What are your top 5 JFK assassination books?

[Thomas Graves]

I think Morley is well read in the JFK assassination. I don't think he'd fall under the category of conspiracy theorist. He seems to be logical.

Margaret, Margaret, Margaret ...

Have you read my one-star Amazon review of The Ghost I posted under my username dumptrumputin?

You will remain naive regarding Morley and Company's incorrect "take" on the CIA and the KGB until you read the two works by Bagley I linked-to, above, as well as pertinent chapters from the Riebling book, Wedge, which I also linked.

Why remain ignorant?

--  MWT 

[Steve M. Galbraith]

I think Morley is well read in the JFK assassination. I don't think he'd fall under the category of conspiracy theorist. He seems to be logical.

As I read him, Morley's not a conspiracist. Unless he's changed in recent weeks.

He thinks that it's possible that Counter Intelligence under Angleton used Oswald (unwittingly) for some type of operation to discredit the FPCC. And that maybe George Joannides, the CIA case officer who handled relations with the DRE, may have been part of that. Or knew about Oswald. Or something. There's a lot of maybes in there.

But there's nothing, as I see it, that says he thinks they were involved in the assassination of JFK. He's said that they were, somehow, criminally negligent in not warning about the danger of Oswald. Which indicates to me that he believes Oswald was the assassin of JFK. But he later retracted that to say they may have been negligent.

As to Nosenko: Lots of people believe in the legitimacy of Nosenko and are lone assassin believers. Nosenko may have been a triple agent; he may have lied about the KGB relationship with Oswald. But that's not connecting the KGB to Oswald's acts.

[Margaret Kelly]

As to Nosenko: Lots of people believe in the legitimacy of Nosenko and are lone assassin believers. Nosenko may have been a triple agent; he may have lied about the KGB relationship with Oswald. But that's not connecting the KGB to Oswald's acts.

In the book Passport To Assassination, Nechiporenko says that Nosenko was a drunk who only rose to the heights he did in the KGB because his dad got him there. Then Nosenko left his wife and kids (the first woman he got pregnant he simply up and left without marrying her) in the USSR and defected to the USA where he drank some more at the expense of the american taxpayer while in CIA custody.

Nosenko was probably hard to figure out because he would make up anything and everything to anyone.

[Thomas Graves]

In the book Passport To Assassination, Nechiporenko says that Nosenko was a drunk who only rose to the heights he did in the KGB because his dad got him there. Then Nosenko left his wife and kids (the first woman he got pregnant he simply up and left without marrying her) in the USSR and defected to the USA where he drank some more at the expense of the American taxpayer while in CIA custody.

Nosenko was probably hard to figure out because he would make up anything and everything to anyone.

In the book Passport To Assassination, Nechiporenko says that Nosenko was a drunk ...

Yeah, and probable mole George Kisevalter (look him up, but disregard the unfortunate fact that he got CIA's coveted "Trailblazers" Award) said Nosenko was "always drunk" during the five meetings he and my hero, Tennent H. Bagley had with Nosenko in Geneva in June of 1962.

George Kissevalter, the guy who "chattingly" gave Nosenko classified oral information during said meetings, the guy who lied when he said a couple of years later that Nosenko had told himself and Bagley in Geneva in 1962 that KGB agents had spotted John Abidian "setting up" Penkovsky's dead drop in Moscow in December of 1960  -- when in reality Penkovsky, himself, had set it up, and Abidian only went near the dead drop once, in December of 1961 -- , ah, yes ... George Kisevalter ... the guy who was best buds with probable mole Richard Kovich, ... George Kisevalter, the guy who, although fluent in both Russian and English, somehow managed to make 150 "errors" in his transcribing of the tape recordings of those Geneva 1962 meetings, the guy who swore up and down that Nosenko was a true defector and that (true defector) Anatoliy Golitsyn was a nut case, the guy who, due to his "stellar record" wasn't interviewed by CIA during the HONETOL mole hunt, the guy ...

What a piece of work was chess expert George Kisevalter, the guy of Russian ancestry who was married to a Slav foreigner, the guy who had been stationed in Germany, the guy whose name started with the letter "K" ...

The guy who handled Popov and Penkovsky ...

LOL

--  MWT   

[Thomas Graves]

The point surely is to read various sources and think for yourself , thereby avoiding becoming a fan boi of either Mr Putin or the CIA ...

Michael,

Why don't you hold off on doing any more "thinking for yourself" regarding the "CIA versus the KGB" issue (especially from 1959 -- when Department 14 of the Second Chief Directorate was founded -- to 1974, when probable mole William Colby fired CI chief James Angleton) until you've read the stuff I linked, above?

Are you afraid you won't be able to handle the agonizing cognitive dissonance you're sure to experience?

Do you think you already know everything you need to know?

LOL!

--  MWT   

[Steve M. Galbraith]

In the book Passport To Assassination, Nechiporenko says that Nosenko was a drunk who only rose to the heights he did in the KGB because his dad got him there. Then Nosenko left his wife and kids (the first woman he got pregnant he simply up and left without marrying her) in the USSR and defected to the USA where he drank some more at the expense of the american taxpayer while in CIA custody.

