Imagine the death of an important person in your life being
unresolved. Now, imagine the death of an important person in a whole nation’s
life being unresolved. John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth and youngest President
of the United States was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and the case was
never fully solved. The flaws of the court ruling, however, did not satisfy the
public as many conspiracy theories arose:
1.
How could only Lee Harvey Oswald be responsible for the
assassination when bullets were shot at JFK from more than one spot?
2.
What allowed for certain evidence to be suppressed/ignored?
3.
Is Lee Harvey Oswald even a part of the conspiracy to
assassinate President JFK?
Let’s take a deeper
look into the facts associated with the murder of President John F. Kennedy and
discover if the assassination was as plain and straight forward as the court
ruling.
John F. Kennedy, the
youngest President of the United States, was the 4th and most recent President to be assassinated while in office.
While in office, there were many key events that occurred to shape what our
country is today, such as; Bay of Pigs Invasion, the first Freedom Ride,
creation of the Berlin Wall, Cuban Missile Crisis, and many more. (John F.
Kennedy- Key Events) With all that was going on in the world in his term,
Kennedy was forced to make many difficult, executive decisions, which
ultimately could have been the reasoning behind his assassination.
JFK was said to be highly competitive and eager to take risks
which is heavily shown in
his ambition to compete
in the space race. (Avlon) His risk-taking personality is also show cased
in his incidents with
Cuba. JFK took on full responsibility for the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in
Cuba; this is looked at
as a key failure in his presidency and made him and America, an official
enemy of Cuba. (1) This
was also one of JFK’s first decisions as President so it began to worry
his countries people as
to what all would happen in his term. As President, JFK faced many
internal and external
conflicts, he was someone that loved to please people and so when people
doubted his leadership
after Cuba, he chose to compete with America’s other communist rival,
Russia, in the space
race.
JFK’s major goal in office was to bring change and positively
influence his country.
(John F. Kennedy- Key
Events) He was able to win over the hearts of America with his
described to be
“charismatic” personality. (Buncombe) He knew how to connect with the people
and that was the key reason he got so much popularity. It is
surprising that he was able to
connect so well with people despite what people may think has a
negative connotation as
president, which is that Kennedy is an introvert. (1) Kennedy
found that being an introvert can be
used as a strength, he was able to find meaning in things he
learned and was then looked at as
intelligent and comfortable. (1) In Kennedy’s case, being an
introvert didn’t make him shy; it
allowed him to grow in his alone time. (1)
Kennedy was president during a period of great
tension, on one side America was
struggling to contain Communism and had to face problems such as
the Berlin Wall. (John F.
Kennedy- Key Events) JFK had to make choices to go along with our
containment policies and
had to make executive decisions that ultimately could create enemies
or achieve America’s
goals. On the other side, he had problems on the home front.
During his presidency, the issues of
Civil Rights for African American’s were at an all-time high. (1)
Kennedy had to make sure that
with every statement he made regarding the tensions, it couldn’t
be looked at as offensive by any
party. Kennedy greatly wanted to please everyone so hurting people
with his executive decisions
were extremely difficult for him. (Avlon)
So, as loved as JFK is after death, it makes you
think people loved him when he was in
office, but that wasn’t
the case. Many thought of JFK as a womanizer that wasn’t loyal to his wife, and
a lot didn’t like that he was Roman Catholic.
(1) Also, since he openly welcomed Civil Rights, he was disliked by some in the
south, this was showcased when he
allowed for the University of Mississippi to be integrated. (1) That being
said, you would think that the liberals would like him, but that wasn’t the
case either. When JFK went against liberal, Khrushchev, who advised him to not
play into the Cuban Missile Crisis, he lost a lot of respect from the liberals and
was blamed for the entire event. (1)
With the conspiracy of
JFK’s assassination, it seems that there are endless possibilities of who could
have been motivated enough to end his life. With the lack of evidence and
countless variables associated with the case, how could the case be closed?
After the unconvincing conclusion to the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy
(JFK), many questions
arose; how could only Lee Harvey Oswald be responsible for the
assassination when
bullets were shot at JFK from more than one spot, what allowed for certain
evidence to be
suppressed/ignored, and why were so many files associated to the case hidden
from the public? The
variables regarding the case are endless.
