Investigating Motives Behind Popular Conspiracy Theories.
Most people who were alive at the time remember exactly where they were on the fateful day of November 22, 1963. On that day President John F. Kennedy arrived in Dallas to a crowd of excited people lining the streets, when suddenly, several shots rang out and the thirty-fifth President of the United States was assassinated. The United States mourned the death of its young and inspiring President.
It has now been nearly forty years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy and many people are still uncertain as to who is actually responsible for his assassination. It was officially concluded at the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald was a crazed, lone gunman, who shot the President three times, with no ties to central intelligence. Through the years, however, hundreds of conspiracy theories have developed, and with good reason. Many had grounds to kill the former President, including the CIA, the mafia, political extremists, and even JFK's vice-president Lyndon Johnson. By investigating some of their possible motives, it is actually hard to believe a conspiracy didn't take place in Dallas. .
Of the fifteen college students surveyed about JFK's assassination, only about 1/3 thought the government plotted against him, but nearly half agreed that they thought there was more than one killer involved. .
Although many would doubt that the President's own government would conspire to murder him, there are several possible reasons for their potential participation in an assassination plot. For one thing, Kennedy created many enemies with his part in "The Bay of Pigs" fiasco. About 1,300 of CIA trained anti-Castro expatriates were sent to seize Cuba. At the critical last moment President Kennedy cancelled the air strikes which were supposed to disable Castro's air force and protect the exiles, fearing a WWIII. As a result more than 100 of the CIA's men were killed and others were forced to surrender.