The Dark Side of Camelot

Rating:
Summary: Excellant
Review: Finally, Americans are unshackled from the political myth and spin doctored history of the Kennedy clan and their admirers. Hersh is not the hero, the courageous individuals who were willing to tell the truth are, notwithstanding Hersh's meticulous investigative research. Few will gain financially from this book; Americans will gain enomously from a more accurate historical record.

Rating:
Summary: The First Realistic Account
Review: I found this book to be the first, and to-date, the best documented account of Camelot. Mr Hersh should be applauded for his courage to take on the myth of an American martyr and bring it back into propper perspective. President Kenedy and his brothers Robert and Ted have always been heros of mine. I have always known however that these men could not possiblly have been the saints the media protrayed them to be. I personally see nothing wrong with confronting a hero's socalled warts as well as his achievements. In fact, Mr Hersh's approach, in my mind, lends credibility to the human aspects of Kennedy thereby making him a more believable human being then the media created icon that was Kennedy before this book. Thank you Mr Hersh!

Rating:
Summary: Camelot should be called Oz.
Review: The on-line reviews of the book are telling: The ones attacking & debunking the book don't provide any substance. They attack the author, they call it sleaze, etc. But not one of them takes issue with the contents of the book, which is what a review should do. To those of you who still are seduced by the Kennedy mystique, I challenge you to find anything substantively wrong with Mr. Hersh's thesis: That JFK, because of his debauched personal life compromised his country in ways we couldn't heretofore imagine. A more apt metaphor for his administration should have been Oz rather than Camelot. And shame on all the people all these years who knew what was behind the curtain, but yet continue to propogate the lie. Unfortunately, there are enough people still out there who try to defend the indefensible, but they distort the debate by avoiding the issues and point out, among other things, problems the author had in compiling the book. Mr. Hersh took great care in researching his book, and that's why the "Marilyn Papers" didn't make it. He was honest enought and thorough enough to make sure only the truth got in. We need to judge the book by it's actual, not it's potential, contents. I wonder what Entertainment Weekly has said in the past about books regarding Richard Nixon? Do they defend him? Call those books sleaze? I doubt it. He was not an attractive man, and his sins are well-documented and easy to believe. But attack the handsome JFK... Ah, pop culture. The air-heads leading the air-heads.

Rating:
Summary: A quick and explicit lesson on the life of JFK
Review: Mr. Hersh's book truly impressed me because for (1) contained reliable sources and (2) there have been other books on these same subjects in the past--only Hersh elaborates in a more adroit and concise manner. For anyone who has ever been interested in JFK or simply wants a quick retrospect on our nation's most evocative president of the 20th century--I suggest this book. You will be amazed at how the one-time leader of our nation was vehemently concerned with eschatology one day and the next, convivial. A MUST READ!!

Rating:
Summary: What an Investigator!
Review: Amazing! The Church Committee couldn't find the connection between illegal anti-Castro activities and JFK...and Richard Nixon couldn't find the connection. But Seymour Hersh found it! What total nonsense.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Chop Job
Review: My only question to Mr. Hersh is why has it taken 34 years for this stuff to come out. If these things really happened as Mr. Hersh and his so-called witnesses say they did, then it surely would have come out much sooner. It's really easy to kick a man that can't answer for himself.

