Ask Not What Your Country Did To Him and All of Us — Reflection on the 60th Anniversary of JFK’s Assassination
Introduction
“Hello Darkness my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again. Because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping.”
Those are the opening lyrics of the 1964 song written and performed by Paul Simon (with Art Garfunkel), “The Sound of Silence.” Simon wrote that song to capture the mood of the country immediately after the assassination of the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, which happened 60 years ago today. My favorite version to listen to is a cover version of the song performed by the Band Disturbed. It captures my emotion about this well.
As has happened with every major anniversary of JFK’s death, there will be many remembrances about his life, presidency, but mostly about his assassination. Here are a few of them on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his assassination:
- This one is from the Commonwealth Club on 11/9/2023 with Mark Shaw, “The 60th anniversary of JFK’s assassination: A retrospective.”
- Here is the Miller Center at UVA remembrance.
- Here is American University.
- The BBC says it is one of America’s “biggest mysteries.”
- The LA Times says it changed the media. Dan Rather once told Robert Tannebaum “We really blew it on the Kennedy assassination.”
- C-SPAN focused on the Zapruder Film.
- The New Yorker festival screened National Geographic’s “One Day in America” with a panel discussing the importance of documenting history.
- One of my Senators, Tim Kaine, provides his remembrance.
- Diane Scharper, former Johns Hopkins Osher Journal editor, in the Baltimore Sun. She teaches a memoir seminar and 24 baby boomers also wrote their remembrances.
- Steve Rose in the Guardian says it has “splintered our sense of reality.”, while spending most of the article discussing the rise of conspiracy theories.
- In Reasons, Kenneth Samples says we are “still debating it,” Amen to that, Ken.
- Salon features the National Geographic documentary One Day In America.
There will be many others, so I will add this essay of mine to the list of remembrances and reflections.
On that day, Friday, November 22, 1963, at 2:50 pm, EST, Father Hughes came into my 4th grade class at Our Lady of Lourdes elementary school in Henrico, VA, and told us the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and sent us all home from school.
That evening, my oldest sister, a senior at Hermitage High School, where all of my siblings and I graduated, took me to the football game vs George Wythe, where there was a brief moment of silence. In Virginia, Nixon was the one, so the games had to go on, although the decision to play football that weekend made by colleges and the NFL was mixed and controversial.
My father and I watched JFK’s accused assassin gunned down on live TV the following Sunday morning. Our family watched JFK’s funeral together on Monday on television, and in December of 1963, my entire family (me, three siblings and parents) visited JFK’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery.
In the 1990s, while taking a class when I worked for IBM, I sat through a lecture from a sociologist name Morris Massey that developed a theory of human values development, which he offered via lectures. I later found his course on Youtube, that posited that “you are who you were when.” The theory stated that a key “Significant Emotional Event” happens to people that causes the person to have a “gut level reaction” that affects them for life.
It could be the death of a close loved one, surviving an auto accident, being traumatized or experiencing a significant joyful, major event, or possibly the public execution of the leader of your nation. Massey was a consultant for marketing, and there are other theories of development that are perhaps more useful, but this concept for “imprinting” always stuck with me as it relates to the JFK assassination and me, and perhaps millions of surviving baby boomers. There now appear to be a number of “Executive Coaches” that use Massey’s theory in their work.
Writing this essay, I realized that JFK’s death was my “first death.” I had no one in my life close to me die before then. I was nine years old. My family was traumatized together, and we shared that trauma with the rest of the nation and the world. Well, not all of the nation, there were plenty of Americans that celebrated JFK’s death. There would be other deaths in the 1960s we would share together, public ones, like MLK, RFK, some neighbors dying in Viet Nam, family and close friends dying, but JFK’s was the first for me. His was my introduction to the fact that none of us get out of here alive. Life is not fair. Camelot can be snuffed out in six seconds.
America and the world lost a visionary leader that day. The impact of his loss still resonates today. The Kennedy family lost a husband, father, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, and son. The Tippit family lost a loved one. A Secret Service agent may have died that day. Two days later, Marina Oswald lost her husband, who also left behind his mother and brother. There have been many deaths since then, some associated with the assassination, many also senseless, targeted slaughter. Since that day, there have been many other shocking acts of slaughter of people, targeted political killings, such as the attacks of 9/11/2001 and the Hamas attack of 10/7/2023, and the responses to those attacks.
On 11/10/2023, at the Barbara J. Olson (who died on flight 77 on 9/11/2001) lecture, Barry Weiss noted “there is a phrase that Jews use when a person dies, and that phrase is ‘may their memory be for a blessing.’”
JFK’s memory should be for many blessings along with the many other memories people may have of him, and his killers, and those that have died for the cause of peace.
The first part of the title to this essay is the title of a song that I wrote 10 years ago, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary. This title of course riffs on JFK’s inaugural address in 1961. It was the songwriter Mick Jagger, quoting the Devil, saying “I shouted out who killed the Kennedys? When, after all, it was you and me.” Our country tis of thee, and me. We did it, or rather paid taxes and elected representatives for the government that did it, and continues to deny that it did it, while time and history has marched on with no accountability.
There has been no justice regarding that targeted killing. As Weiss also said, “we are the last line of defense” for truth, reason, Constitutional government, justice, and seeking peace. We are still fighting the heirs of the domestic enemies that killed JFK, and what they stand for. We all need to find our own Profile in Courage. To confront the unspeakable, we must speak of it.
In the fall of 2013, I happened to be taking an Introduction to Songwriting course from the Berklee School of Music, taught by Pat Pattison, which was offered on the MOOC, Coursera. It was a wonderful course. I believe there were ~ 70,000 of us taking it that fall! We learned about prosody, used in speech and song, poetry, rhyme schemes, perspective taking in songwriting (Who is speaking? Who are they speaking to? What is their story or message?), and capturing all of this in a song with lyrics and music (melody, harmony and rhythm). I am no songwriter, I have played a little guitar, but am a bad singer. So, I decided to tackle a subject that had consumed me for almost 50 years, and still does, by writing my first song about the Kennedy Assassination. We had to write, record and publish, and perform our song for the class, it is included at the end of this essay.
JFK Assassination Syndrome
One of the aspects of this story that has recently been on my mind is what has driven me and so many people, for all these years, to pursue this story and event in American and World history? Why do we still do this today, given all that is happening in the present moment that urgently needs addressing? Why can’t we let it be?
As JFK daughter Caroline Kennedy herself has often said when speaking of her late father, he is a historical figure. She has in fact been a tireless champion of remembering his legacy when he was alive with her work at the JFK Library, and not publicly focusing on his death, or the reasons and causes of it. Caroline has been doing this while also raising and involving her now grown children Tatiana, Rose and Jack, and serving her country, most recently as US Ambassador to Japan and Australia.
There are many other places to go to remember and honor the 35th President. The JFK Library, his grave, the Kennedy Center in DC, and others. Perhaps one for travelers to consider is the JFK Memorial in Great Britain. Created in 1965 by the late Queen Elizabeth II, a small parcel of land at Runnymede, near the spot where the Magna Carta was signed, was given to the USA for a permanent, 24x7x365 memorial to JFK. It was JFK himself who said “A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”
For many people today, talking about the Kennedy assassination and the 35th President is like talking about any other historical event or historical person, it is something that happened in the past and why consume yourself thinking, singing or writing about it today unless you are a historian or affected baby boomer? But, for a select “few”, perhaps hundreds or thousands of people, it is an avocation or full time hobby, passion or interest. Who are all these people, what are their/our stories? Why have they done this and why do they/we continue to do this? This essay will only list some of the who, it will not get into the why of their efforts. Someone could write that book or produce that documentary telling that story. However there is seemingly one “Why” of this persistence, it is the endless pursuit of truth and justice regarding this state crime.
