1945 - Present Books - Page 6

Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore (Oxford History of the United States)

James T. Patterson

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $7.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Restless Giant, acclaimed historical author James Patterson provides a crisp, concise assessment of the twenty-seven years between the resignation of Richard Nixon and the election of George W. Bush in a sweeping narrative that seamlessly weaves together social, cultural, political, economic, and international developments. We meet the era's many memorable figures and explore the "culture wars" between liberals and conservatives that appeared to split the country in two.
Patterson describes how America began facing bewildering developments in places such as Panama, Somalia, Bosnia, and Iraq, and discovered that it was far from easy to direct the outcome of global events, and at times even harder for political parties to reach a consensus over what attempts should be made. At the same time, domestic issues such as the persistence of racial tensions, high divorce rates, alarm over crime, and urban decay led many in the media to portray the era as one of decline. Patterson offers a more positive perspective, arguing that, despite our often unmet expectations, we were in many ways better off than we thought. By 2000, most Americans lived more comfortably than they had in the 1970s, and though bigotry and discrimination were far from extinct, a powerful rights consciousness insured that these were less pervasive in American life than at any time in the past.
With insightful analyses and engaging prose, Restless Giant captures this period of American history in a way that no other book has, illuminating the road that the United States traveled from the dismal days of the mid-1970s through the hotly contested election of 2000.
The Oxford History of the United States
The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. The Atlantic Monthly has praised it as "the most distinguished series in American historical scholarship," a series that "synthesizes a generation's worth of historical inquiry and knowledge into one literally state-of-the-art book." Conceived under the general editorship of C. Vann Woodward and Richard Hofstadter, and now under the editorship of David M. Kennedy, this renowned series blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative.

The Nightingale's Song

Robert Timberg

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Free Press Amazon Marketplace: 101 new & used starting at $0.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Vietnam -> General
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Vietnam -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 66 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This is an important book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The "Nightingales's Song" is a remarkable story. I know three of the five characters, (McCain, McFarlane, and Webb), and truly admire them all. This book is a great piece of reporting, and is more relevant today than it was when it was first published. Admiral Jim Stavridis, still on the front lines of history, and a wonderful writer as well, said this book is a, "Greek tragedy," and is, "no more about Iran-Contra than 'Moby Dick' is about whaling." David Mamet who recommended this story to me and I both agree.

Editorial Review:

Robert Timberg weaves together the lives of Annapolis graduates John McCain, James Webb, Oliver North, Robert McFarlane, and John Poindexter to reveal how the Vietnam War continues to haunt America. Casting all five men as metaphors for a legion of well-meaning if ill-starred warriors, Timberg probes the fault line between those who fought the war and those who used money, wit, and connections to avoid battle. A riveting tale that illuminates the flip side of the fabled Vietnam generation -- those who went.

You Learn by Living

Eleanor Roosevelt

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Westminster John Knox Press Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $8.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Roosevelt, Eleanor
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

You Learn by Living , Eleanor Roosevelt 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This is a excellent book for any graduate, no matter what stage of life.
Eleanor Roosevelt offers advice on how to be the best person one can be.
Even at middle age I found this book to be very inspirational at this stage of my life. Live life to the fullest.

Good sound advice 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

My mother told me she had the opportunity to go listen to Eleanor Roosevelt give a talk at her college during the 1930's. She said Mrs. Roosevelt was a powerful and inspriational speaker, while at the same time seem like a next door neighbor.

After reading this book, I have to agree with my mother (don't tell her that!). This book is filled lots of very practical and useful ideas for everyday living. I would recommend this book for high school reading and then have them re-read it about tens after graduation.

Editorial Review:

"Never, perhaps, have any of us needed as much as we do today to use all the curiosity we have, needed to seek new knowledge, needed to realize that no knowledge is terminal. For almost eveything in the world is new; startlingly new"....Elli Roosevelt's.

