Congressman Larry McDonald - Signed copy of We Hold These Truths

Episode #37: Remembering A Patriot: Congressman Larry McDonald, Accident or Assassination?

I still remember watching the news of September 1, 1983. I was a senior in high school at the time.  It was the day Georgia Congressman Larry McDonald’s plane (Korean Airlines Flight 007) was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor. Supposedly, through a navigational error, the commercial flight entered Soviet prohibited airspace.

The most conservative member of Congress (Lawrence P. McDonald) was aboard. He was a vocal opponent of socialism and communism. Congressman Jesse Helms (another very conservative member of Congress) was scheduled for that flight, but made a last minute change. He was not aboard.

While this tragic event greatly disturbed most Americans, my family felt it more acutely than others. Why? My father (Jack Morton) knew Larry McDonald personally, admired him, and worked on his campaign. (A photo of Larry’s inscription in my father’s copy of “We Hold These Truths…” is featured in the image with this article.)

Dr. Ron Paul said of the late Congressman Larry McDonald, “He was the most principled man in Congress.”  My father agreed.

Would the Soviets Shoot Down a Commercial Flight to Take Out the Two Most Conservative Voices Against Communism in the U.S. Congress?

While studying the words of Congressman Larry McDonald, it occurred to me that the Soviets shot down a plane (KAL 007) to silence and remove this man who vocally opposed their philosophy. About 4 months before his plane disappeared, he proclaimed on national television:

“There is an elitist core in this country that has seen value in subsidizing communism, in protecting communism. There is an elite core in this country that has dominated American society (the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations) that have dominated the State Department for forty years and pretty much openly so. Their objective is to bring about a gradual transition in our society, a dissolving of sovereignty, and a moving steadily to the left on the political spectrum … on the road to world government.” Congressman Larry McDonald, Crossfire around May of 1983.

Watch Congressman Larry McDonald on Crossfire, May 1983

I believe the fate of KAL-007 was premeditated. Here’s why…

  • McDonald and Helms were calm, reasonable voices against the forces in the U.S. who were supporting communism. McDonald called out the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. (You might recall that it was in a CFR meeting where Biden bragged about having the Ukrainian investigator who was working on the Burisma Holdings / Hunter Biden case removed or the Ukraine wouldn’t get their billion dollars. Yes! Biden is CFR.)
  • McDonald had just been named president of the John Birch Society – an educational group that openly exposed the elite players who were undermining American sovereignty and working toward socialism and one world government.
  • The following evidence leads one to believe that the plane actually landed and Congressman McDonald was interrogated, tortured and imprisoned.

Evidence Suggests McDonald Did NOT Die in the Plane Crash

While the Soviets claimed there were no survivors, the Israeli Research Center for Prisons Psych-prisons, and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the USSR, directed by Avraham Shifrin discovered otherwise. Their reports provided the following information:

Photo of Prisoner Number 3 (to the left) alongside computer aged photos of Congressman Larry McDonald

“McDonald had been brought by KGB to Sakhalin Island and then to Moscow. Upon arrival in Moscow, McDonald was taken to the Lubyanka KGB prison where he was given the designation, “Prisoner Number 3.” While at the Lubyanka, he was kept in isolation, taken from his cell only for questioning. He was interrogated several times by the head of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, Vladimir Kryuchkov.

Following a number of questionings, Mr. McDonald was moved to the Lefortovo KGB prison also in Moscow for continued interrogation over a period of several months. After a time in Lefortovo, Mr. McDonald was then moved to a “dacha” (summer house) in Sukhanova near Moscow where the interrogations continued.

Mr. Shifrin’s sources indicated that they had strong reason to believe that, while in Sukhanova, McDonald was interrogated under drugs that may have eventually resulted in identity loss.

He was brought eventually to a prison in Karaganda, Kazakhstan,from which he was moved in mid-1987, by special transport, to a small prison near the town of Temir-Tau, also in Kazakhstan. The wardens of this prison identified him from a photograph that had been computer-aged to show what he would have looked like at the time. It also showed a scar that runs from his left nostril to the left end of his lips. Here he was given special treatment but was not allowed to communicate with anyone.

In the summer of 1990, he was taken to the transportation prison in Karaganda. Here, as an unknown prisoner whose file is sealed by the KGB, he remained. As of 1995, all efforts to obtain additional information from the Karaganda prison have failed.” Quoted on Conservapedia.

A Campaign to Reopen the Investigation

On 10 December 1991, Senator Jesse Helms wrote to Boris Yeltsin concerning KAL 007:

“One of the greatest tragedies of the Cold War was the shoot-down of the Korean Airlines Flight 007 by the Armed Forces of what was then the Soviet Union on 1 September 1983… The KAL-007 tragedy was one of the most tense incidences of the entire Cold War. However, now that relations between our two nations have improved substantially, I believe that it is time to resolve the mysteries surrounding this event. Clearing the air on this issue could help further to improve relations.” Helms appended to this letter Interrogatories including the following:

“From Soviet reports of the incident, please provide

a) A list of the names of any living passengers and crew members from the airplane;

b) A list of missing passengers and crew;

c) A list of dead passengers and crew;

d) A list and explanation of what happened to the bodies of any dead passengers and crew;

Please provide detailed information on the fate of U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald.”

Senator Helms’ letter to Yeltsin was prompted, according to the Chief of Staff under Helms for the Minority Staff of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Rear Admiral Bud Nance, by the CIA verified information coming from Israel concerning a water landing of KAL 007. See the Admiral Nance letter to the Director of the Israel Research Centre for Prisons, Psych-prisons, and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the U.S.S.R.

And finally, Helms added:

  1. “How many KAL-007 family members and crew are being held in Soviet camps?
  2. Please provide a detailed list of the camps containing live passengers and crew, together with a map showing their location.”

The Russians did not cooperate. Even though people petitioned Obama to re-open the investigation into KAL-007 in 2012, nothing appears to have been done then either.

On March 2, 2020, I emailed and snail mailed a letter to President Donald J. Trump requesting that he honor Congressman Lawrence P. McDonald, and if possible, re-open the investigation into what became of the KAL-007 crew and passengers.

Prophetic Warning

People said Larry was crazy. They called him a conspiracy theorist. Today we see the fruit of that “elite core” he talked about and would more likely call Larry a prophet. What Larry said in 1983 that got him killed can no longer be denied. There is a Deep State. There is a Swamp. The socialists are out of the closet and some Americans are so duped that they actively support socialist candidates.

On the bright side, there are too many patriots to silence. Big tech shuts some down, censors, yet this action only awakens more patriots. The battle lines are drawn, and every citizen must take a stand.

Will You Choose Life & Liberty or Captivity & Death?

I hope that we will remember this valiant pioneering patriot who paid dearly to warn us. I hope we will fight to keep our freedom of speech, of religion, to bear arms, our rights of life, liberty and property. We will need every last one of our God-give rights to thwart the swelling tide of socialism that no longer feels the need to plot in the shadows but openly flaunts itself as a seductive alternative to the naive and uninformed.

Every patriot must become a teacher of truth. Awake and arise and hold your flags of liberty high.

Posted in Episodes, Essays, Freedom Principles, Globalism.