50th Anniversary of Kennedy Assassination

The Dom

Just reading through much of the news articles commemorating today's 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination and find it amazing that after almost 50 years, people are still arguing about the single bullet theory and also if he had an overall positive impact on world politics.

Vietnam and the Cuban missile crisis seem to be the topics most discussed regarding his political decision making, the moon landing his most lauded but he also obviously played a large role in the civil rights movement and some feel that this was most likely the reason he was murdered above all else.

Really good article in The Guardian but it's far too long to post and so here's a short one from CNN instead:

Dallas Prepares for JFK Anniversary

Today marks the 50th year since the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas. Politicians, Kennedy friends and family members, as well as thousands of tourists will gather for a memorial ceremony at Dealey Plaza.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sKRIuwLUNE

To honor the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's death, President Obama and the first lady laid a wreath at his gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery, joined by former President and Mrs. Clinton.

Meanwhile in Dallas, curious tourists still come to the place where those fatal shots were fired half a century ago. For this city, tomorrow will be a delicate balancing act of honoring Kennedy's memory without sensationalizing his murder.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the late president's niece and Robert F. Kennedy's daughter, spoke about her uncle's legacy on "New Day" Thursday.

She said: "What President Kennedy gave us is his great sense of spirit... He challenged, it's the spirit of youth. To take challenges, to do things that were difficult. To raise us up as a people and as individuals. "

The new JFK monument will be unveiled in Dallas during Friday's ceremony and it is located in the ground on the infamous grassy knoll.

The inscription on the monument is the final paragraph of the speech JFK intended to deliver at the Dallas trade mart on November 22nd, 1963.

Have spent the last few hours watching Discovery documentaries and reading interviews regarding the assassination and I feel if anything, I am more unsure now about who did what to who and why, than before I started. Watched the following video also, where Oliver Stone gets interviewed by his son and in it they discuss the 50th anniversary and also the reaction that the film JFK received, and he for making it, over 22 years ago (mad to think it's been that long):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_ejzGPryL4

So, two questions:

Do you think Kennedy ultimately had a positive or negative effect on the world?
Who do you believe ordered the assassination and do you believe it was carried out by a lone gunman?

IvaBigWun

Discussion on this already on another thread.


See the last few posts here

Senna

I think Red Dwarf covered the Kennedy Assassination best.

shedweller

Didnt he change something around so the govt could issue dollars instead of the fed? How did that pan out?

The Dom

shedweller wrote: »

Didnt he change something around so the govt could issue dollars instead of the fed? How did that pan out?

Read the following on that last night:

Perhaps the wildest accusation against the Fed is that it was involved in Kennedy's assassination. This idea was promoted by a 1989 book Crossfire: The Conspiracy That Killed Kennedy, by a writer named Jim Marrs, who also has written about conspiracies involving Freemasons, psychics and extraterrestrials. Crossfire was an influence on Oliver Stone's film JFK.

The alleged Fed conspiracy has to do with Executive Order 11,110, which was signed by Kennedy on June 4, 1963. It delegates to the Treasury secretary the president's authority to issue silver certificates, paper dollars that were redeemable in silver coins or bullion. Marrs presented this as an effort by Kennedy to replace Federal Reserve notes with silver certificates, thus transferring power from the Fed to the Treasury -- and providing a possible motive for the president's assassination less than half a year later.

However, the executive order was just a technicality. It did not expand the issuance of silver certificates -- which actually were being phased out, since rising silver prices had raised concerns that redemptions would drain the Treasury's silver supply. Indeed, Kennedy also signed a bill giving the Fed authority to issue small-denomination notes to replace the silver certificates, something hard to explain if he were trying to reduce the Fed's involvement with the money supply.

Someone tell Oliver Stone.

castletownman

It's testament to the legacy of the man, that some fifty years on he's still probably the most beloved "Irish-American". And that conspiracy theories are still abound. The latter kind of paper over his achievements actually.

His assassination is to our parents generation what 9/11 is to us. So from an Irish perspective, for that reason alone, I feel that he did have a positive impact on the world.

Wacker The Attacker

JFK was a whoremaster who was probably elected fraudulently.

Why is this guy even discussed anymore let alone lauded?

