Breaking News: Oliver Stone Used Fake Oswald Handbills - Twice

[Jon Banks]

Here is Seymour Hersh on his relationship with Stone. "In Reporter [Hersh's autobiography], he warmly relates his dealings with Hollywood director Oliver Stone in the late Eighties. However, when Stone begins to expand on his thesis that Kennedy was assassinated by a CIA conspiracy in what would eventually become his tour de force magnum opus JFK, Hersh is completely dismissive, telling Stone that the idea is preposterous – to which Stone replies that he always knew Hersh was a CIA agent and walks off."

In Stone's world, Hersh couldn't be just wrong, or used, or ignorant, or misled. No, the only answer is that he must be a CIA agent. It is interesting that how one views JFK - Stone sees him as some sort of Henry Wallace type who would have ended the Cold War; Hersh see him as a liberal Cold War hawk - influences so much of what one thinks happened. In an odd way that makes sense. If you believe in this large conspiracy involving so many people then it must have been because JFK was such a threat to them. If, on the other hand, you see JFK as a supporter of the Cold War, as a pragmatic anti-communist, then the idea is, as Hersh said, preposterous.

It really does come down in many ways to the question of not "Who was Lee Harvey Oswald?" but "Who was JFK?"

Added: Here's Hersh's account from his book. He was working with Stone on Stone's script for his movie on Noriega/Panama. Hersh is scathing about the Kennedys and the covert war on Cuba and the assassination attempts. He says that Church simply covered up for JFK's knowledge about the plots. The idea that they were sincerely trying to find some sort of rapprochement with Castro is, in my view, nonsense. They had concluded, correctly I think, that there was no middle ground/agreement to be found with him. Their efforts were a ruse.

Unlike Oliver Stone, Sy Hersh is not a fan of JFK. He wrote some pretty gossipy stuff about Kennedy.

However, Hersh has been as critical of the US national security state as Oliver Stone (if not more) and most recently accused the Biden administration and CIA of blowing up Germany's Nord Stream pipelines.

 

[Jon Banks]

Some people simply need there to be a conspiracy.  Maybe it makes them feel better.

In some cases, that may be true. The world is complicated and in some ways, conspiracy theories help us make sense of complicated events that are difficult to explain.

However, JFK assassination conspiracy theories persist due to the evidence and the lack of transparency from the US government. I mean, if Oswald was just a "nobody" and the case is so "straightforward", why is there so much secrecy around the JFK files almost 60 years later? I have yet to hear a satisfactory answer to that question.

[Ted Shields]

In some cases, that may be true. The world is complicated and in some ways, conspiracy theories help us make sense of complicated events that are difficult to explain.

However, JFK assassination conspiracy theories persist due to the evidence and the lack of transparency from the US government. I mean, if Oswald was just a "nobody" and the case is so "straightforward", why is there so much secrecy around the JFK files almost 60 years later? I have yet to hear a satisfactory answer to that question.

Because the CIA were up to some really dodgy sh1t back then and some of the people are still alive and/or have families.