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Orders to Kill

William F. Pepper, in Orders to Kill, presents the argument that the United States government conspired to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr. and to cover up the plot afterwards by framing James Earl Ray for the murder. Although such a conspiracy may be difficult to accept for those readers who believe that the government of the United States would never commit such a horrible act, Pepper presents his case step by step and detail by detail until the open-minded reader slowly begins to see that the case was not the simple matter that the government has tried to say it was.

Basically, Pepper argues that King was assassinated by a conspiracy which included the military of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, members of organized crime, members of the executive branch of the government, as well as the heavy involvement of local leaders in Memphis. Clearly, the conspiracy, as portrayed in Pepper's book, was not a matter of "renegade" or "fringe" groups of individuals. This was a coordinated conspiracy involving some of the top civilian and military leaders in the country.

The reason for the conspiracy to assassinate King is presented in this summary:

The popularity of Dr. King with urban blacks, his opposition to the Vietnam War, and his determination to bring impoverished masses to the nation's capital all contributed to the sealing of his fate (Pepper 511).

Another important point argued by Pepper is that the assassination of King was not an isolated conspiracy but was part of an ongoing national conspiracy to eliminate leaders who were perceived by the conspirators as threats to national security and the civil order of the nation. It is telling that Pepper says the final decision to assassinate King was made "about a week after the Detroit riots" (511), suggesting that the conspirators feared the unrest which King could have inspired, especially with his decision to protest the Vietnam war as well as e...

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Orders to Kill. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:46, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1680769.html