From the unconvincing official story to the many theories, the assassination of the American president is a story about more powerful “shadow” rulers
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was killed on this day, November 22, 1963. Of all the prominent political assassinations of the 20th century—and there were quite a few—this one is probably the most striking, not only because Kennedy was killed “on camera” while riding in an open car with his wife Jacqueline, but above all because, even today, 56 years later, we still do not know “who” killed John Kennedy. And very few people believe the “official version” of the story (as many as 80% of Americans think the truth was covered up).
The official story goes like this: on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. local time, Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas, by a former U.S. Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald. Seventy minutes after the shooting, the police caught Oswald and took him to jail. Only two days later, on November 24, 1963—while Oswald was being transferred from the city jail to the county jail, and once again cameras were broadcasting live—Jack Ruby (a nightclub and strip-club owner) stepped forward, shot Oswald, and he was declared dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. Ruby was imprisoned and died in jail in 1967.
An investigation was launched into this more-than-suspicious chain of events, the so-called Warren Commission, which after 10 months concluded that Oswald “acted entirely alone,” as did Jack Ruby.
Does it sound unconvincing? That is why many do not believe the “official story.” First, why did Ruby kill Kennedy’s assassin two days after the attack? Ruby claimed he did it because Kennedy’s murder “affected him,” and, he said, he wanted to spare Mrs. Kennedy from having to appear in court and face her husband’s killer.
Many believe that it was in fact a much larger conspiracy than officially stated. Given the magnitude of the event, theories about who “really” killed Kennedy are numerous, and at the top of the list of potential organizers are: the FBI, the CIA, the U.S. military, the mafia, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson himself (who automatically became president after the assassination), Cuban president Fidel Castro, the Soviet KGB, or some combination of these actors.
This is only the “tip” of the list of suspects. According to one study, as many as 42 groups are mentioned as suspects, depending on the theory.
One particularly interesting detail is that in 1963 Kennedy ordered a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Vietnam. Some believe this decision was crucial. In any case, the fact remains that the U.S. did not withdraw from Vietnam; on the contrary, the next year marks the beginning of the war’s more intense phase—launched on the basis of one of the biggest proven “false-flag operations” in American history.
When discussing the Vietnam War, there are several potential actors who may have wanted to remove Kennedy and continue the conflict. One theory speaks of the American “Shadow Government,” a group of influential industrialists and right-wing politicians.
A fairly common—and somewhat similar—theory is that of the military-industrial complex, a powerful pro-war lobby that Kennedy obstructed. This theory is elaborated, for example, in Oliver Stone’s famous film JFK.
Of course, it is well known that the U.S. tried many times and in many different (sometimes very “creative”) ways to assassinate the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro—those attempts have achieved almost cult status (for example, the “exploding cigar”)—and that Castro survived them all (and outlived many U.S. administrations), dying a natural death in 2016. Considering U.S. attempts, it would be logical to expect that Castro might have tried to retaliate in kind by assassinating his adversary, Kennedy. But there is also a theory that Kennedy was killed by Cuban exiles from Miami (Cubans who fled or were expelled from Cuba after the socialists came to power). Why would they kill Kennedy? Because many were furious with him over the 1961 fiasco—the failed U.S. invasion of Cuba (the Bay of Pigs). Some believed Kennedy was the main obstacle to eliminating Castro. There are various theories pointing to the Cuban exiles in Miami. One of them, Guillermo Novo, fired a bazooka at the UN building in New York while Che Guevara was giving a speech there in 1964. Interestingly, the same Novo was directly connected and in contact with Lee Harvey Oswald.
There are also numerous theories that organized crime carried out the assassination, and there were many candidates who were displeased with Kennedy.
Some are still convinced today that Kennedy was killed on the orders of his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, so that he could seize power. Among other things, immediately after taking office he escalated the Vietnam War. Had Kennedy survived, perhaps the war would have ended as early as 1963; as it happened, it lasted until 1975.
Some believe the assassination was organized by future president George H. W. Bush, who in the 1970s was CIA director, and according to certain claims (which he denied), Bush had been a CIA operative already in the 1960s.
Naturally, there are also theories that the USSR, i.e. the Soviet KGB, organized the assassination. At the time, the USSR was led by Nikita Khrushchev, and those who believe the Soviets were responsible argue that the motive was the outcome of the tense Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviets were forced to withdraw their nuclear weapons from Cuba.
Predictably, the theories also vary by region for political reasons—for example, in the Muslim world a very popular theory is the “Zionist conspiracy,” claiming that Kennedy was killed because he opposed Israel’s nuclear program.
There are many more theories, and obviously they cannot all be true, although some overlap. The fact is that Kennedy was killed, and he was killed for a reason. Will we ever know for certain who ordered the assassination? Perhaps not. But Kennedy’s murder is undoubtedly one of the most significant events of the 20th century—an event that, for many, “is still ongoing,” since the whole story never came fully to light.
Kennedy’s assassination shook American society. Many cried in the streets, though not all—something not often emphasized today is that in some southern U.S. states people even celebrated when they heard Kennedy had been killed.
For the U.S., Kennedy’s assassination became one of those “where were you when…” moments, like the attack on Pearl Harbor before it, and later the attack on New York on September 11, 2001 (and those events, too, are the source of numerous conspiracy theories).
Regardless of who killed Kennedy, what this assassination confirmed is the fact that the U.S. president—though regarded as “the most powerful person in the world”—is actually not. Around and behind him exist even more powerful individuals, entities, and groups whose names are unknown, but who stand higher in the hierarchy of decision-making, because they can—as shown on November 22, 1963—take the life even of an American president. This is also a lasting reminder, a warning, to all who will later assume that office.
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