Pre-WCR Reactions to the Assassination
By "Pre-WCR Reactions," we mean reactions to the assassination before
the Warren Commission issued its report. This covers the ten months from 22
November 1963 to September 27, 1964, which we might call "The First
Year." While this period is often neglected when
discussing the history of research into the JFK assassination, it is
disproportionately important for two reasons: (a) the early opinions and positions
on both sides of the question set the tone of those to follow, to an extent that
could hardly have been predicted; and (b) this period offers a unique look into
the groups of people who formed strong opinions before all the facts were
released, i.e., in advance of official data that could justify those opinions.
In other words, we can use events of this
early period to see who was reacting in knee-jerk fashion, and maybe even why
they were reacting so. There may be no better way to reveal the human foibles of
JFK researchers than to study what happened during The First Year.
We have divided the literature from The First Year into reactions of the Center, the Right, and
the Left. The list below shows clearly that these reactions were dominated by
the Left (as were the reactions after the Warren Report was issued). In fact, a
quick count of the items on the list (as of December 2000) gives 2 from the
Center, 3 from the Right, but a whopping 31 from the Left. Why was the Left so
vociferous? As far as I know, there is no consensus on this question. Some
people have proposed that the Left, having just survived the brutal attacks of
Senator Joseph McCarthy and other ultra-Rightists in the Senate and the House,
reacted defensively to ensure that they would not be accused of killing the
President, too. Another possibility is that left-leaning observers tend to see
conspiracies more than right-leaners do. A third possibility is that after eight
years of Eisenhower and Nixon, the Left was so happy to have "their"
Democrat in the White House that they overreacted out of general sensitivity
when he was killed. Whatever the explanation, it is clear that the Left made far
more noise about the assassination than the Right did, and continue to do so to
this day.
As you read these materials, you will see the Center (Daniel
Patrick Moynihan in particular) warning about the rise
of conspiratorial thought. You will then see exactly that happening, as the Myth of Conspiracy
appeared on the Left immediately after the assassination. You will then begin to
understand why The First Year was such an
important period.
The rest of this page first lists the full suite of materials
provided for The First Year, as divided in to reactions of
Center, Right, and Left. It then gives links to the three separate sections,
where the individual articles and
their authors are introduced in more detail.
Overall list of materials in "Pre-WCR Reactions to the
Assassination"
A Poem
"November
26, 1963" (Wendell Berry, The Nation, 21 December 1963)
Reactions of the Center
Editorial from The New Yorker
(7 December 1963)
"The Paranoid
Style," (Daniel Patrick Moynihan in The Washington Post,
reprinted in JFK: The Book of the Screenplay)
Reactions of the Right
Revilo P. Oliver,
of the University of Illinois
Marxmanship
in Dallas I (February 1964)
Marxmanship
in Dallas II (March 1964)
Assassination and Its
Aftermath, by Congressman Martin Dies (March 1964)
The
Far Left (Billy James Hargis, 1964)
What Was Back of
Kennedy's Murder? (Evangelist John R. Rice, 1964, shortly after the
assassination)
Reactions of the Left
Editorials
The New Republic
"Another
Beginning" ( 7 December 1963)
"How
Could It Happen?" ( 7 December 1963)
The Nation
"John
F. Kennedy" (14 December 1963)
"The
Climate of Violence" (14 December 1963)
"The
American Condition" (21 December 1963)
"The
Warren Commission" (28 December 1963)
"Task
of the Warren Commission" (20 January 1964)
"Then
How About Koch?" (2 March 1964)
"The
Dallas Rejoinder" (25 May 1964)
Commentary
"The
Warren Commission: An Editorial" ( January 1964)
Articles
The New Republic
"When
Castro Heard the News" (Jean Daniel, 7 December 1963)
"Unofficial
Envoy: An Historic Report from Two Capitals" (Jean Daniel, 14 December
1963)
"Further
Clarification: Interviews with Kennedy and Castro" (Jean Daniel, 21
December 1963)
"Seeds
of Doubt: Some Questions About the Assassination" (Jack Minnis and
Staughton Lynd, 21 December 1963)
"Seeds
of Doubt" (Annotated version)
The Minority of One
"Who
Killed Whom and Why?" (M.S. Arnoni, January 1964)
"The
Death of a President" (Eric Norden, January 1964)
"16
Questions On The Assassination" (Bertrand Russell, September 1964)
New Times
"The
Dallas Investigation" (11 December 1963)
"Assassin
or Fall Guy?" (23 September 1964)
National Guardian
"Oswald
Innocent? A Lawyer's Brief" (Mark Lane, December 1963)
The Nation
"A
Most Unstuffy Man" (H. Stuart Hughes, 14 December 1963)
"The
TV Image" (Paul T. David, 14 December 1963)
"The
Roots of the Agony" (Reece McGee, 21 December 1963)
"'Manchurian
Candidate' in Dallas" (Richard Condon, 28 December 1963)
"Oswald
and the FBI" (Harold Feldman, 27 January 1964)
"Tussle
in Texas" (Saul Friedman, 3 February 1964)
Commentary
"The
Oswald Affair" (Leo Sauvage, March 1964)
The New Leader
"Thomas
Buchanan, Detective" (Leo Sauvage, 28 September 1964)
"In
Defense Of A Theory" (Thomas G. Buchanan, 9 November 1964)
"As
I Was Saying" (Leo Sauvage, 9 November 1964)