In 1992, William Manchester wrote, "Those who desperately want to believe that President Kennedy was the victim of a conspiracy have my sympathy. I share their yearning...if you put the murdered President of the United States on one side of a scale and that wretched waif Oswald on the other side, it doesn't balance. You want to add something weightier to Oswald. It would invest the President's death with meaning, endowing him with martyrdom. He would have died for something.
A conspiracy would, of course, do the job nicely. Unfortunately, there is no evidence whatever that there was one."
Mr. Manchester was certainly justified in holding his opinion. He had been asked by the Kennedy family to look into JFK's death shortly after it happened and his files became the template used by the Warren Commission. In 1967, he published his findings in a bestselling book entitled The Death of a President.
After watching the National Geographic original movie Killing Kennedy based on the Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard book of the same name, it occurred to me that the filmmakers (and authors) paid close attention to the work done by Mr. Manchester and the Warren Commission.
Over the years, I've spent considerable time looking into the JFK assassination (I refuse to call it the Kennedy Assassination in order to distinguish it from the other Kennedy Assassination - RFK, which most people seem to forget). I will not, by any means, call myself an expert. But I am well read on the subject. And as a well read student of the subject, I have come to one steadfast conclusion...we will NEVER know with certainty what happened in the murder of President John F. Kennedy on 11/22/63.
Mr. Manchester made convincing arguments. So did the Warren Commission and the authors and filmmakers of Killing Kennedy. But Oliver Stone (in his film JFK), Jim Garrison and the legion of other conspiracy minded authors and filmmakers also made convincing arguments. In the end, their are just so many theories, questions and explanations that I'm afraid the truth will never be ascertained clearly enough to put the issue to rest...unlike Abraham Lincoln's murder at the hands of John Wilkes Booth.
So...where does that leave the telefilm Killing Kennedy? In my estimation, it was well done with good quality and it stuck faithfully to its premise. **SPOILER ALERT** The premise was that Lee Harvey Oswald was delusional with a false sense of his own importance and, therefore, assassinated JFK without any assistance. His reason for committing this murder was to show the world (and particularly the Marxists) that he was a man who could do something important. Jack Ruby's motivation in killing Oswald was to spare Mrs. Kennedy the pain of having to return to Dallas to testify against Oswald in a trial (and because he was so overwhelmed by his own grief over JFK's death). On the surface, these motivations and characterizations are convincing. They are also the line towed by Mr. Manchester and the Warren Commission since the 1960s.
However, many things were ignored by the film in order to make this premise convincing. First of all, Oswald wasn't simply a delusional nut job. He had mafia and CIA connections (in the 1950s and 1960s, the mafia and CIA often worked together for their mutual benefit). Both Oswald and his uncle had worked for Mafia kingpin Carlos Marcello and Oswald knew Jack Ruby. Mr. Ruby was also a known gunrunner for Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante. He was also an associate of Jimmy Hoffa, a sworn enemy of the Kennedys. These things were never referenced in Killing Kennedy because they would have detracted from the filmmakers' premise. The magic bullet, JFK's head going back and to the left during the final kill shot (something that would defy physics if the shot came from the back), the ease with which Oswald renounced his US citizenship and then regained it (with money given to him by the US government), Oswald's Russian friends in Dallas who worked for the CIA, the plots against JFK in Chicago and Tampa with "assassins" who were eerily similar to Oswald, at least on paper...the list goes on and on. But I think you get the point.
Killing Kennedy will not put the questions about JFK's killing to rest. And it left out a tremendous amount of material. But it was a good telefilm with fine acting...particularly by Rob Lowe, who played JFK. If you know little or nothing about the JFK Assassination and wish to learn more, I'd recommend this film as a decent starting point. But I would also recommend you follow it up with Oliver Stone's JFK and then read as much as you can about the subject without losing your sanity. But, above all, I'd recommend that you look at both sides of the argument...the lone gunman theory and the various conspiracy theories...with an open mind. Then, when you are appropriately enlightened, form your own opinion. That's what I've done and I'm confident in my opinion.
Good luck to you in your quest for knowledge. But please keep one thing in mind...as interesting as this subject might be, let's not forget that we lost an incredible man (despite his flaws, which we all have) and an inspiring leader on November 22, 1963. And our country suffered considerably because of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment