On November 22nd, 1963 America lost its innocence. It also perhaps lost its trust, trust in the American Government. In a gallop pole in 1960, 89% of the American population trusted the government. Since then it has dropped to less than to . That means that since the early 1960’s over 70% of the population lost its trust in the Federal Government. While there may be different reasons why many people lost their trust, the most major one was probably the assassination and investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In 1963 and 1964 the US government told the American public about what happened that fateful day in Dallas Texas.
They said that one crazy man, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone killed the President of the United States. This is not the truth. The man that was going to make peace with Russia, and put an early end to the Vietnam war was not killed by one man. JFK was killed in one of the biggest conspiracies in this countries, and perhaps the world’s history. The assassination of John F. Kennedy shocked the whole country at the time. It was the shattering of Camelot. But to understand what happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963, we must first look at Kennedy’s background. Where he came from, what he did, in his private life, and political life.
John Kennedy, in spite of what the public may have thought was no saint, and his actions may be what angered enough people in his own country, and government to commit one of the highest crimes in the country; the assassination of the commander and chief. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in 1917 to Joseph P Kennedy, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Joseph Kennedy, or Papa Joe as he was called was famous is his own right. After doing work for the US government assisting such people as Chamberlain, he became heavily involved in illegal liquor smuggling, and with the mob.
This is also how he made most of his fortune. John Kennedy had several siblings also, three brothers, and 5 sisters. His two brothers Robert, and Edward are probably the most famous. When it came time for JFK to get into politics, Papa Joe wanted his son to get into the White House. It is reported that he contacted his friends in organized crime to help him to get his son elected. One of these crime bosses, Sam Giancanna of Chicago claimed that he was responsible for getting Kennedy the presidency by stuffing the ballot box, and sinking the 10,000 votes for Nixon into the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Needless to say organized crime felt as though the Kennedy’s owed a debt. But John Kennedy, unaware of this debt that he owed decided that along with his brother Robert, the attorney general, he would fight organized crime, and try to bring an end to it. The mob was not happy with this action. Someone that they had helped had turned against them. Papa Joe appealed to his son, to try to get him to lay off, but to no avail. The moffia was disappointed with the Kennedy’s, and needed to do something about their problem. In 1955 a revolutionary leader came to power in Cuba.
His name was Fediel Castro. Castro kicked out the gambling crime bosses out of Cuba, angering those in the US. Castro wanted to be friends with a major power. He first tried to talk to the US. The president at the time, Eisenhower, did not come down to Cuba though. He sent his vice president, Richard Nixon. After making Castro wait for some 6 hours the meeting inevitably failed. Castro wanted nothing to do with the US. He turned to the Soviet Union, with Khrushchev as their leader. Khrushchev was elated with Castro’s offer of friend ship. Not because of who he was but because of where he was.
Cuba is located not far off the southern US coast. Close enough for nuclear weapons to be launched against the US. In 1961 and 1962 spy photos revealed that Cuba indeed did have places for the launch of nuclear missiles. Kennedy decided to blockade Cuba and not let in any more Russian ships, as he negotiated with Khrushchev. Negations were not good, and the order was given that if one boot set foot on Cuba, to fire. This was the Cuban missile crisis of august 1962. Kennedy brought the country to the brink of nuclear war in the Cuban missile crisis.
We were literally just a “push of a button” away from a nuclear holocaust. At the last minute though Kennedy decided not to send in troops, angering much of the US military, and high government. Bring the country to the brink of total destruction though would be enough to get people angry, however people thought as Kennedy as a hero for getting the country out of the situation. Before that though the US wanted to do something with Castro. What they decided upon was to try to assassinate the Cuban dictator. Kennedy dealt with the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA in caring out this project.
The CIA tried several attempts at doing this, such as poisoned drinks and cigars, itching powder, and moffia assassins. The Bay of Pigs invasion was one of these failing, and embarrassing actions. In the invasion, anti-Cuban refugees trained in secret CIA camps in Florida, and Louisiana were supposed to have an “umbrella of cover” by the military. Kennedy did not follow through on this, and he blamed the failures on the CIA vowing, “to tear the CIA into a thousand little pieces. ” He fired two head CIA men, Allen Dulles, and Someone Else angering the agency.
Kennedy also sent the FBI and local authorities into Florida and Louisiana to break up the CIA’s training camps. These camps are where names like David Ferrie, Clay Shay, Guy Banister, and Lee Oswald start to fall into place. Vietnam was another situation that the president faced when he took office. Communism was moving into northern Vietnam and Laos. The US military had been there since the late forties to help the French with their fight. As the end of Kennedy’s first term approached, he decided that the war had gone on long enough. He issued National Security Action Memorandum No. 263.
Which made plans to bring home 1,000 troops by the end of 1963. This angered the military who wanted the war to go on. War is a business. Armies need boats, ammunition, and planes, and that means contracts to big name companies that produced these items. The Memorandum never went through. Four days after the assassination President Johnson reversed the order in memorandum 273. By the time that most of these events took place John F Kennedy may have been popular with the voters, who did not know of all of these events, but he was not popular with the people that he had turned upon, broken promises to, or hurt.
