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JFK ASSiNATION

JFK ASSiNATION 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 would simply have to sign vouchers to spend money from the secret budget (Marrs 182-183). In 1953, the CIA initiated the overthrow of the government of Iran headed by Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh who had nationalized the oil industry. Furthermore, in 1954 a CIA right wing group overthrew the government of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala who nationalized the property of United Fruit Company, which had been owned by a wealthy group of American executives. Allen Dulles had previously been president of the United Fruit Company before becoming director of the CIA (Marrs 183) . After Fidel Castro took over Cuba, the CIA decided they did not approve of how he was managing it and attempted to remove him from power. On March 17, 1960, President Eisenhower approved a CIA proposal that later became known as the Bay of Pigs Operation. This plan to invade Cuba utilized a brigade of American trained Cuban exiles. Expecting to be elected President, Vice President Nixon attended all of the meetings and played an essential role in planning the total operation (Prouty 121). Unaware of the CIA's invasion plans the newly elected President Kennedy promised that the United States would not use military action against Cuba. Since Allen Dulles was reassigned Director of the CIA, the Operation's planners believed they could go on with the invasion (Prouty 129). When briefed by CIA Director Dulles about the invasion, the President demanded that a temporary hold be put on the total operation. However, three months after Kennedy took office the invasion was launched and was a total failure. All Cuban refugees that landed at the Bay of Pigs were captured and jailed. The CIA and the refugees blamed Kennedy because he refused to send in military air and naval support. Angry that his orders were not honored, CIA Director Allen Dulles, CIA Deputy Director General Charles Cabell, and the CIA Director of Planning Richard M. Bissel were all fired. At that time Kennedy told Senator Mike Mansfield, Majority Leader of the U.S Senate, that he would tear the CIA "into 1000 pieces and scatter them into the wind" (Groden 410-411). While the invasion on Cuba was in progress, the CIA was also overseeing military activity in Indochina. President Kennedy had inherited a fifteen-year buildup of military involvement in Vietnam, which he had made very clear he wanted no part of. By signing National Security Act Memorandum (NSAM) #263 on October 11, 1963 President Kennedy ordered 1000 American soldiers home from Southeast Asia by the end of the year. The rest of the troops were to be out of Vietnam by the end of 1965 (Prouty 116). Fletcher Prouty, a retired Air Force Colonel, was in charge promoting military support for the camouflage activities of the CIA during the 1960's. In this book, Prouty explains the steps involved in planning the assassination. First the conspirators chose Dallas as the site for the murder and selected a skilled group of "mechanics". These mechanics are an elite group of sharpshooters that are trained and supported by the CIA. Next, the plotters made certain that routine security measures would be neglected. However, the biggest and most important element of the ensuing plot was the creation of the scapegoat. Cover Story experts had created an entire scenario setting Oswald up as this "patsy" long before the assassination actually was initiated (Prouty 136- 137) . Until President Kennedy was assassinated, he was always given adequate Secret Service protection during his routine appearances and political functions. It is significant that since the moment the President arrived at Love Field, standard security measures were either neglected or ignored. That day the President was riding in a convertible limousine without the bulletproof bubble that was usually provided. Instead of following the safer route through Main Street, he was lead onto Elm Street the perfect Ambush site (Groden 156). Elm Street consisted of a very sharp turn surrounded by tall buildings that led down a small hill toward a triple underpass. Somehow, the order of the motorcade was changed. The President's limousine was supposed to be the seventh car but somehow it ended up second just behind the car police Chief Curry was driving. The press was assigned to be right behind the presidential limousine but it was last making it impossible for the assassination to be seen on public television (Groden 152). The motorcade rounded the corner of Elm Street at a speed of eight miles per hour and continued through Deally Plaza where the President was shot. Only one secret service official attempted to save the JFK's life. Strangely it is reported that four of the nine secret service men who played a key role as members of the follow-up car had been out the night prior to the assassination partying at Jack Ruby's nightclub. Secret Service regulation states that any employee consuming alcohol while on duty will be fired. None of the four men were fired or even reprimanded (Groden 149-150). Six minutes before President Kennedy was shot a microphone of one of the police officers on the scene was left open. This cut off communications between the officers making it impossible for other police to know what was occurring and make it easier for the assassins to escape. Then, seconds after the president was shot the microphone opened back up and a Morse code signal for victory was heard over the Dallas police radio (Groden 248). Lee Harvey Oswald was taken into custody by the Dallas police and charged with the murder of Police Officer J. D. Tippit just after Kennedy's assassination. There is no evidence that explains why the Dallas Police instantly suspected Oswald. At the time he was arrested his wallet contained only one identification card. It stated that his name was Alek James Hidell the card had a very clear picture of him. Presumably, if this was the ID card on his person at the time of arrest