Virtual JFK - Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived (2009)(LinkTV-Rip)

Virtual JFK - Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived (2009)(LinkTV-Rip)

It would be nice if someone can share the DVD

A filmic examination of "virtual history." What would Kennedy have done in Vietnam if he had lived and been re-elected in 1964?

At the heart of Virtual JFK is the critical question: Does it matter who is President of the United States when it comes to issues of war and peace? It explores this question by investigating one of the most debated "what if" scenarios in the history of U.S. foreign policy: What would President John F. Kennedy have done in Vietnam if he had not been assassinated in 1963, and had he been re-elected in 1964? The film employs what Harvard historian Niall Ferguson calls "virtual history," assessing the plausibility of counterfactuals -- "what ifs" -- and the outcomes they might have produced.

Drawing on unusual archival footage from presidential libraries and the National Archives, along with newly deciphered audio tapes and other documentary evidence, the film draws our attention to six highly charged crises Kennedy faced in which many, or most, of his advisers counseled war: The Bay of Pigs, The Laos Crisis, the Berlin Crisis, the Showdown over Vietnam, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Withdrawal from Vietnam.

There's not much "virtual" in Kosi Masutani's thoughtful if artless documentary about the JFK administration — which is to its credit. Instead, the film explores Kennedy's response to threats of war during his three years in office to suggest what policy he might have pursued in Vietnam had he lived.

His successor, Lyndon Johnson, escalated the war into a debacle that ended with 58,000 Americans and countless Vietnamese dead. (For real "virtual" history, there's Oliver Stone's JFK, which proposes that Kennedy was done in because he opposed the war.)

The film passes on speculation in favor of facts, pointing out how on six occasions when war threatened — the Bay of Pigs, the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban Missile Crisis among them — Kennedy, despite great pressure, kept the peace. Perhaps more telling than the tragedy of Kennedy is that of Johnson, whose Great Society was eclipsed by an endless war. The current president should take note.

Summary: Virtual JFK investigates one of the most debated “what if” scenarios in the history of U.S. foreign policy: What would President John F. Kennedy have done in Vietnam if he had not been assassinated in 1963, and had he been re-elected in 1964? The resulting film employs what Harvard historian Niall Ferguson calls “virtual history,” assessing the plausibility of counterfactuals—“what ifs”—and the outcomes they might have produced. The film-makers use of an array of resources including recently declassified and never-before-seen archival footage, documents, and audio tapes, and testimony form a critical oral history conference including Kennedy and Johnson administration officials. The heart of the film deals with the question: Does it matter who is president on issues of war and peace?