Seymour Hersh had just published The Dark Side of Camelot, about JFK's private life. On this show a Kennedy loyalist and a former Kennedy loyalist offer a deeply engaging exploration of whether, as their host phrases it, we are "talking about a

weakness of character that affected Kennedy's competence or judgment as President of the United States." AS: "The Seymour Hersh book is a really ridiculous book. He is the most gullible investigative reporter, perhaps, in American history. He will believe anything so long as it discredits John Kennedy...." TCR: "I don't want to defend a bad book at great length, but [Seymour Hersh] said he interviewed more than a thousand people. I counted at least 25 of those interviews that are terrific. See, what the audience has to understand is that there has been a concerted effort by the Kennedy family, with

the assistance of at least two prominent members of the former Administration, to keep historians from finding out who the Kennedys really were."