JFK & the Unspeakable: Why He Died & Why It Matters
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Authors: James W. Douglass
Advance Praise for
JFK and the Unspeakable
“
JFK and the Unspeakable
is an exceptional achievement. Douglass has made the strongest case so far in the JFK assassination literature as to the Who and the Why of Dallas. The conjunction of unrestrained elements in cold war America—defense industry elites, Pentagon planners, and the heads of the intelligence community—were the forces that led inexorably to Dallas and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”
—Gerald McKnight,
author,
Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why
“With penetrating insight and unswerving integrity, Douglass probes the fundamental truths about JFK’s assassination. If, he contends, humanity permits those truths to slip into history ignored and undefined it does so at its own peril. By far the most important book yet written on the subject.”
—Gaeton Fonzi,
former Staff Investigator, U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations
“Douglass presents, brilliantly, an unfamiliar yet thoroughly convincing account of a series of creditable decisions of John F. Kennedy—at odds with his initial Cold War stance—that earned him the secret distrust and hatred of hard-liners among the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA. Did this suspicion and rage lead directly to his murder by agents of these institutions, as Douglass concludes? Many readers who are not yet convinced of this ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ by Douglass’s prosecutorial indictment will find themselves, perhaps—like myself—for the first time, compelled to call for an authoritative criminal investigation. Recent events give all the more urgency to learning what such an inquiry can teach us about how, by whom, and in whose interests this country is run.”
—Daniel Ellsberg,
author,
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
“A remarkable book: devastating in its documented indictment of the dark forces that have long deformed the public life of this country, while also illuminating JFK’s final vision of world peace and documenting beyond reasonable doubt the unspeakable assassination of our last partially admirable president. This book should be required reading for every American citizen.”
—Richard Falk,
Milbank Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University
“For forty years Jim Douglass has been our leading North American Catholic theologian of peace. But this monumental work on the witness of JFK is something deeper still. Douglass is trying to get us to connect the dots between our ‘citizen denial,’ the government’s ‘plausible deniability,’ and the Unspeakable. This book has the potential to change our narrative about our country, and our lives as citizens and disciples. May we have ears to hear these truths, hearts able to bear their burden, and hands willing to build a new story.”
—Ched Myers,
author,
Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus
“Jim Douglass’s spiritual and eloquent telling of President John F. Kennedy’s martyrdom for peace is a peerless and extraordinary historical contribution.”
—Vincent J. Salandria,
author,
False Mystery: Essays on the Assassination of JFK
“This book’s story of JFK and the ‘unspeakable’ is a stunning mix of political thriller and meticulous scholarship. . . . Douglass’s book offers a goldmine of information and is indispensable for building prophetic spirit and hope.”
—Mark Lewis Taylor,
Princeton Theological Seminary
“This is the most thoroughly researched and documented book ever written about President Kennedy’s determination to prevent a nuclear war—and how his success in that struggle cost him his life. And yet, Douglass leads us well beyond the ‘whodunit’ dimensions of the story. He leads us straight into the urgent implications for the present, into what Thomas Merton called the ‘unspeakable.’ In the shadows of our own time we begin to become better prepared to break free of the violence that threatens all of us today.”
—Don Mosley,
co-founder, Jubilee Partners
“
A remarkable achievement, outstanding even in an overcrowded field. It is profoundly conceived, researched, considered, argued, and written. . . . Not all will agree with his detailed speculation as to what happened in Dallas. But Douglass’s large picture of America’s political agony is, I believe, incontrovertible and certain to last.”
—Peter Dale Scott,
author,
Deep Politics and the Death of JFK
“Douglass writes with moral force, clarity, and the careful attention to detail that will make
JFK and the Unspeakable
a sourcebook for many years to come, for it provides us with the stubborn facts needed to rebuild a constitutional democracy within the United States.”
—Marcus Raskin,
co-founder, Institute for Policy Studies
“Jim Douglass never ceases to surprise us, taking us where we do not expect or often wish to go. In this fascinating work he links politics and spirituality. In re-forming the past he reshapes the future, with hope, thank God.”
—Bill J. Leonard,
Dean and Professor of Church History, Wake Forest University Divinity School
“Jim Douglass is a courageous and single-minded Christian whose convictions are reflected in his life and witness. In this provocative new book, he brings together history and spirituality at the intersection of one of the most pivotal—and yet still mystifying—events of the past century. A myth-exploding story and compelling read.”
—Timothy George,
Dean, Beeson Divinity School of Samford University
“In
JFK and the Unspeakable
Jim Douglass steadily guides us toward a strategy of peace. By dramatizing JFK’s remarkable conversion away from a U.S. foreign policy based on military threat and force, Douglass holds forth hope for current generations to similarly dismantle our addiction to war.”
—Kathy Kelly,
Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Founded in 1970, Orbis Books endeavors to publish works that enlighten the mind, nourish the spirit, and challenge the conscience. The publishing arm of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Orbis seeks to explore the global dimensions of the Christian faith and mission, to invite dialogue with diverse cultures and religious traditions, and to serve the cause of reconciliation and peace. The books published reflect the views of their authors and do not represent the official position of the Maryknoll Society. To learn more about Maryknoll and Orbis Books, please visit our website at www.maryknoll.org.
Copyright © 2008 by James W. Douglass.
Published by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0308.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Queries regarding rights and permissions should be addressed to: Orbis Books, P.O. Box 308, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0308.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Douglass, James W.
JFK and the unspeakable : why he died and why it matters / James W. Douglass.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57075-755-6
1. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963—Assassination. 2. Presidents—United States—Biography. I. Title.
E842.9.D68 2008
364.152’4—dc22
2007031902
To Vince Salandria and Marty Schotz
teachers and friends
“You believe in redemption, don’t you?”
John F. Kennedy, May 1, 1962
Contents
2. Kennedy, Castro, and the CIA
4. Marked Out for Assassination
Appendix: Commencement Address at American University (June 10, 1963) by President John F. Kennedy
Preface
We can know the essential truth of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. That truth can set us free.
Thanks to the pioneer investigators into President Kennedy’s murder, the truth-telling of many witnesses, and a recent flood of documents through the JFK Records Act, the truth is available. Not only can the conspiracy that most Americans have thought was likely now be seen in detail. Not only can we know what happened in Dallas. More important than filling in the crime scene, we can know the larger historical context of the assassination—why President Kennedy was murdered. We can know the liberating truth. The story of why JFK was gunned down is the subject of this book.
I have told the story thematically and chronologically, point by point through a sea of witnesses. In brief that story is:
On our behalf, at the height of the Cold War, John F. Kennedy risked committing the greatest crime in history, starting a nuclear war.
Before we knew it, he turned toward peace with the enemy who almost committed that crime with him.
For turning to peace with his enemy (and ours), Kennedy was murdered by a power we cannot easily describe. Its unspeakable reality can be traced, suggested, recognized, and pondered. That is one purpose of this book. The other is to describe Kennedy’s turning.
I hope that, by following the story of JFK’s encounter with the unspeakable, we will be willing to encounter it, too.
John Kennedy’s story is our story, although a titanic effort has been made to keep it from us. That story, like the struggle it embodies, is as current today as it was in 1963. The theology of redemptive violence still reigns. The Cold War has been followed by its twin, the War on Terror. We are engaged in another apocalyptic struggle against an enemy seen as absolute evil. Terrorism has replaced Communism as the enemy. We are told we can be safe only through the threat of escalating violence. Once again, anything goes in a fight against evil: preemptive attacks, torture, undermining governments, assassinations, whatever it takes to gain the end of victory over an enemy portrayed as irredeemably evil. Yet the redemptive means John Kennedy turned to, in a similar struggle, was dialogue with the enemy. When the enemy is seen as human, everything changes.
