Blog #31 - Which JFK conspiracy do you believe?

We have been watching Oswald's Ghost and trying to get to the bottom of the mess surrounding the murder of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.  The Warren Commission, under stress to get to the bottom of the murder, tried to line up the facts and reasons why those facts had happened.  The implications of not coming to a lone gunman conclusion being murdered by Jack Ruby (feeling sorry for Jackie Kennedy who almost everyone loved or felt sympathy for) were staggering:  the murderer would still be on the loose.   So, the Warren Commission did was it supposed to: it presented the government's case for an open and shut case against Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) just in time for President Johnson to trounce Republican senator Barry Goldwater. 

Early on in the film, it appears to present one possible conspiracy with little evidence but conjecture: why would a leftist (LHO) kill a liberal president deep in the heart of Texas where JFK was deeply hated (given the editorials NOT welcoming the president to Dallas) along with the anti-segregationists and Texas oilmen (see pamphlet to the side).  The stuff that we hear on the cable newshows against either Presidents Bush or Obama is nothing new.  It was said 40 years ago.  Talk of impeaching a president was tossed at FDR, Clinton and many other presidents as well.

Another conspiracy that we heard was that the president was killed by the Cubans for his sponsoring of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the confrontation over the missiles in 1962.  LHO's shady past and his passing out of leaflets saying "Hands Off Cuba"  provide some plausibility for that scenario.  Whether these were pro-Cubans who wanted to kill JFK for the Bay of Pigs invasion, or anti-Castro people who were angry about the Bay of Pigs invasion and JFK' s refusal to support the invasion.  The killers could have been Cubans or it could have been Oswald.

In the book, 48 Liberal Lies About American History (That You Probably Learned in School), the #5 Lie was "JFK was killed by LBJ and a secret team to keep Kennedy from getting us out of Vietnam."   The author of the book, Larry Schweikart, argued that all of the top military contractors "put together couldn't equal the revenues of a major car comany or a McDonald's" (36).  There's some debate as to whether President Kennedy was a strong anti-Communist or not, whether he was willing to stay and fight in South Vietnam.  Some staffers stated that Kennedy had expressed uncertainty over remaining there.  Therefore, the "military-industrial complex" apparently has so much pull in the government that it can have a president assassinated (yet today, when our military is so much stronger and the U.S. gov't. withdraws from Iraq, not one single president is killed!  Amazing!). 

Also, there is the mafia involvement scenario.  There are a couple of angles on this.  One angle is that the assassination was retaliation for Attorney General Bobby Kennedy's attacks on the mafia.  They could have used their own killers and used Oswald as a "patsy" like he claimed.  According to Schweikart, there's wiretap evidence against some of the top crime bosses in the nation like Sam Giancana (the mob boss whose girlfriend, Judith Campbell, Frank Sinatra had introduced JFK to) among others (37).  The other angle has to do with killing JFK b/c he was having an affair w/ Judith Campbell (Exner, her married name).  

Then there's Oswald doing the murder by himself.  Pretty much the evidence points to this scenario.  Lawyer Gerald Posner wrote Case Closed  in 1993 tackles the absence of other evidence (the lack of more gunshots, the inability of the conspiracy folks to produce any bullets tied to the crime scene besides Oswald's or any other kind of forensic evidence.  In Oswald's Ghost, the film makes a very good case about how much LHO was underestimated - that he was too stupid, too incompetent, too this or too that to do any of the things that he had done on his own (get dishonorably discharged from the Marines, defect to the Soviet Union, marry a Russian woman and then return back to the U.S.) w/o the help of foreign governments or their agencies. 

Question:

Which JFK murder conspiracy / theory do you personally think has the most credibility?  Why?  Use info from Oswald's Ghost, article "Death of a President", and outside sources if necessary. 

Due Wednesday May 5 - 200 words minimum. 

Sources:

1. Timeline of JFK and LHO's lives from PBS's website for Oswald's Ghost: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/oswald/timeline/
2. Review of Gerald Posner's Case Closed, http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/parnell/sl2.htm 
3. Norman Mailer, Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery
4. Josiah Thompson, Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination
5. The Warren Commission - http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/index.html
6. Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963
7. Priscilla Johnson McMillan, Marina and Lee
8. Edward Jay Epstein, Inquest
9. Mark Lane, RUSH TO JUDGEMENT

The Next Blog (#4) in a Long Series of Excellent Blogs - Is America an Empire?

There have been dozens of books written lately about how America has become an empire - especially with the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

The premise of many of these books is that whether we like it or not, America is an empire. Whether we like acknowledging it or not is whole other thing.

When many people think of empires, we tend to think of the ancient Romans with their gladiators and colisseums, or the British Empire and some guy in a funny-looking pith helmet tromping through the African jungle: "Dr. Livingston, I presume?" With the word "empire" or "imperialism" comes so much negative baggage; plus, those words are so down-right anti-democratic. If we're controlling the destinies of other countries, how are we allowing them to be democratic and free nations?

Being an imperialist nation, apparently, has been something we've been working at for several decades now. A book by Stephen Kinzer called Overthrow outlines over a dozen instances where the United States has taken control of a country b/c our business or political interests were threatened, resources were slipping out of control, or during the Cold War, we felt the creep of socialism/communism get too close.

When comparing the early 20th Century to today we will talk about how widespread today's American military is across the world: 700 military bases in 60 countries; 1.4 million soldiers. There's an upside to all of this - don't get me wrong! Because of these brave men and women, we're so much safer than we would be without them. I am grateful for theirs and their families' sacrifices.

The question to answer: Is America an empire? Why or why not?
Questions to consider but not necessarily answer - is the course we've taken towards building an empire worth the hatred of the world? Our safety doesn't mean much when terrorists want to kill us at home. Morally, are we doing the right thing by keeping other countries from determining their own destiny? Economically, is the tax money we're spending on our military also the right thing to do? Should the other countries of the world shoulder their own defense expense? Why or why not?

Minimum response - 200 words - due Monday- 10.13.08

Find out how we overthrew Iran in 1953: A Folly of Attacking Iran: Lessons from History - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJRcOF7rEfQ