{"id":122786,"date":"2023-06-01T16:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T23:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=122786"},"modified":"2023-06-21T17:37:08","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T00:37:08","slug":"q378-summary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=122786","title":{"rendered":"Q378 Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

To read the Tape Transcript, click here<\/a>. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1<\/a>,\u00a0Pt. 2<\/a>).
\nTo return to the Tape Index, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

FBI Catalogue:<\/b> Jones speaking<\/p>\n

FBI preliminary tape identification note: <\/strong>Labeled in part \u201cYugoslavia\u201d<\/p>\n

Date cues on tape:<\/b> July 17, 1978 (specified)<\/p>\n

People named: <\/b><\/p>\n

Public figures\/National and international names:<\/i><\/p>\n

Jimmy Carter, U.S. President
\nJohn F. Kennedy, assassinated U.S. President
\nRobert F. Kennedy, assassinated U.S. Senator
\nSen. Edward Brooke (R-MA)
\nRep. Charles Diggs (D-MI)
\nCyrus Vance, Secretary of State
\nAndrew Young, U.S. Ambassador to United Nations
\nZbigniew Brzezinski, advisor to Jimmy Carter<\/p>\n

Adolf Hitler, German F\u00fchrer
\nJosef Stalin, former Soviet dictator
\nLeonid Brezhnev, Communist Party General Secretary, Soviet Union
\nFyodor Kulakov, potential successor to Brezhnev
\nAleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian dissident
\nNatan Sharansky, convicted Soviet spy
\nRose Peterson, U.S. consul to USSR
\nMargaret Thatcher, leader of Conservative Party in Great Britain
\nFrancisco Franco, former dictator of Spain
\nJosip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia
\nSpyros Kyprianou, President of Cyprus
\nAnwar Sadat, President of Egypt
\nMuhammad Ibrahim Kamel, foreign minister of Egypt [by reference]
\nMoise Dayan, foreign minister of Israel [by reference]
\nIan Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia
\nJoshua Nkomo, leader of Zimbabwean Patriotic Front in Rhodesia
\nRobert Mugabe, leader of Zimbabwean Patriotic Front in Rhodesia
\nJohannes Vorster, prime minister of Republic of South Africa
\nNelson Mandela, jailed South African activist
\nMobuto Sese Seko, president of Zaire
\nKenneth David Kaunda, president of Zambia
\nCecil Rhodes, English colonialist
\nDavid Livingstone, Scottish explorer
\nHenry Morton Stanley, reporter who tracked down Livingstone<\/p>\n

Forbes Burnham, Prime Minister of Guyana
\nPtolemy Reid, Deputy Prime Minister of Guyana
\nFred Wills, Guyana Foreign Minister
\nMary Rodgers, Guyana official
\nCommander Lee, Guyana National Service [by reference]<\/p>\n

George Orwell, author of 1984<\/em>
\nMike Davidow, American author
\nEthel and Julius Rosenberg, executed U.S. spies
\nGeorge Meany, labor leader, head of AFL-CIO
\nMargaret Mead, anthropologist
\nRockefeller family, American family of great wealth
\nJames Powell, black youth killed in Harlem in 1964
\nMartin Luther King, assassinated civil rights worker
\nMalcolm X, assassinated civil rights worker
\nMedgar Evers, assassinated civil rights worker
\nWallace Deen Muhammad, leader of Nation of Islam<\/p>\n

James Thurman Jones, Jim Jones\u2019 father<\/p><\/div>\n

Temple adversaries:<\/i><\/p>\n

Debbie Layton<\/div>\n

Jonestown residents:<\/i><\/p>\n

Vernetta Christian
\nTeresa King [by reference]<\/div>\n

Bible verses cited<\/strong>: None<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jim Jones reads the news for July 17, 1978.<\/p>\n

While intended principally as a news tape \u2013 including several items that Jones says the community will be responsible for in testing \u2013 there are several extended commentaries along the way. Two of them comprise parts of his readings on the countries of the world \u2013 their location and geography, population and demographics, and history \u2013 when he covers Zambia and Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n

Other places seem more spontaneous. Understanding that every political system is flawed \u2013 not even the Soviet Union is perfect \u2013 Jones says that we have to choose between the dictatorship of fascism and corporate monopolies, and the dictatorship of communism. \u00a0He prefers the latter, casting his own lot with communism. In a lengthy aside, he expresses the wish that<\/p>\n

