Newly published secret documents could provide clues as to who was responsible for the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. Historian Andreas Etges classifies what can be expected from the documents.
SRF News: There is still the question of whether Lee Harvey Oswald, John F. Kennedy’s assassin, acted alone. Can the newly published documents answer this question?
Andreas Etges: It is about three percent of several 100,000 documents that have not yet been released. If you look at what has been declassified over and over again in recent years, there are things that show that the American authorities had observed Lee Harvey Oswald much more closely in the run-up to the assassination.
Some of what is hidden is evidence of operational actions, evidence of names, and things that may embarrass the CIA, FBI, or others.
There are things that have to do with attacks on Cuba, major acts of sabotage or assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. So even more details beyond what you already knew. What is hidden, in part, is evidence of operational action, evidence of names, and things that may embarrass the CIA, the FBI, or others who have failed where they failed in the first place – or where they still want to hide dirty things .
Does that mean Lee Harvey Oswald has been under CIA surveillance for a long time?
Lee Harvey Oswald had been trained by the US Army and went to the Soviet Union voluntarily. He had married a woman there and was allowed to return to the USA – which was also unusual. But then he tried to get back to the Soviet Union. Because this person was obscure and you had to look carefully to see if he was being sent back as a double agent or as an agent, he was put on the CIA and FBI lists and put under surveillance.
There is a great deal to suggest that Lee Harvey Oswald was the main culprit, perhaps even the sole culprit.
This is not to say that the CIA or FBI had any idea that this person planned or was involved in an assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy. However, the documents of the last five to ten years show that one was much closer to him than was admitted at the time.
They don’t expect that more will be learned from these new documents. Does that mean we’ll never know what really happened back then?
I am convinced that we will never know the whole truth. This also has to do with the fact that in 1963 and 1964, when the major investigations took place, an enormous number of mistakes were made. The commission of inquiry was not commissioned to actually find out exactly what happened. In addition, the FBI and CIA did not cooperate fully – they withheld some files, lied about things and thus also hindered the investigation.
Legend:
November 22, 1963 in Dallas: US President John F. Kennedy (left) and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (right in pink) sit in an open car just before John F. Kennedy was shot.
Getty Images/Bettmann
Not to hide their involvement in a conspiracy, but because many of the illegal activities we know about today only became known later, after Richard Nixon and the Watergate affair, among others. They have protected themselves and thereby obstructed investigations. That is why one will never be able to make up for this in the Enlightenment.
What’s your theory about what happened back then?
There is a great deal to suggest that Lee Harvey Oswald was the main culprit, perhaps even the sole culprit. And I am convinced that none of the major conspiracy theories are based on truth or fact – that the CIA, the Mafia, the Cubans or maybe even the Soviet Union or even Lyndon B. Johnson, President Kennedy’s successor, were involved in the assassination. Ultimately, one can only speculate about everything else.
The conversation was conducted by Simone Hulliger.