On March 18, declassified documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy were published. Izvestia discussed with Vladimir Vasiliev, Chief Researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, what significance the events of November 22, 1963 in Dallas have for America and how Donald Trump uses the mystery of the death of the 35th president in his war with the special services.
"No one understood why and why Kennedy was assassinated"
— Why is the investigation of John F. Kennedy's death so important for American society?
— For Americans of that time, the assassination of Kennedy was the murder of a dream and hope for a different future. The conservative post-war elites, with their sanctimonious morals, were annoying. American politics has put forward a charismatic leader, the likes of whom have not been seen since until Bill Clinton. He embodied hope for change and was especially popular with young people. His image became all the more vivid with the advent of television and radio.
John F. Kennedy
No one in American society understood why and why Kennedy was assassinated. This led to the Vietnam crisis, which Kennedy wanted to end by 1964. This did not happen, the opposite happened — the draft for war in the era of Lyndon Johnson. I would like to note that I highly appreciate Johnson as a politician. He was a real "political animal" and would have become much more popular if not for Vietnam. It was no coincidence that Roosevelt considered him to be a follower of his beginnings. As a result, Johnson remained completely unforgiven by the Americans. It is generally believed that he simply took advantage of the fruits of Kennedy's work.
"It wasn't Oswald who shot"
— What did the Warren Commission want to prove?
— Johnson believed that Kennedy was killed for Cuba. However, he did not want a nuclear war, and that would have ended if the United States had been accused of a crime by the USSR. As a result, according to the official version, Lee Harvey Oswald remained a "crazy loner", a psychopath — without any political aspects. Although it is known that Oswald actually treated Kennedy well, and there is no evidence to the contrary.
The evidence presented by the commission could not be considered one hundred percent. The Oswald family's lawyer, Mark Lane, even offered to present them to the jury in absentia. He was absolutely sure that after their consideration, the prosecution would fall apart. And this is critically important: Oswald's guilt has been proven by the Warren Commission, but not by the court. When it turned out many years later that it was definitely not Oswald, the society could not present anyone as a plausible alternative.
The commission's report indicates that he allegedly fired three shots from a rifle. He missed the first one, hit the second one, but not the president, and the third shot was fatal for Kennedy. However, the official powder test available in the report showed that traces of gunpowder were present on Oswald's hands (he fired one pistol shot during his arrest), but there were none on his face. That is, in all likelihood, he did not shoot. In addition, there are no prints of Oswald on the discovered rifle either, and this is documented, although it was claimed that it was his personal weapon.
There is another point connected with the rifle. The name of the model was the same at first, then it was changed — "Mannlicher–Carcano". First, it turned out that Oswald had ordered the weapon in Heidel's name, but according to the documents, he received it only the day after the Kennedy assassination, when he was already arrested. Then it turned out that they had fired from another modification of this rifle.
And these are far from the only "punctures" of the investigation. Thus, only indirect evidence points to Oswald, there is no direct evidence. But, again, there is no alternative version, no other suspect. This is where all conspiracy theory begins. And Oswald himself confirmed it, saying that he was just a figurehead.
"The president is not killed for nothing"
— What is the most likely version now?
— Basically, the most plausible version is the involvement of James Jesus Angleton, head of the CIA's counterintelligence department. He hired professional assassins from the group that had previously been trained to land in Cuba. As you know, after the failure of the Bay of Pigs operation and the Caribbean crisis, Kennedy personally canceled this project. These were anti-communist Cubans, ardent opponents of the Castro regime, whom the CIA had been training for a long time, but at the behest of the US president, they found themselves out of work at the very last moment. Their attitude towards Kennedy was the same as towards Fidel.
There are several dark spots in Angleton's biography. He was engaged in work against anti-war movements, and he was paranoid when it came to the USSR. Now his figure is extremely demonized, although it is very difficult to understand what he really did.
Apparently, the investigation got to the truth and found Angleton. He confessed that he was running an errand. Probably, when asked about the customer, he pointed to the Eisenhower—Dulles axis. However, the motive of these people is also difficult to trace. We can recall Eisenhower's 1963 speeches in which he mercilessly criticized Kennedy, talking about the wrong path the country had taken under the 35th president. Such a murder is in the national interest. As you can imagine, it was unthinkable to unleash this scandal at that moment, the thread led too high.
Oswald, apparently, was subordinate to Angleton, who could not only organize the murder, but also plant the figure of Oswald in the investigation. Given Oswald's biography, this would immediately point to the Soviet Union.
