Reviews of books that have held my interest. And things that happen along the way.
I have made it simpler to leave a comment. Just hit the comment selection and choose anonymous at the bottom- Or at my yahoo;
robertrswwilliams@yahoo.com
And let's not forget my friends at the Public Libraries!Most of my selections come from the Libraries listed on my sidebar. They are a great resource and a wonderful use of our tax dollars.
Have you hugged a Librarian today?
The first verse of Psalm 127
is one of the most poignant passages in Biblical literature. And, although it
is taken here; out of context; the words are so beautifully positioned so as to
read almost as if they were poetry; which most of the Psalms are. It is often
known as the Song of Ascent. It is attributed to Solomon.
This was the quote from the
Psalm which President John Kennedy had planned on using in his speech at the Trade Mart
in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. He never got to make it.
In the context of the Psalm itself;
printed in its entirety below; the Psalm pays homage to the Lord; and
acknowledges that everything we do comes from that deity. It also exposes our
own misconception that we are in charge of anything at all. After all, when the
watchmen wake it is only in response to what has already been done.
“Except Jehovah build the
house,
they labor in vain that build
it.
Except Jehovah keep the city,
the watchman waketh but in
vain.”
The next 4 lines deal with the
frivolity of trying to do it all; staying up late; lamenting your troubles. God
gave us the gift of sleep, and the commandment of a Sabbath to help us cope
with the craziness of living. Rather than wrap yourself only in work and
self-pity, look to your family for the comfort you desire. True happiness is
more likely to be found there. That guy Solomon sure was smart.
Psalm 127 King
James Version (KJV)
127 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain
that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to
eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit
of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are
children of the youth.
5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Note: The illustration of God at the top is from Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel.
I was only 9 in November of 1963, and I saw the world in shades of black and white. Just like this photograph of President and Mrs. Kennedy. This still gives many of my early childhood memories a distant, sepia like feel, almost as if I were watching them, rather than being an actual participant. But that was all about to end on this Friday afternoon in late November.
I was in third grade, and a big supporter of President Kennedy. I participated in the President's Science Program, and even the Physical Fitness Program, at Public School 255 in Brooklyn, where I lived. I also had a picture of the President that had been sent to me by the White House. The space program alone was enough to capture the minds, and hearts, of every kid in the nation. It seemed that there was nothing beyond our reach. And then came Dallas.
My 3rd grade perception of Dallas was all tied up in the fact that it was in Texas. The Texas that I imagined was made up of dirt Main Streets, with raised wooden sidewalks, where everyone wore a gun on their hips. My perception of the world was about to grow larger.
My class had been visiting the Museum of the City of New York in Manhattan. We left the museum shortly before 2PM that afternoon to head back to Brooklyn. Whatever we had seen in the Museum that day is a complete blank to me now.
Stepping onto the bus I noticed that the bus driver was listening intently to his transistor radio. You could feel the tension in his body as he strained to hear the radio over the sound of 35 yelling 9 year old boys and girls. At some point I recall the teacher conferring with the bus driver and then turning to the class, all of whom were by this time seated and quiet. She spoke with an earnest quality, one that I had never before seen in my dealings with adults, as she said, "Class, the President has been shot in Dallas, Texas. We don't know yet whether he is going to live." The rest of the ride back to Brooklyn was uneventful, as 9 year olds we were not fully cognizant of the more serious implications involved in the assassination, beyond the fact that it was of historical importance.
About 10 minutes into the trip the driver spoke with the teacher, who informed us that President Kennedy was indeed dead. We were also informed that a "lone nut" had done it.
Arriving back at school I remember being released to go home. It was right about 3 o'clock when we got there, so everyone was getting out of the building when we arrived. We would not return to school until after the following Monday, November 25th, when the President was buried.
I remember walking home from school that day and thinking that I was living through history. This was like Lincoln! This was something I would someday be telling my kids about. And I have...