Wacker The Attacker

castletownman wrote: »

It's testament to the legacy of the man, that some fifty years on he's still probably the most beloved "Irish-American". And that conspiracy theories are still abound. The latter kind of paper over his achievements actually.

His assassination is to our parents generation what 9/11 is to us. So from an Irish perspective, for that reason alone, I feel that he did have a positive impact on the world.

Why?

What aspect of the moden world can you look at and say JFk did that?

SEPT 23 1989

I thought Bobby's assassination was a much more sadder affair

Mint Aero

He was abducted by Rock'n'Roll lovin' aliens

Wacker The Attacker

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

I thought Bobby's assassination was a much more sadder affair

Whats the difference?

Why would you consider one worse than the other?

Wacker The Attacker

Mint Aero wrote: »

He was abducted by Rock'n'Roll lovin' aliens

He aint dead baby he's just havin' a break

Duckworth_Luas

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

Why?

What aspect of the moden world can you look at and say JFk did that?

That men no longer wear hats!

anncoates

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

JFK was a whoremaster who was probably elected fraudulently.

Why is this guy even discussed anymore let alone lauded?

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

Why?

What aspect of the moden world can you look at and say JFk did that?

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

Whats the difference?

Why would you consider one worse than the other?

Is it your time of the month?

Wacker The Attacker

anncoates wrote: »

Is it your time of the month?

Probably yours. ANN

Wacker The Attacker

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

That men no longer wear hats!

At least they put their hats on the right way round.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/29/obamas-backwards-hat-love_n_154013.html

There's a lot about the Kennedy assassination that just doesn't make sense. Been reading into some conspiracy theories and some of them are absolutely fascinating! Also from watching those, I had no idea that he was shot more than once - I always assumed it was just that single shot that did it, but he was shot twice. It's one of those times where I would love to be able to go back in time and see exactly what happened.

mike65

Thank **** I'll long be dead by the time the 100th anniversary comes round.

Wacker The Attacker

Ryan Tubridy will write a 500 page treatise on the 50th anniversary celebrations\commemorations (whatever word one uses) and the affect they had on Ireland.

He managed to sell a book about a 4 day hand waving session in ballygobackward in the early 1960's.

Let the next project commence in earnest.

The Dom

mike65 wrote: »

Thank **** I'll long be dead by the time the 100th anniversary comes round.

Seems a rather trivial reason to be thankful you'll be dead in 50 years time.

Not looking forward to Take That's 75th anniversary myself but think I'd still rather be alive.

anncoates

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

Probably yours. ANN

Stunning riposte.

The Diabolical Monocle

It was a plot, and Im more a skeptic than a conspiracy theorist.
(I dont believe 9/11 or Diana were conspiracies for example)

Very skilled very experienced military marksmen struggle to make the shot (under no pressure) and the reload rate for 3 rounds in the recorded time is near impossible.
Plus he was working with a ****ty rifle.
Oswald was an average Joe and also not mentally stable.

No way he made the shot himself.

gobnaitolunacy

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

Ryan Tubridy will write a 500 page treatise on the 50th anniversary celebrations\commemorations (whatever word one uses) and the affect they had on Ireland.

He managed to sell a book about a 4 day hand waving session in ballygobackward in the early 1960's.

Let the next project commence in earnest.

He's always been a Kennedy (and lounge music) anorak...

Laois_Man

Wacker The Attacker is somewhat correct IMO. There's a heck of a lot of nonsense about JFK and how the World would be so different today had he not been assassinated and how he was so loved and admired by all in America.

Fact is, his election victory in 1960 was the jammiest of all time (at that point anyway, because Bush 2000 overtook him in that respect). Fact is, if there had been a Presidential election on Nov 21st 1963, he'd have been defeated by a huge landslide. America was a country of people who were still very afraid - even though the Cuban missile threat had abated more than a year earlier.

It is also not reported very much that many Americans actually celebrated the assassination, particularly many whites in the racially tense southern states. His most noteworthy act was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign neighbor that very nearly caused his own country to be neuked. And I find it laughable that he gets so much credit for the moon landings that happened 6 years after his death, just because of his rhetoric.

All 3 Kennedy brothers were crooks (leaving out Joe) and so was their father! Even the nonsense when Ted died a few years ago - the media dared not mention his actions or his lies around the Chappaquiddick incident. I find their romanticizing of the family somewhat bizarre.

