SOUND FAMILIAR?

Several years ago I was at a private home in Bermuda. The host introduced me to his neighbor, an older British fellow, who had been drinking more than a little. This guy started telling me some tall tales that seemed absurd. He said he was the head of British Intelligence in World War II. By far, his most interesting story was about Joseph Kennedy, Ambassador to the Court of St. James. This guy said that British Intelligence proved that Joseph Kennedy sought, without Roosevelt’s approval, to negotiate personally with Hitler. He said he was so outraged he flew to the United States and demanded an audience with FDR where he confronted him with the evidence. He said FDR recalled Kennedy and promptly fired him.

I asked my host about this and he said that “Bill” sometimes exaggerated things a little when he had been drinking. I discounted all of this until January 1989, many years later. I was in a hotel in New York when I saw a headline saying Sir William Samuel Stephenson, the man called Intrepid, died at his home in Hamilton, Bermuda. That was the first time I realized this old guy actually was the head of British Intelligence in World War II and almost every tall tale he told me ended up being true.

Yes, Joseph Kennedy was Ambassador to St. James; yes he was recalled and fired by FDR. After a meeting in the Oval Office, Kennedy congratulated the President on his successful re-election. Roosevelt accepted the resignation and they stood there smiling. But as soon as Kennedy left the White House, FDR reportedly told the Secret Service: “Never let that son of a bitch in here again.”

I do not know why Nikki Haley suddenly resigned as Ambassador to the UN, I just know she did. There have been rumors of high-level officials in the U.S. Government openly resisting Trump. There was a story about this in the New York Times. Was the Trump White House looking for disloyal members of his cabinet?  We don’t know. We may never know. What we do know is that Nikki Haley was definitely a never-Trumper in 2016; we know she was Ambassador to the UN, we know she resigned and it appeared to catch everyone by surprise. She smiled and supported Donald Trump. Sound familiar?

TDM