Oliver Stone’s Film on Kennedy

In his article “Kennedy Assassination: Bonding a Generation” (Opinion, Dec. 22) historian David Kennedy joins a growing chorus of enraged social critics berating Oliver Stone’s polemical movie “JFK.” Clearly, if Stone had presented a more orthodox and status quo interpretation of the Dallas event this fury would not have erupted and Kennedy would not have had to display his disdain for those assaulting the “ramparts of historical accuracy.”

Kennedy believes that as a professional historian he and his like-minded colleagues possess an undistorted version of historical events free from ideological bias and cultural and political influences, but this is surely a professional fantasy. Kennedy writes that “there is myth, there is history, and then there is memory.” He assumes that these categories are clearly separate and distinguishable within his profession. In fact, as modern historiography has revealed myth, history and memory are inseparably bound together and at times indistinguishable.

Stone’s film not only goes against the dominant interpretation of events as presented by our government but, more important, the film has brought to the public sphere a critical and artistic analysis of the Dallas event in the aftermath of Watergate and the Iran-Contragate scandals.

TOSHIO WHELCHEL, Los Angeles