JFK still matters

This may appeal only to those of us of an age to remember all the brouhaha and bullshit in the wake of the assassination of President Kennedy, but I still think, and will until the day I die and probably beyond, that it's important. 22 November 1963 marks the day we all started to find out just how much our government lied to us and still does.

An article in Salon about a new book, "Brothers", which of course you can buy whilst reading:

The exclusive story of Robert F. Kennedy's secret search for the truth about John F. Kennedy's assassination. From the new book by Salon's founder and former editor in chief.

As family members and close friends gathered in the White House on the weekend after the assassination for the president's funeral, a raucous mood of Irish mourning gripped the executive mansion. But Bobby didn't participate in the family's doleful antics. Coiled and sleepless throughout the weekend, he brooded alone about his brother's murder. According to an account by Peter Lawford, the actor and Kennedy in-law who was there that weekend, Bobby told family members that JFK had been killed by a powerful plot that grew out of one of the government's secret anti-Castro operations. There was nothing they could do at that point, Bobby added, since they were facing a formidable enemy and they no longer controlled the government. Justice would have to wait until the Kennedys could regain the White House -- this would become RFK's mantra in the years after Dallas, whenever associates urged him to speak out about the mysterious crime.

(Mankiewicz later told Bobby that his research led him to conclude it was probably a plot involving the Mafia, Cuban exiles and rogue CIA agents.)

Robert Kennedy did not live long enough to solve his brother's assassination. But nearly 40 years after his own murder, a growing body of evidence suggests that Kennedy was on the right trail before he too was cut down. Despite his verbal contortions in public, Bobby Kennedy always knew that the truth about Dallas mattered. It still does.

I have vowed to live long enough to find out what really happened. The sealed archives will be opened when I'm 93, if anyone remembers to do it, so by the time I'm 120 or so...

Update:

Mrs. G has an interest in this subject that makes my obsession with it look like a case of mild curiosity, so I ordered the book for her upcoming birthday. Saved ten bucks over retail. I love these internets!

Update II:

Mrs. G told me that she had read the article at Salon and was going to get the book. I hung my head and told her not to. Try and surprise her, will I?