History bookshelf with the bestknown American History writers. The presidency, looking at the policies and legacies of our nations commanders in chief. Lectures in history with top college professors. And our new series reelameri filmsaturing educational from the 1930s through the 1970s. Tv and3 created by cable funded by your local cable or satellite provider. Watch us in hd, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter. On september 24, 9064, chief justice earl war and handed a report of the president s commission on the assassination of president kennedy to president Lyndon Johnson in the oval office. The seven commissioners pictured here with president johnson and general counsel rankin concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing president kennedy. The Warren Commission work for nine months in this billing, the Washington Office of the vfw. A short walk from the Supreme Court and the u. S. Capitol. A fourth a camera and Floor Conference Room to talk to investigative journalist Philip Shenon whose book the secret history of the kennedy assassination examines the worn keyissions work using phone calls, documents, and rtifacts. First, we take a brief tour of the former worn commission offices. Commission offices. High, i am brian summers. Building of the veterans of foreign wars washington, d. C. , at 200 maryland avenue. The commission met for nine months. Where so ketchum hall, much of the testimony from witnesses and those met here in this historic building. It was in this room here on this ther of our ketch um that warren report saw the entire zip router zapruder film. Brother wasswalds here. Marina oswald was here in february. We have photographs to substantiate that in the. Building much of the work was done on the fourth floor, which we will see in a moment which houses the u. S. Capitol historical society. Fourth floor the of the u. S. Capitol historical society, where in 1964, this would have been the working ommission. The warren reporc i am going to show the office of chief justice earl warren. This would have been his death and his chair. His desk and his chair. Youre pretty sure this was his chair . Guest absolutely. We have a lot of information on it. From the vfw itself, and proof this was it. We are less than 150 feet from the Supreme Court where he worked every day and then came here in the after hours to see how the investigation was going on. Window, glance out the you can see the proximity. This being the office of chief Justice Warren, this was the Conference Room table that existed in his area of the office at that time. Just next door to chief justice Warrens Office was the office of occupied staff. Arlen specter pointed out this was the office that he and asther associate worked in they were investigating the death of the president in 1964. So now we are entering the Conference Room of what at that time would have been the worn commission. The Warren Commission. The building we inherited from the veterans of foreign wars. And we inherited the furniture from the 1960s. I think this room was used for individual witness interviews, smaller scale interviews. The less critical witnesses. If there was a very important witness and several of the commissioners were in attendance, i understand it was hell downstairs and the larger Conference Room. But a tremendous amount of business was transacted in this room. I wrote this book because my first book was a history of the 9 11 commission. Covered the 9 11 Commission Investigation for the New York Times from start to finish. Ent out of business, i discovered there was a lot about the story i had missed. I learned this by going and interviewing a lot of the staffers who had done the actual commission. He 9 11 so that book was published in 2008. After the book got some nice reviews, i got a telephone call in the Washington Bureau of the New York Times, the caller was a prominent American Lawyer who explained he had begun his own career about 50 years earlier on the staff of the other Great Commission to investigate a National Tragedy which was the Warren Commission. He suggested i do a similar history of the Warren Commission. He promised to help so long as i kept his name out of this, because he knew i would discover some embarrassing material that he did not want to be associated with, and he was right about that. But off i went. I thought, had an interesting project that might take me a couple of years to do. It turned out to take five years, because it turned out to be such a complicated morass of missing evidence, covered up evidence, so much of the story of the kennedy assassination really have just never been told. Were going to look at some artifacts. The first thing we have here is, well, there is a picture of the Warren Commission. This is the oval office september, 1964, or six that we 50 years ago in wich earl warren isarl heading the final report to president johnson. Perhaps we had better point out the other commissioners. The former president of the world bank. Rankin, theis general counsel of the Warren Commission who ran the staff. He was the solicitor general in the eisenhower administration. Next to him is senator Richard Russell who would sign the Warren Commission report even though it became clear in the years after the commission went out of business, russell did not agree. He thought there might well have been a conspiracy in kennedys death. Next to him, is