| Plot Summary of Mongoose R.I.P. - A Blackford Oakes Novel |
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"Mongoose R.I.P. - A Blackford Oakes Novel
William F. Buckley Jr.
Random House, 1987, 320 pp
ISBN 0-394-55931-2
Young CIA agent, Blackford Oakes, recently sprung from a Cuban prison where he was under sentence of death, is called to a special meeting with his superior, Rufus, and fellow agent Anthony Trust. It is early January 1963 and the meeting is being held on a Sunday at Rufus's country cottage in Maryland. After having Oaks and Trust review documents outlining previous attempts to date to have the Mafia assassinate Fidel Castro, Rufus announces that he has just been asked to take charge of Operation Mongoose a secret operation that was created in November 1961 for the purpose of assassinating Castro. The person asking him to take over the operation was none other than the Attorney General of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy.
While Rufus and his team try to put together a workable plan that will both eliminate Castro and replace him with someone who will be able to move Cuba toward democracy, others in the CIA are coming up with wild schemes to do Castro in. Among these are plans to have a visiting diplomat present Castro, a scuba diving enthusiast, with a diving suit impregnated with a poison to be absorbed through the skin and another plan to have a former mistress of Castro return to Cuba and poison him during a break in lovemaking. Strangely, these two schemes were not dreamed up by Buckley but were real operations that were disclosed during the Watergate hearings along with other plots initiated by the Kennedy brothers, to assassinate Castro. As Blackford moves between Miami, Mexico City and Cuba attempting to carry out the President's wishes, relations between the U.S. and Cuba disintegrate into a personal feud between Kennedy and Castro. As Blackford moves Operation Mongoose forward, Castro, aware that Kennedy is trying to have him killed, begins looking for ways to have Kennedy killed. When a former U.S. Marine now living in Dallas, Texas visits the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City with a plan to assassinate Kennedy and a Cuban intelligence officer discovers the location of a missile with a nuclear warhead that the Soviets have secretly kept in Cuba following the Cuban Missile Crisis, Castro puts together a plan that he is certain will guarantee Kennedy's death."
Chuck Nugent, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Mongoose R.I.P. - A Blackford Oakes Novel |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Tone of story
- depressing/sad
Time/era of story:
- 1960's-1970's
Spying/Terrorism Thriller
Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
- deposing an evil leader
Who's the terrorist enemy here?
- commies!
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- spy
Age:
- 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use?
- just the right amount
Ethnicity/Race
- White/American
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- dictator
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- an above average amount
Motive of antagonist
- revenge
The antagonists are:
- communists
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Physique
- very athletic
Setting
The Americas (not US):
Yes
The Americas:
- Mexico
- The Caribbean
City?
Yes
City:
- Miami
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Sex
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
- descript of kissing
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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