History Matters - The JFK Assassination

Study Backs Theory of 'Grassy Knoll': New Report Says Second Gunman Fired at Kennedy - "The House Assassinations Committee may have been right after all: There was a shot from the grassy knoll. That was the key finding of the congressional investigation that concluded 22 years ago that President John F. Kennedy's murder in Dallas in 1963 was 'probably ... the result of a conspiracy.'" (Washington Post, 3/26/2001)

Tape: Call on JFK Wasn't Oswald - "Hours after President Kennedy was assassinated, FBI agents reportedly listenened to a tape of a phone call that a man identifying himself as "Lee Oswald" had placed to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. They made a startling discovery: The voice on the tape was not Oswald's, government records say." (Associated Press, 11/21/1999)

Archive Photos Not of JFK's Brain, Concludes Aide to Review Board - "... The central contention of the report is that brain photographs in the Kennedy records are not of Kennedy's brain and show much less damage than Kennedy sustained when he was shot in Dallas..." (Washington Post 11/10/1998)

The articles noted above, appearing in the Washington Post and Associated Press over the last few years, are the tip of a huge iceberg which has been surfacing recently, largely unnoticed. In the wake of public furor triggered by the Oliver Stone film JFK, Congress in 1992 passed the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act. From 1993 until the present day, huge numbers of declassified documents, audiotapes of witness interviews and phone calls, and other information on the assassination of President Kennedy have come tumbling out of government archives.

The disturbing and often convoluted stories told in these files has not reached the public at large. This is due in part to the complexity of the stories, a complexity caused by conflicts in testimony and in the written record. The lack of dissemination of these new findings is also due in part to the passage of time—interest in the assassination of President Kennedy has waned over the years.

But journalists' and historians' failure to convey the amazing discoveries in these government records has a third cause—the fact that there is now abundant evidence of coverup taking place at the highest levels of government after the assassination. Furthermore, and even more disturbingly, the best leads to the nature of the murder conspiracy itself point in the direction of U.S. intelligence agencies and the U.S. military.

Of the many revelations in the new records, two areas stand out. The first is the overwhelming evidence of a medical coverup, undertaken to hide evidence of one or more shots from the front of the Presidential limousine (indicating at least two gunmen). The suppressed interviews of autopsy participants during the 1970s Congressional investigation, and new interviews taken in the 1990s, are chock full of detailed accounts which do not square with the official account of the autopsy nor with the "hard" evidence in the case—autopsy photographs and X-rays. It has long been known that some autopsy photographs and other materials, including tissue slides and the brain of the dead President, have long since gone missing. What is new is credible testimony, from multiple witnesses, that there has been tampering with what physical evidence remains.

The second story has to do with the framing of Lee Oswald for the murder, something which has long been alleged by many who follow the case. But the "new news" concerns tapped phone calls, made by a self-identified "Lee Oswald" to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. FBI agents, listening to the tapes in the aftermath of the assassination while Oswald was still alive in police custody, determined that the voice on the tapes was not Oswald's. This impersonation, the reports of which were buried by the FBI and CIA immediately after Oswald's murder, has staggering ramifications. The caller referred to a previous meeting with a man named Kostikov, an Embassy official known to be KGB and, more ominously, suspected by the CIA and FBI of being involved in "wet affairs," i.e. sabotage and assassinations. The fear that World War III would break out if the Soviets were behind the assassination was then used by the new President Johnson to put together a coverup, as revealed in taped Presidential phone calls and other memos of the post-assassination week. The secret that it wasn't really Oswald, and thus that the "Soviet connection" was faked, seems to have been very closely held—this guaranteed a coverup.

An introductory essay, entitled Lasting Questions about the Murder of President Kennedy, contains more information about both of these stories.

As important as the documents and testimony which relates directly to the assassination are the new materials on foreign policy during the Kennedy administration. The late 1990s finally saw the release of long-withheld details of Kennedy policy vis-a-vis Vietnam and Cuba, the two hottest spots of the Cold War at that time. Vietnam records now show plans for complete withdrawal being drawn up in 1963. Records on Cuba include both secret war plans as well as new information on the "second track" of accomodation with Castro. In both cases, the new information adds support to those who contend that JFK's murder was carried out by those opposed to his foreign policy initiatives.

This website is devoted to telling the stunning stories which abound in the new assassination records. Another primary goal is to make the most important of these records freely available in electronic form, so that each person can make his or her own judgments regarding this highly contentious matter. It is not a simple matter to arrive at the truth of the Kennedy assassination. The reader is cautioned to be just as skeptical of journalists, historians, and other authorities in this case, as he or she is with the "conspiracy buffs" so derided by these people.

The study of the assassination of President Kennedy is ultimately about much more than the murder of one man. The materials available here, and the much vaster collection at the National Archives, is a window onto the workings of what has sometimes been called the "National Security State." The lessons to be learned may be unsettling. However, it is this author's contention that disturbing truths are preferable to comforting myths.

Rex Bradford
History Matters

Government Reports

Audio Recordings

Important Transcripts

Important Documents

Topics

Analysis of the Evidence

Essays

Recommended Websites

Recommended Books