Latest / The Lone Gunman Podcast : JFK Assassination / JFK Book Reviews - Live By The Sword

Transcript

JFK Book Reviews - Live By The Sword · The Lone Gunman Podcast : JFK Assassination

• 0:23
  Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. Welcome into JFK Book Reviews. I'm your host,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the biggest, the baddest, the bob of them all, Rob Clark,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: here with you for another exciting edition of JFK Book Reviews.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: And if you'll bear with me for just one second
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: while I get my other ear in here. Sorry about that.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I started the show and didn't have any ears in.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, and this is not a very
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: long intro like the other shows we do, so your
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: boy had to scramble a little bit there. But we're
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: here and today we're to be reviewing the book Live
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: by the Sword, The Secret War against Castro and the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Death of JFK by Gus Russo. And boy is she thick,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: just like I like him. I mean, that is a
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: hefty ice cream sandwich, right there, folks. Good Lordicus, my goodness. Now,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: this book here was published in nineteen ninety eight, so
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: almost thirty years ago. Uh. It clocks in right around
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: five or six hundred pages, depending on the edition. I
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of course have the first edition baby, uh five hundred
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and twelve published by Bancroft Publishing. Yes, that's right. A
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: little bit about Gus Russo, the author this is him
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: over here on the side with his guitar. That's because
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: he's a classically trained musician. He also, in another life
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: wrote commercial jingles, scored low budget movies, and currently based
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I believe in Baltimore, Maryland, which is not too far
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: from me, where he's part of a jazz sex tent.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's any thing orgy related. I think
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: it's more of a six piece band called String Theory,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: which plays old jazz classics. So you know this guy
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: is already okay in On Dale's book. Now, this book
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: kind of, I guess you could say majoratively has a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Loane nut Lean to it, if you will. And what
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I mean by that is he mostly focuses more on
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the why behind assassination than the who. He is a
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: self admitted former conspiracy theorist, but wanted to be taken
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: more seriously, so he kind of revised his point of view.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And he was a consultant on PBS's front Lines, who
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: was Lee Harvey Oswald. He has also helped authors such
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: as Gerald Posner do some research for his book and
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: things like this. So this foray into the Kennedy assassination
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: for Gus Russo is the only one that he's done,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: not the only book that he's written, but the only
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: thing that he has done on the Kennedy case. The
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: core narrative of the book deals with what he calls
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the Kennedy's brothers reckless and intense response and dealing with
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the Cuban situation in Fidel Castro. Now, I don't know
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: how reckless they were, or how nai they were, or
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: how you know they were acting irresponsibly in their response
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: to Castro and dealing with Russia at the same time,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: right in the middle of the Cold War. It was
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a very difficult time to become president, and Kennedy and Bobby.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: JFK and Bobby weren't just yes, they I mean they
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: did speak together and bounce off things ideas off of
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: each other frequently, but it wasn't like they didn't listen
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to any what anybody else had to say. JFK would
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: frequently consult with former President Eisenhower as well. You know,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: he was a president before Kennedy and kind of knew
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: what the deal was and how to deal with things
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: like Russia and Castro and the CIA and just was
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: what all was going on in the world and how
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to deal with it, so I don't share his viewpoint
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that the Kennedys were acting recklessly. I don't think there's
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: much evidence to support that. In fact, I would say
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: they acted relatively reserved in their response to what Russia
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: was doing at the time and to what Cuba was
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: doing at the time. But I do agree with him
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: that the premise of the assassination how the Kennedy's secret
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: war against Castro triggered JFK's assassination and America's longest cover up.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I think it, had it not been for the secret
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: war against Castro and their alliance with Russia and the
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Bay of Pigs and the Cuban missile crisis, that Kennedy
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: probably would not have been assassinated had all that not
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: been going on. I think he is spot on by
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: revealing that he believes that that is the context for
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: what happened to JFK and I agree. But when it
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: comes to his views on Oswald as being a lone nut,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: lone wolf assassin, he does leave a small window open.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: You know, he believes that Oswald was who he said
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: he was, a pro Castro Marxist slash Communist sympathizer who
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: wanted to be somebody and do something big and in
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: hopes that he would be treated like a king by
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Castro in Russia, and this and that. But he does
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: leave a small window open where he suggests it possibly
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: possibly Cuban regime members may have accepted or encouraged his
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: offer to take out Kennedy, though any direct proof remains
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: what he calls too cold. The leads are too cold,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and leads remain. Proof remains elusive. He says that Oswald
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: acted with a sense of destiny and rage. Now when
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I think about Lee Harvey Oswald, the word rage doesn't
