JEFFERSON MORLEY SAID:
Fact check:
Did Richard Nixon say the Warren Commission report was a ‘hoax?’
No. Jean Davison sets the record straight on this Internet legend [in
this comment made by Jean at Morley's "JFK Facts" website on
February 15, 2015].
You’ll find the alleged cited occasionally in online JFK debates:
“It was the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated.”
President Richard M. Nixon supposedly said this while discussing the Warren Commission on May 15, 1972, the day presidential candidate George Wallace was shot.
In fact, Rex Bradford has noted, this “quote” was the result of a “grave error” on the part of BBC writer Kevin Anderson. According to a transcript on the CNN website, in describing “the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetrated,” Nixon was referring to the idea that the JFK murder was attributable to the John Birch Society.
Even casual students of the assassination will note that the Warren Commission did not reach such a conclusion, instead declaring that Oswald acted alone. Bradford apologized on his site, History Matters, for passing along the BBC’s mistake. The CNN transcript is still online.
“Keep relying on secondary sources, folks, and you’ll learn lots of things that aren’t true,” Davision observes.
JEAN DAVISON'S COMPLETE POST OF 2/15/2015:
Willy,
Thanks for posting [HERE] yet another JFK myth — Nixon supposedly saying, “Oswald did it by himself scenario is the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated.”
You’ll find it on the quote page at History Matters, along with a correction:
QUOTE:
“It was the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated.” — President Richard M. Nixon, discussing the Warren Commission on May 15, 1972, the day presidential candidate George Wallace was shot.
CORRECTION: This quote appears to have been a grave error on the part of BBC writer Kevin Anderson. According to a transcript on the CNN website, in describing “the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetrated” Nixon was referring to the idea that the JFK murder was attributable to the John Birch Society. Even casual students of the assassination will note that the Warren Commission did not reach such a conclusion, instead declaring that Oswald acted alone. My apologies for passing along the BBC’s bizarre mistake.
UNQUOTE
http://www.history-matters.com/siteguide/siteguide_archivequotes.htm
The CNN transcript is still online:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0202/28/ip.00.html
Keep relying on secondary sources, folks, and you’ll learn lots of things that aren’t true.
RAMON F. HERRERA SAID:
RICHARD NIXON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: "Why don’t we play the game a bit smarter for a change. They pinned the assassination of Kennedy on the right wing, the Birchers. It was done by a Communist and it was the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated. And I respectfully suggest, can’t we pin this on one of theirs?”
Too bad nobody asked President Nixon to elaborate and clarify, because that statement has two opposite logical interpretations.
One of them is “Since it was the greatest hoax ever, and they could get away with blaming a patsy, why can’t we be smart and do something equivalent? Hey, it has been done!”
Nixon was clearly skipping words, inferring, talking to people who did not need every one of them.
[...]
Too bad we don’t have a psychiatrist or expert on communication in the audience, one who could settle this.
That is a general problem in this matter, THE most important vacuum: We need real, world-class experts in Physics and many other matters. The universities have been restrained from entering the investigation or have decided to abstain themselves.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
The key to that Nixon comment is this:
“IT WAS DONE BY A COMMUNIST.”
Now, does anyone here think Nixon REALLY meant to say: “Oswald was innocent, and the Warren Commission FRAMED a Communist”?
Nixon clearly was implying that he thought Oswald was GUILTY, not a patsy.
WILLY WHITTEN SAID:
In a word ‘Yes’, that is exactly what I think.
It goes beyond even that David, the Warren Commission framed someone set-up to be a Communist, as a mole to infiltrate the anti-Castro Cuban exiles and the intelligence group organizing the exiles.
BOB PRUDHOMME SAID:
Uh, no, Dave, that’s not what Nixon said at all.
“It was done by a Communist and it was the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated.”
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Beautiful, Bob.
Leave it to the JFK conspiracy theorists to mangle yet another topic.
Only in a CTer’s mind could these plain-as-day words…..
“IT WAS DONE BY A COMMUNIST” ….
…..somehow indicate that Nixon REALLY meant that it WASN’T done by that Communist (with the “Communist” being Lee Harvey Oswald, of course).
It couldn’t be more obvious that Nixon was saying in that “hoax” quote that he thought Oswald (the “Communist”) was guilty of assassinating President Kennedy.
BOB PRUDHOMME SAID:
Well, Dave, I don’t know where you went to school but, where I went to school, using “it” twice in the same sentence usually means you are discussing one topic. So, “It was done by a Communist and it was the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated” kinda makes me think ol’ Tricky Dick is referring to the assassination when he says “it”.
Now, as no one I know has ever heard of the John Birch Society being blamed for JFK’s assassination, I would say THAT hardly qualifies as the “greatest hoax ever perpetuated”.
Maybe, with you being so wise, you can explain to all of us just what this hoax was.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Bob,
The “hoax” Nixon is referring to in his 1972 quote is quite obvious, in my opinion. It’s this one….
“They pinned the assassination of Kennedy on the right wing, the Birchers.”
So, Nixon apparently doesn’t agree with you at all, Bob. Nixon seems to feel that the unnamed “they” have “pinned the assassination of Kennedy on the Birchers”.
Who the “they” is that Mr. Nixon was referring to, I have no idea. But he obviously was of the opinion that some “they” was attempting to blame the “Birchers” for JFK’s murder.
GERRY SIMONE SAID:
Puh-lease David. He admits later that ‘Texas’ murdered JFK.
The phrase “It was done by a Communist” is emphasizing metaphorically, that the assassination was blamed on a left-winger.
Nixon did not specifically say that LHO killed JFK.
This is in the context of his later comment about pinning it on them (Liberals).
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
I disagree, Gerry. I think Nixon is clearly stating his belief that “IT WAS DONE BY A COMMUNIST [meaning: Oswald]”.
If you disagree, fine. But that’s the way I interpret that quote.
David Von Pein
February 2015