The Dom

Never seen this before. Like Alex Jones meets Anchorman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JybAyTDYJXI

Off topic, but Unsolved Mysteries and Quantum Leap is a great line-up.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

anncoates wrote: »

Stunning riposte.

you don't really get to criticise someone elses retort after leaping in with "TOTM? LOL" yourself

Femme_Fatale

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

JFK was a whoremaster who was probably elected fraudulently.

Thought you'd love a guy like that - and think he was a "legend" etc.

anncoates

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

you don't really get to criticise someone elses retort after leaping in with "TOTM? LOL" yourself

To be fair, I didn't use the au courant acronym or the LOL.

DazMarz

John Fitzgerald Kennedy will continue to divide opinion like no other, even fifty years after his untimely death.

People say he rigged the election in 1960 and did not deserve to be President. But people sometimes forget who the alternative in that election was: Richard Nixon. Yes, Tricky Dicky got his stint in the White House come 1968, but if Nixon had been in the White House during the turbulent early '60's, there is an even greater chance that World War III would have erupted.

Kennedy did an awful lot of positive things for the world. Yes, he had flaws, but he was only human. Every great man that is lauded as a hero or an inspiration had their dark sides and weaknesses and flaws that made them mortal. Kennedy's greatest flaw was probably his weakness for women (something shared by another highly respected Democrat, Bill Clinton).

For all his faults, Kennedy was a man who tried to do his best (and usually succeeded). He and Bobby both tried to shed their father (who was an out and out crook) and his influence. He led the world's greatest power through a time when nuclear war was a very real threat. Both he and Nikita Khruschev deserve a lot of praise for averting crisis and standing up to their respective hardliners in their respective governments.

Had Kennedy lived long enough to see out his first term (and potentially a second term; Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee in 1964, was soundly thrashed by Lyndon Johnson in the election. Kennedy probably would have done similar), who knows how different and how much potentially better the world may have been.

The whole truth of the events surrounding his assassination will probably never be known.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the White Knight of Camelot.

1917-1963

Wacker The Attacker

anncoates wrote: »

Stunning riposte.

not quite as stunning as your initial riposte

Wacker The Attacker

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Thought you'd love a guy like that - and think he was a "legend" etc.

He has enough of this kind of follower by the sound of things.

Balaclava1991

Conspiracy theories are utter nonsense.

