JFK Files Released: Experts Divided on New Revelations
The release of thousands of classified government files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, ordered by President Donald Trump, has ignited fresh debate among experts, with contrasting interpretations emerging from the newly unredacted material. While some believe the documents largely reinforce the established narrative of Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone, others argue that they reveal a more complex picture, potentially implicating the CIA in a degree of foreknowledge or even complicity.
The National Archives and Records Administration began releasing the massive trove of approximately 77,000 pages of documents on Tuesday night, triggering a flurry of analysis and speculation among researchers and conspiracy theorists alike. The goal is to sift through the vast quantity of information, comparing notes and attempting to glean new insights into one of the most enduring and perplexing mysteries in modern American history. The central question remains: Did Oswald act alone in assassinating JFK during a tumultuous Cold War era, a period marked by intense fear and the near-miss of a U.S.-Soviet nuclear war following the Cuban Missile Crisis?
The initial consensus, echoed by some prominent JFK assassination experts, suggests that the newly released files offer little to fundamentally challenge the official findings that Oswald, a disgruntled former Marine and Soviet defector, was the sole perpetrator of the assassination on November 22, 1963. Oswald was apprehended that day but tragically killed just two days later, while in police custody, by Jack Ruby, a strip club owner with ties to organized crime.
Two high-level investigations concluded that Oswald fired three shots from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository using an Italian Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5-millimeter rifle. One shot missed, another passed through Kennedy and then-Texas Governor John Connally, who survived the attack, and the third shot fatally struck Kennedy in the head.
The Warren Commission, established to investigate the assassination, concluded that both Oswald and Ruby acted independently. However, the later House Select Committee on Assassinations offered a more nuanced view, maintaining that another unknown individual may have fired at Kennedy, suggesting a "probable" conspiracy. Despite this possibility, the committee also stated that the Secret Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Central Intelligence Agency were not directly involved in the assassination.
Philip Shenon, author of "A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination," cautions against hasty conclusions, emphasizing the sheer volume of material that requires careful examination. He states that it could take days, weeks, or even months to fully understand the implications of the files. "But from first glance," he said, "there don’t seem to be any bombshells, nothing that fundamentally rewrites the history of the assassination in any way – nothing that points away from Oswald as the only gunman in Dallas."
Nevertheless, Shenon acknowledges that the released material offers a rich new perspective on the CIA’s sources and methods during the Cold War, information the agency has fiercely guarded since the assassination. President Trump ordered the release of this information, citing the importance of transparency.
However, not all experts share this perspective. Jefferson Morley, a seasoned JFK files expert and author of several books on Kennedy and the CIA, believes that the new documents represent "a breakthrough" in the public’s understanding of the assassination. He raises serious questions about the CIA’s actions, suggesting that the agency was either "atrociously incompetent" or "legally complicit" in the events leading to Kennedy’s death. He believes the files enable a verdict of complicity.
Morley specifically points to the new information concerning the CIA’s surveillance of Oswald in Mexico City and New Orleans in the months leading up to the assassination. He argues that the CIA likely possessed enough information about Oswald’s propensity for political violence that it should have alerted the FBI and other relevant agencies, potentially preventing the assassination.
“What were learning about the surveillance of Oswald is now much deeper and much more troubling than it was a week ago,” says Morley, who also publishes the JFK Facts newsletter.
Rumors of CIA involvement in Kennedy’s assassination have persisted for decades, fueled by speculation about the agency’s alleged anger over his foreign policy decisions, including his perceived lack of support for the Bay of Pigs invasion. The CIA has consistently denied any involvement in the assassination, and previous investigations have found no evidence to support such claims.
However, Morley contends that some of the recently unredacted files shed a troubling light on Oswald’s meetings in Mexico City, where he reportedly met with Cuban and Soviet spies, including a Soviet assassination expert, while under CIA surveillance.
"They were not incompetent when they were doing this. That’s what the new record shows us," Morley stated. "They were running operations involving Oswald that resulted in the death of the President, and they hid it." When asked if he was sure he wanted to make such a politically explosive comment, Morley responded, "Yes. And I’m saying it for the record."
The newly released files include hundreds of CIA records, as well as White House and National Security Council documents related to covert operations abroad, particularly in Latin American nations such as Cuba and Mexico, which have long been central to theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination.
The National Security Archive at George Washington University notes that "For the first time, these records on CIA covert operations are being released uncensored."
One of the more notable revelations from the release is the fully unredacted version of a "Top Secret" June 1961 memorandum sent to Kennedy by White House aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. The memorandum revealed that at the time of Kennedy’s inauguration in January 1961, "47 percent of the political officers serving in United States embassies were CAS," meaning intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover as Controlled American Sources.
The U.S. Embassy in Paris, for instance, had 123 "diplomats" who were actually CIA undercover officers, and 11 of the 13 embassy "political officers" in Chile were undercover CIA as well, according to Schlesinger’s memo. He argued that the CIA was undermining Kennedy’s diplomats, thereby undermining his foreign policy agenda.
The National Security Archive also highlighted a key document describing "examples of activities exceeding the CIA’s charter." This included a CIA counterespionage operation against the French embassy in Washington, D.C., involving "breaking and entering and the removal of documents from the French consulate." Additionally, then-CIA chief John McCone’s dealings with the Vatican, including interactions with Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI, "could and would raise eyebrows in some quarters."
Furthermore, summaries of briefings by McCone to members of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which provide more details about known CIA political action programs and previously unknown details about "the Agency’s covert financial support to political parties in the fight against communism" around the world, were also released in full.
The release also included a CIA Inspector General’s report on the 1961 assassination of Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, revealing the names of CIA officers and others who assisted in the plot.
The release of the JFK files has opened a new chapter in the ongoing debate surrounding the assassination, providing researchers and the public with a wealth of new information to analyze and interpret. While some experts remain unconvinced that the documents offer any significant departure from the established narrative, others believe that they raise serious questions about the CIA’s role and potential culpability in the events leading to Kennedy’s death. The coming weeks and months will likely see further scrutiny and analysis of these files, as researchers continue to piece together the complex puzzle surrounding one of the most pivotal events in American history.
