I'm of the belief that you need to ask an American just three questions to ever figure out exactly who that person is: ask about the American's name; ask about what he/she does for a living; and ask what he/she thinks happened to JFK in Dallas Nov. 22 1963...
The assassination of John Kennedy
remains one of the most traumatic moments in American history. Up
there with the Civil War, Pearl Harbor, 9/11 attacks, and the rollout
of New Coke.
As a librarian I can tell you the
importance of a historical event by the number of books filling up
the shelves. Civil War books, usually the biggest section of the
900s (DDC) alone can take up a full shelf (with six packed rows of
books) in a small library, and take up an entire stack of shelves in
a big library.
The Kennedy assassination is getting up
there in the number of books written. It's been the cornerstone of
conspiracy thought ever since the Warren Report came out and people
hooked onto certain flaws found in it. It's been 50 years of arguing
over the assassination, over the report, over how history got screwed
(the number of What If plotlines and time-travel-to-save-JFK stories
are pretty numerous).
For myself, I grew up in the shadow of
the Sixties, a young child of the Seventies and a teen of the
Eighties. I was engulfed with the conspiracy talk ever since we got
to this part of U.S. history in the classroom. Having grown up
reading non-fiction books about mysteries – UFOs, witchcraft,
ghosts, Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle – the allure of conspiracy
about JFK's death was pretty irresistible.
So. Shall we play a game of Whodunnit
and argue over the various conspiracies over who shot JFK?
Lone Gunman
The official take. Oswald, ex-Marine
who defected to Russia and returned disillusioned, acts alone in the
planning of the assassination and is the only one pulling the
trigger. He kills a police officer while fleeing on foot before
getting captured in a movie theater. Oswald himself is killed by a
lone gunman, a paranoid club owner Jack Ruby.
Why this theory works: all the official
evidence points this way. What is known of Oswald fits into the
psych profile of other assassins. There are other parts of Oswald's
activities before the assassination – an attempted shooting of a
retired right-wing general – that points to a man desperate to
prove himself via Propaganda of the Deed.
Why this theory falls apart: the
“official evidence” could have been manipulated: there have been
enough complaints about the Warren Report having errors and
unfinished tangents deserving of investigation to make that report
suspect. While Oswald fits the profile of an assassin, he's unique
among all of the other shooters and would-be assailants in that he
refused to take credit. He's the only one on record saying he didn't
do it, and that he was a “patsy”. Having Oswald killed prevents
any truth of his actions from getting out. Considering the number of
political enemies Kennedy acquired over the years, having some nobody
be the one killing him just doesn't seem kosher.
The Russians/Commies Did It
The first possibility, considering we
were at the height of the Cold War. Kennedy had just stared down the
Russians from putting nuclear warheads in Cuba, and the Berlin Wall
had just gone up. Eliminating a political opponent wouldn't be out
of the question for the KGB.
Why this theory works: Oswald had
defected to the USSR and had just returned, reportedly kicked out by
a Soviet Union that found him useless. He could have been
conditioned or encouraged by his Soviet handlers to pull the trigger
on Kennedy.
Why this theory doesn't work: If this
were true, we'd have started launching nukes at the Soviets inside of
thirty minutes of finding out. This would have been such an act of
aggression that war would be the only logical response. The Soviets
may have been cunning, but they weren't crazy. They could deal with
Kennedy, and they didn't need to kill him.
The Castro Cubans Did It
Independently of their Soviet allies.
Castro had been surviving attempts on his life and was probably
pissed off enough to turn the tables. Oswald had been positioning
himself as a fan of communist Cuba, and may have shot Kennedy to
curry favor with Castro.
Why this theory works: It actually
doesn't. Because...
Why this theory doesn't work: There has
never been any conclusive proof that Castro or Cuban communists were
in contact with Oswald. The FBI and CIA made serious efforts to find
one, but never could (the possibility of Oswald going to the Cuban
embassy in Mexico is disputed with the fact that the documented
photos of someone claiming to be Oswald doesn't match the real
thing). Castro pulling something like this without the knowledge of
the Soviets is unlikely; and if found out would have forced Soviet
Russia to either cut ties to Cuba while the US invaded out of
revenge, or else sign on to nuclear Armageddon.
The Anti-Castro Cubans Did It
While there were a lot of people angry
at Kennedy, none of them were as driven as the exiled Cuban
community. They considered themselves twice betrayed: first when JFK
refused to provide air support for the failed Bay of Pigs, second
when JFK refused to invade Cuba over the missile crisis. It hurt
that Kennedy's deal with Khrushchev included a full stop to all
covert attempts to overthrow Castro.
Why this theory works: As noted, these
guys were PISSED at Kennedy. That fateful trip through the southern
states originally had Kennedy stopping in Miami (the center of
anti-Castro activity), but that was canceled when it was deemed
security wouldn't be tight enough. Given some of the evidence of
Oswald being involved with some elements of the anti-Castro covert
ops, it's possible Oswald got recruited by a small band to assist
either directly or indirectly with the shooting. As part of of this
conspiracy theory, they then get Ruby to shoot Oswald to cover their
tracks.
Why this theory doesn't work: There's
little evidence that the anti-Castro Cubans had this amount of power
to pull of an assassination like this. Or have this much control over
the investigation. If it ever got out that the anti-Castro groups
killed our President, the American people would have turned against
the anti-Castro crowds and their government handlers like the CIA.
The only way this theory works is if you add it to the larger
conspiracy theory such as...
The CIA/FBI/Shadow Government Did It
What quickly became the most prominent
theory among conspiracy buffs. Somehow, Kennedy was a threat to
their covert operations and overt attempts at starting World War III.
It's common knowledge nowadays that the Joint Chiefs and other key
government officials viewed Kennedy as soft on Communism (it was more
that Kennedy refused to ignite a nuclear war, something the war-hawks
viewed as survivable). Kennedy had threatened to dismantle the CIA
after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, blaming them for misleading him with
false intel.
Why this theory works: If Kennedy had
enemies within the government, it was most likely here. The heads of
the CIA and FBI both disliked JFK along with the upper echelon of the military. The CIA could have been in
contact with Oswald as part of the theory that Oswald was an attempt
to infiltrate the Soviet Union. The FBI had tabs on Oswald right up
to the assassination. And the FBI basically had control of the whole
investigation that created the Warren Report, meaning they could hide
any incriminating evidence they didn't like.
Why this theory doesn't work: a
conspiracy of this size and scope would have had to involve hundreds
of people through various agencies, any one of whom could have
slipped up on a detail or betray the secrecy in some fashion. Having
this covert group pull off a very public assassination would have
drawn too bright a light on their activities. And this shadow
government would have had other means of killing Kennedy – through
poisoning to make it look like a natural death. How many people knew
about Kennedy's Addison's Disease? Did his Vice-President know...?
Johnson Did It
As part of the government conspiracy
theory, where the CIA and FBI didn't do it, but Vice-President
Johnson did and the government merely helped cover it up. There'd
been stories that Kennedy was thinking of dropping LBJ from the
ticket in 1964, that Johnson's ties to a crooked land developer was
the key reason, although the Kennedys (including Bobby, Jack's
confidant) and Johnson didn't get along very much to begin with. As
Johnson desired the Presidency, if he got booted off the ticket
that'd be the end of that hope, so killing Kennedy to get promoted
sounds like motive...
Why this theory works: It really
doesn't. Because...
Why this theory doesn't work: There's
no direct or indirect link between Johnson, nor Johnson's people to
Oswald. We'd be better off thinking it was a massive government cabal with Johnson on the side benefittng from the results. Kennedy may have disliked LBJ but he needed Johnson's
negotiating skills to keep Congress in line. If Johnson knew about
Jack's Addisons, he could have easily created a situation that would
have triggered the illness and have Kennedy die of natural causes...
Cabal of Business Leaders Did It
Kennedy wasn't popular among various
business leaders, especially the oil men in Texas. One major
conspiracy theorist leaned on this as his go-to theory, even making a
rather dull movie about it.
Why this theory works: These men would
be far enough outside of government to avoid accountability, while
having enough ties to various agencies to ensure they would cover
their tracks. They would be able to hire the best assassins and
covert ops types of the day.
Why this theory doesn't work: Again,
there would be too many people involved in the planning, staging, and
execution of the attempt, let along the hundreds more needed to cover
up something of this scope.
The Mafia Did It
Stories abound of how Kennedy relied on
help from mobsters to secure certain election results to win the
Presidency... and then unleashed his brother Bobby as Attorney
General to hunt the Mafia down. Feeling betrayed by someone who was
literally in bed with them (well, in bed with one of the mob boss'
mistresses), the mobsters would have felt the need to strike back...
Why this theory works: The Mafia tended
to be a group that, when confronted with a problem, uses bullets to
remove said problem. There were ties to the New Orleans mob with
some of the more interesting characters in the various conspiracy
theories, although ties to Oswald are tenuous at best.
Why this theory doesn't work: Again,
anything on the scale of what the mob is accused of doing involves
too many people, any one of whom could have blown the whole deal.
The risks of trying were too high, even if they did succeed.
Aliens Did It
Why not?
Why this theory works: Aliens hated
Kennedy for some yet-unrevealed reason.
Why this theory doesn't work: Haven't
found any aliens at all, let alone aliens with a grudge against JFK.
You and Me Did It
The Rolling Stones argument. WE are
the ones who killed the Kennedys.
Why this theory works: Society is to
blame.
Why this theory doesn't work: You first
have to believe the Rolling Stones were capable of waxing
philosophical.
The truth?
We can never be really sure of it now.
It's been fifty years: most of the people involved with that tragic
day are dead, and while some documents have been released over the
years there's still a ton of evidence locked away for a long time.
For myself, I tend to lean towards the
Anti-Castro elements being the culprit as they had the greatest
motive and opportunity, but to prove that would require getting to
the bottom of whether Oswald was a serious attempt by the CIA to
infiltrate the Soviets, and what ties Oswald might have had to any of
the Anti-Castro groups operating along the Gulf of Mexico.
The more I've looked at the Warren
Report, the more I see an investigation that was more cover-up than
revealing, but not for sinister reasons: a lot of it seemed to be an
attempt to hide any failures of inaction on the FBI itself. The
conspiracy theory about the government behind it all doesn't the
basic scrutiny test of Why? Why commit an action fraught with risk
when simpler, more subtle methods were at hand?
Although I still have a question about one thing: when Oswald got kicked out of the USSR and came back to the US, why didn't anyone arrest him for desertion from the Marines when he fled to Russia? He was technically AWOL when he did that. The House UnAmerican Activities congressional committee was still operating at the time: why didn't any eager Congressman looking for media interest bring Oswald up on charges and make a public show of it? I'm still kinda bugged about this point. If someone can point me to a detailed answer to this question, I'd be grateful.
So, until next time, when we unravel
the possibility that the emerging American Football League of that
decade were in cahoots with Oswald after all...
ADDED: I know this is a bit sick to point out on the anniversary and all, but this bit from Red Dwarf just nails it...
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