Since this was a Friday, Uncle "I" would be coming over, as was his usual custom. We spent the the night in front of the TV, first watching the arrival of Air Force One at Bethesda Air Force base, outside of Washington, with Jackie Kennedy still in her blood smeared clothes stepping off the rear of the plane with Robert Kennedy, the President's brother.
The funeral would occupy the next four days, as tens of thousands of Americans poured into Washington to pass the President's casket as it lay in State in the Capitol beneath the Rotunda. Millions more watched on TV. I remember getting up several times during the night and turning the TV on, only to be confronted by the same image on each station. The casket laying on the bier, surrounded by one member of each of the Armed Forces posted at the corners of the casket, with rifles. I'm writing this now with no photo in front of me. Even at the distance of 47 years the memory of it is still crystal clear.
My family would not see John Kennedy's grave until about 6 weeks after the assassination. There were still crowds and a line to see the grave, which was nothing like it is today. This photo shows the grave at the time of our visit in January 1964. The President's son, Patrick, who had been stillborn that August, is interred to the right in the photo. The gravesite today is a concrete monument, which leaves you feeling disconnected, both from the man, and the events of his life and death. When I was there, the earth was still freshly turned, and the only thing separating the people from their fallen leader was a white picket fence.
It was 50 years ago today that John Fitzgerald Kennedy was
laid to rest. My family made the trip to Washingto, D.C. about 5 weeks after
the assassination to pay our respects at the grave. There were still crowds
waiting in line to see the grave, which was nothing like it is today.
This
photo shows the grave at the time of our visit. The President's son, Patrick,
who had been stillborn the previous August, is interred to the right in the
photo.
The gravesite today is a concrete monument, which leaves you feeling
disconnected, both from the man, and the events of his life and death. When I
was there, the earth was still freshly turned, and the only thing separating
the people from their fallen leader was a white picket fence.
If you were alive on Sunday November 24, 1963 then you have
never forgotten the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby as it played out
in real time across America. I was watching TV with my parents when the
transfer of Lee Harvey Oswald was taking place. I guess that everyone was doing
the same thing. This was live TV at a time when we had just one satellite.
This film is a bit different from most of the other clips
you might be seeing of the event. It seems to have been taken from a slightly
different angle than the others, showing Jack Ruby emerging from screen right
more clearly than some of the others. In most of the still photographs you only
see a vague blur in place of Jack Ruby. He is obscured by the others in the
crowd. In this clip you can actually see Ruby gut shoot Oswald.
The three days beginning Friday November 22nd,
1963 with the President’s shooting; and ending with his burial at Arlington
National Cemetery on Monday November 25th, are days which can never
be forgotten by those who were alive at the time. I remember thinking that I
was living through history. I was 9 years old and a big fan of Abe Lincoln, so
I could not escape the magnitude of what was happening.
But nobody expected to see Jack Ruby kill Oswald on live TV.
Later on, of course, we found out that Ruby was present at the press conference
on Friday at the police station where Oswald was held. He was even there for
the press conferences which included Oswald, almost as if he were just waiting
for the chance to shoot him. On Sunday, November 24, 1963, either in emotional
distress; or by design; Jack Ruby got his chance.
There is one thing which has puzzled even many skeptics over
the last 50 years concerning the assassination of President Kennedy, and the
subsequent killing of the suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald. That is why he was
paraded; literally; in front of reporters in a hallway, and later on in a
conference room at which Jack Ruby was present? At that conference Mr. Ruby
even offered a correction to a question about the Fair Play for Cuba movement.
When people are accused of a high profile crime; even back
then; they were secluded for two reasons. The first is that you really don’t
want the trial to begin de-facto on TV, which raises the possibility of a mistrial
later due to a tainted jury pool; and the second reason is that you don’t want
some nut job killing the suspect for any reason at all.
In the case of Lee Harvey Oswald, he was paraded 3 times
before the news media, and even allowed to give a midnight conference with TV
reporters. The full footage of that conference is not on You Tube, so I have
used the hallway footage to illustrate my point. Why was this man placed in
front of the public at all?
The answer is patently simple. They wanted him dead. Look at
who was in charge in Dallas at the time of the President’s murder? The Mayor
was Earle Cabell, the brother of Charles Cabell, the CIA director who had been
fired after the disaster at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Every-one else was
subservient to this man. At stake was the fate of the Oil Depletion Allowance,
which resulted in some very powerful people, all of whom had ties to the
Intelligence Community, the Oil Industry and Army Intelligence to actually be
involved in the President’s motorcade route when he was killed.
Deputy Police Chief George Lumpkin was driving the lead car.
Lumpkin was the friend of Jack Crichton, who was a member of the Army
Intelligence Reserve Unit. Lt. Colonel George Whitmeyer, who commanded all of
the Reserve Units in Texas, was in the car with him. He was not on the approved
list of people riding in the motorcade and basically forced his way into it by
virtue of his rank.
When the pilot car passed the Book Depository he instructed
Mr. Crichton to stop the vehicle so he could relay instructions to the Dallas
Policemen who were handling traffic at the corner of Elm and Houston. It is not known what the nature of that conversation was; only that it was conducted by a man with ties to the military and the CIA who should not have even been there at all.
The links go on and on; but the central question will
always be why was Oswald paraded before anyone at all in the less than 48 hours
he would be in custody before he was murdered by a man known very well to the
Dallas Police Department? Remember that when Oswald was shot, one of the
detectives handling him cried out, “Jack, you son of a bitch!” That footage
will be posted tomorrow.
Jim Garrison is still
the only person to have ever brought to trial the conspirators in the murder of
John F. Kennedy in 1963. His reputation has been tarnished for the
ages by ridicule and disbelief. If you have ever seen Oliver Stone’s film “JFK”
then you have heard the following closing argument made by Mr. Garrison in
court on February 28, 1969. Although copies were handed out to the press at the
end of the proceedings, the summation has never really garnered much attention
in the mind of the public. Much of this is due to the reaction against the film
by Mr. Stone. Yet, when you actually read the text of Mr. Garrison’s closing
remarks, one cannot help being affected by the veracity of his words. It is an
important and eloquent speech which contains much truth. Here is that argument,
just as it was delivered in court in 1969.
May it please the court. Gentlemen of the jury. I know
you're very tired. You've been very patient. This final day has been a long
one, so I'll speak only a few minutes. In his argument, Mr. Dymond posed one
final issue which raises the question of what we do when the need for justice
is confronted by power. So, let me talk to you about the question of whether or
not there was government fraud in this case--a question Mr. Dymond seems to
want us to answer. A government is a great deal like a human being. It's not
necessarily all good, and it's not necessarily all bad. We live in a good
country. I love it and you do too. Nevertheless, the fact remains that we have
a government which is not perfect.
There have been indications since November the 22nd of
1963--and that was not the last indication--that there is excessive power in
some parts of our government. It is plain that the people have not received all
of the truth about some of the things which have happened, about some of the
assassinations which have occurred--and more particularly about the
assassination of John Kennedy.
Going back to when we were children, I think most of
us--probably all of us here in the courtroom--once thought that justice came
into being of its own accord, that virtue was its own reward, that good would
triumph over evil--in short, that justice occurred automatically. Later, when
we found that this wasn't quite so, most of us still felt hopefully that at
least justice occurred frequently of its own accord.
Today, I think that almost all of us would have to agree
that there is really no machinery--not on this Earth at least--which causes
justice to occur automatically. Men have to make it occur. Individual human
beings have to make it occur. Otherwise, it doesn't come into existence. This
is not always easy. As a matter of fact, it's always hard, because justice
presents a threat to power. In order to make justice come into being, you often
have to fight power.
Mr. Dymond raised the question: Why don't we say it's all a
fraud and charge the government with fraud, if this is the case? Let me be
explicit, then, and make myself very clear on this point.
The government's handling of the investigation of John
Kennedy's murder was a fraud. It was the greatest fraud in the history of our
country. It probably was the greatest fraud ever perpetrated in the history of
humankind. That doesn't mean that we have to accept the continued existence of
the kind of government which allows this to happen. We can do something about
it. We're forced either to leave this country or to accept the authoritarianism
that has developed--the authoritarianism which tells us that in the year 2029
we can see the evidence about what happened to John Kennedy.
Government does not consist only of secret police and
domestic espionage operations and generals and admirals--government consists of
people. It also consists of juries. And cases of murder--whether of the poorest
individual or the most distinguished citizen in the land--should be looked at
openly in a court of law, where juries can pass on them and not be hidden, not
be buried like the body of the victim beneath concrete for countless years.
You men in these recent weeks have heard witnesses that no
one else in the world has heard. You've seen the Zapruder film. You've seen
what happened to your President. I suggest to you that you know right now that,
in that area at least, a fraud has been perpetrated.
That does not mean that our government is entirely bad; and
I want to emphasize that. It does mean, however, that in recent years, through
the development of excessive power because of the Cold War, forces have
developed in our government over which there is no control and these forces
have an authoritarian approach to justice--meaning, they will let you know what
justice is.
Well, my reply to them is that we already know what justice
is. It is the decision of the people passing on the evidence. It is the jury
system. In this issue which is posed by the government's conduct in concealing
the evidence in this case--in the issue of humanity as opposed to power--I have
chosen humanity, and I will do it again without any hesitation. I hope every
one of you will do the same. I do this because I love my country and because I
want to communicate to the government that we will not accept unexplained
assassinations with the casual information that if we live seventy-five years
longer, we might be given more evidence.
In this particular case, massive power was brought to bear
to prevent justice from ever coming into this courtroom. The power to make
authoritive pronouncements, the power to manipulate the news media by the
release of false information, the power to interfere with an honest inquiry and
the power to provide an endless variety of experts to testify in behalf of
power, repeatedly was demonstrated in this case.
The American people have yet to see the Zapruder film. Why?
The American people have yet to see and hear from the real witnesses to the
assassination. Why? Because, today in America too much emphasis is given to
secrecy, with regard to the assassination of our President, and not enough
emphasis is given to the question of justice and to the question of humanity.
These dignified deceptions will not suffice. We have had
enough of power without truth. We don't have to accept power without truth or
else leave the country. I don't accept either of these two alternatives. I
don't intend to leave the country and I don't intend to accept power without
truth.
I intend to fight for the truth. I suggest that not only is
this not un-American, but it is the most American thing we can do--because if
the truth does not endure, then our country will not endure.
In our country the worst of all crimes occurs when the
government murders truth. If it can murder truth, it can murder freedom. If it
can murder freedom, it can murder your own sons--if they should dare to fight
for freedom-- and then it can announce that they were killed in an industrial
accident, or shot by the "enemy" or God knows what.
In this case, finally, it has been possible to bring the
truth about the assassination into a court of law--not before a commission
composed of important and powerful and politically astute men, but before a
jury of citizens.
Now, I suggest to you that yours is a hard duty, because in
a sense what you're passing on is equivalent to a murder case. The difficult
thing about passing on a murder case is that the victim is out of your sight
and buried a long distance away, and all you can see is the defendant. It's
very difficult to identify with someone you can't see, and sometimes it's hard
not to identify to some extent with the defendant and his problems.
In that regard, every prosecutor who is at all humane is
conscious of feeling sorry for the defendant in every case he prosecutes. But
he is not free to forget the victim who lies buried out of sight. I suggest to
you that, if you do your duty, you also are not free to forget the victim who
is buried out of sight.
You know, Tennyson once said that, "authority forgets a
dying king." This was never more true than in the murder of John Kennedy.
The strange and deceptive conduct of the government after his murder began
while his body was warm, and has continued for five years. You have seen in
this courtroom indications of the interest of part of the government power
structure in keeping the truth down, in keeping the grave closed.
We presented a number of eyewitnesses as well as an expert
witness as well as the Zapruder film, to show that the fatal wound of the
President came from the front. A plane landed from Washington and out stepped
Dr. Finck for the defense, to counter the clear and apparent evidence of a shot
from the front. I don't have to go into Dr. Finck's testimony in detail for you
to show that it simply did not correspond with the facts. He admitted that he
did not complete the autopsy because a general told him not to complete the
autopsy.
In this conflict between power and justice--to put it that
way--just where do you think Dr. Finck stands? A general, who was not a
pathologist, told him not to complete the autopsy, so he didn't complete it.
This is not the way I want my country to be. When our President is killed he
deserves the kind of autopsy that the ordinary citizen gets every day in the
State of Louisiana. And the people deserve the facts about it. We can't have
government power suddenly interjecting itself and preventing the truth form
coming to the people.
Yet in this case, before the sun rose the next morning,
power had moved into the situation and the truth was being concealed. And now,
five years later in this courtroom the power of the government in concealing
the truth is continuing in the same way.
We presented eyewitnesses who told you of the shots coming
from the grassy knoll. A plane landed from Washington, and out came ballistics
expert Frazier for the defense. Mr. Frazier's explanation of the sound of the
shots coming from the front, which was heard by eyewitness after eyewitness,
was that Lee Oswald created a sonic boom in his firing. Not only did Oswald
break all of the world's records for marksmanship, but he broke the sound
barrier as well.
I suggest to you, that if any of you have shot on a firing
range--and most of you probably have in the service--you were shooting rifles
in which the bullet traveled faster than the speed of sound. I ask you to
recall if you ever heard a sonic boom. If you remember when you were on the
firing line, and they would say, "Ready on the left; ready on the right;
ready on the firing line; commence firing," you heard the shots coming
from the firing line--to the left of you and to the right of you. If you had
heard, as a result of Frazier's fictional sonic boom, firing coming at you from
the pits, you would have had a reaction which you would still remember.
Mr. Frazier's sonic boom simply doesn't exist. It's part of
the fraud-- a part of the continuing government fraud.
The best way to make this country the kind of country it's
supposed to be is to communicate to the government that no matter how powerful
it may be, we do not accept these frauds. We do not accept these false
announcements. We do not accept the concealment of evidence with regard to the
murder of President Kennedy. Who is the most believable: a Richard Randolph
Carr, seated here in a wheelchair and telling you what he saw and what he heard
and how he was told to shut his mouth--or Mr. Frazier with his sonic booms? Do
we really have to reject Mr. Newman and Mrs. Newman and Mr. Carr and Roger
Craig and the testimony of all those honest witnesses--reject all this and
accept the fraudulent Warren Commission, or else leave the country?
I suggest to you that there are other alternatives. One of
them has been put in practice in the last month in the State of Louisiana--and
that is to bring out the truth in a proceeding where attorneys can
cross-examine, where the defendant can be confronted by testimony against him,
where the rules of evidence are applied and where a jury of citizens can pass
on it--and where there is no government secrecy. Above all, where you do not
have evidence concealed for seventy-five years in the name of "national
security."
All we have in this case are the facts--facts which show
that the defendant participated in the conspiracy to kill the President and
that the President was subsequently killed in an ambush.
The reply of the defense has been the same as the early
reply of the government in the Warren Commission. It has been authority,
authority, authority. The President's seal outside of each volume of the Warren
Commission Report--made necessary because there is nothing inside these
volumes, only men of high position and prestige sitting on a Board, and
announcing the results to you, but not telling you what the evidence is,
because the evidence has to be hidden for seventy-five years.
You heard in this courtroom in recent weeks, eyewitness
after eyewitness after eyewitness and, above all, you saw one eyewitness which
was indifferent to power--the Zapruder film. The lens of the camera is totally
indifferent to power and it tells what happened as it saw it happen--and that
is one of the reasons 200 million Americans have not seen the Zapruder film.
They should have seen it many times. They should know exactly what happened.
They all should know what you know now. Why hasn't all of this come into being
if there hasn't been government fraud? Of course there has been fraud by the
government.
