Last week President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he would release “ALL JFK files other than the names and addresses of any mentioned person who is still living.” Since then, a flurry of government documents have surfaced, providing insight into the life and death of former US president John F. Kennedy.
Initially all documents were due to be released, but Trump stated that he would comply with the FBI and CIA in withholding certain files that could harm national security and individual identities.
The material released so far reveals a wealth of information about Kennedy and the man arrested for his assassination in 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald. Various conspiracy theories have circulated since Kennedy was shot while driving through Dallas, Texas in an open-air car on November 22, 1963. As the The New Yorker states, the newly released files support the most common belief that Oswald was guilty and acted alone.
Several interesting facts were revealed, including Oswald’s connections to the KGB and a warning from the FBI to police that a death threat had been made against Oswald, BBC reports. Links were even made to a Canberra hotel, with documents revealing calls from a Canberra informant regarding a Soviet Union plot to kill Kennedy, Sydney Morning Herald explains.