Sunday Times 2
Investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
View(s):By Jayantha Gunasekera
November 22, 1963 is a day of sad remembrance for Americans, because it was on that fateful day that their beloved President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK), was shot dead by Lee Harvey Oswald, who concealed himself in the Texas School Book Depository to carry out this dastardly act.
President Kennedy along with his wife Jackie, and Texas Governor Connally and his wife Nellie were in a motorcade, travelling in an open hooded presidential limousine (a Ford Lincoln Continental Convertible) driven by agent Bill Greer, when Oswald, a superb sniper fired at the back of Kennedy’s head. There was no reason for the President’s security officers to surmise that Kennedy’s life would be in danger, for he had acquired the reputation of a very popular President, ushering in a peaceful and prosperous era, reminiscent of the legendary Camelot.
American President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while travelling in a motorcade in 1963. Pic Reuters
For this assassination, there were many who were under suspicion, the primary suspect being none other than Nikita Khrushchev the Soviet leader. Even Lyndon B. Johnson, JFK’s Vice President was not quite above suspicion. The Johnsons were called the “birds”, (a pun on his middle name), and a play written by Barbara Garson titled “MacBird!” came out in 1966 as a parody of Macbeth, hinting at the connivance of the Johnsons in the assassination.
Apart from the police investigations, Chief Justice Earl Warren was appointed to a commission to investigate JFK’s murder. The Warren Commission took nearly 11 months (Nov 1963 – Sept 1964) to submit its report. However, 16 years after the assassination (in 1979), the US House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), concluded that the assassination of President Kennedy was a consequence of a conspiracy. The HSCA found that the original federal investigations were seriously flawed with regards information sharing, and a possible conspiracy.
JFK’s trip to Dallas was announced to the public in September 1963 and the route of the motorcade was revealed on November 18. From this date, there were four days available for an assassin to plan the attack. The Texas School Book Depository was situated at the north west corner of Houston and Elm. On November 21, the Kennedy’s spent the night at Fort Worth. Then they boarded Air Force One, departing at 11.10 am, to arrive at Love Field. They left Love Field at 11.40 am.
Along the route were close to 200,000 people. The presidential motorcade arrived at Dealey Plaza at 12.30 pm. Nellie Connally (wife of the Texas Governor), on seeing the massive crowd that had assembled to greet JFK had commented, “Mr. President, no one can say that Dallas doesn’t love you!”. Then President Kennedy spoke his last words, “No, you certainly can’t!”
After the shooting, JFK’s blood and pieces of his scalp, brain and skull were splattered inside the limousine and on his wife Jackie. Lee Harvey Oswald having shot the President, also shot officer Tippet when making his getaway. Two days after the assassination and arrest, Oswald was being transferred from the city jail to the county jail, when he was shot by night club owner Jack Ruby, who said he was an admirer of JFK and was distraught as a result of the President’s death.
According to the Warren Commission, a partial palm print of Oswald was detected on the barrel of the gun, and a tuft of fibre found in a crevice in the rifle, was the same as the fibres and colours of the shirt Oswald was wearing when he was arrested. Apart from the testimony of the witnesses these items of circumstantial evidence were proof enough that it was Oswald who fired the fatal shots at JFK. On the day of the assassination Dallas police performed paraffin tests on Oswald’s hands and right cheek, to determine scientifically whether he had fired a weapon. The paraffin tests were positive for his hands.
George Burkley, the personal physician of JFK signed the death certificate stating that a gun shot wound to the skull was the cause of death. Texas Governor Connelly underwent two operations and was lucky to survive.
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was riding two cars behind the President in the motorcade. After it was announced that JFK was dead, Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes was flown to Dallas, and on board Air Force One flying back to Washington, Johnson took the oath of office of the President of the United States of America administered by her, with Jackie Kennedy at his side. This quick decision was taken, due to the prevailing tense situation in the cold war between the USA and the USSR.
The state funeral was in Washington DC. JFK was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, amidst the highest representatives of some 90 countries and a stupendous crowd of Americans.
The Warren Commission established by President Johnson, concluded that Oswald acted alone to assassinate JFK, and also that Ruby acted alone in the murder of Oswald. This theory was far-fetched. To make the cover up succeed, Johnson needed the credibility of the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court Earl Warren to chair the commission that covered up the assassination. Warren understood the devastating impact the true story would have on the public. In 1968 the Attorney General Ramsey Clark appointed a panel of four medical specialists to examine photographs, x-rays and documents about the assassination. They concluded that JFK was struck by two bullets fired from above and behind.
Senator Frank Church was appointed in 1975 to investigate illegal intelligence by the CIA and the FBI. This commission concluded that these reports of the two bodies were fundamentally flawed, and that some important findings were not submitted to the commission.
Was this on the orders of persons capable of giving orders to these powerful organisations?
That Oswald acted on his own, and that Ruby acted on his own, are too good to be true. There were theories afloat that a criminal conspiracy existed. Several were suspected; the CIA, the mafia, Fidel Castro, the KGB and JFK’s own Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. It was Johnson who succeeded as President and Commander in Chief of the US, and it was he who appointed the Warren Commission which concluded that Oswald acted alone in the assassination of JFK, and that Ruby acted on his own in the murder of Oswald.
The Americans still feel that they should be told the truth. They want to know the names of the various people involved in the conspiracy to assassinate a much loved President, who was gunned down at the zenith of his life, at a mere 46 years.
JFK came from a wealthy family very much in the lime light due their good looks, education and top posts held, even internationally. Unfortunately it is said that he inherited his habit of philandering from his father, a proud man who was the US Ambassador to Great Britain, in the mid 1930s, when King Edward the 8th (the present Queen’s uncle) reigned. Before Edward was crowned, he had struck up an unholy alliance with a schemer and nymphomaniac called Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. She is supposed to have slept with many people including Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador to Great Britain. Because of the King’s association with this woman, Ambassador Kennedy (though himself of dubious morals) was bold enough to refuse to dine with the King and Simpson. Joachim Von Ribbentrop was appointed by Adolf Hitler as the Nazi Foreign Minister. In 1945 he was sentenced to death, by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal and summarily executed.
Stanley Baldwin the then Prime Minister, forced the king to abdicate, rather than allow him to marry Wallis Simpson and so make her his queen. King Edward then became known as the Duke of Windsor and lived with his wife Wallis in France, for the rest of his life. His brother became King George the 6th, and the present queen is his daughter, who was crowned Queen Elizabeth II.
JFK became extremely popular during the Cuban crisis. Nikita Krushchev attempted to send nuclear missiles to Cuba through the Panama Canal – meant for the destruction of the USA. As the ships entered Panama Canal en route to Cuba, the charismatic heroic Kennedy took the decision to destroy the ships unless they were ordered to turn back. This would have meant the Third World War fought with nuclear weapons. Krushchev meekly ordered the ships to turn back. JFK’s popularity sky rocketed, and there was sort of an aura around White House. His famous words, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”, are still being repeated. He barely served 1,000 days in office.
With the demise of John F. Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis the Greek shipping billionaire began casting glances at Jacqueline Kennedy. Finally he succeeded in marrying her. Thereafter, the name of Onassis was known all over the world.
Morals were not the strong point of JFK. Like Bill Clinton, it is rumoured that he too had many illicit affairs with the likes of Marilyn Monroe.
In 1968, JFK’s brother Robert was also killed on the Presidential campaign trail.
John F Kennedy became an icon, though he was an iconoclast.
(The writer is a President’s Counsel.)