November 22 1963

[Briar Lee]

1963 was the first year Kindergarten was offered at Humansville and my mother had to drive me in to school of morning and at noon my father was there to pick me up in his brand new 1963 green Ford F-100.

That Friday sixty years ago, Daddy drove five miles to our home near Bug Tussle and started frying bologna for our sandwiches for dinner.

A table radio played solid gold 1963 country hits from KWTO in the kitchen. Earnest Ashworth and us were singing Talk Back Trembling Lips when the Dee Jay stopped the songs and reported:

President John F. Kennedy was shot and wounded today in a parade in Dallas Texas.

My father looked at me, with a sadness I’d never seen.

I let Daddy finish up the bologna and I ran to the television in the living room, and turned it on, where the Man on the Street program was on, and he brought our sandwiches in the living room and we watched the world we all knew, changed forever.

The assassination of John Kennedy is the most documented and recorded and researched murder in the history of Western Civilization.

Two out of three Americans believe in some kind of conspiracy about the event.

Decades Later, Most Americans Doubt Lone Gunman Killed JFK

On the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination, about two-thirds of Americans think there was more than one person involved in the murder, but there is little consensus about who that was.

news.gallup.com

I was 5 1/2 and remember it as vividly as if it was a year ago instead of sixty.

The Secret Service dropped the ball.

They’d never allow a president to ride that route today and should not have, then.

Any lingering doubts I ever had about a conspiracy instead of Oswald acting alone were put to rest by this book, and I’ve read over a dozen on the subject.




Oswald stored his rifle in Mrs Paine’s garage and caught a ride on Thursday to fetch it.

For $5 used it’s the best book ever written about the assassination.

By the way, Ruth Paine is still alive, age 91.

Ruth Paine - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Briar Lee]

It’s impossible to prove a negative.

The Russians, the Cubans, the Mafia, the CIA, or Lyndon Johnson could theoretically have involved Lee Harvey Oswald using a $20 mail order Carcano he bought from Klein’s and put another shooter on the grassy knoll.

Then “they” could have dispatched Jack Ruby who was wiring a stripper in one of his clubs $5 and looked down the street and saw a commotion at the Dallas police station and left his dog in his car and walked down and into the garage and shot Oswald who would have been gone, had he not retrieved a sweater.

People not born in 1963 have been making a living peddling conspiracy theories about JFK in Dallas all their lives.

But if the Secret Service had not allowed the President to be a perfect target in a $200,000 armored presidential convertible in a parade through high rise office and factory buildings Oswald would have taken his rifle back to Mrs. Paine’s garage that Friday evening. The bubble top left at Love Field wasn’t bullet proof but Oswald wouldn’t know that. It could have deflected a shot. He likely would not have made the attempt.

Had JFK lived then Johnson would not have been in charge to request the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. There might not have been a Vietnam War.

And if no Vietnam War, perhaps no Nixon.

And if no Nixon no Kissinger.

And if no Kissinger perhaps no 1973 Oil Crisis caused by the Yom Kipper War.

The Secret Service has had a perfect record since 1963 except for Reagan being wounded in 1981, not killed.

But this country has been more willing to believe the unthinkable, that our own government conspired or covered up the murder of a sitting President, because the Secret Service failed in their prime mission sixty years ago today, in Dallas.

 

[K.E. Powell]

I recall reading Robert Dalek's biography on Kennedy, where he raises the same issue you do, Briar: that an entire generation just cannot accept the fact that a single man with a rifle could kill the president and change the course of history without some sort of help or outside influence.

This, to me at least, strikes me as quaint. For my generation, the idea that an angry young man could remorselessly kill innocents or even powerful politicians is just a matter of fact. I was only somewhat older than you when the Columbine massacre happened. I understand those two events are hardly perfectly analogous, but for my generation and this new one coming in, Columbine-style massacres are routine.* If anything, I'm surprised another president has yet to be assassinated since Kennedy, given the volatile rhetoric online, increased isolation and mistrust in our populace, and fairly easy access to firearms.

*to be clear, I'm not trying to derail the thread and invite a discussion on guns or school shootings. my point is about the difference in two generation's conception of what is possible.

 

[Briar Lee]

I recall reading Robert Dalek's biography on Kennedy, where he raises the same issue you do, Briar: that an entire generation just cannot accept the fact that a single man with a rifle could kill the president and change the course of history without some sort of help or outside influence.