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Hersh's Book Tells Just Half the Tragic History.
Review: Now let me see if I got this straight--John F. Kennedy was hated in greater or lesser degrees by the following: 1) a host of CIA "advisors" along with hundreds of Cuban exiles----for JFK's command failure to give the final go-ahead for the bomber strikes necessary to give crucial air support for a successful landing on the beach at the Bay of Pigs for CIA-backed Cuban exiles in their attempt to overthrow the Castro brothers; 2) the Castro brothers----for John and Robert Kennedy's relentless attempts to remove the Castros from power in part so the US Mafia could restore its casino gambling empire to the island; 3) the Mafia----for JFK's double-doublecross in not getting the Justice Department to back-off in pursuing the Mob after the Mob provided critical support (after Chicago Mobster Sam Giancana was approached by patriarch Joe Kennedy) to get JFK the votes he needed to win the 1960 presidential race, and for JFK's failure to get rid of Castro so the Mob could reestablish lucrative casinos which had been shut down on Cuba when Fidel Castro overthrew the Mafia-backed Battista regime; 4) Members of the Joint Chiefs of the US military----for JFK's utter failures as a commander-in-chief by his placing the US (and the world) in harm's way through the unnecessary use of nuclear brinkmanship against the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and for then caving-in to the Soviets by giving-up stategic nuclear missiles stationed in Turkey; 5) Lyndon B. Johnson----out of personal jealousy for JFK's popularity, and for Kennedy's freezing-out LBJ from any position of power in the Kennedy White House; and 6) J. Edgar Hoover----also out of personal jealousy of JFK, and in response to JFK's personal distaste and disdain for Hoover. It would appear to this reader that Mr. Hersh's marvelous investigative coup leaves unspoken the remaining weighty mass of the JFK tragedy--that being the answer to the question of Who (or Whom) would have wanted this President dead, and Who (or Whom) would have had the means to accomplish this end. Judging from the stew of highly dangerous groups and powerful individuals above, there is certainly no dearth of willing agents with the necessary means for such executive action (and it is now getting harder and harder to swallow the Warren Commission's lone gunman/magic bullet theory). It is a tragedy of history for which we are all still paying in one way or another, and one which has thus far regrettably taken an unbelievable 34 years to ferret out (so much for the investigative fortitute of the major US news organizations). Were Kennedy and his crew "The best and the brightest"?. I don't think so anymore.

Rating:
Summary: Hoo, boy!
Review: This book was fascinating. Seymour Hersh has done a prodigous amount of research and has uncovered (or at least got people to speak on the record) much of JFK's life that was kept hidden from the public. Very detailed and very disturbing.

Rating:
Summary: PAINFUL YET BELIEVABLE
Review: As a life-long admirer of JFK, one who is still haunted by his death,Hersh's book was another journey into the painful,disturbing and exhilirating time that was the JFK White House. Hersh's book deserves recognition for the degree of research and excellent writing that makes this book an instant classic.What I do have a problem with are some of his conclusions... that because of his sexual obsessions, he was a president out of control, that he did NOT handle the Cuban Missile Crisis well, that the Vietnam involvement was politically motivated, and that Oswald was the lone assassin. I am especially disappointed with the last point, as he really sets up the reader to understand why those in power, the "Cold Warriors," the "dees,dem and dos guys," and the pathetic anti-Castro forces could use treason and murder to reach their aims: get rid of a president,get rid of Castro and "win" the cold war. Hersh stays away from this issue, which should have been the biggest target of his book. I must come to the realization that JFK and his family were typical of the hypocrisy of the powerful. Hersh has successfully moved me to that conclusion. Anyway, his book IS a tour-de-force that should NOT be compared to the Kitty Kelley or Randy Tamborelli trash.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, well researched book. Not a muckraker.
Review: People see what they want to see, especially when the press colludes to present a false image as with JFK. This book is valuable; it sets history right and shows the real face of Camelot: corruption. The most telling exposure in the book is not Kennedy's sexual excursions. No, it concerns the fate of the four Alabama National Guard pilots, who when Kennedy failed to support the Bay of Pigs invasion with a second air strike, provided air support on their own. They were shot down and killed after doing severe damage to the Cuban defenses. Fearing exposure of US complicity, the Kennedy brothers refused pensions to the families. They relented only when an oil magnate ( approached by one of the wives) threatened to go to the newspapers. The Kennedy's were cold, self-centered egoists, who only cared for their own prosperity, with no feeling for those who sacrificed for them or the country. They were not true leaders, just users and power addicts. This book shows us the truth.