John F. Kennedy Assignation and the Insufficient Investigation
Student Name
SS310-19: Exploring the 1960s - An Interdisc. Approach
Teacher’s Name
May 01, 2012
Introduction
There have been many events over the years that influence the world. One in particular was the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Many events that have occurred since can be traced back to the Assassination. After 49 years the world is still questioning the facts of the assassination. There have been many investigation yet the questions are still there.

Section one
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1962. President Kennedy was shot during a motorcade ride through Dallas, Texas. The President’s motorcade had just entered Dealey Plaza when several shots were aimed at the President. President and Mrs. Kennedy and Texas Governor and Mrs. Connally were passengers in the Presidential Limousine along with two Secret Service agents. Governor Connally was seriously wounded during the shooting. The President was taken to Parkland Hospital where efforts to save his life were unsuccessful. The President was pronounced dead 30 minutes after the shooting.
There were hundreds of people in the Dealey Plaza that day to see the President and First Lady as their car passed by. Many spectators with their cameras were there to capture a once in a lifetime chance to see the President and Mrs. Kennedy. These people were witness to one of the biggest events in American History. One of the most notable videos was the Zapruder film that captured the entire incident. This film made it hard to explain the sole gunman theory, which made many people question the official explanation of the magic bullet theory.
Lee Harvey Oswald worked at the School Book Depository in Dallas. The Depository is located at the corner of Dealey Plaza where the motorcade passed by seconds before the shooting. Witnesses place Oswald at the Book Depository Minutes before the shootings. Then Oswald was arrested at 2:00 pm at the Texas Theatre in the Oak Cliff suburb of Dallas. Oswald was arrested for the shooting of police officer J.D. Tippit, but the word spread fast that he was the lone shooter in the President’s assassination. Oswald was interrogated throughout the weekend, but there were no tape recordings or transcripts of the interrogations. Oswald was then paraded in front of the news media and live television cameras as he was being moved to county facilities where he proclaimed that he was “a patsy”. Then Jack Ruby gunned him down in front of the camera.
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed a commission to investigate the assassination. This commission was headed by Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren. This commission became known as the Warren Commission. They relied on the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, and State Department, using primarily lawyers and no field investigators. The Warren Commission determined that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter.
There were many critics of the Warren Commission. Many people had questions that the Warren Commission report did not answer. There have been several other investigations that came about from all of the questions that were not answered. The Garrison Investigation, the Church Committee and the Castro Plots, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and the JFK Records Act and the ARRB were some of the investigations that came about because of the questions that the Warren Commission did not answer.
As President, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the order to enter our troops into the Vietnam War. This was not a popular war. There were many protests all around the nation. This was the time of free love and drug. This is where the drugs allowed the people to feel free to have sex freely without the commitment of a marriage and family.

Section two
I was born in 1967 which was several years after the assassination, but the world still had questions about what really happened. I have always been interested in what happen since I was a little boy. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother who was in love with President Kennedy; she would talk about the assassination and could tell me exactly where she was and what she was doing at that point in time. This is when I began to question the truthfulness of people. I always felt that the government was hiding something. I never wanted to take other peoples word on things. I want to see the evidence for myself. I do not like to react based on rumors. I feel this comes back to the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. The rumors were that he was the President’s assassin but he had not been charged with that crime. Oswald was tried and convicted in the media before he was even charged with the murder.
I think that this is true today. Our world is influenced by what is seen on television. An example of this is George Zimmerman. He has been tried and convicted in the eyes of the media. There have been rallies held all around the United States in an effort to influence the local authorities into filing charges against Zimmerman. I am not sure that at this point whether not he would receive a fair trial. I do not know the details of that night because I have not been privy to the evidence in this case. So do not feel that I could make a judgment on his guilt or innocence.
The assassination of President Kennedy has influenced my life in the way I question events. I would rather see all the evidence for myself. I do not reacting on rumors. I like to see all the evidence and make my own mind up.

Section Three
I’ve always felt that the Warren Commission did not properly investigate the assassination. They relied too much on reports from the various government agencies, but did not sufficiently investigate the assassination. Based on the various documentaries, books, pictures and videos that I have seen over the years about this event I began to question the completeness of the Warren Commission’s report. I, also, began to question the government’s actual involvement in the assassination. I began dreaming about becoming an investigator. I would not want to leave any questions. Working as a mortician I had plenty of contact with police officers due to picking up bodies from crime scenes. I would talk to them about how they would go about investigating the various crimes and what signs that they looked for. Then one day the opportunity for me to make a career change came about when my funeral home was sold. I decided to follow my dreams to become a police officer and work my way into becoming an investigator. I have been a in law enforcement for 15 years now and became the investigator I always wanted to be.

Section Four The world began questioning the government’s involvement in our daily lives. There are several things that might not have happened if President Kennedy would not have been assassinated. The United States involvement in the Vietnam War is a possibility. The protest of our involvement in the Vietnam War would not have occurred. Drugs and free love became big problems in the 1960’s, would not have happened. Americans began protesting their very way of life. Family values began to fade away. Crime is getting out of control. Most crime is related to drugs in one way or another. Most houses in the 1960’s had at least one television, now most have a television in every room. Today people are influenced by what is seen on television. It is very possible that all of these things may have still happened but they would have progress at a slower rate rather than the fast pace at which it did occur.

Conclusion The world was changed by President Kennedy’s assassination in so many ways. The world still questions what really happened that day. This was just the beginning of a domino effect of events that changed the world. There were investigations that left more questions that were answered. People began questioning the government’s truthfulness on just about everything. President Johnson entered our troops in the Vietnam War. The young adults began protesting the Vietnam War and the government. Drugs and free love were some of the ways that were used to protest the establishment. One of the biggest problems that came from the use of drug is crime.
References

The JFK Assassination. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2012, from http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/JFK_Assassination Hippies From A to Z. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2012, from http://www.hipplanet.com/books/atozinfo.htm#sex
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Vietnam War Disengagement Strategy. (n.June 12, 2006). Retrieved on April 26, 2012 from http://www.historynet.com/president-lyndon-b- johnsons-vietnam-war-disengagement-strategy.htm
35. John F. Kennedy 1961 – 1963. (n.d.). Retrieved on April 26, 2012, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/johnfkennedy