Fourth Reich Archaeology - Jerryworld 7: MONEY pt. 2

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

In Money Pt. 2, we switch lenses from macro to micro and link back up with Jerry as he navigates the scene we set in part one. Recall that in part one, we gave a big-picture view of the U.S. as it emerged out of WWII as the victor and began its reign over the rubble left in the wake of the War.  We discussed how the “Cold War” was not so cold after all, as Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen’s “stay-behind” armies (under the direction and on the payroll of the ClA) waged guerrilla warfare against the Soviets in Eastern Europe. The American transition from fighting the Nazis to working with them against the Russians was seamless.  In part two, we zoom in on Congressman Ford as he takes the reigns of power as a lucrative congressional appropriations committee and subcommittee member.  Of course, we have our usual cast of characters, too. For example, Betty gives her husband advice that ultimately causes Congressman Tabor to take a shine on old Jerry. And that's how Jerry ends up with a cushy spot on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, with his hands on the purse strings for the US war machine. This is also where Jerry first crosses paths with the Dulles brothers. Whereas in part one we saw the secret love between Reinhard Gehlen and Foster Dulles, this one turns into a three-way bromance between Jerry and the Dulles brothers. Jerry takes a multi-week tour of the Pacific with John Foster Dulles. John and Jerry do a literal tour of the Fourth Reich's post war pickings in Asia: they went to a prisoner exchange in Korea; they met with French and South Vietnamese troops, including a night out on the town in Saigon; and they made a stop in occupied Japan. But Jerry also catches the eye of Allen Dulles, who taps him for the super secret Intel subcommittee assignment in 1956. In the 1950s, Jerry was in the money. He was cozied up with the Horsemen of the Fourth Reich and signaled that he was ready to serve. We told you things were getting dark. Here we see how willing Jerry was to shed away all decency and do the bidding for Dulles et al. Of course, that will come in full swing in our soon-to-be-released mini-series "The Warren Commission Decided."  And if you've read this far, that means you are a true Jerryhead and journeyman Reichiologist. If we got that right, please show us some love by donating to our Patreon so we can lock in and focus on our project full-time. Fourth Reich Archaeology is bound for glory, and we promise we won't forget those of you who have been with us since day one.  With that, let's get digging. . .

Colonialism or imperialism, as the slave system of the West is called, is not something that's just confined to England or France or the United States. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. So it's one huge complex or combine. Either you are with us. where you were with the terrorists. And this international power structure is used to suppress the masses of dark-skinned people all over the world and exploit them of their natural resources.

We found no evidence of a conspiracy, foreign or domestic, the Warren Commission of science. I'll never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what the facts are. In 1945, we began to require information, which showed that there were two wars going on. His job, he said, was to protect the Western way of life. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders the more easy victims of a big lie than a small one. For example, we're the CIA. He has a mouse.

He knows so long as to die. Freedom can never be secure. It usually takes a national crisis. Freedom can never be secure. insecure. Pearl Harbor. A lot of killers. You get a lot of killers.

Why you think our country's so innocent? This is not going to see. I am. This is a mother. This is coming. Bigged forthrightish is coming. This is Fourth Reich archaeology. I'm Dick.

And I'm Don. Welcome back to part two of Jerry World 7, Money. If you're just tuning in for the first time, please go back and listen to part one. And if this is your very first time ever listening to our show, please go to the beginning and start with our introduction episode. That's right. We think that the whole project plays better in sequence, and we think you will agree with us and get more out of the experience if you Take it all in stride. So we're back for part two, and by way of a very quick recap of part one, we focused on setting the stage of the post-war scene into which Jerry Ford really, for the first time in his career, holds political power.

