Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK by Lamar Waldron, Thom Hartmann (With)

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Synopsis

Cuba's number three official today — Commander Juan Almeida — was secretly working with JFK in November 1963 to overthrow Fidel. The U.S. government recently revealed Almeida's work for JFK, allowing the updated trade paperback of Ultimate Sacrifice to tell the full story for the first time (complete with new photos and documents). The authors obtained the story from almost two dozen associates of John and Robert Kennedy, starting in 1990 with JFK's Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Their accounts are supported by thousands of newly-released files at the National Archives. Almeida's "palace coup," set for December 1, 1963, was to be backed up by U.S. forces "invited" in by Commander Almeida, then Chief of the Cuban Army. However, three Mafia bosses being targeted by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy used several CIA assets to infiltrate the secret plot and murder JFK. This resulted in cover-ups by officials like RFK and LBJ, to prevent the exposure of Almeida and a possible nuclear confrontation with the Soviets. The new edition explains why Almeida was not a double agent, why Fidel suspected Almeida's ally Che Guevara, and what Fidel did in 1990 when he finally found out about Almeida's work for JFK.

Publishers Weekly

There has been a long hiatus in significant books on the JFK assassination since Gerald Posner's Case Closed argued in 1993 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Posner took the CIA's lack of involvement for granted, and that, according to this mammoth and painstakingly researched account, was a big mistake. It is Waldron and Hartmann's (The Edison Game) contention-bolstered by access to many previously unavailable files, and interviews with little-known as well as prominent figures-that the CIA knew a great deal about the assassination. But the agency couldn't admit what it knew because that could uncover the existence of a U.S. plan for a coup in Cuba, run by JFK's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The assassination, say the authors, was carried out by hired gunmen on the orders of three noted Mafia dons whose lives were being made miserable by RFK's ruthless pursuit-and these Mafia men knew about the planned invasion because they had worked with the CIA on previous efforts to topple Castro. Oswald, long a hidden CIA agent, was set up as the patsy, and it had always been Jack Ruby's job to eliminate him if he wasn't killed at the scene of Kennedy's shooting. How do the authors make their case? With a relentless accumulation of detail, a very thorough knowledge of every political and forensic detail and the broad perspective of historians rather than assassination theorists. They spend perhaps too much time with people they admire, like the late Enrique Ruiz Williams, who was a crucial early source for them. They also cannot resist chasing stories of only marginal relevance to their principal one, like what really happened to Che Guevara in Cuba. But no future historian of that tormented period in American history will be able to ignore their very convincing presentation, even if a lay reader may feel overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the evidence. B&w photos. (Nov. 18) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Biography

Lamar Waldron's groundbreaking research has been cited in media outlets ranging from Vanity Fair and The New Republic to the History Channel and USA Today. His work has been acknowledged by authors such as Anthony Summers and Gus Russo, historians like Dr. John Newman and John H. Davis, and former goverment investigators Gaeton Fonzi and FBI veteran WIlliam Turner. Waldron received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Georgia State University and lives in Atlanta.

Thon Hartmann is the award-winning, best-selling author of fourteen books currently in print in over a dozen languages. An internationally known speaker, his most recent books are The Edison Gene, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, Unequal Protection, We the People: A Call to take Back America, and What Would Jefferson Do? His nationally syndicated radio show is currently on Air America and Sirius Satellite Radio.