JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters

by James W. Douglass

The deepening Kennedy–Khrushchev détente was the larger context of the unfolding plot to assassinate Kennedy. It had become clear to America’s power brokers that the president of their national security state was struggling with his Communist opponent not so much over who would win the Cold War as on how to end it. From a national security standpoint, the president had become a traitor.