survivors of Chilean General Rene Schneider.
The next day, some planes crash into some buildings.
2002 U.S. survivors of Japan’s attack on the
Philippines seek compensation. They were
not evacuated in 1941 so the Japanese would not suspect the U.S. had broken the
Japanese codes. Canada, England, Norway,
Singapore, and Australia have already made payments to their citizens captured
by Japan. Congressional investigative
documents on the murder of Dr. King remain secret. In California, where Sirhan Sirhan is
imprisoned for the murder of Robert Kennedy, a writ of habeas corpus is inching
its way through the courts. The U.S. and
England agree to “fix intelligence” around the coming attack on Iraq.
2004 The
aging and ailing Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. makes a written and tape-recorded
confession of his knowledge of the conspiracy to kill J.F.K. Hunt names others involved — Frank Sturgis,
David Atlee Philips, Cord Meyer, David Morales, and more — all connected to the
C.I.A. Hunt dies three years later; his
son discloses the tape-recording; and Hunt’s confession doesn’t make the
evening news.
2008 Oil industry executive Richard Cheney
considers plans to start a war with Iran by having U.S. forces, disguised as
Iranians, fire on U.S. forces. (The
J.C.S. had a similar scheme in mind for Cuba in 1962.) Halliburton moves to Dubai, beyond the reach
of U.S. enforcement agencies. The bank
bailouts begin.
2013 45th anniversary of the murders
of Dr. King and Senator Kennedy. 50th
anniversary of the murder of President Kennedy.
Labels: Central Intelligence Agency, Everette Howard Hunt, James Ray, John Kennedy, Loyd Jowers, Martin Luther King, Operation Plan 34-A, Operation Zapata, Pearl Harbor, Robert Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan