The John F Kennedy Conspiracy Theory In the old days, when someone sent something which indicated they knew a secret reason why something was happening, I can’t recall anyone ever calling it a conspiracy theory. If it wasn’t true in the mind of somebody hearing it, they might have said the person who said it was wrong, or had an active imagination or some such thing. I can’t remember when the word conspiracy theory started getting thrown around, but it seems to me it came into very common use after President Kennedy was assassinated and people were voicing their opinions of who did it and why. I think we could all understand why there were so many conspiracy theories concerning Kennedy’s death. First of all, information was found saying Kennedy wanted the Russians and the United States to cooperate in space programs which angered many people who felt he was being a traitor. Another reason some people thought it was a conspiracy was because of the death of his brother Robert Kennedy. When his brother was the Attorney General, he had angered the Mafia in the United States and vowed to destroy them. Then there was the death of Marilyn Monroe, famous movie star and mistress to both Kennedys at different times. She had threatened to spill everything she knew about both Robert Kennedy and President Kennedy, but was found dead from an overdose before that ever happened. It does make one wonder how these events might have been tied together and if possible was the same entity responsible for all three deaths? Even the way Kennedy was killed caused more conspiracy theories. I find it hard to believe Lee Harvey Oswald was guilty of firing the bullet that killed the president. I’m not saying he wasn’t trying to kill him, what I am saying is I can’t believe a person with a cheap Italian rifle would be capable of hitting someone in a moving car from the distance the shots were fired. It looks for all the world like Oswald had been a patsy for the real killer. The conspiracy theory for this murder states another shooter was hiding in the grassy knoll and he fired the fatal shots. Along with this is the story which states a man dressed as a policeman came out of the grassy knoll mumbling to himself that he shot the president. There is also another story which states a woman was taking photographs of the area and got his photo. The whole Kennedy affair lends itself to so many conspiracy theories on different levels almost anything one might say could be possible. When Kennedy’s body was put on Air Force One, Vice-President Johnson and Kennedy’s wife were standing over the coffin and someone took a picture. In the photo it looks like Johnson is signaling to the person behind him and this has been interpreted to mean, we got him and I am going to be president. This is only a theory of course and it isn’t mine. Another theory states Kennedy was talked into riding in a convertible rather than being protected by the presidential limousine so that he could be shot. It is said so far accusations have been made in the John Kennedy assassination against forty-two different groups, eighty-two different assassins and 214 different people as being involved. That is quite a large group and for all we know may not even contain the identities of the people who were responsible. Some conspiracy theories claim powerful members of the government had Kennedy killed because he was too liberal with our enemies and they were afraid he was going to reveal state secrets to them. It is said there have been a lot of meetings between conspiracy theorists in which the Kennedy assassination is discussed and information is traded. I for one think there comes a time when some people have to let go of their conspiracy theories. I have to wonder how many people have held onto these different theories and research, and became so obsessed with the assassination they become mentally ill? On the other hand, I wonder how many mentally ill people have contributed to the large amount of conspiracy theories concerning John Kennedy? Some of them certainly seem like the people who are putting them forth are not in the best of mental health. One of the favorite targets of conspiracy theories of all kinds is the CIA. The theory goes Kennedy found out some of the things going on with the CIA in Cuba along with other things. If we listen to this conspiracy theory about the CIA it gets more ridiculous as we go through it because it alleges Kennedy was going to do away with the agency and this is probably the last thing that anybody would ever do especially during the Cold War. He might have felt the CIA had too much power and was operating beyond their purview since this agency was only supposed to operate on foreign soil and yet some say they had operations going on in the United States. As far as any conspiracy theories regarding the Soviet Union, they probably had no reason to think about a Kennedy assassination. He seemed to be more open to relations with them than presidents before him. If he had lived there is a good chance we might have had more cooperation between us and the Soviet Union. There are fringes out there which state extraterrestrials were responsible for Kennedy’s death. I suppose they blame the fact he was killed by extraterrestrials because he had started the Apollo program to send people to the moon. I think we’ve gone far enough with the different conspiracy theories because the ones which are left are even more ridiculous. One has to wonder how long these theories will continue; we no longer see much action on who was behind the assassination of President Lincoln. All we know is the fact John Wilkes Booth shot him and some Confederate conspirators were behind it, but we never got the full story.
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