A review of Harold Weisberg’s Whitewash, an examination of the Warren Report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
This paper examines how Weisberg’s analysis of the Warren Report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy somewhat differs from the many other exposes on the Warren Report in the way he reviews the evidence as presented by the Warren Commission in his book “Whitewash”. It questions whether the American public was told the entire truth in the Warren Report and if the sloppiness evident in the investigation of the shooting greater than one might expect in comparison to other high-profile cases of the time. It evaluates Weisberg’s theory that all evidence points to a conspiracy though he never suggests why it is that there is any reason to assassinate Kennedy.
This is one of the most important points in the book: Mistakes were clearly made in the investigation and it is hard to believe that they were entirely accidental. How could so many mistakes have been made in what was for law enforcement the most important case of the time? Is it possible that there could not have been some conspiracy? The first response even by those who do not tend to believe in conspiracy theories is likely to be that it is simply not possible. However, it is important to remember how difficult it is to collect evidence in a careful and systematic way: We all certainly remember what happened at the O.J. Simpson trial, another high-stakes trial and one in which the police had far better forensic tools at their disposal.