John Fitzgerald Kennedy Reverse Chronological Essay

In January of 1961, John F Kennedy said in his inaugural address, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’ This quote is a representation of the character that John F Kennedy exhibited throughout his short lived presidency. He accomplished countless beneficial acts for our country and had many more plans, acts, and programs through the New Frontier that he wanted to implement in the United States, that he never had the chance to. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder, however, it is believed that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the only individual involved in the crime. This has led to numerous theories on how and why President Kennedy was assassinated. Some of these theories include the FBI, the CIA, and even the mob being involved. The Warren Commission said that they believed that it was solely Lee Harvey Oswald who killed President Kennedy, though most of the evidence shows that Lee Harvey Oswald could not be the only one involved. John F. Kennedy was the fourth United States President to be assassinated.

President Kennedy wanted to travel to Dallas, Texas in an effort to strengthen his vote for the upcoming election as well as to gain more members of the Democratic Party. Before Kennedy went on the trip there was concern about the possibility of a sniper being on the rooftop or top of a building. President Kennedy also made comments before he was killed about his safety in a convertible car, which was a 1963 Lincoln Continental open top limo. Sergeant Davis of the Dallas police department was responsible for securing and ensuring safety whenever a President or foreign leader came to Dallas. Winston Lawson was the secret service agent in charge of and responsible for planning of the Kennedy motorcade. Lawson told Sergeant Davis to prohibit any police officers from following the president’s car.

It was standard procedure for the police to secure the perimeter when any high profile individual with a risk of compromised safety came to Dallas. Jessy Curry, who was the chief of police, said that if the cops were allowed to secure the area, then the murder could have possibly been prohibited. The cops would normally secure the area accompanied with submachine guns and rifles. The initial plan was to go from the Love Field Airport to downtown Dallas and Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was supposed to give a speech at the Dallas Trade Mart. At 12:30 President Kennedy’s limo went towards the Texas School book depository, then turned right in front of the building and was only 65 feet away. The car was going 13 miles per hour and then slowed down to 9 miles per hour. Once the car passed the building the shots rang out, killing Kennedy, as no one in Kennedy’s car had a bullet proof top, because they did not have anything invented at the time.

A man named Abraham Zapruder was right in front of the limo when this occurred, and Zapruder was able to film as the shooting took place. Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally were both shot. Governor John Connally was riding in the same car as Kennedy and was sitting in the passenger seat in front of the president. Governor John Connally was in critical condition but he survived. There was also another person that was just watching the motorcade that was injured from debris when the bullet hit a curb.

Lee Harvey Oswald who was arrested for killing a Dallas police officer, J.D. Tippit was then charged with killing President Kennedy. Oswald was questioned numerous times about the shooting of President Kennedy, and he denied everything. Lee Harvey Oswald was subjected to a twelve hour interrogation in which no recordings or notes were taken. Oswald claimed that he wasn’t involved and that he was just a patsy. Two days after the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed by strip club owner and mob affiliated Jack Ruby, while in police custody. Jack Ruby posed as a reporter who was trying to ask Oswald a question, in order to get a shot at Oswald.

The rifle that was used to kill Kennedy was found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. When the police officers found the gun they recorded everything. There was a bullet on Connally’s stretcher which they later found out was fired from the gun that the police had found. Lee Harvey Oswald purchased the gun under the fake name of Alek James Hiddell. President Kennedy was announced deceased upon arrival to the emergency room; the surgeons at the hospital stated that Kennedy had zero chance of survival. Dr. George Burkley arrived at the hospital shortly after the president was shot, saw the head wound and declared it the cause of death.

At the hospital A priest came to give President Kennedy who was a devoted catholic his last rites at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy. Lyndon B. Johnson who was the Vice President -was the next person to become president- Lyndon B. Johnson was riding in a car behind, Kennedy, and after the assassination took the oath of office following procedure to officially become the President while on Air Force One. Afterwards Kennedy’s body was loaded onto the plane and taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital for an official autopsy. The autopsy report stated that Kennedy had been shot in the head and in the shoulder. Reports of the autopsy were incorrect and did not match up; it was said that Dr. James J. Humes probably destroyed the autopsy report and notes that were taken -The measurements that Dr. James J. Humes took were inconsistent and not exact- The Assassination Record Review Board said that the autopsy of John F. Kennedy was a tragedy.

The autopsy reports were not shown to the Warren Commission. The people who handled the autopsy records did not keep track of how many pictures were taken, and that the pathologists were not experienced enough to handle Kennedy’s body in the first place. Kennedy’s neck was never analyzed to determine the trajectory of how the bullet entered and exited. After the autopsy Kennedy’s body was embalmed and was put into the white house for the public to see. The body was removed from the white house and buried in Arlington National Cemetery. There was also no recordings or radio coverage of the assassination. All of the news crews were waiting at the Trade Mart for Kennedy and not in Dealey Plaza. There were news crews riding with the Kennedy motorcade, but they were in the very back. The only recording of the murder was from Abraham Zapruder’s camera. Many individuals took still pictures of the shooting also.

The Zapruder film shows Kennedy’s head moving forward and then backwards. The Zapruder film was shown on television, but was edited a lot. More recently, in 2003, ABC News drew Dealey Plaza in three dimensional computer models. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson restricted the access the general public had to the Warren Commission findings. Johnson declared the documents would not be seen by the public for 75 years. The covering up all of the records, led more individuals to believe that there was indeed a conspiracy involved with the death of President Kennedy.