Write it When I'm Gone

Thomas M. DeFrank

Amazon Price: $30.36 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Audio Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $4.15

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Revealing & Touching Tribute to Our 38th President! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Like many baby boomers,I was grateful Gerald R. Ford was there when the nation needed him. After the god-awful Watergate mess revealed a President at his worst, it was comforting to have Ford, a man widely liked and respected, assume the Presidency. Ford's reputation as an earnest, unpretentious and decent individual able to laugh at himself survived and even thrived in subsequent years when compared to those who followed him into the White House. That image is borne out in WRITE IT WHEN I'M GONE, Thomas DeFrank's touching memoir based on years of private interviews with Ford. DeFrank's book gives us a much deeper and illuminating portrait of both the man and the politician.

While Ford's take on the American political scene from the 1970s on made for interesting reading and confirms him as an astute analyst, I was much more taken with the insights on the man. Though he loved politics and was an ardent spokesman for the Republican Party, Ford's values and innate courtesy caused him to be circumspect in his public comments. Unlike today's slash-and-burn politicians, Ford viewed his Democratic colleagues as friendly adversaries worthy of respect. If he had critical or harsh views of others, he kept them largely to himself...that is until he talked with DeFrank.

Over the course of the book's 250 pages, I grew to like and admire Ford far more than I had in the past; the Nixon Pardon still rankles! DeFrank shows us a normal guy who loved to laugh and toss down a few with the boys; a genuine and genuinely kind man who never lost the common touch; a straightforward, old-fashioned ex-football jock appalled by the underhanded machinations of various politicos; a devoted family man who never cheated on his wife. Yet Ford has his moments of anger and pique as documented in the book. Likewise DeFrank doesn't shy away from some questionable aspects of Ford's life such as his merchandising of himself after he left the Presidency. After all is said and done though, you like Jerry Ford; reading of the decline of such a gregarious, active individual in the closing chapters is hard. He was a good man.

Though I enjoyed DeFrank's book, I thought it could have been more tightly edited. Various redundancies occurred throughout the book.

Whether you're a Jerry Ford fan or not, you'll want to read WRITE IT WHEN I'M GONE. It offers an unvarnished look at the unique life of a kind and decent man who gave America hope and stability during the worst of times. Historians will have the final say on Gerald R. Ford but, for me, I can only echo DeFrank's closing line: 'Thank You, Mr. President.'

Editorial Review:

In an extraordinary series of private interviews, conducted over sixteen years with the stipulation that they not be released until after Ford's death, the thirty-eighth president of the United States reveals a profoundly different side of himself: funny, reflective, gossipy, strikingly candid-and the stuff of headlines.

At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 (America in the King Years)

Taylor Branch

Amazon Price: $13.60 List Price: $20.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $6.74

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

must read for all americans 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

this is one of the best history books i've ever read. in fact, it transcends the history genre. canaan's edge is first and foremost about one of the most courageous men in american history -- martin luther king jr. of course, king didn't lead the 60's civil rights movement by himself -- branch's book shows the courage of many people known and unknown.
it also casts other historical figures in a new light. primary among these, for me, is lyndon johnson, who comes thru in these pages as a brave supporter of civil rights, whose civil rights record was eclipsed by his mistakes with the vietnam war. beautifully written, moving, filled with people and powerful vignettes, this is a must read for all americans.

Editorial Review:

At Canaan's Edge concludes America in the King Years, a three-volume history that will endure as a masterpiece of storytelling on American race, violence, and democracy. Pulitzer Prize-winner and bestselling author Taylor Branch makes clear in this magisterial account of the civil rights movement that Martin Luther King, Jr., earned a place next to James Madison and Abraham Lincoln in the pantheon of American history.

John F. Kennedy

Robert Dallek

List Price: $20.65 By: Penguin Books Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $7.34

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 77 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An Unfinished Life is the first major, single-volume life of John F. Kennedy to be written by a historian in nearly four decades. Drawing upon previously unavailable material and never-before-opened archives to tell Kennedy's story. We learn for the first time just how sick Kennedy was, what medications he took and concealed from all but a few, and how severely his medical condition affected his actions as President. We learn for the first time the real story of how Bobby was selected as Attorney General. Dallek reveals exactly what Jack's father did to help his election to the presidency, and he follows previously unknown evidence to show what path JFK would have taken in the Vietnam entanglement had he survived.

