Joan Mellen was a mixed bag. The quality of her scholarship greatly depended on ideology. When her ideology overrode her objectivity on an issue, her scholarship was awful, such as her claims about the Vietnam War, the USS Liberty, Israel in general, and MLK's character. When her ideology did not override her objectivity, her scholarship was usually solid, sometimes outstanding.
My guess is Mellen "potted out" at some point. Some of her Garrison stuff was OK (although now I have my doubts on anything that cannot be verified), but after that...
Yes, you are correct, Mellen is in that vast legion of JFKA researchers for who ideology determines the agenda, and the agenda writes the JFKA narrative.
Unfortunately, in the early decades after the JFKA, 90% of the CT'ers were liberals, or even further left.
I have no problem with anyone's ideologies, from communist to libertarian. That is your point of view, and no one cares.
But when your ideology colors the narrative....James DiEugenio is going deep down this route. Doing a Joan Mellen?
Mellen actually contends LBJ was part of the USS Liberty sinking, and had four fighter-jets headed towards Cairo, loaded with nukes, and ready to drop...when, not according to plan, the ship did not sink. So LBJ nixed the nuke job on Cairo at the very last moment.
If she believes that...should we believe her JFKA coverage? Or is that a warning sign?
