The John F. Kennedy’s Assassination and Propaganda Around The Event

On November 22nd of 1963 tragedy struck the United States and made global headlines. John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, had been assassinated while on a motorcade through Dallas, Texas – accompanied by first lady Jacquelyn Kennedy and Governor John Connally.

As the motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository Building, at 12:30pm, 3 shots were fired from the sixth floor of the building into the presidents open top convertible. Two of the bullets struck the president, one hit his neck and the other his head, the last bullet hit the Governor in the back.

Although the Governor survived (with severe injuries), Kennedy was pronounced dead thirty minutes after the shooting at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital. As the nation mourned their loss Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States, at 2:39pm that day.

By this point in time there was a nationwide manhunt on for the assassin who had caused this tragedy. Within two hours of the assassination an arrest had been made. Lee Harvey Oswald, who less than an hour prior had killed a policeman who questioned him on the street, had been arrested and was now the prime and only suspect of the investigation. The world turned all eyes to Oswald when on November 23rd he was formally arraigned for the murders of President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit.

While Oswald was being brought to a more secure county jail, Oswald was brought to the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters on Nov 24th, where he would be temporarily held until they were ready to move him later that day. Police, Press, and the public swarmed outside of the building waiting for him to be brought out for transport to the county jail, many of the press had live broadcasts airing about the event.

As Oswald was brought out, the situation was brought to a climax once again when a man emerged out of the crowd and with a single shot, from the .38 revolver he had concealed, fatally wounded Oswald. This man was then arrested and identified as Jack Ruby, who claimed he had killed Oswald out of rage at the president’s death.

The official Warren Commission report of 1964 came to the conclusion that neither Oswald nor Ruby were involved in a larger conspiracy, domestic or international, to assonate the president.

Propaganda Surrounding the Event

There has been and continues to be mass propaganda surrounding the event of President Kennedys assassination. This propaganda is not only in the United States but widespread around the globe. 69% of Americans that were polled said they believe in some sort of conspiracy surrounding the events of JFK’s assassination. 26% of these Americans reported they believed the mafia or federal government to be involved, making these the two most popular conspiracies. The CIA and Fidel Castro also came close with 12% of Americans believing in the conspiracies related to them.

Propaganda Surrounding the Federal Government’s Involvement and a Cover Up

Many different researchers, including Mark Lane, Henry Hurt, Gerald D. McKnight, Anthony Summers, and others have found things that they characterize as inconsistencies in the Kennedy assassination story. Some of these things include, oversights, exclusions of evidence, errors, changing stories, or changes made to witness testimony in the official Warren Commission investigation. This, suggests there could’ve been a cover-up.

It is said that the Warren Commission only received information sent to it by the FBI, and that its purpose was to simply rubber stamp the lone gunman theory. This is supported by the fact that they did not investigate any further leads in the case. Many professionals and investigators involved in this case have made claims supporting this theory. Richard Schweiker, United States senator and member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, supported the theory while talking to author Anthony Summers in 1978, "I believe that the Warren Commission was set up at the time to feed pabulum to the American public for reasons not yet known, and that one of the biggest cover-ups in the history of our country occurred at that time” He told him.

It has been said that anti-Communist and anti-Castro extremists within the CIA plotted the assassination of Kennedy, to keep up with the times current tension with the Soviet Union and Cuba, and in an attempt to prevent the United States withdrawal from Vietnam. In James Douglass’ book JFK and the Unspeakable he wrote that the “CIA, acting on the orders of conspirators with a ‘military industrial complex’, had killed Kennedy and while doing so set up Lee Harvey Oswald as a patsy.” Douglass also stated that Kennedy had been killed due to him starting to turn away from the Cold War and pursuing paths of nuclear disarmament, rapprochement with Fidel Castro, and withdrawal from the war in Vietnam. It has also been thought that Kennedy may have been killed in order to keep information he was planning to share, on extra-terrestrial life, secret – it is said that he was working with Fidel Castro to have this information released globally, against the wishes of other high-ranking government officials.

In 1977, the FBI released 40,000 files in regard to the assassination of Kennedy, these files included an April 3, 1967 memorandum from Deputy Director Cartha DeLoach to Associate Director Clyde Tolson. It was written less than a month after President Johnson had learned from J. Edgar Hoover about CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. According to DeLoach, LBJ aide Marvin Watson "stated that the President had told him, in an off moment, that he was now convinced there was a plot in connection with the assassination. Watson stated the President felt that the CIA had had something to do with this plot." Because of this evidence and much more that has circulated through the media in forms of film documentaries, news articles and more many people believe that the CIA and FBI were involved in or executed the Kennedy assassination, whether it be in full or in part.

