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

with a secret, institutionalized covert action capability outside the official
government.” 612 These elements conspire with organized crime, anti-Castro Cubans, and
right-wingers to kill Kennedy, and manipulate Oswald, as a CIA agent, to be the patsy.
Prouty’s ideas also influenced Oliver Stone, as discussed in the next chapter.
The authors of High Treason heaped praise on Kennedy for seeking peace against
what they called “the War Party” and “the Ultra Cold Warrior Sect” that would oppose
any pull-out from Vietnam. 613 A key component of the peace thesis is to argue for the
flawed “greatness” of Kennedy for having the courage to try to normalize relations in the
Cold War to prevent the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. To many historians, however,
Kennedy was an ardent Cold Warrior, and they dispute whether he was going to pull out
of Vietnam in a second term or that he intended to rein in the anti-Castro campaign.
Groden and Livingstone claimed that the key to understanding the assassination
was the alleged cover-up of the evidence that only those in power within the government
could accomplish. The author alleged that there has been “an unquestionable pattern of
fabricated, forged, and falsified evidence” in the assassination, including the infamous
photos of Oswald holding the rifle, and the autopsy photographs and x-rays. 614 The
mafia would not be able to implement such a cover-up, and Groden and Livingstone
criticized the House Select Committee on Assassinations for focusing on the mob instead
of the CIA and other government agencies.
612 Robert J. Groden and Harrison Edward Livingstone, High Treason: the Assassination
of President Kennedy and the New Evidence of Conspiracy, (New York: Berkley Books,
1990 (1989)), 405.
613 Groden and Livingstone, 416.
614 Groden and Livingstone, 268.
268