The assassination of John F. Kennedy was one of the darkest and most trying moments in the history of the United States. Despite being in office for only 35 months , JFK had achieved a lot, both domestically and on the foreign policy front. President Kennedy was admired by many Americans who believed he had a crucial role in inspiring and encouraging a divided country to move forward together. According to political pundits, JFK performed better at uniting his country more than any U.S President in modern history (Dalek, 2013).
Despite the plethora of positive qualities of President J. F. Kennedy, he was not without critics who believed that he did not deserve much of the adorations and plaudits he received. For example, some critics questioned President Kennedy’s image as a devoted family man owing to many alleged cases of adultery. In the words of Timothy Noah, a contributor to the New Republic, President Kennedy was “a compulsive and even a pathological adulterer.” Timothy went ahead and claimed that the President’s love for self-indulgence and alleged recklessness could have been a significant threat to his presidency.
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Perhaps the biggest and most divisive question on the J. F. Kennedy’s brief stint on the presidency is who killed him and what inspired the shooter? The year 2018 has been earmarked for celebrating the 54 th anniversary since the assassination of President Kennedy. Despite the many years that have passed by, there seems to be no consensus on the possible motive for the murderers of the president (Halleman, 2017). The government inquiries have yielded two separate conclusions on the matter, further throwing people into more confusion. The many conspiracy theories about the possible motive for the President’s assassinations have not helped the situation either. This paper seeks to analyze the findings by the U.S governments alongside the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of J. F. Kennedy.
The Assassination-How it Happened
John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas Texas. The President was killed as he was riding on his motorcade alongside his wife and the governor of Texas. The president was pronounced dead 30 minutes after the shooting while the governor of Texas, John Connally, only sustained injuries (Dalek, 2013). The fingers were pointed directly at Lee Harvey Oswald, a former member of the U.S marine. Oswald had a history of association with communism, and therefore the assassination was quickly assumed to have something to do with the Cold War. Oswald was never tried for the murder of the President because he was mortally wounded by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner from Dallas who had some connection with a local gang group.
Texas was a right-leaning state with widespread anti-Kennedy sentiments. The President had gone to Dallas as part of his effort to put the Democratic Party in order in preparation for his reelection bid in 1964. Before his assassination in Dallas, the President had made stops in major cities such as San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth where he got warm receptions.
The assassination of President J. F. Kennedy was thought by many Americans to have been planned by a group of conspirators. Reports from opinion polls revealed that only 21 percent of Americans believed that Oswald acted alone (Wallenfeldt, 2012). A vast majority of Americans, more 65 percent, believed that the assassination of the President was planned and executed by a group of conspirators. The many skeptical Americans felt that Oswald was just used to pull the trigger while the real plotters of the murder lurked in the background, anonymously.
Summary of Official Government Investigations
The death of President of John F. Kennedy attracted mixed reactions from the American public, the majority of whom believed in the conspiracy theories. The government, under President Lyndon Johnson, formed a commission of inquiry to investigate the assassination and expose who was behind the whole plot as well as understand the motive (Gillon, 2017). The Warren Commission, which was headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, was immediately tasked with finding out the people behind the murder. The other official inquiry by the U.S government was made by the U.S House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA); a body that was formed in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of J. F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Summary of the Warren Commission’s Findings
The Warren Commission was formed shortly after the assassination of President J. F. Kennedy and tasked with the responsibility of finding the identity and the motive of the killers (Wallenfeldt, 2012). The Commission was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson and was headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The Commission conducted an investigation that lasted nearly one year. The finding of the Warren Commission was not anything that many Americans expected. According to the Warren Commission, Oswald, the accused killer of the President, acted alone in plotting the assassination (Dalek, 2013). The Commission further ruled out any possible conspiracy, either domestically or from the international actors.
The Commission based its findings on the reports from the FBI, the Secret Service, and other security agencies. Additionally, the Commissioners held many closed-door meetings with witnesses to get to the bottom of the matter. Other evidence used in concluding the case include testimonies from expert witnesses, the President’s autopsy report, other physical evidence and scientific reconstruction of the scene.
The report by the Warren Commission proved to be highly controversial because it was the opposite of what most Americans expected. Many people used the evidence presented by the Warren Commission to tore into the report and find fault (Halleman, 2017). Jim Garrison, the then district attorney from the New Orleans, used the findings from the Commission to launch a compelling conspiracy theory that sought to link Cuba and the Cold War to the assassination of President Kennedy.
The U.S House Select Committee on Assassination (HSCA)
The HSCA was established in the year 1976 following public outcry and dissatisfaction with the report from the Warren Commission. The Committee was formed to investigate the assassination of JF. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The investigation by HSCA took more time compared to the Warren Commission, extending from 1976 to 1978 (Gillon, 2017). However, the report by the Committee was delayed by a further one year. According to the findings of the investigations, the HSCA concluded that President J. F. Kennedy could have been assassinated through a conspiracy scheme.
The HSCA further revealed the incompetence of the Warren Commission in its findings and its inquiry process. However, the Committee made it clear that Warren Commission did all their best, and in good faith despite the dissatisfactory results. The HSCA Committee conducted its inquiry by using reports from the Warren Commission besides the series of scientific studies conducted in the process.
