Who Killed JFK? the 9-11 before 9-11

About John F Kennedy’s Assassination

unsolved mystery - 45 years later

Over the last decade, a lot of individuals have speculated on conspiracy theories that would make the typical American cringe in disgust.  The thought of Americans accusing the homeland of involvement in September 11th, for example, boils the blood of many Americans and especially the super patriots that have spawned as a result of Republican nationalism in the 21st century.  It wasn’t long after November 22, 1963 - the 9/11 before 9/11 - that conspiracy theorists started explaining away “what really happened on Dealey Plaza” and they were certain they knew “Who killed JFK?”

First, here’s a quick and dirty Summary from Wikipedia:

The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p.m. CST (18:30 UTC). John F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife Jacqueline in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. That Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza, was the conclusion of multiple government investigations, including the ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963-1964 and the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) of 1976-1979.  […] Since the original 1966 Gallup poll, show a majority of the public hold beliefs contrary to these findings. The assassination is still the subject of widespread speculation and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories…

note: Consider this a fun exercise and nothing more.  Many “facts” are contested and many “theories” debunked, so I’m not going to jump into the fray.  I see this as a creative think piece about an alternate reality that might have been, one that is logically connected to reality and facts surrounding the JFK assassination. 

Almost every American at one point or another either lived the history or learned about the legendary John F. Kennedy and his mysterious assassination.  For those of us that weren’t around to witness the event and read the news or listen to pundits, theorists, scholars and lawyers discuss the murder, we only have exposure to the event through historical record.  The simplified version of the JFK era that most of us read about in middle school, high school and maybe college was as follows: JFK was a great and beloved American.  He was the Presidential “hope” of America a likely champion of the Civil Rights movement; the great American idealist and Democratic hero who would save us from ourselves and likely put an end to the war in Vietnam.  

It isn’t long before the ugly side of history rears its head: Lee Harvey Oswald, “the single assassin theory” and Jack Ruby “the man who killed the killer” ruin the happy ending and become the centerpiece of numerous conspiracy theories.  If you’re anything like me, you haven’t reviewed the shot of JFK in Texas for detail, especially not outside the academic realm.   Like me, you’ve likely read about the “Magic Bullet” theory that spawns off into a multiple shooter theories and is countered by the simple explanation: the lone gunman or “nut” theory.

Then comes the digital era and videos and perspectives galore overwhelm the Internet with explanations and history lessons.  If there is a single theory that I could buy into, it would have to be the involvement of a secret government agency and the only reason I consider the possibility is because there seems to be visual evidence that an agent protecting JFK knew a “hit” was imminent.

Here’s the fast clip that everyone has seen at one point or another:

John F Kennedy Assassinated in Dallas, Texas

Where does the CIA fit in all of this?

Accusations of a CIA hit job on our own president were common in conspiracy theory related to the assassination.  Certainly, the CIA or Secret Service has unfettered access to resources that could pull off such a mission, but I won’t attempt to convince you that the CIA was involved.  I’m the last person you’d find researching on conspiracy theories, my knowledge is or was limited to historical fact.  I’ve read Robert Kennedy’s book “Thirteen Days” about the Cuban Missile Crisis, but surely it has no relevance to the assassination that happened on November 22, 1963.

When you think of JFK and his legacy, you have to ask a simple question.  What could possibly motivate anyone — even the CIA — to assassinate what seemed like the next coming of Christ?  Of course, within that question lies one obvious answer that I won’t examine “thou shall have no other Gods before me.”  Religion often gives rise to reasons that are inexplicable to people outside of the religious circle.  Then again, I guess anything is possible as humans rarely tend to practice what they preach.

Religion doesn’t do it for you either?  Well, there’s racism as a motive: the possibility that because JFK would help champion desegregation and bring equality to the forefront of American politics, perhaps bigots wanted him taken out.  You can look at political motivation, too if that’s ‘too out there for you’:  JFK was a liberal like no other, proud, strong and idealistic.  He was a visionary who believed in justice as the foundation of our American ideals and more importantly, the “establishment” has no room for people like that.  Finally, the military and intelligence angle, a popular one to be sure and in my view the most interesting to examine.

