JFK and the CIA: Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer

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John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on 29th May, 1917. He joined the United States Navy in 1941 and became an intelligence officer. John Kennedy suffered a bad back injury and in December 1943 was sent back to the United States. After a further operation on his back he returned to civilian life, and for the next twelve months he worked as a journalist covering the United Nations Conference in San Francisco (Simkin, par. 1). A member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy won election to the House of Representatives in 1946. Kennedy entered the Presidential race in 1960, and presented his inaugural address in 1961 (Simkin, par. 2). On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was slain by an assassin's bullets as his convoy coiled through Dallas, Texas (Korte, par. 2). A pilot car and several motorcycles rode ahead of the presidential limousine. Kennedy rode with his wife and the head of secret service. The next car carried as many as eight secret service agents and was followed by a car carrying Lyndon B. Johnson and Ralph Yarborough (Simkin, par. 8). Over the years, there have been abundant conspiracy theories that link the CIA, FBI, and Mafia to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy inherited a chaotic and out of control federal agency when he presumed presidency in 1961. The Central Intelligence Agency pursued its own objectives during the Eisenhower administration. They initiated revolutions, provoked rebellions, and tried to assassinate foreign leaders, all generally without White House supervision. When the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, which the CIA composed, proved to be a catastrophe as well as a massive political obligation for Kennedy, he fired the instructor and his deputies (Co... ... middle of paper ... ...n F. Kennedy.” . 1 March 2012. John Simkin’s article includes information pertaining to John F. Kennedy’s military career, political views and background, presidency, and assassination. Simkin writes about Kennedy’s political career and how it began with his grandfathers and father. He goes on to say how Kennedy acquired an interest in foreign policy after suffering a back injury during the Second World War in 1943. Simkin includes the book, Profiles in Courage, Kennedy wrote while in the hospital recovering from back surgery. He thoroughly explicates Kennedy’s presidency and all excursions involved. Simkin concludes by discussing every aspect of the assassination of the president. This article is very credible because the author has three degrees in the field of study and has been teaching history since 1978.

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