Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (96 page)

These attempts at independent investigations ended one week after the
assassination when President Johnson announced the creation of a "blue
ribbon" presidential commission to probe the events in Dallas.

In telling of the formation of what came to be known as the Warren
Commission, the Dallas Morning News commented: "Creation of the
Presidential commission appeared certain to head off several congressional
inquiries into the slaying of President Kennedy in Dallas a week ago."

The newspaper was absolutely correct. With the creation of the Warren
Commission, Johnson not only blocked any congressional investigations
but, by the next week, Texas attorney general Carr had announced postponement of his state board of inquiry.

Despite massive media coverage of Oswald's arrest, his slaying, and the
amount of evidence offered to the public by both Dallas and federal
authorities, a Gallup poll taken the first week of December 1963, showed a
majority of respondents-52 percent-continued to believe that Oswald
had not acted alone.

Rumors were widespread in Texas that Johnson, in some way, had a
hand in the assassination. A man of distinction and credibility was needed
to stop such rumors. That man was Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Earl Warren had no middle name. He once said, "My parents were too
poor to afford the luxury of a middle name." Born to Scandinavian
immigrants on March 19, 1891, Warren grew up in Los Angeles and
nearby Bakersfield. By delivering newspapers, working for the railroad
where his father was employed, and other odd jobs, Warren managed to
save enough money to enroll in the University of California at Berkeley.

In June 1912, Warren received a bachelor of letters degree and entered
law school. He also began working in a nearby law firm acquiring practical experience. Warren graduated from the University of California Law
School near the bottom of his class on May 14, 1914.

His law practice was interrupted by World War I. After enlisting as an
infantry private, Warren was accepted for officer training and became a
lieutenant. However the Armistice was signed before Lieutenant Warren
could leave the United States. After the war, Warren became an assistant
attorney for the city of Oakland and later a member of the district attorney's staff. By the late 1920s, he had married Nina Palmquist Meyers and
become one of the nation's youngest district attorneys.

The young D.A. began acquiring a reputation for the relentless, but
honest, prosecution of crime.

Building a reputation for honesty, hard work, and court convictions, Warren easily won reelection in 1930. As his family grew, so did his
political reputation.

In the late 1930's, Warren campaigned for and won the office of
California attorney general.

Almost immediately, Republican Warren was in a heated contest with
the California Democrat Governor Culbert Olson. Adding to their political
differences were Olson's support of unions and his outspoken isolationism
on the eve of World War II. This conflict reached a breaking point when,
after Pearl Harbor, Olson proclaimed a state of emergency in California.
Warren as attorney general, challenged his authority to do so and shortly
after declared himself a candidate for governor.

In a surprising upset-Roosevelt and the Democrats were still in firm
control nationally-Warren was elected governor of California in late 1942
by more than three hundred forty-two thousand votes.

As long-time friends and fellow Masons, Warren and Democrat Harry
S. Truman remained cordial after Truman became president following the
death of Roosevelt on April 12, 1945.

In 1946, despite eroding support from both the extreme right and left,
Warren handily won reelection as governor and began to look toward
Washington. During the 1948 Republican National Convention, Warren
reluctantly agreed to run for vice president with Thomas Dewey, the
former governor of New York. He may have actually been relieved when
the team was defeated by Truman in the greatest upset victory in American
politics.

Turned down nationally, Warren announced he would seek a third term
as California governor. But conservative forces were lining up against him
and his progressive policies. Nonetheless, thanks to Warren's reputation
and the looming conflict in Korea, California voters returned him to office
by more than a million votes.

Still wishing for national office, Warren announced he would seek the
GOP presidential nomination in 1952. He was chagrined to quickly find
himself pitted against the war hero, Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower. Richard
Nixon, who had signed a pledge to support Warren, nevertheless began to
campaign for Eisenhower, hoping for the vice presidential nomination that
he indeed later received. Eisenhower got the nomination and then the
presidency. Nixon, who had only been in public office for six years, was
the nation's number-two man.

Warren had been a strong contender and Nixon was fearful of his clout
in the next election. According to Warren biographer Pollack:

Nixon . . . badgered Eisenhower to find a suitable appointment for
Governor Warren which would effectively separate him from his electoral constituency. The ideal solution presented itself in September
1953, when a vacancy arose on the Supreme Court after Chief Justice
Fred Vinson suddenly died. Warren, who already had decided not to seek a fourth term as governor, was offered the prized seat and, to
Nixon's delight, accepted.

New on the job and with the naive Eisenhower years as a backdrop,
Warren's intital decisions as chief justice tended to support the status quo.
But as he grew more comfortable in his position, his decisions began to
reflect the progressive policies he advocated as California governor. It was
under Warren's leadership that the Supreme Court-after years of foot
dragging-finally ruled on the touchy desegregation issues raised by Brown
vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Using private discussions as
well as judicial conferences where no positions were taken by the justices,
Warren was able to guide the court to its unanimous decision in favor of
Brown, which virtually eliminated the old "Jim Crow" separate-but-equal
segregation laws and paved the way for racial equality in the United
States.

Brown was a landmark decision and one that caused archconservatives
to begin a campaign of bitter attacks against the chief justice. IMPEACH
EARL WARREN signs were commonplace throughout the South as well as
Texas. Later court opinions dealing with the rights of accused persons and
the persecution of suspected communists added further fuel to the fires of
Warren's opponents.

