I recently reviewed Volume I in this exceptional review of the murder of President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). Author John M. Newman returns in Volume II to the incredible story of the events leading up to Kennedy’s time in office and his untimely demise. Here we change gears and take a deeper look at the alleged defection of Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963) to the Soviet Union, the mob ties of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (1888-1969), the role of Italian-American mobster Sam Giancana (1908-1975) and the foreign policy decisions in Cuba, the Congo and Southeast Asia.
The story of Lee Harvey Oswald is an open and shut case if you believe the government’s official story. What we do know is that he did in fact travel to the Soviet Union and attempted to renounce his U.S. Citizenship. But what is often left out of the discussion is did he actually renounce it? To some the question might seem strange but if we take a closer look along with the author, we see that many of Oswald’s actions in Russia did not make sense. In fact, things were so confusing that his mother Marguerite Oswald (1907-1981) wrote to the State Department to verify if her son had given up his U.S. Citizenship. If you eyebrows are now raised, you are on the right track and what follows in this book will change your perception of Oswald’s possible intentions in the Soviet Union. Admittedly, Oswald is still a mysterious figure. The amount of information known about him still pales slightly to the unknown information surrounding his career in the military and his actions in Dallas leading up to Kennedy’s murder. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has generally been quite vague about what it knew about Oswald’s attempted defection and his return to the United States. The opening of the infmamous 201 file on Oswald has always been a topic of discussion in assassination researcher circles and for good reason. Newman explores the issue in detail and clears up some of the mysteries that have lingered for years. But what may really rattle readers is his hypothesis as to why Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union in the first place. Newman does not declare that his belief is what happened but his suggestion has plenty of traction and if it is ever proven to be correct, it would completely change what we knew about Lee Harvey Oswald.
As John F. Kennedy settled into office in January, 1961, his administration faced its first crisis as news of the murder of Patrice Lumuba (1925-1961) spread across the globe. Kennedy publicly had believed in a free Africa policy and Lumumba’s murder dealt a heavy blow for his vision of Africa’s future. Today we have the benefit of hindsight to look back on Lumumba’s death. And what we can see is a story that is much darker than most could have ever imagined. I should point out that there is no direct relationship between Lumumba’s death and Kennedy’s murder. But what is revealed is the role of the CIA which was also discussed in Volume I. The agency as it is known informally, became a foreign policy division of its own and by the time Kennedy took office, no one in Washington dared to challenge it. In fact, the agency was so powerful, that several presidents were unaware of what the agency’s true mission actually was. Author David Talbot discusses the agency in detail in his phenomenal book “The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA and the Rise of America’s Secret Government”, which is a thoroughly researched account of the rise of the CIA under its controversial director Allen Dulles (1893-1969). Newman puts Dulles and the agency back in the spotlight, revealing a sinister web of deceit determined to engineer Lumumba’s downfall. The story is critical to understanding what would follow from the agency in Cuba and eventually Southeast Asia.
Cuba once again comes into focus as Fidel Castro breaks ties with Washington and officials are left seeting with disdain towards the beared revolutionary. This part of the book is perhaps the most chilling as it provides an inside look into the battle being waged behind the scenes to coach Kennedy into an all out war with Cuba. Truths, half-truths and outright lies served to cause confusion and errant decisions that resulted in the distrastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in April, 1961. The mission was a total failure and publicly, Kennedy excepted blame. But behind the scenes, a war was looming between the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and America’s intelligence community. The stakes had been raised and Kennedy came to realize that the CIA was now an obstacle that had to be removed. But what he did not know at the time was that the agency plays for keeps and waits patiently for the right moment to execute.
To say that these books are mesmerizing would be an understatement. This is the history we are never taught in school. The information revealed in these books should serve as the basis for history lessons given about the events during the Cold War and the CIA’s rise to power. The author concludes the book with a snippet from the story of former CIA agent David Atlee Phillips (1922-1988), whose words are an indication of what is come in Volume III of the series titled Into the Storm: The Assassination of President Kennedy. A storm was definitely brewing and by the time it ended, America was never be the same again.
