Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States

[John Simkin]

I assume that Oliver Stone's new television series deals with the JFK assassination.

http://www.sho.com/sho/oliver-stones-untold-history-of-the-united-states/about

There is an interesting interview with Stone about the series here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2012/nov/19/oliver-stone-new-documentary-petraeus-affair-obama-video

[Paul Brancato]

I watched the first two episodes today, mostly dealing with WW2. There was a lot of coverage of the 1944 Democratic convention in which Truman was chosen over Wallace as FDR's running mate. He makes the point that this was a crucial turning point in world history, and that it has pretty much been written out of our textbooks. There will surely be some who think Stone paints a more sympathetic picture of Stalin than he deserves. Episode 3 deals with the atom bomb, and clearly Stone is headed for a detailed explanation of how the cold war and the permanent wartime economy came about. The show is a breath of fresh air, a dose of reality in a world obscured by the fog of the military industrial congressional complex.

[Douglas Caddy]

Part 1 of the interview with Oliver Stone

http://therealnews.c...74&jumival=9987

Part 2 of the interview:

http://therealnews.c...4&jumival=10042

STONE (part 2): But you couldn't have--could you have predicted that Eisenhower would become such a Cold Warrior after having been the general in World War II? Did Dulles have a nefarious influence on him? Why when Stalin died did he not make an effort to respond more positively to the Soviets? Or John Kennedy's death in Dallas in 1963 is a freaky, freaky, but well-planned assassination. But he was--if he had paid an iota of attention to having a bubble on the limousine, to taking better care of himself, to not going to Texas with Lyndon Johnson, who wanted him to go, and not going to--because Adlai Stevenson had been attacked in Dallas a couple of weeks before. There had been attempts on Kennedy's life in Miami, in Chicago. He knew he was in the crosshairs. I don't know why he was so--a little bit--how would you say?--I used the word in the series aloof from fear.

Edited April 9, 2013 by Douglas Caddy

[Bernice Moore]

Thank you Doug...i have been trying to wade through the series and book, but also have several other books on the go, i sometimes wish some did not contain soo many pages...thanks fellas for your information..b

[Douglas Caddy]

Oliver Stone met with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Thursday, April 4th.

Does Stone have a new project in mind, one that could be really interesting, such as the Untold Recent History of the World as revealed in the classified documents in Assange's possession?

[John Simkin]

I heard Oliver Stone being interviewed on BBC radio yesterday. He was asked about the JFK assassination. He showed very little interest in the case and admitted that his film was very much speculation about what happened.

[Douglas Caddy]

A BBC interview of April 4 in which Stone talks about America's misuse of its power

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22031196

[John Simkin]

The Guardian have an interview with Oliver Stone today.

http://www.guardian....rica-went-wrong

Stone raises the issue of how different US history would have been if Henry Wallace had not been removed as vice president in 1944. I agree. It is a little known story but well worth finding out about. I have written about it in great detail here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USARwallace.htm

[Michael Hogan]

By 1968 Henry Wallace was dead. In 1960, he supported Nixon vs John Kennedy.

[John Simkin]

By 1968 Henry Wallace was dead. In 1960, he supported Nixon vs John Kennedy.

I know it is difficult to understand today, but in 1960 Henry Wallace, like many people in America at the time, considered JFK as more of a "cold war warrior" than Nixon. Especially over the subject of Cuba, where Eisenhower/Nixon, had been criticised over the way they had dealt with Castro.

[Guest Tom Scully]

By 1968 Henry Wallace was dead. In 1960, he supported Nixon vs John Kennedy.

I know it is difficult to understand today, but in 1960 Henry Wallace, like many people in America at the time, considered JFK as more of a "cold war warrior" than Nixon. Especially over the subject of Cuba, where Eisenhower/Nixon, had been criticised over the way they had dealt with Castro.

It was only 12 years after the Kennedy vs. Nixon campaigns that Gore Vidal declared there was one American political party with two right wings. US presidential administrations from 20 January, 1981 through 17 April, 2013 confirm the accuracy of Vidal's assessment. The period of public resistance to this premise began on the weekend of the Bay of Pigs and was snuffed out on

22 November. This does not mean that Kennedy was suddenly converted on that April, 1961 weekend.

John, it seems to me you are inaccurately considered to be advancing an agenda driven argument as a component of a more general smear. Can you agree that Kennedy's record up until the Bay of Pigs weekend was one of "giving them enough rope to hang themselves"? He certainly pulled the rope taut by denying the set up intended to trigger direct intervention by the U.S. military

precipitating the dismissal of Dulles.

Earlier in this fairly balanced opinion piece, author Peter Edson tells his readers that Nixon is preparing to make a series of

six speeches.:

"...In the serios of six speeches Mr. Nixon will make begin ning May 2, he will not criticize the President personally for the actions taken in the Cuban and and Laotian crises. The 1960 candidate is known to feel that It took guts for Mr. Kennedy to make the decisions he did. Mr. Nixon will support the President as the official re sponsible for This backing up of the President will restrain Mr. Nixon a little in outlining future..."

