Newspaper Clippings on Jfk Assassination

CONSPIRACY q \
Continued From E-1
given (estimated) at 5 feet 10 inches,indeed, but not by the authors of thereport; rather by a steamfitternamed Howard L. Brennan, who hadbeen watching the presidentialmotorcade roll b somewhere onElm Street, and who “promptly tolda policeman that he had seen a slen-der man, about 5 feet IO inches, in hise_a-rly 30s, take deliberate aimfrom asixth-floor corner window . . . .”
Many of the _ documents orspeeches upholding cons iracytheory are the results of peop?e hav-mg read badly or hastily, consciouslyor otherwise. Brennan, who was notthe Warren Report, had guessedwrong as to _both inches and-years. Ina poor reading, conspiracy theoristshad failed to distinguish between the
authors of the book and a characterini .
The continuing conference on con-
sgiracy is a form of education. Fort at reason; after all, UCLA housesit. If such a conference is not theideal definition of_ education it maybe transitional to one that is better.Its appeal on the left is directed tostudents sincerely devoted, as far asthey know, to justice and equality.Since they are students they are inthe process of learning, and a greatdeal of their credulity may turn toskepticism even as the proceedings
advance.
The better-prepared the student,the sooner his or her ske ticism as-
serts or manifests itself, ‘fbr the lan-
guage and mode of the theorists,
whether left or right, constantly ex-
pgses itself to its own vacancies. Ins Angeles I met-students at theluncheon intermission whose belief in
conspiracy theory had already dwin-dled somewhat during themorning.
But many of them are not whollyeducated, or have not yet achieved alevel of intellectual skepticism _and,for this and other reasons, they arewilling believers. Often, the youngman or woman of the left feels ex-
cluded, angry, desperate, unable to
participate in the decisions of life ase or s e feels entitled to do, still stu-
dent, still underling, still graded bysomeone else, unfairlz denied thethings he thinks he oug t to have, in-
cluding the right to decide the courseof the world.
.
The world itself is a conspiracz toignore him, defame him, put im~down. Under certain circumstances,if he becomes too troublesome (tells
too many truths about their rotten
system), -"the?/" will punish him,frame him, kil him, dupe him, put ‘a
gun in his hand, give'him a perch toshoot from, and leave him to his fate.
Whom did Lee Harvey Oswaldshoot, after all, but a rich Harvardson of Establishment? Some part ofthe left theorist finds identity withOswald,_ who floundered, tried Rus-
sia,_ floundered, ‘returned, soughtexile again-and for a moment wasthe one-man office of the New Or-leans chapter of the Fair'Play forCuba Committee. And yet to identify
directly -with-the doomed _
Oswaldis to exclude oneself from the possi-bilities of the future. _
'
"
The paradox is enraging, andwhen one's-situation "begins to be-'
come clear one struggles" with su-
reme energy against any self-reve-
FQUOI1 which_will vault one from
certainty to doubt: At the UCLA con-
s iracy conference I was struck bythae volume of laughter that greetedthe sarcastic speculation that FidelCastro _(hero) may have been. in
league with the Dallas Police De-
partment=(villain); or, again, that anaction of the left on a particular
occasion could have resembled anaction of the U.S. Marines.
The police, according to this castof mind, are, at the command" of the
Establishment, out to murder the
young. Such theorists caii_accept thisnnouon -so oh. ha.-Q .2 1.- -
"the attempt to kill Gov. George C.Wallace was a conspiracy . . . aCommunist conspiracy. It could well .
involveiacgents o Communist China. i
Q
P‘
ii.-s\\§
y
»
Q‘???-/7%’-*Y0‘;lfl€" " '
.,_ .
,f
1
soot an ins-(Ba.a$..i¥"m*Yi"-libel_-
e
'
'
.7 use of laxatives seems to increase-asContinued FromIE-1 "
.
power lI1C1:3S8S,'3ll\dI3k8O0d_. .
.
wer -peope, ~ now H0 0.!
him is unsufferable. On the rare from cmst;pa_t_;m,' but "q;9¢;§g;_-
occasions -when Harry Cohn dined it quite openly, as if it we,-em-°°f___°f_
°“‘i he“ was 55$‘? t°'P1a°‘? 3 §°l°Pb°“° their success, ‘a form of self-imposed
b°°k s""¢§F1"°"$1Y .°“ -ms‘ .°h‘*i"" suffer-in “
.~I have seen a motion is-.,
i
“El9Ya‘°" 5 °°§'" Wm?“ gr?‘-mse 3" ture ‘hal%e'd'every~ morning at_ 9:3gso
additional two inches in eight, ap- that the director ._. 3 man ofgreat
P°al.§° me 53m° *“s°°“‘.'"Y' .
-fame in-the movie business - 'co'u‘ld '
Heidi" "leans $°m°"""8 '° _
0 off and fight the daily battle was
and_ its wise not to forget it.-
Es recalcitrant bowe1s_ As he [em .
?ha"fma"'.°f ‘me great °°'.‘3l°‘."°1'a§° the cast‘ and the crewwishod him-
is said to have apedestal behind his subcéss; and 6,, his 1-emm he wouia
desk so that he appears to_be about a describe exacfly Wm had happenaa,
foot taller than he really is when h_e or not happened. in izranhin dllfnfl
stands up to ai-em. nnmnhndiv ---1 --
l
\ -
til, ll. .\ ~
i
.
0 "
-~
\q\\“:\{'§ i 0--0 Q 2-F’-'
A ‘\ .
~ ll-"A 4-
'
_ L‘ :4 y_\'
‘
\‘--*»“" ,
'"-‘
q caionso o er ro ess sis not s th th t thic ec ures s _ns en _, e"hooks they optionally read" and the ed “mes °r
.
\_ _.
. . . .
‘I
‘< '
v'¢‘.4'-'.?i‘.‘I‘"?'-
.. _
'
12$- I '- '
-‘.5 I
\ -10:1‘
H/-"2./"I:
'\ ‘§:,§‘$
._\l\l\_,
#7.-E _’-"L5."-r.».
O F J’.
/A ) \
J
\.J»\. £5 '
“~;'-r-‘:7’
,
<74
7
" \ ~'\ 2‘ '
. ‘
'1
\,_x
* <
deal with the
Oittrasonsory
UFOs, sel’
fiction . . .
'
series is a foi
-
mont, whose
than piously
apiracy thee:
port those‘ ten
In agreat
"especially on
-_ tween fiction
-bl_lu'red, if no=
dramatic an-
.
made to souiii
ah?
’
,- News and c
1 individuals, s
fore, natural
others whose
inevitably int:
sult .of.the ac
vidu_als._ Aime
vision drama
fir pther" vioiei
ip on: is i
$¢lh_¢W:grye of
vateiy, talking
system-_prevai
cial.-aooonunc
meticulously (
-in, the .
office
._.0rder.'to beah
_. vacations.”-It
-quotient.
i
The coinpla"
about stress,
are -mostly be
-f,
real, they're
form of guilt.
The
,,_$°