changed his mind about CiA operations, and wrote, in a published article (some editions of which were supressed) that CIA operations should be shut down (this, according to former CIA agent Ray McGovern--I haven't seen the Truman article with my own eyes).

The first CIA effort to overthrow the Guatemalan president--a CIA collaboration with Nicaraguan dictator Anastacio Somoza to support a disgruntled general named Carlos Castillo Armas and codenamed Operation PBFORTUNE--was authorized by President Truman in 1952. --from the OP

The issue McGovern was talking about (in an interview I recently watched on the internet--don't have the url) was CIA analysis vs CIA operations. According to McGovern, Truman set up the CIA for analysis--to keep the president well-informed on world affairs--and NOT for operations--dirty tricks, destabilizations, assassinations, et al. A bit of wording was slipped into the authorizing bill that formalized the CIA permitting the CIA to go beyond analysis and to engage in operations. Thus Truman ended up authorizing the horrors in Guatemala. Then, after JFK was assassinated, Truman--an ex-president at that point--goes on record against any operations capacity for the CIA.

McGovern is firmly convinced--as I am (both of us after reading James Douglass' brilliant book, "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters&quot --that this--Truman's turnabout on CIA operations--further supports Douglass' slamdunk case against the CIA for JFK's assassination. McGovern implies that Truman knew who murdered JFK. I'm not sure if I would go that far. However, I do find it plausible that Truman, having figured out that the CIA murdered JFK, would remain silent about that, but address the matter obliquely by saying that the CIA ought to be curtailed (permitted only to do analysis, not operations). Outspoken as Truman was, he may have understood the reason for the coverup*, and agreed with it, and/or was scared (he, too, could be a target).

In any case, it appears that Truman, like Eisenhower, had second thoughts about the monsters within that were spawned by the Cold War--the U.S. "military-industrial complex," which Eisenhower warned, in his last speech in office, was an enormous threat to democracy, and Truman's desire to close the Pandora's box of CIA operations.

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*(Douglass brilliantly analyzes who, exactly, Oswald was (a low level CIA asset), why he was sent to Russia, why he fooled around with "Fair Play for Cuba" protests on his return, what he thought he was doing in Dallas (protecting the president!) and how all this illuminates the Mexico connection (contact with the Russian embassy). The CIA was lethally opposed to JFK's stance on nuclear weapons--his refusal to nuke Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his later negotiation of the very first effort to curb nuclear weapons (the "Test Ban Treaty" with Russia). They were also furious that JFK established back-channels to Russia's premier, Nikita Krushchev, and to Castro, to get around the CIA. They therefore designed the assassination to point to Russia as the culprit, to force JFK's successor to nuke Russia in retaliation. At the time, ALL the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to nuke Russia, because they thought they had missile superiority and believed--or said they believed--that the U.S. would survive a nuclear war. JFK's successor, LBJ--whom Douglass does not finger as part of the assassination plot, but DOES finger for the coverup--found out, from (of all people) FBI Director J.Edgar Hoover, about the CIA's plan to implicate Russia and did not want to be coerced into nuking Russia--neither by the CIA nor by the general public (if Russia was implicated). LBJ therefore participated in the coverup, which, among other things, covered up the false leads to Russia. Douglass is simply a genius at unraveling all of these JFK assassination puzzles!)

(Note: This is WHY LBJ said, three days after the JFK assassination, "Now they can have their war." He was speaking of the CIA and Vietnam. He was willing to give them a war but not a nuclear war.)

He has put his life on the line for his convictions.

After reading your information I had to write down the title and author. I think it's time I got that book for our house, too. The work the author has put into his work is overwhelming.

Very glad to hear what you had to say about Truman.

Thank you.

The dark, toxic clouds of suspicion, that have so poisoned our country's political life since that assassination, evaporate, as you finish this book (full title: "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters"), and a beautiful light is shed on so many things, from the why of the Vietnam War, to the why of the horrendous rise of the "military-industrial complex" since that time--much, much worse now--despite high level warnings and despite its blatant, horrible crimes and horrible robbery of the American people.

I've never read a book that was so cleansing. It was difficult for me to read. I was an idealistic young person at that time. I had joined the JFK campaign for president at age 16, where I met my boyfriend of 6 years, who was later killed by a bullet from the Texas Tower Sniper, between the JFK and RFK/MLK assassinations. Also, my father was killed in a trucking accident in the same period. It was a very traumatic time. Douglass compelled me to experience it all AGAIN--the crazy, virulent anti-communism of that era, the gun-nuts in Texas (now everywhere), the crazy, violent Miami mafia, the efforts of a new generation to understand and deal with all the injustice and violence in our society, the Cuban Missile Crisis (what a revelation Douglass provides about that: JFK vs the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff, who tried to force him to nuke Russia and Cuba), and so much more. "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times"--as Dickens wrote about another tumultuous era. So it was very difficult to read all that went into this one event: The "military-industrial complex"/CIA murdering the president.

Douglass proves it. It is no longer a question. Now we have to deal with the second part of Douglass title: WHY IT MATTERS.

those who took their lives and the lives of others seriously.

To have it all personalized so intensely, tragically would have pounded that grouping of years home in a devastating, heart-searing way.

Thanks for expressing your personal experience and how it affected your experience with this book. It sounds as if Douglass poured everything into his work on it.

So glad you have mentioned the book again. This time I didn't postpone ordering it right after reading your post. I absolutely can't wait to get it, and I already plan to share it the moment I'm finished reading it.

Thank you for your references to this important effort to bring the truth to the world, through what had to be an overwhelming amount of energy, and hard, hard work. So glad the author didn't give up until he finished!