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

discussions in the Pentagon during the 1960’s about the need for warfare. Prouty quoted
from the novel that “The organization of a society for the possibility of war is its
principal political stabilizer…The basic authority of a modern state over its people
resides in its war powers.” 725 From a novel to Prouty to Oliver Stone to a theater near
you.
In such a far-reaching conspiracy, Oswald became an afterthought in Prouty’s
book and receded in importance in Stone’s JFK. Prouty wrote that “It is clear from the
abundant evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill President Kennedy. Then why
study Oswald and that whole matter to absurdity? Such actions are an utter waste of time
and serve to obfuscate the truth.” 726 In Stone’s JFK, “X” voices similar ideas. Many
assassination researchers would, of course, disagree that Oswald is unimportant. To
them, Oswald holds the key to unraveling who was behind the plot. If Oswald was in
fact an agent of the U.S. government, that would be prima facie evidence of a conspiracy
and cover-up. But Prouty was not concerned with building an historical argument based
on evidence but sought to explain world affairs through his particular conspiracy theory.
JFK received much attention from scholars because the film’s popularity and its
ability to shape conceptions of the assassination (and Oswald). Film historian Robert
Brent Toplin, in History by Hollywood, pointed out that few films have had “as great an
impact on public affairs” as JFK: the movie led to the creation of an official panel to
725 Quoted in Prouty, 41.
726 Prouty, 136.
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