2/28 2,224.0' 9,1...45: 28 p3i0 g NIGHTLINE N.Ni6Y-an-5-)( (NIGH 1(21.2 Err 3335: To I Laura Uessncr 2 December 19, 1991 ABC NEWS Transcript #2759 47 West 66th Street, New York. NY 10(123 Transcripts: Journal Graph) cs, Inc., 1535 Grant Street, Denver, CO 80203 Press contact: Laura Wesener (212) 397-4223 RE Eli rig I! M Oliver Stone's "JFK" In V hington FORREST SAWYER ........41.11.0.11•••••111.11. .......... 11•1 Hog Guest In Dallas OLIVER STONE Fernrnalter TOM BETTAG Executive Producer Copyright C 1991 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This transcript may not be produced in whole or in part without permitslon. -Transcript produced by Journal Graphics, Ire. Transcript Charges. $4.00 each, Please indicate air date and subject and'or participants. All orders must be prepaid. Annual subscriptions at $226 per year. Indicate starting date and enclose payment. Credit card orders: (303) 881.9000. An electronic index of tranteripts Ii available on the CcrnpuServe Information Service _1529 NIGHTLINE r17Y713S- < I GH 22/213/32V-Zel re /2 B97 In; Laura yeti= r p 73. This traritcript has not yet been checked against videotape We don't think employees of the Central Intelligence \---• and cannot, for that reason, be gearan teed ae to accuracy of Agency were involved, speckere and spelling. (JP.S1) Purely end simply, it was a case of former employees of the CIA. ABC N]IWS NIGHTLINE Show $12759 HAROLD WEISBERG, Author: lie is not the kind of Air Date: December 19, 1991 man that you would think would perpetrate a fraud and a travesty, but his investigation was not in any eenst Oliver Stone's "JFK" an investigation. He was making it up as he vent. SAWYER: (voice-over) Garrison came up with a careeninr FORREST SAWYER: (voice-over] Nearly three decades series of conspirators: Cuban exiles, hornosexue:e, finally after It 7Lappened, the question lives on: who really killed the military-industrial complex, always refusine to reveal President John F. Kennedy? Tonight, In Dallas. a movie his evidence. One aide resigned in diegort, premiere. that puts forth a frightening theory, that It was WILLIAM GURVICH, former Garrison Aide Because a plot by the military-industrial complex. I was one of Mr. Garrison', top sides, I have it copy of thi KEVIN COSTNER, "Jim Garrison": r',./FK," Warner master file, I did scene of his key inveetigatine. I more BrotLers] This was a military.style ambush, from start there is no evidence. to fir ish. This was a coup d'etat, with Lyndon Johnson SAWYER: (vain-over] Garrison called the reeignatior waiting in the wings. part of the cover-up, and finally charged New Orleans SAWYER: (voiee.over) Is JFX just a movie, or can one businessman Clay Shaw with conspiracy. The tie] was s man's crueade actually succeed in rewriting history? We'll shambles. A key witness said under cross-exammaticn he talk with director Oliver Stone tonight. had been repeatedly hypnotized by enemies wi 0 plentek Al'iN01.'NCER: This is ABC News Nightline. Substitut- ideas in his head. Hood College history profess er Gerald ing for Ted Koppel and »porting from New York, Porrest McKnight has taught a course in the Kennedy arisatsina• Sawyer. don for the past 10 years. SAWYER: For all the hoopla, Hollywood films usually Prot GERALD MoKNIGHT, Hood College: Ceerrlson'e show up at the neighborhood theater, make a little money case was so weak, it was so preposterous, the winue es in — or a lot of money — and then fade away to the video many caste were Co outlandish. that in SO minutes that store shelves,. Rarely do directors walk Into dangerous Jury came back with a verdict of not guilty. political territory, using their power and their skill to chal- REPORTER: You believe that he did nc: conspire lenge established ideas. But Oliver Stone has done Juet to kill the President? thee, "pending an estimated $40 million to assault the idea glifAIN JUROR: I do. I do. I may admit, there muld that Leo Harvey Oswald acted alone, and to lay out his have been a conspiracy, but I do not believe that Mr own theory of conspiracy. Shaw was involved in a conspiracy. All o:' thi. is a huge political and financial gamble, and OLIVER STONE, Director: What we're doing is. it bas net been eery. In the week. before Its release, Stone we're sort of acting as detectives, like She:Icck Hol. came under withering fire from critics, who ended their at- muses. tacks scenewhere just short of calling him a horse thief. SAWYER: (voice-purr) Enter Oliver Stone, 22 years later There have already been a dozen documentaries about the with a new crueade, a film intended to reshape America's assuairation, and over 600 books, so why Is .7FX drawing understanding