Co-authors Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen caution that their book is "not a Disney production." This is how they distinguish between two kinds of history--the safe and sanitized "Disney" version, which you're likely to see on the six o'clock news, and what really happened--which you aren't. The hidden machinations examined here are not unlike what Peter Dale Scott has dubbed "Deep Politics."
Some of the stuff in 50 Greatest Conspiracies may sound familiar to readers of Jonathan Vankin's first book. His 1992 study Conspiracies, Cover-ups and Crimes covered some of the same ground. But where that book concentrated on the mind-set of conspiracy theorists, 50 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time focuses on "the most freaky, far-out, far-reaching yet strangely fascinating conspiracy theories ever set forth in the annals of paranoia," according to its advance literature.
50 Greatest Conspiracies is not merely "another book of lists," according to co-author Whalen. "Each conspiracy--which we chose on the basis of checkable facts as well as pure entertainment value--is a twisted and often true tale, like Roald Dahl might have told, had he spent some time inhaling amyl nitrate with the King of Paranoia, Hunter S. Thompson."
There aren't many conclusions drawn here, though, and readers may sometimes be left wondering exactly what the author's position on a given conspiracy really is. Nothing wrong with that--it isn't necessarily the authors' place to draw conclusions. But...they don't really think Jim Morrison is still alive, now, do they? (No, they don't.)
Vankin and Whalen have an interesting tie-in to their book, as readers of Fair Play can quickly discover. The book has a corresponding site on the World Wide Web, in which the authors offer "continual updates, color graphics and the chance for readers to correspond (and/or conspire) with them directly. If you're wired, point your Web browser to http://www.webcom.com/~conspire/." Or you can go to the top-level page of Fair Play and look under the heading, "Some Interesting Links;" you'll be just a mouse-click away from the 50 Greatest Conspiracies site.
The fiftieth and final conspiracy described in 50 Greatest Conspiracies is one the authors aptly call a "Conspiracy of Confusion"--the assassination of President Kennedy. There isn't much new information in this part of the book, at least not to those who have read recent literature in the case. But it's a good primer for those catching up on recent developments. The authors describe the experiences of Antonio Veciana and his relationship with the mysterious "Maurice Bishop," which was examined in detail by Gaeton Fonzi in The Last Investigation. They capsulize the story of Richard Case Nagell, as told by Dick Russell in The Man Who Knew Too Much. Generally, they go over a lot of familiar territory; Vankin and Whalen do, however, provide some valuable criticism of Case Closed, and "...the enterprisingly smug [Gerald] Posner [who] supplanted the Warren Commission as the final arbiter of JFK truth as far as the major media were concerned."
While Fair Play may have hoped for more, the JFK chapter is still valuable reading for anyone just getting their feet wet in the Kennedy quagmire. Likewise, 50 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time is good for those trying to understand that the major media in the United States--and high school history courses, for that matter--are purveyors of the Disney version of events, rather than purveyors of truth. Whatever truth is.
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