So, as we discussed in part one, the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Truman, passed the National Security Act in 1947, which, among other things, created the CIA. And from the jump, the CIA absorbed the leftovers of the Nazi Eastern Front Intelligence apparatus, where Reinhartes, where Reinhartes, Galen immediately came in hot, sounding the alarm that Russians were 10 feet tall with an insatiable bloodlust. And that old boys network, who we've variously referred to as the Horsemen of the Fourth Reich, which was put in charge of running the so-called Galen organization, had pretty solid footing, as we discussed last episode, in the aftermath of World War II. So these guys had folks on the inside, people like Frank Wisner at the head of the Office of Policy Coordination,

people like Senator Prescott Bush, people like Alan Dulles himself who was working for much of this period in the OPC as well. But they also had a strong contingent in the private sector that was working hand in hand. So people like Dickie Bissell who were set up in the Ford Foundation or people like John Foster Dulles who had been practicing law with Sullivan and Cromwell. And by the time that Eisenhower and Nixon are elected to the president and VP slot in the 1952 elections, the old horsemen of the Fourth Reich are poised to step behind the wheel and take the reins of government power. And Jerry had a front row seat to all of this. While in Congress, in his early days, he was given the perch on the most powerful committee in Congress, House Appropriations.

That's the committee that gets to decide how the U.S. government spends its money. And if we know anything about the U.S. government, it likes to spend its money on war. That's right. And interestingly, and as we'll get into in this episode, the story of how Jerry gets on the Appropriations Committee once again shows this contrast between the mythical Jerry Ford as a sort of bumbler, kind of accidentally stumbling through a political career with good-natured earnestness. Contrasted with Jerry as a savvy political operator.

Right, this idea that Jerry Ford was a decent guy is often touted by historians. And again, here we'll show you that no, he was actually quite cold and calculated, relying on his same playbook, his same bag of tricks to ascend the ranks in Congress. Right, so really today's episode, you could say is where all of the wholesomeness, all of that rise and background of a guy from a broken

home working his way up and ethically moving up the ladder of society, Once he gets a taste of power, the corruption begins. Money! Get away. Get a good job with the pain. You're okay. Money. It's a gas.

Grab that guy. So the way that Jerry gets on to the House Appropriations Committee is once again reflective of his savvy and his real political skills. It's also something that will foreshadow later developments in Jerry's career when he seeks to climb further rungs up the political ladder. So the way that it all happens is that another member of the Michigan Republican delegation in Congress was putting out feelers to run for governor of Michigan. And Jerry always having his Eagle Scout finger in the wind to get a good read on what way it's blowing, becomes aware of this, obviously, right? And he immediately reaches out to all of the decision makers to put his name in the running to replace his

departing colleague on the Appropriations Committee. And he does so despite his very junior status, We're talking early, early 1951 before his first term is even expired. And nevertheless, he's bold enough to try and get in to this inner sanctum of the Congress, right? Yeah, it's ambitious to say the least. And it's, I wouldn't say a long shot, but it's, it's, it's aspirational. And it comes at a time where there is this dispute that's coming to head in Congress surrounding a newly passed what was called the newly passed 21-day rule. Now, that rule, and it was in effect, that rule had made it easier for Congress to consider

legislation, proposed legislation that was not reported out by the Rules Committee within 21 days of its introduction. So basically meant that the legislative process would work faster. It would work faster and it would reduce to some extent the influence of this other committee, right? The Rules Committee, which is one more of these smoke-filled rooms consisting of these entrenched, powerful members who could choose what gets voted on or what gets discussed on the House floor by, a larger group of representatives so it was considered to be a way to cut red tape to kind of make things more democratic right that's the idea that i get reading about this right yeah less and the idea exactly and the idea that southern democrats and most republicans especially conservative

republicans got from it that it would make things less predictable and more of unpredictable and all sorts of socialistic measures could be passed. And to say the least, the Republicans opposed it. By and large, it was opposed by Republicans, except for our man, Jerry. Now, the historians tell that Jerry really toiled over his vote, his decision to keep the rule. Smith even does a whole side note about how he consulted Betty many a night's about what he's got to do and guess what Betty says I love this supposedly Betty says well frankly Jerry if you're not going to vote you're conscious you're no good as a congressman you've got to vote for what

you think is right and so he does and he does that yeah he does that he voted to keep the rule, the rule that the Republicans wanted to get rid of, and they do get rid of it. His side loses. The rule is done away with, and Jerry thinks that any prospect that he might have to land that coveted spot on appropriations is gone. And that's where he was wrong, because notwithstanding his vote that ran contrary to the Republican leadership priority. And remember, the Republican leadership at this point was in the majority and could control whether or not Jerry would get on to the Appropriations Committee. Well, either they admire his gumption and independence, or they just don't give that much of a

