Why is John F Kennedy such a famous and controversial figure in history?

John Kennedy was born into a family already steeped in controversy. His millionaire father, Joseph Kennedy, was reputedly involved in bootlegging in the 1920s, and was said to have had links with the mob. He dreamed of a life in politics however after World War 2 broke out he leant politically towards the Axis powers and ruined his chances forever. However, this did not stop the chances of his sons. In 1946, John Kennedy was elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives and later served as a Senator for Massachusetts.

During his time as Senator, JFK allegedly developed links to the mafia himself and was famously associated with the "Rat Pack", which was a group of actors and musicians (eg. Frank Sinatra, his brother-in-law Peter Lawford) who were also connected with the mob. It is also alleged that Frank Sinatra was a "runner-boy" between Kennedy and the mafia during the 1960 Presidential Election campaign.

J.F.K. married his wife, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in 1953, however he continued to live on the wild side. This was all, however, a life that remained hidden from the public eye for his entire political career, and was only better known much after his death. He was a young good-looking president with a young good-looking family. They became a kind of "Royal Family" for the American people.

In 1960 he was elected president of the United States after beating Richard Nixon. This election itself was a very controversial one. It was the closest victory ever. It is also alleged that Kennedy used his mafia links to rig the election for him. Despite the allegations, it has to be said he was a very charismatic character. John was a man who was made for television, whereas his opponent Nixon was more geared towards a radio election. This was the first ever televised election and both candidates were in the spotlight. JFK emerged the more charismatic and kind of “showed” Nixon up, effectively beating Nixon in the first ever televised presidential debate. He was the first ever Catholic president of the USA. In his victory speech he said that "the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans". He certainly tried to say that he was going to change things, saying his term was perhaps a "new dawn" for America and high-living were not the only aspect of John F. Kennedy that showed his less appealing side. His foreign policy also, some might say, was getting off on the wrong foot. The political climate of the time was a cold war one. JFK utterly embraced this climate and was happy to take on the role of a fighting president. He made sure to be clear that he was utterly opposed to communism. Perhaps it was growing up with a tycoon father, perhaps it was his devout Catholicism, and he simply could not stand these "godless communists" as he once said. He took the common US view of socialism as some kind of evil disease that could spread and needed to be contained. Unfortunately this lead to a number of foolish mistakes made on the part of Kennedy and his administration.

As soon as John F Kennedy was in the Whitehouse he set about trying to hire a hitman in Cuba to get rid of the leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro. He also sponsored other assassination attempts including sending him exploding cigars. This of course was nothing short of terrorism. In fact, Cuba was a rather problematic area for the Kennedy administration.

In 1960, President Eisenhower had approved a controversial attempt to train guerrillas for a paramilitary style campaign to overthrow Castro. When Kennedy came into office in 1961 he was told about the plan. At first he was skeptical but his advisors told him Castro was an unpopular leader, and once the invasion had began, the people of Cuba would quickly support him. The attack was however a disaster. Within 72 of the boats reaching the Bay of Pigs, all the invading troops had been killed, wounded or had surrendered. The political price for this blunder was very high. For a start, it was a huge embarrassment to Kennedy's Administration, but it also ensured Castro's Cuba enjoyed the long life that it has had as Castro came under the special care of Khrushchev. This then portrayed Castro as a hero in the eyes of his Cuban followers.

In September 1962, U2 spy planes discovered the USSR building ICBM launch sites in Cuba. They also saw an increase in the number of ships heading for Cuba from the USSR. An emergency meeting was called where the CIA and the military recommended they invade Cuba. Remembering the CIA's earlier advice and its consequences JFK decided to put a naval blockade of Cuba. Khrushchev sent two letters to Kennedy saying the USSR would dismantle the launch sites if the US removed theirs in Turkey. For a short period, the world was on the brink of nuclear war - 3 out of 5 Americans believed this would result in head-on confrontation. At the last minute Kennedy replied to Khrushchev telling him he would remove his bases in Turkey and Khrushchev ordered his ships to turn around. Subsequently, Kennedy enjoyed increased popularity in the polls and in Congress; however his actions could still be described as reckless in the face of possible nuclear apocalypse which would have ended the world. He lost many followers through these ill advised actions.

As well as removing the bases in Turkey, Italy and Cuba, the Crisis had other effects. As a direct result of it, the two superpowers agreed to establish direct communication - the "Hot Line". As well as this the "Test Ban Treaty" was drawn up and signed in August 1963 to prohibit the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. Nearly 1200 prisoners captured during the Bay of Pigs Invasion were exchanged for $60 million in food, medicines and cash. Some Americans viewed this as there tax money being handed over to communists.

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JFK put forward the idea behind a number of new domestic policies. These included the idea of Medicare - a kind of National Health Service -, drastic improvements to the failing American education system and an attack on poverty. These ideas were fairly revolutionary considering that the vast majority of people who would benefit from these changes would be working class Americans, this being the group that most presidents are inclined to ignore because as a general rule they don't vote in nearly as large numbers. As well as this, these changes would cost money. Money that would have to be earned through higher taxation, the majority of which would be paid by the very rich. It perhaps didn't help Kennedy's case that the senators and governors Kennedy would have to convince were all very rich people themselves. This I believe led to Kennedy’s assassination.

These ideas in themselves were bound to cause a stir among the conservative dominated congress, but none so much as when he dared to tackle the issue of civil rights for African-Americans, specifically in the southern states. The harsh punitive laws made a mockery of the constitutions "All men are equal under the eyes of God". Once again, he was tackling an issue that would benefit a generally non-voting population (because in many cases they were actually not allowed to vote). However the fact of the matter is that he still took on the issues, and suffered for it. At first he took the issue somewhat slowly, and was criticised by civil rights leaders for it. Kennedy preferred to go through the courts to change laws so as not to anger the many southern politicians he would need to keep onside if he were to pass his reforms. However, all changed when in 1961, a group of courageous young students, black and white, took part in the "freedom rides", where they rode across America in buses ignoring the bus segregation laws. These riders were inevitably beaten and their buses burned. This prompted racist white Americans to go against Kennedy’s policy and thus also could have added to his murder.

Needless to say, none of his bills passed while he was alive. However, what was his most influential and ambitious domestic bill did eventually pass. In the summer of 1963, African-Americans organised a "March on Washington". It was at this march that The Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr. gave his infamous "I Have A Dream" speech. In light of this pivotal moment for the civil rights movement, John Fitzgerald Kennedy submitted a civil rights bill, saying that the grandchildren of the slaves freed by Lincoln "are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice." It passed after his death.

By his untimely assassination, Kennedy achieved immortality. On November 22nd 1963 John F. Kennedy, his wife and Vice President Lyndon Johnson, and Mr. and Mrs. John Connally, Texas Governor were travelling by motorcade along Elm Street in Dallas, Texas. As they passed Dealey's Plaza shots rang out. Both the President and the Governor were wounded. The limousine picked up speed and raced to the Parkland Hospital where Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00. After this Dallas police allegedly found evidence including a rifle and spent cartridges that were linked to Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald then allegedly shot and killed a patrol man named Tippit. Oswald was charged of both murders but as he was being transferred to prison he was shot by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner.

On November 29, 1963, President Johnson established a commission, headed by Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination. The Warren Commission made its findings public on September 24, 1964 - it concluded that Oswald acted alone when he killed the President. Discrepancies in the Warren Report led to numerous subsequent official and unofficial investigations in succeeding years. On January 2, 1979, the House of Representative's Select Committee on Assassinations supported the Warren panel's conclusion that Oswald fired the fatal shots. But, the committee also found that, based on audio recordings of the shooting taken from police radios at the time of the assassination, that a second gunman had fired at the motorcade from the grassy knoll. The House Select Committee concluded that President Kennedy "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."

Given that there are so many questions emanating from the Warren Commission, this is an event in history which has always attracted many conspiracies, including that of Kennedy being assassinated by; the FBI, the CIA, the Mafia, Lyndon Johnson, George Bush Senior, himself... the list continues. The point is that his assassination is one that left a long legacy. Some people may argue that his cherished reforms may not have been passed were it not for the fact that his assassination developed sympathy.

Qs 2.

