I’ve become puzzled about a reference to “George Bush of the CIA” that alleged appears in the Warren Commission Report on the Kennedy assassination or similar documents. Anybody have information that might set me straight on this likely myth?
In 1988 it was revealed that a memo from FBI head J. Edgar Hoover was found, stating that, “Mr George Bush of the CIA” had been briefed on November 23rd, 1963 about the reaction of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami to the assassination of President Kennedy. (Source: The Nation, 8-13-88) from http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma/dpage.htm
“George Bush claims he never worked for the CIA until he was appointed Director by former Warren Commission director and then president Jerry Ford in 1976.” from http://www.meta-religion.com/Secret_societies/Order_of_Skull/part_7.htm
When George Bush Sr. was nominated to be Director of the CIA it was stated that he had never been involved with the agency before. This has been maintained ever since. If true, this means that he was the first director who was not promoted from within, having been involved in espionage operations for the CIA or a predecessor organization.
Conspiracy buffs with a taste for coincidences like to point out that the three ships used in staging the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion were the Barbara, the Zapata and the Houston. The Bay of Pigs adjoins the Zapata Swamp and the invasion plot had been code named Operation Zapata. Then again, Bush’s company was the Houston-based Zapata Oil Company.
Various post-1988 books on the Kennedy assassination have reported that there was another man named George W. Bush who definitely worked for the CIA at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion. One, I believe, is Case Closed, a catch-all review of conspiracy theories and the tenuous evidence offered to support them. It has also been reported that this other George Bush was not involved in espionage work, however, and that he has been adamant that the FBI never briefed him about anything.
Various sources say that a Houston businessman contacted the FBI immediately after the assassination and suggested that Houston chapter of the Young Republicans, of which he was a member, might be connected to the killing. He was reported as saying that a number of members had been shooting their mouths off about how somebody ought to kill Kennedy. According to some sources, this informant was Geroge Bush Sr.
None of this demonstrates that Bush was involved in the Kennedy assassination. It does suggest, however, that a former President of the United States may not have been completely honest about his past. (Yeah: like we’re supposed to believe that).
Don’t ask and slipster already mentioned most of the alleged connections between George Bush and the Kennedy assassination. For what it’s worth, most of this stuff arose when Bush was VP, especially in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Reagan. At that time, much was made of the fact that the Hinckley and Bush families knew each other. In fact, it was reported that at the time John Hinckley was shooting Reagan, his brother was having dinner with Bush’s son.
Aha. In 1963, George W. would have been, what, 17? And the operation looked like it had been written up by a schoolkid, right?
I’m guessing he came up with the cigar thing, too.
Thanks to everybody for the info. Things get curiouser and curiouser.
I don’t think slipster was implying that the George W. Bush of the CIA was Bush 43, just that there was another George Bush (aside from Bush 41) who could have been the subject of Hoover’s memo. Be careful how you wield sarcasm. It’s a fearsome weapon, but it can easily backfire. 
The book “Plausible Denial” by Mark Lane goes into the issue in depth. iirc, the fbi said that it was some other gwb, but that the gwb that the fbi referred to said that it wasn’t him.
IMO, this is the most unbelievable thing:
So, he’s the ONLY person in America who doesn’t remember what he was doing that day? And he became the Pres. and the head of the CIA?
Richard Nixon was also in Texas that day, having gone to transact business for Studebaker, one of his legal clients at the time. He too is said to have been unable to remember exactly where he was. In Oliver Stone’s film about his life there is a scene (which I expect is imaginary) in which some right wing businessmen tell him a few hours before the shooting that he should get back into politics and say something about how Kennedy won’t be a problem in the next election while doing some winking and nudging.
I recall having read that Reagan too was in Texas that day but later said he couldn’t remember.
Some conspiracy theorists have tried to make something out of this by innuendo, but unless someone has a cockamamie theory that they were extra gunmen, I can’t see how their presence in the state on that day is really relevant.
As for their supposed inability to recall where they were
( I remember where I was when I got the news, and I was seven at the time), it may be that they were simply uncomfortable with saying that they were coinicidentally in Texas at the time; but then, to accept that we would have to grant that a professional politician might be less than forthcoming with the public.
For what it’s worth, there were over 600 persons named George Bush in the U.S. in 1963.
For what it’s worth, there were over 600 persons named George Bush in the U.S. in 1963.
slipster: even Bill Clinton is “involved”. My JFK conspiracy history is kinda poor, didn’t he drive someone to the airport, and then the plane crashed?
ElwoodCuse is correct. Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana died in a more-or-less mysterious private plane crash. He was driven to the airport by intern Bill Clinton.
Boggs is said to have been the only member of the Warren Commission to subsequently express doubts about its finding that Oswald acted alone.
Boggs was a close friend of Kennedy. There is an old story that when they attended a Veteran’s Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery less than two weeks before the assassination Kennedy turned to him and said that it was so peaceful he felt like he could stay there forever. Not that it matters, but Boggs was the father of political reporter Cokie Roberts.
Gerald Ford, obviously, also had a connection to the case: he was a member of the Commission, and later cowrote a book defending its conclusions. He also had the distinction of being the Commission’s “mole”, having supplied infromation about its inner workings to the FBI while the investigation was being conducted.
I guess that gives Jimmy Carter the unique distinction among presidents since Kennedy of not having some kind of connection to the case. I am including the present President as being connected, but only through his father. Then again, maybe somebody has come up with some tenuous connection for Carter that I haven’t heard about.
By the way, nobody has asked and it may not be of any interest, but so I don’t come across as sounding like a conspiracy crank, I’d like to mention that I suspect that Oswald did it, and all by himself.