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

“the seven seconds that broke the back of the American century.” 345 Oswald’s life is
depicted in chapters with geographical designations, such as “In the Bronx,” “In New
Orleans,” “In Minsk,” “In Dallas” etc. The chapters about the plot are labeled as dates in
the months leading up to the assassination. In this way, DeLillo describes a convergence
of people, time, and place on Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. As plotter David
Ferrie opines, the Texas School Book Depository building has “been sitting there waiting
for Kennedy and Oswald to converge on it.” 346
In the novel, fictional C.I.A. agent Win Everett plots to stage an assassination
attempt against President Kennedy that will be blamed on Cuba, sparking American
outrage and a commitment to overthrow Castro. The CIA plotters are angry over
Kennedy’s failure to back fully the Bay of Pigs invasion and pulling back from the
campaign against Castro. The plan is to blame the assassination on someone linked to
Castro, which eventually become Oswald. “The pocket litter, the gunman’s effects, the
sidetrackings and back alleys must allow investigators to learn that Kennedy wanted
Castro dead, that plots were devised, approved at high levels, put into motion, and that
Fidel or his senior aides decided to retaliate. This,” Delillo writes, “was the major
subtext and moral lesson of Win Everett’s plan.” 347 However, Everett wants the
assassins to miss Kennedy, but he loses control of the plot and the committed right-wing
activists move ineluctably toward a real assassination. The desire to blame Cuba
345 DeLillo, 301, 181.
346 DeLillo, 384.
347 DeLillo, 53.
154