The first conspiracy theory came about due to the timing and
placement of the three
bullets shot at JFK. Lee
Harvey Oswald was said to have shot all three bullets in less than nine
seconds, to counter this
argument, the Italian Army used skilled marksman to see how fast they
could shoot three
bullets with the same gun. “But when the Italian team test-fired the identical
model of gun, they were
unable to load and fire three shots in less than 19 seconds - suggesting
that a second gunman
must have been present in Dealey Plaza, central Dallas, that day”
(Shipman). If this
evidence wasn’t enough, a person would be able to look at the direction of the
shots to see that Oswald
was not the only active shooter, “Two of the bullets hit Kennedy, with
the first - the so
called "magic bullet", ridiculed by conspiracy theorists - also
wounding the
governor of Texas, John
B Connally, after it had struck the president”
(1). This “magic bullet”
theory was a belief
created to explain one of the bullet’s going through JFK’s back, exiting
through his throat, and
ultimately striking Governor Connally. This theory was used in court as
sufficient proof that
Oswald was the only active shooter, despite the fact that when the theory
was tested, the bullet was deformed. With this
evidence, it is almost a certainty that more this was not a one-man job, so why
did the investigation stop with Oswald? This was only one of the instances that
evidence was subsided in the mission to convict Oswald, which can raise
question on what higher powers could have had a hand in the assassination.
The second conspiracy
theory is that a higher power was involved in the assassination. The
investigation was put into action when Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson
established the Warren Commission. This commission had the sole purpose of
discovering all that was associated with the assassination but, some may argue
that the commission had alternative motives as many errors were made in their
processing. The Warren Commission purposely; ignored any leads that could have
connected the CIA to the plot, chose to ignore witness claims of imposter
secret servicemen taking statements and collecting evidence, and suppressed any ideas that could have
connected an alternative suspect (Evica). With so many loose ends, it’s difficult
to rule out some of the people running our country, especially because JFK had developed
many enemies with a lot of his controversial decisions. When polled on whether or not a murder case with many unsolved
variables should be able to convict a person for the crime, 85% of those polled
said that no, a person should not be able to be convicted for a crime with
public as most of the people who wanted the answers of the case, would not be
alive come the release date. This insistency to hide the files made the public
suspect the government more than they ever would have. More conspiracy theories
were thought up of than could ever be named, and a majority of them could have
been prevented if it weren’t for the withheld files (CBS/AP) In 2017, 54 years after JFK’s assassination, President
Donald Trump chose to release the long-
awaited files. This brought about a lot of relief and excitement to the public,
but before being released, the government once again said that they would have
to withhold certain files for the security of our nation. “The CIA and FBI,
whose files make up the bulk of the final batch, have refused to say whether
they're lobbying the president to keep any of the files under wraps. Experts
expect certain IRS files to remain secret, like the tax return of Jack Ruby,
the man who killed Oswald two days after Kennedy's assassination when the
suspect was in police custody” (1). It will be interesting to discover what the
released files entail and if they will reveal any truth to the circulating
conspiracy theories.
The third conspiracy theory came from the saying “you have nothing
to fear if you have
nothing to hide.” After
the case was closed, 40,000 documents were hidden from the public but
are said by law to be
released by October, 2017. (Bender) This caused a huge uprising in the public
as most of the people who wanted the answers of the case, would not be alive
come the
release date. This
insistency to hide the files made the public suspect the government more than
they ever would have.
More conspiracy theories were thought up of than could ever be named,
and a majority of them
could have been prevented if it weren’t for the withheld files (CBS/AP)
In 2017, 54 years after
JFK’s assassination, President Donald Trump chose to release the long-
awaited files. This
brought about a lot of relief and excitement to the public, but before being
released, the government
once again said that they would have to withhold certain files for the
security of our nation.
“The CIA and FBI, whose files make up the bulk of the final batch, have
refused to say whether
they're lobbying the president to keep any of the files under wraps.
Experts expect certain
IRS files to remain secret, like the tax return of Jack Ruby, the man who
killed Oswald two days
after Kennedy's assassination when the suspect was in police custody”
(1). It will be
interesting to discover what the released files entail and if they will reveal
any truth
to the circulating
conspiracy theories.
