SYNOPSIS
The anatomy of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination has fuelled an increasing diversity of historical views, each theorizing different groups or individuals as conspirators in the plot to murder Kennedy, in accordance with their viable motives. Disputing what was deduced by the Warren Commission asserting that Harvey Lee Oswald, ex-U.S. and defector to the Soviet Union, as the lone assassin, prominent theories that have been devised include those which purport the C.I.A, the K.G.B or L.B.J as the perpetrators. The first viewpoint implicates the U.S Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) as culpable for Kennedy’s murder, with their motives aligned against Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs “fiasco” in 1961. The Soviet Union Security Agency, the K.G.B hypothesis, propounds assassination as a means of retaliation after the humiliation of the USSR in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The final, less elaborate theory proposes that Lyndon Baines Johnson, Kennedy’s long-standing political rival, was the orchestrator of the scheme to murder the President, most notably supported by Roger Stone, who was the first JFK assassination author to have served in the White House and among the few who were personally acquainted with a few of J.F.K’s successors. This essay aims to, through the evaluation of primary and secondary sources, discuss the validity and relevance of the differing perspectives surrounding the historiographical debate concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. ESSAY "There has to be more to it." - Edward Kennedy, Senator and brother of JFK, 1963 The assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (November 24 1963) was a contentious episode in American history which continues to be the subject of scholarly debates today. A ten-month investigation conducted by the Warren Commission from November 1963 to September 1964 concluded that Oswald acted alone in shooting Kennedy. In 1979, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (H.S.C.A) denounced the conclusions of the Warren Commission, and deduced that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.” This assertion has fuelled further interest in the Kennedy assassination case, prompting researchers and historians to devise various theories in attempts to expose fact. This investigation will examine three theories that have taken prominence in the continual discourse concerning the assassination of J.F.K. The first theory purports that the US Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) were the orchestrators of the plot to assassinate the President after the Bay of Pigs “fiasco” in 1961, its most notable proponent being historian John Koerner. Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former high-ranking intelligence officer and defector from the Soviet, has assembled new evidence that further substantiates the …show more content…
Johnson was the most palpable direct beneficiary of the assassination with his potential political gain. Politician, Roger Stone, who was the first J.F.K assassination author to have worked in the White House and among the few who is personally acquainted with selected J.F.K successors, provides an authoritative perspective that validates this theory. In his book, The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ (2014), Stone alleges Johnson as the mastermind plotting the assassination, motivated by the fear that Kennedy was going to close the Vice President’s political career by dropping him from the ticket in 1964. Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of President Kennedy, is a proponent of this theory, opining that with a faction of associates and Texas businessmen, L.B.J orchestrated the plot culminating in the Kennedy assassination. Emulating researcher Barr McClellan’s book, Blood, Money, Power (2003), Stone alleges Johnson’s hit man, Malcolm Wallace as the holder of the fingerprint found on a box beside Oswald’s sniper’s nest on the book depository’s sixth floor. Working in the White House, Stone claims that Richard Nixon, L.B.J’s political rival and later President, had conveyed to him that both he and Johnson yearned for presidency but that, unlike Johnson, “I [Nixon] wasn’t willing to kill for it.” Madeleine Brown, who contended she was the mistress of Johnson, also implicated him in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. In the documentary The Men Who Killed Kennedy (2003), Brown asserted that Johnson, along with Texas oil industrialist and Republican political activist, H. L. Hunt, had commenced planning Kennedy 's demise as early as 1960. At a social gathering held on the night preceding Kennedy’s assassination, Brown alleges that Johnson whispered to her that the "Kennedys will never embarrass me again—that 's no
The anatomy of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination has fuelled an increasing diversity of historical views, each theorizing different groups or individuals as conspirators in the plot to murder Kennedy, in accordance with their viable motives. Disputing what was deduced by the Warren Commission asserting that Harvey Lee Oswald, ex-U.S. and defector to the Soviet Union, as the lone assassin, prominent theories that have been devised include those which purport the C.I.A, the K.G.B or L.B.J as the perpetrators. The first viewpoint implicates the U.S Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) as culpable for Kennedy’s murder, with their motives aligned against Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs “fiasco” in 1961. The Soviet Union Security Agency, the K.G.B hypothesis, propounds assassination as a means of retaliation after the humiliation of the USSR in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The final, less elaborate theory proposes that Lyndon Baines Johnson, Kennedy’s long-standing political rival, was the orchestrator of the scheme to murder the President, most notably supported by Roger Stone, who was the first JFK assassination author to have served in the White House and among the few who were personally acquainted with a few of J.F.K’s successors. This essay aims to, through the evaluation of primary and secondary sources, discuss the validity and relevance of the differing perspectives surrounding the historiographical debate concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. ESSAY "There has to be more to it." - Edward Kennedy, Senator and brother of JFK, 1963 The assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (November 24 1963) was a contentious episode in American history which continues to be the subject of scholarly debates today. A ten-month investigation conducted by the Warren Commission from November 1963 to September 1964 concluded that Oswald acted alone in shooting Kennedy. In 1979, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (H.S.C.A) denounced the conclusions of the Warren Commission, and deduced that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.” This assertion has fuelled further interest in the Kennedy assassination case, prompting researchers and historians to devise various theories in attempts to expose fact. This investigation will examine three theories that have taken prominence in the continual discourse concerning the assassination of J.F.K. The first theory purports that the US Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) were the orchestrators of the plot to assassinate the President after the Bay of Pigs “fiasco” in 1961, its most notable proponent being historian John Koerner. Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former high-ranking intelligence officer and defector from the Soviet, has assembled new evidence that further substantiates the …show more content…
Johnson was the most palpable direct beneficiary of the assassination with his potential political gain. Politician, Roger Stone, who was the first J.F.K assassination author to have worked in the White House and among the few who is personally acquainted with selected J.F.K successors, provides an authoritative perspective that validates this theory. In his book, The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ (2014), Stone alleges Johnson as the mastermind plotting the assassination, motivated by the fear that Kennedy was going to close the Vice President’s political career by dropping him from the ticket in 1964. Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of President Kennedy, is a proponent of this theory, opining that with a faction of associates and Texas businessmen, L.B.J orchestrated the plot culminating in the Kennedy assassination. Emulating researcher Barr McClellan’s book, Blood, Money, Power (2003), Stone alleges Johnson’s hit man, Malcolm Wallace as the holder of the fingerprint found on a box beside Oswald’s sniper’s nest on the book depository’s sixth floor. Working in the White House, Stone claims that Richard Nixon, L.B.J’s political rival and later President, had conveyed to him that both he and Johnson yearned for presidency but that, unlike Johnson, “I [Nixon] wasn’t willing to kill for it.” Madeleine Brown, who contended she was the mistress of Johnson, also implicated him in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. In the documentary The Men Who Killed Kennedy (2003), Brown asserted that Johnson, along with Texas oil industrialist and Republican political activist, H. L. Hunt, had commenced planning Kennedy 's demise as early as 1960. At a social gathering held on the night preceding Kennedy’s assassination, Brown alleges that Johnson whispered to her that the "Kennedys will never embarrass me again—that 's no