This is the second book written by the Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard duo. Both of the books are worth reading. I thought “Killing Lincoln” was the better of the two books but my wife thinks “Killing Kennedy” was better.
The subtitle of this book is “The End of Camelot,” which refers to the assassination of Kennedy. However, I thought the best parts were and the insights given into the Kennedy clan (including all of the men being serial adulters), Jackie Kennedy (who was a secret chain smoker), and the many people in and out of government around them. The political trials faced by Kennedy, to include the Bay of Pigs fiasco and civil rights, make interesting reading. Kennedy made many enemies, including members of the mafia, some of which appear to have had good relations with the Kennedys before JFK was elected to be President.
I had read that JFK had followed in his father’s footsteps of being a womanizer, but this book revealed the extent was much greater than I ever imagined. His father forced him to leave Navy intelligence and seek a combat position during World War II after it was learned he was having an affair with a Danish woman suspected of being a Nazi spy. The Secret Service had to provide more than just security to the President. They also had to prevent Jackie from finding him with other women. There was one episode when they had to block Jackie from entering the swimming pool as Kennedy was having at least a nude swim with one of the female staff members. The Secret Service gave two female secretaries who frequently joined Kennedy in nude swimming code names “Fiddle and Faddle.” JFK once told a friend that “…he needed to have sex once a day or he would suffer awful headaches.”
Jackie is described as consulting a doctor for advice on how to make herself more sexually appealing to the President. That is surprising, because she is described as being a very secretive person. She often dined alone with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and was quite friendly with Adlai Stevenson. There are rumors that she “…has had a fling with actor William Holden.”
The rumors about JFK and Bobbie and Marilyn Monroe are included in the book, although it is mentioned that few if any of the rumors were substantiated. The most interesting fact is that Marilyn’s death was ruled to have been caused by an overdose of pills but the autopsy found no evidence of any pills in her digestive system.
Kennedy was preoccupied with worrying about the Soviets and what was happening in Cuba. The planning and execution of the Bay of Pigs invasion by anti-Castro Cubans trained and armed by the United States is stunningly pathetic. The Cubans even had the advantage that the New York Times published a front page story that the Cuban rebels were breaking camp in Florida and preparing to launch their invasion. Kennedy is portrayed as being hopelessly indecisive as bad news came in about the progress of the invasion code named Operation Zapata. The rebels were killed or captured in what was a humiliating defeat for the United States.
Bobby Kennedy is called in for the purpose of berating intelligence people and becomes what the book calls “the assistant president.” Kennedy decides that Vietnam is the place where the power of the United States can be demonstrated to reveal the damage caused by the Bay of Pigs.
The CIA tells Kennedy that the Soviets are installing ballistic missiles in Cuba and the Cuban Missile Crisis begins to unfold. Perhaps the failure of the Bay of Pigs toughened Kennedy, because it is Khrushchev who blinks first. Kennedy secretly agreed to withdraw U.S. missiles in Turkey if the Soviets withdraw their missiles from Cuba. (Another book I’ve reviewed is “Spycatcher” by Peter Wright who was a senior British intelligence officer. Wright believes the Cuban Missile Crises was invented by the Soviets for the singular purpose of getting U.S. missiles out of Turkey.)
Lyndon Johnson was added to the ticket to bring in the electoral votes from Texas, but Kennedy never liked him or involved him in any way in the administration. The Kennedys made fun of Johnson’s country speech and actions. Johnson had been accustomed to power when he was the leader of the Senate. Kennedy even sends Johnson on an around-the-world trip to get him out of the way.
Lee Harvey Oswald met and married Marina Prusakova while he was living and working in the city of Minsk in the Soviet Union. The FBI watched Oswald after he and Marina return to Texas and interviewed him in an attempt to learn whether the Soviets had trained or equipped him for some sort of mission in the U.S. The FBI isn’t watching Oswald close enough to learn that he has bought a handgun and an inexpensive Italian rifle. Oswald tries to kill Major General Ted Walker, but the bullet is deflected by the window frame and Walker only suffers minor wounds on his arm. That attempted assassination apparently doesn’t surface until uncovered by the Warren Commission.
Kennedy was repeatedly warned that Texas was not a state that was friendly to his presidency and that Dallas in particular would not be a friendly city. The details of the assassination are quite graphic, including the description of Jackie crawling to the back of the limo to retrieve a piece of JFK’s skull.
One of the most surprising details in the book is “It is a little-known fact that it is not a federal crime to kill the president of the United States. It is against federal law to initiate a conspiracy to kill the president…”
There are many other interesting facts and insights than mentioned here; I recommend the book to anyone interested in JFK, Jackie, or the people around them.