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: really come to mind. But okay. In the book you
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: will find an extensive, detailed context on the Kennedy's foreign policy,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: an extensive evidence of the post assassination cover up by RFK, LBJ,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the CIA, and others. And I do agree with this
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: that our intelligence agencies, due to their dubious connections and
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: what they were doing in secret, were forced to cover
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: up a lot of what they were doing in the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: wake of the assassination. Therefore, they needed to form a
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: narrative that would appease not only the American people, but
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the rest of the world without dragging everybody into World
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: War three. He kind of looks into what Oswald was
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: doing in Mexico City, his possible motives being tied to Cuba,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: trying to get to Cuba, trying to get back to Russia.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: But he builds a strong, circumstantial case that the forensic
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the forensics against Oswald or air tight, which I don't
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: necessarily agree with, but I think it is a substantial,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: well researched contribution to the JFK literature. It does prioritize
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: documented history and policy context over sensationalism. It's not going
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: to end debate, Okay, it's just not. It's not a definitive,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: this is the answer kind of book. What it does
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: do is it forces one to take into consideration many
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: things that prior that you may not have taken it
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: into consideration when it comes to Lee Rvy, Oswald, Fidel Castro, Cuba,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: and the way our government reacted to the tragedy of
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the assassination of JFK, and how we reacted to certain
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: world events leading up to the assassination. I do think
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: he took the easy way out here by painting Oswald
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: as the Warren Commission painted him, and being a former
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theorist Gus Russeo. I don't think you did yourself
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: much justice. And I think even admitting that you wanted
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: to be taken more seriously as a JFK researcher by
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: your peers, and when your peers are Gerald Posner and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Vincent Bugliosi, well who gives a shit? Right? But whatever,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: we all know that those books do quite well. You know,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: if you're going to publish a book on the Kennedy assassination,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the lone nut books sell way better than the conspiracy books.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, just look Gerald Posner, Vinzi Bugliosi. This book. Now,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: even though it does have a low nut lean, I
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: think this book, for everything that it contains and the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: research contained where they're in and some of the conclusions
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: that he makes, it's a very I think he's pretty
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: much well respected by most Kennedy researchers. You know, he
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: kind of takes you to the edge, but doesn't push
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: you off the cliff with things, which is commendable all
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: in all, folks, I would give this book. I'm gonna
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: give it a six guns up, a six out of
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: ten guns up. I believe it stands the test of time.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I recently reread it, to with more text available in
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: my brain to understand all of the concepts and characters
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: and situations that are involved in this book, because when
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: you're talking about the Cuba situation, things can get very
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: messy and tangled and confusing and hard to understand. But
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I think Gus Russo does a commendable job here by
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: breaking it all down, making things easier to understand to
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the common folk if you will like me. And it's
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: a solid book. It's not groundbreaking either way. I think
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: he benefited from some of the early file releases of
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the nineties and being able to write this book. But
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: it's solid, and it's available on Amazon fairly cheap. Actually,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I was surprised. Let's see here you can get a
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: hardcover for as cheap is eight fifty eight forty nine,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: which is not bad, available on kindle for seven bucks
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: or hardcover eight fifty. There is no paperback version, so yeah.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: There's even like a bundle deal they have on here
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: from Bancroft Publishing on on Amazon where they bundle it
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: with the Learning Star Speaks. I guess it's another Bancroft
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Publishing Company JFK related release. But if you just want
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: this book, it's fairly cheap, it's easy to find. There's
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: there's plenty on here, so I'll leave a link in
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the description for the book that's Lived by the Sword
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: by Gus Russo, The Secret War against Castro and the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Death of JFK aka how the Kennedy secret War against
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Castro triggered JFK's assassination and America's longest cover up, still
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: going on to this very day. And if you enjoyed
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: this book review, then you will love the podcast that
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: we do on a weekly basis, twice a week if
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: you are a channel member, every Friday night at seven
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: pm Eastern live here on YouTube, and every Wednesday seven
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: pm Eastern live here on YouTube. For channel members. We
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: explore and investigate all aspects of the Kennedy assassination. We
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: get into the weeds from a conspiracy oriented point of view.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: If you will so hang around to the end of
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: this video, you'll see the links you can check it
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: out again. The link for the book Lived by the
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Sword by Gus Russo will be in the description of
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: this here very video. Until next time, folks, this has
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: been your boy, Big Bad Bobe with another JFK book review.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Hope you enjoyed it, and we'll see you next time. Peace.