In the squeaky-close election of 1960, the Republican Warren found
himself voting for young John F. Kennedy, apparently because he could
not bring himself to vote for the ever ambitious Nixon. Displaying considerable foresight, Warren told a California friend: "Nixon is a bad man."

Warren and Kennedy voiced mutual respect for each other and the new
President supported the Warren Court's progressive activism, even in such
controversial cases as the June 1962, decision that outlawed compulsory
prayer in public schools.

In a congratulatory letter to Warren in September, 1963, Kennedy
wrote:

You have presided over the work of the Supreme Court during ten years
of extraordinary difficulty and accomplishment. There have been few
decades in our history when the Court calendar has been crowded with
so many issues of historic significance. As Chief Justice, you have
borne your duties and responsibilities with unusual integrity, fairness,
good humor, and courage. At all times your sense of judicial obligation
has been unimpaired by criticism or personal attack. During my time as
President, I have found our association to be particularly satisfying and I
am personally delighted that during this week you will receive not only
the acclaim of Californians, but also the respect and affection of all
Americans whose common destiny you have so faithfully helped to
shape throughout your public career.

Two months later, Warren was being asked to head a federal panel to
decide who killed Kennedy.

On November 29, the same day President Johnson announced his plans
for a special commission, Warren was visited by Deputy Attorney General
Nicholas D. Katzenbach and Solicitor General Archibald Cox (who gained
fame during Watergate by being fired as special prosecutor by Nixon). As
they began to speak of the Commission, Warren interrupted: "If you are
asking my permission to have an Associate Justice of this Court serve, I
have no intention of giving my approval."

Warren was told he was being asked to serve as chairman of the
presidential commission. He declined, saying: "Please tell the President
that I am sorry but I cannot properly undertake this assignment." Warren
then explained that he did not feel it proper for a member of one branch of
government to be employed by another branch.

Two hours later, Warren received a telephone call from President Johnson. The new President wasn't going to take no for an answer. He
summoned Warren to his office. Dutifully, the chief justice reported to his
president and was given the famous "Johnson treatment"-a combination
of back patting and arm twisting. According to Warren biographer Pollack:

The President spoke gravely of the desperate need to restore public
confidence. He hinted darkly at the possibility of dangerous international repercussions. He invoked Warren's sense of duty and patriotism
.. . By the end of the interview, he had succeeded in making Warren
feel that to refuse the President would be a betrayal of a public trust. As
a man-to-man persuader, Lyndon Johnson had no equal. His trump card
was: "Mr. Chief Justice, you were a soldier in World War I. There's
nothing you then did that compares with what you can do now for your
country. As your Commander-in-Chief, I am ordering you back into
service."

There may have been matters of more personal concern that Johnson
transmitted to Warren. In an internal Warren Commission memorandum
written on February 17, 1964, Melvin Eisenberg mentioned what Warren
told fellow commissioners regarding how he had been "pressured" by
Johnson. Eisenberg wrote:

The President stated that rumors of the most exaggerated kind were
circulating in this country and overseas . . . Some rumors went so far as
attributing the assassination to a faction within the government wishing
the presidency assumed by President Johnson. Others, if not quenched,
could conceivably lead the country into a war . . . No one could refuse
to do something which might help prevent such a possibility. . . . He
placed emphasis on the quenching of rumors and precluding further
speculation.

Warren left the emotional meeting with tears in his eyes, perhaps
thinking of what had become of the country he loved. He had reluctantly
agreed to chair the Commission. It is obvious that Warren's sense of
patriotism outweighed his sense of legality in his acceptance of the Commission chairmanship.

Later that same afternoon, Johnson signed Executive Order 11,130 creating the seven-man Warren Commission.

Some Commission members saw their work as having a dual purposeone, to find the facts of the Kennedy assassination, the other, to calm
public fears and suspicions both at home and abroad. Allen Dulles told
author Edward Jay Epstein that since an atmosphere of rumors and suspicion interferes with the functioning of the government, especially abroad,
one of the main tasks of the Commission as to dispel rumors.

Other Commission members also thought it their duty to protect the
image of the United States as reflected in these public statements:

JOHN MCCLOY: [It was of paramount importance to] show the world that
America is not a banana republic, where a government can be changed
by conspiracy.

JOHN COOPER: [An important purpose was] to lift the cloud of doubts
that had been cast over American institutions.

When evidence presented to the Commission supported this duality of
purpose there was no problem. But since so much evidence contradicted
the official assassination theory and called into question certain government
institutions, it must be asked which purpose became paramount to the
commissioners.

Johnson's old friend, lawyer Abe Fortas, and Katzenbach had prepared
a list of seven prominent persons to serve on the new presidential
commission. This list was promptly approved by President Johnson without change.

Headed by Chief Justice Warren, the Commission members were:

Representative Hale Boggs (D-La.)--The most vocal critic among Commission members, Boggs became frustrated with the panel's total
reliance on the FBI for information. Speaking of the "single-bullet
theory," Boggs once commented, "I had strong doubts about it." On
April 1, 1971, House Majority Leader Boggs delivered a blistering
attack on J. Edgar Hoover, charging that under his directorship the
FBI had adopted "the tactics of the Soviet Union and Hitler's Gestapo." Boggs, who undoubtedly would have become Speaker of the
House and a powerful ally in any reopening of the JFK assassination
investigation, vanished on October 16, 1972, while on a military junket flight in Alaska. Despite a massive search, no trace of the
airplane or of Boggs has ever been found.