FINAL DISCLOSURE: The Full Truth About the Assassination of President Kennedy

An attempt by a former counsel to the Warren Commission to lay to rest once and for all the conspiracy theories that have sprung up around the assassination of JFK. Belin feels that a major part of the blame for these scenarios lies with the Warren Commission itself. The secrecy surrounding the investigation and its findings--prompted in part by political considerations and also by a concern for file Kennedy family's sensibilities--resulted in accusations of the involvement of organized crime, the CIA, anti-Castro Cuban refugees, or Castro himself. Belin recounts the events of November 12, 1963, and draws the reader's attention to the testimony of witnesses who came in contact with the principals in the drama and whose words have been underreported or forgotten. He is quite successful in establishing the validity of the Commission's findings--that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and that Jack Ruby was not a gangland hit-man out to silence a ""patsy."" However, it is when Belin discusses his work as executive director of the Rockefeller Commission investigating the role of the CIA in plotting the assassination of such foreign leaders as Fidel Castro, Rafael Trujillo, and Patrice Lumumba that the narrative takes off. The revelations--of the probable involvement of John F. and Robert Kennedy, of the ""manipulation"" (or worse) of federal laws by top government leaders, of the stonewalling of information by ""amnesiac"" officials--are astonishing. Belin names names and cites dates and locations and furthermore suggests that it may have been these discussions between the CIA and these Washington bigwigs about ""executive-action capability"" (read ""assassination"") that indirectly lead to Oswald's murder of the President. Belin builds a strong case--one that is likely to be discussed widely in and out of government during the months ahead. (Despite the rigor of Belin's argument, however, the JFK assassination continues to baffle; for an equally persuasive, pro-conspiratorial brief, see Davis' Mafia Kingfish, reviewed below.)