Assassination Of President Kennedy example essay topic

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 46, President for 1,026 days, was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas. He, his wife, Jackie, the Vice President and many others were in Dallas for a reelection campaign for the upcoming election in 1964 when the horrible incident happened. Sadly, there is no decent explanation of the assassination from the government - The Warren Report is a 26 Volume Report that claims that Lee Harvey Oswald is the lone assassin - I do not agree with this. The CIA was one branch of the government that was definitely a big thorn in Kennedy's side, and he, a thorn in theirs. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was the spark that ignited the devastating fire! Crossfire by Jim Marrs (1989) explains that over fifteen-hundred CIA trained anti-Castro ex-patriots were sent to seize Cuba, and kill Castro.

At the last moment, President Kennedy - who agreed to this mission after the CIA had everything planned, all they needed was his young Presidential signature - cancelled the air strikes which were supposed to disable Castro's air force. As a result Kennedy took full public responsibility for the Bay of Pigs disaster though he secretly blamed the CIA (Marrs 5). In Mark Lane's Plausible Denial (1991) we are told that because of this whole fiasco, Kennedy fired three of the CIA's top men (Allen Dulles - Director of the CIA, Charles Cabell - Deputy Director and brother of the Mayor of Dallas, and, Richard Bissell - Deputy Director for Plans, the dirty tricks department of the CIA) and he planned to "splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds (Lane 93&98)". Kennedy would not support the invasion of Cuba again, and the CIA knew this, but it didn't stop them thinking about it, or training ex-patriots for another invasion, though one was never attempted, at least not that Kennedy (or the public) knew of. Vietnam was also a major issue that the CIA was involved in and unfortunately for them, so was Kennedy.

Once Vietnam started getting more serious (by the summer of 1963), Kennedy reevaluated the United State's involvement in Vietnam (Marrs 306). The CIA wanted more and more troops to fight, they really wanted to win this war on communism, but Kennedy disagreed. He felt that the Bay of Pigs had taught him a number of things - one is not to trust generals or the CIA, and the second is that if the American people did not want to use American troops to remove a Communist regime 90 miles away from our coast, how could he ask them to use troops to remove a Communist regime 9,000 miles away (Marrs 306). Peter Dale Scott tells us in his book Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (1993) that late in 1963 Kennedy had authorized the withdrawal of one-thousand U.S. troops from Vietnam - this was the first step towards total retreat from Vietnam, which he anticipated would happen by the end of 1965 (Scott 24). This incident added to the fire that was roaring underneath the CIA - something had to be done about Kennedy. The Mafia is also a key suspect in this assassination.

Especially Carlos Marcello, who was the mob boss in New Orleans - he was deported because of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, President Kennedy's brother (Sherer April 1991). Robert Kennedy focused much of his time on getting rid of organized crime, and he did a pretty good job. In the Web Site "Who Murdered JFK and Why?" Marcello was quoted saying that President Kennedy was like a dog and Bobby Kennedy was his tail. The dog will keep biting you if you only cut off its tail, but cut off the head and the dog will die, tail and all. I would say that's a pretty good analogy of what happened. If President Kennedy were to die, then Robert Kennedy wouldn't be able to keep going after the mob.

Another Mafia boss, Santos Trafficante from Miami also made a 'prediction' about Kennedy's death when he said "Kennedy's not going to make it to the election. He's going to be hit (web)". Many major crime bosses issued threats against Kennedy, but these two threats, or forecasts of JFK's death seem to be ironic given that Trafficante and Marcello could easily make something like this happen. John Edgar Hoover was the center of power in the FBI, but he was not liked by Kennedy. Robert Kennedy knew Hoover had ties with the mob even though he denied it, he was seen many times with mob bosses, he was just trying to protect them as much as possible (Marrs 216). Hoover was a dirty old man; he kept files on everyone that could destroy their career, that was possibly why he lasted so long at the top of the FBI.

Lucky for President Kennedy, Hoover was turning 70 while he was in office so he would have to resign which would be 'like a death sentence for him' according to his good friend Lyndon B. Johnson after he became President. Hoover knew that if Johnson became President he would be able to keep his job as the head of the FBI, and Johnson would definitely give him the grant to stay in office for two reasons; one, they were friends since 1945 and two, because Hoover had many files on Johnson and all the dirty money and schemes he was involved in - I guess they both won on this deal. Lyndon B. Johnson, by far, had the most to gain by Kennedy's death. Johnson was the Vice President, and therefore, next in line for President - as soon as the President was dead, which probably wouldn't happen of natural causes considering he was only 46.

In September of 1963 many of the criminal activities that Johnson was involved in exploded into the press. He was under intense pressure and if something didn't come along fast, his political career would have been over! Johnson went to his Texas ranch six weeks before the President's scheduled arrival to prepare for Kennedy's "Texas Welcome" (Sherer May 1991). Ironically, Kennedy was shot during his "Texas Welcome" and the pressure that was on Johnson seemed to fly away, with Kennedy's soul. Dealey Plaza is the infamous site of President Kennedy's assassination.

The motorcade was originally supposed to take a relatively straight course through Dealey Plaza without passing the Texas Book Depository, but with a sudden change in route, the motorcade was exposed to the open windows of the Depository, the Dal-Tex building and the wide open Grassy Knoll. Because of this change in route, the motorcade had to make a 120 degree turn, despite the fact that turns over 90 degrees are prohibited by the Secret Service (Marrs 11). Soon after this fateful turn, the shots rang out. Kennedy was hit by the second bullet in the neck; this bullet is considered the "super bullet" by the Warren Commission because they want us to believe that it caused 7 wounds combined in Kennedy and the Governor of Texas, John B Connally.

This one bullet shattered a rib and a wrist bone then emerged almost totally unmarked to become the pristine Commission Exhibit 399 found on a gurney in the hospital (Marrs 485). The first shot fired hit the street near Kennedy's Limousine and the third shot is the fatal shot that killed Kennedy by removing half of his head. The hardest thing to believe about the Warren Report's single bullet theory is the number of wounds and the many directions that the bullet must have turned to hit Kennedy and Connally in all the places that it did. In Oliver Stone's "JFK" District Attorney Garrison gives an incredible explanation of how absolutely ridiculous that theory is. What also seems strange to me is the many accounts of bystanders that day, including Governor Connally who was in the car with Kennedy, who said that there were more than 3 shots, and that they came from the direction of the Grassy Knoll. The motorcade passed by some 20 police officers at the intersection of Main and Houston - they were told to stand down when they offered more security - and when the shots were fired almost all of them said that the shots came from the railroad yard just behind the grassy knoll (Marrs 19).

Thomas Atkins, the official photographer for the Kennedy White House was riding 6 cars behind Kennedy. He was filming the motorcade at the time of the assassination. His car was in front of the Depository and he states that he heard the shots from below and off to the right of him - which is the location of the Grassy Knoll. He also says that he never thought the shots came from above him in the Depository (Marrs 17). There is at least one person in the motorcade that says they heard shots come from the Depository, and one of those people was Mrs. Earle Cabell who was riding in the sixth car, and as with Atkins, the car was in front of the depository at the time Kennedy was killed. She said the shots came from the Depository, not the Grassy Knoll (Marrs 16).

There were also accounts of people seeing who they thought were Secret Service Agents in downtown Dallas that morning with rifles. Julia Ann Mercer was stopped in traffic two hours before Kennedy was killed. While she was waiting for the cars to start to move she found herself next to a truck with a man sitting in the driver's seat, and she saw another man get of the truck and remove a long paper bag, in which she could see the outline of a rifle. This man with the rifle walked up to the grassy knoll and out of sight (Marrs 18). Mercer thought these men were secret service agents who were indeed, not too secret, but after the death of Kennedy she was questioned and she identified Jack Ruby as the man in the drivers seat, and she said that the man with the Rifle looked similar to Oswald. Regardless of all that she said and saw, her report was twisted in the Warren Report and they never said anything about Mercer identifying Ruby (JFK).

Two co-workers, Phillip Hathaway and John Lawrence also saw a man with a rifle while they were walking toward Main St. The man was very large with dirty blond hair in a dark suit and he was carrying a rifle in a gun case. Just as Mercer did, these two men found themselves thinking that it was just the Secret Service not being very secret about anything! Most of these accounts are probably all accurate, and that just pushes the conclusion even more to the side of there being more than one shooter. Pictures have shown movement in the 6th floor of the Depository, there were hundreds of footprints and quite a few cigarette butts behind the picket fence that separated the railroad yard and the grassy knoll, shots were heard from the railroad yard and the picket fence, there was even a picture taken by Mary Moorman that when blown up, shows a figure of a man in what looks to be the uniform of the Dallas Police - he has been dubbed the 'Badge Man. ' He is shown holding a rifle and most of his face is blurred by a flash of light - maybe from the muzzle blast of a rifle. There may even be another man to the right of the 'Badge Man'; it's just too blurry to be sure (Marrs 80).

These are just some of the issues that help us to think that there is a very good possibility of there being at least a second shooter. Lee Harvey Oswald was taken into custody not long after the President was killed. Once Oswald was taken into custody and charged with the killing of the President there was not attempt to investigate any of these statements, concerns and testimonies that the public had - the government had their man, their patsy. Oswald entered the Marines at 17 and after three years Oswald received a sudden discharge - after 2 days at home, he went to Russia. He told the Russians that he wanted to denounce his American Citizenship and become a Russian Citizen. He also told them that he was a spy and they he could tell them all of the US secrets (JFK & Marrs 92).

After Oswald was in Russia for a while he married a young girl by the name of Marina. Oswald, his wife and his baby girl later returned to the US, and somehow, surprisingly, they got into the US with no problems and Oswald had a new Passport (which he had given up in Russia) within 48 hours (JFK) - that doesn't happen to people who aren't somehow involved with the US government. While back in the US Oswald could not hold a job, not even simple minimum wage jobs. He went to New Orleans to look for work in the summer of 1963 and he became involved with David Ferrie, who he had known from the Civil Air Patrol when he was younger (Marrs 99).

