JFK: A President Betrayed

[Alan Dale]

http://apresidentbetrayed.stta.us/

[Alan Dale]

I saw.

Worth seeking out. Plenty of interesting and insightful recollections and analysis by about a dozen historians. There may be some revelations for those who are not deeply immersed. Superb documentary film making; undoubtedly a labor of love for director Cory Taylor whose previous works include 2009's The Power of The Powerless and 1998's Avalanche: The White Death for which he won a Prime Time Emmy for Sound Editing.

This film focuses on the familiar Cold War crises of a young president increasingly at odds with his military/intelligence professionals. Some of the most compelling parts of the film are contemporary interviews with the men who served as Nikita Khrushchev's and President Kennedy's translators during the Vienna summit of June 4, 1961, Viktor Sukhodrev (Khrushchev) and Alexander Akalovsky (JFK). Candid recollections from the daughters of Norman Cousins who accompanied their father to meet Khrushchev, and commentary from Khrushchev's son are also new.

The filmmakers have chosen to make no stated inference about the circumstances of President Kennedy's assassination. I believe JFK: A President Betrayed will be a valuable resource to anyone, especially those whose lives began after his death, for assessing the context and meaning of his presidency and his life.

I'm hopeful it will soon be available on DVD.

[TLR]

It was pretty good. They started out mentioning the 1961 Pentagon plan for a preemptive strike on the USSR in late 1963. They describe how Averell Harriman changed his views on Vietnam to become an interventionist and actively worked to subvert Kennedy's policies there.

There was no mention of Operation Northwoods, unfortunately. They did talk about the JFK-Khrushchev letters and Norman Cousins, Jean Daniel and Castro. They don't mention the CIA as much as they should have. They show a film clip of Kennedy as a Senator in 1953 visiting Vietnam warning about US involvement there.

Overall they paint a picture of Kennedy trying to avoid nuclear war and develop peaceful coexistence with the Communist world. The assassination is referred to without supporting or opposing the official story.

One could easily make a three or four documentary about this subject and go into much greater detail (no mention of Seven Days in May, for example), but this was still a good introduction.