All Poems
by
David Martin
American Turning Point
If you want to subvert a government,
And from experience you are quite skilled,
You know you must weaken the leadership,
And a Forrestal has to be killed.
James V., R.I.P.
What could we have been thinking?
What did we have in mind
When we sanctioned the aggression
We see in Palestine?
A strong man stood against it,
Although in stature small,
He casts a lengthy shadow.
His name was Forrestal.
He could have been a beacon.
He had a lot to give,
But those who favor darkness
Declined to let him live.
Soviet Style Shrinkery
"So you oppose the regime?
There's something the matter with you.
You must be out of your mind.
It's so abnormal to do.
"We'll pack you off to a ward
And give you a room with a view."
That was the Forrestal treatment,
And Hemingway got it, too.
Silence Deciphered
James Forrestal was murdered,
And that's the truth to tell.
So why will no one touch it?
I've made the case too well.
Secret Forrestal Investigation
Did James V. Forrestal murder himself,
Or was he assassinated?
To examine the Navy’s official report
For 54 years we had waited.
Is there official skulduggery here?
I’ll let you readers decide,
But usually when someone keeps something hidden,
It’s because he has something to hide.
The Controversy of Zion
My Forrestal revelations
Very few of our scholars did heed.
It’s only to be expected:
Look what happened to Douglas Reed.
Academic Ostriches
Bring up the death of James Forrestal;
Historians run and hide.
They’d like to believe that Count Bernadotte
Was a victim of suicide.
Drop the Subject
Was James Forrestal thrown from that window?
Was he murdered for reasons of state?
Well, didn’t Frank Olson of the CIA
Encounter a similar fate?
Historic Assassination
While searching the national attic
I found something that’s quite chilling.
It seems that James V. Forrestal
Was a victim of targeted killing.
Forrestal to Lovett
He said, “They’re really after me,”
But we should not infer
That Forrestal was crazy,
Because, in fact, they were.
Like Bevin and Count Bernadotte,
He stood athwart their path,
And he thereby incited
Their homicidal wrath.
So, from on high they dropped him.
Down thirteen floors he fell,
And our Mid East policy
Descended into hell.
Moment of Revelation
It’s something I hate to admit,
But I am still waiting for it:
Someone takes a long look
At my Forrestal book
And can’t help but exclaim, “Holy ****!”
The Case for Free Inquiry
You say they gassed six million Jews.
I ask you how you know.
You say it's from historians;
They agree that it is so.
But what about the Forrestal death?
They agree on that one, too.
And until I checked it for myself,
I only thought I knew.
Forrestal's Resting Place in History
He was brought before his time
Now at last the truth is known:
It wasn’t from suicide.
Homage to Forrestal
James Forrestal was a man
Who served this country well.
He wisely sounded warnings
When he saw us bound for hell.
He tried to bring an early end
To the Pacific War.
So the Soviets could not get land
That they’d done nothing for.
But in the end they threw him
In the loony bin.
He had crossed a fatal line
When he took on Palestine.
What happened next you might recall.
He had a 13-story fall
Caused by his mortal sin.