As Historian Barbara Perry said in her keynote address at the JFK at 60 Wecht/CAPA symposium on 11/15/2023, there are three big reasons the Kenndey Administration and in particular his assassination has a lasting hold over many people that cause them to stay with this story. These reasons are emotional, moral, and psychological, all intertwined and complex. Many of us all experienced this together when it happened, and the event itself, and the aftermath, has produced an indelible effect on the psyche of many people. All three of those certainly hold true for me.
For now, let’s call this interest the John F. Kennedy Derangement Syndrome, to capture it as some kind of community need, fixation, and emotional, moral, and psychological dependency, causing some people to react in a way similar to what I have also been accused of having regarding our 45th President, namely Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). I am not comparing Trump to Kennedy, just the persistence of emotion and commitment people with TDS have that is similar in its persistence, but of much shorter duration (hopefully ending soon), than people who stay with researching the Kennedy Assassination.
Alec Baldwin, who identifies as one such person and who also spoke at the Wecht symposium, made the point that this common ground for researchers of all stripes is this persistence and a resolve in truth seeking. Baldwin is probably aware that in fact a group of prominent people have come together and are demanding that the truth be sought and told. They are called the Truth and Reconciliation Committee. Rob Reiner, Director of the movie “A Few Good Men,” with its scene with Jack Nicholson, is now modifying Nicholson’s famous line “You Can’t handle the Truth” by saying Americans can handle the truth of our history.
I should probably ask readers to provide their thoughts in the comments on another word to replace “derangement” to describe this phenomenon for Kennedy, but it might be difficult to do, perhaps a catchier phrase is needed. Some candidate alternative words could include: conspiracy, quest, collective trauma, attention seeking, obsession, martyr, crucifixion, truther, truth-seeking, justice, delusion, fixation, compulsion, reconciliation, penitent, Camelot, splintered reality, Historical Revisionism, etc.
I have not done the math to estimate how many labor-years have been spent by various journalists, historians, amateur researchers, interested citizens — US and global, artists, musicians, movie and documentary makers, and myself, focusing on this President and this historical event, but I would conservatively put the number as greater than 500 labor years (2,000 hours in a calendar labor year) since 1963. This is a Wild-ass guess, but it is a large number, and I think this one is conservative, it might be thousands of labor years.
There could be many motivations for all these people, including me, to have done this, and to continue to do this. This could include people searching for their country, truth, justice, reconciliation, retribution, vengeance, becoming a champion sleuther by “solving” the crime of the century, closure, storytelling, art, making money from people who have not done reading or research anywhere other than entertaining podcasts, or looking to update the historical record. This is my attempt to list some of these people that I have come across in my journey with this story. It still resonates today, sixty years after the momentous event.
JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theorist
I might as well get this out of the way. My name is Jim Loving, and I am a JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theorist. I am not alone. There are many of us.
Simply stated, a conspiracy is:
- An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
- A group of conspirators.
- An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
I believe all of that existed and continues to exist (accessories after the fact) in the murder of the 35th President. I believe that, as opposed to what the Warren Commission “believed,” which is that Lee Harvey Oswald shot the President all by himself, with no assistance or knowledge from anyone else, for no reason.
To quote a close friend who happens to be a severely delusional diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, when responding to events in his life, viewing them through the filters of his severe delusions of grandeur and persecution, he often says: “I can’t prove it, that’s just what I believe.”
While believing in a conspiracy in JFK’s death was not the first belief in conspiracies to ever exist, those beliefs have been around for thousands of years. Since this Big Lie 60 years ago, many, many, many conspiracy theories have flourished. As explored by Jared Yates Sexton in his excellent 2023 book, The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis, conspiracy theories have been around a long time, often coupled with their twin, apocalyptic thinking.
Some examples he cites include: American Revolution, multiple instances in the Catholic Church, many of them around Jewish people, the attacks of 9/11/2001, plots involving various Popes, multiple presidential elections, and many more including QAnon, Pizzagate, Sandy Hook mass shooting, and the US 2020 election. There is an argument to be made that the “original sin” of the Kennedy Assassination “Big Lie” kicked off sixty years of increased paranoia and conspiratorial thinking in the US and elsewhere.
After the Warren Commission published its report in 1964, the conspiracy theories began, people were not buying what they were selling. It got so bad, the CIA issued a report to many agencies discrediting the notion of conspiracy theories to counter any ideas of re-opening the case or challenging the “lone nut Oswald did it” claim. Conspiracy thinking is still used as a cudgel today against people believing in them, in some cases, for good reason.
All of this intrigued me when I saw a 8/4/2023 New York Times article, “Even Conspiracy Theorists Are Alarmed by What They’ve Seen.” I contacted the author, Annie Kelly, who is part of a King’s College of London study, “Everything is Connected,” of conspiracy theorists like myself. I initially agreed to be a participant in the study, but decided against it, instead I wrote this essay.
It seems everyone has a theory about this, even Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin and Director and Actor Rob Reiner. See the link to Reiner’s new podcast below. Baldwin completed his own 2-hour podcast in 2013 for MSNBC and it was squashed by parent NBC three days before it was to air on 11/22/2013, because “we don’t promote conspiracy theories,” said the NBC brass to MSNBC. Baldwin has been denied access to the four interviews including with Mark Lane, James Douglass, and RFK Jr.
In historiography, the reinterpretation of a historical account is referred to as Historical Revisionism. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or timespan or phenomenon, introducing contrary evidence, or reinterpreting the motivations and decisions of the people involved. So the formal term for the acceptance of our hidden history of the JFK assassination by historians is Historical Revisionism. Doesn’t that sound more scholarly than wacko Conspiracy Theory?
Talking and writing about this, I am reminded of the common theme in the HBO series the Sopranos (Featuring Little Steven as mobster!), where they talk about a scene from the movie Godfather 3, where Michael Corleone, played by actor Al Pacino, in explaining why he is trying to leave mafia life, but says it keeps pulling him back in — “Just when I thought I was out, they keep pulling me back in.” Here is Pacino himself in the scene.
Eventually, JFK’s story will really begin to fade into history, but perhaps only after everyone who was alive during his presidency has also passed on, and then it will be left mostly to historians and lovers of history, or perhaps lovers of “give peace a chance.” After sixty years, that’s how I feel about my conspiracy thinking with the Kennedy Assassination.
Telling the Story
The story of the Kennedy presidency and his assassination has been told and is being told in all the ways we can do so today — thousands of books, hundreds of songs, dozens of movies and documentaries, hundreds of essays and articles, thousands of interviews, dozens of conferences and symposiums, hundreds of blogs and podcast posts. I will take a crack at listing some of these here.
This is not a complete story by any means, just what I could produce in ten days after deciding to do so. At the end of this essay, I will have a bibliography of some of the songs, documentaries, people, researchers, books, movies, and web sites, including ones referenced in the essay, some of which that I have read and viewed, and many that I have not. It will be a very partial list.
Given that it has been sixty years since the assassination, the story has evolved and unfolded since that time and there have been multiple generations of people that have researched and told the story during this period. Many of these people of course are dead and no longer with us. Younger people have become interested in the story and are building and improving upon all that has come before. That is actually how history professionals are supposed to practice historiography.
