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The JFK Assassination
In this updated and revised edition, James DiEugenio dissects the new Oscar-nominated film, The Post, and how it disingenuously represents the Pentagon Papers saga, to the detriment of the true heroes of the operation. The story of the film stems from the failed attempt of Academy Award–winning actor Tom Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman to make Vincent Bugliosi’s mammoth book about the Kennedy assassination, Reclaiming History, into a miniseries. He exposes the questionable origins of Reclaiming History in a dubious mock trial for cable television, in which Bugliosi played the role of an attorney prosecuting Lee Harvey Oswald for murder, and how this formed the basis for the epic tome. The Evidence Today lists the myriad problems with Bugliosi’s book and explores the cooperation of the mainstream press in concealing many facts during the publicity campaign for the book and how this lack of scrutiny led Hanks and Goetzman—cofounders of the production company Playtone—to purchase the film rights. DiEugenio then shows how the failed film adapted from that book, entitled Parkland, does not resemble Bugliosi’s book and examines why. This book reveals the connections between Washington and Hollywood, as well as the CIA influence in the film community today. It includes an extended look at the little-known aspects of the lives and careers of Bugliosi, Hanks, and Goetzman. The Evidence Today sheds light on the Kennedy assassination, New Hollywood, and political influence on media in America.
- GenresNonfiction
550 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2018
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71 people want to read
About the author
James DiEugenio
12 books27 followersJames DiEugenio is one of the foremost researchers into the major assassinations of the 1960's. His first book: Destiny Betrayed, was an in depth look at the Garrison investigation. In 1993 he co-founded both Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination (CTKA), and the following year: the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA). Along with Lisa Pease he co-edited COPA's journal: Probe Magazine from 1993-2000, and later assisted in a compilation of the Probe articles which was published as The Assassinations. In response to Vincent Bugliosi's Reclaiming History and associated film Parkland, DiEugenio published Reclaiming Parkland, a critique of Bugliosi's methodology, evidence, and findings in the Kennedy Asassination.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 21, 2018
Excellent summary
This critique of Vincent Bugliosi's sharply slanted work on JFK's assassination serves as a scaffolding for a concise review of both the older and the newer evidence which conclusively demonstrates that this epochal event was the result of a high-level government conspiracy. Furthermore, this book highlights the obsequious and irrationally persistent support among major news media, and even historians, for the thoroughly discredited conclusions of Warren. More proof, I suppose, that the "winners" write the history books, even if those winners are brutally violent and completely deceptive elites, bent on using every manner of political and economic power, supported by constant propaganda, to advance their own interests, to the detriment of every other human on earth, and of the earth itself. Distinguishing this book as well is Mr. DiEugenio's linking of the decline of American cinema to the insidious growth of the tentacles of the National Security State into the power structures of Hollywood. One reservation I have is the author's less-than-insightful invocation of the discredited blowback explanation for 9/11. That 9/11 was an operation of the U.S. Government is, by now, as well-established as is the fact that JFK was the victim of essentially a coup d'etat. Surely he should be aware that the two events share a monstrous similarity: in each case, the official story makes no sense, at any level of inspection. Does Mr. DuEugenio really believe that government agencies which would murder JFK, RFK, MLK, and a large number of foreign leaders who threaten American hegemony and carry out an unending series of violent, illegal, and unconstitutional foreign interventions leading to the unnecessary deaths of millions of innocents (among countless other crimes against humanity) really balk at killing a couple thousand American citizens on 9/11, in what was clearly to the elites a NECESSARY propaganda operation. Surely they would not, and did not, balk when cognizant of the enormous advantages that this false flag would provide them. After all, what legal, constitutional, and moral lines had these brutal elites not already enthusiastically leapt over?
This critique of Vincent Bugliosi's sharply slanted work on JFK's assassination serves as a scaffolding for a concise review of both the older and the newer evidence which conclusively demonstrates that this epochal event was the result of a high-level government conspiracy. Furthermore, this book highlights the obsequious and irrationally persistent support among major news media, and even historians, for the thoroughly discredited conclusions of Warren. More proof, I suppose, that the "winners" write the history books, even if those winners are brutally violent and completely deceptive elites, bent on using every manner of political and economic power, supported by constant propaganda, to advance their own interests, to the detriment of every other human on earth, and of the earth itself. Distinguishing this book as well is Mr. DiEugenio's linking of the decline of American cinema to the insidious growth of the tentacles of the National Security State into the power structures of Hollywood. One reservation I have is the author's less-than-insightful invocation of the discredited blowback explanation for 9/11. That 9/11 was an operation of the U.S. Government is, by now, as well-established as is the fact that JFK was the victim of essentially a coup d'etat. Surely he should be aware that the two events share a monstrous similarity: in each case, the official story makes no sense, at any level of inspection. Does Mr. DuEugenio really believe that government agencies which would murder JFK, RFK, MLK, and a large number of foreign leaders who threaten American hegemony and carry out an unending series of violent, illegal, and unconstitutional foreign interventions leading to the unnecessary deaths of millions of innocents (among countless other crimes against humanity) really balk at killing a couple thousand American citizens on 9/11, in what was clearly to the elites a NECESSARY propaganda operation. Surely they would not, and did not, balk when cognizant of the enormous advantages that this false flag would provide them. After all, what legal, constitutional, and moral lines had these brutal elites not already enthusiastically leapt over?
