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Unredacted Episode 6: Interview with David Talbot

Welcome to Unredacted, the MFF's interview show featuring authors and experts on the Kennedy assassination and related topics. This episode features an interview with David Talbot, founder of salon.com and author of the new book Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years.

Drawing from a wide variety of sources, including many interviews with Kennedy intimates, Talbot draws a compelling and poignant picture of the Kennedy administration at war with its own national security apparatus. The book also discusses previously-unknown details of Robert Kennedy's quiet efforts to unravel the mysteries of his brother's murder, and the deep suspicions and knowledge maintained by RFK and many other insiders about who was behind the events in Dallas.

In this interview, David Talbot tells some of the stories recounted in his new book, and offers an explanation for the silence of a generation of insiders and journalists.

David Talbot will be on a national book tour starting May 7th, and will be appearing on the Charlie Rose show and Terry Gross' Fresh Air on National Public Radio.

Listen to the interview: (52 min)           Read Interview Transcript


About Brothers

Note: Some of these links are to pages on salon.com, which is a membership-based online journal. However, free day "site passes" can be selected from the blocking popup.

Book Page on Salon.com

Letters to the Editor on Salon.com

Book Page on amazon.com

Reviews of Brothers

New Twist on JFK Book: Downplay Conspiracy, at Publisher's Weekly.

Who really did kill Kennedy?, by Dan Cornford, San Francisco Chronicle.

Great book reveals Kennedy's courage, by David Wrone.

CIA, mafia plotted assassination, says new book, at DailyIndia.com.

Robert Kennedy Suspected the Cuba Gang, at Digital Granma Internacional

Book Review, at International Herald Tribune

David Talbot's new twist on familiar tale of JFK murder, by Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times.

Beyond the Grassy Knoll, by Robert Dallek, Washington Post.

Camelot and Cuba, by Don Bohning. See also David Talbot's reply to the Bohning review.

Excerpt from Brothers

Excerpt from Chapter One

Other David Talbot Interviews

The CBS Early Show, with Harry Smith

WNYC, The Leonard Lopate Show

Fresh Air, on NPR with Dave Davies.

About David Talbot

David Talbot's Blog

Video of 2000 interview with Charlie Rose about Salon.com

Essays by David Talbot

Bobby Kennedy: America's First Conspiracy Theorist, in Chicago Sun-Times.

Related Essays

JFK & Castro: The Secret Quest for Accommodation, by Peter Kornbluh.

The Kennedy-CIA Divergence Over Cuba, by Peter Dale Scott.

Exit Strategy, by James K. Galbraith.

Did the U.S. Military Plan for a Nuclear First Strike for 1963?, by James K. Galbraith.

Revelation 19.63, by Jefferson Morley.

Related Starting Points

Kennedy Presidency

Kennedy and Cuba

Kennedy and Vietnam

Assassination of Robert Kennedy

About David Talbot

David Talbot, hailed as a "pioneer of online journalism" by The New York Times, is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Salon. He has worked as a senior editor for Mother Jones magazine and as a features editor for the San Francisco Examiner. Talbot has written for The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and other publications. He lives with his family in San Francisco.

About the Book

Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years
David Talbot
Free Press, 2007

From the Dust Jacket

"For decades, books about John or Robert Kennedy have woven either a shimmering tale of Camelot gallantry or a tawdry story of runaway ambition and reckless personal behavior. But the real story of the Kennedys in the 1960s has long been submerged--until now. In Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, David Talbot sheds a dramatic new light on the tumultuous inner life of the Kennedy presidency and its stunning aftermath. Talbot, the founder of Salon.com, has written a gripping political history that is sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.

Brothers begins on the shattering afternoon of November 22, 1963, as a grief-stricken Robert Kennedy urgently demands answers about the assassination of his brother. Bobby's suspicions immediately focus on the nest of CIA spies, gangsters, and Cuban exiles that had long been plotting a violent regime change in Cuba. The Kennedys had struggled to control this swamp of anti-Castro intrigue based in southern Florida, but with little success.

...

Brothers is a sprawling narrative about the clash of powerful men and the darker side of the Cold War--a tale of tragic grandeur that is certain to change our understanding of the relentlessly fascinating Kennedy saga."

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