Dallek (LIFTS) JFK out of the gossips and back onto the world stage, showing that while he was the son of privilege, he faced great obstacles and fought on with remarkable courage. Never shying away from Kennedy's weaknesses, Dallek also brilliantly explores his strengths. The result is a portrait of a bold, brave, human Kennedy, once again a hero.

Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America

Amazon Price: $31.45 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Free Press Amazon Marketplace: 73 new & used starting at $1.87

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Reagan, Ronald
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Guidebook to Conservative Thought 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 21 people found this review helpful.

Prior to his election as our 40th President, during his administration, and in the years since, the left and its cooperative media have downplayed Ronald Reagan's intellect. This book, REAGAN IN HIS OWN HAND, completely destroys those who would categorize him as little more than an uninformed actor who simply delivered his lines. Two of the editors of this book are former White House advisors who go to great lengths to establish that Reagan himself wrote these addresses. This work includes 670 radio addresses written by Reagan from 1975 to 1979.

There is much to be learned from this work. Most notably, this is a sourcebook on modern conservative thought. The section on foreign policy covers such topics as communism, national defense and human rights. In the section on domestic policy, the reader will find Reagan's ideas on such topics as education, the environment, health care, and social security. There are also numerous writings on miscellaneous subjects.

It's been well over two decades since the Carter administration and many today have forgotten the pathetic situation America found itself in when Reagan took the helm. Communism was winning over hearts and minds worldwide while America seem to sit idly by. Interest rates were through the roof. The American military was dangerously depleted. There was a nationally unreasonable faith that government was the cure for all ills. These and other situations served to form the vision of President Reagan as he met these obstacles with tenacity and undaunted courage.

This is an awesome collection of writings. No, it will not change the minds of Reagan's detractors, but nothing ever will. The books editors label Reagan as a "one man think tank" and this book substantiates their claim as it provides a demonstration of the breadth and coherence of his thinking.

Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com

Editorial Review:

Hidden in the archives of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for more than a decade, the writings contained in Reagan, In His Own Hand redefine the way we think about American history of the past quarter century and about the fortieth American president. By revealing an active mind wrestling with the problems of a sluggish economy, social pathologies, welfare reform, and the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union, these never-before-seen documents, many reproduced in his own handwriting, prove Reagan to be both the visionary and intellectual powerhouse behind his administration's landmark policies.

Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen

Bob Greene

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 95 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Job Hunting & Careers -> Volunteer Work
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In search of "the best America there ever was," bestselling author and award-winning journalist Bob Greene finds it in a small Nebraska town few people pass through today—a town where Greene discovers the echoes of the most touching love story imaginable: a love story between a country and its sons.

During World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska, on troop trains en route to their ultimate destinations in Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town, wanting to offer the servicemen warmth and support, transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen.

Every day of the year, every day of the war, the Canteen—staffed and funded entirely by local volunteers—was open from five a.m. until the last troop train of the day pulled away after midnight. Astonishingly, this remote plains community of only 12,000 people provided welcoming words, friendship, and baskets of food and treats to more than six million GIs by the time the war ended.

In this poignant and heartwarming eyewitness history, based on interviews with North Platte residents and the soldiers who once passed through, Bob Greene tells a classic, lost-in-the-mists-of-time American story of a grateful country honoring its brave and dedicated sons.

On Wings of Eagles

Ken Follett

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Signet Amazon Marketplace: 256 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not Follett's Voice 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Follett's descriptions of people in his other books--Code, St. Petersburg, Needle--differ in many ways from the descriptions given in his name here. An example is the (second) introduction of Glenn Jackson, a computer programmer and operator, on pg. 226 of the 1983 paperback edition. The speaker talks about the man as if he's familiar, referring to him by his nickname "Rocket Man", without quotes. Adulation by the narrator for this person isn't necessary for the story. But the narrator isn't introduced as a participant in the story. Given that this familiarity and this adulation is frequent, and annoying, in descriptions of people who worked with Ross Perot, it must be Perot dictated parts of the book to Follett. Perot wanted to praise the people who worked for him, and it's his praise we see in the text.

