General George S. Patton was a
world hero at the conclusion of World War II. But he had loose lips, and when he
threatened to expose details about flawed strategic decisions that cost the
lives of thousands of American troops, the OSS (precursor to the CIA) silenced
Patton to "save him from himself," claims a new book. It's not simply some
outlandish claim, either: There's hard evidence to back up the claim, including
convincing testimony from the assassin himself.
The assassin was Douglas
Bazata, a highly-decorated military marksman. His own diaries reveal in great
detail how he carefully staged the car crash that nearly killed Patton. The
General was later poisoned in the hospital while attempting to recover from the
car crash injuries, the book explains.
Authored by military historian
Robert Wilcox, the book Target Patton seeks to help clear up the mystery
surrounding General Patton's death. If the theories in the book are correct,
they would provide yet another glaring example of how the "official" version of
U.S. history is a collection of lies and half-truths. America even assassinated
one of its greatest war heroes to maintain those lies, it
seems.
...
General
George S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders
claims new book
George S. Patton, America's
greatest combat general of the Second World War, was assassinated after the
conflict with the connivance of US leaders, according to a new
book.
By Tim Shipman in Washington
21 Dec
2008
'We've got
a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must
save him from himself'. The OSS head General did not trust
Patton
The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of
Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy
chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion
with the Russians that cost American lives.
The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring
mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car
crash in Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying
home.
But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox
claims that OSS head General "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated
marksman called Douglas Bazata to silence Patton, who gloried in the nickname
"Old Blood and Guts".
His book, "Target Patton", contains interviews with Mr Bazata, who died in
1999, and extracts from his diaries, detailing how he staged the car crash by
getting a troop truck to plough into Patton's Cadillac and then shot the general
with a low-velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers
escaped without a scratch.
Mr Bazata also suggested that when Patton began to recover from his injuries,
US officials turned a blind eye as agents of the NKVD, the forerunner of the
KGB, poisoned the general.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph that when he spoke to Mr Bazata:
"He was struggling with himself, all these killings he had done. He confessed to
me that he had caused the accident, that he was ordered to do so by Wild Bill
Donovan.
"Donovan told him: 'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot,
he's out of control and we must save him from himself and from ruining
everything the allies have done.' I believe Douglas Bazata. He's a sterling
guy."
Mr Bazata led an extraordinary life. He was a member of the Jedburghs, the
elite unit who parachuted into France to help organise the Resistance in the run
up to D-Day in 1944. He earned four purple hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross
and the French Croix de Guerre three times over for his efforts.
After the war he became a celebrated artist who enjoyed the patronage of
Princess Grace of Monaco and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
He was friends with Salvador Dali, who painted a portrait of Bazata as Don
Quixote.
He ended his career as an aide to President Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary
John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission and adviser to John McCain's
presidential campaign.
Mr Wilcox also tracked down and interviewed Stephen Skubik, an officer in the
Counter-Intelligence Corps of the US Army, who said he learnt that Patton was on
Stalin's death list. Skubik repeatedly alerted Donovan, who simply had him sent
back to the US.
"You have two strong witnesses here," Mr Wilcox said. "The evidence is that
the Russians finished the job."
The scenario sounds far fetched but Mr Wilcox has assembled a compelling case
that US officials had something to hide. At least five documents relating to the
car accident have been removed from US archives.
The driver of the truck was whisked away to London before he could be
questioned and no autopsy was performed on Patton's body.
With the help of a Cadillac expert from Detroit, Mr Wilcox has proved that
the car on display in the Patton museum at Fort Knox is not the one Patton was
driving.
"That is a cover-up," Mr Wilcox said.
George Patton, a dynamic controversialist who wore pearl handled revolvers on
each hip and was the subject of an Oscar winning film starring George C. Scott,
commanded the US 3rd Army, which cut a swathe through France after D-Day.
But his ambition to get to Berlin before Soviet forces was thwarted by
supreme allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, who gave Patton's petrol supplies
to the more cautious British General Bernard Montgomery.
Patton, who distrusted the Russians, believed Eisenhower wrongly prevented
him closing the so-called Falaise Gap in the autumn of 1944, allowing hundreds
of thousands of German troops to escape to fight again,. This led to the deaths
of thousands of Americans during their winter counter-offensive that became
known as the Battle of the Bulge.
In order to placate Stalin, the 3rd Army was also ordered to a halt as it
reached the German border and was prevented from seizing either Berlin or
Prague, moves that could have prevented Soviet domination of Eastern Europe
after the war.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph: "Patton was going to resign from
the Army. He wanted to go to war with the Russians. The administration thought
he was nuts.
"He also knew secrets of the war which would have ruined careers.
I don't think Dwight Eisenhower would ever have been elected president if
Patton had lived to say the things he wanted to say." Mr Wilcox added: "I think
there's enough evidence here that if I were to go to a grand jury I could
probably get an indictment, but perhaps not a conviction."
Charles Province, President of the George S. Patton Historical Society, said
he hopes the book will lead to definitive proof of the plot being uncovered. He
said: "There were a lot of people who were pretty damn glad that Patton died. He
was going to really open the door on a lot of things that they screwed up over
there."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3869117/General-George-S.-Patton-was-assassinated-to-silence-his-criticism-of-allied-war-leaders-claims-new-book.html