gerald ford who would go on to become president , who was at the time a powerful house republican. He would it would later be learned that ford had volunteered to be a secret informant for the fbi on the Warren Commission to share information with the fbi quietly. Ford would it knowledge that years later. Next to him, chief Justice Warren, president johnson. Next to johnson is allen douglas, the director of Central Intelligence for many years who would be forced out of that job by the debacle of the bay of pigs. It appears that dulles had a terrible conflict of interest by serving on the Warren Commission. Among other things, it appears dulles knew about the cia plots to kill fidel castro. He may have ordered some of those. He shared none of that information with the Warren Commission, even though that information might have given, suggested paths of investigation the commission should have followed. Next in him is john sherman cooper, a senator from kentucky, republican, moderate republican. Is congress and hale boggs of louisiana who was prominent in the democratic leadership of the house. And was very close to john kennedy. We are 50 years later. How should we mark that day . Mixedshould mark it with feelings. Ily, this report which was hailed as the definitive answer to many of the questions asked about the kennedy assassination appears not to have been that. It is remarkable to discover who receivedident the report that day, Lyndon Johnson, ultimately decided the Warren Commission had it wrong. At the end of his life, Lyndon Johnson believed that fidel castro had killed president kennedy. And that the Warren Commission had somehow been misled. Remarkable thing to discover that the president of the United States who commissioned the Warren Commission did not believe the findings. President johnson is thrust into power by the assassination. His initial instinct is not to have a federal investigation of the assassination. As it turns out, a president ial assassination in 1963 was not a federal crime. If there was going to be a trial, it would have to be arranged by local and state officials in texas. Johnson did not want say the said he did not want carept petbaggers to run the investigation. He wanted it held by the officials in dallas. Within days of the assassination, conspiracy theories started to spin. Some of them focused on Lyndon Johnson as a suspect in the murder. Johnson said essentially, these conspiracy theories are spinning Commission Based in washington to investigate all that could be learned about the assassination and about this man Lee Harvey Oswald who was apparently the assassin. And johnson settles on chief arren, as thew only man who can run this. Warren was a controversial figure in 1963. But he was also much admired for his independence and his personal integrity. He was a republican. And johnson wanted a republican to run this investigation to show that it was truly bipartisan and truly an effort to get at the facts, whatever they might be. Johnson also decides that he wants representatives from the house and the senate. He wants ades that essentially as his own representative on the Commission One of his best friends in the world, senator Richard Russell. Probably the most powerful man in the senate in 1963. Chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee. And a fierce segregationist. A man who, if you load anybody in washington, d. C. , loathed earl warren who was leading the Supreme Court on civil rights and Civil Liberties rulings that felt have the potential to destroy the southern way of life. And would bring desegregation to the south and destroy his homeland. Friday,fternoon of november 29, exactly a week after the assassination, russell is called by president johnson and asked if he will serve on this commission. It is not referred to as the Warren Commission. Has not been announced that the chief justice will leave it. Will lead it. Declines, claims he is suffering from emphysema. Johnson listens to him. Hangs up the phone. And decides that even though russell does not want to serve, he will serve. And johnson then has the white aouse press office issue statement to the press corps announcing the commission has been formed and that Richard Russell is on its even if he does not want to be. [taped] to bother you again, but i want you to know i have made an announcement. Of the special commission. You have . Yes. May i read it . Yes. Isthe president announced he appointing a special commission to study and report on all of the facts and circumstances relating to the assassination of the late president john f. Kennedy and subsequent violent death of the man charged with the assassination. That thedent says minority and the majority leadership of the house and the senate have been consulted. The members a special of special commission are chief justice earl warren, senator Richard Russell, presente representative hale boggs, representative gerald ford. The president stated that the special commission is being constructed to did i wait all available information concerning the subject and inquiry. The federal bureau of investigation is making complete investigation of the facts. Russell was justifiably fare flabbergasted. Russell had told johnson he did not want to serve on this commission, he could not serve. Mr. President , i just cant serve on that commission. It must have been a nightmare situation. But he salutes and accepts the