Jfk Assassination

– Crossfire Essay, Research Paper

Crossfire Jim Marrs

1. The purpose of crossfire is to present all the facts of the JFK assassination into one book. Jim Marrs has collected many pieces of information, most of which were not presented to the investigating authorities, mainly because they didn t want to hear it, or the information had been altered or misinterpreted by the authorities. Marrs gets some of his information from personal interviews, but there is a wide variety of sources which include a wide range of books. The book is designed to provide an abundance of evidence in a readable manner, so that anyone can get an overview necessary to understand the conspiracy behind the assassination. There is one flaw though, Marrs only has one point of view the conspiracy theory. As an author I believe he should not take sides, he should just give the facts. The fact that Marrs strongly believes there was a conspiracy theory doesn t help the evidence to be entirely unbiased.

2. Yes, I do think that Marrs believes that Oswald was a Russian agent because of all the evidence that is presented that proves Oswald was related to the Soviets. But, basically, it would not be in the interest of the Soviets to try and attempt to assassinate Kennedy. Oswald, while in Russia, is that he lived well beyond the means of an ordinary citizen. This lifestyle proves that there must have been some sort of special relationship with officials. Marrs has two theories that suggest Oswald was an agent but not the assassin: Firstly, that Oswald, while in Japan, was recruited by the KGB to defect to Russia and return to the US to kill Kennedy. But, as Edward Jay Epstein (author of Legend ) reasons, I think the fact that Oswald traces so clearly back to the Russians makes it extremely unlikely that they would have recruited him as an assassin. I also reject this theory because I believe it is too obvious. And secondly, Oswald was recruited into US intelligence and was sent to Russia as a spy. There, the KGB attempted to turn him into their agent and send him back to the US, unaware that he would be blamed for Kennedy s death. I believe, in the overall view, that Oswald was caught in the middle of some intelligence work either by the US or the Russians. But I believe it is highly unlikely that the Russians would want to kill Kennedy. Even if Oswald did assassinate Kennedy, there would be more harm in killing him than not killing him, because the Soviets would have been risking a lot. WWIII may have been started, and an assassination would produce an even bigger anti-communism President.

3. Kennedy was blamed for the failure of the Bay of pigs because of the foolish orders he gave to the defense agencies concerned. The Cuban Brigade didn t want evacuation, they wanted ammunition, naval support and air cover for the invasion of the Bay of Pigs, which never came. Kennedy didn t want this. He wanted evacuation. He wanted the invasion to be scaled down as he had previously shown, when he reduced the first air attack from 16 bombers to 6 bombers. The result was a disaster, as Brigade men called for help from the beaches, where US military men could only stand silently by their weapons, and watch the Cuban Brigade being shredded. Kennedy accepted the responsibility of the defeat and took the burden of the blame. After this incident, it gave many people and organisations incentives and a reason to murder Kennedy. Fidel Castro was aware what Kennedy wanted to do with him. The CIA would be angry because of Kennedy s downscale of the whole invasion. This could have lead to a secret plot to assassinate the President. The US military would have felt betrayed and a sense of being left in the dark because they had not been allowed to help in the planning of the invasion. But most of all, probably the group which had the strongest reason to kill Kennedy were members of the Cuban Brigade and their families. They had been betrayed by Kennedy. Of the 1600 men of the Cuban Brigade, 114 were killed, 1189 were captured by Castro s forces, and 150 either never landed or made their way back to safety. All these organisations and people had good reason to assassinate Kennedy.

4. Attorney General Robert Kennedy and the President waged a war against organised crime like never before. This caused great fear and hatred amongst the ranks of crime leaders. Previously and what was still the case, the Mafia had connections with several US intelligence agencies. The Kennedy s may not have known this. To understand why the Kennedy s wanted to eliminate organised crime, you have to know the background to the Mafia. The Mafia had grown into a great crime organisation. They used a technique called the Black Hand where they sent a letter to a powerful businessman and requested money. Later, the Mafia then expanded into illegal gambling operations, prostitution and lotteries. They even were bankers for the poor. They were in allegiance with politicians. One gang member, named Arnold Rothstein was involved with city and state officials. Others took this tactic up and eventually the Mafia and the CIA joined together. From then on crime syndicates had gained a choke hold on America. That is why Kennedy wanted to eliminate the Mafia. Crime bosses issued threats to the Kennedys. So considering the Kennedy war against the mob as well as its vital interests in Cuba lost to Castro and Kennedy s failure to militarily support t