JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass

[James DiEugenio]

As we know, Steve Roe, acting for his bosom buddy Fred Litwin, jumped on here to trash the book composed by me on the occasion of the two films directed by Oliver Stone, JFK Revisited, and JFK: Destiny Betrayed.

The specific point made about the training camps in and around New Orleans and Oswald's presence there  were taken care of nicely by Tom Gram and Dave Boylan, with evidence outside the book.  I await Roe to fly out to LA, drive up to Bob's house and call Tanenbaum a xxxx to his face.  Please tell me when and I will sell tickets to that event.  BTW, Bob told me that he actually had documents stolen out of his house!  This is how worried they were about him and Sprague. 

Which is why they had to get rid of them. And as Bud Fensterwald later wrote, the HSCA sure went to hell in a hand basket fast.

And it did.

There were two other issues pointed out.

1. The E book version was not hot linked.  

2. The book was overreliant on secondary sources not primary ones.

Edited July 19, 2022 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

As a point of personal privilege I would like to reply to these accusations.  

First, usually, when I am done with a book, I do not reread it.  I just set it aside relying on the work I did and my recall of that work.

But this time, i actually did reread this book.

Reply to number one: I had little or nothing to do with the actual preparation and assembly of the e book.  But, every reference in the book is clearly noted and can easily be found by the reader. If they are online, you can summon then up easily. Just pump the info into Google.  

Reply to number 2, there are slightly over 500 references to the two scripts.  About half are directly tied to primary sources.

But that is a deceptive number. Why? Because what the subjects are talking about is often their  own experience, so its not footnoted but that is a primary source.  For example, Jim Gochenaur's whole experience with both Elmer Moore and the Church Committee is a primary source.  And this is even more expansive in the book, since he also deals with Carver Gayton; and how his testimony for Schweiker was escorted by the military, and then it was disappeared.

Charles Crenshaw's memories are also a primary source.

Don Miller's oh so interesting testimony is a primary source.

Cyril Wecht's fascinating talk with Helpern is a primary source.

Audrey Bell's remembrances, that is a primary source.

Edited July 19, 2022 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

Second exception, right in the so called secondary source, the reader will find the primary source base.

For instance, in my reference to the article "The Ordeal of Malcom Perry", you will see the link to the bombshell Steadman notes. 

When I refer to Dulles saying no one reads anymore, I give the transcript source, by Tad Szulc

The Florence Graves article on CBS outtakes is based on her Bernie Birnbaum interview, and she quotes from him directly in that article.

I used The Kennedy Tapes several times, that is a primary source, since its a book of transcripts from the Missile Crisis.

The book Virtual JFK,  is largely based on a valuable document annex at the end of the volume. And I used that.

So in other words, when all this is factored in, there are more primary sources than secondary ones.

Edited July 19, 2022 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

But to me that is not the best part of the book.  The best part of the book, and the slightly longer part is the interviews we printed, that were mostly not in the film.

Where are you ever going to find a roster like that on the JFK case?  What documentary film ever had this many luminaries in the picture?

As I note in the book, when Wecht came out to LA and was in Oliver's office, the following dialogue took place:

CW: How many interviews did you schedule?

OS: About thirty.

CW: (Looking surprised) Thirty? (p. 222)

In reading through that part of the book, I took seven pages of highlights from those interviews.  It is remarkable.  

Henry Lee saying: this bullet to the head came in at one  angle and left at another.  Oliver asks him about the angle and he says its 90 degrees. Wecht criticizing the deed of gift, telling us how important tissue slides are in an autopsy, him and Randy Robertson blasting neuromuscular reaction as pure poppycock. Aguilar and Mantik exposing the HSCA verification of photos and X rays as faulty. Chesser saying that without sectioning you cannot trace trajectory in the brain or the number of bullets, and this is a neurologist speaking. (Lee agreed with him on this.) Horne on DOJ's Carl Belcher's deception about the missing photographs in the autopsy review, and why he took his name off that document. Horne on Jenkins and O'Connor talking about the autopsy interference and the utter disgrace that the WC never talked to Stringer or Knudsen. And man what Doug says about the debacle of the Z film sale by the ARRB.

