I was blessed with the services of Max Friedman, now a graduate student at the University of California. Max is a brilliant researcher, fact-checker, collaborator, and rewrite man, and a wonderful friend. Jock Friedly, of Washington, also did inspired research for this book, and I thank him, too.
Beginning in the fall of 1996, much of the reporting for this book was done in collaboration with Lancer Productions, an independent television production company owned by Mark Obenhaus, a New York filmmaker. Obenhaus bought the television rights to The Dark Side of Camelot in July 1996. In my thirty-five years as a journalist, I have never worked with a more dedicated and more committed group of reporters and researchers. Mark Obenhaus is a superb journalist, as is his fellow producer, Edward Gray, and their associate producer, Richard E. Robbins. Gus Russo did an outstanding job as a researcher, especially on organized crime issues. Sally Rosenthal was consistently cheerful and helpful, and a marvelous fact-checker.
S.M.H.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Seymour Hersh is one of America's premier investigative reporters. In 1969, as a freelance journalist, he wrote the first account of the My Lai massacre in South Vietnam. In the 1970s, he worked at the New York Times in Washington and New York; he has rejoined the paper twice on special assignment. He has won more than a dozen major journalism prizes, including the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting and four George Polk Awards.
He is also the author of six books, including The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, The Target is Destroyed: What Really Happened to Flight 007 and What America Knew About It, and The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and America's Foreign Policy.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This is not a book about John Kennedy's brilliant moments, and his brilliant policies. Nor is it a book about the awful moment of his death and why he was shot.
John Kennedy's policies and his life contained many superb moments. After his death, his glamour and wit combined with his successes in foreign affairs and domestic policies---real and imagined---to create the myth of Camelot. But there was a dark side to Camelot, and to John Kennedy.
I began writing this book knowing that it would inevitably move into a sensitive area: When is it relevant to report on the private life of a public man? The central finding that emerged from five years of reporting, and more than a thousand interviews with people who knew and worked with John F. Kennedy, is that Kennedy's private life and personal obsessions---his character---affected the affairs of the nation and its foreign policy far more than has ever been known.
This is a book about a man whose personal weaknesses limited his ability to carry out his duties as president. It is also a book about the power of beauty. It tells of otherwise strong and self-reliant men and women who were awed and seduced by Kennedy's magnetism, and who competed with one another to please the most charismatic leader in our nation's history. Many are still blinded today.
In writing this book, my hope is that I have been able to help the nation reclaim some of its history.
Seymour M. Hersh
October 1997
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR
CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE:
AMERICA'S HIDDEN ARSENAL
MY LAI FOUR:
A REPORT ON THE MASSACRE AND ITS AFTERMATH
COVER UP:
THE ARMY'S SECRET INVESTIGATION OF
THE MASSACRE OF MY LAI FOUR
THE PRICE OF POWER:
KISSINGER IN THE NIXON WHITE HOUSE
THE TARGET DESTROYED:
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO FLIGHT 007 AND
WHAT AMERICA KNEW ABOUT IT
THE SAMSON OPTION:
ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR ARSENAL AND
AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY
COPYRIGHT
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First published in Canada and the USA by
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Copyright © Seymour Hersh 1997
The Author asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
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