Lyndon's war on Vietnam got a kind of an endorsement from the National Broadcasting Company night before last. In case you didn't see it, the program was a review of U.S. foreign policy since World War II. It (the program, not the foreign policy) lasted about three hours. Huntley and Brinkley were the stars, along with an assortment of dignitaries from various countries, topped off with some of Lyndon's best liars. Dean Rusk was anchor-man of the liars brigade. The program gave a view of U.S. policy during the past 20 years that must have gladdened the hearts of fascists all over the world. (Although reference to Japan as an "instrument of U.S. policy in the Far East" may have miffed some of the more fanatic Japanese fascists.)
There's this monster, you see, named INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM. It's out there somewhere, lurking in the dark shadows of Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, etc., and every time dear, sweet bumbling old Uncle Sam tries to do something for the poor and downtrodden of the world, the monster rages and slobbers and farts and breathes fire. It has already gobbled up the people of Russia, Cuba, China, Indonesia, and the central and eastern European countries. Now it's after the democracies and it knows that it can't get at them until it does away with Uncle Sam.
Meanwhile, Uncle Sam, pure of heart, thinking only of the good of mankind, dreaming of when all men can live in peace, prosperity and brotherhood, staggers on under his inherited "white man's burden," trying to bring the slavering monster to the conference table where the two can "sit down and reason together." But, of course, Uncle Sam, like all the boy scouts, must be prepared. He must recognize that maybe the monster will not be reasonable. If that's to be the case, then Uncle Sam will sigh, mop his brow, assume an expression which tells everyone that it hurts him more than it does them, give the ol' boy scout salute and then bomb, burn, torture, rape, pillage, and annihilate the poor and downtrodden. He has to, you see. If he didn't the monster would get them.
We had intended to get away from the subject of Lyndon's war in Vietnam this week, but the NBC program changed that. We thought folks would like to know just who is responsible for presenting to the people of this country such a pack of lies, distortions, misrepresentations and childish nonsense, which, allegedly, justify what Lyndon and his friends are doing in Vietnam.
Now we know all about the myth of "independent journalism," about the fairy tales and bedtime stories which tell of fighting newsmen, dedicated to impartiality and "objectivity," who would never permit the owners and managers of the news media to alter one iota of the news as they observe it, report it and interpret it. We also know that people who make their livings out of reporting the news like to eat as will as anyone else — and NBC's newsmen eat pretty well. We know what conditions are imposed by business management on such newsmen, and we know that they know what the conditions are. We're reminded of a little ditty which Clark Kerr used once, in describing how he and other University officials sell out to the owners of the Corporate Empire:
So, in assessing responsibility for the NBC interpretation of history, we'll just pass over the personnel of NBC news who actually put the thing together. We are certain they know better. They knew what it meant — but they went.
We think the important thing is to know who it is that ultimately controls the policy of NBC, and signs the newsmen's generous checks, and why they might want NBC to present such a program.
NBC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the nation's 25th largest Corporation. RCA has been hip-deep in military contracts since the days of World War II.
[Today (2006), NBC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Electric — the nation's 5th largest corporation (9th largest in the world) — and still one of the major components of what President Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex."]
As Lyndon gets further involved in overt military actions around the world, RCA can figure to get more and more of these lucrative deals with Lyndon. (Just since last May, we know of $65,743,661 in military contracts awarded by Lyndon to RCA [equal to $480,000.000 in 2012]).
But this profiting from the making of war is probably a minor factor in the political views which NBC presents. The fact is that RCA is one of the most prominent owner-members of the Corporation Empire, the Empire's mouthpiece, as it were. While RCA does not appear itself to have extensive overseas holdings, certainly it is interested in the profitable exploitation of markets abroad for its radio, television and electronics products. The directors of RCA, on the other hand, are also directors of many coroporations which have enormous foreign holdings which must be protected from the people of the foreign countries were they are.
Among the corporations which have directors on the RCA board is W.R. Grace & Co., which owns oil, chemical, paper, food products and shipping operations in 29 foreign countries in South and Central America, Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Africa, Japan and Trinidad. Newmont Mining Corp. is also represented on the RCA board. Newmont has vast mining operations in South Africa, Southwest Africa and Rhodesia. One of the RCA directors is also connected with Lazard Freres, Inc., an international investment banking house which loans money and gets others to loan money, to corporations which want to expand overseas. A list of RCA directors and their pedigrees, follows:
| John T. Cahill |
W.R. Grace & Co. Louisiana Land and Exploration Co. Empire Trust Co. Avis, Inc. Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co [A&P] |
| Mrs. Everett N. Case |
Daughter of Owen D. Young, former Chairman of General Electric
and of RCA (1922-l939, 1942-44) Husband of Everett N. Case, assistant to Owen D. Young, 1927-33 (married in 1931 ) and now president of Colgate University and of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (which has large holdings in the stock of U.S. Steel Corp.) Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of N.Y. General Cable Gorp. Crown Cork & Seal Co. Western Mortgage Corp. J.P. Maguire & Co. |
| Harry C. Hagerty |
Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. Eire RR East River Savings Bank First National City Bank of N.Y. Commercial Solvents Corp. J.P. Miguire & Co. |
| Harry C. Ingles | Retired Army Major General, formerly Chief Signal Officer of U.S. Army |
| A. L. Malcarney |
Executive V.P. for defense electronies products. Member Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Assn. Am. Soc. Naval Engineers. |
| Paul M. Mazur |
Partner, Lehman Bros Federated Dept. Stores One William St. Fund |
| Andre Meyer |
Partner, Lazard Freres & Co. Chase International Investment Corp. Newmont Mining Corp. |
| C. V. Newsom |
Vice-Chairman, Prentice-Hall, Inc. (Major publisher of school
text-books). L. L. Strauss Former partner in Kuhn Loeb & Co. Former member of the Atomic Energy Commission Former financial adviser to the Messrs. Rockefeller 1950-53 Secretary to Herbert Hoover, WWI, 1917-1919 |
| W. W. Watts |
Interchemical Corp. Electrographic Corp. |
* * *
Just a footnote on the above. Lyndon and his liars have been saying for some time now that the "honor" of the U.S. is at stake in Vietnam — that the U.S is "commited to supporting the "government" of Vietnam in its fight against the Vietnamese people. A little more than a month ago this "Government" to which Lyndon has committed the "honor" of his subjects in the Great Society was described on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives by Brown of California:
"Today the government that we deal with in Saigon that is pictured as representing the people of South Vietnam is that collection of hand-picked generals, wealthy businessmen and landowners, and grafting bureaucrats who have managed to siphon enough out of the multi-billion-dollar stream of American AID money to become independent for life. They naturally want to continue this fortunate — for them — state of affairs."
