NEW FILM PROMOTES 'RIGHT WING PLOT' THEORY OF KENNEDY ASSASSINATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01365R000300070003-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 26, 1973
• Content Type: REPORT

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Your Biweekly Report from Prospect House
November 26, 1973
Washington, D.C.
issue #66
NEW FILM PROMOTES "RIGHT WING PLOT" THEORY OF KENNEDY ASSASSINATION
One of the most highly publicized attempts to build the KENNEDY family mystique and
exploit the tenth anniversary of the assassination of President JOHN F. KENNEDY is
a new movie called "Executive Action.'' The film uses a phony "documentary" approach
to try to portray the assassinaL-_Lon as the result of a right-wing conspiracy.
It is not surprising that nearly everybody connected with this blatant left-wring;
propaganda movie has a long record of involvement in radical causes. The movie was
based on a novel by MARK LANE and DONALD FREED. The screenplay is by DALTON TRU1130.
One of the producers was DAN BESSIE. The three main actors are BURT LANCASTER,
ROBERT RYAN and WILL GEER. Here is a run-down on those individuals.
MARK LANE is best known for his book "Rush to Judgment" and his persistent
criticism of the Warren Commission Report. He was previously executive
director of the Communist front National Lawyers Guild. He was vice pres-
idential candidate of the ultra-leftist Peace and Freedom Party and a legal
advisor to JANE FONDA. His record of Communist-front involvement is almost
endless.
DONALD FREED, a former UCLA instructor, is a veteran Southern California
leftist agitator. He was once arrested for illegal possession of weapons
which were allegedly destined for the Black Panther Party, which he publicly
supported through its most violent phases. His other literary activites on
behalf of leftist causes include a play, "The United States vs Ethel and
Julius Rosenberg," which attempts to vindicate the convicted Soviet spies,
and the current book, "Agony in New Haven," an account of a trial of Black
Panthers so laden with Marxist rhetoric. as to repel even liberal reviewers.
DALTON TRUMBO was one of the original "Hollywood Ten" cited and "black-
listed" for Communist activity in the early 1950's. His devotion to radical
causes has remained true through the'years. Though he was "blacklisted,"
he continued to work under assumed names. Just this year he chaired a
National Peace Action Coalition rally in Los Angeles.
DAN BE SS_[E is the son of longtime Communist Party member ALVAII BESSIE. DAN
writes for the Party's west coast newspaper, Peoples World.
uuU uL iiu6 no record or involve-
ment in questionable or Communist-front activity.
The late ROBERT RYAN dabbled in such leftist causes as endorsing the "Peoples
Peace Treaty," a 1971 Hanoi creation, speaking at a 1971 meeting of the
Communist-influenced "Publishers for Peace" and backing the Trotskyite Com-
munist."National Peace Action Coalition."
WILL SEER (who plays the lovable grandfather on the 'popular TV ser.ie;,
"The Waltons") has an extensive radical background. GEER was identified
as a member of the Communist Party, USA, by HAROLD ASHE, in sworn testi-
m bef September,
provo Kel ~OrO'1'fi9 :eCfi-F~3'~20bi0703 1- (I.t 1.-imsc ook the Fifth Amendment when asked by the Committee
about Party membership in April, 1951. In addition to a .Communist front
rr nr an-i nn? }innlr I- i-1,- non' MITT "n _-- -- - - , .