Two co-workers of Oswald were on the fifth floor directly beneath Oswald's sixth floor corner window and heard three shots and three spent hulls rattle on the floorboards over their heads.
A man named Howard Brennan saw a man matching Oswald taking aim and shooting the rifle from across the street and his description was the basis of the Dallas Police bulletin that led to his arrest.
Three spent hulls were found on the floor next to the sixth floor window next to boxes with Oswald's prints on them stacked around the window. The shells came from Oswald's rifle because they had the mark of the firing pin on the base of the bullets.
A paper bag very similar to the bag Oswald had brought his supposed "curtain rods" to work that morning was found next to the sniper nest. Oswald's prints were on the bag along with fibers from a blanket that had wrapped his rifle when it was stored in the garage of Ruth Paine's house where his wife and kids were living.
The Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (he had bought it by mail order filled out in his handwriting and using the name Alek Hidell, his habitual pseudonym that was also the name on the fake ID he was carrying when he was arrested) was found stuffed behind boxes on the 6th floor along with his work clipboard.
Ballistics show that President Kennedy was hit twice - in the back of the neck and the back of the head by shots fired from above and behind him as he rode along Elm Street past the front of the Book Depository.
The first bullet struck him in the back of the neck to the right of the spine and exited the base of his throat nicking the knot of his spine. The bullet had begun to tumble when it struck Governor Connally in the back at the rear of the right armpit and it exited through a fist size hole below the right nipple after smashing four inches of his fifth rib. The bullet smashed the radius bone of his right wrist and embedded itself base first in the flesh of his left thigh.
The relative positions of Kennedy and Connally demonstrate the trajectory of the shots were a straight line through both men.
The fatal shot that struck Kennedy entered the back of his head and exited the top front right creating a massive fatal wound.
An almost whole bullet was found on Connally's stretcher by a hospital orderly who passed it to a Secret Service agent at Parkland hospital who passed it to the FBI.
The grooves on bullet matched the lands on the rifling on the inside of the gun barrel of Oswald's rifle.
Two bullet fragments were recovered from the front seat of the limousine and were also matched to Oswald's rifle.
Both bullet fragments were probably responsible for the dent on the chrome frame of the windshield and the crack on the inside of the laminated glass.
James Tague who was cut on the cheek by a bullet fragment was probably struck by a piece of the first bullet fired or a fragment of the fatal head shot.
His position on Commerce Street and the location of mark on the kerb where a bullet or bullet fragment struck indicates a shot from the 6th floor of the Book Depository.
After the shooting Oswald left the building leaving behind his blue coat.
He boarded a bus after frantically banging on the door in the middle of traffic a few blocks from the Book Depository and soon left when the bus became stuck in traffic and boarded a taxi.
He never once mentioned the shooting of the President to the taxi driver when he asked what had happened downtown.
He told the driver to drop him off a few blocks from his rooming house before he doubled back, went inside ignoring his landlady who was hysterical after watching the news of the assassination of TV, went straight to his room and came out after changing his pants and was zipping up his jacket as he went straight out the door.
Numerous witnesses identified Oswald as the man who shot Officer J.D. Tippit who pulled over in his patrol car to talk with Oswald and then climbed out before he was gunned down at point blank range. Oswald emptied the cylinder of his revolver leaving behind shell cases that were later matched to his weapon.
Oswald had purchased the revolver from the same mail order magazine as his rifle again under the name Alek Hidell.
Both weapons had been mailed to a mail box booked under his own name.
Oswald left his jacket behind in a nearby car lot.
He was identified as the man who hid in the doorway of a shoeshop before the shoe salesman followed Oswald to the Texas Theatre.
Oswald entered the movie theatre without paying and he was arrested after he tried to draw and fire his revolver at arresting police officers.
In his pockets were the same type of .38 calibre ammunition he used to shoot Tippit.
At the police station he was identified by witnesses to the assassination of Kennedy and the murder of Tippit.
When the garage of Ruth Paine was searched the negatives of photographs showing Oswald posing with the rifle and revolver were discovered.
Oswald's background was thoroughly checked out - where he lived, who he worked with and who he knew before, during and after he went to the Soviet Union.
It was found that Oswald had attempted to assassinate right wing General Irwin Walker and the mangled remains of bullet found in the wall of Walker's study was likely to have been the same type of bullet that killed Kennedy.
Oswald admitted to his wife Marina that he had tried to kill Walker and Marina kept it quite to protect her husband and to protect herself from possible deportation to the Soviet Union.
Oswald was soon discovered to be a malcontent whose rambling writings showed he was an angry young man with delusions of grandeur who was a self-styled Marxist revolutionary who believed in attacking politicians who embodied capitalism.
He was also revealed to be troubled, unable to hold down a job for very long, prone to fighting with co-workers over his political beliefs, abused alcohol and regularly verbally and physically abused his estranged wife.
In New Orleans Oswald had deliberately provoked a row with Anti-Castro Cubans when he handed out leaflets with "Hands Off Cuba" and got himself interviews on local radio and television but failed to get a following for his unauthorized local chapter of the Fair Play For Cuba Committee. Oswald was never an official member of the Fair Play For Cuba Committee.
His behavior was that of a lonely man who was unable to form lasting relationships or make something of himself in the world.
Usually Oswald visited his wife on Friday evenings and stayed the weekends but the evening before the assassination he arrived on the Thursday right, the day before the assassination of the President.
His ride, who was also a coworker saw him place a paper bag he claimed contained curtain rods on the back seat of his car.
Oswald did not bring a lunch and he hurried ahead instead of walk with his coworker to the Book Depository.
While his work mates went downstairs to watch the motorcade Oswald had told them to send the elevator back up.
This was presumably to prevent the police from using it to allow him to use to stairs to escape.
Oswald's explanation that he was on the second floor and he bought a coke before going straight home is not the behavior one would expect if the President has been shot outside.

Oswald's chaotic life, his lack of friends and associations, his anger and violence, his Marine training, his hatred for the United States and the physical evidence and his behavior on the day of the assassination prove his guilt beyond all reasonable doubt and lead to the obvious conclusion that he acted alone.

Galwayguy35

mike65 wrote: »

Thank **** I'll long be dead by the time the 100th anniversary comes round.

