On the 60th anniversary of the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, the U.S. government has initiated the release of many documents relating to the controversial incident, which continues to inspire conspiracy theories. In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring all unedited files regarding the case to be disclosed to the public. Despite speculations, historians do not anticipate ground-breaking revelations in these records. Trump estimates that around 80,000 pages of documents will be unsealed. In the past, U.S. authorities have already made public hundreds of thousands of JFK documents, but delayed others, citing concerns about national security. Additionally, many Americans still believe that Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who is said to have carried out the assassination, did not act alone.
Kennedy was shot during a visit to Dallas, Texas, in November 1963. It is still uncertain how much of the released documents from the National Archives and Records Administration contain previously undisclosed information. Typically, the documents were previously made public in a partially redacted form. Trump has stated that he does not believe anything will be withheld from the public. However, according to U.S. media, some files unsealed on Tuesday night bore blacked-out passages, and others were difficult to read due to faded or poorly copied images. The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and self-professed Marxist who had defected to the Soviet Union and returned to the U.S., was responsible for the assassination. However, opinion polls over the years indicate that most Americans do not believe that Oswald acted alone.
There have been numerous unanswered questions surrounding the case, leading to theories about the involvement of government agents, the Mafia, and various other individuals. In 1992, Congress passed a law to release all documents related to the investigation within 25 years. Both Trump during his first term and President Joe Biden released numerous JFK-related documents, but thousands remained partially or fully secret. The executive order issued two months ago by Trump also requested the release of files connected to the assassinations of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., both of whom were killed in 1968. Trump had pledged to release these JFK files during the last White House race shortly after receiving the endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., JFK’s nephew and son of Robert Kennedy. Kennedy Jr. is now serving as Trump’s health secretary.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv4p3pv3elo
