Michael Billington never published the FOIA document that he referred to in his book. He only stated that his leader had been subject to “removal from the national scene.” Yet, for most of 1973, LaRouche was in seclusion. Why would the FBI want to remove somebody who was not on the national scene at that time?

The declassified internal memo has taken on a hallowed status within the LaRouche organization. They refer to it often as stone cold proof that the US federal government, teeming with Communist agents, wanted to do away with LaRouche, not in any metaphoric sense, but in a literal one. In a February 15, 2000 Executive Intelligencer Review article, Lyndon wrote:

Typical of the evidence on the public record, is an official Nov. 23, 1973 document, an official record of both the New York City office of the FBI and also the higher authorities in the FBI's Washington, D.C. headquarters, stating, that the FBI was orchestrating its assets in the leadership of the Communist Party U.S.A., to bring about my personal 'elimination.' That FBI document, first released in full in January 1992, coincides with evidence of an ongoing operation which my associates and I had published in March 1973, and of an "elimination" operation, targetting me personally, which we exposed publicly during January 1974. Although those government-related secret operations of 1973 against me are officially dated by that evidence to November 1973, the admissions contained within the document referencing my prospective elimination,' show the true flavor of the operations conducted by the FBI and others, internationally, during the earlier months that same year, and for several more years thereafter.

But here’s the actual memo that both Billington and LaRouche cite.

Figure 1. FBI Memo dated 11/23/1973; re: Lyndon LaRouche and the CPUSA



As one can easily tell, there is no such indication of a joint CPUSA/FBI effort to murder him, or do him any harm. Instead, the memo clearly indicates that the FBI and CPUSA are operating on different, if not conflicting, agendas. The wording makes it seem as though the FBI’s concern is for the safety of LarRouche, and not a plot for his demise. And since this is in the FBI’s words, not the CPUSA’s, we have to take a look at what the word “elimination” means. In context, it indicates that the CPUSA simply wanted to shut LaRouche out of any influence within the party, and protect the party from a takeover by his faction. That the FBI wanted to secretly aid the Communists, in order to provoke them, should come as no surprise. After all, who doesn't like a good catfight every now and then?

LaRouche’s decision to whimper away for a year could have presented ample opportunity for brainwashing, as would his two-year hiatus from the SWP between 1965 and 1967. Perhaps it was LaRouche who fell under some undue influence. After all, there was adequate opportunity to apply any number of MK-ULTRA techniques. His conversion to fascistic ideals came about during a time-frame of a year. His blanket accusations about the dire influence of the Tavistock Institute on others start to read like psychological projections.

Doth the gentleman protest too much?