Hopefully I won't, I'll be well shook at 88 though.

As regards Kennedy it's amazing he had time to be President at all if the rumours of all the shagging he did are true.

Laois_Man

Virtually every single one of those accounts are disputed so much, it would put your head into a never ending spin if you actually tried to research it all.

For example, Howard Brennan claimed that the man he saw in the window was standing up when aiming the rifle, but the sash window made this impossible because it was open only up to about what would have been Oswalds waist height. He also failed to pick out Oswald in an identy parade of 4. It was also proved by photographs that Brennan gave a false account of the position he was in while the motorcade was passing.

The same type of stuff for almost everything else.

Head spinning stuff.....it all goes around in circles.

IvaBigWun

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

Conspiracy theories are utter nonsense.

........

Id read that if I could.

Paragraphs are a wonderful thing.

foxyboxer

50th anniversary of one of the 20th Centuries most infamous events and the headline?

"JFK's Secret Sex Life."

You stay classy, Irish Daily Star.

DazMarz

foxyboxer wrote: »

50th anniversary of one of the 20th Centuries most infamous events and the headline?

"JFK's Secret Sex Life."

You stay classy, Irish Daily Star.

Bloody rag... :mad:

mikom

anncoates wrote: »

Is it your time of the month?

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

Probably yours. ANN

DazMarz wrote: »

Bloody rag... :mad:

Fitting.

DeanAustin

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

Conspiracy theories are utter nonsense.