This, to me at least, strikes me as quaint. For my generation, the idea that an angry young man could remorselessly kill innocents or even powerful politicians is just a matter of fact. I was only somewhat older than you when the Columbine massacre happened. I understand those two events are hardly perfectly analogous, but for my generation and this new one coming in, Columbine-style massacres are routine.* If anything, I'm surprised another president has yet to be assassinated since Kennedy, given the volatile rhetoric online, increased isolation and mistrust in our populace, and fairly easy access to firearms.

*to be clear, I'm not trying to derail the thread and invite a discussion on guns or school shootings. my point is about the difference in two generation's conception of what is possible.

My parents were Republicans in 1963. I’m positive they voted for Nixon in 1960.

But good Lord, almighty the Kennedy years were indeed Camelot.

He was as handsome as a prince, and Jackie as beautiful as any princesses.

He could and did, speak with the tongues of men and angels. There were little children crawling under his desk. Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday Mr President. We ate all that up with a spoon!

Then a loser who earned $1.25 an hour working in a school book depository read in the newspaper that they’d go past his work place.

He had a rifle in Irving where his wife and children stayed with a woman who collected Russian emigres.

He asked a 19 year old kid for a ride.

Then he asked Marina to come live with him in Dallas, but she declined because she liked Mrs Paine’s washing machine.

For want of a washing machine, did Camelot fall?

Yes.

But it’s so hard to admit it.

 

[Piping Abe]

 

[K.E. Powell]

My parents were Republicans in 1963. I’m positive they voted for Nixon in 1960.

But good Lord, almighty the Kennedy years were indeed Camelot.

He was as handsome as a prince, and Jackie as beautiful as any princesses.

He could and did, speak with the tongues of men and angels. There were little children crawling under his desk. Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday Mr President. We ate all that up with a spoon!

Then a loser who earned $1.25 an hour working in a school book depository read in the newspaper that they’d go past his work place.

He had a rifle in Irving where his wife and children stayed with a woman who collected Russian emigres.

He asked a 19 year old kid for a ride.

Then he asked Marina to come live with him in Dallas, but she declined because she liked Mrs Paine’s washing machine.

For want of a washing machine, did Camelot fall?

Yes.

But it’s so hard to admit it.

Not being of that generation, the veneration of JFK--especially the comparisons of him and his family to royalty--has always struck me as odd. I understand he was very charismatic and that his untimely demise made him something of a martyr for an entire generation, so I guess I shouldn't say that his hallowed place in history is entirely not understood by me.

In WV, he remains a lauded figure, largely because he campaigned heavily here during his party's primary; it was the first and last time my state actually mattered in presidential politics, and to this day, my alma mater holds a small place of honor commemorating the time he came to speak on campus.

I'll save my personal opinion on the man and his administration, but I will say I think once the generation that was around during 1963 passes on, a more sober and impartial look into his administration will begin to prevail as the more misty-eyed histories fade into obscurity.

As it happens, I do have one personal anecdote about the allure of Camelot, one I think you may appreciate, Briar. My grandmother was never a political creature, but she understood I was and would occasionally humor my unsolicited digressions when the conversation turned to current events. Particularly, she liked to tell of the only instance in her life she felt compelled to vote, and that was to vote for JFK in 1960. Her husband forbade her, however, because he was a lifelong Republican.

Gender roles being what they were back then, to say nothing of my grandmother's apathy towards politics generally, ensured she would live her entire life without casting a single ballot. When I asked her why she felt so compelled to vote for Kennedy, she replied, "Well, I thought he was handsome." The idea that my grandma wanted to vote for someone just because he was *ahem* "handsome," had me rolling. As a gag gift, I bought her a replica copy of Kennedy's 1960 campaign poster, so that she could, "Always look upon John whenever she desired." She found this hilarious.

When she died, the poster found itself back in my possession, and it remains on the wall of my library despite my ambivalence towards JFK. I guess there may be something to allure of Camelot after all.

 

[Briar Lee]

In terms of dreary black and white letter legislation JFK still today is the one and only time a President ever proposed a tax cut that actually raised revenue.

But it lowered the top rate from 91% to 70% for personal and from 52% to 47% for corporate and would not have passed had he not became a martyr. Can we imagine those rates today?

Other than that the Bay of Pigs was a failure and we almost all died but didn’t during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

He went to Texas because he was afraid he might lose the state in 1964.

But oh my God, they photographed well.

Camelot wasn’t about his Presidency at all.

It was about all of us as a nation, when men still wore hats and The Beach Boys were rock and roll and nobody had shot the President in Dallas, yet.