Ferrie was a strange man, a talented pilot, a leader in the Anti-Castro movement (out of New Orleans) and he was an avid hater of Kennedy. Ferrie and Oswald were seen working out of Guy Bannister's Camp St. Office that was headquarters for Bannister's and the CIA's Anti-Castro movement. This same office is also the address that Oswald used when he passed out Pro-Castro leaflets on the streets of New Orleans - obviously, this Pro-Castro movement, and his inability to keep a job along with his supposed 'move' to Russia are only small parts of a huge plan that the CIA had for Oswald. I'm inclined to think that the government, especially the CIA had the most involvement with this assassination, along with the Mafia.

I feel that once the CIA and the FBI realized that Kennedy was going to cause them problems, they decided to start on their plan on making Oswald their scapegoat with the help of the Mafia and some old CIA and FBI friends. He was such a patriot that he would do anything for this country, and he never asked why he was going or doing these things, he was just doing his job. While the government was forming Oswald as their lone assassin, they were also planning the actual assassination. The Secret Service declined more security by the Dallas Police Department, they didn't secure the area as much as would have normally been done and they changed the route at the last minute to bring the motorcade down towards where Oswald was now working (in the Texas Book Depository) since he was their scapegoat, and so they could put their real sharpshooters on the sixth floor of the Depository, in the Grassy Knoll and in the Rail Road yard.

Oswald was eating lunch at the time of the assassination, and there are testimonies to support that fact, but Oswald is the guy that the police went after (which was planned) and because Jack Ruby (a known friend to many in the mob) killed him before a trial we will never know Oswald's whole story, we only know that he claimed he was innocent and that he was a patsy. The cover up of the assassination of President Kennedy began with taking Oswald as the assassin - from there, newspapers all over the country, and the world, put out a full background article on Oswald. Kennedy was hardly dead before these articles were in the hands of the public (JFK). The CIA then had a Mafia affiliate, Jack Ruby (a night club owner and friend of Marcello) kill Oswald while he was being escorted by police 2 days after the assassination. Supposedly, Ruby killed Oswald out of feelings of patriotic duty to Mrs. Kennedy - I would think most people wouldn't believe that.

The CIA and FBI also made sure to keep people quiet and to confiscate any evidence that could hurt their lone assassin theory. Sadly, people who were not timid mice and did not keep quiet seemed to end up dead a lot of the time, especially if they had real credible testimony of something other then that of what the government said (JFK). For example the young man who was watching over the railroad yard the day Kennedy was killed saw men standing around by the picket fence facing out towards the motorcade. He also saw 3 cars drive into the yard even though it was closed to the public. This young man ended up dead because of a one-car crash, this is just one example from quite a few of the poor souls who were in the wrong place at the wrong time (JFK). I don't think the cover up took as much work as the planning of and the assassination itself.

Once Oswald was in custody the public seemed content, and once he was killed, the public had no choice but to be content, but after a few years and some new information, the public could not be content anymore! The death of Kennedy was tragic to this whole nation. My mother, though a little girl new in this country remembers sitting in school when the nun came in to tell them; everyone was devastated. Kennedy was an average man, who had flaws, but his goal for this country was to make it better. He was a hero to many people in this country. He wanted peace and equal rights for all - something Martin Luther King Jr. was later killed for.

I feel that the death of Kennedy took away some of the innocence that he himself was trying to preserve. Johnson signed the bill to get more involved in Vietnam almost immediately after Kennedy was killed, and we lost that war with flying colors - Kennedy knew we would not prevail in that war and that is probably one of the reasons why he wanted nothing to do with it. I think this country would have reaped many benefits from Kennedy's full term, and probably a full second term as of the election of 1964. Sadly we will never know what Kennedy had in store for us, or his brother Robert Kennedy for that matter who was killed while running for President in 1968. My research leads me to believe that the government was most definitely involved in Kennedy's assassination, how little or how much, we may never know. Regardless, whoever planned this conspiracy against JFK did an amazing job, and they knew enough powerful people in this country to cover it up with relative ease.

I do feel strongly when it comes to this assassination and the fact that the government was somehow involved, but, considering the recent events of September 11, 2001 and the problems we still face to this very moment, I feel that it is not right for me to bash our government. I feel sad writing this paper based on the fact that the leaders of our country had something to do with the assassination of the President of our country. I do believe that things have changed since the time of Kennedy, but I can't help but wonder if things have changed for the better or worse - let's hope, for our sake, our children's sake and our grandchildren's sake, that they have changed for the better. I am anxious for the year 2039 when all of the documents that Johnson had locked in the Nation Archives become public - it will be interesting to see what new information comes about with the release. Maybe we will finally know the truth about who killed our 35th President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.