DiEugenio, James. Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case. New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1992. 423 pages.

In the rush of publicity after Oliver Stone's film, some excellent books were reprinted and some questionable old and new ones found a place next to them on bookstore shelves. Until you've read a dozen books on the JFK assassination, it's difficult to distinguish between the two. This is a new work that's very well-produced, and deserves a place with the classics. It has a point of view on the assassination (the intelligence connection), so it's worth mentioning that there are good books with a different point of view, such as "Mafia Kingfish" by John Davis and "Contract on America" by David Scheim (the Mafia connection). Since the CIA and Mafia were working together at the time, this is probably a non-issue. Yes, writers need handles and find it easier to specialize.

So the Mafia-done-it folks should be forewarned -- DiEugenio supports Jim Garrison and is mainly concerned with arguing the merits of Garrison's evidence as seen 25 years after the case was prosecuted. This approach is a necessary palliative in the wake of the "let's go get Stone" stampede. The debate over the movie has tended to focus narrowly on the question of JFK and Vietnam; what gets lost are fascinating questions such as who was this Clay Shaw and what was he up to? Garrison was onto something; judge for yourself. -- D.Brandt
ISBN 1-879823-00-4

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