Songs
I decided to address songs first because I like great songwriting and that is how I opened this essay, and how I will end it. When I decided to write a song about the assassination, I first researched what had been written in 50 years and discovered at that time (2013) that over 250 songs had been written about JFK’s assassination. Paul Simon’s was close to the first, but what I now believe to be the best one was published recently, in 2020 by Bob Dylan, on my 66th birthday, from his latest album, 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways. The song is Murder Most Foul, Dylan’s longest song ever written.
Dylan’s song captures many people’s view of the assassination, that there was a “they” that killed Kennedy, and that the “they” represent a very disturbing and dark history for our country that launched the beginning of the end of the American Century and Empire. It was the “original” “Big Lie.” That’s hard to do in a song, even one 17 minutes long, but Dylan pulls it off well.
Dylan himself had previously commented on the assassination. First when he was purportedly drunk when he accepted the Tom Paine award immediately after the assassination, and made a then controversial comment about accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. There was a book from the 1960s that Dylan probably read, that had the same name as his song and the Shakespeare line from Macbeth — “Murder Most Foul.” Since this is Bob Dylan, Pulitzer Prize winner for literature we are talking about, of course this song has itself been analyzed and written about by multiple people, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Another song I will reference is one that was released between Simon’s and Dylan’s, in 1992 by the band XTC, titled The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, written by Andy Partridge. The music video of the song I am including here graphically tells the story of the assassination and for many years was banned from MTV for years after it was released.
Censorship is certainly not a new phenomenon today. It is a very effective way to control a desired narrative.
From the song:
“But he made too many enemies
Of the people who would keep us on our knees
Hooray for Peter Pumpkin
Who’ll pray for Peter Pumpkinhead?”
I should not have to, but I will point out the imagery of JFK’s head as a pumpkin, that was exploded by the multiple bullets that hit it in broad daylight. That image from the Zapruder film is seared into most people’s memories, including mine. That emotional, moral, and psychological impact may or may not have been intended for mass consumption and collective, traumatic psychological effect by the killers, but indeed it got the attention of the public, the world, and every President of the United States of America and member of Congress since John F. Kennedy.
The final song I will reference was not written about the assassination at all, but it captured for me the essence of what I think all of the people with JFK syndrome are trying to do, breaking the walls of silence and disinformation regarding this historical event and its meaning, and persistently wanting to get at the Truth, like Alec Baldwin said. The song, written by Michael Fitzpatrick, is Break the Walls, by Fitz and the Tantrums, lyrics include:
“Give me a sledgehammer and give me strength
Watch the world come crumbling down
Cut me loose I seek the truth
I bet the freedom, the freedom will carry me
Hey! Break the walls.”
Movies, Documentaries, Podcasts (1)
I will briefly discuss these next because there are several new ones, listed here (1), released this month with one of them being released today. A longer list will be included at the end of this essay (2).
Four Died Trying — a multi-part documentary, covering the careers and assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK, and RFK with the 1st installment released on 11/22/2023, and each subsequent installment released on the anniversaries of the deaths of the other three men. The resources page at the site for this documentary covers a lot of the same ground as I do here.
JFK — What The Doctors Saw — released 11/13/2023 on Paramount Plus. NY Times review, 11/16/2023.
Here is a review of these two in the SF Chronicle.
Who Killed JFK? A twelve-part podcast which appears on iHeart Radio, by Rob Reiner and Soledad O’Brien. The 1st episode was 11/8/2023 and each subsequent episode will be released weekly. Reiner originally wanted to make a movie but could not do so, and discusses this with Jefferson Morley on 11/14/2023. Here is a short CNN interview with Reiner about the podcast.
People — researchers, journalists, authors and historians
It is hard to know where to begin here, or in what order to list people. I will not do so alphabetically, but in the order of influence on me and recent relevance to my ongoing inquiry (obsession, derangement…) as part of my JFK assassination story and history.
Frederik Logevall- Professor Logevall is a history professor at Harvard, and the author of several books, including one on the Viet Nam war. The most recent biography of JFK of the many written, was by Professor Logevall in 2020 — JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956. I highly recommend it. I argue that JFK is a casualty of the Cold War. Here is Logevall recently writing about the American architect of our Cold War strategy, George Kennan.
The biography was the first volume of a two volume series covering JFK’s entire life. I have exchanged emails with the author several times. I recently wrote about some of them. Other than initially thanking him for his biographical work, I continued to email (pester) him about Volume two after reading an interview with the Harvard Crimson in September of 2020 and the answer he provided on how he plans to address JFK’s assassination in Volume two of his biography (1956–1963). He told me he will address it because his many readers have asked him to do so.
Logevall plans to spend a small portion of Volume 2 attempting to explain “why Oswald did what he did.” Since much has come to light about Oswald in 60 years, I suggested he either not weigh in on the “who shot John angle” of the assassination, or he carefully consider all the information available on the subject before doing so. I told him going there in JFK’s biography would involve either crawling down the rabbit hole of conspiracy or his historical complicity in covering up the false historical narrative of the Warren Commission.
I am not a biographer or historian, but believe that in covering the professional relationships JFK had while in the Senate and as POTUS, and while covering his beliefs and actions as POTUS, Logevall could provide the most recent writings on the Why of JFK’s killing in Volume two, (all murderers have a motive, even though the Warren commission never came up with one for Oswald) as James Douglas did with his book, without proclaiming a historical verdict in the matter of who shot John.
As Logevall pointed out to me, biographies are about the life of a person, not necessarily a review of their death and the cause of it. My own view is that if one’s death was caused because of how they lived and acted in the world, i.e they were murdered because of this, then the nature of their death and killers is relevant in a biography, particularly when considering counterfactuals about their life had they not died when they did, in the manner they did. He may very well write the last biography of the 35th POTUS and what he will say in Volume 2, covering the years 1956–1963, will be very important, particularly when coming from an established historian from Harvard, JFK’s alma mater.
Jefferson Morley — Morley’s story is interesting from several perspectives. He is a “Washington author and veteran journalist (Washington Post and others) whose novelistic non-fiction books explore untold chapters in the history of the American nation.” He has authored three books on the CIA: Scorpions’ Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate (about Richard Nixon and Deputy CIA Director Richard Helms) — here is an excerpt from that book, featuring the key assassination-related dialog where Nixon threatens Helms seeking information on the assassination, the “who shot john” angle; The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton; and Our Man in Mexico (about CIA Mexico Station Chief Winston Scott).
He runs the web site and substack JFKFacts, he is on the Board of the Mary Ferrel Foundation, a key JFK assassination research web site that has been involved in a lawsuit over the JFK Records Collection Act of 1992, and Morley himself has sued the CIA and written a short book about the experience.
As this detailed article by journalist Scott Sayare in NY Magazine on Morley highlights, he has committed 30 years of his life to covering this story. The article hints that this work may have taken a toll on his personal life. I know whenever the subject comes up around my friends or family, including my own wife of forty years, they roll their eyes and tell me “not again!” I have occasionally joined Jeff’s weekly zoom call to hear the latest in this ongoing story that now appears to be the primary focus of his professional journalistic career. Here is Morley’s essay on the occasion of the 50th anniversary.
Morley also presented at the Wecht symposium on 11/17/2023 and presented the history of his work regarding investigative journalism on the Kennedy Assassination, his three books, and showed how and why the story evolved and changed from the time he first looked at it. Along the way, Jeff did a great job of incorporating Bob Dylan’s Murder Most Foul song, along with George Orwell’s famous book, 1984, and tied the story and lessons from that book, to this story by illuminating Lee Harvey Oswald’s interest in Orwell’s book, and how America’s “Ministry of Truth”, the CIA, who was opening and reading Oswald’s mail, including one to his mother, continues to control the narrative for the assassination story.
In discussing one famous line from the Dylan song:
“Greatest magic trick ever under the sun
Perfectly executed, skillfully done,”
Morley noted how it was not perfect, given the many symposiums and all the work the past 60 years questioning the presented narrative, but acknowledged that it was in fact skillfully done.
Morley also addressed the students in the audience (the symposium was held at Duquesne University) and how the “old people” in the audience and working this story will soon be gone, and how this history is their history too and they will need to accept the “hand off” from all of those that have spent so much time doing the investigation and research to provide Historical Revisionism for this most important American story.
William (Bill) Kelly — Journalist, Researcher for Citizens Against Political Assassinations, and owner of JFKCounterCoup and JFKCounterCoup2 sites. After extensive original research, Kelly has developed a working theory of the mechanism of how the operation of the assassination was conducted. From that, one can begin to develop who the sponsors of this operation might have been, i.e. who the conspiratorial cabal was, i.e. naming names. It was a Covert, Black Operation, repurposing already existing plans to assassinate Fidel Castro, and re-directing these plans to Kennedy in Dallas (after failing to do so in Tampa, LA and Chicago).
The tweaked Dealey Plaza Operational Plan included elements of other CIA operations: Pathfinder, ZR Rifle (Castro assassination plans), Northwoods (Joint Chiefs false flag plan rejected by JFK), CIA-studied Valkyrie (the failed plot to kill Hitler, see 2008 movie with Tom Cruise), and Mockingbird (CIA program to control the media/press and narratives). Much of Kelly’s research involves understanding the operations — the means and methods and language of Intelligence Covert Operations. As Kelly has said, the Dealey Plaza Operation was a plan, not a plot. Former CIA man and Watergate burglar, and deathbed confessor E. Howard Hunt called it “The Big Event.” That insight and those writings alone make Kelly’s work very important. There have been many books written about the history of the CIA and intelligence agencies.
They conduct operations for reasons, they work for their sponsors or “stakeholders”, using the language preferred in government service today. As John Perkins has written, the CIA are the “Jackals” of a three pronged approach of the post WWII American Empire. They are brought in when diplomatic persuasion is insufficient, and before military action is used as the last resort. Corporate sponsors love the power they wield, with plausible deniability, acting as agents on their behalf. They perfectly marry the overworld with the underworld and can “out-mob” the global network of organized crime because that network is often in service to intelligence agencies globally, but does not have militaries backing them up. The CIA’s role for America is as a key player in a “Great Game”, which they play everywhere, and the one in Cuba had blowback for the 35th President and the world.
The “motives were piling up” to remove JFK. He was dead man walking, and he knew it, and courageously faced it. The Kennedys are fans of poetry. James Douglass’s account of two poems, one quoting Abraham Lincoln — “I know there is a God — and I see a storm coming. If he has a place for me, I believe that I am ready, ” and particularly the one recited by the young Caroline Kennedy, during a meeting with the National Security Council, rendezvous with Death, are incredibly moving.
When a covert operation is conducted, it can appear as Bob Dylan wrote about as a “magic trick”, but the Divine Skein (Sun Tzu)is another term that is used. A great example of what this kind of operation would look like is the 1973 movie, “The Sting,” with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. This movie was based on the book The Big Con — The Story of the Confidence Man, which was taught to all CIA agents in their training. I wish Kelly would take everything he has written on his site and turn it into a book or documentary or play or song!.
John Simkin British historian, author, who created the Spartacus Educational history site, with extensive short biographies of key people related to the assassination.
David Talbot — Talbot is an “American journalist, author, activist and independent historian. Talbot is known for his books about the “hidden history” of U.S. power and the liberal movements to change America, as well as his public advocacy. He was also the founder and former editor-in-chief of the pioneering web magazine, Salon. Talbot founded Salon in 1995. The magazine gained a large following and broke several major national stories”.
Talbot’s two best known books are Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, 2007, and The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government, 2015. I’ve read both of these and recommend them highly. Talbot still writes and speaks about this topic and will soon have his own substack.
James W. Douglass He is a Christian Theologian, peace activist, and author of JFK and the Unspeakable — Why He Died and Why It Matters, 2008, which many believe is one of the best books written on the assassination. I’ve read it and highly recommend it. Douglas has given numerous talks discussing this book. Here is one from October 2008 at St Bonaventure University.
He is a strong proponent of the view, and makes the historical case that JFK was “turning towards peace” with the enemies of the US (USSR, Cuba) at the height of the war, and because of this, was murdered by his domestic enemies, as JFK’s wife Jacqueline Bovier Kennedy Onassis and brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy believed, along with son JFK Jr. and nephew RFK Jr. Douglass’ entire book is a detailed discussion of motive and means for the murderers and murder of JFK.
James (Jim) DiEugenio — DiEugenio is the author of multiple books on the assassination, is the creator and curator of the Kennedys and King web site, and has been an advisor and script writer for several of Oliver Stone’s documentaries. He has in depth knowledge of the assassination, the Kennedy presidency, and associated people. He has his critics, see Fred Litwin who he has responded to.
DiEugenio also spoke at the Wecht Symposium on 11/17/2023 and presented on the impact of JFK’s foreign policy, how he moved from Truman’s Cold War policy to FDR’s, and how this approach to foreign policy ended with his death. LBJ was in the Truman camp and he showed the evolution and victory of neocon foreign policy from within the Democratic party, in the person of Washington Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson, and how this policy has stayed not only in the Nixon/Ford/Reagan/Bush Administrations, but continued with Clinton/Obama/Clinton/Biden. The “what if” question, or counterfactuals, loom large in his presentation but shows the impact of the assassination of not only JFK but also RFK. This story is covered in Monica Wiesek’s book, which DiEugenio reviewed, as well as Jefferey Sach’s book.
Russ Baker “is an American author, and investigative journalist. Baker is the editor-in-chief and founder of the nonprofit news website WhoWhatWhy. Earlier in his career he has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and The Village Voice.”
He wrote the book Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. I read it and highly recommend it. George H.W.Bush was one of the few Americans that could not immediately recall exactly where he was and what he was doing when he learned of the assassination of JFK.
During his eulogy of the 38th POTUS, and Warren Commission member, Gerald Ford, former CIA Director Bush had a “tell” when talking about when a “deluded gunman assassinated President Kennedy”(go to 30 minute mark).
Bush (nervously? uncontrollably?) grinned, at a funeral, speaking of the assassination of a former President.
He assured us the nation turned to a “select handful of others to make sense of that madness, and the conspiracy theorists can say what they will, but the Warren Commission report will always have the final definitive say on this tragic matter. Why? Because Gerry Ford put his name on it.” Note that Bush’s own “fingerprints of intelligence” were not on that report, but a then dead man’s was and he trumpeted it at his funeral and wanted to again codify this American fiction in front of all of the key leaders from government, along with the rest of the world. He could not hide his lyin eyes, and we can thank Youtube for memorializing this facade.
Oliver Stone — “is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone is known as a controversial but acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam war, and American politics to musical biopics and crime dramas.” Stone is a U.S. veteran of the Viet Nam war (E-3?), earning the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. His films include the film JFK, which prompted Congress to pass the JFK Assassination Records Act, and the 2021 documentaries JFK: Destiny Betrayed, and JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass. It was from Stone, in an appearance on Bill Maher’s show, that I learned about the James Douglass book.
Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. — the nephew of JFK and son of Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He is an environmental lawyer and currently an Independent candidate running for the Presidency in the 2024 election. I wrote about his campaign earlier this year. I believe RFK Jr. is the only living descendent of JFK, RFK, or other children or grandchildren of Joseph P. Sr and Rose Kennedy to publicly speak out about their assassinations.