June 3, 2019
Joe DiEugenio's book is not a standard investigation of the JFK Assassination. Instead, it is, for the most part, a highly detailed critique of Vincent Bugliosi's Assassination epic 'Reclaiming History', a 2700 page endorsement of the Warren Commission's findings. With careful assessment of every facet of Bugliosi's book, the author proves 'Reclaiming History' to be a shallow and incomplete record of JFK's assassination.
A third of the book is devoted to a similar examination of the film 'Parkland', along with 'Charlie Wilson's War' and 'The Post'. DiEugenio claims that these films suffer from a similar problem as 'Reclaiming History', offering a shallow, sanitised, and ultimately incomplete, version of history. The author includes political assessments of filmmakers, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, in this section, holding them responsible for the 'dumbing down' of history as shown in the above films.
In summary, while this book does offer plenty of 'food for thought', it is really aimed at those perhaps persuaded by 'Reclaiming History' and 'Parkland', or similar anti-conspiracy texts.
Joe DiEugenio's other book 'Destiny Betrayed' would make a better introduction to this author's JFK investigations.
A third of the book is devoted to a similar examination of the film 'Parkland', along with 'Charlie Wilson's War' and 'The Post'. DiEugenio claims that these films suffer from a similar problem as 'Reclaiming History', offering a shallow, sanitised, and ultimately incomplete, version of history. The author includes political assessments of filmmakers, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, in this section, holding them responsible for the 'dumbing down' of history as shown in the above films.
In summary, while this book does offer plenty of 'food for thought', it is really aimed at those perhaps persuaded by 'Reclaiming History' and 'Parkland', or similar anti-conspiracy texts.
Joe DiEugenio's other book 'Destiny Betrayed' would make a better introduction to this author's JFK investigations.
June 26, 2019
DiEugenio is certainly one of my favourite researchers of the JFK assassination. I have been in attendance at Lancer's conference in Dallas in 2013 when he has given a presentation and also at Dealey Plaza U.K.'s seminar in 2018. His internet site, 'Kennedysandking' is also one of my 'go to' locations for up to date developments on the political assassinations of the 1960's. Also recommended are the articles collected from Probe magazine with Lisa Pease in 2002 'The Assassinations' covering JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X.
His knowledge is extremely extensive on JFK's murder, as is his command of 20th century history.
When I learned that the revised and updated publication of 'The JFK Assassination' was centred on a critique of Vincent Bugliosi's 'Reclaiming History' I wasn't too sure about adding this book to my collection.
DiEugenio's cutting analysis certainly blows Bugliosi out of the water! However, in doing so, details of the case are presented in the authors usual cogent way. I must add that there are some details in this text that I have not come across before. With all guns blazing 'The JFK Assassination' also sinks Bugliosi's mock trial of Oswald produced by London Weekend TV. Broadsides are also fired at the films 'The Post' and 'Parkland'.
His knowledge is extremely extensive on JFK's murder, as is his command of 20th century history.
When I learned that the revised and updated publication of 'The JFK Assassination' was centred on a critique of Vincent Bugliosi's 'Reclaiming History' I wasn't too sure about adding this book to my collection.
DiEugenio's cutting analysis certainly blows Bugliosi out of the water! However, in doing so, details of the case are presented in the authors usual cogent way. I must add that there are some details in this text that I have not come across before. With all guns blazing 'The JFK Assassination' also sinks Bugliosi's mock trial of Oswald produced by London Weekend TV. Broadsides are also fired at the films 'The Post' and 'Parkland'.
November 6, 2022
Every now and again, one buys a book, starts reading it, then puts it on the shelf after skimming it and picking out useful bits of information. There it remains, sometimes for years, until you pick it up again and ask yourself how you could have overlooked its utter brilliance. You then read it cover to cover, carefully, trying to absorb every word. I bought James DiEugenio’s The JFK Assassination in 2018, the year it came out, and remember thinking the text in the index was too small, that I wasn’t particularly interested in Vincent Bugliosi’s “mock trial” of Lee Harvey Oswald or his absurdly mammoth tome, Reclaiming History. I laid DiEugenio’s book aside, thinking I might return to it later. Halfway into his Destiny Betrayed, eponym of the recent four-part documentary directed by Oliver Stone, and totally enthralled by that book, I picked The JFK Assassination up again. I am so glad I did.
The book appears to be an update of an earlier work, Reclaiming Parkland: Tom Hanks, Vincent Bugliosi, and the JFK Assassination, which came out in 2013 and was designed to rebut Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History. Since Bugliosi died in 2015, I had a sense that the updated edition might have been retitled to divert attention from the fact that it critiques a recently deceased man’s work. If so, the author need not have worried. His treatment of Bugliosi and Reclaiming History is done in a thoroughly decent, thoughtful way, and he even testifies to having personally found Bugliosi likable on meeting him. He also acknowledges his good writing, notably about the Clinton-Bush era. DiEugenio’s book reminds those who have watched Bugliosi – summing him up as an attention-seeking blowhard deserving of withering scorn – that gentlemanly criticism can be effective.