So, just staying with this typical passage, the person is described as "a combination of a first-class mathematical brain and the ability to stay calm under stress". This is the business vernacular of Ross Perot. Follett would never independently add the articles, which is typical Texan and western U.S. talk. His narrator would never subjectively classify someone as "first-class", which is crude and strictly businessman talk, nor refer to a character by his "brain", which is immature or adolescent jive. Nor does Follett ever get wrong "duress" for "stress", which the narrator does here--staying calm necessarily precludes being stressed, nor can one be "under" stress.

This late passage is selected, not because the narrator gave way later to Perot's influence, but because the narrator has never seemed to let up, despite reader hopes, in his subjection to that influence. The narrative is just brimming in many other ways with irrelevant accounting. It keeps accounting for circumstances that have little bearing on the central story, whereas in Follett's own books, elements revolve around the central plot or he excludes them as purposeless.

One of the least interesting passages is the several pages (100-103) in which the narrator slowly introduces each one of the ten men who form the first rescue group. We are not interested in them until they do something. They are just a bunch of guys sitting around discussing a rescue that is far in the future. For instance, the narrator says that the second man in his list, Boulware, is a full five inches taller than Poche, the first man he has described. It isn't as though Boulware is using his height in the room or will be definitely using it in a rescue--or that we could possibly remember this trivia hundreds of pages later when an actual rescue takes place. And this section is just chock full of trivia like this.

I lost interest in the rescue of these men from a Tehran jail. I wanted to know, instead, how Ken Follett felt when he was liberated to write his own books after this one.

Editorial Review:

When two of his American employees were held hostage in Iran, H. Ross Perot and a select group of his employees took matters into their own hands.

On the Trail of the Assassins

Jim Garrison

List Price: $5.99 By: Warner Books Amazon Marketplace: 70 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Presidents & Heads of State
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( K ) -> Kennedy, John F.
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Assassin "Trail" Stops At The Feet Of One Murderer -- Lee Harvey Oswald 1 out of 5 stars.
8 of 36 people found this review helpful.

The late Jim Garrison's book "On The Trail Of The Assassins" was in large part the basis for Oliver Stone's 1991 motion picture "JFK", which is a film containing so many lies, half-truths, and misrepresentations of the facts surrounding John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination, it's literally difficult to keep up with all of them.

I cannot watch one single scene of Oliver Stone's film without finding some distortion of the evidence in the real JFK or J.D. Tippit murder cases. Some are small things being distorted; and some are great big ones. One example (among dozens) being: Oliver Stone's version of shoe clerk Johnny Brewer's testimony re. Lee Harvey Oswald's manner of dress when Brewer encountered Oswald shortly after Oswald had shot and killed policeman Tippit.

Stone, in his film, has Oswald (Gary Oldman) wearing a jacket as he enters the Texas Theater and is seen by Brewer....and in one of the movie's "Deleted Scenes" (on the DVD version of the film), Kevin Costner (playing Garrison) even does a voice-over (lie) re. Brewer's testimony, with Costner saying "Brewer said the man was wearing a jacket".

Brewer, in reality, said exactly the opposite during his Warren Commission testimony:

Mr. BELIN -- "Will you describe the man you saw?"
Mr. BREWER -- "He was a little man, about 5'9", and weighed about 150 pounds is all. ... And had brown hair. He had a brown sports shirt on. His shirt tail was out."
Mr. BELIN -- "Any jacket?"
Mr. BREWER -- "No."

Another interesting part of the Tippit portion of the movie "JFK" is Oliver Stone's Audio Commentary during this part of the film, which is riddled with inaccuracies. Stone has the audacity to spout the following lie re. the Tippit shooting on the DVD's Commentary soundtrack:

"Not one credible witness has really identified Oswald as a single shooter {of Officer Tippit}. In fact, the only significant testimony applies two to three shooters." -- O. Stone

Therefore, per Mr. Stone (and Garrison said pretty much the same thing years earlier), the "only credible" witness must have been Acquilla Clemmons, who, as far as I am aware, was THE ONLY witness who ever said there was more than one person involved in the Tippit slaying.

