What are your top 5 JFK assassination books?

[Tom Scully]

Tom ... this convo between Johnson, Dulles, and RFK, seems to back up opinion RFK liked Alan Dulles, even trusted the guy. lol

https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/secret-white-house-tapes/conversation-allen-dulles-and-robert-kennedy-june-23-1964

Interesting? I've decided to listen again to 'Brothers' ... (from memory) David Talbot stated, with added disbelief, LBJ quoting RFK's demand for Dulles to be actively involved in the Warren Commission.

Dulles laughs hard when RFK says he trusts Dulles ... and then Dulles says ''I've been a little mad at you, over this bay of pigs book''. Any clue which book he means?

The Amazon books access was not available in early 2016, so I bought a used copy of Morris's book, "New York Days" Possibly Dulles blackmailed Bobby over assassination plots against Castro?

1 result for "was a god."

Page 34 Kennedy," he said, ". he thought he was a god." Even now these wo…

Certainly not this one, but it recounts an interview with the then future editor of Harper's Magazine a couple of years later, and it is assumed a reference to JFK.:

https://www.amazon.com/New-York-Days-Willie-Morris/dp/0316583987 (Click: Look inside: on left)

[Charles Collins]

Tom ... this convo between Johnson, Dulles, and RFK, seems to back up opinion RFK liked Alan Dulles, even trusted the guy. lol

https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/secret-white-house-tapes/conversation-allen-dulles-and-robert-kennedy-june-23-1964

Interesting? I've decided to listen again to 'Brothers' ... (from memory) David Talbot stated, with added disbelief, LBJ quoting RFK's demand for Dulles to be actively involved in the Warren Commission.

Dulles laughs hard when RFK says he trusts Dulles ... and then Dulles says ''I've been a little mad at you, over this bay of pigs book''. Any clue which book he means?

Tom ... this convo between Johnson, Dulles, and RFK, seems to back up opinion RFK liked Alan Dulles, even trusted the guy. lol


The Kennedy brothers had also preserved a long-lasting association with Allen Dulles, then CIA Director. Letters in both the Kennedy and Dulles collections reflect that John and Robert Kennedy maintained correspondence with both Dulles brothers from at least 1955. Traveling in the same social sphere, Allen Dulles and John Kennedy were “comfortable with one another and there was a lot of mutual respect,” Richard Bissell said in an interview. In fact, Kennedy was known to regard Dulles as a legendary figure. Historian Herbert Parmet wrote, “Dulles often went to the Charles Wrightsman estate near Joe Kennedy’s Palm Beach House. As far back as Jack’s early days, they socialized down in Florida, much of the time swimming and playing golf.”152 Dulles himself said, “I knew Joe quite well from the days when he was head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

Russo, Gus. Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK . Bancroft Press. Kindle Edition.


Dulles first met Jack Kennedy at the Kennedy Florida compound in 1955. They became fast friends. “Our contact was fairly continuous,” Dulles later said. “When [JFK] was in Palm Beach, we always got together.”159 Jack came to revere both Dulles’ intellect and accomplishments.

Russo, Gus. Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK . Bancroft Press. Kindle Edition.


Robert Kennedy, too, was clearly impressed with Dulles. Regarding his performance at the time of the Bay of Pigs, Robert Kennedy later recalled, “Allen Dulles handled himself awfully well, with a great deal of dignity, and never attempted to shift the blame. The President was very fond of him, as I was.”160 He elaborated to historian Arthur Schlesinger, “He [JFK] liked him [Dulles]—thought he was a real gentleman, handled himself well. There were obviously so many mistakes made at the time of the Bay of Pigs that it wasn’t appropriate that he should stay on. And he always took the blame. He was a real gentleman. JFK thought very highly of him.”

160 - RFK interview by John B. Martin, 1 March 1964, RFK Oral History at the Kennedy Library

Russo, Gus. Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK . Bancroft Press. Kindle Edition.

