he death of President Kennedy had a very big impact on the nation, especially taking into consideration that 1963 presented itself to be one of the most intense years of the Cold War. Now we all know that Lee Harvey Oswald is the one who killed Kennedy, period, but who was he linked to? Who made him do it? Was this an inside job done by the CIA?
In this article, we will be taking a look at different theories that experts have speculated over a period of 60 years since the assassination took place. It has been said that over 30,000 documents that are mainly made up of reports about the assassination from the investigation done by the FBI and CIA to shed some light on the potential connection Lee Harvey Oswald had with the former USSR or the Republic of Cuba.
1. A man with an “Umbrella”
After the assassination, Dallas police seized the film of a certain Abraham Zapruder, who was in the crowd and surprised by the event. His images reveal the presence of a man with an umbrella that opens and closes as the presidential car passes.
But it was sunny in Dallas that day. It was enough to feed the fantasies. For some, it is a signal sent to the shooter; for others, the umbrella is a weapon that shoots arrows. This man with the umbrella was found and explained his gesture. He wanted to protest Joseph Kennedy’s overly friendly policy toward Nazi Germany when he was US ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1938 and 1939. The black umbrella was a reference to British Prime Minister Arthur Neville Chamberlain.
2. Fidel Castro
According to historian André Kaspi, the CIA informally attempted eight times in a row between 1960 and 1965 to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro. And the Cuban leader would have used Oswald to take revenge. But Vincent Quivy says that this theory does not hold well either because at that time, Cuba had difficulties in organizing such a plan and it was not in his interest. Despite the tense climate between the two countries, Castro knew Kennedy was more diplomatic than his possible successor, Lyndon Johnson.
3. Right Extremists
JFK was campaigning for re-election, but Texas was hostile to him: the far right was very virulent against him, says historian André Kaspi. She was annoyed that the president had condemned segregation and that her brother, Robert, had supported civil rights movements. A Dallas resident even reportedly wrote to the White House spokesman to discourage the president from coming to town. The day before the assassination, leaflets hostile to JFK were circulated in Dallas. But Vincent Quivy, the author of “Who Killed John Kennedy?”, Says the local far-right was not prepared enough to implement such a plan, and Oswald would never have been involved.
4. The Chicago Mafia
John and Rober’s father makes the connection between the mafia and the Kennedy family. Joseph Kennedy was allegedly in a relationship with Sam Giancana, the godfather of the underworld in Chicago, during the ban. Sam Giancana was then one of the donors in JFK’s first presidential campaign in 1960. But after JFK’s installation in the White House in 1961, relations between the two sides became complicated.
The underworld accuses the president of not trying everything to eliminate Fidel Castro. Before the Castro Revolution, Cuba was an important center for mafia activities. With the coming to power of the communists, he lost millions of dollars. But despite the war against the mafia, the mysterious death of Robert Kennedy in 1968 and statements by underworld leaders that he sponsored the president’s assassination, “investigations have shown that there is no credible evidence” to support this theory, according to Vincent Quivy.
5. FBI and CIA
There are proponents of the theory that the CIA could have assassinated JFK because the agency wanted to assassinate Fidel Castro, and Kennedy would have opposed it. Moreover, some say that the CIA and the FBI would have gone hand in hand because the Federal Bureau should have watched Oswald, who had returned from the USSR a few months ago and wanted to go to Cuba. In addition, the FBI, which knew the president would be in Dallas, was supposed to have an agent to oversee Oswald, but he did nothing even though the presidential convoy was passing his workplace, from where he fired the three shots.
6. USSR (Russia)
I believe that most Americans would have thought at the time (due to all of this happening in the middle of the Cold War) that the Soviet Union ordered this assassination. It is imperative to mention that Oswald lived in Belarus in the 1950s, which makes it quite plausible that the Soviet Union ordered the assassination. However, many historians (taking into consideration western historians too) do admit of Russia being more diplomatic and not lowering themselves to such actions. Whilst the tensions were very high, the Soviets had enough problems to deal with on their side of the planet.
7. Lyndon Johnson
As in any assassination, it remains to be seen who would have benefited from it, Vincent Quivy points out. The person who had the most to gain would have been Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who became president. There have been rumors that Oswald was being used to eliminate his competitor with the help of the FBI and the CIA. Vincent Quivy notes that Johnson did not have enough influence to lure the FBI and CIA to his side, and the FBI and CIA did remain loyal to the United States.
I welcome you to leave a comment about other plausible theories or conspiracies about this event. I know that there are many others out there, but in my eyes, these seem the most plausible.
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