By Christine Tran
Staff Writer
Following former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 was sorrow, confusion, and a rise of new conspiracy theories that have yet to be answered. Until this year, with the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 having expired in October, the remaining documents pertaining to the JFK assassination will be released to the public.
According to Archives.gov, the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 was an act passed that “mandated all assassination-related material be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).”. Additionally, all files must be released after 25 years have passed.
The Washington Post writes that 88% of the JFK assassination collection has been open to the public since the late 1990s and more of the collection was released on July 24, October 26, and Nov 3, 2017. The latest release comprises of 676 records from the CIA, the Defense and Justice departments, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and the National Archives.
With over 6,000 new documents released, some highlights include the FBI receiving a death threat on Oswald the day before he was murdered. FBI had also been closely moderating Lee Harvey Oswald and his visits to Mexico City to meet with Soviet and Cuban embassies weeks before JFK was assassinated. These revelations led to many people wondering why nothing was done to prevent either assassination if FBI was moderating both situations.
Amongst the new documents released, the FBI revealed their plans and opinions against leaders around the world. A 1975 document detailed the CIA’s plans to assassinate Fidel Castro in the early days of the Kennedy administration. As well as a FBI document about civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, where they accused him of having illicit affairs and labeled him as a communist three weeks before his assassination.
The public opinion about the release of the file varies as some people were displeased with the release of the files, citing national security concerns. On the other hand, many were excited, as #JFKFiles was trending on twitter the first day of the new documents being released.
Concerning the conspiracy theories that arose around JFK’s assassination, PBS.org states, “The release of thousands of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy hasn’t settled the best-known, real-life whodunit in American history.” This is because while the records do offer new enlightening details, there are documents that the CIA and FBI are still trying to keep a secret.
Due to the pressure from the CIA, President Donald Trump has delayed the full release date of JFK files to April 2018, allowing more time for the CIA to finish reviewing and redacting certain information from the documents.
“The Kennedy records really are an emblem of the fight of secrecy against transparency,” said Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the private National Security Archive research group in Washington. “The ‘secureaucrats’ managed to withhold key documents and keep this long saga of secrecy going.”
