JFK Assassination

JFK Assassination

On 21^st November 1963, President John F Kennedy, together with his wife Jackie Kennedy, embarked on a two-day five-city fundraising tour to the state of Texas.  The tour was also supposed to be an attempt to unite a broken Democratic Party within a state that was critical to JFK’s reelection chances in the upcoming 1964 elections. The President was thus warmly received at his initial two stops, Houston and San-Antonio, as well as Fort Worth, where the Presidential delegation spent the night of 21^st November.

The following day in the morning, after making a speech in the hotel’s parking space, Kennedy took a brief flight to the Dallas Love Field Airport. At the Dallas Airport, JFK and the Jackie shook hands with some of the members of the hospitable crowd before taking the seat at a  customized open convertible vehicle. They shared a ride with the Democratic Texas governor at the time John Connally together with his wife to the Trade Mart, which was the next scheduled stop. At the Trade Mart, Kennedy was expected to deliver yet another speech (Parmet, 1983). Almost Three hundred thousand people lined up along the almost ten-mile route to on the way to the Trade Mart. As the entourage turned on the way to the southwest at Elms Street, it started traveling through the Dealey Plaza near downtown Dallas. Kennedy’s car went by the multistory Texas School Book Depository sight. A few minutes later, at almost 12.30 PM, the peace was interrupted by shots ringing out. A round punctured the base of JFK’s neck and exited through his throat and then went through Gov Connally’s wrist and shoulder in the process, hitting the governor’s thigh. One other bullet ended up striking Kennedy at the rear of his head (Bugliosi, 2007). The entourage then turned to go towards Parkland Dallas Memorial Hospital. Even though the car arrived quickly, the Physicians’ efforts were not fruitful. JFK was eventually announced dead by 1.00 AM while the governor survived.

Over the hour that followed, as a shocked country learned of the President’s demise, the events of the shooter’s pursuit and eventual capture of his believed assailant unraveled.  There were bullet shells near a window of the Texas School Book Depository building that overlooked the plaza. Elsewhere on the sixth-floor rooms, a rifle was discovered (Sabato, 2013). The shooter had been working on the building’s sixth floor almost half an hour prior to the event. He had been seen in the building by its policeman and superintendent just moments before the shooting.

Meanwhile, Oswald slowly made his way towards the boardinghouse where he had been residing.  A quarter of an hour after exiting the house, Oswald ran into a Dallas policeman known as J.D. Tippit, who was believed to have been sure that Oswald fit the description (Sabato, 2013). However, Tippit was fatally shot with a 38 revolver in the presence of several witnesses. He was later spotted making his way into the Texas Theatre.

As the events slowly unfolded, the VP Johnson, fearing that the President’s assassination was simply an initial step by the USSR to destabilize the U.S. government, sought to swiftly transition into a full executive authority and seek a safe place by getting out of Dallas. Johnson took the oath of office with Kennedy’s body aboard Air Force One (Sabato, 2013). Jackie Kennedy stood at his side while still putting on a blood-spattered coat. Oswald had been apprehended by the police but denied knowing anything about the shooting.  He was later moved from the Dallas City Hall to the county jail on 24^th November. However, before getting to the county jail, Jack Ruby, a well-known Dallas club owner, went into the basement parking garage and shot Oswald as the Cameras rolled.

How the Kennedy Assassination changed America

Kennedy’s assassination significantly changed American politics. It made partisan politics on the press and the people to be more profound, and the effects have continued to reverberate even currently. Unlike Roosevelt and Lincoln, who were removed from the stage just as they finished historical changes, JFK was killed when he and his wife were in the middle of doing things (Sabato, 2013). The tax cuts that he had proposed in 1963 February, as well as the civil rights bill that had been endorsed that year, had for long faced delays in Congress. However, all of them were well on their way to completion when he was assassinated.

Kennedy’s assassination spawned conspiracy theories which have thrived to date, although the commission which was appointed by the new President Johnson and headed by Earl Warren named Oswald as the only person responsible for the assassination. However, it was interesting to note that the American public accepted that the Cuban and Soviet governments were not responsible for the murder. That meant that instead of turning against the communists, most Americans opted to turn against America. The shift had a transformative effect on American political life (Sabato, 2013). The democrats at the time firmly believed that it was a plot by the Republican right-wing to get rid of JFK owing to the reforms that he instituted on the American political and social scene. All attempts to render previously classified material open to the public were rejected in the belief that doing so will cool down the conspiracy theories that were swirling around. However, it appeared not to work as the theories have continued to spread.