Szulc's notes of the meeting state:
JFK then said he was testing me, that he felt the same way -
he added "I'm glad you feel the same way" - because indeed
the U. S. morally must not be part (sic) to assassinations.
The Church Committee also heard testimony from Smathers who
stated that once when it was brought up in his presence
(presumably by the CIA friendly Smathers), Kennedy got so mad he
smashed a dinner plate and told him he did want to hear of such
things again (Alleged Assassination Plots p. 124). Smathers
furthered this portrait later when he stated that:
President Kennedy seemed "horrified" at the idea of
political assassination. "I remember him saying. . .that the
CIA frequently did things he didn't know about, and he was
unhappy about it. He complained that the CIA was almost
autonomous. He told me he believed the CIA had arranged to
have Diem and Trujillo bumped off. He was pretty well
shocked about that. He thought it was a stupid thing to do,
and he wanted to get control of what the CIA was doing."
(The Assassinations: Dallas and Beyond pp. 379-380)
Such statements not only absolve Kennedy, they actually provide a
motive for the CIA to get rid of him, which is probably why the
media ignored them.
The fact that Kennedy had clean hands was a bitter pill to
swallow. The establishment organized a furious counterattack.
Frank Church was accused of being a partisan. The Democrats were
charged with "protecting" the Kennedys. There was an exchange of
letters in the press between David Eisenhower and one of Bobby
Kennedy's sons over the issue. Finally, a solution appeared. Her
name was Judith Campbell Exner.
All of t