Umbrella Man: Suspicious

[Richard Smith]

Thank you...so you too think it's what the assassins thought is what is relevant.....

No.

[Jerry Freeman]

The umbrella became a "lightening-rod for critics of appeasement" and "morphed from useful trademark into an embarrassing symbol of political weakness and pusillanimity."

The majority of Dallas County back then was Republican. There were John Birch Society guys Minute Men..Klan...what have you... Guys with hand bills that said Wanted for Treason with Kennedy's picture all over town that day.
With this so called "lightning rod" stuff being portrayed...there then should have been hundreds or even thousands of umbrellas along the parade right?

[Richard Smith]

The majority of Dallas County back then was Republican. There were John Birch Society guys Minute Men..Klan...what have you... Guys with hand bills that said Wanted for Treason with Kennedy's picture all over town that day.
With this so called "lightning rod" stuff being portrayed...there then should have been hundreds or even thousands of umbrellas along the parade right?

False premise. Texas and most of the South in the 1960s were governed by Democrats.  JFK won Texas in 1960.  Of course, LBJ and John Connally were Dems.  It was the handful of Southern Dems who held up Civil Rights legislation fot almost 100 years.

[Paul J Cummings]

False premise. Texas and most of the South in the 1960s were governed by Democrats.  JFK won Texas in 1960.  Of course, LBJ and John Connally were Dems.  It was the handful of Southern Dems who held up Civil Rights legislation fot almost 100 years.

50.5 -48.5 was the tally for JFK in 1960. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for JFK with a VP from Texas winning by 2 points.

[Dan O'meara]

The majority of Dallas County back then was Republican. There were John Birch Society guys Minute Men..Klan...what have you... Guys with hand bills that said Wanted for Treason with Kennedy's picture all over town that day.
With this so called "lightning rod" stuff being portrayed...there then should have been hundreds or even thousands of umbrellas along the parade right?

This is actually a really good point.
There's a lot of faces in the crowd who don't seem particularly happy to see JFK. If the umbrella thing was so well known why was there only the one.
And why is it that the only man with an umbrella is fabricating his HSCA testimony? If that doesn't make the Umbrella Man suspicious I don't know what does.

[Dan O'meara]

False premise. Texas and most of the South in the 1960s were governed by Democrats.  JFK won Texas in 1960.  Of course, LBJ and John Connally were Dems.  It was the handful of Southern Dems who held up Civil Rights legislation fot almost 100 years.

The idea that the "City of Hate" didn't have it's fair share of rabid Republicans is a non-starter.

[Jerry Freeman]

False premise. Texas and most of the South in the 1960s were governed by Democrats.  JFK won Texas in 1960.  Of course, LBJ and John Connally were Dems.  It was the handful of Southern Dems who held up Civil Rights legislation fot almost 100 years.

If my premise.....

The majority of Dallas County back then was Republican.

is false then how come I can prove what I had claimed? I am well aware that JFK won in Texas so why all your gaslighting?
 
Wiki shows 1960 election by Texas county...see the big red one in the northeast? = Dallas County....Nixon was over 62% just like I reported.
Time to learn how to absorb the facts. 
 Source------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_United_States_presidential_election_in_Texas

[Steve M. Galbraith]

This is actually a really good point.
There's a lot of faces in the crowd who don't seem particularly happy to see JFK. If the umbrella thing was so well known why was there only the one.
And why is it that the only man with an umbrella is fabricating his HSCA testimony? If that doesn't make the Umbrella Man suspicious I don't know what does.

But nobody here, not me in particular, said that it was a well known symbol of appeasement in Dallas (or anywhere in the US) at that time. So it's not surprising that only one person used it that way. My posts were in response to the original poster, Michael Griffith, and his claim that it was "absurd" that anyone would use the umbrella as a symbol for anything in protest (as Witt claimed). He said he never heard of its usage for such things.

But the links I provided show the origins of this symbol and how it came to be seen as a sign of appeasement in the UK in particular or weakness politically. In another link there was a story about some German students sending JFK umbrellas as criticism for his lack of response when the Soviets constructed the Berlin Wall.

There was nothing in the links about how popular the idea was and/or whether the Birchers/Klansman in Dallas (or elsewhere) knew that it could be used to heckle JFK because of his father's support for the appeasement policies of Chamberlain. Some people knew about it; but most probably didn't.

Apparently Witt knew something about its symbolism. As he testified:

Mr. GENZMAN. Why were you carrying an umbrella that day?
Mr. WITT. Actually, I was going to use this umbrella to heckle the President's motorcade.
Mr. GENZMAN, How had you gotten this idea?
Mr. WITT. In a coffee break conversation someone had mentioned that the umbrella was a sore spot with the Kennedy family. Being a conservative-type fellow, I sort of placed him in the liberal camp and I was just going to kind of do a little heckling.

We have Witt himself says he vaguely knew about the symbolism and how it was a "sore spot" with the Kennedys. So he decided to just heckle him with it. We have one person doing an odd thing. And LBJ knew about the symbolism too when in the campaign he directed a criticism at Kennedy Sr.

Y'know, not everything has to be jammed into the conspiracy against JFK? Sometimes a guy scratching his nose in a photo in Dealey Plaza is not a signal, it's just a guy with an itchy nose?