Photo credit: Walt Cisco / Dallas Morning News
For those old enough, most, if not all, will remember where they were and what they were doing when the news came in that President Kennedy had been assassinated. I had just settled in to my Grade 4 classroom on Kangaroo Island when our teacher, Miss Kelly, entered the room, crying uncontrollably. She struggled to get her words out: “President Kennedy has been shot,” she muttered quietly, trembling as she spoke.
Televisions and up-to-date newspapers were rare on Kangaroo Island back then, but without such luxuries we young ones all knew who President Kennedy was. We couldn’t tell you who Australia’s prime minister was, which on reflection tells me we knew of JFK because he was a giant.
But now I turn my attention to what are called the …
On March 17, President Donald Trump announced the impending release of long-classified documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, fulfilling a promise (a rare one that he has kept) made during his campaign and early in his second term. Two days later, the National Archives made public 63,400 pages of previously withheld records, fully unredacted, as part of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection. This release, ordered under Executive Order 14176, marks a significant moment in the decades-long quest for transparency surrounding one of America’s most enduring mysteries. But what do these files reveal? And do they live up to the anticipation of historians, researchers, and conspiracy theorists alike?
The assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald has been a subject of fascination and debate for over six decades. The official investigation, conducted by the Warren Commission, “concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone” in assassinating the president. However, public skepticism has persisted, fueled by conspiracy theories implicating the CIA, the Mafia, the Soviet Union, and even elements within the U.S. government. The 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act mandated the release of all related government records within 25 years, barring national security exceptions. While millions of pages – over 6 million in total – have been declassified over the years, a small but significant portion remained sealed until this week’s release.
The March 17 announcement came during a visit by President Trump to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where he declared; “People have been waiting for decades for this, and I’ve instructed my people… that they must be released tomorrow.” The directive, executed with remarkable speed, prompted an overnight effort by the Justice Department and National Security Division to prepare the documents. The result: 2,182 PDF files totaling 63,400 pages were uploaded to the National Archives website on March 18, 2025, with promises of further digitisation of remaining records in the coming days.
The newly released documents do not appear to contain a singular “smoking gun” that rewrites the established narrative of Kennedy’s death. Historians and experts had tempered expectations prior to the release, suggesting that while the files might offer new details, they were unlikely to “dramatically overturn our understanding of what happened on that terrible day in Dallas.” Early analyses seem to bear this out, though the sheer volume of material – spanning intelligence reports, memos, and surveillance records – means that a comprehensive understanding will take time to emerge.
The documents provide additional specifics about the CIA’s monitoring of Oswald in the years leading up to the assassination. Notably, unredacted records confirm that Oswald was under surveillance in Mexico City in September 1963, where he reportedly contacted a KGB officer at the Soviet Embassy. This aligns with previously released information but adds granular details, such as the use of chemical markers on telephone devices visible only under UV light – a covert method used by CIA operatives to track communications.
One of the most significant unredacted documents is a June 1961 memo from Kennedy aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. to the president. Previously heavily redacted, the memo criticises the CIA’s overreach following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, warning that the agency had “nearly as many people under official cover overseas as State” and was encroaching on traditional diplomatic functions. This revelation underscores Kennedy’s growing skepticism of the intelligence agency, a tension that some theorists have long linked to his assassination.
The files shed further light on “Operation Mongoose,” a covert CIA program authorised by Kennedy in 1961 to destabilise Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba. Documents from January 1962 detail sabotage efforts and assassination plots against Castro, reflecting the heightened Cold War anxieties of the era. While these operations have been known to researchers, the unredacted versions provide a clearer picture of their scope and the involvement of high-level officials.
Several records offer a window into the geopolitical climate post-Cuban Missile Crisis. A presidential intelligence memo dated November 23, 1963 – the day after Kennedy’s death – notes intercepted Cuban military messages indicating the presence of Cuban interpreters at surface-to-air missile sites. Such details highlight the intense U.S. focus on Cuba and the Soviet Union, though they do not directly tie to the assassination itself.
Despite the hopes of conspiracy theorists, the documents do not appear to substantiate claims of a second gunman, CIA orchestration (regardless of the Murdoch media’s “bombshell claim”), or involvement by figures like VP Lyndon Johnson. The Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald acted alone remains unchallenged by any definitive new evidence in this release. However, some files – such as a 1975 deposition by former CIA Director Richard Helms alleging Johnson’s belief in a retaliatory motive linked to Kennedy’s involvement in the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem – add fuel to speculative narratives without providing concrete proof.
The release also includes “57 documents referencing Martin Luther King Jr., 35 of which relate to his 1968 assassination, and 77 documents tied to” Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 killing, though these are a smaller subset of the broader directive to declassify records on all three figures. Trump has indicated that further releases for MLK and RFK are forthcoming, with no specific timeline provided.
Notably absent from this tranche are roughly 500 documents, including tax records, that remain withheld under legal exemptions (e.g., IRS confidentiality under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code or grand jury secrecy). Additionally, the FBI’s discovery of 2,400 new records in February 2025, announced as part of this process, is still being integrated into the collection, with their contents yet to be fully disclosed.
Public and scholarly reactions have been mixed. Historian Jefferson Morley of the Mary Ferrell Foundation praised the release as “an encouraging start,” noting that it eliminates “rampant overclassification” and provides unredacted access to about a third of the previously withheld JFK documents. However, he pointed out that two-thirds of the promised files, plus the newly discovered FBI records, remain unreleased, tempering the sense of closure.
The Kennedy family, meanwhile, expressed disappointment at the release of the files, calling it nothing more than a “stunt”. And a statement from MLK’s family, issued prior to the release, emphasised their desire to review the files privately first, underscoring the personal stakes involved. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal advocate for transparency and Trump’s disastrous nominee for health secretary, called the move “great” toward rebuilding government trust, though he has historically pushed theories of CIA involvement that the files do not conclusively support.
Rachel Maddow, covering the document release, contends that President Trump carelessly disclosed the documents without consideration, leading to the exposure of personal details – such as Social Security numbers – of individuals tied to the investigation. Some of these people, including one of Trump’s own attorneys, Joe diGenova, are still alive. DiGenova is now “preparing to take legal action against the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration for breaching privacy laws and is worried about the risk of identity theft.”
For the broader public, the release sustains a paradox: it offers “unprecedented access” to historical records yet fails to resolve the lingering questions that have fueled decades of speculation. As historian Alice L. George noted, “Americans’ curiosity about assassinations and questions about government transparency add to a sense that there must be important evidence hidden away.” Whether this tranche – or future ones – will satisfy that curiosity remains uncertain.
The House Oversight Committee Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets has scheduled its first hearing on the JFK records for March 26, 2025, and is considering a trip to Dallas to interview firsthand witnesses. Meanwhile, the National Archives continues to digitise the collection, with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard promising updates as more files become available online.
For now, the release of the Kennedy files is less a revelation than a continuation – a massive addition to an already vast archive that invites further scrutiny rather than delivering final answers. The story of JFK’s assassination remains as it has for 62 years: a blend of fact, mystery, and the enduring intrigue of what might still lie hidden.
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MICHAEL TAYLOR
Fascinating Michael ! Not the least how as a kidlet on Kangaroo Island, you first heard of the JFK assassination - and that you had heard of him, without knowing the name of the PM of Oz. The reaction too, of your teacher at the news - her crying. Many of us are in tears at Trump's presidency but for differing reasons. The last time I reported tears of joy for an American president, was when Barack Obama won his first presidency. The latter seems an hallucination. Did that really happen ?
No doubt Trump's minions are busy compiling and fabricating ' secret ' files of the 'conspiracy' to rort votes in THAT election race and THAT January 6th uprising. They will surely be released just prior to leaving the White House ( if he doesn't change the Constitution to a life presidency ) to vindicate his claims.