However, there was another Kennedy that is reported to have been on the same page as RFK Jr., his cousin, the late John F. Kennedy Jr, who died in a plane crash in 1999. In a published book written by his then teenage girlfriend, now artist, Margaret “Meg” Azzoni, he communicated how he intended to run for president to bring those to justice that killed his father. The hard to find book is titled Eleven Letters and a Poem: By John F. Kennedy Jr to Meg Azzoni.
One of the poems was titled Penitent Society which called for justice in the death of his father. Others have reported that he would use his magazine “George” as a platform to begin publishing information about his father’s killers (George, a magazine about politics could have been named after POTUS #1 Washington or perhaps the grinning #41 Bush), and at the time of his death, was going to enter politics. Of course, there are questions surrounding the circumstances of JFK Jr.s plane crash. Of course the QAnoners all these years later said he was alive and would join with Trump to save America, muddying the picture of an actual conspiracy with their own fantasy.
Speaking of muddying the waters, RFK Jr. claims, like his father did about JFK, that the CIA was involved in both their murders. He is controversial not only for this claim, but for his other claims and advocacy, specifically about vaccines, including for COVID. His candidacy is also controversial with his own family, with many of them disavowing him and his campaign and medical claims. If he were to be elected, I believe he is likely to reverse President Joe Biden’s order to rescind the full release of all JFK assassination records and perhaps may call for a Congressional inquiry into the case, much as his father would have done had he not been assassinated himself, and been elected in 1968. As Jeff Morley noted in the Washington Post, the CIA has won this battle for now.
Lastly, given the violent death of his Uncle, Father, and Cousin, with two of them having sought justice in the assassination of JFK, you would think POTUS Biden, who has a bust of RFK Sr on his desk, along with DHS, would strongly consider Secret Service Protection for RFK Jr, for what little good it did JFK.
David Lifton — “was an American author who wrote the 1981 bestseller Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, a work that puts forth evidence that there was a conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy.” I read this book when it came out, it blew my mind at the age of 26. Lifton was the first person to break the story of manipulation and alteration of the physical evidence — JFK’s body (the best evidence in a murder, see CSI), and bullets, presidential limousine from the crime scene, at Dallas and at Bethesda Naval Hospital, including autopsy records and photos, were manipulated and altered. His work led to further analysis by Doug Horne in the work of the Assassination Records Review board work in the 1990s.
Peter Dale Scott — “is a Canadian-born poet, academic, and former diplomat. A son of the Canadian poet and constitutional lawyer F. R. Scott and painter Marian Dale Scott, he is best known for his critiques of deep politics and American foreign policy since the era of the Vietnam War. Although trained as a political scientist, Scott holds an atypical academic appointment as a poet-scholar in an English department.” He has written numerous books on the JFK assassination, and other “Deep Events” that have structurally common components to the assassination, and these can be found at his web site. He strongly influenced political scientist Aaron Good, whose book American Exception — Empire and the Deep State, I reviewed, and who now has a podcast dedicated to this theme.
Doug Horne — “Doug Horne served as Chief Analyst for Military Records on the staff of the Assassination Records Review Board during the 1990s; the ARRB was responsible for the declassification of a great many of the assassnination related files, including ones found on the Mary Ferrel Foundation website. Horne played a major role in the Review Board’s work on the medical evidence in the JFK assassination, preparing questions for depositions and helping elicit some stunning testimony from medical witnesses and writing several important internal research memos on the issues raised.” He has written several books and he can be found on YouTube and at the Future of Freedom Foundation web site. with extensive discussion of the medical evidence. Horne also wrote a 2014 book that spells out the why of JFK’s killing, JFK’s War With the National Security Establishment — Why JFK Was Assassinated.
Jacob Hornberger — “is an American attorney, author, and politician. He is the founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation. He was a candidate for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination in 2000, as well as a candidate for the United States Senate election in Virginia in 2002.” He is the author of six books, four regarding assassination and the other two regarding libertarianism. Hornberger’s work also postulates that Kenndy’s death was an execution from the “National Security State.” As a libertarian, he uses this and subsequent events as a reason to significantly curtail bloated government, which includes funding for National Security.
John M. Newman — “is an American author and retired Major (O-4) in the United States Army. Newman was on the faculty at the University of Maryland from 1995 to 2012, and was a Political Science professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia since January 2013.” Newman is now retired. Newman has written a book about JFK and Vietnam (1992), Oswald and the CIA (1995), and Four Volumes dedicated to the assassination, released in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022. While I have not read any of Newman’s books, I have heard several presentations, including his most recent one on 11/17/2023, where he presents the findings of his research and published work. You can learn more at his site.
Newman’s presentation at the 2023 Wecht Symposium on 11/17/2023,, titled “The Assassination of President Kennedy, Understanding the Cold War Context,” was presented in one hour and includes his narrative covering his historical revisionist conclusions from his extensive research that was presented in his six books. The key findings from his briefing are included in the graphic below, which were taken from his slides.
Newman shows how JFK was at war with his administration, specifically the Military leadership and the CIA, regarding American Cold War foreign policy, specifically the use of aggressive first strike attack (first mover advantage) using nuclear weapons, against the US Cold War adversaries Cuba and the USSR. He refers to the end point desired by the US military as Armageddon, and how JFK spent his entire administration stopping this move towards Armageddon, how JFK was essentially warned that he needed to accept this path or face the consequences personally. JFK knew these consequences, and like the brave soldier he was in WWII, faced this challenge, accepting this fate, which was death by assassination. Newman provides greater historical specificity regarding the policies, plans, actions and fights around this struggle, and in essence agrees with James Douglass on his assertion from his book.
The assassination of JFK was an extra-constitutional, regime change operation via military Coup d’état, implemented operationally by rogue elements of the CIA (compartmentalized components). This conflict was understood by key leaders in power and the press and it was commonly understood what the assassination represented, and how the American public must never know about this extra-constitutional, treasonous change of power. If Newman’s full presentation is posted on-line, it is important viewing. This of course would be the ultimate in Historical Revisionism, but a necessary revision. I say Americans were to never know, but a reading of the foreign press of nearly every other country shows they believed that this was a political assassination conducted by JFK’s domestic enemies.
As noted by Eric Ambler, in A Coffin for Dimitrios, “The important thing to know about an assassination or an attempted assassination is not who fired the shot, but who paid for the bullet.”
Newman also discussed how this push from the Military and CIA also existed in the Eisenhower administration, resulting in his famous Military Industrial Complex speech at the end of his administration, but as a former 5-star general (O-10), the military would defer to Eisenhower and he essentially ignored these pushes for nuclear war, vs his having “only” allowed the Dulles brothers use of covert operations to aggressively pursue American Cold War objectives while he was POTUS. Even JFK, when speaking to Eisenhower, referred to him as “General.” JFK was only a LT (O-2) when in the Navy, and the military brass definitely considered him a lightweight not deserving of their respect. Newman also discussed how LBJ also stood up to the military regarding nuclear war, and instead gave them Viet Nam and that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was the “Northwoods” false flag pretext finally used for the Viet Nam war escalation.
Cyril Wecht — “is an American forensic pathologist. He has been the president of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American College of Legal Medicine, and headed the board of trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine. He is perhaps best known for his criticism of the Warren Commission’s findings concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy.” For the 60th anniversary, Wecht sponsored the #jfk60 symposium in conjunction with CAPA in Pittsburgh, 11/15–17/2023. There have been similar gatherings every year for nearly 30 years.
Vince Palamara — A long time researcher, known as “The Secret Service Expert.” “Vincent Palamara was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Duquesne University with a degree in Sociology. Although not even born when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Vince brings fresh eyes to an old case. In fact, Vince would go on to study the largely overlooked actions — and inactions — of the United States Secret Service in unprecedented detail, as well as achieving a world’s record in the process, having interviewed and corresponded with over seventy former agents (the House Select Committee on Assassinations had the old record of 46 with a 6 million dollar budget and subpoena power from Congress), not to mention many surviving family members, White House aides, and even quite a few Parkland and Bethesda medical witnesses for a corresponding project.”
The result was the first of his five books, Survivor’s Guilt; The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President, a very successful self-published book that sold thousands of copies in the 1990’s before becoming a free online e-book in 2006.” He has a YouTube channel, he blogs, and is on X (Twitter). Vince claims that his most recent, Honest Answers about the Murder of President John F. Kennedy: A New Look at the JFK Assassination Paperback — (2021), is his best book.
Vincent Salandria — Former Philadelphia lawyer who early on questioned the Warren Commission. He wrote and spoke around his essay titled — “The JFK Assassination: A False Mystery Concealing State Crimes.” Late in his life, and the life of Arlen Specter, Specter (inventor of the “magic bullet” theory) requested they have lunch together and they did.
Thom Hartmann — “is an American radio personality, author, former psychotherapist, businessman, and progressive political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, since 2003 and hosted a nightly television show, The Big Picture, between 2010 and 2017.”
Hartmann has written thirty books, only two of which have I read, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight (1997) , and The Prophet’s Way: A Guide to Living in the Now (1998), both of which I recommend. He did write a book on the assassination, Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination (2008), which I have not read. He claims the Mafia killed JFK, which I believe is wrong. It is correct to say as a partner of the CIA, specifically in Cuba, they were involved, but Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancanna did not get to finish telling Congress their side of the story because unfortunately, they were murdered just before they could.
Roger Stone — “is an American conservative political consultant, lobbyist, and convicted felon. Stone is most remembered for the Robert Mueller special council investigation, and his involvement with and connections to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a political consultant for the campaign of 45th U.S. president Donald Trump.” Before that, he advised Richard Nixon. He also wrote a book on the JFK assassination, The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ, blaming LBJ. I have not read it, but included him here because of my TDS.
I believe LBJ was an accessory after the fact, and likely had prior knowledge of the assassination. Others, like Stone and Barr McClellan, believe LBJ was the mastermind. As with the CIA studied Valkyrie plan, the coup planners needed to know that the new government had their back and would support the regime change. “They all had to hang together or they would hang separately.”
Peter Dale Scott has referred to the “Day one” cover story (Castro did it this means nuclear war !) vs the “Day 2” cover story (lone nut Oswald did it). See Remember the Maine False Flag for war against Spain for historical context, which gained America its base in Cuba! I do believe LBJ quickly closed ranks on Day 2 story too, as he told Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, to prevent the death of 40 M Americans in a nuclear war, which his (JFK’s) Joint Chiefs wanted and had wanted since 1961.
So, whatever one thinks of LBJ, we have him to thank for keeping us out of nuclear war after the assassination, but unfortunately his deal with the devil resulted in LBJ telling the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Christmas Eve 1963, “Just let me get elected, and then you can have your war.” (Stanley Karnow, Vietnam, A History, p326). So “only” over 3.8M dead American and Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vs 40M in a nuclear war with the USSR. Using an ethics of the value of human life says LBJ made the right moral decision, even if he did so in service to his own political ends and lining his own pocket, and the pockets of the war industry.
Barr McClellan — “is an American entrepreneur, lawyer and author who became widely known by his 2003 book Blood, Money & Power — How LBJ Killed JFK. He used to work in the law firm of LBJ’s attorney, Edward A. Clark. He also wrote the 2015 book The Verdict: Justice for John Kennedy, Justice for America. Interestingly, even though released in 2015, I can not find this on-line anywhere. He has written his own bio about his career and search for JFK justice. — JFK : LBJ. I have not read either book, but heard him speak on this. Based on his having worked for LBJ’s law firm, he has the more credible story on LBJ vs Stone, in my opinion. The Bobby Baker scandal was about to get LBJ indicted and removed from the 1964 Democratic Presidential ticket. Since LBJ was a ”gambling man, darlin”, he knew his odds of becoming the President required that he hit the jackpot on 11/22/1963.
Robert D. Morrow — Was an engineer that was involved with the CIA from 1958–1964 in Cuba, was involved in the Bay of Pigs operation and the assassination of JFK, and published two books — the first was Betrayal: A Reconstruction of Certain Clandestine Events from the Bay of Pigs to the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (1976). The book was a partially fictionalized account of what Morrow experienced between 1958 and 1964. The second was First Hand Knowledge — How I Participated in the CIA-Mafia Murder of John F. Kennedy (1992). Here is a review of that book. I have read neither of these. Morrow would today be called a whistleblower. He is far from the only one regarding the JFK Assassination. Many died, some lived. His credibility and accuracy have been called into question. He is 93 years old.
Robert P. Morrow — Not a typo, he is another guy with the same name, but younger. Former Travis County Chair of the GOP and blogger on Kennedy Assassination. I’ve seen his name on comment boards. This has caused confusion to some in the JFK Assassination research community.
Mark Groubert Groubert is a “an investigative reporter/features writer for the LA Weekly (Village Voice Media) focusing on addiction, recovery, and the drug policy war.” He has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows, has made three documentaries for HBO. He also has an extensive collection of books on the JFK assassination, is very knowledgeable on many aspects of this story, and is quite opinionated and presents himself as an expert. He and Eric Hunley now host a YouTube show “America’s Untold Stories” which covers a number of issues including the Kennedy Assassination.
These shows can be entertaining, especially the short sound bites, which are easier to take rather than having to sit through hours of Mark blathering, while ringing the bell as people send them money. A number of people are donating regularly to these guys and it could be the viewers primary source of historical information, based on comments made for each episode by paying viewers. Groubert actually called General Curtis LeMay America’s greatest general!
Because I have TDS, I have to admit that these two guys are also MAGA-Trump faithful and like many of those supporters, have taken the JFK conspiracy and continued it forward to many more, all inflicted by the Deep State (not that far from Peter Dale Scott). But this means the MAGA faithful have also produced and believe in QAnon and Pizzagate, among other conspiracy theories. I have joked that these MAGA-QAnon conspiracy theorists have given the rest of us JFK conspiracy theorists a bad name. Since switching from running for President as a Democrat, to running as an Independent, Groubert now believes RFK Jr. is a “Deep State” candidate, with this move being the latest effort among many, to stop the MAGA movement led by Trump. To quote an often used phrase by Groubert on his show, “you can’t make this up, Bro.”
Mark Shaw — I actually did not remember Mark until writing this essay, and his talk at the Commonwealth Club that I linked to in the introduction. I was familiar with the book he wrote about RFK and Marilyn Monroe and knew of the Dorothy Killgallen story, but his greatest contribution may be his reporting on the dissent of Warren Commission members Senator Richard Russell (D, GA) and John Sherman Cooper (R, Ky), and Congressman Hale Boggs (D, LA), with their dissent not being included in the final report, but expunged by J. Edgar Hoover. His work has been criticized by other researchers, see here, and here.
