RIP, WILLIAM PEPPER

Today we mourn human rights lawyer William Pepper, who worked tirelessly to bring out the truth about the assassination of his friend, Dr. Martin Luther King.

Bill passed away at age 86 on Sunday April 7- just a few days after the 56th anniversary of Dr. King’s murder on April 4th, 1968.

A year to the day earlier, Dr. King made a courageous public stand against the Vietnam War. King made his decision to go public against the war in part because of Bill’s haunting photo essay in Rampart’s Magazine, The Children of Vietnam, which showed the horrifying effects of the American bombing campaign.

Bill, may you rest in the peace that you and Dr. King gave your lives to.

To learn more about Dr. King’s efforts, go to www.fourdiedtrying.com and join us on Patreon.

Four Died Trying: A Powerful, Riveting, and Masterful Documentary Series Begins

By Edward Curtain

It is hard for those who have not lived through the shattering political assassinations of the 1960s to grasp their significance for today.  Many might assume that that was then and long before their time, so let’s move on to what we must deal with today.  Let some old folks, the obsessive ones, live in the past.

It is an understandable but mistaken attitude that this documentary will quickly shatter, visually and audibly.  The echoes of those guns that killed President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy in rapid succession repeat and repeat and repeat down through the years, and their echoes bang off the walls of all today’s news that springs from the cells of all the little digital dinguses that provide a constant stream of distractions and fear porn meant to titillate but not illuminate the connections between then and now, nor those between the four subjects of this illuminating film.

Today we are living the consequences of the CIA/national security state’s 1960s takeover of the country.  Their message then and now: We, the national security state, rule, we have the guns, the media, and the power to dominate you.  We control the stories you are meant to hear.  If you get uppity, well-known, and dare challenge us, we will buy you off, denigrate you, or, if neither works, we will kill you.  You are helpless, they reiterate endlessly.  Bang. Bang. Bang.

But they lie, and this series, beginning with its first installment (see sneak peek here), will tell you why.  It will show why understanding the past is essential for transforming the present.  It will profoundly inspire you to see and hear these four bold and courageous men refuse to back down to the evil forces that shot them down.  It will open your eyes to the parallel spiritual paths they walked and the similarity of the messages they talked about – peace, justice, racism, human rights, and the need for economic equality – not just in the U.S.A. but across the world, for the fate of all people was then, and is now, linked to the need to transform the U.S. warfare state into a country of peace and human reconciliation, just as these four men radically underwent deep transformations in the last year of their brief lives.

Four Died Trying, directed by John Kirby, the wonderful filmmaker who made The American Ruling Class with and about Lewis Lapham, and produced by Libby Handros, his partner in exposing the criminals that run the country, has just begun streaming.

As I watched the first twenty minutes of this opening episode, I was inwardly screaming, feeling deep in my soul how powerfully the film was capturing the essence of the dynamic, prophetic, and charismatic voices of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK, Jr., and RFK.  All shot down – we hear the gun shots – by deep state forces, even as the film artfully juxtaposes this brutality against video clips of new reports, images of advertisements for silly products, and television shows that kept most of the public entertained and distracted during the 1960s carnage.  Doing the Hokey Pokey, as the soundtrack plays it, but not turning around in a profound sense, as did the four who died trying to radically change the country and the world for the better.  Simply as film art, this documentary is ingenious.  And its use of music is great.

I was transported back to the time of my youth.  I was startled again by the powerful courage, passion, and eloquent intelligence of those four compelling voices that once lifted my spirits to the heavens, and I felt the despair as well as each assassination followed the other and my spirits sank.  It is not nostalgic, I am sure, to say that one is hard pressed to find those qualities in many leaders today.  Like others of my generation, I am still trying to grasp the depths of what their assassinations did to me.  Bob Dylan, who came to prominence in the midst of it all, referring ironically to his own life and work, has said that his first girlfriend was named Echo.  I think I know her, for she echoed down the canyons of my mind as I watched this prologue and continues as I now reflect upon it.

So it does get hard to be objective, if that is what you want.  I don’t.  This not-to-be-missed film is truthful, for it uses vintage footage of what these men said and what was said against them by a government/media intent of distorting their messages and their assassinations.  Listen and then research if you have any doubts.  See if the film is truthful or manipulative,  As one who has deeply studied these matters, I can attest to the former.

And I can tell you that if you are young and never knew about these four guys and what men they were – not in any macho sense, but as true lovers of human beings, men with chests, as C.S. Lewis described those who were true and brave and undaunted by the then current vibes that sucked the soul out of you, not pseudo-men in the “pumping iron” sense, not men who tried to appeal to your grossest stereotypes – you are in for a great surprise.  You will yearn to see them resurrected in others today.  In yourselves.  As Malcolm X said hopefully, “The dead are arising.”

This 58 minute prologue touches on many of themes that will follow in the months ahead.   Season One will be divided into chapters that cover the four assassinations together with background material covering “the world as it was” in the 1950s with its Cold War propaganda, McCarthyism, the rise of the military-industrial complex, the CIA, red-baiting, and the ever present fear of nuclear war.  Season Two will be devoted to the government and media coverups, citizen investigations, and the intelligence agencies’ and their media mouthpieces’ mind control operations aimed at the American people that continue today.

One important aspect of this documentary series – never before done in film – is the way it shows the linkages between these four great leaders.  Beside their own words, we hear from their families and associates throughout.  Based on over 120 interviews conducted over many years, we hear from the four men’s children, Vince Salandria, James W. Douglass, Mort Sahl, Harry Belafonte, Khaleed Sayyed,  Earl Caldwell, Clarence Jones, James Galbraith, John Hunt, Stephen Schlesinger, Andrew Young, Oliver Stone, David Talbot, Adam Walinsky, et al.  It is an amazing list of thoughtful commentators who tell the story for the dead men whose living tongues have been silenced, although we are privileged for their fatidic cinematic ghosts to speak to us through archival footage.

In this opening Prologue, I was especially impressed with the words of Vince Salandria, one of the earliest critics of the Warren Commission’s absurd claims, and Adam Walinsky, a former aide and speechwriter for RFK, who made it clear that we are free, no matter what the propagandists tell us.  That freedom to think and act, to make connections between then and now, to see the linkages between the four men’s messages and today, is crucial to carry on their legacy.  That message ends the Prologue.  It is a message of hope in a dark time.

This opening prologue is divided into four parts, each devoted to what each man tried to accomplish.  That is followed by a section on how they died and the ways it was buried, ending with an Epilogue on why they died and why it matters today.

All four died fighting the international power structure, the CIA and FBI, the military-industrial complex, the racist ideology central to the capitalist elites’ economic injustice and warfare state – those deep structures of power that have come to be called the deep state.  They were brothers in arms, their only weapons being their linked arms in a spiritual war against evil forces.  They were men of compassionate conscience, warriors for peace and justice for all.  That is why they were killed.

Four Died Trying is a profound documentary.  It is good that each episode will be a stand-alone short film – that gives the viewer time to absorb its lessons rather than binging on too much too soon.  Once you watch this prologue, with its overview of all to come, you will be hooked.  It is not just revelatory history, but is artistically made, and, dare I say, entertaining.  Kirby and Handros are astute to realize that young people demand more than lectures, and it is to the next generations that these voices must be addressed.  For although the times have changed, in so many ways we are today faced with all the same problems.  The deep wounds of the 1960s were never given careful treatment; they are now suppurating and the infection is spreading.

Then and now.  There is a powerful clip in the film of Senator Robert Kennedy giving a speech in Chicago when he has decided to enter the race for the presidency right after the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, a massive breakout surprise to U.S. authorities who thought they could contain and defeat the Vietnamese struggle for independence; that they had them trapped.  Kennedy has decided to enter the race for President and realizes that supporting a corrupt South Vietnamese government and their ruthless policies aimed at exterminating the Vietcong and North Vietnamese is morally wrong and runs counter to American attestations of the belief in democracy and justice for all.  He says about such an impossible military victory:

"…and that the effort to win such a victory will only result in the further slaughter of thousands of innocent and helpless people—a slaughter which will forever rest on all our consciences and the national conscience of the country."

His was a powerful moral voice.  Who is standing with the innocent and helpless people today?  And who is standing with the killers?  As Martin Luther King, Jr., put it, “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”  And procrastination is still the thief of time and conscience whispers those pathetic words: Too Late.

Don’t miss Four Died Trying.  I am sure it will affect you deeply and force you to think twice over about what is going on today.

Yes, then and now.  To slightly alter the song, As Time Goes By:

It’s still the same old story.

A fight for love and glory.

A case of do and die.

The world will always welcome lovers

As time goes by.

