BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
History buffs dove into thousands of pages of government records released online this week, hoping for new nuggets about President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. They instead found revelations about U.S. espionage in the massive document dump that also exposed some previously redacted personal information.
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration posted more than 63,000 pages of records on its website, following an executive order from President Donald Trump. Many of the documents had been released previously but with redactions that hid the names of CIA sources or details about its spying and covert operations in the 1960s.
Kennedy was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, during a visit to Dallas. As his motorcade finished its parade route downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, who had positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer broadcast live on television.
The latest release of documents pumped new energy into conspiracy theories about the assassination. Kennedy scholars said they haven’t seen anything out of line with the conclusion that Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, was the lone gunman.
“The chase for the truth will go on forever, I suspect,” said Philip Shenon, who wrote a 2013 book about the killing of JFK.
It’s a big document dump, but it doesn’t include everything
The vast majority of the National Archives’ collection of more than 6 million related pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts had already been released before the archives posted about 2,200 files online this week.
Writers, historians and conspiracy promoters have spent decades pushing for the release of all the records. In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president.
According to researchers and the FBI, roughly 3,700 files held by federal authorities still haven’t been released.
Trump’s order also called for declassifying the remaining federal records related to the 1968 assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Scholars describe a chaotic release
Scholars and history buffs described the latest release as rushed and expressed frustration that going through the files one by one represented a random search for unreleased information.
“We’ve all heard the reports about the lawyers staying up all night, which I believe, because there’s there’s a lot of sloppiness in this,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of “The Kennedy Half-Century.”
Scholars and history buffs grumbled that, unlike past releases, the National Archives didn’t provide an index or workable search tool. Also, the files included material generated after the 1960s, and some people listed in the records were angry to find out that sensitive information about them was revealed, including Social Security numbers.
They include Joseph diGenova, a former campaign lawyer for Trump. His personal information was on documents relating to his work for a U.S. Senate select committee that investigated abuses of power by government officials in the 1970s, including the surveillance of U.S. citizens.
He is planning to sue the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration for violating privacy laws.
“I think it’s the result of incompetent people doing the reviewing,” he said. “The people who reviewed these documents did not do their job.”
White House officials said a plan was in place to help those whose personal information was disclosed, including credit monitoring, until new Social Security numbers are issued. Officials are still screening the records to identify all the Social Security numbers that were released.
New details about covert CIA operations
The latest release represented a boon to mainstream historians, particularly those researching international relations, the Cold War and the activities of the CIA.
One revelation was that a key adviser warned President Kennedy after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 that the CIA had grown too powerful. The aide proposed giving the State Department control of “all clandestine activities” and breaking up the CIA.
The page of Special Assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s memo outlining the proposal had not been released before. A previous release of part of his memo redacted Schlesinger’s statement that 47% of the political officers in U.S. embassies were controlled by the CIA.
Schlesinger’s plan never came to fruition.
Timothy Naftali, an adjunct professor at Columbia University who is writing a book about JFK’s presidency, said scholars likely now have more details about U.S. intelligence activities under Kennedy than under any other president.
“It’s quite remarkable to be able to walk through that secret world,” he said.
____
This story has been updated to correct that the date of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was Nov. 22, 1963, not Nov. 23.
You can support trusted and verified news content like this.
FIPA’s news monitor subscribers, donors and funders help make these available to everyone rather than behind a paywall. We appreciate every contribution because it makes a difference.
If you found this article interesting and useful, please consider contributing here.