The most likely scenario for the JFK assassination case is quite
complex with a lot of
outside influence. Due
to the already stated fact that JFK made a lot of controversial decisions,
people in the government
wanted to remove him from office. These people include; the CIA, VP
Lyndon B. Johnson, and
Fidel Castro. Together they formed a plot involving the framing of Lee
Harvey Oswald to keep
their hands clean. They made what had seemed to be a full-proof plan to
get JFK out of office
and put Lyndon B. Johnson in office. To raise suspicion on Oswald later,
they sent him to Mexico
on a six-day trip to talk to Cuban embassies, and intentionally planted in
people’s minds that was
not all he was doing. The next parts were more difficult, they knew that
Oswald was not a qualified
hitman and they needed reassurance that JFK would in fact be
assassinated. An unknown
hitman was placed at a different angle to ensure he was shot and came
up with the entire “magic bullet” theory to throw everyone off.
Once JFK was shot they didn’t
want to take the chance of Oswald spilling who all was involved so
they informed Jack Ruby (a
known anti-Castro activist/drug dealer) that Oswald was doing
business with Fidel Castro, giving
Ruby the motive to murder Oswald. The next step was for Lyndon B.
Johnson to create the
Warren Commission and place people in it that would help cover
their tracks as well. This plan
was only able to work because of the people who were involved, if
they weren’t as high up as
they were, they wouldn’t have had that kind of influence. The last
part of the plan was to hide
any/all files that could bring them repercussions, knowing the
conspiracy theories that would
arise. Ultimately they were able to get away with the plan due to the lack of evidence to
officially accuse all parties. Still, with every scenario there is
countless amounts of unsolved
variables.
We may never know what all really happened in
the plan to assassinate JFK, we can only
Take measures to ensure it will never occur again.
After researching the assassination of John F.
Kennedy, there are still many possibilities
as to what the entire plot was. Some of these possibilities are:
1. How could only Lee
Harvey Oswald be responsible for the assassination when bullets
were shot at JFK from more than one spot?
2. What allowed for certain
evidence to be suppressed/ignored?
3. Why were so many files
associated to the case hidden from the public?
However, in light of the new release of thousands of hidden cases
associated with the
assassination, all hope may not be lost for the case. It will be
interesting to learn what all has
been discovered.
Work Cited
(S)
Avlon, John. “A Beloved Icon in Death, in Life Kennedy Was Hated by Many.” The
Telegraph,
Telegraph Media Group, 23 Nov.
2013, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-
politics/10469889/A-beloved-icon-in-death-in-life-Kennedy-was-hated-by-many.html.
(S)
Buncombe, Andrew. “The Majority of Americans Do Not Believe Lee Harvey Oswald
Killed
JFK - This Is Why.” The
Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 26 Oct.
2017, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/lee-harvey-oswald-jfk-files-
conspiracy-theories-why-americans-dont-believe-killer-a8022206.html.
Bender, Bryan, et al.
(S) Evica, George M. “A Work in
Progress.” JFK Lancer, JFK Lancer, www.jfklancer.com/Statement.html.
(S)
“JFK Files: What Will Long-Secret Documents Reveal about the Kennedy Assassination?”
CBS News, CBS
Interactive, 25 Oct. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/jfk-files-kennedy assassination-long-secret-documents/.
(S)
“John F. Kennedy - Key Events.” Miller Center, Rector and Visitors of the
University of
Virginia, 30 Aug. 2017, www.millercenter.org/president/john-f-kennedy/key-events.
(S)
Shipman, Tim. “Oswald 'Had No Time to Fire All Kennedy Bullets'.” The
Telegraph, Telegraph
Media Group, 1 July 2007, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1556184/Oswald-had-no-time-to-fire-all-Kennedy-bullets.html.
(S)
“The Murder of JFK.” JFK Murder Solved, Jkmurdersolved.com, 2003,
www.jfkmurdersolved.com/jfkwhy.htm.
(S) “Why the Last of the JFK Files Could
Embarrass the CIA.” POLITICO, Poltico, 28 May 2015,
www.politico.com/story/2015/05/why-last-of-jfk-files-could-embarrass-cia-118233.
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