Four Died Trying is available for rental and purchase on Amazon and several other platforms, listed on the official website: https://www.fourdiedtrying.com/

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Edward Curtin is an independent writer whose work has appeared widely over many years. His website is edwardcurtin.com and his new book is Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies.

Film Review: FOUR DIED TRYING (Prologue episode)

The Revolutionary, Truncated Lives of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK, and RFK

By Mike Jackman, Special to The Kennedy Beacon

https://substack.com/@michaeljackman

“What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek?”

These immortal words were spoken by President John F. Kennedy on June 10, 1963, during commencement at American University, in what has since become known as the Peace Speech. The America of 1963 had been embroiled in the Cold War since the late 1940s and had approached the edge of nuclear oblivion the previous year during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The possibility of the obliteration of tens of millions of lives weighed heavily on the young president.

In his prologue episode, which begins streaming November 22 on Apple TV, director John Kirby sets the stage for the new documentary series Four Died Trying by highlighting these dangerous events, before focusing on each of the four revolutionary leaders whose brinkmanship and efforts for peace and justice would lead to their murders. [In full transparency, the Executive Producer of the documentary series, Mark Gorton, is also co-chair of American Values 2024, the super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president. The PAC funds The Kennedy Beacon.]

Following a clip from JFK’s Peace Speech speech, Kirby cuts to Malcolm X’s words about the nature of power, and Martin Luther King Jr. preaching about the American bombs being dropped in Vietnam, which reverberated back home in the United States. The opening salvo finishes with Senator Robert F. Kennedy talking about how the government ignores the needs of Americans who are suffering, while sending billions to fuel conflict in the name of freedom.

This is a foregrounded theme of the series: There is always money for war but not to combat poverty. Six decades later, with our nation facing more than $30 trillion in debt, a mental health crisis, and overall decline, these sentiments and themes are more relevant than ever. The US continues to fund wars and send weapons all over the world, including to Ukraine and Israel. For a time, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, there was perhaps a hope that we had learned lessons from the 1960s. Even after 9/11, there were strong calls for peace, but violence and tensions continue to build globally, and few of those in power today are credibly trying to oppose war. As Mark Twain is said to have remarked, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

Through a medley of dozens of fresh interviews conducted over seven years, eye-catching animation, and news footage, Four Died Trying brings viewers into the dark underbelly of American politics and shows how the levers of power were used to manipulate public opinion.

A family gathered around their television in November 1963, for example, watches as the accused assassin in Dallas, Lee Harvey Oswald, is gunned down by Jack Ruby during a live broadcast. The media assured the nation that these events were the work of deranged and unconnected loners, just as they would claim after the assassinations that soon followed, and as they continue to insist. Ever since these pivotal and shocking assassinations, Americans’ trust in the media and our institutions has steadily eroded. Yet there has also been, to this day, a chilling effect on anyone in power who questions our never-ending warfare or seeks to end it.

Viewers hear from over 120 witnesses and commentators, including the children of MLK, RFK, and Malcolm X and JFK’s associates and relatives. These figures bring particular insights that you won’t often see on cable news or in many “mainstream” accounts of the events. The views espoused by the four leaders’ families and associates are actually more sober, tempered, and thoughtful than the cartoonish and nonsensical takes that have been forced upon us all these years. They ask the real questions and make the real points. We hear, for example, from current independent presidential contender RFK Jr. and from St. John Hunt, the son of the late CIA man E. Howard Hunt, who confessed on his deathbed to involvement in the plot to assassinate President Kennedy, claiming to be a “benchwarmer for the big event.” It’s important and fascinating to hear these firsthand perspectives from speakers whose lives were directly touched by this history.

Four Died Trying should be shown in high school history and civics classes. This is the history lesson we must teach our descendants, if we are to ever have a more informed citizenry with the ability to analyze these and other major events critically. If we cannot face our own dark history as a nation, how can we heal from the wounds it has inflicted, and move on to shape a better tomorrow?

With convincing precision and effective pacing, the prologue to Four Died Trying lays out what happened to these young leaders but also asks “What are we going to do now?” By the end of the prologue episode, viewers have been given key pieces of the puzzle and a grounding in the evidence. This is the beginning of a series that feels final and definitive. We may be nearing the end of the road, like all empires. Will we face up to our past and correct course before it’s too late? That is the real question. If there’s one film series you stream to mark and discuss the 60th year since President Kennedy was murdered, it should be this one.

A guest post by

Mike Jackman

Co-host and founder of Jackman Radio. Jackman is a podcaster, writer, comedian and musician from New Hampshire.