FOR SOME THE RATIONALE ISN'T ENOUGH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600160002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 18, 1999
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 22, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Sanitized - Approved For eg IWP75-00149R000600160002-0
For Some'. the Rational Isn't Enough
WHO KILLED KENNEDY? By Thom.
as G. Buchanan. Map. 207 pp.
New York: G. P. Putnam s Sons..
$4.95.
J HEN Thomas G. Buchan-
an's book appeared in
Paris and London last May, it
created a sensation and rapidly
was published in many other,
countries, largely in-Europe but
as far distant as Japan and
Brazil. The reason for the
interest in Mr. Buchanan's
book, at bottom, was that it ca-
tered to the strong emotions
aroused by President Kennedy's. early hectic period in Dallas),
assassination. The melodramat- but he erects his own hypothe-
is events in Dallas seemedWo ! sis of what he thinks really
unreal; :so tragically absurd, so took place. It is his theory
incomprehensible; the official that the President's murder explanations seemed so incon- was instigated by a hypotheti- i
gruous and so cut across the cal "Mr. X," an all-odds gam-
grain of ordinary rationality bier with high stakes riding in
as to stimulate an avid appe- oil and defense industries. This
tite for explanations more psy- Mr. X, and possibly some assd
chologically palatable. elate X's, Y's. or Z's, felt that. {
The reaction of millions of ? President Kennedy constitu'ted
people, particularly outside the a menace. He was, or so states
united States. to the avtr.rr-
jail. In their extremity, Mr.
Buchanan asserts, the plotters
brought in Jack Ruby to finish
the job. Suffice to say that
dence of any kind to support
this elaborate concoction, which
Herbert L. Packer, Professor of
Law at Stanford University,
has, labeled a "James Bond
thriller."
Each uncertain link in Mr.
Buchanan's tenuous chain of
evidence has been specifically
tested and rejected by the pains-
taking Warren ? inquiry. Mr
Buchanan has, therefore, ma-
terially reyised the European
edition of his book for Amer-'
scan publication, attempting to
pump new life into "Mr. X" and
his mystery, band.
The effort will impress few
Americans. But, mischievou's as
it may seem to most of us, the
Buchanan hypothesis, along
with those- of other panderers'
to the "plot" syndrome, can be,
expected to provide sinew and
sa on IS ar ne, a
New York attorney. Technically
speaking, Mr. Lane hews to the
line that he does not know how
Mr. Kennedy was killed or who
He hints that even the make-up ``
of the Warren Commission in-
vites suspicion.
Mr. Buchanan goes much fur-
ther. Not only does he reject.
? the evidence and findings o/
the Warren Commission (along
with the contradictory state-
ments
and assertions of investi-'
gating authorities made in the
dinary chain of events-Kennt
in to reduce the
oil depletion 110r, Willy prepur- which will continue to attract Oswald Osw dlkilled Ruby captured- al owance, he was preparing oecomemaginations for decades m was one of fa_Srinatart hnrrnr +. to sign a disarmament pact ;
Faun the initial shock began to
ear. off, many minds rejected
he simplicist explanation that
dermine and "disrupt the In;.,
dustries on which the plotters'
depended."
What did Mr. X do? He or-
ganized a conspiracy utilizing'
corrupt. elements in the Dallas
rr underworld and police. The as
ersons there arose an almost sassination, Mr. Buchanan pos-
athological . need fpr a more 4 platoon was carried out by a.;
omplex and elaborate explana- platoon or more of men, some
ion of the catacivemlo' uniformed, some ununiformed.
mused by two irrational indi-.
iduals, acting separately wit r
o connection between them-
elves or anyone else. In many
equence of happenings.
A number of individuals,
mong them Mr. Buchanan., an
merican who now makes his+
ome in Paris, stood ready to.
rovide speculative materials,
ut of which diverse conspira
l g r. suggests that uswaia was C
a C.I.A. agent (how he became,
enlisted in the "plot" is by no
means clear) who smuggled a
weapon into the Texas Book 1
Depository but did not actually ;
shoot at the President. The .5
killing
in Mr
Buchanan's ac-
,
.
he manner in which Mr K count, was carried out by two 1
-- I
edy was murdered could reads other men (Accomplice One
be woven. In the ,United
tates the most active exponent;
and Accomplice Two), one fir-..
ing from the Depository, the 4
other from the railroad over-
ass
d
s, wtaa1
. Oswald, ^ e conten
Official theories and in uiries'''i p
q ri+ supposed to be the patsy for!
i to the assassination (includ-..1: the killing. He was to be shoot.'
g that of. the Warren Com-; '.""attempting to escape." ' In-',
stead; Oswald shot Policeman i
j.::D..-.Tippitts and landed,: in.'s
Mr. Salisbury edited The Times ,t
edition of the 1?Varre>, Report; ' i y
FOIAb3b
Sanitized - Approved For Release.: CIA-RDP75-00149R0006001Q0002-0