officers should have been led to the conclusion that he was Alek James Hidell and not Lee Harvey Oswald (Lane 135). By the morning after he had been arrested for Tippit's murder, Oswald was also being accused of assassinating President Kennedy. Strangely, a rather lengthy article was put on the wire service accusing Oswald of murdering Kennedy before the police had considered him a suspect in Kennedy's assassination. Fletcher Prouty explains that this is pure propaganda "news can be sent around the world instantaneously but news on some young unknown man cannot be collected and collated so quickly. Those who planned the assassination had prepared the scapegoat and all of this intimate information beforehand." Police Chief Curry later explained on television that Oswald was considered a suspect after the police had found the rifle they believed to be used in the assassination. This explanation later proved to be unacceptable because this broadcast was before 12:45 PM and the rifle was not discovered until 1:22 PM (Lane 82). Many strange things about Oswald lack explanation. For example, it is quite bizarre that a semiliterate high school drop out professing Marxism was taken to a top secret Marine air base in Japan. There he was given language courses where he became fluent in writing and speaking Russian. He was then permitted to leave the service on three days' notice, claiming his mother was ill. Shortly after his death, his mother would be the first to make the claim that he worked for American Intelligence (Stone XX). Oswald's CIA personal files are being withheld from the public until the year 2039 (Marrs 69). After JFK was killed, the Warren Commission was appointed by Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination. Allen Dulles, the person Kennedy had fired a few months before was appointed a member of the Commission. Instead of investigating the murder of JFK with the objective of finding the assassin or assassins the Warren Commission set out to prove that Lee Oswald was the lone gunman. The Warren Commission found that three shots were fired from the sixth floor of the Book Depository, all by Oswald, and all from a single shot rifle. If any of these three points can be disproved all 26 volume's of the Warren Report would be false (Groden 148-150). In order to prove Oswald was the shooter, Arlen Spector invented the Magic Bullet theory. Oliver Stone best describes the Warren Commission's magic bullet theory in the introduction to the book JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy. In this book, Stone describes the pristine bullet's voyage through Kennedy's back, throat, and two of governor Connally's bones to be absurd. He states it is ludicrous that the Warren Commission could have found that a bullet "entering Kennedy's back on a downward trajectory, changing direction, exiting up through his throat, pausing for 1.6 seconds before deciding to attack Connally, then turning right, then left, then right again, hitting Connally at the back of his right armpit, heading downward through his chest, taking a right turn at Connally's wrist, shattering the radius bone, exiting his wrist; the bullet launches one last assault, taking a dramatic U-turn and burying itself in Connally's left thigh" (Stone xxi). Although the Commission found Oswald to be the lone gunman, it is highly unlikely that he actually was. Oswald was a terrible shot while in the Marines and marksmanship rarely increases after leaving the service. Top marksmen failed to duplicate the amazing shots Oswald was believed to have fired. Evidence states that the alleged rifle's bolt was very hard to work and that nobody in the world could have fired two shots in 1.6 seconds and hit anything especially Oswald (Groden 176). When a gun is fired nitrogen gas and burning powder escape the weapon and are implanted on the skin. By giving a suspect a paraffin test, authorities are able to determine whether the person in question has shot a firearm recently. The results of this test on Oswald proved that he did not shoot the President (Groden 148-150). Two years after the Warren Commission findings were made public the Assassination's Committee (another group investigating JFK's wrongful death) found that there were at least two shooters and that there probably was a conspiracy. CIA operative Robert Morrow explains "I bought the three Manlicher rifles that would be used to shoot Kennedy and I supplied Kennedy's three hit squads with communication devices more sophisticated than any previously designed" (Morrow xi). Two men sniper teams are often used by the military where one-man fires and the other retrieves the shells and acts as a lookout (Groden 225). Several teams of two snipers would ensure the assassination as well as make the assassination appear that it was performed by a lone gunman (Morrow 190). Eyewitnesses that claim to have heard automatic weapons or actually several different shooters firing simultaneously would also support this. Other eyewitnesses claim to have heard shots fired from the knoll, saw smoke and some even said they smelled gunpowder behind the fence (Lane 43-45). At the time of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, an unsuccessful attempt by United States-backed Cuban exiles to overthrow the government of the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, the CIA had gone from an intelligence gathering and coordinating agency to one that overthrew governments and plotted the assassination of foreign leaders. The secrecy of this agency was controlled strictly on an individual need to know basis. There were divisions within the CIA that blamed and hated Kennedy for its failure at the Bay of Pigs. In addition, the agency knew that Kennedy's Vietnamization policy (NSAM #263) was the first step involved in its elimination. The CIA had to kill Kennedy to save themselves. After the assassination, the cover-up began 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. 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. Bibliography:

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