FREE ESSAY ON THE LOSS OF A PRESIDENT

THE LOSS OF A PRESIDENT

November 22, 1963: The Loss of A President
On November 22, 1963 at 12:30 P.M., the 35th President of the United States,
John F. Kennedy, was shot and killed while riding through the streets of Dallas, Texas
in
an open limousine with wife Jackie Kennedy, and Governor John Connally. This single
event in history has created more controversy than any other. Still today, more than 27
years after the shooting, there is still speculation as to who killed John F. Kennedy. 
Today, so many possible theories remain, it is hard to determine what actually happened.

Today many people believe that it was Lee Harvey Oswald that killed JFK. They believe
that he was just a "lone nut" acting out of his own feelings, and he was not influenced
by
anyone else. Many others believe there was a conspiracy set up by the CIA to kill
President Kennedy, and others believe that it was Communist Russians. In my paper I will
try to explain some of the theories as clear as possible, and let you decide for
yourself
what you believe happened November 22, 1963.
If Lee Harvey Oswald was not the assassin as thought, who else would possibly
want the president dead?
The Mafia
Anti-Castro Cubans
The CIA
Communist Russians.
When John F. Kennedy became president, he had many great ambitions. He wanted to
pull more troops out of Vietnam and lessen the war effort, cut back on organized crime,
end the Cuban Missile Crisis, and limit the power of the CIA. With these ambitions it is
no surprise he made so many new enemies, some even being in the US government itself. 
Many of these new enemies he had found were very powerful, and would stop at nothing
to see his new ways come to an end, even if it meant killing him.
Shortly after the incident, the government founded the Warren Commission, and a
government investigation began on the assassination. The Warren Commission was a
group made of "outstanding citizens" to ascertain, evaluate and report upon the facts
relating to the assassination ... and the subsequent violent death of the man charged
with
the assassination Lee Harvey Oswald." The Commission was instructed by the
government to examine evidence brought forth to them by the FBI (Federal Bureau of
Investigation), or and any other organization or person. With the examination of the
evidence, the Commission was then to make a decision on exactly what occurred that day.
In under a week the Commission was able to come to the conclusion that Lee
Harvey Oswold was the lone assassin of the president. His actions were based on his
personal instincts, and he was not working in anyway for any person or organization,
whether it being a government agency or personnel. It was determined by the
Commission that Oswold fired three shots at President Kennedy from the 6th floor of the
Texas School Book Depository. The three shots were fired in a time period of 5.6
seconds, using a bolt-action 6.5 Italian Carbine rifle. The first shot Oswald fired was
the
"magic bullet." The bullet was fired from Oswald's gun downward at a 17 degree angle,
and hit Kennedy about halfway down his back. The bullet then moved upward where it
exits through Kennedy's throat, and then turns right and hits Connally behind his right
armpit. It then moves downward, breaking and fragmenting part of his fifth rib, and then
exits his chest from the right side. Then the bullet enters Connally's wrist and severs
the
Ulna nerve, exits his wrist and then gets lodged in Connally's thigh. All together the
"magic bullet" made 7 wounds on President Kennedy and Governor Connally. The
second shot fired missed Kennedy completely and hit an unsuspecting bystander, badly
wounding him in the cheek. The third shot taken hit Kennedy in the back of the head,
fatally wounding him.
Many people believe this theory to be true, but still others are skeptical, and for
good reason. On November 23, the paraffin test performed on Oswald came out negative
for his right cheek but positive for his hands. The results of this test show that it is
highly
unlikely that Oswald had recently fired a gun. Also, no one had seen Oswald on the 6th
floor of the Texas School Book Depository after 11:55 A.M. At roughly 12:31, 90
seconds after the shooting had taken place, Oswald was seen on the second floor of the
building. This means that in under 90 seconds, Oswald would have had to take the gun to
the opposite side of the 6th floor and hide it in a corner, and then run down four
stories
worth of steps to the second floor of the building, past Victoria Adams who was in the
stairwell at the time and did not see him. This is not only unlikely because of the
short
amount of time at which he would have had to do this, but just 90 seconds after the
