“None of the dozens of conspiracy theories about his assassination provided any solid evidence to change the sad conclusion that we simply do not know …. Some authors have speculated that Kennedy’s assassination was the work of powerful financial, military and intelligence community interests who feared that Kennedy might reverse not only racial discrimination but also anti-Communist belligerence. If history ever proves that horrific thesis correct, and those conspirators hoped by killing Kennedy to block the civil rights and peace movements in this country, one thing is clear — they failed.”
— Former JFK speechwriter Theodore Sorsensen, in the preface to the 2009 edition of his book Kennedy, p. xiii. (see in Google Books).
I’ve learned that a Canadian journalist named Brent Holland is working on a book detailing his experiences conducting a series of one on one interviews with Mr. Sorensen. Worth checking:
http://www.brenthollandshow.com/
Everyone would benefit by having their own Ted Sorensen; Thank God President Kennedy had his.
I have to wonder about Sorensen’s comment, and I did read his last book about Kennedy, which was pretty good overall. I admire his political positions during JFK’s presidency, and think he was a great person to have on the team. That said, after JFK was gone, we went straight from limited withdrawal in Southeast Asia, with plans to wrap up all armed forces commitment by the end of 1965, to full involvement costing many American lives. We did get civil rights legislation passed under LBJ, and I give him credit for marshaling this through, but I think ultimately Kennedy would have been able to do the same, after he was reelected, in 1964. It was building momentum towards passage. Johnson made sure it got finalized. My take on Johnson was that he helped (or engineered) the coup that took the life of JFK, he probably was involved in conspiracies to kill Martin King and RFK (both spoke out against the Vietnam War before they died), and he ushered in an era of Machiavellian cynical power manipulation that we have never as a nation recovered from. So, yes we got civil rights. We got peace in Vietnam only after all other troops on the ground and bombing failed first, and then we got into other wars throughout the rest of the 20th century and up through Bush II’s two terms.
I wouldn’t say that the planners failed (if indeed JFK was killed by these right wing elements in a coup). I would say they achieved some of their objectives, which were to get rid of a peace-searching president who wanted to check the power of the military industrial complex. They also ushered in an era of cynicism and voter apathy, distrust of government vacuum which the pro-business, anti-government libertarians have filled in. We haven’t been able to get a New Deal or a New Frontier, activist, strong Keynesian government with the support of most Americans since November 22, 1963.
This on the 50th anniversary of the Magnolia Oil Party, perhaps the most oxymoronic gathering in history if we are to believe the WC that Oswald was a “leftist”?
Big boat to miss.
“If history ever proves that horrific thesis correct, and those conspirators hoped by killing Kennedy to block the civil rights and peace movements in this country, one thing is clear — they failed.”
That is a pitiful effort by Sorensen (CFR). The Kennedys’ efforts to destroy Lyndon Johnson was a huge factor in the JFK assassination. LBJ did not go to jail. Hoover was not fired. CIA/military rage over Cuba policy was yet another key factor in the JFK assassination. LBJ gave them Vietnam instead, so the war hawks were taken care of as were the Texas oil executives and their massive oil depreciation allowances.
“Civil rights” became LBJ’s ticket out of the JFK assassination. He had to give the liberals, blacks, Northerners, Kennedy folks a big sop to innoculate himself and the JFK assassination itself from closer scrutiny. Something to shut up the NYT and the Washington Post who would not want to disrupt a civil rights crusade – not wanting to check if the new bandleader of it was a murderer himself.
Murder JFK – give the liberals a “civil rights” sop; then take care of war hawks and oil men, military contractors – all his biggest supporters.
Only the anti-Castro Cuban CIA operatives were left holding the bag.
How ironic that Castro and his brother still alive after all that. This explains our US policy on Cuba even today.
One more thing re: Sorensen. After JFK’s murder we got a peace movement all right… and a HUGE freaking war all over Asia – 58,000 Americans dead, over 1 million Vietamese dead plus scores more wounded. And some very wealthy military contractors.
This is an interesting quote. I have come to believe that the assassination was either part of or a catalyst for an attempted policy coup that got nipped in the bud, most notably by immediately suppressing any evidence that Oswald was affiliated with anyone. I agree with Sorenson’s choice of possible culprits, although I don’t think any were in the government at the time of the assassination.
Google “LBJ-CIA Assassination of JFK.”