Oglesby, Carl. The Yankee and Cowboy War: Conspiracies from Dallas to
Watergate. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1976. 355 pages.
Two books in NameBase, "Yankee and Cowboy War" by Carl Oglesby and
"Power Shift" by Kirkpatrick Sale, are based on a single premise -- that
there has been a more-or-less conscious shift in the source of American
ruling-class power during the postwar period. The Southern Rim (roughly
the states or portions of states south of a line drawn across the country
from North Carolina to just north of San Francisco) is challenging the
traditional control of the Eastern Establishment (Chicago, New York,
Boston, and points between). Sale uses this hook to analyze economic and
electoral changes, while Oglesby develops a rough handle to link the JFK
assassination and Watergate. Both books are solid and valuable, although
this pet premise isn't necessary to either.
Oglesby is perhaps the most capable theorist and prose stylist to
emerge out of the New Left. Though I agree that Dallas and Watergate
involved conspiracy and cover-up at some level, I'm not convinced that
the conspirators are agents of a conscious struggle between Yankees and
Cowboys. The book is essential despite this, and offers excellent
commentary on Reinhard Gehlen, the Bay of Pigs, the Howard Hughes
connection, the plane crash that killed Dorothy Hunt, and James McCord
as a probable double agent. -- D.Brandt
ISBN 0-8362-0688-6
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