Sean Fetter — new two volume book, released 11/14/2023 — Under Cover of Night: The United States Air Force and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Published by Arlington Press, LLC. He claims to be a historian, I only found a mostly empty LinkedIn profile. Here is his Twitter-X profile. Everything about this is vague as I publish this. Reading his twitter tweets, and information about the publishing company, it appears that his marketing and promotion strategy for this new book is extreme secrecy and build up anticipation followed by what exactly? TBD. However, at the Wecht Symposium on 11/17/2023, Doug Horne reports that Fetter claims he interviewed 50 retired USAF officers. For What It is Worth, I do believe USAF General Curtis LeMay was involved, but I guess I will have to find and read these books to see if Fetter’s research agrees with and confirms that.
Sometime Killers like to leave their signature behind. Bill Kelly had an interesting write-up about the sling on the rifle found at the depository, or one of them anyway, and who designed it. “As Sylvia Meagher notes: “Well, it turns out that the ‘homemade’ leather sling on the TSBD 40- inch Mannlicher — Carcano was a sling from a United States Air Force holster kit. More specifically it was a holster sling for the Model 13 Aircrew snubnose revolvers made specifically for the Strategic Air Command (SAC) under specifications requested by USAF General Curtis LeMay.””
Supporters of the Warren Commission and debunkers of Conspiracy Theorists
There are also many people that have spent much time supporting the Warren Commission and attempting to debunk and discredit any and all conspiracy theorists. Here are a few of them, leaving out the Media, see Mal Hyman book below or talk to Alec Baldwin and Rob Reiner for the Media continuing the Big Lie.
Vincent Bugliosi — major prosecutor, known for Manson trial and his JFK authorship. Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (2007). Another go-to resource by the media. Here is Bill Kelly discussing him.
Gerald Posner — Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (1993, 2003). Posner is a favorite go-to guy for the lone nut theory. Lots of discussion about him and his motives and sponsors, here is a series of them from Bill Kelly.
Fred Litwin — On The Trail of Delusion
Phillip Shenon — Often cited, NY Times correspondent, author of A Cruel and Shocking Act- The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination. Bill Kelly on Shenon.
Movies, Documentaries and Podcasts (2)
Four Died Trying, released 11/22/2023.
Who Killed JFK? A 12-part podcast which appears on iHeart Radio, by Rob Reiner and Soledad O’Brien. The 1st episode was 11/8/2023 and each subsequent episode will be released weekly. Reiner originally wanted to make a movie but could not do so, and discusses this with Jefferson Morley on 11/14/2023.
JFK — What The Doctors Saw — released 11/13/2023 on Paramount Plus. . NY Times review, 11/16/2023. Here is a review of these two in the SF Chronicle.
The Assassination and Mrs. Paine, documentary, 2022 Review by Jim DiEugenio
JFK: Destiny Betrayed, 2021. Oliver Stone, 4-part documentary.
JFK, 1991, Narrative account of the assassination based on Jim Garrison’s investigation. Oliver Stone. Was the catalyst for the passing of the JFK Assassination Records Collection act of 1992. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary, there are organized screenings of this movie. Here are notes from one held 11/19/2023 at the University of Wisconsin.
JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass (2021). Documentary, Oliver Stone and Jim DeEugenio.
Seven Days in May (1964), based on the book of the same name, which JFK was asked by friends to read and comment on the scenario from the book, and did so overnight. He remarked to friends the next morning “it could happen,” that the scenario would be possible, but would require a young, untested President who would have had a Bay of Pigs, which would be strike one, then a 2nd Bay of Pigs (Cuban Missile Crisis), which would be strike two, but then a third Bay of Pigs (Nuclear Test Ban Treaty — Peace Speech to USSR), and they would then have to act, but stating it would not happen “on his watch.” He worked with Hollywood to help the movie be made. It was supposed to be released in the fall of 1963 but was delayed until 1964 with JFK’s assassination.
Executive Action, 1973. A Hollywood movie about the assassination of JFK.
Parkland — “Is a 2013 American historical drama film that recounts the chaotic events that occurred following the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy.”
End of Innocence — the JFK Assassination, John Young Podcast.
The Killing Floor, (2022), by Rich Negrete, based on book ‘The Girl on the Stairs’ by author Barry Ernest
Was President JFK Really Killed by the CIA, The Infographics Show, 4 & ½ hour version.
Ranker Films Listing of Top JFK Assassination Documentaries with links to view:
1- The Men Who Killed Kennedy — 1988 British documentary that was banned from US TV. Now available on YouTube.
2- Evidence of Revision (2006) (Baldwin’s favorite).
3- JFK: 3 Shots that change America
4- The Garrison Tapes
5- Four Days in November
6- Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?
7- JFK — The Case For Conspiracy
8- The Kennedy Assassination — Beyond Conspiracy
9- The Kennedy Assaassination — 24 Hours After
10- The Mysterious Death of Number 35
Books
Church Committee Reports (1976): Investigating Assassination: A History of CIA Murder Plots Involving Foreign Leaders
Frederik Logevall, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956. (2020)
Monika Wiesek — America’s Last President: What the World Lost When It Lost John F. Kennedy (2022).
Jim DiEugenio’s review of this book. Wiesek on the Out of the Blank Podcast.
Scorpions’ Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate (about Richard Nixon and Deputy Director Richard Helms),
The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton,
Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, 2007
The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government, 2015.
James W. Douglass -JFK and the Unspeakable — Why He Died and Why It Matters, 2008
Destiny Betrayed, Second Edition: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case, 1992
The JFK Assassination — The Evidence Today (2018)
JFK Revisited — Through The Looking Glass, (2022)
David Lifton — Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (1981)
Barry Ernest and David Lifton — The Girl on the Stairs: The Search for a Missing Witness to the JFK Assassination (2021) Reviewed by Jim DiEugenio.
Russ Baker -Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. (2008)
JFK and Vietnam: Deception, Intrigue, and the Struggle for Power (1992, 2017)
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Where Angels Tread Lightly: The Assassination of President Kennedy, Volume I, 2015
Countdown to Darkness: The Assassination of President Kennedy, vol. II (2017).
Into the Storm: The Assassination of President Kennedy, vol. III (2019).
Uncovering Popov’s Mole: The Assassination of President Kennedy, vol. IV (2022)
JFK’s War With the National Security Establishment — Why JFK Was Assassinated, Doug Horne, 9/10/2014.
Survivor’s Guilt: The Secret Service and the Failure to Protect President Kennedy
Anthony Summers, Not In Your Lifetime (1980, 1998, 2013)
Jeffrey Sachs — To Move The World — JFK’s quest for Peace (2014) Sach’s interview with Chris Hedges on this.
Joseph McBride — Into the Nightmare: My Search for the Killers of President John F. Kennedy and Officer J. D. Tippit (2013)
Allen R Warren Cold War Era Podcast list of books
Bill Kelly’s Best Books on the Assassination (as of 2015)
Mal Jay Hyman — Burying the Lead: The Media and the JFK Assassination (2019) Reviewed by Jim DeEugenio.
