The Fletcher Prouty Commentary

The Fletcher Prouty Commentary - Nov.
THE ASSASSINATION OF ALFRED HERRHAUSEN

by Col. L. Fletcher Prouty

On November 30, 1989 Alfred Herrhausen, then Chairman of the Deutsche Bank, West Germany's largest bank, was assassinated on the streets of Frankfurt.

The murder was noted in the newspapers around the world, and then totally dropped. On that day, he had with him a copy of a speech he had been invited to give at the Third Annual Arthur F. Burns Memorial lecture at the American Council on Germany in New York City on December 4th, 1989... within the week of his murder. In this speech he planned to eulogize his old friend Arthur Burns. Arthur Burns, you will recall, had been a long-time Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. He had been Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany. Burns had been born in a part of Eastern Europe that belonged to Austria, at the time, and that is now part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Arthur Burns was a lecturer and advisor at the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin when I was attending that Graduate School.

It is absolutely astounding that the subject of the savage murder of this man...Alfred Herrhausen...has been dropped so suddenly from the news. The Deutsche Bank of Germany is undoubtedly one of the most important banks in the world, and its Chairman Herrhausen was one or the most important spokesmen of the banking profession around the world. He would have been a key man in all developments in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

His loss at this time...and the starting nature of his loss are without question... for our day... the equal of the loss of president John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Considering the time... the enormous train of events taking place in the Soviet Union, in Eastern Europe and particularly in East Germany...the murder of Herrhausen is an act of enormous significance. It can not be, and must not be swept under the rug as just "another act of terrorism". True terrorists do not murder Bank presidents without some special reason. Most terrorists are actually the paid pawns, and "mechanics " of great power centers. Some major power center wanted the Chairman of Deutsche bank removed on that day, in that manner for some reason, and as a lesson to others. There has to be a great message in the act of his death.

Do you recall when President Kennedy was murdered? He was on his way to deliver an important speech in Dallas, Texas. On that fateful day, president Kennedy was prepared to say:

"I want to discuss with you today the status of our strength and our security...this nations strength and security are not easily or cheaply obtained nor are they quickly and simply explained. There are many kinds of strength and no one kind will suffice. Overwhelming nuclear strength cannot stop a guerrilla war. Formal pacts of alliance cannot stop internal subversion. Displays of material wealth cannot stop the disillusionment of diplomats subject to discrimination.

But American military might should not and need not stand alone against the ambitions of international communism. Our security and strength, in the last analysis, - directly depend on the security and strength of others, and that is why our military and economic assistance plays such a key role in enabling those who live an the periphery of the Communist world to maintain their independence of choice. "

Those were the words that President Kennedy had planned to say on the day he died. As you read them now you will realize that you can almost apply them with precision to the events of this era. Kennedy was speaking in 1963.., but he was looking ahead.

Only one month earlier President Kennedy had directed the Secretary of Defense to bring 1,000 men home from Vietnam in time for Christmas, and he had promised to have all Americans out of Vietnam before the end of 1965. He, and members of his administration, knew all too well that "nuclear strength cannot stop a guerrilla war," and that outsiders could not do it either. The Vietnamese were going to have to win their own war.

As he had said in an earlier speech:

"There is no single simple policy, which meets this challenge for the independence and equality of all nations. Experience has taught us that no one nation has the power or the wisdom to solve all the problems of the world or manage its revolutionary tides...that extending our commitments does not always increase our security...that any initiative carries with it the risk of temporary defeat... that nuclear weapons cannot prevent subversion...that no free people can be kept free without will and energy of their own... "

I have brought these words from the time of Camelot up today because they are so fresh in our minds. A column in the New York Times of Sunday, February 11, 1990 had this to say:

"The new knowledge of how to release nuclear energy, permanently changed the political life of the world. Indeed, the recent dramatic changes in Eastern Europe arguably followed directly from the stalemate that the fear of nuclear destruction imposed."

Note these two references to the awesome power of Nuclear weapons and the years in which they were made. Kennedy was speaking, 27 years ago, of nuclear weapons and subversive activities. This New York Times column by Richard Rhodes appeared in February, 1990, and spoke of total nuclear destruction. Kennedy was correct. Rhodes cites conventional wisdom and overlooks the real reason for what is happening today in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe.

One of the strangest and most unusual meetings ever to have taken place in Washington was convened by the Nixon Administration, February 7-9, 1972. This meeting of more than 1,500 of the nation's top business leaders, was called:

"The White House Conference on the industrial World Ahead: A Look at business in 1990"

In a summary Discussion that followed this, momentous series of meetings, Roy L. Ash, President, Litton Industries, inc. said:

"...State capitalism may well be a form for world business in the world ahead... the western countries are treading toward a more unified and controlled economy, having a greater effect on business; and that the communist nations are moving more and more toward a free market system. The question posed, on which a number of divergent opinions arose, was whether "East and West would meet some place toward the middle about 1990."

In Summary, another speaker, Mr. Frere, said:

"...Communist countries are experimenting with the concept of a market economy... and, the communist countries are forecasting the influx of heavy capital investments by 1990 by the western states."

NOTE: It is interesting to note that Mr. Jean Frere was, in 1972, Managing Partner, Banque Lambert in Brussels, Belgium. It is an affiliate of this enormous financial institution that declared itself in bankruptcy.

See what these men were saying in 1972, about the state of the Industrial World in 1990. They hit it right on the nose. When major businessmen, especially their lawyers and bankers, hit the target on the nose like that you know they are in control.

As I have said earlier, Mr. Banker... Mr. George Champion, formerly President of City Bank and President of the Economic Development council of New York... said:

"When the American citizen is living in debt...

"When American business is operating in debt...and

"When the American government is in debt... Bankers rule the world."

that message appeared in Forbes magazine.

It was no mistake that these business giants hit their target. This development in 1990 was planned that way. Neither Bush, Reagan, Thatcher, Mitterrand, Kohl, or Gorbachev did it. This is the work of the business world... over two strenuous decades.

Let's recall some of the events tied in with this amazing Conference in February, 1972:

a) The Presiding Chairman was the Secretary of Commerce, Maurice Stans. He resigned as Secretary on February 15, 1972 and became the head of Nixon's re-election campaign.

b) The Evening Program was headed by President Richard Nixon. The first U.S. President ever to resign while in office as a result of the Watergate episode that was an outgrowth of the activities of the Committee to Re-elect the President.

c) On the panel, "Structure of the Free Enterprise System: was Alan Greenspan, presently Chairman of the Federal Reserve System.

d) The Luncheon Address, 2nd day, was given by the Secretary of the Treasury, John B. Connally. He resigned the office of Secretary of June 12, 1972. George Schultz became Secretary.

e) Speaking on "The U.S. Position in World Business and the Economy - 1990", Peter G. Peterson from the White house staff and the man who replaced Stans as Secretary of Commerce.

We must keep all of this in perspective. As far back as 1972 the U.S. Government and the top U.S. businessmen had their sights set on the year 1990 and, as Roy Ash said in a summary of the conference:

"East and West would meet someplace toward the middle about 1990."

Remember, that was during a turbulent February, 1972.

THEN: On May 26, 1972, ...only 3 months later... President Nixon and General Secretary Brezhnev agreed to establish a Joint US-USSR Trade and Economic Council, and a companion organization that joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with its Soviet counterpart.

With these organizations laying the groundwork, arrangements were made for a twenty-year long preparatory program. With regular meetings in Moscow and New York City every 6 months, plus a permanent staff. One year after 1972 there was not one speech on the subject of the energy crisis. Keep the calendar in mind: In early 1973 the White House convened a conference under the auspices of the National Defense Transportation Association, to war business, especially the transportation sector, that the price of petroleum products would rise precipitously before the end of the year. How did they know that? It was planned that way!

That fall, there was an Arab-Israeli war and an "Arab Oil Embargo" was alleged and the price of petroleum products began to rise four-fold. This action increased oil profits by hundreds of billions of dollars per year. In 1979, the "Three Mile Island" episode was exploited to run these prices even higher. Just as the Alaskan Spill did in 1990.

By this time we can see that big money-making projects run in waves: WWII, the Cold War, including Korea and Vietnam, the Petroleum heist, and banks in the 1980s. Now this opening of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe with their enormous markets for civilian goods will be the next wave. A wave of business...not ideology...not politics...not military.

Few people, and no media, go beyond the cover stories. Just one example: at the close of WWII the U.S.A. had spent $155 billion on the development of the Nuclear Age. This $155 billion asset was given to businesses...courtesy of the taxpayer.

After decades of the "Red Threat", "Communism", "The Evil Empire" and all the other horror stories, we are now coming down for an easy landing that was planned back in 1972.

At the same time, we must keep in mind the warning of Leonard Lewin's great novel "The Report From Iron Mountain." "Can the United States government remain dominant and virile without the threat of war, and can the U.S.A. find a way to live and thrive in an era of peace?". We have been getting some strong voices on this subject:

a) One of the first of these was Walter Wriston, formerly Chairman of Citibank with his prophetic, 1986 book, "Risk and Other Four Letter Words". He says that in a world of global finance, global communications and global transport there is no longer any national sovereignty and that the age of one World is here... like it or not.

As if to verify his early work, I have enclosed copies of speeches made by the Chairmen of two major U.S. corporations, under the heading "Panel Discussion Summary: A Look at Business in 1990."

L. Fletcher Prouty