shit about his losing vote to maintain the 21-day rule. But the fact of the matter is, he gets the spot. After failing to reduce the power of the men in the smoke-filled rooms that make the decisions behind the curtain of the Congress, right, Jerry is hell-bent to get into that smoke-filled room. And our boy is a pipe smoker. Oh yeah. I love how that plays out. I love how it plays out too, right? He is trying to get rid of the men in the smoke-filled room. He votes to do that. He loses. Then one of the men in the smoke-filled room is like, hey kid, I like your gumption. And what you did, it shows you're willing to be independent and I like that why don't you come on into the smoke-filled room it's a classic Jerry

moment classic Jerry moment and of course once he is in the room he is just playing the old hits of Jerry Ford you know he's putting in the extra hours he's crunching the numbers and his goal is cut cut cut he is your just typical bog standard fiscal conservative looking at all the line items studying the receipts and looking for any ways that he can trim down any wasteful government spending and that is a value skill to these penny-pinching Republicans who are loathe to see the expansion of New Deal programs into the post-war period. Right. And this goal, as much as it was a goal, it was also a mandate, I think, coming from the Eisenhower administration. The idea was that it was time to reduce

waste, it was time to reduce spending, or I should say it would be, it's time to focus on where we put our money. Right, exactly. And remember, the cabinet of Eisenhower is stacked to the brim with all of these very establishment corporate guys who want to funnel as much. as they possibly can to the private sector, right? So rather than direct government spending to people, especially poor people, God forbid, they're trying to get that money into their pockets. And the Congress, by and large, as it always does, obliges. Right. And almost immediately after landing this place, spot on the Appropriations Committee, he got an even more plum spot, even more

cush than being on the committee, and more important than being on the committee, was that he got a spot on the defense subcommittee. Remember when I said that America loves spending money on war? Well, this is where they decide to do it. his first assignment was as chairman of a three-member oversight panel of the U.S. Army. Like we said, his mandate was to be conservative with the spending there. At the time, the army was very much holding onto relics of the past. There was a budget for horses and mules.

Jerry did quick work of slashing that. He also adjusted the rations budget to reflect the lower consumer prices of the time. And all he slashes something like $700 million, his first run at the place. But again, the idea was to cut conventional, outdated warfare spending and focus on modern war, things like nuclear deterrence. But at this time, I mean, he's on a role. Right. Early 1950s, Jerry, into the mid-1950s, he is grinding. He is in hearings. He is holding conferences. He's busy in these subcommittee meetings. He's so busy. He doesn't even hear it when Lolita LeBron and her band of armed Puerto Rican freedom fighters shrewed up the Congress

from the gallery downstairs. In Washington, scenes of confusion naturally followed news of the shooting outrage, the five representatives injured in the affray were rushed to hospital. The assailants were Puerto Ricans, led by this woman, Mrs. Lolita Lebron, said to have shouted free Puerto Rico. They really put the January 6th people to shame. We are also praying for the people of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico rounds up its nationalist fanatics following the wounding of five U.S. congressmen. Ringleader of the group, Pedro Campos, is subdued after a two-hour gun battle with police, linked to communists, the nationalist arsenal, is believed to have been supplied by Reds,

now being hunted throughout the island. We love wetto-Ricca. This was an event in, what was it, 1954, that this group of armed Puerto Rican members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party bust in and just start kind of firing up at the ceiling, down at the gallery. I think a couple people get injured. Nobody dies, but they deliver a message, and Jerry doesn't quite hear it,

which, good for him, dodges death yet one more time. And the work on this defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, it brings Jerry into all the right. rooms with all the right people. Now, listener, by this point, you should really be sensing a pattern when it comes to Jerry Ford sidling up to the elders who really control the operations and the levers of power in the American Empire. One example of this in my room, I want you here. One example of this is in 1953 in the summer, so Jerry and Betty, to catch up with their home life, they've got a very young kid.