[Gerry Down]

Tom ... this convo between Johnson, Dulles, and RFK, seems to back up opinion RFK liked Alan Dulles, even trusted the guy. lol


The Kennedy brothers had also preserved a long-lasting association with Allen Dulles, then CIA Director. Letters in both the Kennedy and Dulles collections reflect that John and Robert Kennedy maintained correspondence with both Dulles brothers from at least 1955. Traveling in the same social sphere, Allen Dulles and John Kennedy were “comfortable with one another and there was a lot of mutual respect,” Richard Bissell said in an interview. In fact, Kennedy was known to regard Dulles as a legendary figure. Historian Herbert Parmet wrote, “Dulles often went to the Charles Wrightsman estate near Joe Kennedy’s Palm Beach House. As far back as Jack’s early days, they socialized down in Florida, much of the time swimming and playing golf.”152 Dulles himself said, “I knew Joe quite well from the days when he was head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

Russo, Gus. Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK . Bancroft Press. Kindle Edition.


Dulles first met Jack Kennedy at the Kennedy Florida compound in 1955. They became fast friends. “Our contact was fairly continuous,” Dulles later said. “When [JFK] was in Palm Beach, we always got together.”159 Jack came to revere both Dulles’ intellect and accomplishments.

Russo, Gus. Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK . Bancroft Press. Kindle Edition.


Robert Kennedy, too, was clearly impressed with Dulles. Regarding his performance at the time of the Bay of Pigs, Robert Kennedy later recalled, “Allen Dulles handled himself awfully well, with a great deal of dignity, and never attempted to shift the blame. The President was very fond of him, as I was.”160 He elaborated to historian Arthur Schlesinger, “He [JFK] liked him [Dulles]—thought he was a real gentleman, handled himself well. There were obviously so many mistakes made at the time of the Bay of Pigs that it wasn’t appropriate that he should stay on. And he always took the blame. He was a real gentleman. JFK thought very highly of him.”

160 - RFK interview by John B. Martin, 1 March 1964, RFK Oral History at the Kennedy Library

Russo, Gus. Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK . Bancroft Press. Kindle Edition.

Plus JFK took responsibility for the Bay of Pigs mess. He knew beforehand that it had a very low probability of succeeding. His generals told him so. Plus he was a war vet himself. He must have known it was a stupid idea to send 1200 men to fight an army of 200,000 Castro solders.

[Robert Reeves]

Interesting interview with RFK jnr.

Touches on the subject of his grandfather, Joseph -- denies he was ever a bootlegger, it was a smear created in 1964 ... Says the CIA has waged a battle on the Kennedy's for the last 70 years. Believes the CIA & anti-Castro Cubans carried out the assassination on JFK.

If you're not into the environmental stuff then skip to 1:54:07  --- is where he talks about the Kennedy clan.

[Thomas Graves]

"Legend" by Edward J. Epstein has got to be right up there for me.

Although he doesn't say (maybe because James Angleton was still alive?), Epstein's sources appear to have been my pro-Golitsyn, anti-Nosenko heroes Angleton, Tennent H. Bagley, Newton "Scotty" Miler, William Hood, and William Sullivan.

Another book that appears to have some "pearls" in it is "The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Richard Russell.

--  MWT 

[Thomas Graves]

So hard to get this down to five but here are mine:

Conspiracy - Anthony Summers
Oswald And The CIA - Newman
Our Man In Mexico City - Jeff Morley
Marina And Lee - By Mrs Oswald
The Death of A President - William Manchester

What are yours and why?

From what I can tell, Vincent Bugliosi's 1000-pager is very thorough and quite accurate, and Dale Myers' "With Malice" on the Tippit murder is quite good, too.

Do big-name video productions count? 

If so, then I can't over-recommend National Geographic's "The Lost Bullet," and PBS Nova's "Cold Case: JFK".

--  MWT 

[Jerry Freeman]

From what I can tell, Vincent Bugliosi's 1000-pager ....

...would come in handy if you run out of toilet paper.

[John Iacoletti]

...would come in handy if you run out of toilet paper.

Not adequate for that task either...