European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 25, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday january 25, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Stan Lichtenstein Basic question is whose conspiracy was it shortly after the assassination of president Kennedy Lyndon Johnson persuaded chief Justice Earl Warren to head a Blue ribbon investigation of the event. Everyone would Calm Down Johnson thought if a a unimpeachable authorities concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald a deranged Neer do Well had acted alone. Jim Garrison the investigator protagonist of director Oliver Stone s new movie Juk is As impeachable As the next fellow. Thirty years ago i shared the widespread suspicions about his character and methods and i still do. Yet the Basic question is not a was there a conspiracy a but rather a whose conspiracy was it a the Warren commissions report ended up having More glaring weaknesses than the conspiracy theories it was intended to squelch. Oswald the a alone Assassin Quot was rubbed out by Jack Ruby another a alone Assassin a whose mafia connections made ludicrous the idea that he burst into a Dallas police station and killed Oswald so that Jacqueline Kennedy would not have to endure further suffering. In the Warren commission version of the assassination bullets performed incredible gyrations. Discrepancies in the medical observations of the presidents body Are not fully or convincingly explained. And no one yet knows Why then surgeon general Edward Kenney put a gag on everyone present at the autopsy a you Are warned a the notice read a that infraction of these orders makes you liable to court martial proceedings under the appropriate articles of the uniform code of military  fourteen years later the House select committee on assassinations managed to get the gag order lifted. But portions of the Warren commission files will remain under wraps until Well into the 21st Century. Now in the Wake of Juk there is renewed controversy. Former president Ford who served on the Warren commission is among those attacking Stone. Stone responds by citing Fords a a questionable actions involving leaks to the Fri As evidenced by a dec. 12, 1%3, internal Fri memo from j. Edgar Hoover aide Cartha Deloach a Ford indicated he would keep me thoroughly advised As to the activities of the commission. He stated this would have to be done on a confidential basis however he thought it had to be done. He also asked if he could Call me from time to time and straighten out questions in his mind concerning our  such behind the scenes mane vering by a commission member certainly suggests the possibility of cover up. Stone also cites Fords a open Mike Quot stumbling during a break in a House assassinations committee hearing. Ford obviously thinking the microphones were turned off leaned Over to David Belin his attorney and asked a have i compromised anything yet Quot Stone Calls this a a rather curious statement under the  relatively few people Are in a position to assess the a Hogwash Quot Content of the scenario advanced by Garrison and Stone. But undoubtedly there was a Hogwash Quot in the Warren commission s investigation and report. Its search for truth was neither impartial nor thorough and Over the decades there has been much stonewalling against those who would investigate the investigators. The controversy can hardly be expected to cease while files documents. A rays or other potential evidence remain sealed. It May Well be that we will never know the full Story. But to abandon the search is inexcusable. And if it takes a filmmaker of Semi documentary thrillers to Spur us on. Then so be it. I Ichlen Stem is a  Wylei from  Mil i c flip Baltimore Ftp milk Sun Jack Mathew movies Loose interpretation of history old hat Oliver Stone is not the first filmmaker to play fast and Loose with facts in order to Tell his version of a Story about real people or real events. Historical figures have been routinely reinvented in movies a bad people made Good Good people made bad nobodies elevated to nobility a and documented events have been casually rewritten to suit the whims of scripts. In the vast majority of those instances few people cared beyond vigilant historians and biographers and even those who did care grudgingly acknowledged that Quot artistic License allowed filmmakers to run through factual red lights on the Way to a Good yarn. But when Stone ran a red Light at Dealey Plaza he broadside an event too important to too Many people to forget. And he is now being tried As a propagandist in the court of Public opinion. With that he enters Juk into a select group of films that have created backslashes As powerful As their themes. Among other club members a birth of a nation 1915. . Griffith a silent civil War epic adapted from a novel titled the Clansman made marauding rapists of freed slaves heroes of while supremacists and the suggestion a later edited out a that Blacks be deported to Africa. Then and now regarded As a masterpiece of filmmaking it was banned in eight states vilified by political leaders historians and sociologists and subjected to a presidential re review when Woodrow Wilson recanted the Praise he had Given it in an Early White House screening and called it an a unfortunate  a riot Over the film in Atlanta led to a revival of the Kun flux klan. A the Green berets 1968. John Wayne a xenophobic Salute to the Good work of the special forces in Vietnam invented Viet Cong atrocities rewrote asian political history and essentially accused War protesters and the Liberal press Back Home of pro communist sympathies. The film caused picketing throughout the United states and in that turbulent political year drove the wedge Between Hawks and doves and parents and children even deeper. A the Deer Hunter 1978. The russian Roulette game forced on american pos by North vietnamese soldiers in Michael Cimino a Vietnam movie was meant As a metaphor for the Day to Day horror of War but Many took it literally. Anti War people Jane Fonda among them called the film a racist and sadistic Quot and accused Cimino of portraying the Viet Cong As devils to justify . Involvement in the War. A the  temptation of Christ 1987. There is no Warren report on the crucifixion of Jesus so Martin Scorsese a adaptation of Nikos Kazan Akiso novel did no to necessarily fool around with facts. But its speculations about Christ a sexuality Anil his self doubts rankled christians and created a juror of protests and threats against Scorsese and Universal pictures. A Mississippi burning 1988. English director Alan Parker s fictionalized account of the 1964 klan murder of three civil rights workers provoked a massive Back lash from Black leaders politicians historians journalists and everyone else with a memory Long enough to know that White Fri agents were neither champions nor heroes of the civil rights movement. Many people think the Flap Cost the critically acclaimed picture the Academy award c news Jay the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government