James W. Douglass

I was 15 years old when President Kennedy was murdered in Dallas on 11/22/63. I remember the moment I was told as if someone burned it into my memory with a hot brand. It was a little after 130pm est and I immediately went home arriving in time to see Walter Cronkite in tears and the playing of the National Anthem in the dead presidents honor. Hope seemed gone and the youth and vitality JFK brought to the American people ended abruptly with gunshots raining down on him at the hands of assassins in Dallas. Camelot was over, really over, and a new era had begun. The U.S. has yet to recover its steadiness and place in the world since that day in Dealey Plaza, instead we fight war after war to no real conclusion. There are no improvements in our lives as a result of these wars. American soldiers die for vague reasons in areas we have no cultural understanding of. JFK thought that nations should be free to determine their own destiny, alignment or nonalignment. But the military complex continues on and on.

This book has had a profound effect on me and the way I view the murder of President John Kennedy. Wondering as I had for so long about why JFK had to die I began to read "JFK and the Unspeakable" expecting yet another book that recounted all the questions that are left for our nation to resolve about the assassination, if and when it ever has the courage to do so. The author, James W. Douglas, however, has begun his story at the very beginning of JFK's presidency following the major national security issues he was involved in, or made decisions about, and the estrangement they caused in his relationship with his Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCOS). You'll read of General Curtis LeMay insulting JFK during JCOS meetings. LeMay, you'll recall was the running mate of George Corley Wallace when he ran for president in 1968 and not much more need be said to put LeMay where he rightfully belongs in history.

The first conflict with the military and CIA was when they presented JFK with the proposed invasion of Cuba by a brigade of Cuban exiles through the Bay of Pigs. JFK reluctantly allowed the invasion, but told the CIA he would not allow US air cover. When the Cuban Brigade failed to establish a beachhead the CIA tried to trap JFK into a US invasion of Cuba, if not a nuclear strike. JFK, a new president, stood his ground and would not authorize further US commitment. Next came the Cuban Missile Crisis that caused an epiphany for JFK and Khrushev as well. They jointly brought the world to the abyss of total annihilation and, frankly, scared the hell out of one another with the possibility of what nearly occurred. Kennedy was being pressured by his military and CIA and Chairman Khrushev was being pressured by equal forces in the Kremlin to launch a first strike. In a move that was bold and courageous, Kennedy turned to Khrushev for help with several communications through back channels and he responded by withdrawing the missiles in exchange for a US promise not to invade Cuba and, at some later date, for the US to remove missiles from Turkey and Italy that were pointed at the Soviet Union. JFK "turned" away from war and humanity won the Cuban Missile Crisis, not the US. Khrushev, for his part, trusted JFK because to do otherwise would result in a world where life was irrelevant to the option of using nuclear weapons. It's taken history decades to interpret the hopeful outcome of this crisis, two men who were enemies tried to understand the other and, as a result, humanity won. The unspeakable did not happen. You'll read the response of General Lemay in the meeting of the JCOS tell Kennedy "We Lost!!!!." No one can be sure what Lemay thought, or if he was capable of rational thought, however, it's clear he preferred death and destruction to Cuba and the USSR rather than a peaceful settlement of the crisis. JFK would be further estranged from the military and CIA because of this triumph of humanity and more than once spoke of a possible military coup, such as depicted in the novel "Seven Days In May," because of his growing disharmony with them.

JFK knew if he continued to pursue peace, he was in imminent danger with the military and CIA. Actually three or more things happened that convinced the military and CIA that JFK was a threat to their version of national security. The author places great importance on one speech that was, in the opinion of many, the best JFK ever made in June, 1963 at American University when he got away from Cold War rhetoric and challenged the Soviets to have a Peace Race instead of an Arms Race. A beautifully crafted speech, it had a huge effect on the Soviet people, yet little effect at home. In spite of his efforts to make peace with our enemies much evidence is given about counter measures the CIA was employing to thwart his efforts throughout Asia and, in particular Cuba. JFK realized his real enemy, and the one that kept opposing him in trying to stop war was our own CIA and not anyone in the Soviet Union. He's isolation must have been incredible to deal with as he recognized the ultimate threat he lived with in waging peace and stopping war. You'll be amazed and repulsed at the many plans the JCOS and CIA presented the president on using nuclear weapons to destroy the Soviet Union and Cuba. Along with the plans were the ruses that would make it appear "the other side' started the exchange.

Presidents from Washington to Eisenhower have warned of the growing power of the military industrial complex because of the constant war machine this nation runs. To stop it with peace is a very risky thing for a president as JFK knew. The reader will be surprised at how ready for peace the world was. Both men exchanged some 21 letters outlining their plan to bring a meaningful peace to the world through understanding and not confrontation and war. Both men were convinced of the futility of war after the Missile Crisis and the horrific damage it would inflict upon humanity. Before leaving for Dallas JFK signed an order withdrawing 1,000 troops from Vietnam and pledged to remove them all by 1965. How different our history may have been had he lived! Also, he announced his intention to "splinter the CIA into 1,000 pieces and spread them to the wind." They had become a government within a government promoting their own foreign policy and not the information gathering agency their charter made them during the Truman Administration. They had become a danger to the security of the United States and one has to assume that continues to this day. They operate in a world of mirrors, smoke and false identities, an enigma that no one has control over. Frankly, the entire US government is afraid of them.

The assassination of JFK actually begins in Chicago three weeks prior to his final day in Dallas. That attempt was thwarted by an informant named "Lee". The author moves to Dallas and with witnesses and research into documents released under Freedom of Information, takes apart the way JFK was killed in Dealey Plaza. No other historic account of this tragedy has woven together the parts of the plot, plan, or conspiracy to murder John Kennedy so completely. At the end of the book you'll understand the why of JFK's death, how it was accomplished and, in a way that should infuriate you, the agency that committed the murder. You will no longer be deluded into thinking that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin. Rather, he was a scapegoat who'd been put in that position by his operators in the CIA. The fact that Oswald told the press and nation on TV that "I'm a patsy" is evidence itself there was more to the shooting than we were ever told. Jack Ruby silenced Oswald and witnesses rejected by the Warren Commission saw him throughout the day of the assassination. Reportedly, he was in the movie theater when Oswald was captured hoping the Dallas Police would kill him right then and when they didn't, by mistake, the role fell to him. If you view the film of the execution again Oswald was set up for Ruby to kill. The report rendered by The Warren Commission is nothing but a pack of lies and testimony that were changed for the purpose of "protecting the United States." History laughs at this so-called report and, frankly, it's a waste of paper. Any witness to events that would change their lone assassin theory, and there were many, were disregarded or misquoted. The line of questioning of witnesses shows a lack of follow-up where to know more would upset the theory they were "proving" at any cost.

The hard truth of this book, the unspeakable, is the evil that lurks within the Central Intelligence Agency that undertook a plot to remove JFK because believing and pursuing peace was, in their view, a threat to national security. Our nation must face this awful truth someday. In the words of the author, events such as this cannot be allowed to pass into history without explanation and justice. An agency of our own government and their accomplices killed John Fitzgerald Kennedy because he turned to peace and wanted all women, men and children to live their lives without war and its eventual, but, certain annihilation of humanity. John Kennedy represented a humanity that had no lobby to promote their interests in pursuing life, liberty and happiness. This is a book for the ages, for our age, and it's hoped many will read it and realize that we as a nation are not truly free, nor very brave if evil like this is allowed to live within those who govern us. For they are a reflection of us.… (más)