* * *
Some weeks ago we reported that the Great Medicare program would actually be administered by private outfits, and that the doctor-and-hospital-owned Blue Cross Blue Shield seemed to have the inside track for this plum. It now developes that others have sniffed the high odor of profit and suddenly have become concerned about who's going to take care of the health needs of the old folks. Two of the Great Society's largest and most powerful financial institutions, Aetna Life Ins. Co. and Travelers Insurance Co., are now negotiating with the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
What they want is a deal whereby they'll be paid with tax money for handling bill payments, contacts with patients, hospitals and doctors, and other administrative details of Lyndon's Medicare program.
Both these outfits write large amounts of hospitalization insurance. In 1964 Aetna collected from policy holders $485,180,162 [equal to $3.6 billion in 2012]. Naturally, if the people who're covered by the new Medicare program find that their coverage and service are satisfactory, they'll not be likely to continue buying insurance from private companies like Aetna and Travelers.
It may be that Aetna and Travelers figure to make up for some of the premiums they figure they'll lose from satisfied customers of the Medicare program by getting money for running the "federal" insurance program. Or it may be they figure if they run it, they can be sure that it won't be well-enough run that people will stop buying insurance from them. In any case, as usual, they're really after the tax money the people pay. They're already getting quite a bit of that.
The U.S. Government owes Travelers about $400,000,000 [equal to 2.9 billion in 2012] and it owes Aetna about $150,000,000, on which it has to pay somewhere between 3% and 4% interest every year. That's an interesting circle, isn't it? The people pay insurance premiums to these companies. The companies loan the premium money to the government to finance the services which the government provides for the people. Then the government taxes the people to pay the money back to the insurance companies. When the insurance companies get the contracts with Lyndon to administer the Medicare program, there'll be a new wrinkle to it. The people will still pay insurance premiums to the companies. The companies will still loan the premium money to the government to pay for services to the people. But part of those services will be administering the Medicare program. So the government will pay back to the insurance companies the money it just borrowed, in return for the companies' "servicing" the Medicare program. Then the government will tax the people so it can pay back the money to the insurance companies that it just paid them for the services.
Confusing? Well, it may be to some, but it's not to the blokes who though it up. Look who runs these two companies: Connecticut General Life Ins. Co. (which controls Aetna):
| Henry Sturgis Morgan |
Son of J.P. Morgan; director of General Electric Co. Partner Morgan Stanley & Co. |
| Lucius F Robinson Jr. |
Director, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. Mutual Insurance Co. of Hartford Southern New England Telephone Co. (affiliate of American Telephone and Telegraph) Hartford National Bank and Trust Co. |
| Frazer B. Wilde |
Chairman of Connecticut General Director, Connecticut Bank and Trust Co. Bankers Trust Co. Lehman Corp. Holyoke (Mass.) Power and Electric Co. |
| Erle Martin |
Vice-president and Dir., United Aircraft Corp. Director, Hartford Elec. Light Co. Travelers Research Center, Inc. Connecticut Bank and Trust Co. |
Travelers insurance Co.
| George Chamption |
Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank Dir. American Smelting and Refining Co. Southern Railroad Co. Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y. International Paper Co. |
| H. M. Horner |
Chairman, United Aircraft Corp. Dir., Hartford National Bank & Trust Co. Southern New England Telephone Co. First National City Bank of N.Y. |
| B.T. Leithead |
Pres. Cluett, Peabody & Co. Director B.F. Goodrich Co. Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. West Virgini Pulp and Paper Co. Trans World Airlines, Inc. George A. Fuller Co. National Dairy Products Corp. |
These, of course, are not all of the directors of the two insurance companies. But they are a fair sample of the type. The type, that is to whom Lyndon is almost certain to turn over the running of the Medicare program for which he's taking so much credit.
You can see from their business connections that they're all friends of the people. Which, of course, means that they're solid with Lyndon.
Copyright © Jack Minnis, 1965
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