Here’s an interesting little book which got lost among the
plethora of stuff released last year for the 50th anniversary of the
assassination of JFK. This book, however, is a bit different than the rest.
There is no exploration of any theories surrounding the Presidents murder.
Instead, it is a portrait of a city conflicted by old money and new morals.
The book examines the 3 years between January 1960, when
Kennedy was running for President, and November 22, 1963 when he was killed.
Month by month the authors take you through what was happening in Dallas during
that time in relation to Civil Rights, and the public’s reaction to both the Bay
of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. These events helped to fuel the already
predominant view amongst conservative fringe groups that Kennedy; and his
entire administration; were closet Communists.
The main characters in this dramatic run-up to the
Presidents assassination are a veritable who’s who of the Dallas
social/political world. There is oil tycoon H.L. Hunt; who funds right wing
causes, as well as newspapers and media ads calling for the U.S. to get out of
the United Nations, and the Impeachment of Earl Warren as Justice of the
Supreme Court. The echoes of these actions in Texas were felt all across the
country. The John Birch Society was helped enormously by Hunt’s campaign of radical
rhetoric.
Disgraced Army General Edwin Walker; whom Oswald would
attempt to assassinate 6 months before he killed the President; is shown in all
his glory here. Beginning with his resignation from the Army, to his delusional
Presidential aspirations, the General is exactly the character portrayed by
Burt Lancaster in the film version of the book “Seven Days In May”; which is
almost a play by play account of what General Walker was up to.
That book was
one of Kennedy’s favorites, as it dealt with the showdown between the military
and the President over nuclear disarmament; which is exactly what he was attempting
to do. And he was meeting with the same resistance; both in and out of the
White House; as his fictional counterpart was in the book. His meltdown in
front of a Senate Committee was fascinating.
Reverend W.A. Criswell, head of the Dallas First Baptist
Church, led the country’s largest Baptist church at the time and was squarely aligned
with the segregationists in opposition to Civil Rights for Negroes. His goal
was to baptize H.L. Hunt as a way to avail himself of Hunt’s money. He was successful
in both endeavors.
Congressman Bruce Alger, an oily politico from Dallas, has a
gaggle of women who are smitten with the vitriolic speeches he makes about President
Kennedy and the menace of Civil Rights. He is known to have bedded many of
them, in spite of his own marriage.
Alger is desperate to be re-elected and courts
the right wing fringe groups to that end. He is the driving force behind the “Mink
Coat Mob” incident; in which Vice President Johnson and his wife were trapped
in a hotel lobby and threatened with violence by a mob of Dallas’ most refined
and wealthy women. When he was told that it was not safe to walk out of the
hotel he replied, “When it has become so unsafe in America that a man can’t
walk his lady across the street unmolested, I want to know about it!”
Stanley Marcus, owner of Dallas based Neiman-Marcus, spent
the years between 1960 and 1963 walking a tightrope. He doesn’t want to lose
business, but he doesn’t want to knuckle under to the right wing fringe groups.
He brokers a deal where-by his store will allow Negroes to sit in his
restaurant alongside of white patrons. He then convinces other businessmen to
do the same. Dallas is quietly integrated.
Ted Dealey is the editor and owner of the Dallas Morning
News; a fiery right wing daily. Dealey Plaza was named for his father who
founded the paper. In the 1920’s the KKK moved its national headquarters from
Dallas after the elder Dealey convinced the city’s fathers that it was not good
for their image as an up and coming city. But the younger Ted Dealey is in
league with some of the more racist and conservative elements in Dallas. He
takes the advertising money for the hateful ads; all the way up until the night
before Kennedy’s fateful visit.
The quotes from General Walker about racial purity, and his
obsession with Communist infiltration of the government, will have you thinking
of some of the rhetoric you hear about the current administration. Medicaid was
also in the news at the time. It was touted by the right wing radicals as being
a blank check for the President to have a “Death Panel” and kill off elderly
Americans.
There are so many players here that I can’t include them all
in this short review. Let’s just say that this book, more than any other,
captures the mood and feel of Dallas in the 3 years leading up to the Presidents
murder. It draws no conclusions; it plays no angles; it has no agenda. It is;
instead; an account of the small part which so many people and groups played in
creating a climate of hate and danger. Adlai Stevenson's legendary visit to Dallas; just weeks before the President's murder; is a prime example of that climate at the time.
It is said that we are all characters on a stage; and if
that is true then we all contribute to the larger picture, which is a product
of our individual actions. We; as a society; are the sum and total of our
collective selves. The good elements outweigh the bad ones when we are lucky.
But when the darker forces take root and hold sway, we all suffer the
consequences.
The book seemed familiar to me in style and in the way it
builds towards a climactic ending. I read a lot of books, and the authors names
sometimes get lost in the jumble, but their individual styles are often
instantly recognizable. Such was the case with this book; which, in spite of
its being co-authored by Mr. Davis; bears the unmistakable mark of Mr.
Minutaglio’s unique style. Together they comprise an even more formidable team.
Here is a link to Mr. minutaglio’s earlier work; “City On
Fire”, which I first reviewed here in 2009, and re-posted again when I re-read parts of the book for reference purposes just last month;
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