They are stretching that congressional budget, and Jerry gets the chance with this. newborn at home to go on a junket throughout Asia. And he would be accompanied by none other than Secretary of State Foster Dulles, as well as the Army Secretary Robert Stevens. And obviously Jerry jumps at the opportunity, says bye-bye Betty, and takes off on this several-week trip where he'll stop in multiple Asian countries. And see for himself the new. frontier of the American Empire, right? The ashes of the conquest are still smoldering. And off goes Jerry

to inspect the periphery. Right, I can imagine him, Foster Dulles out in the jungle somewhere, and Foster Dulles is saying, Yeah, and over here I'm going to put a whole mess of bell helicopters, and over there we're going to drop a bunch of napalm, it's going to be a real show, Jerry, just you wait and see when i'm through with this place we'll have hundreds of billions of dollars uh in revenue uh that's uh horrifying to imagine yeah uh and foster dallas by the way was one of these real creepy sort of proto-cristo-fascist types who was always always couching his imperialist ideology in religious terms. The Dulles Brothers' father was actually a minister.

And, you know, that it didn't really hit with Alan, who is just a playboy. But with Foster, you know, the idea of this good versus evil battle against atheistic communism, I think really seeped into his bones. And it was why, actually, all of the rhetoric that we heard about Reinhard Galen, you know, talking about the incredible threat that Russian communism poses to the Western world, it hit real hard for Foster. And he became a vessel for that message across the world. And it really defined the incredibly toxic legacy that he left behind. But Dick, shall we accompany?

these guys on their trip? Should we count a few of these stops here? Yeah, well, you mentioned they went to Korea for a prisoner exchange. They did that. And then I think they go to Vietnam. That's right. Yeah, and this was at a time before the French had abandoned their colonial war to retain their possession of Indochina. And so when Jerry goes to Vietnam, he's meeting with these French colonial troops who are training up the real ragtag South Vietnamese and there's a comment in the Smith book where Jerry was writing in his diary

that he was kind of nonplussed by the esprit decor of the South Vietnamese and thought even back that in 53 that it would not be enough to beat the Reds if they didn't have their heart in the game. Interestingly and famously, Jack Kennedy, Jerry's old pal, would go on a similar one of these junkets, I believe that was in 1954, and came away with a similar insight on the futility of pursuing colonial or neo-colonial maintenance strategy in Southeast Asia. But nevertheless, Jerry was not dissuaded from his belief in the need for the U.S. to join with the rest of the West in keeping the great map. S's down. Right. In his view, probably more of a containment position than anything, right? At this

point, he's sort of developing whether he's going to believe this domino theory. Remember, Jerry was a conservative, fiscal conservative, but he was convinced by Eisenhower to give a little bit of that money to foreign aid when it came to suppressing communism throughout the world. Right. And I think that this trip actually really solidified his views in that respect. So after they're in Saigon, where do they go? They go, I guess they go east to Tokyo? I think they spend a little time in occupied Tokyo.

Now, this is after MacArthur had already been ousted from his sort of dictatorial position in charge of occupied Japan, but it's still his operation largely intact, which is showing Jerry and his mates on this trip slides and kind of giving them. a full presentation of how U.S. operations in Asia are going, because Tokyo was the sort of base for U.S. forces out there. One of the subjects on which the military brass briefed Jerry out in Tokyo was the U.S. Air War in Korea. And it encouraged, listeners to give a listen to blowback podcast. Their third season was all about the Korean war. And, you know, those fellas recount the way that aerial bombardment of Korea was just a level of devastation that's hard to fathom. It was beyond the per capita destruction wrought on any country during World War II, and it left really no civilian infrastructure in North Korea

standing. And to return to the sort of dark turn in Jerry Ford's mental landscape at this period, right? I don't know what you think about this, Dick, but I think it's hard to forgive the sort of moral acceptance of what the U.S. air war wrought in Korea. For more than three years, war has raged in Korea, and many there are who will never return. And Jerry's ability to do that in a room that he might have been alongside Foster Dulles, you know, in the same room. It's almost like, you know, Satan. showing a PowerPoint presentation.

