The 60th anniversary of US President John F Kennedy’s assassination is Wednesday (Pictures: AP/Reuters/Getty Images)
Sixty years have passed since President John F Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, yet hundreds of records related to the assassination remain sealed by the federal government.
Today marks six decades since shots were fired in Dealey Plaza, and Americans remain deeply interested in the Kennedy assassination.
According to a poll published by Gallup last week, 65% of Americans believe others were involved in the slaying.
Only 29% of Americans are sure former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald was working alone.
John F Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States (Picture: REX)
But conspiracy believers are divided on exactly who killed Kennedy, who also remains the most beloved popular former president, according to another Gallup poll from July.
About 11% believe the Mafia or other organized crime elements are responsible for the killing. While this theory has long been popular, it has lost traction in recent years.
A total of 38% believe some part of the US federal government is responsible for the president’s death. This belief has steadily grown over the years, increasing by 13 points since 2013.
JFK files
This has lead many researchers to look for clues in the enormous amount of files and records kept by the federal government on the assassination.
The first pieces of documents and evidence released to the public came after the Warren Commission delivered its final report in 1964.
The Commission, which was convened by President Lyndon B Johnson and chaired by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, came to the conclusion that Kennedy was struck by two bullets fired from the Texas School Book Depository overlooking Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
American Marxist and former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald in a mug shot after he was arrested for assassinating President John F Kennedy in Dallas (Picture: Getty Images)
It determined that Oswald acted alone and was not part of a broader conspiracy.
It also found that Oswald’s killer, mob-connected gunman Jack Ruby, likewise acted alone and unaided.
To support its claims, the Warren Commission released over 50,000 pages of documents in 26 volumes, including internal government memos, interview transcripts and witness testimony.
But a majority of Americans – at one point as high as 81% of all citizens – remained convinced that Oswald couldn’t have acted alone.
Unanswered questions
In 1991, the assassination was thrust into the forefront of the American consciousness once again after the release of Oliver Stone’s conspiracy thriller JFK.
Stone’s film followed the investigations of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who became the only prosecutor to charge an individual for crimes related to the assassination.
President John F Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy arrive at Love Field in Dallas, Texas, less than an hour before his assassination (Picture: Reuters)
JFK was enormously popular at the box office, grossing over $70,000,000 in the US. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three for cinematography and editing.
In response to the growing clamor on the unanswered questions, President George HW Bush signed the President John F Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act in October 1992.
Records release
The law instructed the National Archives (NARA) to collect all available documents related to the assassination. It also set up the Assassination Records Review Board to analyze the documents and release them to the public.
The Board spent four years combing through the documents, and ultimately releasing more than four million pages of records.
‘These records include critical documentation on the events in Dallas, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the reactions of government agencies to the assassination,’ the board stated in its final report on the efforts.
President John F Kennedy’s portrait photograph taken in the Oval Office (Picture: The White House)
‘They also include documents that enhance the historical understanding of that traumatic event in recent American history by placing it in the broader context of political and diplomatic events.’
The full records collection can be reviewed at NARA’s digital archive for the documents.
By the time the board disbanded in 1998, it released almost all of the records collected, keeping only private individuals’ tax returns sealed.
‘Rolling basis’ release
But the board also left tens of thousands of documents either completely sealed or partially redacted. According to the law signed in 1992, the unreleased records must be made public in 25 years.
The deadline finally came in 2017, as President Donald Trump was nearing the end of his first year in office. Trump, who previously voiced support for releasing the full archives, signed an executive order declassifying thousands of records.
‘The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow,’ the former president tweeted on the eve of their release. ‘So interesting!’
Both professional and amateur researchers watched eagerly for the release – but were left disappointed as the Trump administration seemingly backpedaled on their promise of full transparency.
President John F Kennedy and first Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy walk down the steps of Air Force One as they arrive at Love Field in Dallas, Texas (Picture: Reuters)
The Record Collection Act did allow the government to continue withholding documents if they created ‘identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations’.
NARA released only 2,891 records on October 26, 2017, most of which were already available but partially redacted.
Then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo was a leading advocate for keeping the documents under seal, Reuters reported at the time.
The Trump administration promised to release the documents ‘on a rolling basis’. Between November 2017 and April 2018, NARA released thousands more documents.
Remaining 1%
After President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he restarted the records release process, as directed in two memos signed in 2022 and 2023.
‘As I have reiterated throughout my Presidency, I fully support the Act’s aim to maximize transparency by disclosing all information in records concerning the assassination, except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise,’ Biden wrote in the most recent memo from June.
President John F Kennedy delivers a speech at a rally in Fort Worth, Texas, several hours before his assassination (Picture: Reuters)
Thousands of more records were released in 2021, 2022 and this year. After the most recent release in August, the White House claimed that 99% of all documents collected by the Review Board have been made available to the public.
But based on the recent polling, Americans still show little acceptance of the official story to date. Perhaps that final 1% of documents would finally point us toward a clearer picture of the truth.
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Hundreds of documents about President John F Kennedy’s assassination remain sealed 60 years after he was killed.
