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Unit V11--Discussion Board--American History

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy attracted various conspiracy theories.

Examples of these theories were that the assassin was working with the Russian or Cuban

government, the president was killed due to his strict policies regarding the military, and that the

vice president had something to do with the assassination. The reasons for these theories are

numerous. First, as the president, his murder had to be caused by senior people in the

government. Secondly, the assassin had ties to the Russian government as shown by documents

recently released regarding the murder. Third, the then vice president was not injured in the

shooting making him a person of interest in the case (Times). The assassination of Lee Harvey

Oswalt two days after the murder of President Kennedy also led to the rise in the conspiracy

theories (Barone). Besides, there were rumors regarding the interruption of the investigations by

the FBI and the CIA showing that they could have been involved in the planning and murder of

the president.

The citizens' trust in the government reduced following the assassination. In particular,

many controversies were surrounding the assassination such as the number of assassins and

where the gun was fired. Besides, documents showed that there was a possibility that the FBI and

the CIA lied about Oswald to the Warren committee (Gillon). The Warren report showed that

there were no doubts Oswald acted alone but did not give a conclusive explanation on why he
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killed the president. The findings led to the reduced trust in the government since most of the

documents released did not show any information regarding the reason why Oswald would

assassinate the president. The high level of conspiracy theories shows that the Americans had

high beliefs on their leaders and their protection. In the 1960s, most Americans believed that a

president’s assassination had to be planned and executed by his or the country’s enemies. It also

shows that President's Kennedy popularity was high primarily due to his policies regarding the

war in Vietnam.
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Works Cited

Barone, Michael. "How JFK's Assassination Changed American Politics". Aei.Org, 2013,

http://www.aei.org/publication/how-jfks-assassination-changed-american-politics/.

Accessed 7 Mar 2018.

Gillon, Steven M. "Why The Public Stopped Believing The Government About JFK’S Murder".

HISTORY.Com, 2017, https://www.history.com/news/why-the-public-stopped-believing-

the-government-about-jfks-murder. Accessed 7 Mar 2018.

Times, The. "J.F.K. Files Released, Highlighting Hoover, L.B.J. Among Others". Nytimes.Com,

2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/us/politics/jfk-files.html. Accessed 7 Mar

2018.