The immediate occasion for rethinking Camelot was the release of a rich collection of declassified documents covering 1961–64, offering a good opportunity to reconsider what I had written twenty years earlier after the appearance of the two volumes of the Pentagon Papers, the Gravel edition released by Dan Ellsberg and Tony Russo and the government edition released in reaction. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available. The outfit has trained for guerilla warfare and some of its members returned from action in Vietnam. Kennedy reviewing the First Air Commando Group at a demonstration at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida on May 4, 1962. In the US, Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, All other countries, Publishers Group Worldwide, This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.Ĭover design by Josh On. Original edition published by South End Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts powerful, always provocative.” - The Guardian Read more “One of the radical heroes of our age . . .

Agree with him or not, we lose out by not listening.” - Business Week The questions Chomsky raises will eventually have to be answered. With relentless logic, Chomsky bids us to listen closely to what our leaders tell us-and to discern what they are leaving out . . . “Reading Chomsky is like standing in a wind tunnel. “The conscience of the American people.” - New Statesman perhaps the most widely read voice on foreign policy on the planet.” - The New York Times Book Review Rethinking Camelot is “an interesting work not only for the history it explores, but also as a study of how various individuals and groups write and interpret history” ( Choice).

Chomsky argues that US institutions and political culture, not individual presidents, are the key to understanding US behavior during Vietnam. In it, Chomsky dismisses efforts to resurrect Camelot-an attractive American myth portraying JFK as a shining knight promising peace, foiled only by assassins bent on stopping this lone hero who would have unilaterally withdrawn from Vietnam had he lived. Rethinking Camelot is a thorough analysis of John F. Kennedy’s role in the US invasion of Vietnam and a probing reflection on the elite political culture that allowed and encouraged the Cold War. strong arguments against Kennedy mythologists” ( Publishers Weekly). The famed political critic “analyzes the issue most prominently posed in Oliver Stone’s film JFK . . .

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