US President Donald Trump has made available materials related to the 1963 assassination of former president John F. Kennedy, fulfilling his campaign promise to enhance transparency regarding this shocking incident in Texas.
A significant batch of electronic copies of documents was uploaded to the National Archives website last evening, with expectations that over 80,000 additional materials will be published after Justice Department lawyers spent considerable time reviewing them.
The digital files, which include PDFs of previously classified memos, provide insights into the tense atmosphere of the time, particularly concerning US relations with the Soviet Union, shortly after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the world close to nuclear conflict.
This release is likely to captivate those with a long-standing interest in the dramatic historical context surrounding the assassination and John F. Kennedy himself.
An initial assessment of the documents did not reveal any deviations from the established narrative.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services under Mr. Trump, and a direct descendant of Robert Kennedy as well as John F. Kennedy, has suggested that the Central Intelligence Agency was involved in his uncle’s assassination, a claim that the agency has declared to be unfounded.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.
Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, mentioned on X: “The Trump administration did not provide any advance notice to President Kennedy’s family regarding the release.”
Fredrik Logevall, a Harvard historian and author of ‘JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century 1917-56’, remarked that the newly released documents may help clarify the historical narrative.
“It’s beneficial to release all documentation, ideally in an unredacted format. However, I do not anticipate significant new revelations that would fundamentally alter our understanding of the event,” he stated.
One document marked “secret” contained a typewritten account with handwritten annotations detailing a 1964 interview conducted by a Warren Commission researcher with CIA employee Lee Wigren, who was questioned about inconsistencies in information provided to the commission by the State Department and the CIA regarding marriages between Soviet women and American men.
At the time of the assassination, Oswald was married to a Soviet woman, Marina Oswald.
Documents from the US Department of Defense dating back to 1963 addressed the Cold War dynamics of the early 1960s and US involvement in Latin America, focusing on efforts to undermine Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s support for communist movements in other countries.
These documents indicate that Castro would likely avoid provoking a conflict with the United States or escalating tensions to a level that could “seriously and immediately endanger the Castro regime.”
“It seems more probable that Castro would intensify his backing of subversive forces in Latin America,” the document states.
The assassination of JFK is attributed to Lee Harvey Oswald.
Another document released from January 1962 outlines a top-secret initiative titled “Operation Mongoose,” or simply “the Cuban Project,” which was a CIA-led effort of covert operations and sabotage against Cuba, authorized by Kennedy in 1961 with the objective of toppling the Castro regime.
Shortly after taking office in January, Mr. Trump signed an order regarding the release of these documents, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to uncover thousands of additional materials related to the Kennedy assassination in Dallas.
In the rush to comply with Trump’s directive, the US Justice Department instructed several lawyers who manage sensitive national security issues to urgently examine records pertaining to the assassination, according to an email viewed by Reuters.
“President Trump is ushering in a new era of maximum transparency,” stated Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a post on X.
Alice L. George, a historian and author of ‘The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Political Trauma and American Memory’, noted that the American public’s fascination with assassinations and the pressing questions about government transparency contribute to the sentiment that there must be crucial evidence concealed within these files.
However, she expressed skepticism regarding whether government records would satisfy the lingering questions people have.
“I anticipate that more records may continue to be released,” she explained. “I sincerely doubt any will unveil major revelations. The Warren Commission report was comprehensive, but it was compiled while many key participants were still alive. It’s far more challenging to uncover the truth when most of those involved are deceased.”
The murder of Kennedy has consistently been attributed to a lone gunman, Oswald.
In the decades since, the Justice Department and various federal agencies have reaffirmed that conclusion.
Yet, polls indicate that a significant number of Americans continue to believe his death was the result of a conspiracy.
Additionally, Mr. Trump has pledged to release documents regarding the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, both of whom were killed in 1968.
He has granted additional time to develop a plan for those releases.
