Town Hall was packed— some 1200 people. The event, sponsored by the Nation, was a debate over Oliver Stone’s movie, JFK, called immodestly, Hollywood and History. My friend Victor Navasky, who was moderating the show, had persuaded me, as an expert on the assassination, to take on Stone. The other participants on stage were Norman Mailer, who had written on the JFK conspiracy (and also ran a small discussion group on conspiracies called the Dynamite Club to which I belonged) and Nora Ephron, who had written the film Silkwood and Oliver Stone, who got a ten minute standing ovation. They all seemed to be such enthusiastic conspiracy buffs that Navasky began by asking “Will all of you out there that think you don’t belong on this panel please stand up?” No one did. Mailer began by saying the JFK assassination should be “seen not as history but as a myth in which the gods warned and a god fell.” Mailer, even in the meetings of our Dynamite Club, had always wanted to deify the Kennedys. He succeeded, at best, in mystifying an audience who had come to learn something about Stone’s movie. Nora Ephron, telling the story of her movie, evaded the subject completely— but at least was amusing. I had jotted down two points on 3x5 cards.

The first card read: “Although they may aim at the same purpose of finding truth, Non-Fiction and fiction are two distinct forms of knowledge. The writer of non-fiction is limited by the universe of discoverable fact. He cannot make up what he does not know-- no matter how strong his intuition or suspicion. The writer of fiction knows no such boundary: He can fill in whatever gaps exist with his imagination. If fiction is blended with non-fiction--even if it is only a minute fraction of the whole-- the resulting product is pure fiction. This is because the fictional additions change the way we understand the factual material.

The second:

Let me give you one example from the film JFK. Just before he is found dead, David Ferrie confesses to Garrison and his staff, that he had been involved in the assassination along with the CIA, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Clay Shaw. In fact, the confession never happened. As Garrison himself describes in his two books, Ferrie maintained that he had no connection with Oswald, Shaw or the assassination. So Stone converted a denial in reality to an admission in his film. Once the audience sees the fictional confession, it cannot help but interpret differently the non-fiction material that follows.”

But looking at the audience, sweat beginning to seep down my neck, I realized I needed a more winning approach. So, before getting to my points, I took another tact, beginning “ JFK is a brilliant movie very much in the tradition of Costa-Grava's Z. Oliver Stone has every right to present whatever view he considers valid--or even entertaining--in a work of fiction. Everyone else does it. And as such, it may contain much truth in it, and it may look likes a news documentary but it cannot be considered non-fiction because it blends in fictional characters and fictional episodes. But, as we all know, a real event also happened in New Orleans in 1967: there was a a flagrant abuse of prosecutorial power by Jim Garrison. Over a dozen people were arrested or charged with a crime-- although they were never prosecuted. Three were members of the press-- Walter Sheridan of NBC , David Chandler of Life, and Richard Townley of WSDU-TV. Arrest warrents were issued for them on charges of bribery because they charged Garrison was fabricating evidence Three were members of Garrison's own staff. They were charged with larcony for leaking Garrison's purported evidence to the press. Six were potential witnesses. They claimed Garrison asked them to perjure themselves or plant evidence in return for legal favors or cash. He also arrested someone called Edgar Eugene Bradley, charging him with "conspiracy to kill JFK". The reason: The arrest was just a desperate effort to divert public opinion. After Bradley--whoever he is--was released; Garrison forgot about him. The asst DA said "it was a mistake". You won't find Bradley's name in the movie JFK.”

At this point, having appealed to the ACLU side of the Nation audience, I proceeded to make the points I had scribbled down.

Stone, glaring at me, then lumbered to the podium. He was a skilled crowd-pleaser, getting outbursts of applause with his lexicon of buzzwords and rhetorical irony. The audience was then allowed to ask questions.

The “debate” ended at 11 pm.

Backstage, Stone shook hands with everyone but me— indeed, he didn’t say a word to me until Sonserai Lee, a very beautiful Korean friend, arrived. We had a plan to dine at the Royalton. Suddenly, he came over and asked “ Hey guys, where are you going to dinner?”

Sonserai said “The Royalton,” and, next thing I knew, he joined us for dinner— along with his entourage. At dinner, he brought up Angleton. When I mentioned I knew him, he said, “Wow. Did he say if the CIA killed JFK.”