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

At the center of the book is Oswald. Summers examined Oswald's defection to
Moscow and concluded that “From the moment of his arrival in the Soviet
Union...Oswald became an obvious focus of interest for both Soviet and American
intelligence. The denials, by both sides, are highly unconvincing.” 608 After his return to
the United States, Oswald allegedly associated with figures in Dallas and New Orleans
connected with US intelligence, including Russian émigré George de Mohrenschildt and
former FBI agent Guy Bannister. The issue connecting the intelligence community with
the mob and anti-Castro Cubans was, of course, Cuba, which Summers called “the key to
the crime.” 609
Summers outlined the now well-known plot by the Central Intelligence Agency to
use mob operatives to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The author suggested that
when the Kennedy Administration apparently pulled back from its anti-Castro campaign
and continued its public crackdown on the Mafia, the mob and the Cuban exiles felt
betrayed -- a possible motive for the assassination. The key mob figures who may have
played a role in the assassination were New Orleans Mafia kingpin Carlos Marcello and
Santos Trafficante, who was involved in mob operations in Cuba before Castro seized
power. Summers wrote “in this labyrinthine tale, the names and the threads of evidence
interconnect and merge under the common denominator of American intelligence and the
Mafia.” He added, “The United States ‘at peace’ with Castro's Cuba, true or not, was a
608 Summers, 118.
609 Summers, 173.
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