[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

isn’t it – ‘Why?’ – the ‘how’ is just ‘scenery’ for the suckers…Oswald, Ruby, Cuba,
Mafia, it keeps people guessing like a parlor game, but it prevents them from asking the
most important question – Why? Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefited? Who has the
power to cover it up?” 702 The answer for Stone and the real life Garrison is a conspiracy
and cover-up within the top echelons of the U.S. government. Secret Agent Oswald
indicates the participation of intelligence operatives, but recedes in importance.
Mixed in with the scenes of Oswald’s life are actual photographs of Lee Oswald
from his childhood and adulthood. Stone seems to be asking, could this normal-looking
kid grow up to be an assassin? The Garrison character, in his soliloquy to the jury at the
end of the film, calls Oswald “a sacrificial lamb” and asks “Who grieves for Lee Harvey
Oswald? Buried in a cheap grave under the name ‘Oswald’? No one.” 703 Here again is
District Attorney Garrison’s thesis from On the Trail of the Assassins that Oswald was
innocent and set up as the fall guy. The Garrison character describes Lyndon Johnson’s
departure from Dallas as a “getaway,” with the guilt of Oswald determined before there is
any investigation: “The ‘lone nut’ solution is in place.” 704
Oliver Stone does show on screen Oswald firing three shots at the Kennedy
limousine, as the Warren Commission said. However, this footage is portrayed in such a
way as to cast doubt on its truthfulness. Oswald must calmly squeeze off three shots on
the sixth floor of the book depository building, wipe the fingerprints from the gun, stash
the weapon, run down a flight of stairs, past two women who said they did not seem him,
702 Sklar and Stone, 110.
703 Sklar and Stone, 176.
704 Sklar and Stone, 156-157.
309