SOURCE A:

After Lee Harvey Oswald was shot, President Johnson consulted with various government officials, many of them by telephone, regarding having an investigation into the assassination. On , ,

After many consultations, Johnson, created an investigatory commission to be headed by Warren. He also called on the following members and told them that they would be members of the commission:

( - )
( - )
Former Director
Representative (Republican - ), a future and ; and sole surviving member of the commission.
Former president and diplomat
Senator (Democrat - )

During its investigation, the commission heard testimony from 552 witnesses and the reports of 10 federal agencies, including the , the , the , the , and . The hearings were closed to the public unless the person giving requested otherwise; only two witnesses made that request. Some of the witnesses gave sworn affidavits; two witnesses gave just written statements. On , , after a 10 month investigation, the Warren Commission Report was published.

Findings

The report concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was solely responsible for the assassination of Kennedy and that the commission could not find any persuasive evidence of a conspiracy either domestic or foreign. The theory that Oswald acted alone is informally called the .

Events in Dealey Plaza

The commission concluded that only three bullets were fired during the assassination and that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all three bullets from the behind the motorcade. It noted that three empty shells were found in the sixth floor sniper's nest in the book depository, and the rifle was found with one live cartridge left in its chamber on the sixth floor, balanced unsupported on its buttstock.

The commission's determination was that:

it was likely that all injuries inside the limousine were caused by only two bullets, and thus one shot likely missed the motorcade, but it could not determine which of the three. The first shot to hit anyone struck President Kennedy in the upper back, exited at his throat, and likely continued on to cause all of Governor 's injuries,
The second shot to hit anyone fatally struck Kennedy in the head 4.8 to 5.6 seconds later.

The commission concluded that the first bullet entered Connally's back, exited his chest, went through his right wrist, lodged in his left thigh, and later fell out onto his stretcher at the hospital. Some ballistic evidence has suggested that such a bullet trajectory was possible, and there are some frames of the in which the position and reaction of the two men could be linked with.

The Warren Commission Report in chapter 8 details flaws in the security at the time of the assassination. Procedures in place and not in place combined with events of the day presented security lapses that enabled the assassination. These included:

Not telling Dallas police, specifically, who authorized personnel were, to stand on bridges or overpasses
Not having in place the policy of searching all buildings, windows, and roof tops surrounding the path of a motorcade
Not properly and thoroughly checking the backgrounds of those in potential close contact with Kennedy and those who were potential threats to Kennedy, in particular , whose FBI file should have alerted the Secret Service to the possible risk
Assuming that security measures taken in a 1936 visit to Dallas could be used to model Kennedy's visit
Generally insufficient personnel to accomplish the task at hand of planning and executing the motorcade
Not having a car with a bulletproof top available for the President

Aftermath

The specific findings prompted the Secret Service to make numerous modifications to their security procedures.

Upon its release in 1964, all files of the Warren Commission were sealed from public view for 75 years (until 2039) by executive order of President Johnson. According to the , Kennedy assassination related documents that have not been destroyed are scheduled to be released to the public by 2017.

In the years following the release of its report and 26 investigatory evidence volumes in 1964, the Warren Commission has been frequently criticized for some of its methods, important omissions, and conclusions—in particular its lack of comment on the destruction of crucial evidence by law enforcement authorities and intelligence agencies. Comments were apparently made on this behind closed doors, but these did not reach the published report. Several individual pieces of the commission's findings also have been called into question since its completion.

The Assassination Records Review Board was created in 1992 by the JFK Records Act to collect and preserve the documents relating to the assassination. It pointed out in its final report:

Doubts about the Warren Commission's findings were not restricted to ordinary Americans. Well before 1978, President Johnson, , and four of the seven members of the Warren Commission all articulated, if sometimes off the record, some level of skepticism about the Commission's basic findings.

Three other U.S. government investigations have agreed with the Warren Commission's conclusion that two shots struck JFK from the rear: the 1968 panel set by Attorney General , the 1975 , and the 1978-79 House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which reexamined the evidence with the help of the largest forensics panel. The HSCA involved Congressional hearings and ultimately concluded there Oswald assassinated Kenned probably as the result of a conspiracy based on acoustic evidence which was later found to be unreliable. The HSCA concluded that Oswald fired shots number one, two, and four, and that an unknown assassin fired shot number three (but missed) from near the corner of a picket fence that was above and to President Kennedy's right front on the Dealey Plaza . However, this conclusion has also been criticized, especially for its reliance upon questionable acoustic evidence.

