The Newly Released Records of the JFK Assassination

“All previously confidential records... are now public.” This was the statement posted on the website of the U.S. National Archives when it released the last batch of records related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy on the 18th.

For more than 60 years since Kennedy's assassination, speculations surrounding the case have never subsided. Was the gunman really acting alone? Why did he go to the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City before the incident? How could a “magic bullet” hit two people? Were the then - vice president and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) the masterminds behind the scenes?

Dusty Past

At noon on November 22, 1963, 46 - year - old Kennedy was assassinated by gunfire while riding in a convertible on Elm Street in Dallas, Texas. More than an hour after the incident, 24 - year - old Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Two days later, while being escorted by the police, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. The police said Ruby's motive for shooting was excessive grief over Kennedy's death. A few years later, Ruby died of cancer in prison.

After Kennedy's death, Vice President Lyndon Johnson succeeded him as president and appointed Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to lead a special investigation commission to conduct an independent investigation into the assassination. The commission released an approximately 800 - page investigation report in December 1964, concluding that Oswald acted alone, firing three shots at Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building, resulting in Kennedy's death. The report stated that Oswald's motive for the crime was “hatred of authority”.

Oswald was a former U.S. Marine Corps member. He went to the Soviet Union in 1959 and returned to the United States in 1962. Previously released documents related to the Kennedy assassination showed that Oswald had gone to Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, for six days a few weeks before the attack and visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies during that time.

In addition, 1964 was an election year in the United States, and Kennedy launched his re - election campaign in 1963.

Divergent Views

Over the past 60 years, many people have been dissatisfied with the Warren Commission's investigation results. They firmly believe that the gunman was not acting alone and suspect that the Soviet Union and Cuba during the Cold War were also involved. Some also think that the mafia, the then - vice president Johnson, and the CIA are all under suspicion.

One of the most widespread claims is that there was a second gunman hiding beside Elm Street. This gunman shot from behind Kennedy, which caused Kennedy's head to jerk forward violently when he was hit. Additionally, the investigation report stated that a single bullet hit both Kennedy and Governor John Connally Jr., who was riding in the same car with him. This bullet is also called the “magic bullet” by those who don't believe the investigation results.

Another widely circulated conspiracy theory is that the Kennedy assassination was related to the CIA. Some people think that a killer associated with the CIA fired the fatal shot. Others believe that the CIA knew about the gunman's assassination plan in advance but deliberately did nothing, which ultimately led to the assassination.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was appointed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services by President Trump this year, firmly believes that the CIA was involved. He is Kennedy's nephew. After the National Archives released the latest documents on the 18th, he refused to comment to the media.

Moreover, President Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, claimed that Cuba assassinated Kennedy to retaliate for the “Bay of Pigs Invasion”. However, Johnson himself is also a suspect in the eyes of many people.

Ongoing Attention

On January 23 this year, Trump signed an executive order, requiring relevant departments to declassify all remaining files related to the assassinations of Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. On March 17, Trump announced that 80,000 pages of unredacted documents related to the Kennedy assassination would be released on the 18th. However, the National Archives released the above - mentioned documents in two batches on the evening of the 18th, with a total of only 2,182 documents, 63,400 pages in all.

One media reported, “People have been waiting for decades.”

According to a report on the 18th, the newly declassified documents include a CIA memorandum, which records that in November 1991, a CIA official got to know a Soviet KGB official through an American professor. The KGB official said he had read “five thick volumes of documents” about Oswald and “confirmed that Oswald was never a KGB - controlled agent”.

According to the memorandum, the KGB official thought “no one could control Oswald”, but at the same time admitted that the KGB had continuously and closely monitored Oswald's actions in the Soviet Union. The documents also show that Oswald's shooting records in the Soviet Union indicated that his marksmanship was poor.

Regarding the newly released documents, Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said on the 18th that his team had started researching, but it would take some time to clarify everything. “We have a lot of work to do,” he said.

Frederick Logevall, a history professor at Harvard University, also believes that the newly declassified documents may help fill in some historical blanks. But he also emphasized that there may not be “dramatic new discoveries that fundamentally change our understanding of this event”.

A historian said that the American public's curiosity about the Kennedy assassination and their doubts about the transparency of the U.S. government make people think that “there must be important evidence hidden” in the newly released documents, but she herself is skeptical.

“The Warren Commission's report was well - done, but it was completed when many key figures were still alive,” she said. “It's much more difficult to find the truth when most of the relevant people have died.”