Another interesting fact in favor of this version. Next to the book depository (from the sixth floor of which, according to investigators, the president was shot. — Izvestia) The police found employees of the secret service (the federal agency responsible for protecting top officials of the United States. — Izvestia). They had the appropriate tokens with them. However, it later turned out that all the Secret Service employees were in the motorcade, there was no one "on the ground", and the tokens were fake.
You need to understand that the president is not just killed. The motive must really be worth the huge risk. Accordingly, it is necessary to look for those who subsequently received long-term benefits from Kennedy's death. There are actually very few such people. In my opinion, there is one obvious beneficiary. This is Lyndon Johnson. In the United States, there are several versions pointing to him as the culprit.
For me, this version is not proven. Yes, Johnson eventually became the 36th head of the American state. But in that case, why would he be present at the scene of the events? He was an experienced enough politician, a representative of the establishment, to do everything so that he would not be around. And then no one would have thought of accusing him. Besides, I don't believe he's involved in the Dulles conspiracy. But, of course, this event was a gift from heaven for him.
— The version of Israel's involvement is now very popular among Trumpists. Angleton oversaw American-Israeli cooperation. He is suspected of at least helping Tel Aviv build nuclear weapons, which Kennedy opposed...
— It's important to look at what has changed since the murder. But even in this case, it is not entirely clear what the benefits of individual defendants on the American side could be.
"What happens when it's confirmed that Oswald is a CIA agent?"
— Is it in the interests of the Trumpists to make the whole truth public?
— Let's answer the question why it took so long to publish. Allegedly, there were the last files related to Oswald's trip to Mexico and his visit to the Soviet and Cuban embassies. On the one hand, the "Russian trace" or the story of the "loner" may come up again. They say Soviet diplomats gave Oswald a motive for the murder. In fact, it may reveal a key piece of evidence to the public. It turns out that the CIA not only monitored Oswald, but also received detailed reports from him. Simply put, it turns out that he was an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Now the CIA claims that this is not the case. However, we understand that the price of these statements is zero. Suppose it turns out that Oswald was recruited in Okinawa and later used to perform certain tasks. After that, he was framed as a convenient figure as the "Kennedy assassin." The proof of this, for example, may be a report on that very visit to the USSR embassy. In this logic, Oswald could not just give incriminating testimony, but literally point out the direct perpetrators. Therefore, he was eliminated. After his arrest, he was silent at first, but then realized that he had become a scapegoat, which he managed to say. If this turns out to be true, then the CIA was behind everything. And this is a very, very explosive situation.
"Trump wants revenge. He needs to go all the way."
— Trump seems to have started purging the CIA. Is there a chance that he will eventually do what Kennedy failed to do — break up the administration into "a thousand pieces"?
— It lies on the surface. Yes, he wants to go back to this story and blame the CIA. Its purpose is to discredit the management. We hear from Robert Kennedy Jr. (the US Secretary of Health in the Trump administration. — Izvestia) that his uncle and father were killed by the CIA. In addition, it is also a guarantee for Trump himself: if anything happens to him, everyone will understand who is to blame for this. Most believe that the work of the secret service is on July 14, 2024 (the date of the assassination attempt on Trump during an election rally in the city of Butler. — Izvestia) It wasn't just a mistake. No wonder Cash Patel (recently appointed Director of the FBI.— Izvestia) Immediately after his appointment, he hired a private security company. All this is unprecedented.
— Do Trump's appointments to the intelligence community indicate that Trump will negotiate or go through with it?
— There is a lot of pressure on Trump now. He is openly called an "agent of Putin", a "traitor" and urged to "do something." It is absolutely obvious that Trump is following in Kennedy's footsteps — this can be seen in many points. In this regard, America is extremely tense right now.
US President Donald Trump
— There is a similar story, the Epstein case, which is just as dangerous for the establishment, but even darker. If Trump goes all the way here, he risks undermining the entire political class in the United States, along with dozens of years of "great American history." If not, the system can suppress him the way it did in his first term. Are these arguments correct?
"You're absolutely right. Trump has already tried to negotiate once, but he cannot live under the sword of Damocles. It didn't work out in the first term. More importantly, the outcome of the 2020 elections was manageable. Ask about the fate of Gina Haspel, at that time the director of the CIA. This is a very symptomatic and revealing story. There is no doubt that Trump was kicked out of the White House, if you will, overthrown by the CIA. Yes, the current president wants to avenge this. Look at how the tops of the Pentagon and the intelligence community are sweeping now. In this sense, America has now reached a very dangerous point. Yes, Trump is taking a lot of risks. And yes, from the point of view of logic, he needs to go to the end.
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