allas at the president’s request it is very doubtful. When it comes to security, the president usually has little choice in the matter. The secret service decides what is to be done, and how it is to be done. They also decided the route that the president would take through the city of Dallas that day. Figure 1 Areal photo of Dealy Plaza From the Assassination Home PageOriginally the route was scheduled to go right down Main Street, and was published in the paper, so that people would know, and could see him. This route would have gone right through the center of Dealey plaza. However due to what might have been poor research, or a deliberate action, the route was changed. The official reason was that Secret Service agents said the motorcade could not get to the express way that lead the trade center from Main Street. It had to go down Houston, to Elm. However the truth, as pointed out by Robert Groden in the book The Killing of the President, is that you can get the highway from Main Street, and if it some how missed, it could still go to Industrial Road which would lead right to the Trade Center. Another option would have been to go straight down elm from start to finish, and not make any zig zag sharp turns, there by not allowing the motorcade to slow down as much as it did. This last minute route change was not announced until the day of the parade its self, allowing anyone with desire to cause harm at this location very short planing time. If they knew of the route before hand though from a source inside the secret service they would have plenty of time to plan. As mentioned before there are several zones of security. One of these is the people that will be in the area, the crowd. Crowd control is very important in the public appearance of celebrity, especially the president. Earlier in October there had been a hostile welcome of the US ambassador to the united nations, Adlai Stevenson and there was worries that Kennedy wou...
