Episode 3.5: The Fingerprints of Intelligence: Allen Dulles and the Kennedy Assassination – David Talbot

The Andrea Mitchell Center Podcast

Interviewer: MATTHEW BERKMAN. It has long been argued, in support of the case that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, that the Kennedy administration was not threatening enough to powered interests to trigger such a drastic act. In his books, Brothers and The Devil’s Chessboard, longtime journalist and Salon founder DAVID TALBOT argues, to the contrary, that Kennedy represented a deep threat to institutions empowered by, and ideologically committed to, the continuation of the Cold War. In his discussion with political scientist Matthew Berkman, Talbot points in particular to the CIA and its one-time director, Allen Dulles, as having the motivation, experience and wherewithal to both organize the assassination and then, through Dulles’ membership on the Warren Commission, deflect attention from themselves as culprits. Since then, Talbot contends, neither the mainstream media nor the academic establishment have given serious enough consideration to Kennedy’s vision or the forces that opposed it.