Popular Conspiracy Theory: The Limo Driver did it

When I saw this clip, I had to go back to the original ‘fast version’ of the event and pause it frame by frame to see if the “slow motion limo driver clip” was doctored.   I don’t see how this theory holds water for one simple reason: Jackie Kennedy was sitting a foot away from the victim.

Here’s a different camera angle, from Discovery Channel:

Bobby Kennedy was perhaps America’s first conspiracy theorist.  Robert Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy conclude that JFK was the victim of a domestic plot, aka. ‘JFK’s assassination  was an inside job.’  I know, those words are ringing in your ears the way ‘9/11 was an inside job’ do, but given time, history and technology you are probably much more willing to think about this possibility 45 years after the fact.  In fact, Lyndon Johnson suspected the assassination resulted from a struggle for power in Cuba.  While Richard Nixon demanded all documents related to the Bay of Pigs invasion when he was President.  Think about this possibility for a moment, because it is one that is rarely investigated or given credence to especially because the only people with access to evidence that would link Cuba includes federal agents with clearance at or above the Top Secret level.

Cuba? 

Over the decades since JFK’s assassination, did anyone stop and wonder what the heck Cuba and power had to do with it?  When crazy old man Lyndon Johnson spouted his theories, did you ever wonder how he could possibly come to such wacky conclusions?  For those scholars and theorists that did consider our government as ‘motivated’ to kill a sitting President, how was Cuba relevant and what the heck would give anyone the idea that Cuba had a role in all of this?  Was it the Cuban Missile Crisis, communism, world domination?  What exactly about Cuba would prompt any President, historian or scholar to question the role of Cuba in inciting a plot to assassinate John F Kennedy?

Quick reference from Wikipedia:

The 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful attempted invasion by armed Cuban exiles in southwest Cuba, planned and funded by the United States, in an attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. This action accelerated a rapid deterioration in Cuban-American relations, which was further worsened by the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year.

The, there’s Operation Norwoods, the document that has been declassified for some time now has gone viral once again on the Internet, but few people outside if the youtube generation have ever heard of it.  Essentially, it exposes a plot cooked up by higher-ups in our government to create false flags, terrorist scenarios and fake other events to make it appear as though Cuba attacked the United States both inside our borders and on foreign lands.

Operation Northwoods, or Northwoods, was a 1962 plan by the U.S. Department of Defense to stage acts of simulated or real terrorism on US soil and against U.S. interests and then put the blame of these acts on Cuba in order to generate U.S. public support for military action against the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.  As part of the U.S. government’s Operation Mongoose anti-Castro initiative, the plan, which was not implemented, called for various false flag actions, including simulated or real state-sponsored acts of terrorism on U.S. and Cuban soil. The plan was proposed by senior U.S. Department of Defense leaders, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman Louis Lemnitzer.

Idealism, Hope, and the American Dream

The CIA and possibly other ‘unknown’ federal agencies have done their part to destabilize governments around the world.  The CIA is every young boy’s fantasy.  It becomes a dream of every teen and the reality of many Ivy League graduates and other brilliant minds and military heroes throughout the U.S.   Was idealism, justice, and integrity the key to JFK’s assassination?  Was his death ‘necessary’ to keep the lid tight on American State Secrets and if there was a plot by our CIA to assassinate the president, will it ever be revealed or “declassified”?  Sounds like something out of Hollywood!

I’m not sure that answers that will close this mystery out will come in my lifetime if ever.  For all of the excitement that this event brings in the form of sadness, shock, and disbelief, it seems that the various theories seem more like concoctions of wild creative imaginations, even more so than the outlandish claim that “it was just some crazy guy with no motive” that pulled off one of the greatest assassinations in world history.   The only concern I have immediately, is IF our Department of Defense was involved, could it happen again?

Let’s all pray and/or hope that Barack Obama’s idealism won’t be the end of his American Dream and the hope he’s given to people the world over.

As I said before, Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama changes everything…

…or does it?

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Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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