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

imagine the Dallas nightclub owner in a left-wing plot. It was then assumed that
“Oswald had been a deranged fanatic. And miraculously, it was found that Ruby, too,
was crazy – temporarily, of course.” 555 Buchanan claimed this supposition was counter
to the facts of the case, as well as the historical pattern of American presidential
assassinations.
Buchanan outlined a history of the three previous presidential assassinations that
was strikingly at odds with the history presented in the Warren Report that emphasized
the derangement and lack of political motives of the assassins. Buchanan showed how
Booth’s assassination of Lincoln was part of a large, politically motivated plot to end the
life of a supposed tyrant suppressing the South. Buchanan rejected the idea that Booth
was deranged because he had accomplices – not only below him but also above him. “if
the final murderous expression of the plot was Booth’s own formulation,” Buchanan
wrote, “the responsibility for the original conspiracy extends to circles far above
him…directly to the capital of the Confederacy and its rulers.” 556 Buchanan stressed that
the other two presidential assassins – Guiteau and Czolgosz – had specific political
motives as well. Guiteau supported the Stalwart Republican faction against President
Garfield, while Czolgosz was an anarchist. According to Buchanan, “Three times out of
four, so far, the murdered president of the United States has been succeeded by a man
selected by his right-wing opposition.” In the other case, according to Buchanan,
“President McKinley, though himself of the extreme right, was succeed by an even more
555 Buchanan, 25.
556 Buchanan, 35.
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