He watched in Vietnam. The war escalated. The war was the Life uncontained. The Life contained is pure appetite. That is why everyone in this novel sooner or later gets entangled with everyone else.
Appetites bring people together.
Then history happens. Indeed, in Ellroy's vision of things, when appetites get big enough, they stop being called appetites and start being called historical events. What might seem like a theory of conspiracy in Ellroy is really a story about the fatal velocity of human entanglements. Yet Hoover oversees King's cold-blooded murder. Don't hate like Mr. Hoover.