Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination

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Serving as a Chief of Special Operations under the Kennedy administration, L. Fletcher Prouty decided to put pen to paper and give us one of the best-rated Kennedy assassination books in existence. Prouty, a former colonel in the US Army, eventually turned to banking and became a critic of US foreign policy and the existence and practices of the CIA, the very same reasons that many believe JFK was killed for. Are persons who would think up Operation Northwoods not capable of planning to kill a President too? Once Kennedy started to waver on those Cold Warrior beliefs, the book claims he was marked for death by the military intelligence agencies that held (and still hold) huge influence over every level of government in the U.S. These forces, which Douglass call “the Unspeakable” (after Thomas Meryton), tagged Kennedy as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orchestrated the subsequent killing and cover-up in Dallas in 1963. Lifton's technique in the book is to discuss his personal journey into the world of assassination researchers, and then through to publishing this. He documents his relationship at UCLA with Warren Commission staffer Wesley Liebler, which is a delightful addition to the book. The reason why this is one of the best Kennedy assassination books out there is that it goes very in-depth on the topic and explains every detail of what was going on at the time. James explains how the CIA was trying to put JFK in the middle of a full-blown US invasion of Cuba, and how that raised tensions between the agency and the Kennedy administration. Covering More of John’s Life

This unique photographic analysis of the events proved crucial in uncovering the truth of what actually happened, and turned many non-believers into believers that there was indeed something shady going on within the government. Despite the size, the book is easily readable, apart from a few volumes that might be a bit too technical for the average reader, and full of critical data and justified speculation. That being said, this is one of those Kennedy assassination books that are best to read only after you have a general understanding of the JFK assassination conspiracy, which you can get through reading some of the other books on this list. On November 22nd, 1963, Bobby Kennedy received a phone call that altered his life forever. The president, his brother, had been shot. JFK would not survive. During the thirteen days in October 1962 when the United States confronted the Soviet Union over its installation of missiles in Cuba, few people shared the behind-the-scenes story as it is told here by the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In this unique account, he describes each of the participants during the sometimes hour-to-hour negotiations, with particular attention to the actions and views of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. I would give Summers top marks, however, for writing a top-shelf book from the other side of the aisle. While I generally did not agree with many of his conclusions in the 1998 edition, I did at least find the book far less ludicrous than some other works out there.This is truly one of the books that you need to read if you are at least remotely interested in learning more about JFK’s death. It’s rare to see such an amazing combination of great storytelling, fact spitting, and valuable insight. What I didn't really like about the book is that it went too much into how the bullet entered and left his brain. I understand it was to show that the brain was tampered with before the autopsy to prove that the bullets only came from one direction (Oswald) and that there couldn't be more than one shooter, but I'm not a doctor. I will never be a doctor and a lot of the stuff written about I just will never understand. Not exactly the best thing to read about while eating lunch, too. I wish the book went more into what was Oswald like as a person before the shooting? How did he end up at the Book Depository? What went on with Kennedy a few months, weeks and days before the shooting? The same question with Lyndon Johnson. This book mostly focuses on the MEDICAL evidence concerning the brain, the autopsy and x-ray photos and how the body may or may not have been altered with either before it went on Air Force One or while it was on Air Force One or not at all. Talbot articulates a consensus belief of the electorate (not just academicians) when he writes, “ A growing historical consensus now sees JFK as presiding over a bitterly divided government, with Kennedy and his peace-minded inner circle on one side and a war-hungry Cold War establishment on the other. Even humdrum Kennedy historian Robert Dallek has now signed on to this view, with a new book that argues JFK’s biggest enemies were not Communist leaders but his own generals and espionage chiefs. This is a sobering conclusion, of course, because it provides a possible explanation for the bloody regime change in Dallas.”

The interior of the Presidential limousine after the Kennedy assassination How Many JFK AssassinationFiles Have Been Declassified? I recommend Anthony Summers “ Not in Your Lifetime,” which has been updated and reissued this week. I think it is the best single introduction to the JFK assassination story. Published in 2013, shortly before the 50 th anniversary of the tragic event, Killing JFK is a fairly new book on Kennedy’s assassination. Lance Moore, an acclaimed author, puts together all of the facts in a conceivable and easy-to-read manner, and lists over 200 credible sources that JFK’s killing was in fact more than the act of a single actor. Jim Douglass isn’t some tenured history professor at an Ivy League institution. He’s the writer of many books, but he identifies first and foremost as a peace activist—he’s spent his lifetime advocating directly for the poor and disadvantaged, and he and his wife, Shelley, live a humble life in Birmingham, Alabama, where they run Mary’s House, a non-profit Catholic Worker house. He’s not regularly hob-nobbing with the cultural elite or rubbing shoulders with Hollywood types.While Lifton never truly succeeds at pinpointing when and where (or by whom) the body alterations were made, he does point to many confusing and unexplained aspects of the body's arrival and handling at Bethesda. His attempts to interview everyone who was there in and around the autopsy room that night led to an assembly of confusing stories involving decoy ambulances, two different coffins, and a team of mystery men on hand to watch and control everything that went on there that night. How do you explain reports of a hearse delivering a plain casket with JFK in a body bag vs. reports of the body arriving in an ornate casket with the President wrapped in a sheet? Different people reported entirely different stories taking place at entirely different times from that night in the morgue. The volume and complexity of all this information sort of gets the better of Lifton in the end, I think, as some of his attempts to figure out where and when the body was altered come across as fishing expeditions, but I really don't know what more he could have done in this regard.