Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of Jfk, Malcolm, Martin, and Rfk - by James W Douglass (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"A staggering achievement. In this incredible saga of mid-twentieth-century America, Jim Douglass links the deaths of four of our greatest disrupters to a government mindset that set out to destroy them before they could change the world we knew. Douglass makes history truly alive in a way that helps us really remember what these stories mean for our country."--Oliver Stone

Here at last is the long-awaited sequel to James Douglass's bestselling work, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. That book, unlike most books that posit a conspiracy in JFK's assassination, focuses less on "who dunnit" as on "why they dunnit." Douglas's answer was to trace the steps by which JFK moved from being a traditional Cold Warrior to a prophetic commitment to peace, willing to risk his own life in order to avoid nuclear war. In particular JFK's partnership in pursuit of peace with ostensible adversary, Nikita Khrushchev, caused him to be regarded as a traitor by elements of the military-industrial-intelligence complex who deployed the mechanisms of the National Security State--which had previously targeted foreign "threats"--to neutralize the President of the United States.

This new volume necessarily returns to the story of JFK, and demonstrates how the same story was enacted again and again in the deaths of his brother, Bobby Kennedy, as well as the killings of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. In each case, American figures who made a prophetic commitment to peace and social transformation were regarded as enemies of the state who had to be eliminated. Douglass believes that this hidden history holds a key to recovering and advancing their mission, and setting our country and the world on a path to peace.

From the Back Cover

MARTYRS TO THE UNSPEAKABLE The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK

James W. Douglass

ISBN 978-1-62698-626-8

Cover design: Michael Calvente

Photo of Robert F. Kennedy: Bill Eppridge/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Used with permission

Photo of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X: Henry Griffin/(c)AP

Review Quotes

Advance Praise for... Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Martin, Malcolm, and RFK

"A staggering achievement. As in JFK and the Unspeakable, Jim Douglass has once again put together an astonishing collection of facts and documents about the collusion of the U.S. government in the murders not only of JFK, but in groundbreaking revelations of MLK, RFK, and Malcolm X. You'll be shocked at this late date at what we don't know."--Oliver Stone

"In a powerful reflection on the cost of visionary leadership, Douglass exposes the violence of a global system threatened by organized nonviolent resistance and by the courageous pursuit of risky steps toward peace. Every high school and university class on U.S. history, every person in pursuit of a more just and peaceful world, should read this book.--Marie Dennis, Senior Program Director, Catholic Nonviolence Initiative

"Jim Douglass blends rigorous research with spiritual insights in a way that brilliantly illuminates why these 20^th-century prophets lived and died--and why it shall always matter. Anyone brave enough to know the truth should read this book."--Karen Croft, collaborator with David Talbot, author, Brothers: the Hidden History of the Kennedy Years

"This is a book of revelation: a detailed unveiling of the principalities and powers and an introduction to four saints of resistance. These four chose life for all, a choice that would be met with murder. The reader will soon see how their assassinations expose and affirm the truth of what each of them stood and lived for. What their lives pronounced, their deaths proclaimed all the more. And if human life is to survive we will need to follow their example."--Alan Storey, ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa

"James Douglass' masterpiece, Martyrs to the Unspeakable, is an imperative read. His earlier bestseller, JFK and the Unspeakable, presented an ironclad case that President Kennedy was murdered by the CIA because he turned into a true peacemaker, determined to end the Cold War. This book picks up where he left off. Going beyond the how of the assassinations, he makes crystal clear the case for why."--Stewart Burns, author, To the Mountaintop: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Sacred Mission to Save America

"Heartfelt, deeply emotional, and superbly researched, Jim Douglass's magnum opus is a must-read for all who care about the past, present, and future of our world."--Dr. Ivana Nikolic Hughes, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

