BOOK REVIEW ESSAY   Joel C. Snell Kirkwood College

Talbot, D. (2008) the Brothers: Hidden History of the Kennedy years:

New York: the Free press, 479 pages

(The book is arranged from a chapter on the assassination to each succeeding year

up to the present. I read it twice and rearranged it under topics that are most asked.)

WHO KILLED PRESIDENT KENNEDY?

LEE HARVEY OSWALD a political want to- be that was after infamy. Identified with both Right and Left, he wanted to make history. At one time a political informant for the FBI, but what he shared may not be worth much.

DAVID MORALES. Was a fulltime member of the CIA. He essentially had a nice title, but that was it. There is little evidence that he was commissioned by the CIA or just the reverse that he did it on his own. Thus, the CIA tie may be spurious.

OTHERS this is grab bag of forces that one has read before. It was one or more. They include the MOB, CIA, FBI, and a PENTAGON RELATED ORGANIZATION, the COMMUNISTS, CASTROITES, ANTI-CASTROITES and others.

WAS THER MORE THAN ONE SHOT? The following believed that there was crossfire (more than one shot.). It included immediate members of the car behind JFK filled with Secret Service agents, Kennedy aides David Powers and Kenneth O’Donnell. It also included LBJ, Jackie Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Zapruder the film maker who recorded the Kennedy shooting, the upper class, and part of the press. Most of Europe was aware of these incidents in their history and were more likely to see a conspiracy.

Most of those on the street watching the president ran to the grassy knoll on the other side to get the shooter or shooters… Many with cameras seen in one or two shutters of the Zap ruder film never were able to keep their film.

At Parkland Hospital, surgeons were pushed aside by police and military. JFK’s personal physician Burkley noted a shot in the throat from the front. He was able to keep Kennedy’s brain for RFK. It was then lost in federal bureaucracy.

Secret service personnel Kellerman and Rowley believed that there was more than one.

Later, most or all, would change their stories for fear of their lives or political pressure.

Kennedy died at around1 PM CST. By dusk, the killing was completely defined. It was Oswald and he was a Castro supporter.

WHY THE COVER UP? It was to save the country from a world war. To cover for numeorous agencies that performed poorly that day and to protect the public from the possible knowledge that someone inside the country wanted him dead.

WAS DALLAS SPECIAL? That means that all plans focused on killing him in Dallas. No, there were two previous attempts on his life. There could also be more in the future. It was just a matter of time. There were plenty of Oswald’s and Ruby’s to be replaced in other cities. When Kennedy died, his approval rating hovered in the low 60’s.

WHY DID HE NOT PROTECT HIMSELF BETTER? In criminal justice theories, it is called Victimlogy. In a form of denial, they keep testing themselves by going out of the way not to be protected. It vindicates that their feelings of fear are false. Kennedy often talked about dying young and was dying of Addison’s disease. His brother rarely had protection and felt the same way.

WHY MIGHT FORCES WITHIN THE COUNTRY WANT TO KILL HIM?

Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic to serve as president. He was an ethnic (Irish, Italian, Polish not from Western Europe.) “These people” were just above Blacks and Mexicans and had kids like mice further; Kennedy was with the Hollywood crowd. That means that they were not manly and were usually gay. Kennedy was a good looking fag.

His people were not men. After Vietnam and Bay of Pigs he had to be destroyed or sanitized. Today, much of the military has changed. The Joints Chiefs under General LeMay hated him. In cabinet meetings, there were shouting matches as LeMay tried to bully Kennedy. It got to the point, that Kennedy had no support in the military or industrial wings of the government. He and his brother started a government within a government. It was called Operation Mongoose.

In terms of military strategy, the Joint Chiefs believed in “first strike” and “massive retaliation.” That means that the military sneak attacks the enemy and overwhelms them with a first strike so that they can not respond. The opposite view was “overkill.” This meant that you have the weapons to protect one’s people including under Reagan star wars projects of killing weapons before they can strike. We have also learned that after nuclear holocaust winds of radioactive dust can contaminate and kill even larger populations as it blows. Later it causes “nuclear winter” as the clouds around the earth are filled with radio active dust and seasonal changes shut down to all year winters.

VIETNAM

Kennedy was to take 1,000 advisors out of Vietnam by December 1963 and end involvement in 1965. All was immediately reversed after he died.

BAY OF PIGS

Started under Eisenhower, the Bay of Pigs invasion was to appear as if Anti-Castro freedom fighters would liberate the island and capitalism would be restored. Looking back it was poorly planned. Castro knew and was prepared, and the invasion was over in three days. Quickly, Kennedy was blamed. He did not provide air cover. He did not believe it would work, but went along as a young president. He told LeMay and company over and over that he would not provide air cover because this would then be the USA invading Cuba rather than Anti-Castroites.

trying to get their land back. Further, the people sided with Castro rather than invading force. Kennedy went on television and said it was his fault and then fired Allen Dulles. JFK’s approval rating went up. The pentagon was stunned… Russia then started sending 43,000 soldiers, training Cubans and had 36 rockets that could wipe out the South and New England in the USA. (along with the radioactive dust and nuclear winter.) We also found out in 2005 that the CIA knew the cover had been blown and knew they had little success if there wasn’t any air cover even though that might not help. Haynes Johnson in a 1964 book on the Bay of Pigs found that insubordination throughout the ranks compromised the operation.

CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS

Rockets were photographed from an intelligence plane that Cuba had ICBM’S.

Again the pentagon, wanted to attack. Kennedy and his brother threaded the needle between the hard liners in the USA and the Soviets. What finally sealed the

tremendous tension was JFK would remove the aging Jupiters in Turkey, not attack

Cuba, and that he had lost control of the powerful wings of government. Krushchev removed their ICBM’s.

Again, later analysis is that the USA-USSR conflict could have destroyed the world.

CIVIL RIGHTS

One of the strongest wings of the party was the South. He tried to avoid civil rights issue but was forced to make a choice. He chose to federalize troops at the University of Mississipi. It took the Army 5 hours to get there after most of the damage was done. He then truly knew that he and his team were alone. The rest of the military and industrial departments in the government were against him.

PERSONAL LIFE

JFK’s personal life was extraordinary, but would be deemed sinful. He had numerous lovers, and two mistresses staying at the White House. He shared a girl friend with a mobster. Through his father and his crime fighting days in the senate he had numerous

relations with the mob. However, after being elected, his brother was one of the toughest prosecutors on the mob. Hoover, the head of the FBI had been compromised by the mob and thus left them alone. What was not included in the book was that JFK was married once before, and that Jacqueline was paid to marry Jack. She also had a boy friend. However, after the Bay of Pigs and the near death of millions of people, he mellowed. Both his wife and he lost a child before Kennedy died and he was beginning to change. Death became more of a reality.

He was less than completely knowledgeable about power. The president of the United States is not the most powerful person on the planet. He is part of what C.Wright Mills calls the diversionary elite. Those with the most power belong to a seedy corps of vines of corruption that has metasized through society. It is in this country and probably most others. They are faceless, have no names and are not household words. They own and run the country. Other than the Warren Buffets of this world who generally is a very fine human being, the rich know that they are limited in what they say by the mob and other political forces. . Or, they believe it to be so and thus are surrounded by security and crave anonymity.

His drug intake for his back was sizable. When he was smoking dope with a former girlfriend Mary Meyer, it took 3 reefers to get him high. The bad back was with him always as well as the Addison disease. He was a young man on the outside, but inside very old. His days were numbered even if he was not shot. That may have contributed to his change in life toward the end.

As the drug intake was incremental, it helped him remain lucid. Further, caffeine can

counterbalance downers. Tranquilizers can slow down speed that he took from Dr. Feel good.

On balance, his personal life and his saving of millions of lives must be balanced together.

POST ASSASINATION

CONSPIRACY

RFK continued to try to “solve” the conspiracy. He felt that if he could be president, he could uncover more than in his position as senator. However, he may have known better. Naively, President Clinton asked Walter Hubbell an aide to find out who killed Kennedy.

Hubbell was given the run around.

VIETNAM WAR

The war lasted until 1975. It was lost to the North Vietnamese. The war was based on the Domino theory that each country from China through Korea to Vietnam was a series of dominos. However, the North Vietnamese thought it to be a civil war.

LBJ

President Johnson lived in constant threat that he would be assassinated from within by the forces in government or the New Left as well as he was exhausted by the Vietnam War. He also felt that outside aliens from other countries may get him.

RFK was assassinated by Sirhan B. Sirhan and Thane Eugene Cesar. The second was a private guard who was right behind him. Kennedy was killed by a bullet wound right in back of his head.

THE NEW COALITION

After 1968, the country has been run by the Republican Party. Two Democrats have been elected as pro-business or moderate Republicans. A number of elections have been close but most have not been.

Many so called white ethnics have assimilated and succeeded. Both Black and Hispanic bourgeoisie have also found a niche. However, the present electorate particularly after

The Church committee uncovered skullduggery of government agencies and corporations

Has lost their innocence. There is also a culture war between Center Right and Center Left. folks. They believe in dramatically different things and live different lifestyles.

ABOUT THE BOOK AND THE AUTHOR

The genius of the The Brothers:Hidden History of the Kennedy Years:  is that this journalist has hundreds of new interviews and follow up to old ones. Those in the later years are less fearful as they are coming to an end their own lives and want to clarify the record.

Further, there are nearly 500 pages of meticulous work piecing together history of 40 and 50 years. The bias and the benefit of this book is that many of those interviewed knew him so they could be more forthcoming. However, as noted before, he left out some of the downside aspects of the brothers. The book is in its second printing and is a New York Times bestseller.

David Talbot is editor of Salon.Com and previous to that was an editor of San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner.