Historiography of conspiracy theories in the Kennedy assassination

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of United States, a war hero and great achiever of the history, was assassinated on 22nd November, 1963 on his trip to Texas. He was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald who was supposed to be the lone assassin. A number of conspiracies exist in order to completely investigate the cause and benefactor of the assassin which are discussed in detail in this paper.

Conspiracy and Assassination

Cuban Conspiracy

Inefficiency of Warren Committee

Special Committee

The Role of Castro

The Soviet Government

The Role of Mafia

Lee Harvey Oswald

Public Perspective

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

John F. Kennedy, who was also known as JFK, was born in May 29, 1917 in the city of Brooklyn. JFK provided his services in the U.S. Navy from the year 1941 to 1944 and served in World War II at the South-Pacific. John F. Kennedy represented the remarkable leadership and courage when his vessel was collided and he made his contribution in order to save the life of his crew. After getting released from the U.S. Navy duty, Kennedy represented Massachusetts-District and moved in the Congress in 1947 by winning his nomination in general election and appeared to attract the attention due to his success in early age. He earned his candidature for the nomination of President in 1960 and became the second youngest president of United States. He was determined for the continuous progression of America in order to "eliminate the exceeded ratio of poverty and upheld for the battle that was going on in all over the world in pursuit of communism."[footnoteRef:2] The objectives set by him with respect to the "Apollo project were achieved and he played a significant role in order to terminate the cold war."[footnoteRef:3] [2: Richard Reeves, President Kennedy: Profile of Power (Simon and Schuster, 1994),10.] [3: Reeves, President Kennedy: Profile of Power,17. ]

Conspiracy and Assassination

The conspiracy made with respect to the benefit or forfeit seem to be productive in nature because they often meet their objective especially when the objective is far much important to achieve. President Kennedy was on a trip in Texas on November 22nd, 1963 where he was supposed to "neutralize the political conditions among the two democratic-parties consisting of Liberals which was led by Ralph Yarborough and the Conservative party which was led by John Connally, however, during the trip of Texas the President addressed in San-Antonio, Forth-Worth and Austin."[footnoteRef:4] The president was on his "presidential ride in Dallas with his wife and Connally and when the ride was crossing over by the downtown at the central time of half past twelve; three shots were fired and out of which one hit Connally in his torso while the two shots struck John F. Kennedy in his head and neck."[footnoteRef:5]The assassination video confirmed the "exact happening of the unfortunate event."[footnoteRef:6]The president was taken for the emergency treatment in Parkland Hospital but was confirmed to be dead at the time of 1:00 PM. The police suspected Lee H. Oswald to fire the shots and assassinate the president but the charge was denied by the suspect, who was later found dead on November, 24th. The Chief Justice made his conclusion that Lee H. Oswald was working alone in the assassination of the president. However, the chief justice's conclusion was found to be disputable and the assassination of Kennedy was believed to be the result of a conspiracy and number of conspiracy theories has been presented till now in order to analyze and reinvestigate the assassination. [4: MichealSchuyler,"The bitter harvest: Lyndon B. Johnson and the assassination of John F. Kennedy," Journal of American Culture 8, no. 3 (1985): 101.] [5: Ibid., 3.] [6: VagnesOyvind and Zaprudered, "The Kennedy Assassination Film in Visual Culture." Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, (2011): 211.]

The current study is aimed to present the theories that have been proposed in order to answer the cause and benefactor of Kennedy's assassination. The conspiracy theories have been discussed with respect to the in-depth analysis and assumptions.

Cuban Conspiracy

The Cuban conspiracy started in 1963 when the council of national security activated "the disparaging strategy against the Havana-Government."[footnoteRef:7] The newly forged contract took place between CIA and Cuban-official, who was named as Rolando Cubelas aka ALMASH, by which the proposition for the assassination of Castro was assured. The word Castro can refer to the inside job that is required to be taken care of and the proposition warned that the U.S. leaders who are persistent to eradicate the leaders of Cuba should not consider themselves safe because the Cuban-leaders will ensure their insecurity but the warning was neglected anyway. In October 29th, the meeting between ALMASH and the head of the agency Desmond Fitzgerald took place in which the agent characterized himself as Kennedy's Attorney and ensured ALMASH that the coup proposed with respect to the Cubans is held back and further on the day of the assassination of Kennedy; the meeting reoccurred in order to assure the Cubans that they will be provided with the armory by the U.S. And the deal was made. Kennedy's assassination was "difficult to be backed by the fact that Oswald was working alone."[footnoteRef:8] The Deputy-Attorney-General Katzenbach profoundly declared that the public should be made to believe about Oswald's accusations but again, the notion was not sighted in order to refrain from the disturbing political condition between the Soviet-Union and U.S. Moreover, the "CIA's contribution was not adequate enough to carry out the investigation due to the positioning of incumbents who did not know the ground realities about the Cubans and ALMASH."[footnoteRef:9] There also exists the possibility that security agents of the "Cuba might have seriously taken Castro's threat and attempted to assassinate the president for their own safeguard."[footnoteRef:10] [7: David R.Wrone, "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: An Annotated Bibliography." The Wisconsin Magazine of History (1972): 23.] [8: DonaldSchulz,"Kennedy and the Cuban Connection." Foreign Policy 26.(1977): 59.] [9: Donald, "Kennedy and the Cuban Connection."Foreign Policy 26. (1977): 61.] [10: Max Holland, "After Thirty Years: Making Sense of the Assassination." Reviews in American History 22 (1994): 206.]

