Libra has been an eye opening book for me in many aspects. For one, I hadn't realized the magnitude and importance of the Kennedy assassination to people alive in the US before we started talking about the book in class. Obviously it's a huge deal because we lost a president but I didn't think it could compare to something like the 9/11 attacks. In class we talked about how people who lived through the time can recall where they were and what they were doing when it took place (even if it was a pretty normal day). Anyhow, until now, I hadn't considered the Kennedy assassination to be as big of a deal as 9/11 probably because I wasn't alive when it took place.
Secondly, I never learned about the attack in very much detail. On the first day of class, Mr. Mitchell gave us a few choices and took a poll to see what form we thought the assassination took. As much as I wanted to answer the question, I wasn't able to because I didn't know enough about what happened to have much of an opinion. One option was that Lee Harvey Oswalt was a crazy, disturbed man and killed the president by himself. The second option was that there was a larger conspiracy theory. Before starting to read this book, I knew that Kennedy was assassinated by someone named Lee Harvey Oswald but I didn't realize that there might have been much more to it.
Lastly, as a young child I've always had a positive view towards the CIA and FBI. I've always seen them as being a morally good group fighting off "bad guys" within the country and overseas as well. I never imagined them to be an organization with their own selfish purposes and goals, trying to change the country's course of action. This year in US history class with Mr. Sutton, we learned about several terrible things the CIA has done in the past. In 1953, the CIA tried to destabilize Iran by hiring street thugs to fight in the street and cause a ruckus which led the Iranian leader to flee the country. He was replaced by the Shah of Iran. In Guatamala, in an effort to expel the nationalist leader, Arbenz the CIA got 400 Guatemalans to train and start a revolution against Arbenz. They Set up a fake radio station broadcasting fake revolution news. Arbenz understandably freaked out. The CIA even put speakers on top of the embassy while “lightly bombing” the capital to make the revolt seem real.
Point is, the CIA is known for doing terrible things and this book portrays the CIA (or at least some semiretired members of the CIA) as selfish and focused on coming up with a plan they hope can galvanize the country into taking some kind of major action against Cuba.
I agree that the (fictional, speculative) plot to stage a "near-miss" on Kennedy is insanely reckless, and of a piece with some of the other morally dubious actions the CIA had taken during the cold war, but I'd also say that DeLillo is careful not to caricature his CIA guys as one-dimensionally evil conspirators. We see Everett in these domestic settings, doing mundane things around the house with his wife, and he seems like a generally good guy who happens to have certain kinds of specialized work experience(!) and who cares a lot about Cuban politics. His motives take expression in extreme forms, but DeLillo depicts him with some sympathy. Likewise, we get Mackey's first-hand account of the feeling of "shame" he experienced as the Bay of Pigs became a bonafide fiasco. His resentment of Kennedy has a clear and arguably valid basis, even if (again) the lengths he's willing to go to "avenge" that feeling of shame are extreme. DeLillo at least makes it thinkable for the average reader to imagine getting caught up in a plot like this.
ReplyDeleteI'd also never really knew much about the Kennedy Assassination until this year. To many, it'd be crazy to think that the FBI or CIA, government agencies with the supposed motive of helping the people, would even consider setting up such a situation, however, as you mentioned, oftentimes the consensus among the general public is not the whole story.
ReplyDeleteSame! The JFK assassination didn't get covered in my previous social studies classes other than by such terribly memorable one liners as "JFK got shot and died." I don't really care about it because at this point, it's been decades, he'd probably have died anyway by now, and it's really time to move on. But if Libra's more about exposing the legitimately worrisome implications of there having been a conspiracy and bringing attention to the CIA as being Not So Good, I can see why the assassination could still be relevant today.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting to see the degree of separation that DeLillo puts between the CIA and the assassination, it wasn't done by the CIA just disgruntled agents. I would be curious if this some kind of commentary on the fact that CIA never seems to be responsible for anything, it just sort of happens. Like the hugely circumstantial broken cameras in the documentary.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally on board with you about this. I guess the one part where we differ slightly is that I knew that the CIA and FBI wasn't all legit because of just things I've heard and how the x-files portrays everything in a plausible light-- except I didn't know what specific horrible things they did until Mr. Sutton's class.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to learn about the assassination. I wonder what opinion people have on this book that lived during that time.
It's unfortunate that this generation hasn't learned as much about the Kennedy assassination, it _was_ a turning point in the American century, after all.
ReplyDeletea balanceing of the scales
ReplyDelete