There could be progressive leaders like Jim Jones, who will not allow power to do anything but be used for the people, that he is nothing more than a representative of the people, open to criticism \u2026 wants<\/em> to give them the best life and knows<\/em> that he does not have all the answers, but is the most pure, dedicated leader that he\u2019s ever seen.\u2026 I know my<\/em> side, my negative<\/em> side has been subdued, it\u2019ll never emerge, I\u2019ll never be insensitive, I\u2019d put my life secondary to any of you here, even some who\u2019ve been cruel and insensitive and don\u2019t care, and you\u2019d kill me if you had an opportunity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Following this diversion, he returns to the subject at hand, focusing on how the US uses cruelty and intimidation and even assassination to prevail its iron grip, even over its own citizens. The roster includes black leaders, but also white student protestors at Kent State University. \u201cThey murder white and black, they don\u2019t give a damn. The ruling class eliminates, and what\u2019s painful, is that they had to kill so few to stifle liberty in USA.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second discussion about the world\u2019s reaction to Soviet treatment of its dissidents, including Congress\u2019 over-reaction of suspending nuclear disarmament talks while Soviet protestors are sent to mental asylums or labor camps. (Jones\u2019 own opinion is that being sent to mental institutes is more benign: \u201cit is preferable than being put into the horrible prison conditions of USA, where a prison cell is overcrowded 15 to one.\u201d) This leads to a broader discussion of international communism in general, Eurocommunism in particular, and most disdainfully, revisionism.<\/p>\n

The reading ends, as many do from this period, with praise for Guyana and their place in it. The people of Jonestown should be happy, not only because they have escaped the racism and poverty of America, but because they have gone to the scenic wonders and pure nature of the jungle. In addition, as others have pointed out, here they\u2019ll escape the nuclear war, which is an inevitability.<\/p>\n

This is a recurring theme in Jones\u2019 news tapes, especially during his asides, and reflects his life-long focus on nuclear holocaust, and appears several times here. So too does other disparaging language of the country from which they emigrated \u2013 the US is invariably described as racist, militaristic, and capitalistic, while its allies are invariably fascist lackeys of the imperialist superpower. The Soviet Union and Cuba, on the other hand, represent the vanguard of liberation, especially in black Africa, and even China, which has a \u201chorrid<\/em> foreign policy,\u201d at least offers financial supports to those moves for independence.<\/p>\n

Among the items in the news:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Guyana Prime Minister Burnham reminds his countrymen in Britain that all is not well there, especially if Margaret Thatcher wins the election;<\/li>\n
  • The passage of the referendum in Guyana allows the government to consolidate power for benevolent purposes, such as giving it greater leeway to remove bureaucrats who steal;<\/li>\n
  • Guyana has been able to resist the International Monetary Fund and its accompanying strings and manipulative behaviors;<\/li>\n
  • An economic summit of capitalist states will discuss Japan\u2019s protectionism;<\/li>\n
  • The Organization of African Unity endorses Cuban liberation efforts on the continent;<\/li>\n
  • The present of Cyprus withdraws from peace talks with Turkey, which itself is beset by intern al strife;<\/li>\n
  • Egypt will not agree to Israeli demands on the Gaza Strip;<\/li>\n
  • A former US consul to the Soviet union may have been engaged in spying;<\/li>\n
  • The likely successor to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev unexpectedly dies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    FBI Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Date of transcription: 6\/18\/79<\/p>\n

    In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.<\/p>\n

    On June 4, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B93-109. This tape was found to contain the following:<\/p>\n

    A recording of the \u201cNews of the Day\u201d by JIM JONES.<\/p>\n

    Differences with FBI Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The summary is accurate and meets the FBI\u2019s purposes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

    Tape originally posted\u00a0June 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you. To read the Tape Transcript, click here. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1,\u00a0Pt. 2). To return to the Tape Index, click here. FBI Catalogue: Jones speaking FBI preliminary tape identification note: Labeled in part \u201cYugoslavia\u201d Date cues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":27996,"menu_order":204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-122786","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122786"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123326,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122786\/revisions\/123326"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}