The JFK documents: US government releases almost 3,000 files

The publication of almost 3,000 classified files, relating to the assassination of John F Kennedy, in 1963, revealed that the FBI had warned Dallas police about a threat to kill Lee Harvey Oswald, and claims that Soviet officials feared an “irresponsible” US general could launch a missile strike.

The US government released 2,891 documents on Thursday, but President Donald Trump delayed the release of others, saying he had “no choice” but to consider “national security, law enforcement and foreign affairs concerns” raised mostly by the CIA and FBI.
 

What we have learned so far:

The FBI warned Dallas police of threat to kill Oswald

One of the first interesting documents was a memo written by director J Edgar Hoover, which said that the FBI had warning of a potential death threat to Oswald, who was then in police custody.

“There is nothing further on the Oswald case except that he is dead,” Hoover wrote on 24 November, 1963.

“Last night we received a call in our Dallas office from a man talking in a calm voice and saying he was a member of a committee organized to kill Oswald.

“We at once notified the chief of police and he assured us Oswald would be given sufficient protection. This morning we called the chief of police again warning of the possibility of some effort against Oswald and again he assured us adequate protection would be given.

“However, this was not done.”

Hoover admitted he did not have “firm” information about Jack Ruby, the man who shot Oswald dead, but said his real name was Rubenstein, and noted rumors of “underworld activity”.

Read the document 

 

USSR worried that “irresponsible” US could launch a missile

Soviet Union leaders considered Oswald to be a “neurotic maniac who was disloyal to his own country and everything else”, according to an FBI memo documenting reactions in the USSR to the assassination.

The Soviet officials feared that there was some sort of conspiracy behind the death of Kennedy, perhaps organised by a right-wing coup or JFK’s successor Lyndon Johnson.

They also feared a war in the aftermath of his death.

“Our source further stated that Soviet officials were fearful that without leadership, some irresponsible general in the United States might launch a missile at the Soviet Union

Read the document 
 

Cuba reacted with “delight”

Cuban President Fidel Castro addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York (Photo: CNN)

Cuban leader Fidel Castro informed American lawmakers that his country was not involved in the plot, when White House investigators visited the island in 1978. IN 1963, however, the Cuban ambassador to the US reportedly reacted with “happy delight” to the murder, according to a CIA memo.

Read the document

Oswald spoke to a “member of KGB assassination unit”

According to an intercepted phone call in Mexico City, Oswald was at the Soviet embassy there on 28 September 1963 and spoke with the consul, Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov. Oswald later called the embassy on 1 October, identifying himself by name and speaking broken Russian, asking the guard who answered the phone whether there was “anything new concerning the telegram to Washington.”

The CIA memo calls Kostikov “an identified KGB officer” and a member of Department 13, a unit “responsible for sabotage and assassination”.

Read the document 

In another memo, Hoover said that he and Nicholas Katzenbach, the deputy attorney general, feared the spread of conspiracy theories. He noted that Oswald had visited Mexico City, called the Cuban embassy and even sent a letter to the Soviet embassy about a visa.

“The thing I am concerned about, and so is Mr Katzenbach, is having something issued so that we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin,” Hoover wrote.

The files comprise almost the final 1% of records, which are held by the federal government. Their publication followed a release in July, when the record-keepers, the National Archives, posted 3,801 documents online, most formerly released documents with previously redacted portions.

Trump ordered the agencies to review those redactions over the course of six months, the official said, to ensure more documents reach the public. The next deadline for documents is 26 April, 2018.

According to the National Archives, 88% of records related to Kennedy’s murder were already fully open and another 11% released but partially redacted. In total, that makes for about 5 million pages.

Other information so far uncovered includes:

• The Dallas division of the FBI was already trying to track Oswald in October 1963, according to memos by the New Orleans division.
• Jack Ruby had a “good in” with Dallas police, according to an FBI informant in a memo dated shortly after Ruby shot Oswald dead.
• A reporter on the UK’s Cambridge Evening News received an anonymous call, telling him to call the US embassy for some big news, 25 minutes before the assassination of JFK in Dallas.