Stone, like Jim Garrison before him, would simply rather believe his OWN version of events, rather than the multiple witnesses who never saw more than one shooter (with that one single shooter being positively identified as Oswald by said witnesses).

It's interesting, indeed, that Stone thinks the "only significant testimony" re. the Tippit crime came from Clemmons. Whereas, people like Markham, Tatum, and Scoggins (who were all closer than Clemmons to the scene of the murder) are deemed less "significant", merely, no doubt, because they don't fit into Stone's (or Garrison's) "CT Landscape" surrounding the murder.

I wonder if people realize just how many outright lies are contained in Oliver Stone's 3-hour, 15-minute motion picture? The number is simply staggering. And that number of distortions is increased considerably on the DVD version of the film, when the Audio Commentary Track by Mr. Stone and all of the "Deleted and Extended Scenes" are included as well.

And a great deal of this deliberate misinformation put forth on the movie screen came directly out of this book authored by Jim Garrison.

Another great place to see more of Mr. Garrison's skewed views of the JFK case is to read Garrison's 1967 "Playboy Magazine" interview. Like Stone's movie, that Playboy article will keep you busy as you try to keep up with the inaccurate things Garrison keeps saying in that lengthy piece. The whole interview can be read here:

www.jfklancer.com/Garrison2.html


Selected examples of Mr. Garrison's paranoia and loony-toon conspiracy talk, taken from that Playboy interview, are provided via the quotes below. My own rebuttal arguments follow each quote:


"Though he {Oswald} may not have known why he was instructed to do so, this was undoubtedly why he got the job at the Texas School Book Depository Building. The conspirators knew this would place him on the scene and convince the world that a demented Marxist was the real assassin." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

The above Garrison gem totally distorts (or just flat-out ignores) the true and documented facts about how Oswald got his job at the Depository in mid-October of '63. It was suburban Dallas housewives Linnie Mae Randle and Ruth Paine who were directly responsible for placing Lee Harvey Oswald in the TSBD, by way of ordinary garden-variety happenstance.

Garrison must, therefore, believe that Mrs. Paine, who arranged Oswald's job interview with Depository boss Roy Truly, was one of the main "conspirators" who was setting up Oswald to take the fall for JFK's murder the following month (which would also have to mean that Paine had detailed knowledge of the President's motorcade route more than a month before November 22). Garrison must also think that Roy Truly was a big part of the patsy plot, because it was Mr. Truly who actually hired Oswald (even though nobody was holding a shotgun to Truly's head forcing him to hire Lee).

The commonly-held belief that Lee Oswald was "placed" in the Texas School Book Depository by evil plotters prior to 11/22/63 is a desperate attempt by CTers like Mr. Garrison to attach unprovable and unsupportable conspiratorial "strings" to a random event that involved several individuals...individuals whose collective and synchronized actions could not possibly have been foreseen and controlled by a group of behind-the-scenes conspirators.

---------------

"Anyone who takes the time to read the Warren Report will find that of the witnesses in Dealey Plaza who were able to assess the origin of the shots, almost two-thirds said they came from the grassy-knoll area in front and to the right of the Presidential limousine and not from the Book Depository." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

This is pure nonsense. There were, indeed, several witnesses who said they heard shots coming from in front of JFK's car, but Garrison has severely skewed the stats to support his claim of Knoll shooters. His "almost two-thirds" figure is not even close to being accurate when talking about the number of witnesses who said they heard frontal shots. And even amongst other CTers, virtually no other pro-conspiracy author has ever rigged those stats in such an out-of-whack manner.

The fact is that more than half of all earwitnesses heard shots coming from the direction of the Book Depository, and not from the Knoll. And an even more illuminating statistic reveals that less than 5% of all earwitnesses heard shots from more than just a single general location (front vs. rear). That stat speaks volumes....because even CTers admit to SOME rear shots.

