15-02-2010, 08:54 AM
The book by James Douglass entitled "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters" is one of the best and most important books I've read in some time, ranking with the work of Peter Dale Scott and David Ray Griffin. He addresses superbly all four elements in the title.
I learned things about the event(s) I did not know, mostly because I was unaware of the depth, breadth and proof of information that emerged in the 90's. What someone else has described as repetition I took as layering, a spiral re-coating. Douglass' work is a tapestry in which he left and then returned to tape up again an important thread so as to advance it and tie it to another.
While Douglass does not discuss 9/11, the parallels in terms of black ops, cover-up, media silence, etc. are obvious. He does a superb job of explaining how the CIA, even back then let alone today, has infiltrated all corners of the government and the media, how compartmentalization works (putting to rest all those "debunking" themes that such a conspiracy would have taken too many people, and especially the one about 'how come no one has spoken up?'), and how cover-up was/is accomplished.
One of the more powerful things about this book (they do not detract from the rigor of the research) is that Douglass gives the reader gets a feeling for JFK -- the man, the leader, the human-- that has perhaps been missing in much of the research and commentary of late because it focused on the minutiae. Douglass was clearly informed by Vincent Salandra's perspective and stepped back away from the detail and painted with a broad brush.
It is a very moving book. After forty some odd years, one would think the tear ducts had been emptied; Douglass fills them up and makes them flow without being maudlin or gaudy about it, or using it as a literary device.
The most powerful thing about the book for me personally, having been an adolescent in the early 60's who remembers well the nuclear tensions and the specific events -- the B-58 Hustlers flying treetop missions over the hedgerows in my backyard, my future brother-in-law detained in the Navy to work the blockade -- is the focus, borne of Douglass' own witnessing, on the nuclear issues. Those issues and the very same internal US political tensions and questions are alive today in some dark and quiet corners. While waiting for the delivery of "JFKU", I read Douglass' first book "Resistance and Contemplation" which called to me as a human and a Christian; indeed, I would not crack "JFKU" until I could better understand the unlikely person called to write it. The themes in JFKU of "Pacem in Terris", the American University speech, and JFK's growing awareness or turning were first explored and exposed in "R&C".
JFK said, in that important commencement address that the media ignored then and continues to ignore now, that -- in the end -- we are all mortal, and we all cherish our children's future. The book showed us the human in him that cherished his children and who was mortal.
Even after having been gripped by the fervor and passion of trying to figure out what happened in Dealey Plaza, I as reader came to great clarity. The issue, especially for me, however, was not closure, but a renewal, a beginning, a re-commitment in the face of the inexorable and infernal military machine that today continues to kill at will and threaten the globe in so many ways. We missed the opportunity to take up the banner that fell in Dealey Plaza back then; we cannot afford to fail to do so now. Douglass asks "Have we reached the point where the state itself has become an enemy of the people....?"
I suspect I shall return again, and again, to the pages of these two books by Douglass (and no doubt will read his others in good time) in order to harvest and sow its seeds. Douglass' book focuses on the President and his death, the governmental nexus that was responsible for it and accomplished its cover-up (an effort still underway nearly half a century later), but he leaves the focus on the reader through the question left hanging in the air :
So what are you going to do now?
I learned things about the event(s) I did not know, mostly because I was unaware of the depth, breadth and proof of information that emerged in the 90's. What someone else has described as repetition I took as layering, a spiral re-coating. Douglass' work is a tapestry in which he left and then returned to tape up again an important thread so as to advance it and tie it to another.
While Douglass does not discuss 9/11, the parallels in terms of black ops, cover-up, media silence, etc. are obvious. He does a superb job of explaining how the CIA, even back then let alone today, has infiltrated all corners of the government and the media, how compartmentalization works (putting to rest all those "debunking" themes that such a conspiracy would have taken too many people, and especially the one about 'how come no one has spoken up?'), and how cover-up was/is accomplished.
One of the more powerful things about this book (they do not detract from the rigor of the research) is that Douglass gives the reader gets a feeling for JFK -- the man, the leader, the human-- that has perhaps been missing in much of the research and commentary of late because it focused on the minutiae. Douglass was clearly informed by Vincent Salandra's perspective and stepped back away from the detail and painted with a broad brush.
It is a very moving book. After forty some odd years, one would think the tear ducts had been emptied; Douglass fills them up and makes them flow without being maudlin or gaudy about it, or using it as a literary device.
The most powerful thing about the book for me personally, having been an adolescent in the early 60's who remembers well the nuclear tensions and the specific events -- the B-58 Hustlers flying treetop missions over the hedgerows in my backyard, my future brother-in-law detained in the Navy to work the blockade -- is the focus, borne of Douglass' own witnessing, on the nuclear issues. Those issues and the very same internal US political tensions and questions are alive today in some dark and quiet corners. While waiting for the delivery of "JFKU", I read Douglass' first book "Resistance and Contemplation" which called to me as a human and a Christian; indeed, I would not crack "JFKU" until I could better understand the unlikely person called to write it. The themes in JFKU of "Pacem in Terris", the American University speech, and JFK's growing awareness or turning were first explored and exposed in "R&C".
JFK said, in that important commencement address that the media ignored then and continues to ignore now, that -- in the end -- we are all mortal, and we all cherish our children's future. The book showed us the human in him that cherished his children and who was mortal.
Even after having been gripped by the fervor and passion of trying to figure out what happened in Dealey Plaza, I as reader came to great clarity. The issue, especially for me, however, was not closure, but a renewal, a beginning, a re-commitment in the face of the inexorable and infernal military machine that today continues to kill at will and threaten the globe in so many ways. We missed the opportunity to take up the banner that fell in Dealey Plaza back then; we cannot afford to fail to do so now. Douglass asks "Have we reached the point where the state itself has become an enemy of the people....?"
I suspect I shall return again, and again, to the pages of these two books by Douglass (and no doubt will read his others in good time) in order to harvest and sow its seeds. Douglass' book focuses on the President and his death, the governmental nexus that was responsible for it and accomplished its cover-up (an effort still underway nearly half a century later), but he leaves the focus on the reader through the question left hanging in the air :
So what are you going to do now?
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"