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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/27/jfk-documents-what-we-have-learned-so-far
JFK documents: what we have learned so far
The FBI knew of the threat to kill Lee Harvey Oswald and Soviet officials feared a missile strike after Kennedy’s assassination
US president John F Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Photograph: Abbie Rowe / National Park Service/EPA
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Alan Yuhas
@alanyuhas
Friday 27 October 2017 06.03 BSTLast modified on Friday 27 October 2017 11.35 BST
The US government has released 2,800 previously classified files related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy in November 1963.
As readers, historians and journalists comb through the thousands of pages of documents, here is what we have found so far.
FBI warned Dallas police of threat to kill Oswald
The FBI warned Dallas police of a death threat to Lee Harvey Oswald, according to a memo by director J Edgar Hoover, but the police failed to protect him.
“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,” Hoover wrote on 24 November 1963.
“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.”
Read the document.
USSR worried ‘irresponsible’ US could launch a missile
Soviet Union leaders considered Oswald 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 a conspiracy was behind the death of Kennedy, perhaps organised by a rightwing coup or JFK’s successor Lyndon Johnson.
They also feared a war in the aftermath of Kennedy’s 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 ‘happy delight’
Cuban leader Fidel Castro told American lawmakers his country was not involved in the plot, when House investigators visited the island in 1978.
In 1963, however, the Cuban ambassador to the US reacted with “happy delight” to the murder, according to a CIA memo.
Read the document.
Oswald spoke to ‘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”.
JFK documents: what we have learned so far
The FBI knew of the threat to kill Lee Harvey Oswald and Soviet officials feared a missile strike after Kennedy’s assassination
US president John F Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Photograph: Abbie Rowe / National Park Service/EPA
Shares
296
Alan Yuhas
@alanyuhas
Friday 27 October 2017 06.03 BSTLast modified on Friday 27 October 2017 11.35 BST
The US government has released 2,800 previously classified files related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy in November 1963.
As readers, historians and journalists comb through the thousands of pages of documents, here is what we have found so far.
FBI warned Dallas police of threat to kill Oswald
The FBI warned Dallas police of a death threat to Lee Harvey Oswald, according to a memo by director J Edgar Hoover, but the police failed to protect him.
“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,” Hoover wrote on 24 November 1963.
“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.”
Read the document.
USSR worried ‘irresponsible’ US could launch a missile
Soviet Union leaders considered Oswald 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 a conspiracy was behind the death of Kennedy, perhaps organised by a rightwing coup or JFK’s successor Lyndon Johnson.
They also feared a war in the aftermath of Kennedy’s 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 ‘happy delight’
Cuban leader Fidel Castro told American lawmakers his country was not involved in the plot, when House investigators visited the island in 1978.
In 1963, however, the Cuban ambassador to the US reacted with “happy delight” to the murder, according to a CIA memo.
Read the document.
Oswald spoke to ‘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”.
