The JFK 100

"Nothing Was Left to Chance"

Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) gets an earful from mystery man "X" (Donald Sutherland)

In Oliver Stone's JFK, mystery man "X" (portrayed by Donald Sutherland and based largely on L. Fletcher Prouty) recites a list of "strange things" occurring at the time of the assassination:

We had the entire Cabinet on a trip to the Far East. We had a third of a combat division returning from Germany in the air above the United States at the time of the shooting, and at 12:34 PM, the entire telephone system went dead in Washington for a solid hour, and on the plane back to Washington, word was radioed from the White House Situation Room to Lyndon Johnson that one individual performed the assassination. Does that sound like a bunch of coincidences to you, Mr. Garrison? Not for one moment. The cabinet was out of the country to get their perception out of the way. The troops were in the air for possible riot control. The phones didn't work to keep the wrong stories from spreading if anything went wrong with the plan. Nothing was left to chance. ⁽¹⁾

Unsurprisingly, Oliver Stone presents no evidence that a conspiracy was behind any such events. Let's look at the facts.

We had the entire Cabinet on a trip to the Far East. . . . The cabinet was out of the country to get their perception out of the way.

The cabinet was attending a major conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, one that had been planned well in advance.⁽²⁾

We had a third of a combat division returning from Germany in the air above the United States at the time of the shooting . . . The troops were in the air for possible riot control.⁽³⁾

Members of the 49th Armored Division were returning to the US as part of Operation Big Lift, which began over a month earlier.

[A]t 12:34 PM, the entire telephone system went dead in Washington for a solid hour . . . The phones didn't work to keep the wrong stories from spreading if anything went wrong with the plan.

The phone system never "went dead." Because of the extremely high volume of calls, some people had to wait momentarily to receive a dial tone.

ABC newsman Sam Donaldson challenged Oliver Stone about this during a television interview. "I made a dozen calls during that time from the Capitol to the White House and elsewhere in Washington," he said. "The telephone system wasn't out." "I'll have to look into that," Stone replied weakly.⁽⁴⁾

[A]nd on the plane back to Washington, word was radioed from the White House Situation Room to Lyndon Johnson that one individual performed the assassination.

By the time Air Force One left Texas, the news media were already broadcasting reports that Lee Harvey Oswald was the prime suspect in the assassination. Naturally, this is how the White House received the information.

Time after time, when one looks at the actual facts, they appear a great deal less sinister than Oliver Stone would have one believe.

You may wish to see . . .

The JFK 100: The Mystery Man, "X"

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NOTES:
1. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 109. All quotations are from the shooting script and may vary slightly from the finished motion picture.
2. William Manchester, The Death of a President (New York: Harper, 1988), pp. 193-94; John M.Newman, JFK and Vietnam (New York: Warner Books, 1992), pp. 415-45.
3. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 110. All quotations are from the shooting script and may vary slightly from the finished motion picture.
4. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 220 fn.