Propaganda Surrounding Oswald and his innocence/Death

There is a surprising amount of propaganda and conspiracies in the media and in film to suggest that Lee Harvey Oswald is innocent because of this many people speculate that Oswald did not kill President Kennedy and instead was set up.

One of the main pieces of evidence that suggests this to be true is Oswald’s alibi for the time of the assassination and what is said to be photo evidence of this alibi. Oswald claimed, during an interrogation that he was "out with Bill Shelley in front.", but interrogator Will Fritz lied to the Warren Commission. He claimed that Oswald had told him that he was "eating lunch with other employees" during the assassination. Surprisingly he did not name these employees, this is surprising because he was citing them as Oswald’s alibi. It’s even more astonishing that Warren Commission lawyer Joseph Ball had not asked him to name them, as he was a lawyer who knew both the significance and importance of a defendant’s alibi. The next piece of propaganda that has been featured in many online and film documentaries relating to this theory is the “man in the doorway” photo. This is a photo that was taken the day of the assassination of a doorway in front of the Texas School Book Depository Building. While this photo is not the best quality it clearly shows a man standing in the doorway with remarkable and noticeable resemblance and similarities to Oswald. Modern professionals in the field of facial recognition technology have examined the photo and concluded that it is very likely that the man in the photo is in fact Oswald, and if so he could not have possibly been the shooter. When this picture surfaced the government decided to comment on it and claim the man in the photo was Billy Lovelady. The problem with this is if this really were just some unimportant regular guy, why would the government feel compelled to make an official statement on the matter? – having to put in the resources to identify this man in order to do so. The resemblance between Oswald and the “man in the doorway” is just too remarkable in the case of Oswald’s innocence to not consider it, most probably, the evidence of most importance in this case.

Unfortunately, Lee Harvey Oswald never had the chance to defend himself as he was fatally wounded from a gunshot, fired by Jack Ruby, on the afternoon of November 24th. Although this could’ve been easily prevented, as on Nov 24th the Dallas County Police Headquarters was called and told that someone was going to kill Oswald, yet they did nothing to try to prevent this. It was obviously very clear (In the photo to the right) that everyone in the room was expecting this, but they needed Oswald dead so that the information he knew wouldn’t get out. Even though Ruby has the gun only a few inches from Oswald none of the officials take a second look or try to stop him, as if this is what they had been expecting.

Jack Ruby – His Involvement, Information, and Sudden Death

We can assume that anyone with the potential to share information on the true events of JFK’s assassination is considered a threat to national security and ‘eliminated’ as the same thing happened to Jack Ruby that people believe to have happened to Oswald – he was killed to keep information from the public.

Jack Ruby died in 1967, while awaiting his second appealed trial for killing Oswald, claimed to be from a pulmonary embolism caused by lung cancer. Although this was very sudden, and nobody had heard of him having lung cancer in the past, naturally this made it quite surprising and suspicious. What is makes it more suspicious though is the fact that it was confirmed that Ruby had agreed and scheduled to meet with a local news station, just a week after he dies, as he said he was “ready to tell the real story and information regarding Kennedys assassination”. Due to his sudden death he was never able to do this, and share his story and the information he held with the world.

Propaganda and its Effects on Today’s Society

Propaganda has very large-scale effects on society all around the world. Not only does it have large effects on interpersonal feelings of individuals, but it can have mass effects on current and future relationships and connections. This is because individuals’ personal views and opinions dictate their future opinions, reactions, communications and lots more. With the effects different propaganda can have on different people it can essentially change a large portion of their thinking. This happening on a large-scale (globally, towards large societies) changes things on an even greater scale, as the government can gear propaganda to have people think a certain way, which if looked at a certain way could be seen as a form of mind control. This is why propaganda should be considered and thought of as a dangerous weapon, especially in the hands of someone with the ability to spread such things very quickly, like governments and large cooperation’s. All in all, propaganda has is one of the biggest factors in shaping, changing, and managing today’s modern society all around the globe.

A Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe that much of the propaganda surrounding Kennedy’s assassination is quite plausible and most of the general public agrees as you can see in the percentages of Americans who believe in a conspiracy. Although there is much more propaganda in regard to JFK’s assassination, the ones listed above are one of the most popular and my personal beliefs on the matter. The ones above are most likely the most popular as they have so much evidence backing them up – both substantial and circumstantial. So, although the official timeline of events said to happen may be what the government will always stick to, I think we can definitely infer that there was much more going on behind the scenes of public knowledge.