Historian plows through new research

By Roman Modrowski

History Unfolding - March 23, 2008

historyunfolding.blogspot.com

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2008/03/review-of-road-to-dallas.html

There have been so many analyses, fantasies and
theories devoted to the assassination of John F.
Kennedy that anything purporting itself as a fresh
perspective runs the risk of suffocation. Anything less
than a smoking gun -- or two -- will cause many casual
readers to shrug with the frustration that they've
heard it all before.

The Road to Dallas (Belknap Press, 536 pages, $35),
written by David Kaiser, tries to preempt that shrug by
billing itself as the first book written on the subject
by a professional historian who has pored over the
volumes of recently declassified information.

Kaiser, a history professor at the Naval War College,
not only reports on what he has researched, but at
times he takes an active role in contacting pertinent
subjects in the declassified material.

The result is a thorough recounting of facts
interspersed with interpretations and opinions that
carry the weight of someone who knows how to analyze
history. The Road to Dallas is laboriously
comprehensive at times and shockingly illuminating at
others. It may not prove the conspiracy it suggests --
that while Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman he
wasn't alone in planning the assassination -- but it
provides unusual substance to its argument because of
the nature of the material and the background of the
author.

Kaiser isn't the first to suggest JFK was assassinated
by a conspiracy of anti-Castro Cubans upset at
Kennedy's failure to eliminate Fidel Castro and a Mafia
enraged by the obsession of JFK's attorney general, his
brother Robert Kennedy, to attack organized crime. But
Kaiser may be the first to reach the depth of reporting
the facts that support this theory.

The book is full of anecdotes that will make many
wonder why these facts weren't reported before, or at
least reported on a more mainstream level. It opens
with three men visiting a Cuban woman -- Silvia Odio --
in Dallas in early October 1963. Odio testified that
one of the men was Oswald, while the other two were
believed to be American anti-Castro mercenaries Loran
Hall and Lawrence Howard. Hall had spent time in a
Cuban prison with Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante
Jr., who owned several Havana casinos before Castro's
rise to power. During their time in prison, Trafficante
was visited by Jack Ruby.

The intermingling of key players in Kaiser's conspiracy
theory, including Jimmy Hoffa and his alliance with the
mob, allows him to connect the dots to effectively
argue that Oswald did not act alone.

It was amazing to learn about the vast number of
assassination plots and attempts against Castro that
were conceived, encouraged or at least winked at by the
U.S. government. Some of them were comical, such as a
plan to employ exploding seashells and a poisoned
diving suit. The incompetence of the endeavors was
nearly as acute as the audacity.

Lyndon Johnson, as well as others, assumed Castro
played a role in JFK's assassination.

The U.S. government's willingness to employ mob help to
get rid of Castro while at the same time Robert Kennedy
was trying to crack down on organized crime reflected
the firewalls that existed between government agencies
before 9/11.

Kaiser uncovered several quotes by people such as Hoffa
calling for John Kennedy to be assassinated. Hoffa's
mob associates relied on the money stolen from Hoffa's
Teamsters Union, so many powerful and dangerous people
suffered by RFK's personal quest to bring down Hoffa.
The Kennedy administration was an enemy to many.

It would be hard to imagine anyone but Kennedy
assassination scholars and historians not learning
something new in Kaiser's book. For fans of Oliver
Stone's movie "JFK" (1991) and JFK assassination
junkies, the book is the latest -- and perhaps best --
view of the historic event.

[Roman Modrowski is an assistant sports editor for the
Chicago Sun-Times. He was a beat writer for the Bulls
and Notre Dame football. He also covered prep sports.
Roman is a native of East Chicago, Ind., and a graduate
of Purdue University Calumet.]

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