An interesting tabulation of this data can be found below:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/images/shots4.jpg

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/earwitnesses.htm

---------------

"The second shot struck the President in the back; the location of this wound can be verified not by consulting the official autopsy report, but by perusing the reports filed by two FBI agents who were present at the President's autopsy. Both stated unequivocally that the bullet in question entered President Kennedy's back and did not continue through his body." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

Therefore, Mr. Garrison is, in essence, saying that he is much more likely to trust the word of FBI agents (who, of course, were not doctors and were not conducting the President's autopsy) rather than take the word of the three physicians who each signed the official autopsy report. After all, why believe the autopsy doctors when you COULD just trust as Gospel the word of a bystander? ~sarcasm alert~

Plus: Why didn't these two FBI agents get the conspirators' memo which, if CTers are right about the success of the Patsy Plot, must have been passed out to nearly everyone in Officialdom on 11/22, a memo that probably said: "Attn. All Agents -- We're framing Oswald tomorrow; so remember to falsify as much evidence as humanly possible to ensure conviction of patsy".

Evidently some people who needed to see it never received that important document.

---------------

"We have also located another man who was not involved in the shooting but created a diversionary action in order to distract people's attention from the snipers. This individual screamed, fell to the ground, and simulated an epileptic fit, drawing people away from the vicinity of the knoll just before the President's motorcade reached the ambush point." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

Yet another outright lie from the lips of District Attorney Garrison. The man who had the so-called "simulated epileptic fit" was fully identified by the FBI on May 26, 1964. His name was Jerry Belknap, a man who had a history of epilepsy since childhood. Belknap also proved to the FBI that he had paid the ambulance bill ($12.50) after he was taken to Parkland Hospital.

---------------

"President Kennedy was killed for one reason: because he was working for a reconciliation with the U.S.S.R. and Castro's Cuba. His assassins were a group of fanatic anti-Communists with a fusion of interests in preventing Kennedy from achieving peaceful relations with the Communist world." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

Any solid, verifiable proof of such accusations, Mr. Garrison? Any physical evidence whatsoever that shows JFK was killed by more than one gun? .... The answers to those two questions are: No and No.

But the lack of physical evidence never stopped a hard-boiled CTer....that's been proven over and over again by a vast assortment of conspiracists who have more theories up their sleeve than a dog has fleas.

---------------

"In summation, there were at least five or six shots fired at the President from front and rear by at least four gunmen, assisted by several accomplices. At this stage of events, Lee Harvey Oswald was no more than a spectator to the assassination -- perhaps in a very literal sense. James Altgens snapped a picture that shows a man with a remarkable resemblance to Oswald, standing in the doorway of the Depository. The Altgens photograph indicates the very real possibility that at the moment Oswald was supposed to have been shooting Kennedy, he may actually have been standing outside the front door watching the motorcade. .... I don't believe that Oswald shot anybody on November 22nd -- not the President and not Tippit." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

It seems as though these devilishly-clever conspirators forgot one important thing when they were setting up LHO -- they forgot their brains. For, who WITH brains would allow their lone "Patsy" to casually drift outside and be photographed and seen by countless witnesses when the plotters need to have Lee Harvey on the 6th Floor at 12:30? Per Mr. Garrison's account of Oswald possibly being "Doorway Man", evidently the real assassins were indeed brainless and lacked the common sense to keep Oswald where he wouldn't be able to establish a credible alibi for his 12:30 whereabouts.

Just think about these Garrison remarks for a moment longer too -- "At least five or six shots were fired at the President from front and rear ... by at least four gunmen".

Doesn't a "4-Shooter, 6-Shot, 1-Patsy" assassination plot seem a bit unlikely to anyone else but this writer? Would any professional killers actually attempt to "frame" a lone fall guy in that type of overkill fashion? In my opinion, no pro hit men would go about the complicated task of setting up Oswald (or anybody else) in such a needlessly-reckless way.

A single "pro" hit man could have easily killed JFK with one or two shots (probably just one) from Oswald's "nest", without the need to clog the works with needless back-up gunmen hiding all around Dealey Plaza.

There is no possible way the conspirators could have ensured the success of a multi-shooter plot to frame JUST Oswald in the minutes during and after the shooting. No way. There are way too many uncontrollable factors that could block the success of that One-Patsy venture that Jim Garrison placed his faith in.