Two co-workers of Oswald were on the fifth floor directly beneath Oswald's sixth floor corner window and heard three shots and three spent hulls rattle on the floorboards over their heads.
A man named Howard Brennan saw a man matching Oswald taking aim and shooting the rifle from across the street and his description was the basis of the Dallas Police bulletin that led to his arrest.
Three spent hulls were found on the floor next to the sixth floor window next to boxes with Oswald's prints on them stacked around the window. The shells came from Oswald's rifle because they had the mark of the firing pin on the base of the bullets.
A paper bag very similar to the bag Oswald had brought his supposed "curtain rods" to work that morning was found next to the sniper nest. Oswald's prints were on the bag along with fibers from a blanket that had wrapped his rifle when it was stored in the garage of Ruth Paine's house where his wife and kids were living.
The Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (he had bought it by mail order filled out in his handwriting and using the name Alek Hidell, his habitual pseudonym that was also the name on the fake ID he was carrying when he was arrested) was found stuffed behind boxes on the 6th floor along with his work clipboard.
Ballistics show that President Kennedy was hit twice - in the back of the neck and the back of the head by shots fired from above and behind him as he rode along Elm Street past the front of the Book Depository.
The first bullet struck him in the back of the neck to the right of the spine and exited the base of his throat nicking the knot of his spine. The bullet had begun to tumble when it struck Governor Connally in the back at the rear of the right armpit and it exited through a fist size hole below the right nipple after smashing four inches of his fifth rib. The bullet smashed the radius bone of his right wrist and embedded itself base first in the flesh of his left thigh.
The relative positions of Kennedy and Connally demonstrate the trajectory of the shots were a straight line through both men.
The fatal shot that struck Kennedy entered the back of his head and exited the top front right creating a massive fatal wound.
An almost whole bullet was found on Connally's stretcher by a hospital orderly who passed it to a Secret Service agent at Parkland hospital who passed it to the FBI.
The grooves on bullet matched the lands on the rifling on the inside of the gun barrel of Oswald's rifle.
Two bullet fragments were recovered from the front seat of the limousine and were also matched to Oswald's rifle.
Both bullet fragments were probably responsible for the dent on the chrome frame of the windshield and the crack on the inside of the laminated glass.
James Tague who was cut on the cheek by a bullet fragment was probably struck by a piece of the first bullet fired or a fragment of the fatal head shot.
His position on Commerce Street and the location of mark on the kerb where a bullet or bullet fragment struck indicates a shot from the 6th floor of the Book Depository.
After the shooting Oswald left the building leaving behind his blue coat.
He boarded a bus after frantically banging on the door in the middle of traffic a few blocks from the Book Depository and soon left when the bus became stuck in traffic and boarded a taxi.
He never once mentioned the shooting of the President to the taxi driver when he asked what had happened downtown.
He told the driver to drop him off a few blocks from his rooming house before he doubled back, went inside ignoring his landlady who was hysterical after watching the news of the assassination of TV, went straight to his room and came out after changing his pants and was zipping up his jacket as he went straight out the door.
Numerous witnesses identified Oswald as the man who shot Officer J.D. Tippit who pulled over in his patrol car to talk with Oswald and then climbed out before he was gunned down at point blank range. Oswald emptied the cylinder of his revolver leaving behind shell cases that were later matched to his weapon.
Oswald had purchased the revolver from the same mail order magazine as his rifle again under the name Alek Hidell.
Both weapons had been mailed to a mail box booked under his own name.
Oswald left his jacket behind in a nearby car lot.
He was identified as the man who hid in the doorway of a shoeshop before the shoe salesman followed Oswald to the Texas Theatre.
Oswald entered the movie theatre without paying and he was arrested after he tried to draw and fire his revolver at arresting police officers.
In his pockets were the same type of .38 calibre ammunition he used to shoot Tippit.
At the police station he was identified by witnesses to the assassination of Kennedy and the murder of Tippit.
When the garage of Ruth Paine was searched the negatives of photographs showing Oswald posing with the rifle and revolver were discovered.
Oswald's background was thoroughly checked out - where he lived, who he worked with and who he knew before, during and after he went to the Soviet Union.
It was found that Oswald had attempted to assassinate right wing General Irwin Walker and the mangled remains of bullet found in the wall of Walker's study was likely to have been the same type of bullet that killed Kennedy.
Oswald admitted to his wife Marina that he had tried to kill Walker and Marina kept it quite to protect her husband and to protect herself from possible deportation to the Soviet Union.
Oswald was soon discovered to be a malcontent whose rambling writings showed he was an angry young man with delusions of grandeur who was a self-styled Marxist revolutionary who believed in attacking politicians who embodied capitalism.
He was also revealed to be troubled, unable to hold down a job for very long, prone to fighting with co-workers over his political beliefs, abused alcohol and regularly verbally and physically abused his estranged wife.
In New Orleans Oswald had deliberately provoked a row with Anti-Castro Cubans when he handed out leaflets with "Hands Off Cuba" and got himself interviews on local radio and television but failed to get a following for his unauthorized local chapter of the Fair Play For Cuba Committee. Oswald was never an official member of the Fair Play For Cuba Committee.
His behavior was that of a lonely man who was unable to form lasting relationships or make something of himself in the world.
Usually Oswald visited his wife on Friday evenings and stayed the weekends but the evening before the assassination he arrived on the Thursday right, the day before the assassination of the President.
His ride, who was also a coworker saw him place a paper bag he claimed contained curtain rods on the back seat of his car.
Oswald did not bring a lunch and he hurried ahead instead of walk with his coworker to the Book Depository.
While his work mates went downstairs to watch the motorcade Oswald had told them to send the elevator back up.
This was presumably to prevent the police from using it to allow him to use to stairs to escape.
Oswald's explanation that he was on the second floor and he bought a coke before going straight home is not the behavior one would expect if the President has been shot outside.

Oswald's chaotic life, his lack of friends and associations, his anger and violence, his Marine training, his hatred for the United States and the physical evidence and his behavior on the day of the assassination prove his guilt beyond all reasonable doubt and lead to the obvious conclusion that he acted alone.

Good post. Saw an interview with Oswalds brother and he said that while it's great that people are allowed to question the assassination in the US, eventually you have to look at the evidence and it points towards Oswald acting alone.

The lure of conspiracy theories and the thought that someone as insignificant as Oswald could bring down the most powerful man in the world seems to overwhelm otherwise rational thinking people.

Malibu Stacy

Kennedy is important for Baby Boomers (the age cohort that controls the US media right now) not only because he was the first president that young Americans came of age watching on television regularly, he inspired so many of them to take an interest in civic life. Also, he was the last US president to take office before the deep cynicism brought on by the Vietnam War, the oil crisis, Watergate, and Bobby Kennedy's assassination truly permeated American politics. I don't particularly care for the deification of the Kennedy family (Ted in particular), but I don't think that you can deny that both culturally and politically, the Kennedy presidency represents a major shift in American political life.

upstairs for coffee

The Kennedy family had their sister/daughter lobotomised.

