[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

that Cuban operatives may have known about Oswald’s plans to kill Kennedy or even
encouraged them, but that it was impossible to say for sure now that the investigative trail
is cold.
Russo claimed his book answered the following issues: “Oswald’s apparent lack
of a motive; the Kennedy family’s reluctance to say anything about Jack’s death; Robert
Kennedy’s unrelenting grief; the secrecy surrounding the two key cities in Oswald’s life
(New Orleans and Mexico City).” He declared that his researcher has convinced him that
“John and Robert Kennedy’s secret war against Cuba backfired on them -- that it
precipitated both President Kennedy’s assassination and its coverup.” 230 Russo
recounted in much detail the Kennedy administration’s plots against Castro, which
included anti-Castro Cuban exiles, the mob, U.S. military and intelligence, and even
members within Castro’s government. These efforts began in the waning months of the
Eisenhower administration, including the plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion. After
Kennedy went ahead with the invasion, the president moved to both increase covert
actions against Castro, but to tighten the reins on the operations by placing them directly
under the control of his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
According to Russo, “Plot followed plot – the latest more overwrought than the
last: using the deadly botulism poisons on [Castro’s] cigars to kill on contact; placing a
bomb in an exotic seashell certain to attract Castro’s attention when he was skin diving;
230 Russo, xi.
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