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RkYqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ok4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7612,3978628&dq=nixon+castro&hl=en

The author made the point that during the fourth debate, Kennedy had been briefed on confidential classified Eisenhower administration policy and positioned himself in a manner that caused Nixon to distance himself from his own, classified role.

The alternative strategy of criticizing the unclassified policies of the two term Eisenhower would have boxed Kennedy into the slot all Democrats who run for president are relegated to. JFK would have been accused of being soft on Communism and as an incompetent CIC to succeed the Supreme Allied Commander of WWII, Eisenhower. To this day, Democratic presidents appoint Republicans to head Defense, and Republicans never appoint any Democrat to that position.

During the campaign, Kennedy signaled an attitude of continuity to people who "guided" Eisenhower and Nixon.

After the election, Kennedy soothed them further.:

The Rich & the Super Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today‎ - Page 173 by Ferdinand Lundberg, Peter Wilsher - Capitalists and financiers - 1968 - 504 pages "Kennedy, even with no war providing an excuse for a coalition, awarded his chief Cabinet posts to Republicans from the camp of big wealth. ...

These appointments were the high water mark of these "interests" until 22 November.

Jim DiEugenio is a dogged defender of the motives and records of JFK and Jim Garrison, two historic figures who have been longtime targets of politically and ideologically driven segments of the owners of the media and of the owners of the owners.

....The quadrennial political puppet show, highlighting not opposition but its appearance, is essential to keeping the captive-taking war machine running and to inoculating the American people from the viral knowledge that they themselves were first to be captured.

....Sinclair Lewis, for his part, showed how the simultaneously banalizing methods of capitalist enterprise (false advertising, consumerism, pieties of affluence, amoral bureaucracy) are exactly what that enterprise created to keep from being criticized.

- James Carroll

Edited April 17, 2013 by Tom Scully

[Don Jeffries]

The fact that such a prominent leftist like Henry Wallace was willing to support Nixon over Kennedy is indicative of just how unpopular JFK was with the establishment left of his day. Eleanor Roosevelt didn't like him, nor did Harry Truman. Adlai Stevenson didn't either, but ultimately grew to like him.

The Kennedys have never been popular with the hierarchy of the Democratic Party.

[Len Colby]

The fact that such a prominent leftist like Henry Wallace was willing to support Nixon over Kennedy is indicative of just how unpopular JFK was with the establishment left of his day. Eleanor Roosevelt didn't like him, nor did Harry Truman. Adlai Stevenson didn't either, but ultimately grew to like him.

The Kennedys have never been popular with the hierarchy of the Democratic Party.

Wallace moved to the right in 1950, Roosevelt didn't like him because of his ties to McCarthy, Stevenson didn't like him because Kennedy defeated him but he campaigned for him anyway

[John Simkin]

Wallace moved to the right in 1950, Roosevelt didn't like him because of his ties to McCarthy, Stevenson didn't like him because Kennedy defeated him but he campaigned for him anyway

Wallace did not move to the right. Wallace was a target of McCarthyism (supported by the Kennedy family). Wallace was the only leading politician willing to take on the racism in the Deep South.

Henry Wallace took on Harry Truman and Thomas Dewey. In the 1948 Presidential Election. His running-mate was Glen H. Taylor, the left-wing senator for Idaho. The programme of Wallace and Taylor included new civil rights legislation that would give equal opportunities for black Americans in voting, employment and education, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Bill and increased spending on welfare, education, and public works. Their foreign policy program was based on opposition to the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.

Wallace travelled to the Deep South and called for the end of the Jim Crow laws. He was attacked at every point he stopped and made a speech. One of his followers said: "You can call us black, or you can call us red, but you can't call us yellow." Wallace commented: "To me, fascism is no longer a second-hand experience. No, fascism has become an ugly reality - a reality which I have tasted it neither so fully nor so bitterly as millions of others. But I have tasted it."

Glen H. Taylor also campaigned against racial discrimination. In Alabama he entered a public hall through an entrance marked "Colored". He pointed out in his autobiography, The Way It Was With Me (1979): "I was a United States senator, and by God, I wasn't going to slink down a dark alley to get to a back door for Bull Connor or any other bigoted son of a bitch. I'd go in any goddamned door I pleased, and I pleased to go in that door right there." Taylor was arrested and at a subsequent trial he was fined $50 and given a 180-day suspended sentence on charges of breach of peace, assault, and resisting arrest.

Did JFK attack Jim Crow laws in the 1960 Presidential Election campaign? No, but as Robert Kennedy later pointed out, he was sent into the Deep South to promise no legislation to end Jim Crow laws.

The reason that Wallace supported Nixon in 1960 was the Democratic Party was still seen as the "racist" party in American politics.