DALLAS (AP) — More than 60 years after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, conspiracy theories still circulate and each new look at the fateful day of Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas continues to fascinate.
President-elect Donald Trump promised during his re-election campaign that he would release all remaining government documents surrounding the assassination upon his return to office. He made a similar promise during his first term, but ultimately heeded calls from the CIA and FBI to withhold some documents.
At this point, only a few thousand of the millions of government documents related to the assassination have been fully released, and those who have studied the documents released so far say that even if the remaining files are released, the public should not . anticipate possible earth-shattering revelations.
“Anyone waiting for a smoking gun that will turn this case on its head will be sorely disappointed,” said Gerald Posner, author of “Case Closed,” which concludes that killer Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
Friday’s 61st anniversary is expected to be marked with a moment of silence at 12:30 p.m. at Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy’s motorcade was passing through when he was fatally shot. And during this week there have been events to mark the anniversary.
November 22, 1963
When Air Force One landed in Dallas with Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, they were greeted by clear skies and enthusiastic crowds. With a re-election campaign looming the following year, they had gone to Texas on a political trip to mend fences.
But as the motorcade completed its parade route through downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested 24-year-old Oswald and two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail sentence.
A year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, which President Lyndon B. Johnson created to investigate the assassination, concluded that Oswald acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that has not put an end to a web of alternative theories in recent decades.
The collection
In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all murder-related documents be placed in one collection at the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection of more than five million documents was supposed to be opened by 2017, subject to any exceptions designated by the president.
Trump, who took office for his first term in 2017, had boasted that he would allow the release of all remaining records but ultimately withheld some because of what he called the potential damage to national security. And while files continue to be released during President Joe Biden’s administration, some still remain unseen.
The documents released in recent years provide details about how the intelligence services operated at the time, and include CIA cables and memos discussing Oswald’s visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City, just a few weeks before the murder. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning to Texas.
Mark S. Zaid, a national security lawyer in Washington, said what has been released so far has contributed to the understanding of the time period, and that it provides “a great picture” of what happened during the Cold War and the activities of the CIA.
Withheld files
Posner estimates that there are still about 3,000 to 4,000 documents in the collection that have not yet been fully declassified. Of those documents, some are still completely redacted, while others contain only minor adjustments, such as a person’s Social Security number.
There are about 500 documents with all the information redacted, Posner said, including Oswald and Ruby’s tax returns.
“If you’ve been following it, as I and others have, you’re more or less on the pages that you think might provide some additional information to history,” Posner said.
Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions this week about his plans if he takes office.
An ongoing fascination
From the beginning, there were those who believed there must be more to it than just Oswald acting alone, said Stephen Fagin, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, which tells the story of the assassination from the building where Oswald did so. . the location of his sniper.
“People want to make sense of this and they want to find the solution that fits the crime,” said Fagin, who said that while questions remain, law enforcement has made “a pretty compelling case” against Oswald.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said his interest in the killing goes back to the event itself, when he was a child.
“It seemed so fantastic that one very disturbed individual could ultimately commit the crime of the century,” Sabato said. “But the more I studied it, the more I realized that this is a very possible, maybe even probable in my view. , hypothesis.”
