Using the thesis that whoever occupies the Oval Office has a profound impact on matters of war and peace, director Koji Masutani and Producer/Presenter James Blight compare the JFK and Lyndon B. Johnson presidencies and try to suppose how the former would have handled the Vietnam conflict. Step-by-step, Masutani and Blight take the audience through six key crises during Kennedy’s 1,000 days as President to see if a pattern exists in JFK’s actions that could shed light on what he would have done, had Kennedy not been killed in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963.
The film is a discussion in “Virtual History” or “Counter-Factual History,” which is perhaps more commonly recognized as the Theory of Cleopatra’s Nose. It comes from Pascal’s line, "Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed." If Cleopatra’s nose had been shorter, Marc Anthony may not have been interested; which would have changed the history of the Roman Empire, which would have changed the history of the West, which would have changed the history of the world.
Blight narrates and analyzes as Masutani painstakingly uses archival footage, declassified documents and White House tapes to create a collage of Kennedy’s thinking process. Blight calls 1961 “The worst year for a President ever” with The Bay of Pigs, the Berlin Wall, the Laos Crisis and the beginning of US involvement in Vietnam. On each occasion, as well as with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy was able to navigate away from all out war, usually over the very loud objections of many of his military and civilian advisors. By comparison, LBJ took military advice unwaveringly, accepting the things the generals and other advisors were telling him without much hesitation. And what they were telling him, of course, was more troops in Vietnam.
The presentation is fascinating, and certainly seeing formally classified material provided clearer insight into what went on behind the scenes. Masutani and Blight easily make their case that it matters in times of war who’s President. Still I would have liked to have seen a wider analysis beyond want Kennedy did. By the description of the film, I thought that there was going to be more supposition as to what Kennedy would have actually done and maybe some debate over what that action might have been. I think the film provides a pretty clear notion that Kennedy would have avoided seeing Vietnam disintegrate in the same fashion it did under Johnson, but how would he do it?
The film ends with the ominous and anonymous quote, “Every time history repeats itself, the price of the lessons goes up.” Is that meant to be a general warning or a pointed reminder to the US electorate? Well I don’t know about that, but what Virtual JFK does is throw a lot of history at you in an easy to understand package that makes you understand about the nature of leadership and how it can affect a country goes to war, or not goes to war. A very timely film, indeed.
For more information on Virtual JFK visit the website for the Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University here: http://www.watsoninstitute.org/project_detail.cfm?id=77