 

[jpberg]

. There were little children crawling under his desk.

To be fair, Bill had youngsters doing the same.

 

[bullet08]

Back in NYC in 80s, we knew who had gun in their book bags in school. But nobody rat on another. Rules and measures. Everyone had knives, hatchet or something. I usually carried chef's knife. But we also knew that no one's crazy enough to go spreading bullets all over the place. But things are different now. I can understand why people back then found assassination of JFK so alarming.

But what's more alarming is, how did everyone hide so much defects in JFK from public.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

The 1992 Kennedy Records Assassination Act mandated the release of all records related to the JFK assassination by 2017. They still haven't all been released, the reason given?

National security.

I think we all know exactly what that means.

 

[Briar Lee]

To be fair, Bill had youngsters doing the same.

As I said at the time, it was a long downhill slide from Marylin to Monica.

 

[huntertrw]

On September 10. 2001 I was in Dallas, Texas participating in a national sales meeting of a major pharmaceutical company. That night a group of us went out to dinner together, then walked over to Dealy Plaza, the site of the Kennedy assassination. To be honest, being in that place that night made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, for the world did, indeed, change on the day he died.

It changed again the following day, September 11, 2001.

Memento semper!

 

[Briar Lee]

The 1992 Kennedy Records Assassination Act mandated the release of all records related to the JFK assassination by 2017. They still haven't all been released, the reason given?

National security.

I think we all know exactly what that means.

The government hasn’t fully released records from Pearl Harbor and might not ever.

But as to JFK records, one of the Secret Service agents at least, Hosty, is still living.

Mrs Paine, Marina Oswald, and Westley Frazier (who drove Oswald to Irving and back) are all still alive.

There are no doubt foreign agents and assets we had that either they or the agents they recruited might be compromised.

Castro’s brother Raoul is still alive.

All the hard evidence, every trace of it, tells a tale of Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and firing three shots from the sixth floor of where he worked.

And while Ruby did look mobbed up, every person who knew him (many of the girls are still living) testified he was an insecure middle aged huckster who ran strip joints and treated his girls well, and was a police gadfly who hung around the local cops. He carried a revolver and by coincidence was down the street when Oswald was moved. He knew exactly where to go and his timing was beyond planning. Oswald had returned to hos cell for a sweater or he’d have been gone.

There can be no doubt Oswald attempted to murder Gen Edwin Walker with his Carcano on April 10, 1963. Oswald his his rifle in some bushes and days later came back and retrieved it.

Edwin Walker - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Had Walker not been such a conspiracy monger the Dallas police had not assumed he’d staged it, and investigated, then the Carcano would have been found, and Oswald would have been arrested.

So many lost chances, to prevent the fatal day of November 22, 1963.

There are mysteries that won’t be easily solved.

Did the first or second shot miss?

Where did Oswald sight in his rifle?

Why did he shoot Kennedy?

Did he want infamy like a school shooter does today, or a change in power?


My opinions:

1. The first shot hit the stop light bar, and deflected. Two and Three hit the President. Two wound up intact and one and three shattered.

2. Klein’s did an excellent job of bore sighting in the cheap scopes. The longest shot , the third, was about 90 yards. Or maybe Frazier drove Oswald to the range. The Carcano was the worst modern battle rifle ever issued. It was good enough for Oswald to do the job.

3. He wanted infamy. He almost killed Walker in April and they’d have caught him, the same way they traced his rifle to Klein’s on the afternoon of November 22.

The little weasel of a man is forever the Man Who Killed A President.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

The government hasn’t fully released records from Pearl Harbor and might not ever.

Congress didn't sign into law a requirement that all Pearl Harbor records be released to the public. The DID sign into law that all Kennedy assassination records be released.

They haven't been released, the excuse has repeatedly been "national security".

Do the math.

 

[Briar Lee]

Congress didn't sign into law a requirement that all Pearl Harbor records be released to the public. The DID sign into law that all Kennedy assassination records be released.

They haven't been released, the excuse has repeatedly been "national security".

Do the math.

I trust Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden about national security.

Almost but not all the JFK files are public.

There are old men still alive, that might be killed, jailed, or embarrassed over something they told our government sixty years ago. There are younger men that may have been recruited by old, or dead men.

The great danger of the JFK assassination was if Oswald had been a Russian or Cuban agent. It might have ignited WW3.

How our government determined Oswald was a lone misfit might be something the nation is better off keeping sealed, perhaps forever.