Allegations regarding “Butch” Merritt, Watergate, Intelligence Agencies and “Crimson Rose,” Vol. XIX

Endgame – Part Six

Written (and first posted) by Kris Millegan, April 12, 2011

A coalition of groups is waging a massive propaganda campaign against the president of the United States, an all-out attack. Their aim is total victory for themselves and total defeat for him.  – Gerald Ford

Ford testifying about his pardon to President Nixon

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. from Grand Rapids, Michigan (aka Leslie Lynch King, Jr. from Omaha, Nebraska), like Richard Nixon, returned from service in WWII and entered politics. Running as a “converted internationalist,” Ford took his seat in 1948, where he became a steady fixture, rising to become Minority Leader in the House in 1965.

Gerry wasn’t flashy, and the GOP found they could rely on Ford. He served on the Warren Commission, and defended its “lone-nut” verdict. He explained away the CIA’s destruction of evidence and untruths on the misconstruing of the agency’s covering up sensitive operations that would have been damaged by public disclosure.

Was Ford’s pardon of Nixon quid pro quo? I don’t know, but it set a damaging precedent, absolving someone of all crimes before they are even indicted, and put a damper on further disclosures of corruption.

Ford just seems to be around when things need “dampening.” How convenient, as SNL’s Church Lady says.

There’s all the talk going on, about the CIA, spying on people, enemies lists, etc. A blue-ribbon panel, chaired by Nelson Rockefeller, would surely get to the bottom of it all.

The Peace-Accords had been signed but the Vietnam “war” was still a going concern, how nice to end the debacle under a caretaker president: no one to blame.

The country had been shattered steadily by the drip, drip, drip of Watergate into competing emotive camps. A scar for Gerry to “heal.” After he dropped his political capital by giving Nixon a pardon, in comes Nelson, as an active veep, whose first role is to corral the CIA.

Ford created that commission in January of 1975. Soon, there were also the Church and Pike committees looking into the CIA and intelligence matters. In September of 1975 there were two unsuccessful assassination attempts of Ford.

Did somebody else want his job? LBJ said of Ford, “Jerry Ford is so dumb he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time.” Maybe that’s why it took 47 days before an interesting event took place, the “Halloween massacre.”

From wiki:

The “Halloween Massacre” is the term associated with the major reorganization of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford’s Cabinet on November 4, 1975. Several prominent moderate Republicans in the administration were replaced by more conservative figures. The changes were:

Henry Kissinger was fired as National Security Advisor (Kissinger retained his post as Secretary of State), and replaced by General Brent Scowcroft.

William Colby was fired as Director of Central Intelligence and replaced by Ambassador (and future president) George H. W. Bush. Colby was offered the post of U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO, but declined.

James Schlesinger was fired as Secretary of Defense and replaced by Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld’s deputy and protégé, future Vice President Richard Cheney, moved up to be the Chief of Staff.

Under pressure from Republican Party conservatives, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller announced that he would not run for re-election as Ford’s running mate in 1976.

Subsequent to these events, Rogers Morton was also replaced by Elliot Richardson as Secretary of Commerce.

Political commentators quickly dubbed Ford’s sweeping changes the “Halloween Massacre,” reminiscent of President Richard M. Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre” in October 1973. Historians allege that President Ford’s decision was not one of his own design and historically two theories are postulated to support this allegation. First, Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Cheney manipulated their appointments to advance their own agendas within the American political arena. Or, secondly, Rumsfeld and Cheney convinced Ford to make these changes in order to improve his re-election prospects against his primary Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan.

Veteran political correspondents and commentators initiated newspaper and magazine articles immediately fingering Donald Rumsfeld as the manipulator of these events despite Ford’s protestations that he, himself, made the decision alone. The historiography of the “Halloween Massacre” appears to support these allegations.

to be continued…

Watergate Exposed: How the President of the United States and the Watergate Burglars Were Set Up (as told to Douglas Caddy, original attorney for the Watergate Seven), by Robert Merritt is available at TrineDay, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, and Books-a-Million.