The 'Dark Legacy' of the 1980s explored in new film

[jakeXT]

John Hankey is a controversial filmmaker, based in Los Angeles, who has several films to his credit exploring topics ranging from the critical analysis of cinema to political conspiracies. His new film, Dark Legacy, concerns both the records of such figures as Richard Nixon and George W. Bush as well as the lingering effects of the Kennedy assassination. I interviewed him about his new work in the context of the major political events of the 1980s.

JOSEPH GREEN: The 1980s were dominated by the Bush family. 1980-1988, Bush Sr. is the VP, then elected president through 88-92. Can you identify some definite changes you witnessed under the Bush era?

JOHN HANKEY: Gary Webb won a Pulitzer Prize for his work detailing how Bush created the crack epidemic, delivering crack and automatic weapons to gang members by the truckload. He was rewarded with two shots in the head. Ruled a suicide, no kidding.

Gangs in LA were isolated primarily social institutions before that. They became primarily conduits for drugs and auto-genocide. The situation got so insane that crime continues to decline as that epidemic wanes, twenty-nine years later. Nixon was under intense pressure to take Bush on as his VP -- Russ Baker has come out with a fabulous new book on this and related topics. No doubt Bush would have overseen the heroin epidemic if he had been VP. As it was he oversaw the torture of the Phoenix program in Vietnam, which murdered over 50,000 victims by torturing them to death. I mention it to show the continuity from Bush 1 to Bush 2 re: torture. I think it was Karl Rove who said a neo-con is a liberal who got mugged. These guys saw crime as their ticket to political power, and did everything they could to create a crime epidemic that, although on the decline since Bush 1 left office, is still with us residually.

Reagan is shot March 30, 1981. Does this change the balance of power in DC?

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http://www.examiner.com/x-10287-80s-Culture-Examiner~y2009m7d15-The-Dark-Legacy-of-the-1980s-explored-in-new-film