But I'm telling you now that I think we can do something
about it. I think that there are still enough Americans left in this country to
make it continue to be America. I think that we can still fight
authoritarianism--the government's insistence on secrecy, government force used
in counterattacks against an honest inquiry--and when we do that, we're not
being un-American, we're being American. It isn't easy. You're sticking your
neck out in a rather permanent way, but it has to be done because truth does not
come into being automatically. Individual men, like the members of my staff
here, have to work and fight to make it happen--and individual men like you
have to make justice come into being because otherwise is doesn't happen.
What I'm trying to tell you is that there are forces in
America today, unfortunately, which are not in favor of the truth coming out
about John Kennedy's assassination. As long as our government continues to be
like this, as long as such forces can get away with such actions, then this is
no longer the country in which we were born.
The murder of John Kennedy was probably the most terrible
moment in the history of our country. Yet, circumstances have placed you in the
position where not only have you seen the hidden evidence but you are actually
going to have the opportunity to bring justice into the picture for the first
time.
Now, you are here sitting in judgment on Clay Shaw. Yet you,
as men, represent more than jurors in an ordinary case because of the victim in
this case. You represent, in a sense, the hope of humanity against government
power. You represent humanity, which yet may triumph over excessive government
power-- if you will cause it to be so, in the course of doing your duty in this
case.
I suggest that you ask not what your country can do for you
but what you can do for your country.
What can you do for your country? You can cause justice to
happen for the first time in this matter. You can help make our country better
by showing that this is still a government of the people. And if you do that,
as long as you live, nothing will ever be more important.
I was 9 years old when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. For many Americans, this was the day "the music died." For the most comprehensive account of that day, you can do no better than to read the Russ Baker's "Family of Secrets", about the events leading up to, and the ramifications from, what happened in Dallas, Texas 48 years ago today. I have posted this review before.
This book is the final word on the JFK Assassination and its connection to the Watergate break-ins in 1972 and the eventual seating of the first unelected President in the history of the United States. From there it moves on to explain how George H.W. “Poppy” Bush, with the aid of Zappata Off Shore Oil (headquartered in Medilin, Columbia (200 miles from shore) went on to become President of the United States, establishing a political dynasty along the way and leading to the election of George W. Bush and the Iraqi war.
Ever wonder what the Pepsi Convention in Dallas had to do with the murder of the President? Ever asked yourself how could anyone possibly engineer a plot so tightly that it would ensure that the President would pass by the Book Depository? Ever wonder who owned the Book Depository Building and how Oswald got the job a mere 6 weeks before Kennedy’s visit? Ever think about what, if any, was Vice President Johnsons’ role in all of this? Why were 3 of the country’s’ subsequent Presidents in Dallas on the day of the assassination and what does their presence there indicate?
What was Abraham Zapruder’s unwitting role in all of this? And why was his 8mm film taken by Time-Life and locked away from the public until New Orleans Attorney Jim Garrison forced its release with a lawsuit?
These are not rhetorical questions. They are the details that have bugged me for years. And this book takes it all the way back to Prescott Bush and the early days of establishing his family in finance and oil. The trail is murky until you shed some light on it as Mr. Baker has painstakingly done with this book.
For those that believe Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone nut, acting of his own twisted accord, this book will not interest you. But if you; like myself, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, to name a few, have any lingering doubts as to what really happened, then this is the book for you.
Layer upon layer of twists and turns all lead back to the inescapable conclusion that the Oil Lobby along with the CIA, plotted, financed, planned for, and finally executed the President of the United States. Who pulled the trigger is another story- and a backseat one at best. The real story is who paid for and orchestrated the biggest crime of the 20th Century. This one act has continued to pay dividends to the oil industry, the munitions manufacturers and one family in particular.
Follow the political growth of the Bush family from its nefarious oil dealings as Zappata Off Shore Oil Group, through the turbulent late 50’s and the 60’s. Follow the money as it flows, and funds covert op after covert op. Follow George H.W. Bush on his climb to the 41st Presidency of the United States.
Who was George DeMohrenschildt and why did he and his wife take Lee and Marina Oswald under their wing during the months leading up to the assassination of the President?
What was the connection between the Bay of Pigs and Dallas and later Watergate? Why did President Nixon demand that the Watergate Burglars be paid off or it would “lead back to the whole Bay of Pigs thing.” And why did Richard Helms react so violently when this was relayed to him by H.R. Haldeman?
This is the penultimate book on the covert operations of the 1950’s CIA in Latin America and Southeast Asia. It ties together all the questions raised and argued by conspiracy theorists and refutes all the assertions put up by the Lone Assassin Theorists, showing along the way what the real goals were and how they were achieved.
Follow George W. in his early years and see how he was groomed to protect the family and secure power, both political and financial.
I cannot recommend this book enough. For me it is the final word on the events of November 22nd, 1963. It is also an explanation of the Watergate Burglary and its ultimate consequences for American politics, right up to the present day.
You will be amazed by this painstakingly researched and annotated book.
This book is the final word on the JFK Assassination and it’s connection to the Watergate break-ins in 1972 and the eventual seating of the first unelected President in the history of the United States. From there it moves on to explain how George H.W. “Poppy” Bush, with the aid of Zappata Off Shore Oil (headquartered in Medilin, Columbia (200 miles from shore) went on to become President of the United States, establishing a political dynasty along the way and leading to the election of Geoge W. Bush and the Iraqi war.
Ever wonder what the Pepsi Convention in Dallas had to do with the murder of the President? Ever asked yourself how could anyone possibly engineer a plot so tightly that it would ensure that the President would pass by the Book Depository? Ever wonder who owned the Book Depository Building and how Oswald got the job a mere 6 weeks before Kennedy’s visit? Ever think about what, if any, was Vice President Johnsons’ role in all of this? Why were 3 of the countrys’ subsequent Presidents in Dallas on the day of the assassination and what does their presence there indicate?
What was Abraham Zapruders unwitting role in all of this? And why was his 8mm film taken by Time-Life and locked away from the public until New Orleans Attorney Jim Garrison forced its release with a Freedom of Information Act Lawsuit?
These are not rhetorical questions. They are the details that have bugged me for years. And this book takes it all the way back to Prescott Bush and his early days establishing his family in finance and oil. The trail is murky until you shed some light on it as Mr. Baker has painstakingly done with this book.
For those that believe Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone nut, acting of his own twisted accord, this book will not interest you. But if you, like myself, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, to name a few, have any lingering doubts as to what really happened, then this is the book for you.
Layer upon layer of twists and turns all lead back to the inescapable conclusion that the Oil Lobby along with the CIA plotted, planned for and finally executed the President of the United States. Who pulled the trigger is another story- and a backseat one at best. The real story is who paid for and orchestrated the biggest crime of the 20th Century. A crime that has continued to pay dividends to the oil industry, the munitions manufacturers and one particular family.
Follow the political growth of the Bush family from its nefarious oil dealings as Zappata Off Shore Oil Group through the turbulent late 50’s and the 60’s. Follow the money as it flows and funds covert op after covert op. Follow George H.W. Bush on his climb to the 41st Presidency of the United States.
Who was George DeMohrenschildt and why did he and his wife take Lee and Marina Oswald under their wing during the months leading up to the assassination of the President?
What was the connection between the Bay of Pigs and Dallas and later Watergate? Why did President Nixon demand that the Watergate Burglars be paid off or it would “lead back to the whole Bay of Pigs thing.” And why did Richard Helms react so violently when this was relayed to him by H.R. Haldeman?
This is the penultimate book on the covert operations of the 1950’s CIA in Latin America and Southeast Asia. It ties together all the questions raised and argued by conspiracy theorists and refutes all the assertations put up by the Lone Assassin Theorists, showing along the way what the real goals were and how they were achieved.
Follow George W. in his early years and see how he was groomed to protect the family and secure power, both political and financial.
I cannot recommend this book enough. For me it is the final word on the events of November 22nd, 1963. It is also an explanation of the Watergate Burglary and its ultimate consequences for American politics, right up to the present day.
You will be amazed by this painstakingly researched and annotated book.