We Surrendered So Easily by Penn Jones

              VOLUME 2 NUMBER 3 OCTOBER 22, 1977
WE SURRENDERED SO EASILY by Penn Jones
Thanks to the diligence of assassination researcher Thomas Stamm, we now
know why all the major segments of the American nation fell so silent so swiftly
as if by magic after President John Kennedy was assassinated. Stamm writes:
A Washington dispatch by Max Frankel datelined November 23, printed in
column 5, page 8 of the November 2k, 1963 NEW YORK TIMES under the heading
"Johnson Pledges Policy Continuity, The World Apprised." Quick briefings on the
state of the world and the implications of the assassination were Mr. Johnson's
first concern last night and this morning.
"Although routine security precautions were taken to guard against the pos­sibility
of an organized assassination plot, the highest men in government de­scribed
for Mr. Johnson a period of relative calm that required no urgent deci­sions."
"Their greatest fear was that the assassination and the left wing background
of the prime suspect, Lee H. Oswald, would generate anti-communist passions and
cries for vengance."
"No responsible official here believed that any foreign power or movement
had any connection with the assassination. The widespread feeling was that there
could be no 'sensible' explanation for a senseless act."
"But the delicacy of the issue caused grave concern. Officials tried
through the night to prevent the police or presecution in Dallas from drawing
political conclusions from the assassination."
This writer did not know of the N. Y. Times article since my four page week­ly
was not a subscriber to that paper. But the leaders in all segments of the
nation do subscribe and read THE NEW YORK TIMES. Thus they all knew to say,
before an investigation, that there was no conspiracy.
The leaders of various groups In our society meekly accepted a well placed
story that there was no conspiracy before any investigation could be completed.
Our nation's group leaders, all of them knew the assassination of President Ken­nedy
was not getting a thorough, honest, investigation. These leaders knew the
Investigation was, in fact, being tampered with from the seat of government at
that very moment. All these leaders then showed their total gutlessness by fall­ing
silent at a most critical moment in our democracy's history.
This silence by the decision makers of the country helps to explain why less
than half a dozen lawyers in the nation are willing to in any way discuss the
assassination of the President. With five to ten percent of the brain in the na­tion
tied up in the legal profession -- willing to take either side of any issue-,
on this point they are almost totally silent.