Yeah, it's exactly right. To Penn Munjom, the meeting place for Korea truce talks, comes General Harrison, leader of the United Nations delegation. Hopes are high that at long last a peace treaty will be signed now that Korean President Singman Rhee has agreed to observe an armistice. It's really scary to think about. Speaking of Satan. I was going to do this one.

He also met Chiang Kai Shias. The Generalissimo. Meanwhile, American thunder jets are made ready for delivery to Formosa. From a secret Air Force base, the jets are flown to Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek under America's mutual defense assistance program. One of the greatest drug lord warriors of all time. On Formosa, Chiang Kai Shek and his wife await the arrival of the new squadron. Light up your opium pipes, listeners.

say a word of thanks to Chiang Kai Shack and the Kuomintang. He spent like an hour just chilling with Chiang Kai Shack and Madam Chang. Smoking that pipe. You know, once again. The question of Formosa has long been in dispute between the Americans and the British.

While Great Britain recognizes Red China, the United States continue to back Chiang Kai Shik and feed his forces with vital arms. I don't think that a lot of people who have a passing familiarity with Jerry Ford would necessarily dwell on this month-long tour of Asia that he took in 1953. But to us, it's foundational. I mean, it marks a real turning point in the completion of this evolution or devolution of his, quote-unquote, internationalist outlook into a real unbridled imperialist outlook. And that's impossible to maintain without a healthy dose of white supremacy, right, that devalues the life, the life of the people who are on the opposite side of this continued Western colonialist aggression. But the downward spiral into moral decadence doesn't stop there, does it, Dick?

It keeps getting darker and darker. If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game. If you are the healer means I'm broken and lame. If thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame. You want it darker. we kill the flame yeah if anything the first six years of the 1950s

are really just the training grounds for Jerry and the testing grounds the proving grounds to make sure that he's up to snuff for what comes next because in 1956 Jerry gets invited to the big show baby

he gets appointed. I'm ready, my lord. To the intelligence subcommittee. You want to tell the story of how he gets tapped? Oh, right. Yeah, so it's this guy by the name of Walter Forgeimer. Is that right? Well, I think in Fourth Reich archaeology,

tradition, and we have permission from real-life Germans to do this. So I'm just going to go out on a limb and say, Forzheimer, even though he's an American. I think it's important to know that this is Kanye West Voice. Yeah, I'm not going to tell you, I'm not going to tell you what kind of CIA legislative council he was. He was German. He I'm ready, my lord.

Yeah, he's a CIA Legislative Council, buddy of Jerry's from Yale Law. So he went to school with Jerry, and he recommends Jerry to Dulles back in 1953. That's Alan Dulles. Yes, that's right. And he assures him, he goes, hey, Alan, listen, Jerry is extremely reliable guy and a real comer. We kill the flames.

I think being a real comer in Alan Dulles' book is, like, putting stars in the margins next to that name. Yeah, seriously. Yeah, so Jerry's on the radar for both of the. Dulles brothers at this point which that's saying something oh hell yeah they're like fighting over him The part of the story that I really like is Fortzheimer makes all these moves behind the scenes, but then the way that Jerry actually gets tapped into this super secret intelligence subcommittee of appropriations is one day, it's very reminiscent of like a skull and bones type interaction because one day, Clarence Cannon, who at that time was the Democratic chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

I don't think we mentioned this yet, but funnily enough, that supermajority mandate that the Republicans swept into power in 1952 didn't last very long. and the House actually flips back to the Dems in 54. So by 56, when Jerry's getting tapped, it's back in Democrat hands. But, you know, Jerry, as always, gets along with everybody. So his friend and colleague, the committee chairman, Clarence Cannon, says, you know, Jerry, stay after session today. stay after the committee today kind of like the Yale professor telling the pupil to stay after class right and and he gives jerry some instructions to go to one of these secret locations in the capital grounds the next day and jerry shows up there and it's like a handful of his colleagues

from the Appropriations Committee and they're like hey Jerry this is the intelligence appropriations subcommittee I don't think they made him jack off in front of them like the skull and bones

but this was a super secret group right they didn't even take any written minutes of their meetings the staffers weren't allowed to attend their meetings yeah can you imagine i mean there's no record keeping of what's going on and it's just what's going on in these sessions it's like you sort of lose sight of any history right um and i think