Inefficiency of Warren Committee

The Warren Commission which was established for the investigation of Kennedy's assassination was not provided with enough evidences and connections to relate the Cubans with the assassination of the president and the "Warren Commission also lacked the knowledge about the CIA activities with respect to the Cubans."[footnoteRef:11] Moreover, the extent of the bureaucracy within the department can be visualized by the fact that "the investigators of the assassination including the CIA-Director did not possess the knowledge of the ALMASH-operation and, the CIA personnel who know about this operation kept the ALMASH information from the Warren Committee in order to avoid the embarrassment and for the sake of the operation's secrecy."[footnoteRef:12] Furthermore, some of the personnel could not find any connection between the ALMASH and the assassination which kept this issue apart from the investigation. The Warren Committee continued to draw connections with the inclusive part of the Cuban in the assassination of the president but the CIA also kept the information about the Cuban-activities and did not provide any information that could be helpful in the investigation but it was also the profound responsibility of the Warren Committee to ask for the related information and in this way the committee failed to operate at its optimum level. The commission also consisted of the former CIA-Chief Allen Dulles, who possessed the knowledge about Castro but it does not seem that the information related to Castro was ever shared with the members of the warren committee[footnoteRef:13]. [11: David R. Wrone, "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: An Annotated Bibliography." The Wisconsin Magazine of History (1972): 27.] [12: Ibid., 10.] [13: David R.Wrone, "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: An Annotated Bibliography." The Wisconsin Magazine of History (1972): 23.]

Special Committee

The special committee was formed which consisted of 12 members who were elected by the House-of-Representatives by September 17th of the following year in order to conduct an in-depth analysis of Kennedy's assassination and investigate the operation. The investigations by this committee was started over from a couple of months ago of the assassination "when Castro; decided to agree with the terms proposed by U.S. In which Castro was provided with domestic and financial support."[footnoteRef:14] The Soviet economy was facing hardships due to the missile-crisis and needed the aid in trade and technological advancements so that their economy could grow. Therefore, Castro and Soviets needed to keep their peace offerings in order to be provided with financial aid by the U.S. The intelligence department was provided with the information by the following month that Castro was unhappy about the terms that U.S. have made with Cuba and wanted to back out from the agreement but it was also determined that Castro also wanted to be accommodated in the U.S. The information was shared with the president and a "discrete meeting with the Cubans was decided in order to discuss the various aspects of the negotiations."[footnoteRef:15] Kennedy also made his attempts "to remove the memory related to Bay-of-Pigs from Castro as the agenda was being prepared in this respect and the message was transmitted but unfortunately, the malfunctioning of the communication process caused the delayed reply from the Soviets and by that time, Kennedy had been assassinated."[footnoteRef:16] [14: Michael L. Kurtz, "The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: A Historical Perspective." Historian 45 (1982): 4.] [15: Michael L. Kurtz, "The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: A Historical Perspective." Historian 45 (1982): 6.] [16: Micheal L. Kurtz, "The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: A Historical Perspective." Historian 45, no. 1 (1982): 3.]

The Role of Castro

The advancements made by Kennedy in order to neutralize the situation with Castro were made before the assassination and Castro was present in prime minister's resident when the news of the assassination arrived. Castro was facing financial hardships which indicates that they needed the U.S. support and after the undertaken of deal, it seemed useless that they could have conspired for the assassination and there also exists the possibility about the involvement of Anti-Castro forces to be involved in the assassination. It was also preluded that Oswald might be involved with the president's assassination by being in contact with the Cubans. Therefore, the presumed cover-up from the CIA and the inefficiency of the warren committee indicated that the process of investigation was full of flows and failed to achieve its targeted objectives and thus, resulted in the termination of the committee on May 31st, 1976. Kennedy ensured that "the U.S. policy was making its attempts to accept the Cuban change in order to set things right with respect to peace but it was not transparent that the U.S. was ready to make an attempt towards the economic uplift of the Cubans."[footnoteRef:17] The French Journalist moved back to Castro and discussed the honest offer made by Kennedy and Castro was profoundly interested in the peace making contract due to the provision of U.S. aid in terms of "finance and technology and Castro needed that aid in order to grow and uplift its economic conditions."[footnoteRef:18] The negotiation was still in process when Kennedy got assassinated and no fruitful results of the meeting were generated. It was made obvious that the Cubans did not want Castro to be accommodated by the U.S. And Castro and U.S. shared the enemy but there existed no physical proof to support this notion."[footnoteRef:19] [17: Holland, Max. "After Thirty Years: Making Sense of the Assassination." Reviews in American History 22 (1994): 197.] [18: Holland, Max. "After Thirty Years: Making Sense of the Assassination." Reviews in American History 22 (1994): 198.] [19: Max Holland, "After Thirty Years: Making Sense of the Assassination." Reviews in American History 22 (1994): 193.]

The Soviet Government

On the other hand, it was also observed that while the dialogue between Soviets and U.S. occurred, Kennedy was meeting the French journalist unofficially in order to make an attempt to deliver his message to Castro regarding the paradigm about the U.S., which was considering to move its relation with Castro to the next level by providing Castro with the accommodation facility. The offer was proposed with respect to the certain terms and conditions in order to ensure that the dictatorship will be eradicated and equal level of justice and progression will be provided to the public. The terms were accepted or they might consist of some more delicate terms which made it not to be accepted by the Soviet.The assassination of the president did not provide any fruitful results for the negotiations that took place for the peace making treaty and the situations became vulnerable due to the trust issues that were generated among the U.S. And the Soviets but it was believed that "Nikita Khrushchev was responsible for the assassination in order to bring down the Cuban Missile Crisis."[footnoteRef:20] The deal that was to be made was in the favor of Castro due to the large amount of aid to be provided to Castro but this argument does not invalidate the involvement of Soviets in the assassination conspiracy."[footnoteRef:21] [20: David E. Kaiser, "The road to Dallas: the assassination of John F. Kennedy." Harvard University Press, 2009: 165.] [21: David E. Kaiser, "The road to Dallas: the assassination of John F. Kennedy." Harvard University Press, 2009: 163.]

The Role of Mafia

"The mafia intermediary placed the bounty of $150,000 for the head of Castro so that the deal could be stopped and under these circumstances, the plot against the assassination of the president becomes doubtful and the change in the criteria of the assassination continues towards the mafia."[footnoteRef:22] The leads with respect to the involvement of mafia preludes that on 22nd November, it was evident that the "Cubana airline, which was operationalized for the journey from Mexico to Havana, was delayed due to one passenger who could not arrive on time. Later, the passenger arrived and joined the Cubana flight without being examined or interacted by the Mexican customs and later he travelled from Texas to Mexico on November 23rd, which makes the man suspicious and it was reported by the CIA that the person was involved in the assassination of the president."[footnoteRef:23]"The Warren Commission was also not provided about this information and thus this major aspect of the investigation was neglected."[footnoteRef:24]The mafia was supposedly involved and plotted against Castro but there exists no physical evidence to prove this notion. [22: David R. Wrone, "The Assassination of John F. Kennedy By David Kaiser; Our Man in Maxico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of CIA by Jafferson Morley." The Journal of American History 95: 920.] [23: David R. Wrone, "The Assassination of John F. Kennedy By David Kaiser; Our Man in Maxico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of CIA by Jafferson Morley." The Journal of American History 95: 921.] [24: Max Holland and Lyndon B. Johnson.The Kennedy Assassination Tapes. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004: 257]

Lee Harvey Oswald

Oswald, on the other hand, was attracting attention due to his active participation towards the policy that was adapted by the U.S. For Cuba and Oswald also lacked the information about Castro. The history of Oswald shows his violent behavior in which" he slid his own wrist when he was being refused by the Soviet Union to join them and negotiate his own terms."[footnoteRef:25] Oswald was also charged with "the attempted assassination of Edwin Walker, who was the army personnel -- General Retired. After that, Oswald moved to Dallas with his family and then began the job hunt and found his place at the School book depository."[footnoteRef:26] The political tour of President Kennedy was all over in the news and his expectancy of the trip was found at Dallas and thus, Oswald found an opportunity to make an impact on the history by assassinating the president; after being failed at the assassination of Walker. Moreover, the investigation that took place tends to adhere to its beginning point indicating "the attitude polarization and the empirical results with respect to the conspiracy that were found to be prominent by weighing all aspects including the Oswald theory in the assassination of the president."[footnoteRef:27] The another analysis conducted by "Miss Scobey, who was the member of the investigation of the warren committee viewed the phenomena in such respect which proved the validity of the facts that were in accordance with Oswald's attempt in order to assassin the president. Oswald was killed before he could attend the trial which indicates that it was not a one man job and there existed long connection between the assassination and the occurrence of Oswald because Oswald was charged not because he was seen at the Dallas taking shots, but because of the relevance of cloths that matched the assassinator's cloths. Moreover, the weapon i.e. rifle with which the shots were fired was carried by Oswald from New Orleans to Dallas and at the day of assassination, Oswald took it at his workplace and wrapped paper all over it to carry it considering the iron rods. However, the blanket found at Oswald's house indicated that the rifle was being carried in it and thus, the evidences made Oswald valid for the assassination of the president, however, Oswald being killed the following day left many questions unanswered."[footnoteRef:28] [25: AlfreddaScobey, "A lawyer's notes on the Warren Commission report." American Bar Association journal (1965): 41.] [26: History Today.Oswold Shoots JFK But who is the real target?. (1999)] [27: JohnMcHoskey, "Case Closed? On the John F. Kennedy Assassination: Biased Assimilation of Evidence and Attitude Polarization." Basic and Applied Social Psychology 17 (1995): 397.] [28: AlfreddaScobey, "A lawyer's notes on the Warren Commission report." American Bar Association journal (1965): 42.]