John Fitzgerald Kennedy (157)

Thursday, 25 June 2015 20:45

Ed Souza, Undeniable Truths

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About the first fifty pages of Undeniable Truths is pretty much undeniable. The next fifty pages are a decided mixture of truth and question marks. Most of the last 200 pages do not at all merit the title. In fact, that part is, in large measure, nothing more than conjecture. And much of that conjecture is ill-founded, concludes Jim DiEugenio.
Martin Hay reviews an article published by Haag in AFTE, about which he concludes: "It is little wonder ... that Lucien Haag limited his defense of the 'Magic' Bullet Theory to a (misleading) discussion of Governor Connally's wounds. After all, no matter how impressive his credentials and extensive his experience, there are some problems that no man can make disappear."
What could have been an important and sterling volume is seriously compromised with a lot of litter. Instead of being up there with Rakove and Muehlenbeck, it stands a couple of steps downward, with Thurston Clarke’s mixed bag of nuts, concludes Jim DiEugenio.    
This book is really an entry level book for the novice, an overview of the assassination that tries to touch all of its aspects. ... Its major themes, like the shooting sequence and the identification of the conspirators are not well constructed and some of his conclusions are not supported by the latest findings. And his criticism of Jim Garrison was unfortunate and unjustifiable. After finishing the book you are left with the impression that it was probably written in the 90s and not in 2013, writes Vasilios Vazakas.
Friday, 22 August 2014 16:46

Michael Swanson, The War State

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A valuable Big Picture book, one with many new sources for study, which bring in much fascinating information. The light [Swanson] sheds on men like Nitze and Acheson show just what hollow clowns the so-called Wise Men of the media really were. [The book] also demonstrates just how powerful and dangerous the Military Industrial Complex has become. By showing Kennedy's opposition to it, he may have also shown why Kennedy was killed, concludes Jim DiEugenio.
Monday, 11 August 2014 16:06

Jean Davison, Oswald's Game

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Oswald's Game really tells us more about the biases and obsessions of Jean Davison on the Kennedy case than it does about its ostensible subject. Which is really the worst thing one can say about a biographer, concludes Jim DiEugenio.
Monday, 21 July 2014 16:16

Jeff Greenfield, If Kennedy Lived

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The once progressive co-author of A Populist Manifesto with this book has written the worst kind of alternative history, one seriously colored by the view from the present, and more specifically, of those who won and those who lost, with a decided bias in favor of those who won, writes Jim DiEugenio.
Monday, 07 July 2014 18:57

Jeffrey Sachs, To Move The World

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    Jim DiEugenio reviews Columbia University economist and author Jeffrey Sachs' latest book, which examines Kennedy's famous 1963 American University speech.       
[Livingstone] was once a heroic pioneer in the medical evidence. His books (and Lifton's contributions, too) were invaluable introductions for me. For that I am still grateful to both. Unfortunately, I see little of value in this book, but rather lots of pointless confusion. The book should not have been written-and it should not be read, concludes David Mantik.
Taken as a whole, this is a valuable book. When coupled with Muehlenbeck's Betting on the Africans, much needed light has now been cast over the specifics of Kennedy's dealings with the Third World: how these broke with the past, and how LBJ and Nixon then returned them to their previous state, writes Jim DiEugenio.
Sunday, 13 April 2014 17:47

Robert Groden, Absolute Proof

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Bob Groden has been a true champion of the case for the public. He has devoted much of his adult life trying to show that the Warren Commission was nothing but a sham meant to conceal the true facts of Kennedy's death. His current book is a decidedly mixed bag of virtues and liabilities. But taken as a trilogy, his last three books form what is the best photo library available in book form on this case, writes Jim DiEugenio.
Wednesday, 09 April 2014 18:47

Vincent M. Palamara, Survivor's Guilt

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At the end, Palamara lists a very good chronicle of failures by the Secret Service in Dallas. It goes on for three pages. It is very provocative and even disturbing. The author uses it to crystallize the argument he has been making without being explicit about it [, concluding] that the Secret Service was not just negligent, but culpable in the assassination. With the amount of evidence in the first half of the book, it's hard to disagree with him, writes Jim DiEugenio.  
Saturday, 29 March 2014 19:10

Dale Myers, With Malice (Part 2)

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The second and concluding installment of a long and detailed critique of Myer's arguments for Oswald's culpability in the Tippit murder.
Sunday, 09 March 2014 19:00

Dale Myers, With Malice (Part 1)

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The first installment of a long and detailed critique of Myer's arguments for Oswald's culpability in the Tippit murder.
Joseph McBride replies to Dale Myer's crticisms, concluding: "I am hardly surprised to be subjected to the same basically irrelevant treatment by an author who either refuses to deal seriously with the many genuine issues of the Tippit case or is incapable of doing so, as his book and article seem to indicate."
Dallek has designed both of his books along the lines that Larry Sabato did in The Kennedy Half Century. They are not full and complete works which try and capture all nuances and tendencies in an objective manner; a manner which will actually elucidate for and enlighten the reader. Like Sabato, Dallek wishes to constrict the biography he is writing to keep Kennedy from being any kind of liberal icon, writes Jim DiEugenio.
Friday, 27 December 2013 20:35

Larry Sabato, The Kennedy Half Century

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Except for where he notes some of the problems with the JFK assassination's evidentiary record, this book is pretty much not just without distinction, but so agenda driven as to be misleading. On the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's murder, we needed a lot better, writes Jim DiEugenio.
Wednesday, 18 December 2013 11:46

Howard P. Willens, History Will Prove Us Right

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Author Martin Hay writes about Warren Commission lawyer Howard Willens and his continued belief in the conclusions of the Warren Report.

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