Despite the fact the Committee concluded on the possible conspiracy theory, the report made it clear that the conspiracy could not be linked to the government of the USSR, nor could it be connected to Cuban government (Dalek, 2013). Furthermore, the report by the committee made it clear that the FBI, the CIA and the Secret Service could not have been involved in the conspiracy theory.
The conclusions made by the HSCA pointed to the fact that Oswald was not alone in the plot to murder President J. F. Kennedy. According to the report from the scientific acoustic analysis, the Committee pointed to the possibility of two gunmen being involved in the shooting of the President (Morley, 2010). Despite the resounding agreement from the Committee members on the possible involvement of conspirators, the inquiry could not identify the other gunmen possibly involved, and neither could it reveal the true extent of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy Theories on the Kennedy’s Assassinations
The assassination of President J. F. Kennedy led to the creation of some conspiracy theories in attempts to understand the motive of the murder. Cuba was central in most of the theories because the assassination occurred at the time of Cold War between the U.S and Cuba.
The First Theory: Cuban Government Involved
Many people in America believed that the Cuban government must have been involved in the assassination of J.F Kennedy. The theory became famous after a Senate Select Committee revealed that the U.S government, through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had made attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, the then Cuban President. However, the Cuban government refuted the claims by arguing that such a move would not be in its national security interest. In his defense, Fidel Castro argued that assassinating a sitting U.S president would attract retaliatory attack from the U.S, something his country would not risk (Martin, 2011). The Cuban conspiracy theory was also fuelled by the revelations that Oswald had made attempts to contacts Cuban government and the Soviets before his involvement in the assassination act.
The Second Theory: Elements with the CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was mentioned as part of the conspirators who plotted the death of J. F. Kennedy. The theory of a possible CIA involvement was actively pursued by Jim Garrison, a district attorney from the city of New Orleans. The theory argued that some anti-Castro and anti-communism elements within the CIA conspired with Oswald and a bunch of other anti-communism agents like Guy Banister, David Ferrie, and a businessman named Clay Shaw, to assassinate the president (Gillon, 2017). Jim Garrison pursued the matter so vigorously that many Americans believed in his theory on the possible reasons for the president’s assassination. In his book titled “On the Trail of the Assassins: My Investigation and Prosecution of the Murder of President Kennedy,” Garrison mentions all the possible conspirators who could have been involved in the plot to assassinate a sitting president of the United States (Halleman, 2017). The book, which was published in 1988 later became the basis for the movie JFK produced by Oliver Stone in 1991.
The Third Theory: The Possible Involvement of Lyndon Johnson
Vice President Lyndon Johnson was going to benefit, directly, from the death of President J. F. Kennedy. As the vice president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson was in the direct line of succession in case of an untimely death of the President. Logically, some people would have assumed that Lyndon Johnson could be involved in the assassination plot to clear his way to the president. According to the theory, Lyndon Johnson was accused of organizing a scheme to have the president murdered to take up his place as the new president of the United States.
The theory of the possible involvement by Lyndon Johnson was not popular in the United States. However, the potential participation of Lyndon Johnson was popularized by Howard Hun Jr., a former CIA agent who claimed that Lyndon Johnson had ordered the CIA agents to kills the president (Martin, 2011). The fact that Howard Hunt was a former Watergate conspirator made it possible for many people to believe his claims since he knew the inner workings of the government.
Importance to today’s world
The story of the assassination of President Kennedy has a significant bearing on the modern world. The division in the United States has increased since the taking of office by President Trump. Issues such as the gun laws, diplomatic rows with Russia are some of the factors that can contribute to the national security threat. The security agencies should borrow from the Kennedy case to ensure that no rogue agent or any individual should take advantage of the situation to cause any problems similar to what occurred in 1962 (Gillon, 2017). The Secret Service and the other agencies involved in the protection of the President must always be alert to any threats aimed at the president. The CIA should gather data from sources such as people’s social media posts and analyze for any potential threat to a sitting president and threat to the national security in general.
Summary of What Happened
The assassination of President J. F. Kennedy remains a mystery more than five decades after his murder . Inquiries by the government of the United States have given two conflicting results, fueling doubts and conspiracy theories from the people. The theory that makes more sense is the one that implicates the possible involvement of rogue elements from the CIA. Oswald could not have planned the assassination of the president with that level of precision without the assistance of experienced people from the security agency. None of the theories proposed to explain the murder of the President have been proved convincingly, and therefore the mystery surrounding the death of J. F. Kennedy continues.
References
Dalek, R. (2013). Kennedy’s Legacy Inspiration. The New York Times.
Gillon, S. (2017). Why the Public Stopped Believing the Government about JFK’s Murder. History.
Halleman, C. (2017). The 5 Biggest Kennedy Conspiracy Theories. Town and Country Magazine.
Martin, J. (2011). The Assassination of John F. Kennedy – 48 Years On. Irish Foreign Affairs
Morley, J. (2010). The Kennedy Assassination: 47 Years Later, What Do We Really Know ? The Atlantic.
Wallenfeldt, J. (2012). The assassination of John F. Kennedy. Encyclopedia Britannica.