Legend: The Secret of Lee Harvey Oswald Hardcover By Edward J. Epstein 1978
Deception — The Invisible War Between the KGB and CIA, 1989
The Assassination Chronicles: Inquest, Counterplot, and Legend, 1992
Jim Garrison — On the Trail of the Assassins: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Murder of President Kennedy (1988)
Peter Dale Scott — The American Deep State: Big Money, Big Oil, and the Struggle for U.S. Democracy (2017)
Dick Russell — Author of 15 books, environmental journalist. On the Trail of the JFK Assassins: A Groundbreaking Look at America’s Most Infamous Conspiracy (2008)
Tom O’Neil — Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties (2020)
Sylvia Meagher — Accessories After the Fact: The Warren Commission, the Authorities, and the Report on the JFK Assassination (2013)
Six Seconds in Dallas — A Microstudy of the Kennedy Assassination (1967),
Sean Fetter — Under Cover of Night: The United States Air Force and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. (Nov, 2023)
H.P. Albarelli Jr. — Coup in Dallas: The Decisive Investigation into Who Killed JFK (2021)
Peter Janney — Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace (2012)
Frederick Hitz — The Great Game: The Myths and Reality of Espionage (2005)
Joan Mellen — The Great Game in Cuba: How the CIA Sabotaged Its Own Plot to Unseat Fidel Castro (2013)
Robert J. Groden -JFK: Absolute Proof: New Evidence of Conspiracy in the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Volume 3 of Killing of a President, 2013.
Mark Lane, — Rush To Judgement, (1966, 2013)
Web Sites
Ratical.org — Internet Research site since 1995, covering many topics, including the JFK Assassination.
Spartacus Educational — history reference site created by John Simkin.
Song — Ask Not What Your Country Did to Him, Jim Loving, 2013
Link at Soundcloud (with apologies to people who appreciate good singing and songwriting and quality recording. It was an ungraded class with only student feedback, for technically my 1st and only song ever written and recorded. I have no copyright. Any songwriter that wants to use it, go ahead, it needs lots of work).
Ballad form, 4/4 time, AABA or ABCB, building
1st Verse
There was a president in nineteen sixty three (1963)
Turning towards peace, his name was Kennedy
Making peace with his enemy Russia
The Test Ban Treaty was signed in America
Chorus
Ask Not!, What your country did to him
You’ll learn the truth of why it all had to end
Ask Not!, What your eyes can plainly see
You’ll be branded, conspiracy
2nd Verse
His generals sought a nuclear war
“Seven Days in May”, JFK knew the score
Bringing troops home from Viet Nam
The Diem killers said ‘I’ll be damned’
Chorus
Ask Not!, What your country did to him
You’ll learn the truth of why it all had to end
Ask Not!, What your eyes can plainly see
You’ll be branded, conspiracy
3rd Verse
He needed votes, so he traveled to Dallas
Held in contempt with passion and malice
He was shot, in a cross-fire fusillade (enfilade!)
Set-up, in an open motorcade
Bridge
The “Big Event” was a well -planned plot
What might have been, mythic history forgot
Chorus:
Ask Not, What your country did to him
You’ll learn the truth of why it all had to end
Ask Not!, What your eyes can plainly see
You’ll be branded, conspiracy
Chorus-revised:
Ask Not!, Do you want to know the truth?
Regime change, without the voting booth!
Ask Not!, do you know your history?
Ignore the past, truth’s betrayal… your destiny!
Epilogue
In the closing remarks on 11/17/2023 at the Wecht Symposium on the Kennedy assassination, David Talbot referenced the great Harvard Historian and advisor to President John F. Kennedy, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. as saying “history is an ongoing argument.” Schlesinger, who died in 2007, also wrote historical accounts of JFK’s presidency, “A Thousand Days,” and about Robert F. Kenndy, “Robert Kennedy and His Times.” In a 1992 article Schlesinger wrote for the Atlantic magazine about Christopher Columbus, he quoted Oscar Wilde — “The one duty we owe to history, is to rewrite it.”
Earlier this year, I wrote a long essay on history, what it is and its importance to a thriving society and democracy. In historiography, the reinterpretation of a historical account is referred to as Historical Revisionism. Certainly today, in 2023, there is much historical revisionism underway, some of it good, some of it perhaps not so good. These include the 1619 project, the post-modern critical theory view being taught that the world and its history is a story of oppressors and the oppressed (which IS a partial truth, now illiberally weaponized), that Israel is a colonizer, and Hamas slaughtering innocent Israelis were heroic and justified.
There are also teachings of “honest history” that looks more closely at the founding of the US nation, the treatment of native Americans, women, and African American slaves, along with post Civil War Jim Crow laws and practices, leading up to the Civil Rights activism of President Kennedy.
These stories have all been taught one way for a long time, but those stories are changing. It took historians 195 years before they acknowledged that our third President Thomas Jefferson had children with his mistress slave Sally Hemings, who he legally owned as his personal property. A new narrative for historical events is always possible and usually necessary, as Schlesinger points out.
The ongoing story of the energy, passion and tenacity of the many researchers and students of the Kennedy assassination, his presidency, and legacy, is to update the historical record to tell the truth about what really happened from 1960–1963 and afterwards.
In his remarks at the Wecht Symposium on 11/17/2023, Jim DiEugenio noted that not only has the historical record been wrong about the assassination of JFK, it has been wrong about who he was, what he represented, and what he was attempting to do when he died. The historical record should show that what he was doing as President was the reason for his death. It was the motive. In Rob Reiner’s new podcast, Who Killed JFK, in the very first episode the popular and well known historian Jon Meacham said “the JFK of 1960 is not the JFK of 1961, 1962 or 1963.”
As James Douglass noted in his book, Kennedy was turning towards peace. He asserts it is a hopeful story because JFK was willing to sacrifice himself so that others may live. As historian David M. Kennedy noted, his work as President was the same as when he captained PT 109 and saved his men, it was “selfless, heroic behavior,” but for all of humanity. He confronted the dark forces in his own government and often looked for a quote from assassinated President Lincoln for strength and inspiration — “I know there is a God — and I see a storm coming. If he has a place for me, I believe that I am ready. ” Into the Storm is the title of John Newman’s third volume on the assassination.
John Fitzerald Kennedy died in service to his country and the world. He was killed because he was doing this. That is the revision to history that many are working to bring to light and to be told. It is a hopeful story and a dark story, and it must be told. It may not be done in my lifetime, or the lifetime of major historians today, but that story will eventually be told.
On the wall at the headquarters of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, there is a quote from the Bible — “Ye Will Know The Truth and The Truth Will Set You Free.” This is not to be confused with the line the lawyer of a work colleague used to always tell him — “It is not about the truth, so stop telling it.” For me, the second quote seems to be more appropriate on the wall at CIA.
Freedom is a core value of what the United States stands for. I agree with Rob Reiner, Americans CAN handle the truth. Knowing the truth about our past will enable us all to create a better society today and in the future. Without the truth, we will not be free, and we will all perish.
In his book, The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are, Alva Noe says “art comes before science in reaching down to our very roots — those deep philosophical underpinnings that allow human beings the ability to unveil hidden truths.” In a review of this book by Adam Frank, he starts by saying the truth of art is greater than the truth of science. In this essay on aging and wisdom, novelist Anne Lamott uses the art of Bierstadt paintings to help her make sense of the world. She reflects on his use of contrasting darkness to light and how it gives hope for moving towards the light, and eventually, the truth.
For the JFK Assassination story, the artists have spoken the truth before science, represented in the form of our system of justice and congressional inquiry, and before the media and officialdom has, so we can close with the referenced artists speaking the truth.
“Someday, somewhere, someone might find out the damn truth, we better. Individual human beings have to create justice. This is not easy, because the truth often poses a threat to power. One often has to fight power at great risk to themselves. Y’ever read your Shakespeare?”
What is the truth, and where did it go?
Ask Oswald and Ruby, they oughta know
“Shut your mouth,” said a wise old owl
Business is business, and it’s a murder most foul.”
And yet,
“No one dared Disturb the sound of silence
Fools,” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you.”
“Give me a sledgehammer and give me strength
Watch the world come crumbling down
Cut me loose I seek the truth
I bet the freedom, the freedom will carry me