ASIN: B01N16W6E4
The lone gunman theory remains the official position taken the United States Government with regards to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). The alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963) was convicted in the court of public opinion before standing trial in a Dallas courtroom. His assailant, Jack Ruby (1911-1967) permanently silenced Oswald forever and prevented Americans from knowing more about the former Marine that had once lived in the Soviet Union. The big question surrounding Kennedy’s death is who did it? The crime is similar to a black hole, puzzling even the most hardened researchers. The late Jim Marrs (1943-2017) once said that we know who killed Kennedy, we just have to look at the evidence. Author John M. Newman has joined the group of assassination researchers and has produced this first volume in what will be a multi-volume set about the deadly events in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
When I first heard of this book, I was slightly puzzled. As a fan of the NLF, the name Curt Warner was very familiar to me but it turns out that I had the wrong person in mind. And I am willing to wager that a large number of people who come across this book will also make the same mistake and instead think of the NFL player Kurt Warner, who once played for the New York Giants. Both are retired but only one has a family of four that includes twin sons born with autism. Many of us many know someone who struggles with autism. And others may be teachers who have taught autistic students. Regardless, we can all agree that it is a condition which requires enormous patience and understanding. This is the story of Curt and Ana Warner, two parents faced with the monumental task of raising twin sons born autistic while maintaining family life that includes tow other children.
Last week I was debating what book to read next and realized that I had not covered anything on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) in quite some time. To many Americans, his death is in America’s past, and a crime never to be solved. With that being said, his murder is a reminder of how easy it once was to remove a sitting president from the highest office in the land. Kennedy’s death endures as one of America’s darkest moments and the unanswered questions surrounding the events in Dealey Plaza still send chills down the spines of even the most seasoned researchers. Colonel John Hughes-Wilson has taken another look at the crime and lays out his case for what he believes was a coup d’état on November 22, 1963. In the fifty-years since JFK’s death, researchers have been able to compile a staggering amount of revealing evidence throughout independent research and the release of government files under the Freedom of Information Act and the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. Incredibly, Hughes-Wilson has managed to compress thousands of pages of information into a book that is less than 400 pages. But contained within the pages of this book is an excellent summary of what happened before, during and after Kennedy’s murder.
Last week, my mother and I had a discussion about the actor Denzel Washington, who is widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s greatest stars. For both of us, his role as civil rights figure Malcolm X (1925-1965) in 1992 biopic ‘Malcolm X‘, was a shining moment in which he showed the world his talent as an actor and Spike Lee’s known skills as a powerful filmmaker. I had been contemplating my next book to read and came across this biography by late author Manning Marable (1950-2011). I had previously read 
Several months ago, my uncle and I had a discussion about aging and how health becomes more important as the years pass by. He recalled when he left the military following his service in Vietnam. His hearing is permanently damaged as a result of being stationed near the 50 caliber machine gun while out on patrol. Over the years, he has spoken about Vietnam on rare occasions but I know for a fact that he and millions of other veterans of the war, carry with them many dark memories and emotional scars from their time in a war that has been viewed negatively for several decades. Author Mark Bowden revisits the war in this phenomenal account of the battle for Hue during the Tet Offensive in 1968. My uncle was not stationed in Hue but in another part of the country and has told me many things about the war that made my skin crawl. For the United States Armed Forces, the battle of Hue and the Tet Offensive changed the war in Vietnam and the for the first time, it became increasingly clear, that this was a war that America could possibly lose.
Aviation is truly one of the world’s modern marvels. To say that it has made the world smaller is an understatement. There is something mystical and surreal about moving through the air at 39,000 feet, at speeds in excess of 500mph. Every flyer knows that there are inherent dangers when we take to the skies. Pilots are incredibly skilled and make the experience seem like magic to those of us in the cabin. And air travel is safer today that at any point in history but there many tragedies over the years that we have learned from in order to make air travel as safe as possible. Seasoned pilots will tell you that the early days of aviation were quite dangerous and flying literally was like rolling the dice. On January 16, 1942, movie star Carole Lombard (1908-1942) was a passenger on TWA Flight 3, a flight that began in New York and had a final destination of Burbank, California. Most of the trip was routine, but a sudden change of events in Las Vegas, changed the course of history and resulted in one of the deadliest aviation accidents of the 1940s. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed full speed into Mt. Potosi, causing the aircraft to disintegrate upon impact. There were no survivors.
I find that as I age, I am more focused on historical events that changed the course of America, in particular from Black Americans. It has been said that in order to know where you are going, you have to know where you come from. For millions of Black Americans, the question of identity has been a difficult one to answer. Some prefer the term African-American while others prefer Black-American. And there are some who prefer Afro-American or just simply Black. Regardless of the label, there is a shared history of pain, struggle and the never ending goal for full integration American society. Over the past fifty years, tremendous progress has been made in the United States but there is still much work to be done. But one of the greatest things about America is our ability to correct and learn from mistakes that have lingered for too long. The young generation of today lives in a world far removed from only twenty years ago. Their world is one in which technology is ingrained and life moves at an even faster pace. My father often thinks back to the period of integration and the times where it seemed as if America was going to tear itself apart. Even to him, as a kid it seemed as if the accomplishments by Black Americans over the years were just a pipe dream.
FREETHINKING BIBLIOPHILE 
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