Dershowitz on Kennedy Probe

I can tell that the world is in a pretty good state by the fact that the America-bashers, with not much else to attack this country for recently, have trotted out the old Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory.

Just think about that incredible notion for a minute: a fair number of CIA personnel, a large number of FBI agents, the entire Dallas police force (how could the conspirators be sure exactly who would be on duty that day?), the Secret Service, the doctors, nurses, medical technicians, etc. at Parkland Hospital (again, how could the conspirators be sure who would be on duty, or even what hospital the President would be taken to?), Chief Justice Earl Warren, the rest of the members and staff of the Warren Commission, President Lyndon Jonson, and hundreds of others, all united in a conspiracy to cover up the truth about the assassination of a beloved President.

Aside from the implausibility of the idea, consider the practicalities. Who did the administrative and clerical work necessary to keep the thing going? Where did the cabal meet? Madison Square Garden?

Suppose, as Dershowitz suggests, that Warren was not a member of the conspiracy, but had his judgment clouded by being fed false information by the FBI and CIA, agencies which, in that pre-Watergate era, everyone believed implicitly. Had this former prosecutor, and not one of his staff, ever met a lying policeman before? Has everyone forgotten that the commission was convened precisely because there was widespread suspicion of a CIA or other conspiracy?

The reason offered for the cover-up? Lyndon Johnson was afraid of a confrontation with Nikita Khrushchev if it came out that Cuba had been involved? I suppose he had forgotten the Cuban missile crisis already. And I guess it must have been a different Lyndon Johnson who sent all those troops to Vietnam.

And the most telling problem with the theory? In all the time since the assassination, not one member of the conspiracy ever became disgruntled, not one ex-wife ever decided to get revenge by making a phone call, not one person ever decided to become enormously wealthy by telling all to the press!

Sorry, guys. In an age when ex-CIA agents make a career out of identifying their former colleagues, when FBI agents sue the bureau for discrimination and win, when retired government and intelligence officials make multimillion-dollar deals for their memoirs, the conspiracy theory just won’t hold water.

MITCHELL R. MILLER

Los Angeles