Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

This is a very astute review of the book Two Days In June by Andrew Cohen by OIC senior member Hugh O'Neill. 

 An incomplete portrait, February 14, 2015

By 

Hugh O'Neill

This review is from: Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours that Made History (Hardcover)

Like many others, I have read widely on JFK and thus was intrigued enough to buy this book which proclaimed the power of JFK's rhetoric in that he changed History, defusing the Cold War and advancing Civil Rights. Imagine my surprise to find that neither speech was printed in its entirety - not even as an appendix! Professor Cohen quotes fragments of the speeches and then "translates" them - as if they weren't blindingly obvious what the words meant. In his defense, one might argue that he had to put matters in context, but sadly in this regard, he singularly failed because he delves very deeply into too many irrelevant and blind alleys. Even more infuriating was the acres of speculation about what JFK might have said to various folks, and what he might have been thinking and feeling. Spare us the conjecture and stick to the facts. I do not doubt the good professor's high opinion of both JFK and RFK, but he sins mightily in taking as gospel the mindless claims of JFK's "mistress" Mimi Alford etc.

I thus began to have deep misgivings about the scholarship in this book - especially since there were no direct footnotes. To my disbelief, there was no mention of the single most important book on JFK ever written: JFK & The Unspeakable: Why he died and Why it matters by James Douglass. 

If Cohen had bothered to read this book, he could have written a far better and more useful work. He might have explained better the context of Kennedy's world and the explosive animosity that simmered beneath the Joint Chiefs, the CIA and probably the State Department - not to mention Wall Street, Big Oil and Big Steel. There are too many times I wanted to throw the book out the window but, by then, I had a duty to wade through the rest of this pabulum. Off the top of my head: Cohen is struck by how JFK had turned from Cold Warrior to Peace Maker without noting the famous letter that JFK had written to a Navy friend stating: "War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." - quoted in Schlesinger's "A Thousand Days". Cohen seems unaware of JFK's vow to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces. Likewise, when JFK walked out of a meeting with his Joint Chiefs which was predicting 100 million Russian casualties to only 20 million Americans (as if this justified launching a war): he said,"And we call ourselves Human Beings?".

So, dear Professor Cohen. You appear not to have missed a golden opportunity and have concentrated on too much that is irrelevant hearsay thus omitting those elements that might have made your take on this most important subject really shine. However, the fact that you have made all this effort to keep the eternal flame alive is one good reason to read this book: it may not be the greatest portrait of JFK, but it's not all bad. The sketches of Bobby look very promising indeed, and I look forward to Professor Cohen's finished portrait, because he does seem to have captured RFK's immense warmth, humanity, humor, conscience, and courage.