that's sort of intended by design maybe but every session becomes sort of the stand-alone thing yeah and i mean remember this is the heyday of CIA sort of hubris and global malfeasance where later on right that Pandora's box cracks open and all of these covert activities get privatized to varying degrees but in the 1950s to be sure a lot of the operations are funneled through private fronts but it's actual agents and officers of the CIA who are doing the planning, running the ops, and from time to time using funds appropriated by Congress to do that. And all is that to say, look, Jerry had been watched very closely for a very long time

and was sort of cultivated, whether willingly, knowingly, whether in concert with us, others. We're still figuring that out. But he was cultivated as a guy who could be trusted, who was reliable, who was willing to serve, who knew to keep his mouth shut. And if, dear listener, you support our Patreon, we may just have a little extra time to dig into the primary sources, and report on this a little more. I wanted to ask you, Dick. I mean, we're talking about Jerry being watched and cultivated prior to his hand selection onto this intelligence subcommittee.

Remember back in 1941 right after Jerry graduated from Yale? Law School? You remember what the first thing that he did was? Maybe some of our listeners won't be on the top of their mind. Hopefully I get this right, but was it that he applied to the FBI in the Office of Naval Intelligence? That's right. He welcomed the feds into his life. so once again we talked way back then about jerry opening this door and kind of opening his robe so to speak to federal agents that he may serve their ends and you've got to wonder whether he hasn't been much like the

protagonist of Gravity's rainbow Tyrone Slothrup, right? Watched and guided in his development. I was alone, I took a ride, I didn't know what I would find. There. Perhaps. unbeknownst to him leading up to this point.

Hey, you say opening his robe, I like to be a little more specific. I think Jerry's the kind of guy that wears a silk kimono to bed. Yeah, maybe even purchased matching kimonos with Foster Dulles on their trip to Japan. A trip to Japan. Exactly. Right. like obviously the mainstream biographers who god bless them you know they've we cite their work on this podcast all the time but at the end of the day they're real patriots all of them to a man right

they're not looking to blow up the dirty laundry well i'll say is what i'll say is is they're not patriots, right? I view us as the real patriots. Hell yeah. We're willing to look, you know, we're willing to hold up a mirror to that ugly face of the US Empire. And, you know,

give them the credit where the credits do. It is the comprehensive works and biographies, but they're not honest. Yeah, in fact, you know, their project is not far from that of Walter Fortzheimer himself after his service as legislative counsel to the CIA, Fortsheimer became the first ever archivist and historian for the CIA. And it says something that the CIA has their own sort of myth-making division

that writes down the official. narrative, which obviously says more by omission, I think, than what it commits to writing. Like, we're just thinking as you're talking, like, you know, the CIA has its own Twitter account and it's like tweeting shit, right? It's like the same thing with like the Mossad has its own Twitter account and it's just like tweeting shit. It's got to make you think, right? The CIA has joined Twitter, but the spy agency showed a covert sense of humor tweeting, we can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet. Within an hour, it had 67,000 followers. And who is the CIA following? Just 25 Twitter accounts, including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House.

One official Twitter account and about five million fake ones. But all right, so getting this back on track and just to round up the episode, let's do a little digging into what sort of ops the CIA was up to by the time Jerry gets involved. Yeah, let's talk about the dirty wars that the CIA was running in the 1950s. Although, to be clear, listener, there are a million places where you can get the rundown on the CIA's doings of the 50s, and we're not going to be. reinventing that wheel here today. Well, it's actually a pretty short way of doing it

is just to say, like, basically in the 1950s, if you're a country that is trying to move towards nationalism and towards socialism and towards, you know, kicking out any sort of colonial imperialist power, the CIA was all over your shit. Like flies on shit. Again, they are informed by the election. alarmist reports of Reinhard Gaelan. They are endowed with a sense of invincibility after the successes

