Quiet memories of the 1963 coup d’état

Today marked the 43rd anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination, the day of the shadow government’s coup d’état that brought Lyndon Johnson to power. It was a day of remembrance, touched by the BBC reportage of CIA involvement in the covert action four and a half years later when Kennedy’s brother Robert was felled. The younger Kennedy’s death was one of the minor adjustments necessary to assure continuity of power for the junta that has quietly governed US national affairs since 1963. These adjustments have included the death of Martin Luther King, the COINTELPRO operation to neutralize black power, the flooding of the inner cities of America with heroin, and later crack cocaine, the funding of Latin American adventures with profits from the sale of these drugs, the “October surprise” that assured a Reagan victory over Carter, and — it has been averred — the deaths of Paul Wellstone and Mel Carnahan. This catalog is of course not exhaustive.