VIRTUAL JFK: Q & A with director KOJI MASUTANI, producer/historian JAMES G. BLIGHT and JFK advisor/speechwriter THEODORE SORENSEN (Recorded September 17, 2008)

Summary: VIRTUAL JFK: SCOTTISH HISTORIAN NIALL FERGUSON CALLS IT VIRTUAL HISTORY: the great what if’s, the plausibility of counterfactuals. First-time filmmaker Koji Masutani and Brown University professor James G. Blight ask: “Can a president make a decisive difference in matters of war and peace… or, are the forces that drive a nation into war a lot more impersonal, out of the control of any single human being, even a president?” In 1963 the US had 16,000 military advisors in Vietnam. In 1968, Johnson had 500,000 troops there. VIRTUAL JFK rethinks the legendary 1,000-day presidency, selecting from more than 250 hours of archival material some of the brightest, funniest moments from the Kennedy press conferences as well as some of the scariest ones, when the Cold War threatens to turn hot. The 800-pound gorilla in the room is, of course, George W. Bush and his war in Iraq. This podcast is the Q & A with director KOJI MASUTANI, producer/historian JAMES G. BLIGHT and JFK advisor/speechwriter THEODORE SORENSEN (Recorded September 17, 2008) during their appearance opening night of the film at Film Forum.