of the Second World War, and they, I think one cannot cast aside the role of white supremacy and entitlement that these largely wealthy upper crust elite white men brought with them in their emotional baggage, right? These were guys, you know, I think we mentioned in a previous episode about the, when the Dulles brothers first cut their diplomatic teeth at the Versailles conference, under the tutelage of their uncle, Robert Lansing, who openly stated in supporting colonialist U.S. foreign policy when he was Secretary of State to Arch Racist Woodrow Wilson. He stated it in no uncertain terms that he believed that black people were incapable of governing themselves, right that they were inferior and that still is the conventional wisdom that these you know wall street lawyers investment bankers and what have you brought to their work

fucking vice president nominees uh i agree i that's exactly right but i think there's also one point to this overarching point was that they were driven by this philosophy of containment you mentioned the domino theory right like they were driven by this idea that they had to stop the spread and and it goes hand in hand with the racism because if you think that the formerly colonized or I guess at this point in time the presently colonized peoples of the world are incapable of making decisions for themselves then obviously...

Doing the right thing. Yeah, right, exactly. Obviously, your thought goes right to, well, whatever they're doing, they're just acting on behalf of some other white puppet master, namely the Russians. The feeble-minded. locals, the savages. They can't figure it out on their own. There will be quick work of the

communist threat. Right. And it's so important to keep in mind, you know, the American century is inseparable from this absolutely white racist ideal. outlook that will stop at nothing, including and up to genocide, right? Think about the aftermath of the CIA's coup in Iran in 53, right? The brutal repression under the Shah. Think about the aftermath of Guatemala, you know, decades upon decades of genocidal violence. And so bringing it back to Jerry, right? Yeah, so he's got a front row seat to all.

I mean, he's essentially co-signing it all, right? He's got a front row seat to it. He knows what the U.S. government is capable of. He knows the kind of dirt we're doing abroad. He knows that the Cold War, it gets ugly. And so by the time he gets to the Warren Commission, you know, he's well aware of the degree to which the real cold war is being fought out in public view that's right that's right it's not there is a parallel reality and this is one thing you know given the absence of records

and given obviously jerry's self-interested ability to manipulate his own narrative throughout his life, we don't know for sure to what extent the operations that have subsequently been declassified of the 1950s were being discussed with this little rubber stamp group of congressmen in the subcommittee on Appropriation for Intelligence. but whatever like whatever people outside of the CIA did know jerry knew that much so it's not it's not nothing it's way more than most people and it certainly is enough to understand that there's a public narrative and there's a behind-the-scenes narrative that may diverge

very substantially. And there's a couple of little anecdotes as we wrap up the episode that I think bear mentioning. So do you want to tell the one about this conversation with Alan Dulles that Smith reports?

Oh, right. So they're in a meeting, right? And then after the meeting, Ford turns to Dulles and he goes, what was that meeting about? And Smith presents it as like this, you know, Jerry doesn't really get what's going on. You know, he's not understanding this highbrow discussion that was had by the CIA types. Right. But we're not so sure, right? Right.

It could also be read as Jerry sharing a moment with Dulles. of the sort of a verbal wink and a nod to signify to one another that they are both men in the know. They are both aware of the reality behind the curtain. Right. This ability to, in just one fell swoop, do something to assure those higher-ups. that he's cool man you know he's not going to blow up your spot he knows how to play it cool right it's kind of like the the cliche of this conversation never happened what conversation but that i think that it's a perfect microcosso yeah exactly this sort of janice-faced two-sidedness

of jerry's persona where even his biographer Richard Norton Smith takes the raw material of this anecdote to spin it into old goofy Jerry not really getting what's going on. Right, simple, smooth-brain Jerry. Yeah. And the other anecdote that pairs with this one as well, which I think is, is worth mentioning here because it also bridges the gap into what we'll be getting into next month, namely the Warren Commission. And that is Jerry's reaction to the downing of the U2 spy plane

and its pilot Francis Gary Powers. In Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev is shown as he told the Soviet Presidium that pilot Gary Powers of the down-American reconnaissance plane was alive and that Russia had seen spy photographs made 1,400 miles inside Soviet borders. The plane was brought down on May Day, less than two weeks before the summit talks, and Mr. K was quick to play on the incident for propaganda advantage. Out in the open came the story of the most sensational intelligence operations yet revealed. America officially admits extensive flights over and around Russia by unarmed planes during the last five years.

