One Book EVERY AMERICAN Needs to Read

If you could sum up JFK and the Unspeakable in three words, what would they be?

See "Additional Comments" Come on- - - three words to summarize a book this powerful, this revealing and this important. You must be kidding.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The author for his courage and dedication to impeccable research and maintaining as much impartiality as is possible for a book of this kind.

Which character – as performed by Pete Larkin – was your favorite?

Can't say.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When it became clear that both Khruschev AND JFK were determined to avert the nuclear wars that both of their generals and admirals were trying so hard to initiate.

Any additional comments?

This book is the absolute best book I have ever read on the subject of the reasons-for and the results-of the JFK assassination. Douglass brings to light truths about JFK's devotion to co-creating a peaceful world with Premier Khruschev and the fact that JFK had faced his own death for so long and in so many ways that he was more prepared to fight the valiant battle plan than any President before or after. Douglass brilliantly brings out the humanity of both Kennedy and Khruschev and the nightmarish battles they had to fight with their own subordinates, who wanted to start preemptive wars between our two nations. The documentation of other assassination scenarios in the U.S. which were overlooked or completely obfuscated and the way that evidence was discarded made this book stand high above most I have read. My personal collection on the JFK murder is over 175 books, plus articles, and correspondence with the principal authors and authority figures surrounding the assassination, investigation and its research. If every student was required to read this book as a prerequisite to graduating from high school, our nation would be transformed into a far more peace-oriented and life-sustaining tribe of people. James W. Douglass deserves highest honors for this work.

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Maybe The Best Book On The Subject

Fifty years from now, only a few books about the JFK assassination will be remembered. One is Mark Lane's Rush To Judgment. Another is Crossfire, by Jim Marrs. Now we have maybe the best I've seen, JFK And The Unspeakable.

James Douglass provides the context needed to understand why the assassins of JFK would take the monumental risk of killing a U.S. President, then running a cover-up for decades. President Kennedy entered office as a cold warrior, but then he turned away from the Cold War. His nuclear test ban treaty was just a taste of the changes JFK envisioned. He was already starting a Vietnam withdrawal and was having secret communications with the Soviet Union and Cuba. The military-industrial-intelligence complex was threatened by a second JFK term, they felt double-crossed, so they killed him. They plotted a public assassination because it would send a message to anybody else who was thinking about crossing them. One result of the assassination is our permanent state of war in 2011.

Only a third of the book is about the assassination, but Douglass shows us enough. We see how the intelligence operative Lee Harvey Oswald was set up as the patsy. We observe the beginning of the cover-up. Douglass presents enough evidence to make his case, but he doesn't mire us in "assassination minutiae" which would disturb the clarity of his presentation.

The narration is what I call "transparent." If you've ever seen a movie and never noticed the music, the music was having its effect without being conspicuous. The narration by Pete Larkin is not a "performance," it's a clean transmission of the book to the listener, well done.

42 people found this helpful

Awesome

Any additional comments?

At first I was a bit skeptical about what angle a thelologian would take on this subject. Boy, was I surprised. Is one of the finest history books I have ever read (and listened to in my car) and perhaps the finest book I have read on the JFK assassination. Well worth the investment.

28 people found this helpful

Curtain rods and credentials

When ever I get ready to believe that Oswald was innocent of any wrong doing, I go back to Frazier's testimony that Oswald carried that package into the TSBD. Just before I'm prepared to condem Oswald I think about those gentlemen on the grassy knoll with the fake Secret Service credentials. After listening to this book at length, I have come to the conclusion that Oswald was dirty in this regard. He carried a weapon into the TSBD and was told to place it on the sixth floor. This would explain, Oswald being on the second floor shortly after the shooting. He left the building to meet up with his co-conspirators, totally blind to the fact the he was being blamed for the actual shooting of Kennedy and Tippet. "I didn't shoot anybody, I'm just a patsy. I've done nothing to be ashamed of." In his mind leaving a rifle on the sixth floor was probably nothing to be ashamed of since he didn't use it.

This book covered a lot of area's that only add to the mystery of who was involved and strengthens the whole "end-around, mis-direction play" that has kept the cover-up intact for fifty years. It also proves that the "Lone nut" garbage is the conspiracy theory and no where close to the truth.

21 people found this helpful

Awesome Book!!!

This book opens the listener up to unimaginable revelations about JFK. It goes into great depth into answering the question of why as well as how he was killed. The only draw back I found with the book is it seemed very mixed up. One minute your in 1963 and then your back in 1960; it jumps back and fourth through most of the book.

17 people found this helpful

JFK: Why was he killed

If you could sum up JFK and the Unspeakable in three words, what would they be?

The answer to the question "why" is more important than who as it points to the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about. The greed for money is still alive and well.

What was one of the most memorable moments of JFK and the Unspeakable?

Everything is memorable because Mr. Douglas has supporting evidence for it all.

Have you listened to any of Pete Larkin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. Because one has to absorb the truths.

Any additional comments?

Everyone should read, especially those who think Oswald pulled the trigger!

16 people found this helpful

The Unspeakable at Last Spoken

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I have and will. To gain a deeper understanding of, not only the assasination, but of the workings of the shadow government to supplant constitutional government, of, by, for the people, with one fashioned and controlled by them to serve their narrow interests at the expense of the national welfare.

Who was your favorite character and why?

John Kennedy, because I learned more about his courage and thoughtful plans to disengage from the insanity which threatened at the time and has since become our daily bread. What a different world it might be had he lived to see his plans brought to fruition.

What does Pete Larkin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I'm a slow reader because I often have to go back and rephrase something when it hasn't sounded right in my head. Larkin's understanding and familiarity with the material provides that dramatization of the story line in an uninterupted flow effortlessly.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Prophiles in usurpation.

Any additional comments?

It should be required reading in every high school and test questions on its contents a prerquisite for holding public office. We might get our national integrity back.

14 people found this helpful

The answers at last!

If you could sum up JFK and the Unspeakable in three words, what would they be?

After a dozen books over the years, I now have the answers on why he was killed and how.

11 people found this helpful

The Unspeakable: a believable conspiracy theory.

If you could sum up JFK and the Unspeakable in three words, what would they be?

Eye opening narrative

What does Pete Larkin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I can listen while I'm having insomnia. Pete L. makes it sound like he's reading something of import.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Kennedy fighting the powerful Steel Companies' execs for the good of the US economy and ordinary Americans. Something politicians today will not do.

10 people found this helpful

Best book on the JFK Assassination

If you could sum up JFK and the Unspeakable in three words, what would they be?

Research. Presentation. Depth.

What other book might you compare JFK and the Unspeakable to and why?

Books by Mark Lane, Rush to Judgement, Plausible Deniability or Last Word, for example.

What about Pete Larkin’s performance did you like?

The narrator spoke clearly, at an even pace, and did not mispronounce words, as often happens with Audible history narrators.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Learn once and for all the truth about the JFK murder.

Any additional comments?

This book handles deftly the wide range of evidence that the CIA construed and implemented the murder of JFK. Especially interesting are many of the eyewitness accounts to the original plan to murder him in Chicago on Nov. 2, the Oswald double, and the getaway flight of two of the perpetrators. Douglass presents clearly and fairly the stories of the many witnesses to the conspiracy.

He also goes into great depth on the why of the murder. In sum, it was because Kennedy was turning away from cold war posturing, and turning to peace initiatives that defied the entrenched authority of the CIA and their military allies. He went so far in pursuing peace, that he had to be killed. The specifics are well known: the bay of pigs debacle and hatred for Kennedy among those in the CIA who were involved; a possible rapprochement with Castro; Kennedy's convincingly presented desire and program to extract the US from Viet Nam; the comprehensive test ban treaty Kennedy supported between the US and USSR; and most especially his growing partnership with Khrushchev to move the world towards a non-war footing, after their sobering brinksmanship during the Cuban missile crisis. Douglass makes much of Kennedy's inspiring American University address of June 1963, which wrote sealed to his death warrant.

I do have a couple of minor criticisms, but I hope they do not discourage anyone from enjoying this thoroughly researched and important book. One is that Douglass, as a Catholic and peace advocate, tries to tie in too often the views and comments of Thomas Merton. They are relevant, but do not deserve the weight he gives them. Another is that Douglass presents baldly the evidence of all the eye witnesses to the activities of Oswald and his CIA double leading up to and on the day of the assassination, but never summarizes the whole rather confusing sets of evidence in a clear statement. Finally, it may be going too far to attribute of JFK the role of peace martyr. He is treated with perhaps a little more reverence than deserved, though Douglass never hesitates to point out a few of his personal shortcomings.

These minor matters only very slightly detract from the powerful presentation and in-depth research that makes this the best assassination book, from the evidential and historical perspectives, I have read.

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