MORE CONTROVERSY AND THEORIES
Two chapters of this book have already been used to make two different television specials – one on PBS and the other on the History Channel. Co-author O'Leary, involved in politics for more than 25 years, publishes the O'Leary Report, one of the most influential publications in American politics. His clients have included more than 60 political and public figures, including Sen. John Tower and Texas Gov. John Connolly, who rode in Kennedy's car when he was shot. O'Leary also hosted his own radio show on NBC for seven years and was a contributing columnist for USA Today Weekend magazine. He currently is president of Associated Television News in Los Angeles. O'Leary is available for media interviews through Shirley and Banister and Associates at (703) 739-5920. His co-author, Seymour, is a free-lance writer and author of 15 novels, including "The Stickmen" and "Operator 'B'." False claims? O'Leary and Seymour note investigative bodies of the U.S. government have made numerous claims, including that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin; that only two shots hit their target, that the bullets fired that day all came from the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository; and that Kennedy was killed because he was preparing to pull all U.S. troops out of Vietnam. The authors insist all of these claims are false and are designed to placate the American public and distract them from the facts of the case. They acknowledge most readers will find it difficult to accept that Kennedy authorized the overthrow of the Catholic government of South Vietnam and the assassination of Diem, South Vietnam's democratically elected, constitutional president. After all, Kennedy had generously pledged American troops, military equipment and tax dollars to protect South Vietnam from the threat of communism. But the authors of "Triangle of Death" provide evidence Kennedy personally asked a high-ranking U.S. military officer to assassinate Diem, who was a political disaster-in-the-making for the president. The events were set into motion when a Buddhist leader named Quang Duc calmly sat down in a Saigon street June 11, 1963, soaked himself with gasoline, lit a match and burned himself to death. The news swept through the world, and when the full extent of Diem's brutality toward the Buddhists became apparent, America immediately began to ask itself the obvious questions, O'Leary and Seymour write: "Why is the U.S. supporting a foreign government that engages in religious persecution? Why is President Kennedy sending U.S. military personnel to help the government of a man who puts his own people into concentration camps?" The authors point out: "Until then, America believed the increasing number of U.S. men and women being sent to South Vietnam – close to 15,000 by June 1963 – and the $1.2-million-per-day aid package were to help the South Vietnamese fight the deadly Vietcong. But literally overnight, the U.S. was internationally perceived as a bunch of buffoons who were propping up a tyrant." With the next U.S. presidential election just over a year away, they write, "Kennedy was infuriated; moreover, he and his political consultants were scared." People "already believed that Kennedy had stolen the election, based on suspicious vote-counting in Illinois; a Catholic U.S. president supporting a Catholic fanatic who was intent on persecuting another religious group would provide them with all the ammunition they needed in November of '64." The authors contend they have irrefutable evidence the Kennedy White House supported a coup d'etat against the government of South Vietnam and the assassination of President Diem. "More than anything else," they write, "this was the rich ground in which a counter-conspiracy was planted, the conspiracy that led to President Kennedy's own assassination."
The
Book that fueled the fire:
Crossfire:The
Plot that Killed Kennedy,
by Jim Marrs
This book was the basis of the
Oliver Stone film "J.F.K".
From Library Journal: We
have witnessed the publication of myriad works which purport to explain the
events surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy, such as Anthony
Summers's Conspiracy (LJ 6/15/80). Although most of these accounts suggest
that Kennedy's death was the product of a conspiracy, they offer different
interpretations as to who conceived and perpetrated this heinous crime. Dallas
journalist Marrs brings together under one cover diverse theories and facts
advanced in many of these works. He points to the inconsistencies and
unexplained elements embodied in the official versions as to what transpired
in Dallas before, during, and after the President's death. He does not,
however, provide a novel theory that would answer some of the vexing questions
raised in a reconsideration of the assassination. Appropriate for those with a
special interest in the topic.-- Gary L. Malecha, Weber State Coll., Ogden.
From Publisher's Weekly: Twenty-five years after the event,
assassination books continue to appear. Marrs, a Dallas-area journalist who
teaches a college course on the event, has, however, produced a special one.
Its nearly 600 pages are jammed with detail on every aspect of the shooting,
the investigations, the suspicions that fell on the Mafia, the FBI, the CIA,
anti-Castro Cubans--all the usual suspects. For its comprehensiveness alone,
this would be the one book for anyone seeking a really thorough examination of
the assassination (but it sorely needs an index). Marrs is sensible and
straightforward, giving every side of disputed questions, though it is clear
that for him, as for most thoughtful people, the Warren Commission's picture
of Oswald as a lone assassin doesn't work. The author talked to witnesses
never officially interviewed, even offers never-before-seen pictures (though
these contain nothing very startling). His conclusion: Kennedy made so many
enemies in business, the military, the right wing, the mob, that his death
became inevitable. He sees no Washington-based assassination plot, simply a
willingness at the highest level (specifically Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar
Hoover) to relax protective vigilance enough to allow the deed to be done.
Continues on the following page.