People like the CIA, the military, the FBI, the moffia, and the communists. For them Kennedy was a problem, and something had to be done, the problem had to be eliminated, or assassinated. Presidents have always had people that disliked, but none of them had this much hatred from within their own government like Kennedy did. In 1964, Kennedy was up for reelection. And in late 1963 he was making a major trip to the south, visiting Florida, and Texas. While in Texas he was to visit Houston, and then Dallas to give a speech at the Trade Mart.
There had been worries that violence would erupt there because of a previous trip by Adali Stevenson, a US ambassador. . But they had been received good in Fort Worth, so they thought that it would be fine in Dallas. During this trip he was to make his way through Dallas in a motorcade. This would be the perfect opportunity for everyone to act. But they decided to perhaps give Kennedy a chance to change. According to SOURCES a telex was sent to FBI offices before Kennedy’s trip warning of a possible assassination by a militant revolutionary group in Dallas.
This teletype was ignored though, and then ordered to be removed from all the offices as an obvious embarrassment to the beareu, according to Jim Garrison, New Orleans District Attorney. J. Edgar Hoover also knew of a memo which stated that an attempt would be made on the presidents life, but this memo ever made it to the secret service. Many supporters of the one man theory in the assassination say that Oswald also delivered a note to SOMEONE warning of a assassination. However according to the FBI agent who received the note, NAME the note was just expressing anger to his questioning of Oswald’s wife, not a threat on the president.
When a president travels, security of him, his family, and guests is a priority. The secret service is in charge of this security. They plan out routs of travel, precautions, etc. In fact in a parade of the type that the president was going to be in evolved in, there are three zones of security that the secret service is to be involved in. they are The President, the people or crowd, and the general area which would include buildings, and open areas along the route. Also in a public appearance local law officials, and military units will be on alert, and available.
However Colonel Reich of the 112th Military Intelligence Group was asked to stand down that day. His group would have normally been there ready to assist the secret service , and local law officials in things such as security and crowd control. All of these zones were totally ignored, if they were, the assassination probably would not have happened, and it is doubtful that the ignoring was by accident. It left the president very unprotected. It was deliberate. Kennedy was the type of president who liked the people.
He often wanted to talk to them, shake hands, etc. bvious security problems. When riding in his limo, he would often want to ride with out the bubble top, to provide the people a better chance to see him, but this also provided assassins a better chance to shoot him. Although it may be believed that secret service was cut back in Dallas at the president’s request it is very doubtful. When it comes to security, the president usually has little choice in the matter. The secret service decides what is to be done, and how it is to be done. They also decided the route that the president would take through the city of Dallas that day.
Figure 1 Areal photo of Dealy Plaza From the Assassination Home Page Originally the route was scheduled to go right down Main Street, and was published in the paper, so that people would know, and could see him. This route would have gone right through the center of Dealey plaza. However due to what might have been poor research, or a deliberate action, the route was changed. The official reason was that Secret Service agents said the motorcade could not get to the express way that lead the trade center from Main Street. It had to go down Houston, to Elm.
However the truth, as pointed out by Robert Groden in the book The Killing of the President, is that you can get the highway from Main Street, and if it some how missed, it could still go to Industrial Road which would lead right to the Trade Center. Another option would have been to go straight down elm from start to finish, and not make any zig zag sharp turns, there by not allowing the motorcade to slow down as much as it did. This last minute route change was not announced until the day of the parade its self, allowing anyone with desire to cause harm at this location very short planing time.
If they knew of the route before hand though from a source inside the secret service they would have plenty of time to plan. As mentioned before there are several zones of security. One of these is the people that will be in the area, the crowd. Crowd control is very important in the public appearance of celebrity, especially the president. Earlier in October there had been a hostile welcome of the US ambassador to the united nations, Adlai Stevenson and there was worries that Kennedy would not be welcomed either.
This should have made the secret service wish to transport the president right to the Trade Center with out the fancy parade. Instead they went ahead with the motorcade, with decreased security, a total opposite of what should have been done. At approximately noon on the 22nd, a man had a apparent epileptic seizure on Main street, between Houston and the triple over pass. According to an article entitled, “The Man Who Wasn’t There” written by Conspiracy researcher Chris Mills, Officer Joe Smith, a member of the Dallas police force, was stationed on front of the school book depository.
When the unidentified man had the seizure Officer Smith went to assist. He stayed there until an ambulance arrived, an ambulance that could have been used by the president. During this time that the officer was not at his post, the school book depository was open for anyone to get in, and setup in one of the higher up windows. In the mayhem after the shooting Officer Smith saw a man in a suite snooping around. When seen the man showed Secret Service identification. Later at the Warren Commission hearings, Winston Lawson, one of those agents in charge of the trip said that there was no extra agents in the area.
Smith did not see a marriage. This man either was a secret service agent that was not supposed to be there, or an impostor, either way part of a conspiracy. Along with this one incident security along the parade route was very poor. Building windows were open, very few officers were in the plaza its self to help in crowd control, and the presidental limo, which should have been surounded by men, was in the wide open. The men were riding on a follow up car. Of course who would expect men who were drunk and hung over to keep upm with a moving limousine.