In 1992, Congress created the “President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992” Congress made this act to allow people to see the records earlier and felt that there was nothing to hide from the public. The act states that any document that had not been lost or destroyed must be given to the public by 2017. Many documents have already been opened, but the majority are still confidential. All original evidence and material however; cannot be released, because it was lost or destroyed. Some important pieces of evidence that were overlooked were: Governor Connelly’s suit dry cleaned, the cleaned limo and Lee Harvey Oswald’s lost Marine Service File. There was a gun residue test administered on Lee Harvey Oswald’s right cheek and hands, to inform individuals if Oswald had fired a weapon. The test came out positive, but the Warren commission claimed the data was inaccurate.

The first agency and individuals to conduct an investigation was the FBI. The director of the FBI wanted to convince the public that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole individual involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. The FBI report took 17 days to complete and was given to the Warren Commission. Both the FBI and the Warren Commission said that there were only three shots fired from the rifle that Lee Harvey Oswald had. The House Select Committee Investigated the FBI’s results. The committee concluded that the FBI did not investigate whether or not President Kennedy was involved in a conspiracy and also that they did not give their data to other law enforcement agencies. James Hosty was an FBI agent whose name appeared in Jack Ruby’s address book. The FBI made another copy of the address book and erased James Hosty’s name out of it and then gave it to the Warren Commission. Before the assassination occured, it was determined Lee Harvey Oswald went to the FBI office to meet with James Hosty. Hosty was not in his office when Oswald had arrived, so Oswald left a note for him. When Oswald was murdered by Ruby, it is said James Hosty destroyed the note by tearing it up and flushing it down the toilet.

When the Warren Commission completed their report many people questioned it and did not believe its findings. Many people have in fact went on to write and publish books and articles disproving what the Warren Commission stated. In 2003, ABC News did a poll to see what the public thought about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The poll said that seventy percent of the general public thought that there was a plot involved with the murder of Kennedy. Around seventy to ninety percent of the American people did not believe the Warren Commission’s findings. Even government officials that worked for the Warren Commission said that they did not completely believe the commission’s results themselves. The House Select Committee on Assassinations said that the Warren Commission and the FBI failed to investigate who else could have been with the murder. The committee also said that the main reason for the lack of information and results were due to the Warren Commission not communicating with the CIA.

The House Select Committee of Assassinations (HSCA) determined that President Kennedy was killed because of a conspiracy; their results went directly against the Warren Commissions. The HSCA said that four shots were fired and Lee Harvey Oswald was not the only individual shooting. Lee Harvey Oswald had shot three times and another gunman had fired another shot from behind the fence on the grassy knoll. The grassy knoll theory had came from acoustic evidence (the sounds of the shots ringing out and the number of shots heard) and the accounts and testimony of many different witnesses.

The majority of the evidence involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy was mishandled and not dealt with properly. Since most of the evidence was lost or is locked away, it led and continues to lead people to further believe in a conspiracy theory. The murder of John F. Kennedy shows that the government has not served its people in a righteous manner. They have lied, covered-up, and twisted things so much that it will never be possible to find out who was really involved with the murder. The government has violated the right of its own people. If the government took the time to correctly gather all of the evidence and look at all the aspects of the murder, than there would not be as much mystery surrounding the murder today. The government violated the Kennedy family’s 14th amendment rights, and the due process of law. because the government failed to do a proper investigation of the assassination. The Kennedy family was not provided thorough and correct investigation. The government should have been a lot more accurate, involved, and concerned with the investigations its countless agencies performed and took part in.

John F. Kennedy initially began his political career after his brother Joseph P. Kennedy died. Joseph was the golden child in their dad Joseph P Kennedy Senior’s eye. John was a child who battled many medical problems, was very frail and pale. John messed around in college and rarely took things seriously as the majority of the time he was overlooked. Though once Joseph P Kennedy Junior died in a helicopter crash while on active duty, his father turned to John F. Kennedy to become something. John F. Kennedy’s political career began to grow with the support of his father both financially and emotionally. Joseph P. Kennedy Senior was the main factor in how John F. Kennedy became a democratic representative of Massachusetts from 1947-1953 and a senator of Massachusetts from 1953-1960. The influence and bribery that Joseph P. Kennedy Senior had and was able to establish was the primary reason why Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election against Richard Nixon. On his road to political success Kennedy made many enemies, his dad dealt with many shady individuals, and many individuals did not like John F Kennedy and didn’t think he was deserving of what he was getting in life. Those enemies included: The Mob, which John P. Kennedy Senior made false promises to, The FBI who John F. Kennedy blasted on National T.V. regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis, Lynden Johnson, who thought Kennedy was just a spoiled rich kid, etc.

The other factor that led to John F Kennedy’s political success was his good looks, personality, and perfect marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy. America viewed John F Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy as the perfect couple who were successful and the best role models. Their unity and photogenic energy resonated with Americans who idolized them. John F Kennedy has become one of the most famous and well liked presidents since his death. His assasination was a changing point for the United States. Citizens came to the realization we are not always safe. Additionally, Kennedy’s assassination was the first time citizens began to question their government, before Kennedy’s assasination Americans trusted the government. After Kennedy’s assasination the general public became more skeptical and suspicious of the government. The death of John F. Kennedy on November 22, of 1963, forever changed the presidency in America, and how Americans perceive the information given to them. John F Kennedy’s legacy is the most recognized and the most sought after, as everyone idolized him as a person even if they did not like him as a politician.