Tens of thousands of files related to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy have been made public for the first time. These files comprise approximately 80,000 pages of documents, many of which are blurred or damaged due to their age, and they cover conspiracy theories, new timelines, and suspicions of the KGB's involvement in the case. The release of these documents offers a glimpse into one of the most debated events in modern history.
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03-20, 2025These documents were released under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office, fulfilling his campaign promise to increase transparency regarding the Kennedy assassination. However, experts suggest that these files are unlikely to provide any earth-shattering revelations about the events of November 22, 1963. The public release of these documents continues the ongoing effort to understand the circumstances surrounding the assassination.
The newly released documents include a new timeline of Lee Harvey Oswald's actions. Oswald, a 24-year-old employee at a Texas textbook warehouse, was arrested and charged with the president's assassination. President Kennedy's motorcade was passing the warehouse on Main Street in Dallas when he was struck in the neck and head, and he was subsequently rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later. Oswald was shot and killed on live television two days after his arrest by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner with ties to organized crime.
The investigation into the assassination, known as the Warren Commission, found that neither Oswald nor Ruby was part of a "domestic or foreign" conspiracy. Oswald's actions became a key focus of their investigation, particularly because he had defected to the Soviet Union in 1959, lived in Minsk, and married a Russian woman. He moved back to the United States a year before the Kennedy assassination. The newly released files include a timeline of Oswald's trip to Mexico two months before carrying out the assassination plot. A CIA timeline notes that Oswald arrived at the Cuban embassy on September 26, 1963, "between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m."
The file states, "He was said to look very sinister, hard-faced and sharp-eyed." According to the document, Oswald attempted to obtain a transit visa to Cuba, with his ultimate goal being to return to Russia. He reportedly presented his membership in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and the American Communist Party but was told that more documentation was needed for embassy approval. Cuba was under the authoritarian rule of Fidel Castro at the time. The document continues to show that Oswald attempted to expedite the visa process in the days that followed, including contacting "a revolutionary, pro-Castro Cuban group within the University of Mexico campus" for assistance. The file states: "Perhaps he hoped to find someone who would say they knew him in Cuba. In any case, he was seeking some kind of help from these pro-Castro elements. He stayed with them overnight." Oswald eventually left Mexico without incident, but his interactions with communist groups have long been the basis for conspiracy theorists speculating about his motives. The Warren Commission report does not support this view.
The released files also include allegations that several intelligence officials had prior knowledge of Oswald's assassination plans. An unidentified CIA official stationed in Paris, codenamed Thomas Casasin, stated that he believed Oswald might have been a KGB sleeper agent. His view was based on Oswald's "unusual" defection to the Soviet Union. Casasin argued that allowing him to reside in the Soviet Union and marry a Soviet citizen seemed out of the ordinary. The memo states: "Casasin said he did not believe that Oswald could have been any type of agent for the CIA. However, he also believed that the nature of KGB operations was such that it was possible for Oswald to have been a 'sleeper' Soviet agent." Another classified document, sent by a person named Sergei Chonon to the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, claimed that intelligence had received warnings about Oswald's intentions two months before the assassination.
Chonon claimed that he was pulled aside during an immigration check at the London airport due to not having a visa, and then questioned about the Soviet Union. "I said I had heard about an American defector (Lee Harvey Oswald) who had gone to Russia and then returned to the United States," he wrote. "This man was preparing to kill President John Kennedy. The police asked me 'Do you know his name?' I said his name started with 'O' and his name had once been published in the Washington Post." Chonon continued to write to the embassy and spoke about how he provided the information after the FBI "froze and tortured him" with anesthetic gas. The Warren Commission found no evidence to support the claims. One leaked document was a memo sent to the United States from a senior diplomat after Kennedy's assassination, when Lyndon Johnson took over as U.S. President. It detailed Castro's reaction to the shooting. The memo reads: "Fidel Castro was extremely disturbed by the change in the U.S. government brought about by the assassination of President Kennedy. The current policy of the Cuban government, under Castro's orders, is to not publicly attack President Johnson or do anything to provoke him."
According to the documents, Castro wanted to "wait and see" what President Johnson said and did about Cuba before taking action. Other countries also reacted to Kennedy's shooting through various confidential memos sent back and forth. Documents from Yugoslavian, Romanian, and Czech officials detailed "hope that [the assassination] would not change the international atmosphere." Experts do not expect any major bombshells to emerge from the tens of thousands of pages of documents. James Johnston said that most relevant agencies had already handed over the bulk of the documents to the National Archives in 1988. Mr. Johnston, now an author, was formerly a staff member on a congressional committee tasked with investigating the CIA in 1975. He told USA Today: "If it was going to embarrass the agency or tell a different story, they wouldn't have turned them over to the National Archives in the first place. If they withheld them before, I would guess they would continue to withhold them."
Historian Alice L. George stated that government records are unlikely to quell the public's feeling that "there must be important evidence that is being hidden." She told Reuters: "I think there will probably continue to be more releases, but I seriously doubt that it's going to include the great revelation." The released files contain a wealth of information about the United States and its relations with countries such as Vietnam, Venezuela, and Cuba, as communism continued to spread. Most of the documents primarily focus on the broader political climate surrounding the assassination and highlight the turmoil caused by Kennedy's death on international relations. Members of the Kennedy family have also publicly opposed the release of the documents. Kennedy's grandson, Jack Schlossberg, son of former U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, slammed the current president's executive order signed this January. Mr. Schlossberg said: "The truth is sadder than the myth." He accused Trump of using the late former president as a "political prop, and he can't fight back." He said: "There's nothing heroic about releasing these files." Schlossberg also stated that the Trump administration gave the Kennedy family "no advance notice" before Tuesday's local time release. Kennedy's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services, declined to comment when approached by the media.
Lawyers were ordered to urgently review the records of the assassination in order to comply with Trump's order. Trump told reporters this week while visiting the Kennedy Center that they had "tremendous amounts of paper." He said: "You have a lot to read. People have been waiting for decades." Trump's National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard, praised the document release as part of a commitment to "maximum transparency." She added that it was "a commitment to rebuild the trust of the American people in the intelligence community and federal agencies." A statement released by the National Archives said that more documents are being digitized and are expected to be posted online in the coming days. Documents that have not yet been scanned can be viewed in person at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The statement added that certain information may still be withheld due to grand jury secrecy or prohibitions on releasing tax return information. The president has also promised to release more documents about the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, both of whom were killed in 1968. Trump is allowing more time to plan those releases.
