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Interesting Artifact circa 1973

posted 7 years ago by best_of
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This movie came out on the tenth anniversary year of JFK's murder. It did not pretend to be the 'answer' or solve who might have killed the president. What it did do was provide an alternative to the Warren Commission. Mark Lane was one of the major sources for Executive Action, and his extreme skepticism of the Warren Report was well known. What the movie does to an excellent degree is to provide a lot of exposition, explaining this and that via the discussions that the conspirators engage in.

Screen play was written by formerly blacklisted Dalton Trumbo and he does a fine job in getting the point across. The film's portrayal of the cold, cold heart of the Texas businessmen exposes the sentiment of this mega-rich big shots who thought and acted like they could do whatever they damn well pleased 'for the good of the country.'

A sentiment that exists today in many privileged and elitist circles. JFK's murder was so shocking and the FBI, which had unclean hands in their relationship with Oswald, rush to judgement (as Mark Lane would say), made a weak case for all that happened. Was there a conspiracy to kill JFK? Who knows? What is clear, is that after the murder, various agencies, particularly the FBI and the CIA, did everything possible to cover their askes.

J. Edgar Hoover's behavior was probably the worst of all, considering that Lee Harvey Oswald actually made a rucus at the Dallas FBI office around a week before the assassination, even leaving a note/letter filled with threats. The FBI had been shadowing Oswald and was aware that he was working in a building the Texas School Book Depository, overlooking JFK's motorcade route, yet did NOTHING. May not be a conspiracy, but it was total criminal and historical incompetence.

While we are at it, look at RFK, who outright lied to the Warren Commission, denying any knowledge of plots to kill foreign leaders, particularly Castro, which might have better informed the Commissions conclusions. RFK was not a conspirator, he just wanted to keep his and his brother's reputations clean. What we do know, is that RFK was a very polished bare faced liar.

Stephen King who wrote 11/22/63 a few years ago, says that he is 99 percent sure Oswald was the shooter ('follow the gun'). BTW people who are anti-conspiracy like to point to how long it has been since the murder, and if there were others than Oswald involved, they would have been outed by now. Maybe, but Jimmy Hoffa, Bugsy Segal, Tupac, Alan Dorfman, and Sam Giancana have all been murdered, and no one has been prosecuted in any of these cases. So, if important enough, Omerta rules.

Executive Action is not a flawless movie. But it is a compelling artifact of the time when it was written. All these years later it holds up as interesting entertainment. Compared to Oliver Stones JFK it is easier to sit through and enjoy.

[–] rgibson-20 7 years ago

Good post. A few thoughts.

"The FBI had been shadowing Oswald and was aware that he was working in a building the Texas School Book Depository, overlooking JFK's motorcade route, yet did NOTHING. May not be a conspiracy, but it was total criminal and historical incompetence."

That's a fair argument. However, Agent Hosty claimed he had no basis for believing Oswald, odd as he was, was a risk for this kind of thing. Plus, he said the note was a warning from Oswald that the FBI should quit bothering Marina. That might have been reason for Hostyle to take offense personally, but it is a stretch to say he should have realized Oswald might kill the President based on this. Nonetheless, you are right that this should have at least been kicked up the chain and on to the Secret Service.

"BTW people who are anti-conspiracy like to point to how long it has been since the murder, and if there were others than Oswald involved, they would have been outed by now. Maybe, but Jimmy Hoffa, Bugsy Segal, Tupac, Alan Dorfman, and Sam Giancana have all been murdered, and no one has been prosecuted in any of these cases. So, if important enough, Omerta rules."

I have thought about this myself many times. But most of the JFK conspiracies require many multiples of participants compared to the people you named. Thus, the belief that the conspiracy could not be maintained. As a side note, I think it is pretty clear we know the groups, if not the individuals, who were responsible for the deaths you listed. But JFK conspiracies generally involve so many people, that it would be hard to imagine no breach in the dike.

Thanks for a thoughtful post.

[–] best_of 7 years ago

Yes, your points are well taken. However, I would say this about FBI guy Hosty. Any comments he had to say about Oswald are completely worthless, since he was the one who directed that the note/letter from Oswald be destroyed 'never see the light of day', after Oswald was killed by Ruby. Any way you look at it, it was the destruction of evidence.

Also, just by saying that he (Hosty) did not see Oswald to a threat to the president, does not get him off the hook. Otherwise why was he continually harassing Oswald, because of his alleged communist associations, after returning from the Soviet Union? Hosty was part and parcel to all of the horribles of the FBI, doctoring evidence, framing suspects, destroying or fabricating evidence, which was Hoover's stock in trade for nearly fifty years. I don't think Hosty conspired to kill JFK, but, as I said in original post, he was criminally and historically incompetent.

And yes, as you mentioned, at the very least, they should have let the Secret Service know about Oswald. Also, there is existing recordings between Hoover and LBJ the day after JFK's murder where Hoover says there are a lot of threats on Oswald's life.

LBJ and Hoover banter about how a lot of people don't want Oswald to testify! Remember this is more than twenty four hours BEFORE Oswald was gunned down in plain sight of the world and the Dallas police. The fact that LBJ did nothing and that Hoover did nothing is stunning no matter what excuse or rationale is given.