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Long Secret JFK Assassination Files To Be Released Thursday
President Trump announced on Twitter this week that the long pushed back files about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November of 1963 will be released this week. In a tweet on Saturday, Trump said:
Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2017
That’s a change from reports that indicated Trump and his administration — including other U.S. Government officials — would most likely continue the block on the files. These contain thousands of classified reports from the U.S. National Archives.
Kennedy was only 46 years old at the time of his death and only 1,000 days into his Presidency. Despite that though, he is thought to be one of the most admired Presidents in US history. There have been countless conspiracy theories surrounding his death, from the Mafia and Cuban dissidents to the U.S. government itself assassinating him for his refusal to go to war with North Vietnam.
The official inquest into his assassination determined thatLee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. military member and then expat to the Soviet Union, acted alone, shooting JFK with a rifle from the Texas Book Depository.
A majority of Americans distrust the findings of that panel — and the panel itself — and have been waiting years for more information to be released from classified reports and findings. The Oliver Stone film JFK formed its own conclusions and mentioned that further information would be declassified in the early 2010’s.
That information has been released by the National Archives over the years and the final batch is the one that Trump announced would be released on the 26th. Despite the salacious headline, many who closely follow the assassination don’t believe there to be any potential bombshells to be found in the final report, which contains tens of thousands of pages of documents.
Those documents are thought to be about Lee Harvey Oswald’s activities during his time in Mexico, where he is thought to have met with both Cuban and Soviet spies in Mexico City in September of 1963.
Philip Shenon, of Politico, said:
“From the record we already have, we know he met there with Soviet spies and Cuban spies and other people who might have wanted to see Kennedy dead, It’s going to be very interesting to see what else the government knew about the threat Oswald might pose — how much more they learned about his trip in Mexico City and whether or not they bungled evidence to suggest he was a threat.”
Despite the lack of a “bombshell,” some government agencies have lobbied Trump and his administration to keep the records classified. They believe that they could “expose relatively recent intelligence and law enforcement operations.
But President Trump has always done things his way and now that he’s released his thoughts on the matter on his Twitter account, it’s doubtful that he’ll change his mind. Regardless of what they show, it should be an interesting insight both into the assassination and the final months of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life.
It might bring some closure for his surviving family members, namely his daughter Caroline, as well as for United States citizens who still believe there was something more behind his death than the Warren Commission found.