SOURCE B: Senate Select Committee.

The senate select committee is undecided as to what happened. They believe that “President Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy” The committee does however believe there was more than one gunman. They believe that shots were fired from the grassy knoll.

, who was the wife of Texas´ Governor said: "The first sound, the first shot, I heard, and turned and looked right into the President's face. He was clutching his throat, and just slumped down. He just had a - a look of nothingness on his face. He didn't say anything. But that was the first shot.” (This was before Governor John Connally had been hit.)

She went on: “The second shot, that hit John (Gov. Connally) - well, of course, I could see him covered with - with blood, and his - his reaction to a second shot. The third shot, even though I didn't see the President, I felt the matter all over me, and I could see it all over the car. So I'll just have to say that I think there were three shots, and that I had a reaction to three shots. And - that's just what I believe.”

Up to her death in 2006, Nellie Connally still maintained her belief that the Warren Commission was wrong about one bullet striking both JFK and her husband (Governor John Connally).

"I will fight anybody that argues with me about those three shots," she said to Newsweek magazine (Nov. 23 issue). "I do know what happened in that car. Fight me if you want to."

Governor also stated: “Beyond any question, and I'll never change my opinion, the first bullet did not hit me. The second bullet did hit me. The third bullet did not hit me.” Although Connally´s testimony agrees with his wife’s, it also agrees with the Warren Commission.
- who was a U.S. Secret Service Agent - testified that, "Now, in the seconds that I talked just now, a flurry of shells come into the car" and he believed the President was wounded four times and Connally three times. While some ballistic evidence has suggested that a single bullet trajectory might be possible, this particular point is a source of much contention and disagreement. Kellerman saw a 5-inch diameter hole in the back right-hand side of the President’s head.
Over 50 witnesses who were present at the shooting heard shots that were fired from in front of the President; from the area of the grassy knoll and triple-underpass, and approximately the same number of witnesses believed shots were fired from behind the President (from the book depository). All the members of one of the two groups of witnesses would have to be mistaken under the one-shooter theory. A small number of witnesses heard shots from both the front and the back of the President.
The size of the back head wound, in these descriptions, indicates it was the exit wound and that a second shooter from the front delivered the fatal head shot. Several eyewitnesses who were close to the President – and had a good view – saw the back of the President’s head "blasted out", which is consistent with being shot from the front.
, the Secret Service Agent who was sheltering the President with his body on the way to the hospital, described "The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car."
, a physician in the emergency room who observed the head wound, stated that the posterior cerebral tissue and some of the cerebellar tissue was missing.
Apart from shots hitting Kennedy and Connally, the limousine was struck in the windshield, in the chrome above the windshield and the chrome around an ashtray on the back of the front seat. The windshield had a definite hole through it (according to witnesses) and not just a crack, as was claimed by the Warren Commission.

Frank Cormier, Dr. Evalea Glanges, Dallas Police Officer Stavis Ellis, and Dallas Police Officer H.R. Freeman all saw a 'hole.'

The windshield was apparently replaced and "redamaged", according to the testimony of William Hess of the Ford Motor Corporation ('s, "Murder in Dealey Plaza”). This was supposedly done to eliminate the possibility of a shot coming from the front. Hess went on to say (having worked with glass for 40 years) that in his years of experience, the shot that caused the hole came from the front.

It has to be noted that the testimony of these witnesses has been called into question, as close-up photos of the windshield show that there really was a crack.

The Death Certificate located the bullet at the third thoracic vertebra -- which is too low to have exited his throat. Moreover, the bullet was traveling downward, since the shooter was by a sixth floor window. The autopsy cover sheet had a diagram of a body showing this same low placement at the third thoracic vertebra. The hole in back of Kennedy's shirt also shows the same place where the bullet hit, as does Kennedy's jacket that shows where the bullet hit. Nevertheless, the single bullet theory requires the bullet to move upward when it passed through Kennedy and came out of his throat unless Kennedy's jacket and shirt was bunched up around his neck

The Conspiracies:

CIA conspiracy

The Central Intelligence Agency was frequently mentioned in theories during the 1960s and 1970s, and it was rumored then that the CIA was involved in plots to assassinate foreign leaders. The CIA was banned from assassinating anyone abroad 25 years ago, but that ban is now under pressure to be lifted. Kennedy said to his collaborator Clark Gifford (shortly after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion) that, "Something very bad is going on within the CIA and I want to know what it is. I want to shred the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter them to the four winds."