of the put, and renovate Jim Garteson's so much heat? In a. few minutes we'll hear from the direc- tattered reputation. Stone has transformed the much. tor hirnielf, but Lint, the critics have their turn: why criticized district attorney into the quietly courageous Oliver Stone has become the most controeereial director in Kevin Costner, not the real Garrison, but a dramatic meta. America. Poor, the symbol of the struggle for truth, a way to prosero CORRESPONDENT: Jim Garrison, New Orleans Stone's own theory of who killed the President. district attorney, the man leading a uneetional ln- KEVIN COSTNER, "Jim Garrison': ("JFK,' wetigation of the assassination of President John F. Warner Brothers) This Wu a mil itary-rtyle am'eush Kennedy. from start to finish, This was a coup d'etat, Kitt SAWYER: (voice-owe) Jim Garrison burst into America's Lyndon Johnson waiting in the wing,. consciousness in 1967, with a startling claim: he. could SAWYER: (voice-over] Who did it? People at the very top prove there was a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. from the CIA to military leader, to big-time industrialists The problem was, the more he talked, the more he con- Kennedy was "soft on Communism" and wanted eo pull cut es-laic-tee himself. • of Vietnam. Kennedy had to die, and the hawkiele Lyndor JIM GARRISON, former New origami District At- Johnson flew in to keep the war alive, torney: The federal government, including key erncials Prot G. ROBERT BLAKEY, CODS. Hee. Aseassina. and the President of the United States more epecifical- Lion/ Coseettittee: He's taken a left-wing paranoid ly, !thew that President Kennedy was not killed by a thesis and supported it with fabricated evidence, you lone assassin, know, and has foisted it on the people of this country at The President of the United States is not in any way If It were the truth, when it is demonstrably Wee. involved. I'm satisfied that he has been fooled, too. SAWYER: (oolve.over) Like it or not, JFK la a etaggerine —1— 12/211r2eT NI Gl-rTLINE P 4 • 6 accamplishment, three hours and eight minutes of kaleido- wood history, much of it from people who haven't even seer scopic rendition of evidence, real footage blended with he. the flint. Even before the movie's release, he has been pit- Um, all there to sell the director's belief that America waif loried, accused of twisting history. The director line fought taken over by a secret band of killers. back, saying the establishment press is trying he kill the ROBERT SAM ANSON, "Esquire" Magazine: I film, and that, too, bother. his critics. mean. a child could watch this film, almost, and under. Mr. WEISBERG: He's created a whole false carnhalgr stand quite clearly what occurred on November 22nd, of the whole world out to get him, the enahliehment 1968 I think Its a remarkable accomplishment. whatever that means. The whole world has imxiged u; SAWYER: (uoice-oueri Which is exactly the problem, ac- on Oliver Stone to keep him from telling the truth, anc cording to critical. They say young people unfamiliar with he wouldn't know the truth If he fel! in it. the evidence will be convinced by what they claim are SAWYER: Sonic of Stone's harshest critic. agree with the numerous distortions of the truth. Point one. The Stone director and with millions of Americans on one sees ntis Illnt ridicules a central element of the 1964 Warren Corn• point: they do believe there was a conspiracy. *:c kill thi emission report. Slone says a 'Ingle bullet could not have President. These critics are angry because Stone has mad. 'truck Loth President Kennedy and Terns Governor John a powerful argument fbr a theory they consider it Connally, and emerged virtually unscathed. He suggests responsible. the bullet may have been planted by a conspirator. In fart, In a moment, you will hear the other Ode or this cio scientit: analysis by the House Ateassinatione committee pute, the director of JFK, Oliver Stone. in 1976 led them to conclude such a shot wu possible, and (Commercial break) they proved the found bullet did hit Connally. SAWYER: Joining us from Dallas, where he attended Prof BLAKEY: That bullet and Its trajectory is nub. benefit ecreening of JFK, is Oliver Stone. Mr. Stone is th }Mei, for anybody who wants to read the evidence, writer, the producer and the director of the film. He wo beyond all reasonable doubt, and to present it other- an Oscar for directing Born on the Fourth of Jidi/ In 1961 wise, without presenting the contradictory evidence, is and in 1966 his flim Platoon won an Oscar for belt picture Oliver, I noticed you scribbling away as you wore linet REPORTER: Did you shoot the President? tag to the piece.