trove mined by Hersh are the interviewsrnhe conducted with insiders—some wellrnknown, others shadowy figures—associatedrnwith the New Frontier, or with theirrnheirs. Interviews, of course, are a mostrnvaluable way of checking one storyrnagainst others, and Hersh uses them skillfullyrnto establish not only Kennedy’s sexualrnromps (including one with a suspectedrnEast German spy) but Joe Sr.’s ironrncontrol over the career of his secondbornrnson; Jack (and Bobby’s) tendency torngo it alone, often impetuously, on issuesrnof national security; Jack’s secret (andrnshort-lived) marriage to Durie Malcolm;rnSam Giancana’s involvement in stealingrnthe 1960 election for Kennedy; even thernlong-forgotten TFX scandal, in whichrnSecretary of Defense Robert McNamararnsuddenly shifted gears and awarded a lucrahverncontract for the construction ofrnfighter aircraft to the hopelessly incompetentrnGeneral Dynamics over the Pentagon-rnpreferred Boeing Co. (Did arnbreak-in, viewed by FBI agents conductingrntheir own surveillance, at presidentialrnmistress Judith Exner’s home exposernthe administration to blackmail on thernTFX issue? No one knows.) These revelations,rnand many others, deliver a stunningrnand embarrassing depiction ofrnAmerican government suspended abovernthe abyss.rnSy Hersh, a muckraking journalistrnand darling of the left for his investigativernreporting on the massacre at MyrnLai, on any number of government abuses,rnand on the downing of a Korean jumbornjet by the Soviets in the 1980’s, hasrnnot been pleasing the usual suspects byrnpopping the golden bubble surroundingrnCamelot. Garry Wills, writing in thernNew York Review of Books, calls it a secondrnassassination; others have been lessrngenerous. The response was predictable,rngiven the amount of love Americansrnhave poured out on a man who remainedrnalmost entirely unknown beforern—his popularity sinking and his reelectionrnin jeopardy—he was elevated tornmartyrdom. Historv is slow to unlock itsrnsecrets; nevertheless, these usually willrnout.rnWhat I find missing from The DarkrnSide of Camelot is perspective. Whatrndoes this all mean? Since it is fairly wellrnestablished that both the Eisenhowerrnand Kennedy administrations used mobrnsources in an attempt to kill Fidel Gastro,rnshould not the country have mounted arncriminal investigation to determine thernfull extent of culpability and bring thosernresponsible to justice? As Hersh notes,rn[Robert] Mahue believes todayrnthat the Kennedy administrationrnwas criminally responsible in permittingrnthe Cuban exiles to land atrnthe Bay of Pigs without the supportrnnecessary for survival. “When werncalled off the [second] air raid andrnthe adequate air cover, we inheritedrnthe responsibility of calling offrnthe invasion,” he told me. “Werncould not allow those kids to hitrnthose beaches and be destioyed byrnhardware that should have beenrndestroyed by us hours before. Andrnas far as I’m concerned, we therebyrnindulged in mass murder.”rnMahue was the former FBI agent whornserved as the go-between in the Americanrngovernment’s efforts to enlist thernmob in eliminating Fidel Castio. Missingrnfrom his concern for lives lost on arnbeach in Cuba—a betrayal he came tornconsider criminally irresponsible —isrnany hint of irony regarding the decisionrnto deal with criminals in the first place.rnMany of those who were “just doing theirrnjobs” lived for many years after leavingrnthe service of the administration; somernare still alive today. Is there a statute ofrnlimitations on treason? Or procurement?rnDave Powers, had he been actingrnfor anyone other than the President ofrnthe United States, would surely havernserved jail time on a vice rap, especiallyrnsince the director of the FBI (we know,rnthanks to Freedom of Information Act releases)rnand the President’s own SecretrnService detail (ditto, thanks to their frankrninterviews with Hersh) have establishedrnbeyond the possibility of a doubt that hisrnactivities, and the security breaches theyrncaused, were familiar to many at the timernthey occurred. And what about campaignrnfinance violations? Hersh cites onerncase after another in which bundles ofrncash were thrown about—including duringrnthe West Virginia primary in I960 —rnby the man who is now the senior senatorrnfrom Massachusetts. What, finally,rnabout the national interest? Hersh tellsrnof a Secret Service agent who “had thernunceremonious chore of bringing sexuallyrnexplicit photographs of a naked presidentrnwith various paramours to thernMickelson Gallery, one of Washington’srnmost distinguished art galleries, for framing.”rnIn another of his interviews, he getsrnconfirmation of the story from SidneyrnThe Stance Of Atlas by Peter F.rnErickson Examines Ayn Rand’srnPhilosophy of ObjectivismrnAyn Rand’s major teactiings arernconsidered in detail. In addition tornttiis, special attention is given to thernrelation of her philosophy ofrnObjectivism to Einstein’s theory ofrnrelativity and also to DialecticalrnMaterialism (the intellectual basis ofrnMarxism).rnAyn Rand’s rejection of collectivismrnis not disputed. Her position on thernefficacy of reason remains—also herrnacceptance of freewill.rnAyn Rand’s epistemological andrnmetaphysical teachings are subjectedrnto extensive criticism. Her attempt tornsolve the problem of universals isrnshown to be a failure. The Stance OfrnAtlas actually provides the correctrnsolution. She believed, incorrectly,rnthat Objectivism has the key tornanswering the problem of induction.rnThe Stance Of Atlas shows that thisrnproblem was basically solved by arnforgotten English logician early in thisrncentury. Contrary to Rand’srnObjectivism, it is established thatrnreason is open to the possibility ofrnGod’s existence.rnAyn Rand’s attempt to found a newrnmorality is shown to be less than whatrnshe took it to be. The defense ofrnfractional reserve banking made byrnAlan Greenspan in Rand’s book onrncapitalism is related. Other importantrnissues are discussed.rnConsiderably less relativistic thanrnObjectivism, The Stance Of Atlas isrnalso implicitly more individualistic.rn364 pages, including index.rnPaperback.rnPRICE: $19.95 +$4.00 for postagernand handling.rnCHECKS, CREDIT CARDS (Visa,rnMaster, Amex).rnTOLL FREE: 1-888-492-2001.rnOR MAIL TO:rnHERAKLES PRESS, INC.rnRO. BOX 8725rnPortland, OR 97207.rnMAY 1998/35rnrnrn