"Throughout his life James Douglass has combined courageous activism with brave, groundbreaking scholarship. He always speaks truth to power, yet in an uncompromising Gandhian grounding of hope and love. In this spirit Martyrs to the Unspeakable is his masterpiece . . . A fascinating must-read book by all who aspire to a better human future."--Richard Falk, former professor of international law, Princeton University

"In military terms, this book is operative intelligence. That means observed evidence so well documented that life-betting decisions can be based on it. Douglass shows that America has in fact bet its life on such evidence ever since the murder of President Kennedy--by ignoring it.
The massively researched operative intelligence of this book gives us a chance to change our minds. Will we? If we don't, how can we hope for a future any sane person would want?"--Larry Shook, journalist, Vietnam veteran

"Jim Douglass presents the eminently reasonable, logical, and unchallengeable case that the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and RFK were all state-sanctioned murders, for which convenient and dramatic scapegoats were provided---scapegoats that precluded any investigations from having to deal with the actual evidence in those cases. They all knew that their lives had been targeted by the National Security State, and yet they courageously persisted in their efforts. As Douglass writes, "They died so that life could continue for the rest of us," and their martyrdom inspires us today with the imperative to continue the movement toward social justice and peace."--Douglas Horne, former Chief Analyst for Military Records, Assassination Records Review Board, and author, JFK's War With the National Security Establishment

"Jim Douglass assembles a sea of witnesses to shed light on what led to the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK. His main characters take profound risks on behalf of nonviolent change. Writing with compassionate courage, Douglass urges us to do the same. As he has done for decades, Douglass echoes Dr. King's assessment: the choice before us is between nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation."--Kathy Kelly, peace activist

"JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and RFK--each turning against the machinery of war, injustice, and systemic violence--were marked for death by forces that could not afford their visions to prevail. Jim Douglass flawlessly conveys how their deaths were not just isolated tragedies, but coordinated acts of suppression. The Unspeakable is not just who and what killed them, but why we as a society still refuse to acknowledge it."--Ryan Jones, Director of History & Interpretation at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel.

"As I turned page after page of James W. Douglass's thoroughly engrossing narrative of humanity's struggle to build a just and peaceful world, I was shocked to learn historically significant details that have been buried for decades. This is a book of monumental, even biblical, importance."--Brian Thomas Swimme, co-author, Story of the Noosphere.

"Jim Douglas cites a 1965 speech by Robert F Kennedy, urging action on what he called 'the most vital issue now facing this nation and the world. . . . the question of nuclear proliferation-- of the mounting threat posed by the spread of nuclear weapons.' Sixty years later, that most vital issue continues to escape the headlines. 'Can we begin to recover our memory?' Douglas asks? 'Now is our time to choose. Now can be grace.'"--Brian Terrell, Catholic Worker and peace activist

Advance Praise for...

"A staggering achievement. As in JFK and the Unspeakable, Jim Douglass has once again put together an astonishing collection of facts and documents about the collusion of the U.S. government in the murders not only of JFK, but in groundbreaking revelations of MLK, RFK, and Malcolm X. You'll be shocked at this late date at what we don't know."--Oliver Stone

"In a powerful reflection on the cost of visionary leadership, Douglass exposes the violence of a global system threatened by organized nonviolent resistance and by the courageous pursuit of risky steps toward peace. Every high school and university class on U.S. history, every person in pursuit of a more just and peaceful world, should read this book.--Marie Dennis, Senior Program Director, Catholic Nonviolence Initiative

"Jim Douglass blends rigorous research with spiritual insights in a way that brilliantly illuminates why these 20^th-century prophets lived and died--and why it shall always matter. Anyone brave enough to know the truth should read this book."--Karen Croft, collaborator with David Talbot, author, Brothers: the Hidden History of the Kennedy Years

"This is a book of revelation: a detailed unveiling of the principalities and powers and an introduction to four saints of resistance. These four chose life for all, a choice that would be met with murder. The reader will soon see how their assassinations expose and affirm the truth of what each of them stood and lived for. What their lives pronounced, their deaths proclaimed all the more. And if human life is to survive we will need to follow their example."--Alan Storey, ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa

"James Douglass' masterpiece, Martyrs to the Unspeakable, is an imperative read. His earlier bestseller, JFK and the Unspeakable, presented an ironclad case that President Kennedy was murdered by the CIA because he turned into a true peacemaker, determined to end the Cold War. This book picks up where he left off. Going beyond the how of the assassinations, he makes crystal clear the case for why."--Stewart Burns, author, To the Mountaintop: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Sacred Mission to Save America

"Heartfelt, deeply emotional, and superbly researched, Jim Douglass's magnum opus is a must-read for all who care about the past, present, and future of our world."--Dr. Ivana Nikolic Hughes, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

"Throughout his life James Douglass has combined courageous activism with brave, groundbreaking scholarship. He always speaks truth to power, yet in an uncompromising Gandhian grounding of hope and love. In this spirit Martyrs to the Unspeakable is his masterpiece . . . A fascinating must-read book by all who aspire to a better human future."--Richard Falk, former professor of international law, Princeton University

"In military terms, this book is operative intelligence. That means observed evidence so well documented that life-betting decisions can be based on it. Douglass shows that America has in fact bet its life on such evidence ever since the murder of President Kennedy--by ignoring it.
The massively researched operative intelligence of this book gives us a chance to change our minds. Will we? If we don't, how can we hope for a future any sane person would want?"--
Larry Shook, journalist, Vietnam veteran

"Jim Douglass presents the eminently reasonable, logical, and unchallengeable case that the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and RFK were all state-sanctioned murders, for which convenient and dramatic scapegoats were provided---scapegoats that precluded any investigations from having to deal with the actual evidence in those cases. They all knew that their lives had been targeted by the National Security State, and yet they courageously persisted in their efforts. As Douglass writes, "They died so that life could continue for the rest of us," and their martyrdom inspires us today with the imperative to continue the movement toward social justice and peace."--Douglas Horne, former Chief Analyst for Military Records, Assassination Records Review Board, and author, JFK's War With the National Security Establishment

"Jim Douglass assembles a sea of witnesses to shed light on what led to the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK. His main characters take profound risks on behalf of nonviolent change. Writing with compassionate courage, Douglass urges us to do the same. As he has done for decades, Douglass echoes Dr. King's assessment: the choice before us is between nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation."--Kathy Kelly, peace activist

"JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and RFK--each turning against the machinery of war, injustice, and systemic violence--were marked for death by forces that could not afford their visions to prevail. Jim Douglass flawlessly conveys how their deaths were not just isolated tragedies, but coordinated acts of suppression. The Unspeakable is not just who and what killed them, but why we as a society still refuse to acknowledge it."--Ryan Jones, Director of History & Interpretation at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel.

"As I turned page after page of James W. Douglass's thoroughly engrossing narrative of humanity's struggle to build a just and peaceful world, I was shocked to learn historically significant details that have been buried for decades. This is a book of monumental, even biblical, importance."--Brian Thomas Swimme, co-author, Story of the Noosphere.

"Jim Douglas cites a 1965 speech by Robert F Kennedy, urging action on what he called 'the most vital issue now facing this nation and the world. . . . the question of nuclear proliferation-- of the mounting threat posed by the spread of nuclear weapons.' Sixty years later, that most vital issue continues to escape the headlines. 'Can we begin to recover our memory?' Douglas asks? 'Now is our time to choose. Now can be grace.'"--Brian Terrell, Catholic Worker and peace activist

About the Author

James W. Douglass is a longtime peace activist and writer. He and his wife Shelley are co-founders of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, WA, and Mary's House, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality in Birmingham, AL, where they now live. His other books include The Nonviolent Coming of God, Resistance and Contemplation, Gandhi and the Unspeakable, and JFK and the Unspeakable.