shooting he was seen on the second floor of the building by Roy Truly and Police officer
M. L. Baker who said that when they approached him he appeared to be "calm and
collected."
Another possible killer of President John F. Kennedy is the CIA. The CIA and
JFK had been at war ever since the disaster at the Bay of Pigs Invasion. JFK did not
trust
or like the CIA, and had reportedly intended to dismantle it after the 1964 election. In
Vietnam, the CIA had constantly refused to follow specific instructions given to them by
him. They ignored President Kennedy's orders that they not perform missions that
required greater firepower than a handgun. It also ignored Kennedy when he demanded
that they stop working with the Mafia and other organized crime groups. Though their
acts of self-independence were nothing new, one of the CIA's greatest acts of
disobedience was when they supported a group responsible for murdering the dictator of
South Vietnam, Ngo Diem, directly against the expressed wishes of Kennedy. In hearing
of the news that the group had been supported by the CIA, Kennedy was outraged and
directly blamed the CIA for Diem's murder.
Another example of CIA disobedience other than its actions in Vietnam were its
actions taken in response to Cuba. In September of 1963, long after President Kennedy
had ordered that all attempts of the assassination of Fidel Castro be stopped, members
of
the CIA staff approved a plan to kill the Cuban dictator. The CIA also continued its
sabotage missions on Cuba without presidential authorization, long after Kennedy had
ordered them to stop. One man that had greatly linked the CIA with the assassination of
JFK was Atlee Phillips. He was the propaganda chief for the Bay of Pigs Invasion, which
was a big failure and embarrassment to the CIA, and three months before the
assassination
he had been seen with Oswald in New Orleans, Louisiana. A possibility is the CIA had
noticed the growing tension between President Kennedy and itself and predicted that
Kennedy may do something to drastically limit the power of the CIA. In order to prevent
Kennedy from doing this, the CIA had maybe seen it fit to do away with the current
President, him, and get a new one that was more supportive of the CIA and its actions
and
more lenient towards its decisions.
Another possibility is that anti-Castro Cubans were responsible for the
assassination of JFK. Anti-Castro Cubans had been furious with Kennedy over the failure
of the Bay of Pigs invasion. They believed that if not for him, the mission would have
been a success, and Castro would now longer be in power. At the time it was thought that
they had forgiven him because he ransomed 1,200 captured exile troops from Castro, but
it is still a strong possibility that some anti-Castro Cubans never forgave him for the
failure
at the Bay of Pigs. Another reason that many of the anti-Castro Cubans were angry with
Kennedy was for his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his shutting down of their
para-military training camps. Another reason that this is a good possibility is because
the
anti-Castro Cubans were exclusively under the control of the CIA, who may have either
influenced them to kill President Kennedy, or maybe supplied them with the weapons
and/or the cover-up needed for the assassination.
Another possible theory is that the Mafia was responsible for the assassination of
JFK. When Kennedy was elected President he vowed that he would crack down on
organized crime, and with his growing fight against it, it had created a big problem for
the
Mafia. His programs were aimed directly at the Mafia bosses, and it may have scared
them into taking drastic measures, such as killing him. It may seem unlikely that the
Mafia
was responsible for the assassination of JFK but they certainly had to motive and the
resources to do so.
With so many possible theories, one could get lost in all of the facts and
information presented on the incident and have no idea what to believe happened. There
are obviously many faults to the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was the killer, and it
may
seem improbable that some anti-Castro Cubans were mad enough at Kennedy to kill him,
but someone had to have killed him whether it being Russians, the Mafia, the CIA, Lee
Harvey Oswald, or anti-Castro Cubans. As of today the mystery is still not solved and
may go on unsolved forever, but through all of the hazy facts and information, one fact
still remains, on November 22, 1963, the 35th President of the United States, John F.
Kennedy, was shot and killed while riding through the streets of Dallas, Texas in an
open
limousine with wife Jackie Kennedy, and Governor John Connally.