JFK Assassination Essay Research Paper On November

J.F.K. Assassination Essay, Research Paper

On November 22, 1963, American history changed forever. That day the presidential motorcade of President John F. Kennedy traveled down Elm Street in Dallas, Texas. As the limousine went down past The Texas School Book Depository shots were fired. These shots, said to have been fired by Lee Harvey Oswald, struck President Kennedy and Governor Connally. The wounds to President Kennedy were fatal. This event will never be forgotten by the American people. This event and the proceeding Warren Commission investigation will be causes of arguments in this country for a long time to come. With the uncertainty of this event, it seems that everyone has their own opinion on what actually happened. These opinions range from believing the official report of the Warren Commission, to believing that the Russians assassinated Kennedy. Despite all of the other theories, the most believable theory is that the federal government was involved in the assassination of the President. The federal government involvement in the Kennedy assassination can be seen through the quick findings that Oswald acted alone in the assassination, through CIA and FBI actions after the assassination, and through the actions of President Johnson following the assassination of President Kennedy.

There are many other theories about the assassination of President Kennedy. One of these is the Lone Gunman theory give by the Warren Commission. This stated:

The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School

Book Depository. This is due to the conclusion that the bullets were fired from above and behind the Presidential limousine, and witnesses reported seeing a rifle being fired from that window.(Callahan 30-32)

This statement, although the official report, is questionable. This theory makes it so that one man would have to fire all of the rounds. Callahan states “Kennedy was reported to have been

shot with a 6.5 Mannlicher-Caracano rifle which takes a minimum of 2.3 seconds to load while no more than 1.7 seconds elapsed between rounds,”(32). That fact makes this theory impossible to be true, especially with that particular gun. So this evidence shows that there is no way that Lee Harvey Oswald could have acted alone from the Book Depository.

Another theory is the Friendly Fire theory. This theory given By Bonar Menninger suggested “Kennedy was shot by Secret Service agent George Hickey who accidentally discharged his AR-15 in the direction of Kennedy after being startled by the first two shots of Oswald,”(251). This theory is based on the research of ballistics expert Howard Donahue, who firmly believes that by the way the head of President Kennedy was positioned, the fatal bullet must have traveled at a trajectory equal to the grade of the street (Callahan 40). This theory does not make any sense for two reasons. First, the bullets supposedly came from a Mannlicher-Caracano rifle. The weapon that Hickey was carrying was an AR-15, not the type said to have killed Kennedy. Also, it seems odd that a secret service agent would have his gun aimed at the person that he was protecting. It would seem more likely that someone in the crowed would have been shot if a secret service agent accidentally discharged his weapon. This theory has never been backed up, because neither Hickey nor the Secret Service would comment on this alleged incident. So it is seen that many of the main theories about the assassination have major holes in them. This leads one to believe that they were not told the truth about what actually happened in the assassination. There is only one group that has the power to cause the cover up of this event. This group is who performed the investigation, the federal government. So through holes in assassination theories it is shown that the federal government had to have been involved, or else the American people would know what really happened on that day in Dalla The Warren Commission was in charge of investigating the assassination of the President. This commission was named after its head, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. The group spent From March to June of 1964 sorting through the huge and contradictory body of evidence collected by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI (Callahan 29). In just three months they came up with their conclusion of the assassination. This seems like it was very quick with all of the evidence that the commission had to go through. This would make one think that they did not look at every possibility for the assassination. Thus they must have been hiding something.

As time went on people began to feel that the government was not telling them everything that happened concerning the Kennedy assassination. CIA concerns about this were revealed in a now declassified memo released April 1, 1967. The memo stated “In most cases the critics have speculated as to the existence of some kind of conspiracy, and often implied that the commission itself was involved.”(Callahan 65). So it is shown people were starting to doubt what the government told them about the Kennedy situation. Callahan stated:

The memo presumably came about due to increasing challenge to the Warren Commission report shown in a public opinion poll at the time which stated 46% of the American public did not feel that Oswa