"Uncontrollable" items such as:

1.) A frontal shooter might very well have been seen by witnesses (and to think that EVERY witness under the sun could be easily "bought", "taken care of", and/or coerced by these plotters is, again, just too much wishful thinking on the conspirators' part, IMO).

2.) A frontal shooter might strike other occupants in the car, or strike somebody else in Dealey Plaza. But even if ONLY Kennedy is hit by a frontal gunman, there are massive problems to be "corrected" by the conspirators....bullets to be hidden and, of course, who knows how many obvious frontal wounds on the victim to be (somehow) eliminated -- and eliminated immediately before any non-conspirators can spill any beans. .... Only a person straight out of the booby hatch could believe that anyone, regardless of "power" or "pull", could get away with such a thing. It's just plain loony.

3.) The one "Patsy" (Oswald) could have easily, by pure accident and happenstance, established a perfect alibi for himself at the time when he was supposed to be on the 6th Floor shooting the President (as Mr. Garrison apparently DID think occurred, with Oswald being seen in a photo taken as the bullets were flying; even though all reasonable researchers know full well that "Doorway Man" was actually Billy Lovelady, and not Oswald; Lovelady even testified to that effect in 1964). ....

Plus -- If Oswald had really been in that doorway at 12:30, WHY ON EARTH DIDN'T HE SAY HE WAS THERE?! If he's got an ironclad alibi like that, why wouldn't he use it? Instead, he says not a word about being outside on the steps at 12:30, and even tells the police a provable lie re. his whereabouts (the lie about "having lunch with Junior {Jarman}" at the time of the shooting). How much sense does that make if Oswald had really been in the Depository doorway? ....

And the very fact that Oswald did NOT have a usable, provable alibi for exactly 12:30 PM is absolutely remarkable IF he had really been wandering around on the lower floors of the Depository (or was outside the building), as many CTers firmly believe; and even the most rabid of conspiracy theorists have got to admit, that from the "CT/Patsy" POV, Oswald's not having a usable/believable/solid alibi is certainly, by far, the biggest piece of LUCK in the whole "Patsy Plot". ....

These amazing Patsy Plotters just lucked out, evidently, in that Oswald was not seen by a single person inside or outside the TSBD at precisely the time of the assassination -- except by Howard Brennan, Ron Fischer, and Robert Edwards, of course, who saw Oswald or a nicely-arranged Oswald "imposter" in the Sniper's Nest at 12:30 or just seconds before 12:30.

4.) And the likelihood that all of the non-TSBD bullets are going to somehow get swept under the rug is extremely remote, especially in a Bob Groden-like scenario. Mr. Groden (per his book "The Killing Of A President"), incredibly, has ZERO of the shots coming from the Oswald window, and a total of up to TEN shots being fired...and ALL OF THEM coming from rifles other than the one rifle these idiot plotters are going to attempt to frame Oswald with! Could Groden's scenario BE any more reckless and preposterous?! I doubt it.

5.) And a biggie, that most CTers evidently don't think could have ever happened before 12:30 on November 22nd -- The one Patsy (Mr. LHO) could "get wise" to the plot that is brewing all around him and take measures to guarantee he could never be blamed for the actual assassination of John Kennedy.

When thinking about any "Frame Lee Oswald As The One Patsy" plan, I just cannot visualize any professional assassins (even for a minute) contemplating the use of multiple shooters; let alone some gunmen firing from the Grassy Knoll, i.e., the exact opposite direction from where their single dupe is supposed to be located.

---------------------

As the previously-mentioned quotes from the mouth of Mr. Garrison amply demonstate, if anyone has a desire to set out "On The Trail Of A Lunatic Conspiracy Theorist" -- look no further than Earling Carothers (Jim) Garrison.

Editorial Review:

An account of Jim Garrison's attempt to solve the Kennedy assassination describes how Garrison was ridiculed by the press, denounced by the FBI, and harrassed by the CIA because of his allegations that the government was involved in Kennedy's death. Reprint.