State Department spokesman Lincoln White gives the reasons for the flights. That given the state of the world today, intelligence collection activities are practiced by our countries. And post-war history certainly reveals that the Soviet Union has not been lagging behind in this field. The story is that the U-2 spy plane, which was developed under the guidance of Dickie Bissell, remember Jerry's old faculty advisor in the America First Committee at Yale, by the way, John Foster Dulles and Sullivan and Cromwell wrote up the charter of the America First Committee pro bono back in the day. Yeah, could you imagine? Could you imagine the Summer Associate that was doing that gig? Hey, look, we got a new pro bono matter. It's very important.

Oh, man. I mean, the Summer Associate was probably one of the members, right? It was probably one of Jerry's classmates. Oh, yeah, it's a good point. But anyways, back to the U2. So it's a plane, it's doing surveillance, it's supposed to fly higher than, radar detection can reach and it is shot down over Russia and it becomes a scandal. Right in the middle of a U.S. peace summit with the USSR, the Soviets put the whole thing

on display for the world to see that the U.S. is spying and not only as the U.S. as spying, but a little while after the disappearance of the plane, the U.S. had come up with some bogus cover story, which Eisenhower went out and, you know, told the cameras. And Jerry Ford comes out and has this very funny way of justifying not only the secrecy of the program, but also the cover-up. And just given the role that cover-ups are going to play, I'll read the little passage from the Smith book, which quotes Jerry's response.

I've got to look this up. I need a minute. Yeah. While you look it up, you know, when you're talking, I'm reminded of the MIG spy plane that was delivered to the U.S. Do you remember that? Francesic Jeruski, a Polish jet flyer who flew from behind the iron curtain to Denmark and freedom arrives in New York. His daring flight delivered the first Russian-made Mick 15 in perfect condition to Western authorities.

The South liberated flyer says Poland boils over with discontent. So kind of like a parallel or a foil to the YouTube plane fiasco was when a 22-year-old Polish fighter pilot defects from the Soviet. and delivers a Russian mig plane to the west. And Jerry took it on himself to make Jurecki's cause his own. He would do like TV tours. He would like go on TV and introduce the pilot and tell everybody how great the Polish people are and talk about Polish exceptionalism.

And there's this quote in the Smith book that's great. It's like Ford says on TV, he goes, the polls submitted to the Russian occupiers only because there's not much else to do when someone issues orders at gunpoint and one has no weapons to defend oneself and it's funny to think that on the flip side of that that's where all the behind-the-scenes activities of the Galen organization and all the stay behind networks of Nazi adjacent groups in Eastern Europe are activating. And it comes full circle. So what Ford says about the downing of the U-2 and about Eisenhower getting caught in a lie to cover up the downing of the U-2 is

Because this business inevitably involves deceit, misrepresentation, falsehood, intrigue, and every devious avenue of approach, public officials may not jeopardize the national security by publicizing the true facts, but when a given situation, no matter how embarrassing, becomes public knowledge, We commend a frank and open disclosure. I just wish that he'd be around today to give a little reaction to some of the disclosures we'll be making about the Warren Commission on the upcoming explorations in this archaeological dig into Jerry World. For now, I'm done. And I'm Dick, saying farewell and keep digging.

Oh, me and my n-knick is trying to get it, you bitch. Yeah, bitch. Get that house, Nick tell me is you with it, you bitch. Yeah, bitch. Home invasion was persuasive. From 9 to 5, I know it's faking, you bitch. Yeah, bitch. Dreams that live in life like rappers do.

Like rappers do, like rappers, back when kind of rappers wasn't cool. They wasn't cool. They wasn't cool. I f shir rain and went to tell my bros. Then Usher Raymond let it burn came on That bird came on High sauce all that not time rhyming ya bitch Yeah bitch

Park the car then we start rhyming ya bitch The only thing we had to free our mind Then free's that verse when we see dollar signs You're looking like an easy come up ya bitch A silver spoon I know you come from ya bitch And that's a lifestyle that we never knew We never knew Go at a rap and for the rev ago

Holly buried or hallelujah pick your poison tell me what you do everybody go respect the shooter but the one in front of the lives forever