Critics of the official version of the JFK assassination, embodied by the Warren Report of 1964, have been divided over the decades into “generations.” The first generation includes writers such as Harold Weisberg, author of Whitewash (1965), Mark Lane, author of Rush to Judgment (1966), and Sylvia Meagher, author of Accessories After the Fact (1967). Like most authoritative writers on JFK, DiEugenio tips his hat to all of them. But he also acknowledges what we all know: that each had much less information to work with and therefore made mistakes and assumptions which, with due respect, can now be corrected or viewed in a different, more credible light. As such, DiEugenio is operating in a vital tradition of critics, and he continues that tradition magnificently.
While critiquing a notorious work that upholds the now-discredited set of volumes produced by President Lyndon Johnson’s “blue ribbon” panel as the result of its investigation into the murder, The JFK Assassination is a “totality” of analysis and interpretation. At 458 pages (excluding endnotes, bibliography and index), it accomplishes far more than the 2,646-page Reclaiming History even tries to: it situates the assassination in a historical and cultural context. The third and final part of the book, entitled “From Reclaiming History to Parkland, and Beyond,” is an eloquent account of the effect of the coup d’etat that occurred on November 22, 1963 on culture in America – exemplified by the degradation of news media, cinema, and television. You may never look at Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks the same way again after reading this book.
Together with Destiny Betrayed, first published in 1992 and followed twenty years later by a second edition, The JFK Assassination puts James DiEugenio in the top rank of historians on this subject. I now lean toward putting him in first place. I’m now reading The Assassinations, a collection of essays and articles on the very public murders of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK and RFK, and edited by James DiEugenio and Lisa Pease, perhaps the foremost expert on the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. It is riveting so far. If you enjoy reading about American history and have thus far confined yourself only to “official” or “authorized” versions, do yourself a favor: read these books. Truth is in short supply these days. When you find it in book form, you feel as if a new light is suddenly shining on you, warming your face and giving you hope of genuine “enlightenment” amid the gloom.
The book appears to be an update of an earlier work, Reclaiming Parkland: Tom Hanks, Vincent Bugliosi, and the JFK Assassination, which came out in 2013 and was designed to rebut Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History. Since Bugliosi died in 2015, I had a sense that the updated edition might have been retitled to divert attention from the fact that it critiques a recently deceased man’s work. If so, the author need not have worried. His treatment of Bugliosi and Reclaiming History is done in a thoroughly decent, thoughtful way, and he even testifies to having personally found Bugliosi likable on meeting him. He also acknowledges his good writing, notably about the Clinton-Bush era. DiEugenio’s book reminds those who have watched Bugliosi – summing him up as an attention-seeking blowhard deserving of withering scorn – that gentlemanly criticism can be effective.
Critics of the official version of the JFK assassination, embodied by the Warren Report of 1964, have been divided over the decades into “generations.” The first generation includes writers such as Harold Weisberg, author of Whitewash (1965), Mark Lane, author of Rush to Judgment (1966), and Sylvia Meagher, author of Accessories After the Fact (1967). Like most authoritative writers on JFK, DiEugenio tips his hat to all of them. But he also acknowledges what we all know: that each had much less information to work with and therefore made mistakes and assumptions which, with due respect, can now be corrected or viewed in a different, more credible light. As such, DiEugenio is operating in a vital tradition of critics, and he continues that tradition magnificently.
While critiquing a notorious work that upholds the now-discredited set of volumes produced by President Lyndon Johnson’s “blue ribbon” panel as the result of its investigation into the murder, The JFK Assassination is a “totality” of analysis and interpretation. At 458 pages (excluding endnotes, bibliography and index), it accomplishes far more than the 2,646-page Reclaiming History even tries to: it situates the assassination in a historical and cultural context. The third and final part of the book, entitled “From Reclaiming History to Parkland, and Beyond,” is an eloquent account of the effect of the coup d’etat that occurred on November 22, 1963 on culture in America – exemplified by the degradation of news media, cinema, and television. You may never look at Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks the same way again after reading this book.
Together with Destiny Betrayed, first published in 1992 and followed twenty years later by a second edition, The JFK Assassination puts James DiEugenio in the top rank of historians on this subject. I now lean toward putting him in first place. I’m now reading The Assassinations, a collection of essays and articles on the very public murders of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK and RFK, and edited by James DiEugenio and Lisa Pease, perhaps the foremost expert on the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. It is riveting so far. If you enjoy reading about American history and have thus far confined yourself only to “official” or “authorized” versions, do yourself a favor: read these books. Truth is in short supply these days. When you find it in book form, you feel as if a new light is suddenly shining on you, warming your face and giving you hope of genuine “enlightenment” amid the gloom.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews