Re: RARA-AVIS: Kennedy and the mob

From: Stephen Burridge ( stephen.burridge@gmail.com)
Date: 06 Dec 2007


James Fallows of the Atlantic Monthly has an interesting blog post up that references "The Tears of Autumn":

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/12/good_news_mystery_fiction_depa.php#more

Stephen

On Dec 6, 2007 12:40 PM, Richard Moore < moorich@aol.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, John Williams <johnwilliams@...>
>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > My favourite Kennedy conspiracy is that contained in Charles
> McCarry's
> > wonderful espionage noir The Tears of Autumn. Very simply - and
> this
> > isn't a spoiler in any meaningful sense of the word - the
> Vietnamese did
> > it. There's a good, long piece about McCarry and the book here -
> > http://www.laweekly.com/news/features/the-great-american-spy-
> novel/792/
> >
> > John
>
> I agree with your high praise for THE TEARS OF AUTUMN by one of my
> favorite writers Charles McCarry. And thanks for the link to the
> excellent LA Weekly article. It quoted a line from TEARS where the
> protagonist Paul Christopher and his boss in the CIA are discussing
> some in the Kennedy White House who think they can "…do anything they
> like, to anyone in the world, and there'll be no consequences."
> Christopher tells his boss "But there always are."
>
> "You know that," Patchen said. "For those who never smell the
> corpse, there's no way of knowing."
>
> This is not a partisan remark as it is recognition of a political
> phenomenon common to new White House occupants and top staff.
> McCarry spent many years in Washington in and out of government and
> knows it well. While I am sure there are others I have yet to read,
> McCarry, Ross Thomas and Ward Just are three novelists who write
> believably about the various power centers in Washington. Pelecanos
> writes well about the Washington streets and neighborhoods but that's
> another world.
>
> One factual error, or at least a misleading statement, is in the
> article. It states that McCarry was "…a speechwriter for President
> Eisenhower…" McCarry was a speechwriter for Secretary of Labor James
> P. Mitchell from 1956-1957. So it would be accurate to say he was a
> speechwriter in the Eisenhower Administration, but wrong to imply he
> was in the West Wing or next door at EOB churning out speeches for
> Ike.
>
> I heard McCarry speak once at function at the Smithsonian and he
> discussed his recruitment to the CIA by Allen Dulles at his farewell
> lunch with Secretary Mitchell.
>
> Richard Moore
>
>
>
>

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