Nosenko was probably hard to figure out because he would make up anything and everything to anyone.

Oleg Kalugin - who was in charge of all KGB operations in the US and later defected to America - said the same thing. He said Nosenko's father was a high ranking official under Stalin and had helped promote him. And that he was a drunk and womanizer who was held in low regard but that he did have access to some information that was damaging.

In his book, "Spy Master", Kalugin wrote this:  "Nosenko's flight spread panic throughout the KGB. He was branded one of the great traitors of all time, and dozens of KGB officers stationed abroad who had had dealing with Nosenko were recalled. Six officers in the New York station (including myself) were yanked back to Moscow."

Nosenko's claims, from what I've read, were entirely inconsistent and illogical. He once said the KGB never interviewed Oswald but then later said he personally (!?) interviewed Oswald; he said the KGB never monitored Oswald but then said the KGB in Minsk watched Oswald. Completely different accounts. But why would the KGB send someone to say they had no relationship with Oswald? Just say he was questioned, watched closely, viewed as worthless, and sent back. That's a far better cover story (if there was one) than to say what Nosenko said.

The FBI had two very high agents inside the CPUSA: Morris and Jack Childs. Both were completely trusted by Soviet officials who let Morris handle communications and money deliveries between Moscow and the CPUSA. Morris was in Moscow at the time of the assassination and had access to very high level Soviet discussions about the event. The Soviets had complete trust with Morris and consulted him about how they should react.  Morris said (from the book "Operation Solo") the Soviets were stunned by the assassination and that they gathered all of the information they had on Oswald. He said he found that the Soviets had no role in the assassination and were worried about being blamed for it.

I think the "Soviets were behind the assassination" theory has no basis whatsoever. Not at this point.

[Thomas Graves]

Oleg Kalugin - who was in charge of all KGB operations in the US and later defected to America - said the same thing. He said Nosenko's father was a high ranking official under Stalin and had helped promote him. And that he was a drunk and womanizer who was held in low regard but that he did have access to some information that was damaging.

In his book, "Spy Master", Kalugin wrote this:  "Nosenko's flight spread panic throughout the KGB. He was branded one of the great traitors of all time, and dozens of KGB officers stationed abroad who had had dealing with Nosenko were recalled. Six officers in the New York station (including myself) were yanked back to Moscow."

Nosenko's claims, from what I've read, were entirely inconsistent and illogical. He once said the KGB never interviewed Oswald but then later said he personally (!?) interviewed Oswald; he said the KGB never monitored Oswald but then said the KGB in Minsk watched Oswald. Completely different accounts. But why would the KGB send someone to say they had no relationship with Oswald? Just say he was questioned, watched closely, viewed as worthless, and sent back. That's a far better cover story (if there was one) than to say what Nosenko said.

The FBI had two very high agents inside the CPUSA: Morris and Jack Childs. Both were completely trusted by Soviet officials who let Morris handle communications and money deliveries between Moscow and the CPUSA. Morris was in Moscow at the time of the assassination and had access to very high level Soviet discussions about the event. The Soviets had complete trust with Morris and consulted him about how they should react.  Morris said (from the book "Operation Solo") the Soviets were stunned by the assassination and that they gathered all of the information they had on Oswald. He said he found that the Soviets had no role in the assassination and were worried about being blamed for it.

I think the "Soviets were behind the assassination" theory has no basis whatsoever. Not at this point.

Galbraith,

Any KGB defector (Kalugin and Gordievsky come to mind) who says Nosenko was a true defector is either a false defector, himself, or, more likely, was duped by the top-secret Department 14 of the Second Chief Directorate (aka "THE FROM 1959-ON, KGB WITHIN THE KGB") into believing it was true.

--  MWT 

PS  Are you ever going to read Tennent H. Bagley's 2007 book Spy Wars and his 2014 PDF Ghosts of the Spy Wars and Mark Riebling's 1994 book Wedge and Edward J. Epstein's 1989 book Deception, or are you going to continue being duped, yourself?

All of those works are free-to-read the Internet.

PPS  If it makes you feel any better, Bagley did not believe the KGB was behind the assassination, and believed instead that (self-avowed Marxist) Oswald did it all by himself.

[Richard Rubio]

It's hard to narrow it down to five but informative books for me are:

1. Case Closed - Posner
2. Conspiracy of One - Jim Moore
3. The Death of a President: November 20-November 25 1963By William Manchester
4.  Inside the Assassination Records Review Board: The U.S. Government's Final Attempt to Reconcile the Conflicting Medical Evidence in the Assassination (V. 5)
by Douglas P. Horne
5. Brothers - Talbot

Great honorable mention, I had a book on editorial cartoons that came out after the JFK assassination, every one, somber or at least, none was light in tone, just respectful. Good book. This was one of them and apparently, one of the most memorable.