The HSCA said that President Kennedy did not receive adequate protection in Dallas, and the Secret Service possessed information that was not properly analyzed, investigated or used by the Secret Service in connection with the President's trip to Dallas; in addition, Secret Service agents in the motorcade were inadequately prepared to protect the President from a sniper.

Cuban conspiracy

This theory says that Cuban President 's agents killed President Kennedy in retaliation for the many times the CIA and had worked together and tried to kill CastroTo further demonstrate Kennedy´s intentions about Cuba he said, in an Off-the-Record Press Briefing, March 27, 1962: “It is the cause of Mr. Castro's actions in this and in other areas that the United States has attempted to isolate him and indicate our hostility to his regime.”

He also made a solemn promise to the suvivors of The Bay of Pigs. On Saturday, December 30, 1962, the surviving (Bay of Pigs) Brigade members gathered for a ceremony in Miami ’s Orange Bowl, where the Brigade’s flag was handed over to President Kennedy. "I can assure you that this flag will be returned to this Brigade in a free Havana," the President announced that day.

Many believe that mobster deliberately spread the allegation that Castro was behind the assassination to draw public attention away from possible Mob complicity in the crime.

LBJ conspiracy

Vice-President was promoted to the presidency as a result of the assassination. Like many vice-presidents of the United States, Johnson's appointment was largely an attempt to provide a ´regional balance´ to the Democratic ticket.

, who was also in Dallas from , until just an hour before Kennedy arrived, was quoted in a , Dallas newspaper saying he believed Kennedy would drop Johnson from the Democratic ticket because Johnson was embroiled in several high-profile political

At the time of Kennedy's death, Johnson was the subject of four major criminal investigations involving government contract violations, misappropriation of funds, money laundering and bribery.

Whether Johnson would have had Kennedy shot in a motorcade in which he and his wife were riding in too is questionable, because he later asked chief , "If any of the shots were fired at me?”

Organized Crime and the CIA conspiracy

Another possible culprit was the , in retaliation for the increasing pressure put upon them by Robert Kennedy. Documents never seen by the Warren Commission have revealed that the Mafia was working very closely with the CIA on several assassination attempts of .

SOURCE G: Oliver Stone’s JFK

The movie opens with a summary of John F. Kennedy's years as President—emphasizing the events that, in Stone's theory, would lead to his assassination—which finally builds to a reconstruction of the assassination on , . The movie then switches to following , as he learns about the assassination—and, importantly, of potential links between the assassination and New Orleans. Attempting to help the government's investigation, Garrison and his team investigate the New Orleans links, and bring in several potential accomplices before being forced to let them go and being rebuked—by the federal authorities. As suspected assassin is himself assassinated by , Garrison closes the investigation, but remains uneasy about what has happened. The investigation is later reopened in 1967.

In JFK, as actually occurred, Garrison indicted a based international businessman, , for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to murder President .

Members of the , , the , , , and Kennedy's vice-president are implicated as co-conspirators with motives for Kennedy's assassination and the cover-up afterwards.

Even while JFK was being filmed, considerable controversy was generated by media speculation as to the film's accuracy and Stone's motives in making the film; JFK also encouraged general interest about the Kennedy assassination. Some people accepted Stone's theories. Others have argued that Stone exceeded the limits: some minor errors might have been overlooked as an inherent compromise in compressing several years’ worth of events into a few hours, but critics charged that Stone was guilty of substantial deliberate distortions, misrepresentations and falsehoods.

Some regard the film's version of events as an unfounded . The film suggests that President Kennedy was killed by a group opposed to Kennedy's policies, especially his reluctance to invade and his plan to withdraw American armed forces from . Kennedy had preliminarily approved a withdrawal of 1,000 men to be completed by the end of 1963. However, that would have left more than 20,000 US military advisors in Vietnam

For a time, the film caused some confusion and public opinion. Many members of the public raised their concerns about the alleged conspiracy with their representatives. This made politicians argumentive of the film By ARRB law; all assassination related documents that have not been destroyed will be made public by .