The J.F.K. Assassination

The J.F.K. Assassination

The 1960 Presidential election was won by John F. Kennedy who defeated the incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon by the narrowest margin in history. Kennedy, a senator from Massachusetts was the only Roman Catholic and the youngest man elected to the presidency. In 1963, during his third year in office President Kennedy's popularity increased and he had already started planning for his reelection campaign. On the morning of November 23, 1963, the President flew to Dallas where he was to speak at a lunch held at the Trade Mart. As the presidential motorcade drove from Love Field toward the Trade Mart, it drove through Deally Plaza where Kennedy was shot. Shortly after the assassination of the President, Lee Harvey Oswald was apprehended as the alleged assassin.

In 1991 10% of the American public agreed with the Warren Commission Report findings that Lee Oswald was JFK's lone assassin, however, over half of the American public believed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was somehow involved. President Harry S. Truman created the CIA with the signing of the National Security Act (NSA) on September 15, 1947. This act created the National Security Council (NSC) which combined all departments of the intelligence community for the army, navy, and airforce and was responsible only to the President. The council had its own budget and trained its own personal, but was still prohibited from internal spying and clandestine or paramilitary operations (Marrs 182).

In 1949 the Central Intelligence Act was passed. This new act ensured that the CIA would not be obligated to disclose the names and number of personnel employed nor their functions, official titles or salaries. In addition, the CIA director wo...

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...gan and Oswald was set up as the easy mark. Only an agency trained in covert operations could possess the capabilities needed to initiate the assassination and the power to cover up their involvement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Groden, Robert J., and Harrison Edward Livingston. High Treason: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the New Evidence of Conspiracy. New York: Berkey, 1990.

Lane, Mark. Rush to Judgement. New York: Thunders Mouth, 1992.

Mars, Jim. Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy. New York: Carrol and Graf, 1992.

Morrow, Robert D. First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated in the CIA- Mafia Murder of President Kennedy. New York: Shapolsky, 1992.

Prouty, Fletcher L. JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy With an Introduction by Oliver Stone. New York: Carol, 1992.