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Thread: The Assassination of JFK
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11-06-2013 #1
The Assassination of JFK
Do you buy the lone gunman theory or did it run much deeper????????
Oliver Stone on 50th Anniversary of JFK Assassination & the Untold History of the United States
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11-06-2013 #2
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Re: 50th Anniversary of JFK Assassination...
Ben it might be better to re-do this as a poll in General Discussion...I will think of something if you don't.
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11-06-2013 #3
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The Assassination of JFK
*My apologies, following Ben's thread on this in Politics & Religion I intended to create a poll but hit the wrong button first.
The poll would ask people who they think was responsible for the assassination and include:
1. Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone
2. Lee Harvey Oswald, acting in a conspiracy with others (see below)
3. The USSR
4. The Cubans
5. Anti-Castro-Cubans
6. The Mafia
7. LBJ/J Edgar Hoover/Secret State
8. Israel
There are probably others, or variations of these.
The Assassination of John F Kennedy 50 years this month will undoubtedly produce a lot of coverage, but I doubt it will deliver a final verdict on who was responsible for it.
Some of us on HA (more than might be thought) were alive at the time -I was in a classroom and was told about the killing by my sister during the lunch break- but it doesn't mean that I or we have any special insight into the event and who did it.
I am opposed to the conspiracy theories mostly because they deal with the cause rather than the consequence -as far as I can see, nobody benefited from the assassination, it was a desperate act by a man desperate to be taken seriously. That Oswald did what many others might have liked is irrelevant, many individuals and groups at any time would like to see their head of state -or some other head of state- obliterated, for whatever reason. It is also odd that however many people are involved in a conspiracy, none of them ever come forward to 'confess' -and make money from a book, a film, and so on.
A few thoughts.
The Russians? No -Khrushchev was already in trouble over the Missile Crisis and agricultural reform at home and was deposed less than a year after the assassination -the USSR had other and more effective ways of disrupting politics in the USA.
The Mafia? No -JFK's assassination boosted the Presidential prospects of Bobby who was more likely to deal with organised crime than his brother.
LBJ/Hoover/Secret State? Why? Kennedy was not a threat to their interests, he took the military-industrial-complex to new levels with both the Vietnam War and the development of NASA into one of the leading technology institutes in the world, one which has had a profound impact on both industry and the military.
Kennedy may have been loathed at the time because of his Irish and Roman Catholic background, and Texan schoolchildren did burst into cheering and applause when told he had been killed, but he was an establishment figure and in office a moderate policy maker -and the dividing line that has split the USA since the 1960s on issues such as Civil Rights and welfare, is the legacy of Johnson and Nixon.
Oswald did it, he was a crack shot; he shot Kennedy and then shot a policeman dead. If he didn't kill Kennedy, why did he kill Officer Tippit? He became what he always wanted to be: somebody. Pity he couldn't think of a better way to achieve it.
Last edited by Stavros; 11-06-2013 at 02:07 PM.
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11-06-2013 #4
Re: The Assassination of JFK
I find myself 100 per cent in agreement with Stavros on this.
I was a kid and heard it when the BBC interrupted The Archers (long running british radio soap) to make the announcement.
I also found the Oliver Stone movie utterly deplorable - because it blurred fact and fiction. A lot of conspiracy theories exist and it is perfectly fine (indeed necessary) in my view, to explore them - to produce documentaries certainly or acceptable to produce fiction in the shape of films or books (which clearly present them as fiction). But Stone's film blurred all the edges to present something which rather purported to be factual when it was, in realty, one of the many plural conspiracy theories.
It seems no major event does not spawn a vast wave of conspiracy theories in its wake.
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11-06-2013 #5
Re: The Assassination of JFK
'The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy' (it was revoiced for UK broadcast) convinced me that Oswald did it. A recording from an open mic on a police motorcycle on which the shots could be heard revealed a longer time between first and last shot. In the documentary, an elderly FBI investigator who was on the original case acknowledged that even he, at his age, could get the shots off in the time allowed.
I also liked the way the so-called "magic bullet" theory was discredited. Governor Connolly and his wife were seated in the limo's jump seats, removeable seats that sat lower and more inboard than the main rear seats. Position the Connollys properly, ie. not directly in front of and level with the Kennedys and suddenly the magic bullet's route isn't so magic after all.
So I agree with Stav that Oswald did it. Why, we may never know as he was a somewhat confused character. Do I think the conspiracy theorists will ever give up? Of course not. They're nut jobs ...
IMDB link: Peter Jennings Reporting: The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy (TV Movie 2003) - IMDb
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11-06-2013 #6
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Re: The Assassination of JFK
1. Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone. CHECK.
For all the reasons given by Stavros (and Shelf) above. (Also I always wait to see what Prospero's going to do and then copy him).
1 out of 1 members liked this post."...I no longer believe that people's secrets are defined and communicable, or their feelings full-blown and easy to recognize."_Alice Munro, Chaddeleys and Flemings.
"...the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way". _Judge Holden, Cormac McCarthy's, BLOOD MERIDIAN.
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11-06-2013 #7
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Re: The Assassination of JFK
Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone.
Yep, nothing more or nothing less.
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11-06-2013 #8
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11-06-2013 #9
Re: The Assassination of JFK
Nah - not for me but I can't be arsed arguing or discussing it with you lot.
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11-06-2013 #10
Re: The Assassination of JFK
LOL at Seanchai and at Trish.
Actually I did it... I confess. I also killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Gavrilov Princip was framed!
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