Letter: Inspired by JFK

JOAN SMITH mixes fact and fiction in such proportions as to suggest that her prime source is Seymour Hersh's The Dark Side of Camelot (1997). The mythic term Camelot, she seems to be unaware, was foolishly appended to JFK's administration after it ended. As Hersh does, she exaggerates the sex (the vice-president said he was having more of that than was his boss) and the killing. Patrice Lumumba was captured and his fate sealed before JFK came to office. President Diem was offered sanctuary in the US Embassy and US force levels were falling, not "rising", in South Vietnam.

And, as Doris Kearns Goodwin demonstrates in her 1987 book, JFK's father was not a bootlegger.

M MEADMORE

London W12