On Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023, it will be sixty years since they shot Jack K! Kennedy is one of my reading obsessions, and I surround myself with many piles of books on the topic.
My haters claim this is proof of my insanity.
Yet more than half a century later, many people have no idea what happened on 11/22/1963 or why an American president was assassinated. This post doesn’t discuss who killed him. Instead, it asks why was he killed?
The JFK assassination is talked of in hushed tones, like God or the universe. The truth is that historians understand the general shape of the event. It’s not that complicated.
Six decades later, all will be revealed in this (long) blog post
The Classics
Here are three non-fiction books that explain why John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the consequences for American foreign policy. All three are well-sourced and conclude that JFK’s assassination wasn’t an accident.
JFK and the Unspeakable
by James W. Douglass
Touchstone, 2010
The author lays out his argument on the first page in the simplest possible terms:
On [America’s] behalf, at the height of the Cold War, John F. Kennedy risked committing the greatest crime in history, starting a nuclear war.
Before we knew it, he turned toward peace with the enemy who almost committed that crime with him [the USSR].
For turning to peace with [Russia], Kennedy was murdered by a power we cannot easily describe. Its unspeakable reality can be traced, suggested, recognized, and pondered… (ix).
Or even simpler. Why was Kennedy killed? He didn’t want to escalate tension with Russia, but industry and military leaders wanted him to do so. JFK got in their way.
Here’s a timeline sketching some specifics:
- April 1961 — The “Bay of Pigs,” a botched invasion of Cuba, almost started a nuclear war against Russia. This event is satirized in Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb.
- 1961–1963 — Kennedy realized this could have killed millions of people. CIA director Allen Duelles planned the invasion, so JFK fired Duelles. JFK advocated a measured approach to intervening in “3rd world countries,” meaning countries that weren’t decidedly capitalist or communist.
- 1961-1963 — At the same time, a group of rich and powerful people, including Allen Dulles and the CIA, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, oil drillers, capitalist industrialists, mafia cartels, and corrupt union leadership like the Teamsters’ Jimmy Hoffa, all independently had reasons to dislike Kennedy. How they conspired together (evidence shows they did) is debatable. The military and oil industry realized Kennedy would not govern in their interests to protect American trade hegemony. He would not “fight Communism” and sabotage the USSR or countries with socialist governments. He got in the way.
- 11/22/1963 — This group conspired to assassinate John Kennedy. Then, they assassinated his brother, Robert Kennedy. After numerous failed attempts, they finally capped JFK on 11/22/1963 and RFK on 6/5/1968.
See, it’s not that complicated. Much of the bunk analysis on the Kennedy assassination seeks to litigate who killed him and how they specifically did it, with or without Oswald. What’s more consequential and more straightforward to prove is the numerous reasons why Kennedy was killed.
The book’s title refers to the concept of “The Unspeakable.” The violence states commit to maintaining economic control.
We know the United States commits violence in other countries to secure trade and resource privatization. We know American security agencies conducted brutal regime change operations since 1945. Wikipedia cites 22 well-documented examples.
Douglass further explains the Unspeakable in the context of the Cold War,
In our Cold War history, the Unspeakable was the void in our government’s covert-action doctrine of “plausible deniability,” sanctioned by the June 18, 1948, National Security Council directive NSC 10/2. Under the green light to assassinate national leaders, overthrow governments, and lie to cover up any trace of accountability — all for the sake of promoting U.S. interests and maintaining our nuclear-backed dominance over the Soviet Union and other nations.
JFK’s assassination could be understood as anti-democratic aggression coming home. JFK didn’t listen to key leaders in the military-industrial complex, so they decided he needed to die.
JFK’s assassination could be understood as America’s anti-democratic aggression coming home.
The book sources over 2000 footnotes to make this argument, ranging from public archives, FOIA’d FBI archives, interviews, the Warren Commission, and more.
Touchstone, a division of Simon and Schuster, published it. The author is a respected Catholic peace activist.
My point is that any writer arguing the idea Lee Harvey Oswald “acted alone” is arguing irrationally, ignoring well-documented evidence to the contrary, and selling a false narrative for a specific reason. We’ll see this in action when surveying contemporary releases.
This book is affordable and available on Hoopla and Amazon Audible Plus, and you can borrow a copy from the free library on Archive.org.
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters: Archive.org
Dallas ’63
By Peter Dale Scott
Open Road Media (Reprint), 2015
Since the 2016 Trump Election, the idea of “The Deep State” has been relegated to right-wing discourse. But the concept was invented by a far-left, pacifist poet and historian, Peter Dale Scott, to explain the Kennedy assassination. In his book Dallas ’63, he argues why the assassination can be understood as a structural deep event, a framework for other significant events in 20th-century history. He writes,
By “structural deep events” I mean events that are never fully understood, arise out of ongoing covert processes, have political consequences that enlarge covert government, and are subsequently covered up by demonstrable omissions and falsifications in historic records. Here the assassination in Dallas can be compared to later structural deep events, notably Watergate and 9/11.
Let’s break down this definition: what is a Structural Deep Event?
- “Events that are never fully understood” —
An event that is impossible to understand fully is essential to a “deep event.” - “Arise out of ongoing covert processes” —
The agencies and businesses that did this still exist, and it is still in their interest to obscure the actual reasons behind this event. - “have political consequences that enlarge covert government,” —
There are many consequences. An overarching consequence of post-1945 deep events is that the American military-industrial complex allocated more resources and got a bigger yearly budget. - “ …and are subsequently covered up by demonstrable omissions and falsifications in historic records” —
60 years after the event, the assassination is “covered up” by hyper-focus on Lee Harvey Oswald and the day of the murder. It omits CIA and FBI involvement and the reasons why rich businessmen wanted Kennedy dead. - “Here the assassination in Dallas can be compared to later structural deep events, notably Watergate and 9/11.” —
Some of the same people involved with the JFK assassination were involved with the Watergate break-in and the response to the 9/11 attacks. This is why understanding the JFK assassination is vital if a reader wants to understand history after 1945.
Structural deep events affect how states govern and how resources get distributed. It takes nuance to understand the reasons for JFK’s assassination, and that nuance reveals how global society has operated under American hegemony since 1945.
The historical blindness to JFK would obscure countless other historical events, like the downfall of the USSR and the destabilization of Africa and South America.
This book is excellent. It’s $3 on Kindle from the Forbidden Bookshelf series, and you can borrow a copy for free from the free library on Archive.org.
Dallas ’63: The First Deep State Revolt Against the White House: Peter Dale Scott: Archive.org
Coup in Dallas
H. P. Albarelli Jr.
Skyhorse, 2021
Albarelli takes the argument a step further and claims the JFK assassination was a coup. Rightwing elements in America overthrew a popular, democratically elected leader who favored liberalism, government oversight, international restraint, and democracy. Here’s the introduction explaining the book’s thesis:
“Esteemed historians have argued that November 22 was a “systemic adjustment” more than a coup. Albarelli makes the case that the assassination was indeed a coup d’état by demonstrating that among the planners and perpetrators were mutinous elements within US intelligence, military ranks, and industry who held immense power and influence sufficient to overturn the democratic election of John F. Kennedy and get away with it. He presents persuasive evidence — much of it ignored or misunderstood previously — to prove that the assassination cabal, including holdovers from Hitler’s Third Reich and Texasbased powers, passed deadly judgment on Kennedy’s platform, which at its core was a commitment to full democracy on a global scale.” (xiii, Roadmap)
Astute readers will see similarities between 11/22/1963 and a right-wing American coup attempt on 01/06/2021.
Or was January 6th a structural deep event? Can it be both?
This gets to the larger truths of these events. The forces that assassinated Kennedy didn’t go away; in fact, they only became more powerful. Structural deep events increased in frequency in the 21st century.
Albarelli goes for the throat and convincingly argues that assassinating JFK was a right-wing coup. America’s military killed the president and set the country on a course toward global fascism.
This book is new, so consider buying it or the audiobook and demand your librarian get a copy.
Coup in Dallas
Post-Truth Novels
Many considered the JFK assassination through novels. I consider the strange consequences of our understanding of the event being shaped by fiction.
Libra
By Don DeLillo
1988, Viking Press
In Libra, DeLillo says the CIA did it. This is reductive, and the author probably wouldn’t put it that way, but if you read it, the novel blames the CIA. Is this novel disinformation? Yeah, probably. It treats fact like fiction and vice versa, adding more confusion and obfuscation to an already misunderstood yet deadly serious historical event.
But once we get over objecting to its very existence, there’s much to admire about the novel. Scholars write how it employs “historicity” to make sense of a complex event through fiction. It’s using the power of narrative to bring closure to the restless brain. It weaves in historical characters like Oswald and offers an empathetic portrait detailing all his strange proclivities and brush-ups with intelligence agencies.
But what’s left out?
Interestingly, while the CIA seems culpable, the novel doesn’t direct blame on Allan Dulles, the former Director of Central Intelligence. The man planned the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy fired him, he held a grudge about it, and Dulles arguably had the means, motive, and opportunity to kill the president. Few men have that, but more men held that grudge against JFK than all the other presidents except Lincoln, Garfield, or McKinnley (the other assassinated presidents).
The book mentions Dulles once, “The DCI, Allen Dulles, was spending the weekend in Puerto Rico, delivering a speech to a civic group on the subject ‘The Communist Businessman Abroad.’” That does sound like something he’d do.
The DCI is an acronym for the Director of Central Intelligence. The DCI is mentioned three times. Most significantly, the narrator considers the Director’s relationship to foreknowledge of extra-legal operations.
Knowledge was a danger, ignorance a cherished asset. In many cases, the DCI, the Director of Central Intelligence, was not to know important things. The less he knew, the more decisively he could function. It would impair his ability to tell the truth at an inquiry or a hearing, or in an Oval Office chat with the President…
Do we think the novel’s narrator is credible? I find it hard to believe a director of a top-down agency wouldn’t know about an assassination attempt on the president of his own country.
Notice specifically the three CIA agents are made up, or pseudonyms, probably composite characters. Is fictionalization a clever way to avoid a libel lawsuit? When one Googles the names, it’s honestly hard to distinguish that these are fake characters, made-up guys. Are these three characters written into the historical record, or does Google just suck?
Also, notice the 1988 publishing date. DeLillo knew a lot before the JFK Act and Oliver Stone’s film. Interesting… One could waste a lot of time trying to unravel what he made up.
American Tabloid
By James Ellroy
1995, Alfred A. Knopf
This is one of my all-time favorite novels. Is it disinformation? Yeah, probably, but it gets closer to the heart of the truth than DeLillo, even if it blows smoke on some false fires.
The novel says the FBI did it. Kinda. The author also employs three composite characters to show the players how the assassination came to be, interspersed with real characters like J. Edgar Hoover leading the FBI. Those characters include a hardened criminal and hired hand of Howard Hughes, a quiet but calculating FBI agent, and an FBI agent on Kennedy’s security detail (remember that now).
All three of these characters are obsessed with compartmentalization. Hiding what you know and how you know it from everybody, including yourself. This seems like how powerful people can justify their actions.
Significantly, the story culminates in the failed Chicago assassination attempt on JFK, which actually happened.
Did you know somebody tried to kill JFK in Chicago weeks before he got killed in Dallas?
It sure wasn’t Lee Harvey Oswald. This lends significant validity to the idea that it wasn’t just “one guy” who wanted the American president to die. A whole network of guys planned JFK’s assassination, and Dallas was the attempt that worked.
11/22/1963
By Stephen King
2011, Scribner
Even Stephen King gets in on the fun with 11/22/1963. The prolific author has written over 65 novels, and this one is easily one of his worst. The Time Traveler’s Wife’s Husband sorta solves JFK’s murder, gets distracted, and falls in love. This novel is pure schmaltz. I suppose it’s significant because it proves “JFK fiction” is a subgenre, a trend, that sells books and offers more smoke to cover up the real fires.
“60th Anniversary” Books
With the above context, I survey some of the new books released for the anniversary.
The Enchanters
By James Ellroy
2023, Penguin
The only new book I finished. The Enchanters is about the Enchantress, Marilyn Monroe, History’s Greatest Bait Girl. The second Freddy Otash novel, an existing historical person, a scumbag paparazzi private-eye blackmailer who spied on the stars and JFK, apparently, throughout the 1960s. This book investigates the relationship between Monroe and Kennedy and probably goes into whatever was in Otash’s archives that he always threatened to publish up until his death. Otash was a known liar, but he also loved photographic evidence. The conclusion is funny, climatic, and probably not true. It’s Ellroy’s best novel in a while, uniting all his strange passions, but I’m not sure it brings the reader any closer to the truth on the JFK assassination like American Tabloid. Still fun!
JFK vs. Allen Dulles: Battleground Indonesia
By Greg Poulgrain
2022, Skyhorse
In my search for new releases, this one is the best bet. Poulgrain focuses on Dulles’ intervention in Indonesia and includes a timeline that dates back to the 1850s oil industry. Looks good.
Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald’s Assassin
By Danny Fingeroth
2023, Chicago Review Press
The jury’s out on this new book about Jack Ruby. From the blurbs, I think the book will say Ruby was crazy, but it does grapple with his mafia and police ties. I’ll check this one out eventually.
The Final Witness: A Kennedy Secret Service Agent Breaks His Silence
By Paul Landis
2023, Chicago Review Press
The Final Witness is getting the most buzz. It’s by the bodyguard next to Kennedy on his detail. I suspect it will contain the least relevant information of any book on this list and has the highest likelihood of being disinformation. In the intro, Landis confesses he read nothing on the topic until 2013, picking up The Kennedy Detail, another account by secret service agents that doesn’t seriously consider the geopolitical context of the event. This is rehearsed and probably approved by the agency. The author claims he wrote the book to discredit the Zapruder film. Ah… I didn’t read the rest.
American Confidential: Uncovering the Bizarre Story of Lee Harvey Oswald
By Deanne Stillman
2023, Melville House
The author studies Lee Harvey Oswald through his mother and sides with the Warren Commission. I don’t find this contribution useful at all. The argument pathologies historical figures to draw contemporary conclusions instead of considering populations, institutions, resources, or power.
Overemphasizing Oswald and his mother suggests that society should know a killer’s motive from his psychiatry, that the inner thoughts of a crazy person are paramount knowledge for us readers. Nope. Crazy’s crazy. And hey, Oswald’s mother didn’t commit a crime. Sure, she’s dead, and yeah, she probably was a bad parent, but why subject her life to intense scrutiny?
The author does this to argue that Lee Harvey Oswald was a toxic white male mass shooter. Conveniently ignoring, he only shot one guy who happened to be the dang president! The introduction directly compares LHO to a mass shooter. Stillman shoehorns the past to serve a contemporary argument. Even if we assume LHO “acted alone” and killed Kennedy, political assassinations have political contexts! Personal contexts are irrelevant. Oh, was Oswald’s mom sad that her crazy son went crazy? I’m sure she was! Investigating his mom is the same trauma porn impulse of Dr. Phil. This argument flattens the world into the same canned story: one lone wolf killer must be identical to another. Pay no attention to that hungry pack of wolves watching and manipulating the crazy wolf. I won’t be reading more of this.
American Confidential
Melville House is an independent publisher with offices in Brooklyn and London.
Book Pile of the Week: Strangest Kennedy Crossovers
Let us end on something silly! I’ve found three very strange JFK Fan Fiction on Archive.org. I haven’t read any of them, and I am unlikely to do so, but they all look hilarious, and you can find them on Archive.org.
Sherlock Holmes, the Master Detective himself, finds out who did it! Or, did he do it? I have no idea. You’ll have to read to find out.
Sherlock Holmes in Dallas by Edmund S. Ions | Open Library
Is there a better use of a Tardis time machine than finding out who killed JFK? Thank you, Dr. Who!
Who Killed Kennedy | Internet Archive
If anybody’s gonna find out who killed JFK, it’s LAPD Lieutenant Columbo! The LAPD is definitely not implicated in any Kennedy assassination plots; don’t even ask!
Columbo: William Harrington | Internet Archive
Thanks for going on the JFK journey with me. These are usually not so long. What can I say? I love JFK.
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