Whether or not he had a hand in killing JFK, Lyndon Johnson was a disgusting human being.
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Whether or not he had a hand in killing JFK, Lyndon Johnson was a disgusting human being.
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Well written with lots of facts of that terrible day in Dallas, like the saying goes, everything is a rich man's trick, starting at the top of our government begin with LBJ, then Nixon, Ford, Carter and probably the worst were the father and son, Bush's. I should probably look over my shoulder now, I could be next. ( )

Last fall was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, and a plethora of books considering the tragedy were published. I bought several, and read three of them earlier this spring.

The Kennedy Half Century by Larry J. Sabato, JFK and the Unspeakable by James W. Douglass, and The Man Who Killed Kennedy by Roger Stone.

I was never a conspiracy-theorist, but as more and more secret evils the US government has perpetrated become known, the more inclined I am to believe that we do not have the whole story of the Kennedy assassination. For the most part, these three books relate much of the same evidence (and there is a lot) indicating that there is reason to believe that Oswald did not act alone. The Sabato book is more cautious in the conclusions it draws, and does debunk, or at least question, some of the witnesses the other two books accept at face value.

All three books agree that the Warren Commission was rushed and deeply flawed. LBJ began pushing for a quick conclusion to the investigation almost immediately after the assassination, and at the onset of the hearings made it clear that the commission had to find that Oswald acted alone. There may have been good reason for this--there was some justified fear that if there was any reason to believe that if Cuba, the USSR, or Communists were believed to be involved in any way, some trigger-happy generals would gladly resort to nuclear weapons in revenge. Nevertheless, the consensus of the books is that most of the problems created by the Warren Commission's sloppiness cannot at this late date be corrected.

The Douglass and Stone books both conclude that the CIA was deeply implicated in the assassination, and Stone goes one step further and lays the blame primarily on LBJ. As noted, all three books present ample evidence that Oswald did not act alone, although Sabato cautions that the evidence is not conclusive--merely that it exists and is left unexplained by the Warren Commission. The other two books accept the conclusion that Oswald did not act alone, and may have been a pawn. Both present credible evidence that JFK was about to make some major policy shifts that deeply disturbed the CIA, the Generals, and many conservatives. JFK intended to withdraw from Vietnam. He was also involved in some behind the scenes détente negotiations with Khrushchev, and was beginning plans for nuclear disarmament. While I can accept that these assertions may be true, I have a hard time making the leap from disagreeing with his policies to assassinating him. In the case of the Stone book, which concludes that LBJ was behind the assassination based on the fact that LBJ was under investigation by the Department of Justice and was about to be indicted for numerous felonies, the leap of faith required is even greater. Even with someone as brutally ambitious as LBJ, I have a hard time making the leap from motive to act.

I found all three books to be enlightening and I'm glad I read them Last year I read Oswald by Norman Mailer, which concludes, through an in depth examination of the Oswald's life, that he acted alone. On the other hand Family of Secrets by Russ Baker definitely comes down on the conspiracy theory side. ( )

Excellent. ( )