assignment over a final protests with the president. Ofnson used similar set strongarm tactics on the chief justice. Warren as thes on only man who can run this investigation. When warren gets the invitation, he turns it down flat. He says there is a terrible history of Supreme Court justices serving an outside investigation. He does not have the time. He thinks the commission is a fine idea but it should not be led by him. When johnson gets word that warren has turned down the invitation, warren is summoned within hours to the oval office. And unfortunately, we, to the best of our knowledge, there is no recording, but apparently the president tells warren in no Uncertain Terms that the assassination may lead to a nuclear war that would kill 40 million americans. It mayt if that happens, be the responsibility of the chief justice unless he serves on this commission. An apparently this confrontationd leaves the chief justice in tears but agreeing to run the investigation. This is an artifact that the National Archives allowed us to videotape. Oswalds guide map to mexico city. What is that . To my mind, there is what in many ways is the untold chapter of the kennedy assassination story, which is what happened when Lee Harvey Oswald traveled to mexico city just several weeks before the assassination . I got to admit that when i went into the reporting on this book, i did not know anything about this incident in mexico city. This trip. But it may be very important. Its very clear to me that both the cia and the fbi were determined not to to draw what happened in mexico city, because it mightve revealed just how much they had really known about oswald in the the weeks before the assassination and the threat he might post to president kennedy. It turns out that oswald went to mexico city apparently to get and paperwork that would allow him to defect to cuba. Much as he had once tried to defect to the soviet union. City, while he is under surveillance by the cia in mexico city, he is meeting with cuban spies and russians and several mexicans who are very sympathetic to fidel castro. People who at the height of the cold war might have had some reason to want to see president kennedy dead. And the identity of those people, what oswald told them, and what they told oswald, would never be determined with certainty because the fbi and the cia simply did not try to get to the bottom of it. This is what is in the arren report. This is the Warren Commission s best reconstruction of where oswald went and who he might have met within mexico. We now know that it meant his amount of information about oswalds trip to mexico was never shared with the Warren Commission. So this is a very incomplete chronology of what went on. With tellingbegins the story of a suicide of Charles Thomas that relates to mexico city. Why did you start with that . It is a remarkable story. Year after the Warren Commission goes out of business, a diplomat, an american diplomat based in mexico city learns to his shock that oswald may have been seen around town, mexico city, in the company of cubans and mexicans who were sympathetic to castro, people who might have wanted to see president kennedy dead. Haveho oswald may well been in the company of two young beatnick americans, people whose identities have not been revealed. Finehomas, apparently very man, a very fine diplomat, much respected by his colleagues, thought somebody needed to investigate and go back and see if the Warren Commission had got it wrong and if there was some sort of conspiracy to kill the president and if that conspiracy was hatched in mexico city. And what the story of Charles Thomas becomes is one of utter frustration. Nobody wants to investigate. Nobody wants to get to the bottom of this. He keeps asking the question again and again and again. For reasons that are very mysterious at the time, thomas finds his career derailed. Offinds himself forced out the state department for what were later described as mistakes of a colorful nature. A clerical nature. There is some reason to believe that he was asking too many questions about what the cia and the fbi knew about oswald. It appears that after he is forced out of this, the state department, he is then denied any sort of opportunity to begin a new career because he just cannot get the references from the state department and the rest of the government. End of his life, he does write a letter to the secretary of state william nixon, of then president asking, pleading that somebody again try to get to the bottom of what happened in mexico city. There is no subsequent investigation. Thomas, unable to find a new career, tragically killed himself. Two years later. What did the Warren Commission dod in mexico city city . In mexico the investigation of mexico city was left largely to two lawyers on the committee. One by the name of william coleman, one of the most prominent africanamerican attorneys and hi junior staff ver young who was a lawyery, in his early 30s from denver. Coleman was preoccupied with his work at Philadelphia Law Firm and was not very much involved with the daytoday work of the commission. His junior did almost all of the work. He was intrigued by what happened in mexico city and wanted desperately to get to the bottom of what happened down there. Isortunate, what we now know that a tremendous amount of information of what went on in mexico city was never shared with him, never shared