Elmer Blooker

Also died on November 22nd 1963.
CS Lewis author of The Chronicles of Narnia and the subject of the movie Shadowlands (played by Anthony Hopkins) and another author Aldous Huxley who wrote Brave New World and The Doors of Perception about his use of psychadelic drugs. This is where the band The Doors got their name. Apparently they all died within six hours of each other.
CS Lewis :

Media coverage of his death was minimal; he died on 22 November 1963—the same day that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the same day another famous author, Aldous Huxley, died.

Balaclava1991

Malibu Stacy wrote: »

Kennedy is important for Baby Boomers (the age cohort that controls the US media right now) not only because he was the first president that young Americans came of age watching on television regularly, he inspired so many of them to take an interest in civic life. Also, he was the last US president to take office before the deep cynicism brought on by the Vietnam War, the oil crisis, Watergate, and Bobby Kennedy's assassination truly permeated American politics. I don't particularly care for the deification of the Kennedy family (Ted in particular), but I don't think that you can deny that both culturally and politically, the Kennedy presidency represents a major shift in American political life.

If Kennedy had not been killed he would have become the target of the drug taking free love counter culture flower power anti-war generation. Youngsters were already rebelling against the values of their parents and the WW2 generation he represented. Kennedy may or may not have sent troops to fight in Vietnam but I believe he would have done everything possible to fight the North Vietnamese communists.

Oswald was a militant left wing Marxist - his ideology was little different from the radical left such as the Weathermen who launched a campaigning of bombings. If he had not killed Kennedy he would have headed to California grown a long beard and long hair and hung out in a hippy colony and tried to get himself an audience among impressionable and angry young people.

Kennedy with his suits and short back and sides haircut, his hypocritical Catholicism and womanizing would probably have been exposed in a media sex scandal in his likely second term or else his health problems would have worsened and he would have ended up in a wheelchair.

Malibu Stacy

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

If Kennedy had not been killed he would have become the target of the drug taking free love counter culture flower power anti-war generation. Youngsters were already rebelling against the values of their parents and the WW2 generation he represented. Kennedy may or may not have sent troops to fight in Vietnam but I believe he would have done everything possible to fight the North Vietnamese communists.

I don't necessarily disagree, and I almost said something similar in my post - Kennedy's untimely death in the early 60s meant that he didn't get bogged down in the social rifts and conflicts of the late 60s.

Laois_Man

upstairs for coffee wrote: »

The Kennedy family had their sister/daughter lobotomised.

JFKs grandparents on the Fitzgerald side were also cousins

Balaclava1991

Malibu Stacy wrote: »

I don't necessarily disagree, and I almost said something similar in my post - Kennedy's untimely death in the early 60s meant that he didn't get bogged down in the social rifts and conflicts of the late 60s.

Johnson was more left wing than the conservative Kennedy but I think Kennedy would have been shamed into giving in to the Civil Rights Movement.

I do not think Kennedy would have worn flowery wide collared shirts and started smoking weed rather than cigars.

Maybe he would let his hair grow a little over his ears and let his side burns grow a little bit longer?

Johnson grew his hair long before he died in 1973.

Elmer Blooker

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

Oswald's chaotic life, his lack of friends and associations, his anger and violence, his Marine training, his hatred for the United States and the physical evidence and his behavior on the day of the assassination prove his guilt beyond all reasonable doubt and lead to the obvious conclusion that he acted alone.

Are you serious? The Kennedy administration (Jack and Bobby, a couple of micks) were reluctant to get involved in the Vietnam war but the CIA and big business had other ideas.

Too Tough To Die

It was Woody Harrilson's dad what done it.

Frito

22nd November 1963 - JFK shot
23rd November 1963 - Dr. Who appeared


Just sayin'.

buried

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

Oswald's chaotic life, his lack of friends and associations, his anger and violence, his Marine training, his hatred for the United States and the physical evidence and his behavior on the day of the assassination prove his guilt beyond all reasonable doubt and lead to the obvious conclusion that he acted alone.

What about the actual words that came out of his actual mouth after the assassination, (before he was shot dead himself) where he exclaimed " I am a Patsy". Why do you think he chose those pitiful words and not proclaim words that would describe (as you say) his hatred for capitalism, JFK and the United States?