New revelations around the assassination of Kennedy: Lee Harvey Oswald was really more of a lone wolf
The case of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963 is still the subject of much speculation and conspiracy theories. The American National Archive, by order of Donald Trump, has thus also made public the last part of the previously classified documents. What have we learned from them?
Information that has so far been associated with the assassinations of Kennedy, his brother Senator Robert Kennedy or civil rights activist Martin Luther King, is being made public. A total of up to 80 thousand different documents are set to be released gradually, as stated by ČTK. The materials had been classified at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), justified by fears of threats to national security.
Kennedy's death was accompanied by distrust
The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 22, 1963, was shrouded in mystery for a while. This gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories and speculations. The murder was investigated by a special commission, established in December 1963 by Kennedy's successor Lyndon Johnson. This so-called Warren Commission concluded in September 1964 that the instigator and perpetrator of the assassination was former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald - alone, without any accomplice.
The report was met with criticism and distrust immediately after its publication. Oswald was shot dead two days after Kennedy's death when he was being transported from the police headquarters to the county jail by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner in Dallas. The speculation was further fueled by the fact that no trial was held and that the president's assassin died before he could reveal the identity of any other perpetrators, if he had worked with anyone.
Debate particularly centred around the fact that a single 6.5 millimeter bullet killed not only Kennedy, but also wounded Governor Connally at the same time. Many people believe it is unlikely that one bullet could pass through the bodies of two adult men.
Many skeptics in their belief that Oswald was just a scapegoat, were convinced by a video taken at the Dallas police headquarters, in which he allegedly made the following statement.
"I'm just a patsy!"
Therefore, in the mid-70s, a committee of the House of Representatives of the American Congress was set up to find out if there were more shooters during the act. The committee admitted this version in 1979. However, the assumption was never confirmed. Thus, the investigation was closed after another ten years with the same conclusion as in 1964.
Despite this, nearly two years ago Gallup institute found in its survey that 60 years after the assassination, two thirds of Americans believe that Oswald acted with accomplices.
Declassification of new documents
What do the revealed materials claim? They show that one of the CIA agents was in contact with a university professor who characterized Oswald as a collaborator of the Soviet intelligence service KGB. Among the arguments for this finding was, among other things, the fact that he had previously stayed in the communist Soviet Union. He moved there in fact in 1959 and returned to the United States only after three years. American intelligence agencies then carefully monitored him.
The documents also confirm that the assassin was in contact with both the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City before he was killed. He reportedly spoke there about his plans to kill Kennedy, as the BBC also reports. The CIA was tracking him in the city.
The new findings also include details about the involvement of American intelligence agencies in attempts to overthrow foreign governments. They describe, for example, communication between the CIA director's office and agents in Cuba who were planning to overthrow Fidel Castro's government in 1963. Another document reveals details about secret activities called E4DEED, the aim of which was to overthrow the government of Dominican Republic President Rafael Trujillo. He was eventually assassinated in May 1961 after the United States severed diplomatic relations with the Dominican Republic. All these CIA activities were allegedly, as the new materials show, the subject of criticism by the President's advisor Arthur Schlesinger.
Oswald was the only one, experts claim
But back to John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination. There are still no major surprises.
"In fact, I haven't seen anything that would change the claim suggesting that Oswald was a lone shooter who killed John F. Kennedy. It wasn't a result of a conspiracy,"
Marc Selverstone, Professor at the University of Virginia, told Al Jazeera after obtaining new information.
The current US administration claims that the goal of unveiling the new materials is to provide a more transparent view of the history of the United States, but the vast majority of the six million records, photographs, film and sound recordings, and objects have already been made public in the past.
Meanwhile, Kennedy's grandson Jack Schlossberg stated on X network that the Trump administration is simply dismantling Kennedy's legacy by cancelling activities and projects associated with diversity, equality, and inclusion, and forging partnerships with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Sources: author's text, ČTK, Al Jazeera, BBC, The U.S. National Archives and Record Administration