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

But to me, its the historical aspect that i found most bracing in the interviews.  Probably because that is where i come from.

I mean, Robert Rakove,  Phil Muehlenbeck, Aaron Good, John Newman, James Galbraith, Richard Mahoney, Brad Simpson, Lisa Pease, David Talbot, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And SImpson, Muehlenbeck and Rakove had never been on screen before.

Mahoney saying that Gullion knew the Hammarskjold case was not an accident.  But a murder.  And also adding that Dag may still have been alive after the crash. And how JFK then took over the whole Congo crisis after Dag's death? What documentary takes in both of these cases like this, Kennedy and Dag?  Richard also said that the CIA decided to kill Lumumba because they knew JFK would favor him. And how LBJ switched the policy after JFK was killed.

Brad SImpson talking about how the CIA aided the overthrow of Sukarno with money, NSA communications equipment and small arms, and how this almost certainly would not have happened if Kennedy had lived.  Lisa Pease backs him up on this.

Robert Kennedy Jr showing how his father was outraged by LBJ's invasion of the Dominican Republic. And how he and Tom Mann reversed the Alliance for Progress. How his father urged the people in Peru to nationalize the oil deposits.   And at the end, he says Sirhan did not kill his father.  This was the most moving moment of the whole 13 day, 48 hour shoot.  Even the cameraman, Bob RIchardson, commented on how powerful it was.

I could go on and on, but I think that gets across the gravity and the achievement of the book.  And it was not really me, but that roster of luminaries that Oliver and Rob Wilson agreed to that did it. And this is what Steve Roe wants to try and conceal.

If I was him, so would I.  

 

[Ron Bulman]

Not to distract from your overall comments.  But it's a shame Sirhan I'm guessing can't see RFK Jr say this on film, to the world.  I know they have met and RFK Jr told him this personally.  But it would be wonderful if he could hear it preserved forever for the world to hear.

[James DiEugenio]

Well, maybe he can if someone sends him the book.

I used to be in contact with Bobby's aide de camp.

Maybe I should try again. 

Edited July 19, 2022 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

I should add how that came up.

Bobby's interview was winding down.  And he had just talked about how in the Third World there are all these statues, streets, schools etc named after JFK.

So, at that moment, I tapped Oliver on his shoulder.  I said, "Ask him if he thinks his father's assassination is related to his uncle"s."

Oliver did so.  And that caused the most crystalline 60 or so seconds in all the 48 hours of interviews.  After it was over I asked rhetorically, "How did he not cry when he was saying that stuff?"  Bob Richardson said,  his eye teared up.  And I then saw that in the editing room.  I think Oliver cut it out.

[Derek Thibeault]

Dag and Lumumba cases are so interesting and so unknown here in the US. I found out by Lumumba by watching the film that was made that no one saw. Both these cases illustrate what was going on in our intelligence agencies at the time and need more light shone on them.

[James DiEugenio]

I completely agree, and they are surely related to the Kennedy case.

Lumumba was killed BEFORE Kennedy took office since the CIA knew JFK would favor him as the properly elected president who wanted to break away from colonialism.

At the time of his assassination Dag was trying for a truce in Katanga that would begin the process of restoring that state to Congo.

We show in the  longer version of the film, the controversial documents attributed to Allen Dulles about this.

Its a really importan story since you had Lumumba, Dag, and JFK all killed so that freedom for Congo could be voided.

This is why Lumumba is remembered as a hero in Africa.  Things would very likely have been different there had he survived.

What documentary deals with all three cases?

[Derek Thibeault]

only yours? rhetorical question right?

[James DiEugenio]

I would think so, at least I do not know of any others.

I might throw in Sukarno also.

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by James DiEugenio