I've started the Stone documentary. So far, about how I expected.
Stone: Starts with JFK commencement address talking about peace, while simultaneously showing videos fo bombs and stuff in Vietnam.
Soup:
However, in Robert F. Kennedy's Oral History interview with NY Times Columnist Anthony Lewis, RFK was adamant that JFK was not going to back down in Vietnam. It is about a 4 hour interview and really interesting to listen to.
https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKOH/Kennedy%2C%20Robert%20F/JFKOH-RFK-03/JFKOH-RFK-03When JFK was sworn in, we had 700 troops in Vietnam, when he died 2.5 years later, we had 16,000. In 1961, he signed an aid package with South Vietnam which included us bringing troops to Vietnam. LBJ was definitely more of a warhawk than JFK, but JFK still escalated things in Vietnam and was committed to fighting communism.
Stone: Shows archival footage of TV briefs, people huddled around car radios, while blasting some ominous music. I like how this was packaged, especially for those of us that didn't live through that.
Stone (2m:30s): Plays interview with Texan that says a gunshot from the top of the hill hit the President in the head. Then radio interview with a woman that said shots came from the hill.
Soup: Of the nearly 200 eyewitnesses interviewed, 88% heard exactly three shots, less than 7% heard fewer than 3 shots, and less than 5% heard more than 3 shots.
Of the nearly 200 eyewitnesses interviewed, only 12% said the shots came from the grassy knoll. Two percent said the shots came from more than one location.
https://www.law.com/texaslawyer/2021/09/20/lessons-from-the-kennedy-assassination-about-eyewitness-testimony/?slreturn=20211111134936"Three critical "ear-witnesses" were Oswald's co-workers, Bonnie Ray Williams, Junior Jarman, and Harold Norman. They were on the fifth floor of the Depository, directly under Oswald on the sixth floor when the shots were fired. Through the thin plywood decking separating the fifth and sixth floors, they distinctly heard three shots fired. In fact, before anyone discovered Oswald's rifle on the sixth floor, Norman correctly described the sounds of a bolt-action rifle being fired directly above his head. Norman said that he heard "the click-click, boom, click-click, boom," "the sound of the click [bolt action]," "the sound of the shells hitting the floor," and "three shots, no doubt in my mind."
This seems like a great account to include. But Stone doesn't, because it doesn't fit his preconceived narrative.
"What did the eyewitnesses see? Howard Brennan saw probably more than any other eyewitness. He was sitting on top of a four-foot-high retaining wall directly across the street from the Depository, just 100 feet from the sixth-floor window. He saw an "unsmiling and calm" man matching Oswald's description in the sixth-floor window fire three shots from a rifle in the direction of the President's limousine."
Another narrative, this time from a Pulitzer-Prize winning Photojournalist that is universally respected in the industry.
"Other witnesses saw things consistent with what Brennan saw. Two of those witnesses were Robert Jackson, a
Dallas Times Herald photographer who was riding in an open convertible about one block behind the President's limousine, and James Worrell, who was standing on the sidewalk in front of the Depository when he heard shots coming from directly over his head. Jackson looked towards the Depository as the shots were being fired and saw the tip of a rifle being drawn slowly back into a window on the sixth-floor of the building. Worrell looked up when he heard the first shot and saw about six inches of a rifle extending from a window in the Depository."
Bob Jackson is who took the famous picture of Ruby shooting Oswald.
Stone Picking from the vast, vast minority of witnesses to show already shows his bias, and we are less than 3 minutes into the documentary. This is very on par for Stone, and I assume we will see a lot more of this as we more forward. He doesn't want to give you the whole picture, but he will isolate the vast minority if it fits his narrative.
Stone: [4m:30s] Lyndon Johnson being sworn in. All the visuals the last 90 seconds are great. Really do love seeing the reactions from people. It really places you at the time, which is obviously such a different time than today or what most of us have experienced.
Stone: [6m41s]: Shows the photo that wasn't taken by Bob Jackson of the Ruby shot of Oswald.
Soup: Bob Jackson's shot is vastly superior and taken in a better moment, which is why it won the Pulitzer. Interesting Stone used a worse image, but maybe because he also ignored Jackson's witness testimony as I mentioned above.
Stone: [9m00s] Everything so far is archival footage, and at this point it is flipping between DC/Jackie and Oswald/Ruby/Dallas and I really like how that is put together. All of this happened within just a few days. I think the shortish cuts and film reel effect heighten that feeling. All that archive backstory done at 9m. Starting at 9m, we get to see Oliver Stone take a stroll around Dealey plaza.
Stone: [10m] Starts going into CIA history of assassinations for foreign leaders and that the Warren Commission was unreliable.
Soup: But most of what we know is that they had supported or looked the other ways during coups, but didn't commit assassinations. The "Family Jewels" is the part of the Church Commission that included the wrong doing of the CIA, and it included assassination plots against four foreign leaders. However, the CIA's role seemed to be to support locals that were against those leaders, rather than having someone in the CIA kill the person. Such as in the Dominican Republic, the leaders targeted were generally dictators, and the new western government system was implemented. Castro was never assassinated. Trujilo was killed while Kennedy was president, Schneider was killed in the 70s and he survived multiple plots. The Church committee found that the CIA had planned to murder Lumumba, but was not actually involved in his murder.
Stone (11m45s): Starts getting into the House Select Committee and editorializes the reason, citing inconsistencies in the Warren Commission report.
Soup: What Stone seems to leave out is that the House Select Committee on Assassinations found that the wounds in Kennedy and Connally were made by bullets fired by Oswald's gun from the TBD. Also, it wasn't just about JFK, but they also studied MLK as well.
Dr. Vincent Guinn's testimony:
http://aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/pdf/HSCA_Vol1_0908_8_Guinn.pdfDr. Guinn's clip used by Stone seems to make it look like he is a doctor or pathologist. He was a chemist at UC-Irvine. When you read Dr. Guinn's full testimony, it is clear that Stone is taking it out of context. Guinn is saying the bullets from Connally's wounds are from the same bullet, and he was the first person to be able to scientifically prove that. He is also saying that the headshot bullet was also the fragments of the bullet found in the front seat as well as behind Kennedy's eye and that all fragments of bullets he tested could be chemically traced to be two bullets fired from Oswald's rifle at the TBD.
Oliver Stone is being dishonest with how he cut that testimony and reading the full testimony shows that.
Probably going to be broken up into a few posts, but I am going to try to timestamp things as best I can.