Walter Cronkite鈥檚 announcement of JFK鈥檚 assassination. The televised shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. The Zapruder film. The Warren Commission.
In that avalanche of history, a new book suggests we鈥檝e lost sight of something important: specifically, the seedbed for the most momentous political tragedy of 20th century America.
It鈥檚 the story of "Dallas, 1963." That鈥檚 by and .
Minutaglio talks with KUT鈥檚 David Brown about why he describes the book as a 鈥渂iography of a city,鈥� and what lessons may have been overlooked by history.
鈥淲e felt there was a welling toxic environment in Dallas,鈥� Minutaglio says. 鈥淭hat there was something that started as unease and dread in the community at large and it really began building to a fevered pitch. It was waiting there for Kennedy, and he didn鈥檛 know it.鈥�
According to Minutaglio, Kennedy had received reports that the environment in Dallas was quite intense and maybe he should rethink his visit. Kennedy鈥檚 aides had reported that there was a group of people who had 鈥渉ijacked the microphone.鈥�
These 鈥渙utsized figures鈥� included billionaire H.L. Hunt, General Edwin A. Walker and Ted Dealey, publisher of The Dallas Morning News. However, as history states, Kennedy鈥檚 assassin wasn鈥檛 some 鈥渞ight-wing radical.鈥�
鈥淧eople were literally coming to Dallas to join this anti-Kennedy resistance,鈥� Minutaglio says. 鈥淟ee Harvey Oswald was there, and was kind of caught up in the swirl, and might have been motivated as a disturbed individual to action, to be a part of this maelstrom. Nothing like this could have happened, but in Dallas.鈥�
Listen to the interview in the audio player above.
This interview originally ran Sept. 19, 2013.
