One of most widely studied, controversial events in modern history, the JFK assassination was a true turning point. The voluminous research on this subject can be overwhelming. While “JFK buffs” may get caught up in some very arcane tidbits of evidence, there are some simple facts that entirely discredit the official governmental story.
Kennedy had concrete plans to disengage from Vietnam and to limit the powers of the CIA. The prospect of such reforms made him a dangerous enemy to many forces within the government and military industrial complex. JFK’s “turn towards peace” is undeniable, but it has been downplayed or suppressed by mainstream media and historians, who continue to paint him as gung-ho Cold Warrior. In fact, Kennedy’s “Peace Speech” at American University just five months before he was killed is mostly unknown to the average American. Just a few lines from the speech, which humanized the commonly demonized “enemy” of the Soviet Union, show why Kennedy was seen as a threat to the established order:
[we] are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons that could be better devoted to combating ignorance, poverty, and disease. We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counterweapons.
In short, both the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine peace and in halting the arms race.
The JFK assassination can be seen as coup-d’etat and a warning to all citizens and politicians who would dare to challenge the status quo. The fact that powerful forces within the government were able pull off such a crime and pass off such a flimsy cover story says a lot about the state of our “democracy.”
Even more significantly, the complicity of the American media and their refusal to question or pursue the truth show that we do not have a free press or any significant oversight by the people over the government.
The idea that institutional forces—government agencies, politicians, business interests—could explode the head of a popular young president in broad daylight, and get away with it, says a lot about the reach of their power and the scope of the conspiracy.
JFK is sort of a psychological crossroads. As with many of the topics on TruthMove, you can often see a clear divide between the people who are willing to consider that JFK was killed by establishment forces and those who refuse to or simply cannot consider that possibility.
Many mainstream left-wingers (Chomsky, Ramsey Clark, etc.) have never been willing to take this leap. Perhaps this is because the implications are so stark and the “conspiratorial” position challenges many well-conditioned attitudes about the benevolence of our government and other humans in general. It truly does strike at an illusion of American idealism that many people have absorbed deep into their consciousness.
Evidence
Oswald had contacts with the CIA and FBI before the assassination. He was seen by witnesses with Clay Shaw, David Ferrie, and Guy Banister—all with proven intelligence connections. There is compelling evidence that Oswald himself was a government agent. Oswald had a “201 File” at the CIA going back to 1960. 4
According to the official “magic bullet theory,” a single bullet pierced Kennedy’s back, moved upward to exit through his neck, then proceeded to pierce Governor Connally’s back who was sitting in the front seat. This same bullet is then supposed to have shattered Connally’s fifth rib, caused compound fractures in his wrist, and hit him in the left knee area. The Warren Commission also claims that an almost pristine bullet found on the President’s stretcher was this “magic bullet.” This convoluted theory was necessary to limit the number of bullets to 3, which was the maximum Oswald’s rifle could fire in the specified time interval. 5
J. Edgar Hoover: “The thing I am concerned about, and so is Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin.” see (original document)
Many witnesses, reporters, and others connected to the Kennedy assassination have turned up dead under mysterious circumstances (take a look at this).
In sworn testimony, witnesses claim that they observed someone other than Oswald, claiming to be Oswald, “calling attention to himself with odd behavior-trying to defect to Cuba in Mexico City, firing at another person’s target at a firing range, test-driving a used car at dangerous speeds, asking a potential employer if the building had a good view of downtown Dallas, even threatening to kill President Kennedy.” 4
It seems clear that Oswald was part of a “fake defector” double agent program in which the US was planting spies and assets into communist countries and organizations. His association with the “Fair Play for Cuba Committee,” visits to the Soviet Union, and other communist “links” appear to be the calculated groundwork to establish him as the radical left wing assassin. Oswald was smoothly readmitted to the US after offering US military secrets to the Soviet Union (he was likely trying to plant himself as a double agent).