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That's a pretty apples and squash analysis. Let's examine this from another perspective. Suppose you fill out your IRS return, then seal the records and refuse to open them for an audit. If you have nothing to hide, then why are you hiding your records?

The Kennedy assassination records have never been closed to official government investigators. They are only sealed from the public at large. I would open my IRS records for an IRS audit, but I would not post them here on FR for everyone to look at.

I don't believe any of the stories we were fed by the government about the reasons for the records to have been sealed.

The stated reason is to protect the privacy of the Kennedy family.

1. If there is nothing for the government to hide, why did they have to be sealed? This is not a privacy issue, these are historical public records, developed and collected at the public expense. We own them and we have a right to them.

It IS a privacy issue. The 2000 census return forms are "historical public records, developed and collected at the public expense. We own them [as well] and we have a right to them" too you know. Just as with the Kennedy records, they will be released when the people involved are dead. After that they will be available to their descendents and the American people.

2. If we buy into the notion that the records were sealed to protect the family, then why only a period of 75 years?

Because all of the direct relatives of JFK are expected to be dead by then.

Why not forever?

WTF? What point would that serve? You just got finished arguing the opposite.

IMO, 75 years is a convenient period of time for all of the principals involved in the assassination to be dead, as well as most Americans who were alive at the time.

Well, duh. That's the whole point that that is a time period for the immediate family members to no longer be with us. Do you seriously think that the present generation would overthrow the government if they found out LBJ was involved, but your children would not -- that they would simply flip over to watch "Terminator 12" on the other channel after hearing that LBJ was involved way back when on the news? Get real.

Why have they chosen 70 years as the time to keep census records sealed? Why not forever? Same reason here.

"The Kennedy assassination records have never been closed to official government investigators. They are only sealed from the public at large."

Sealed means just that. Government investigators have no more access to them than you or I. Let me ask you, was the affair between BJC and Monica a private sexual affair between two adults, or was it philandering by a sexual predator conducted while both were on our dime? One side claims that it was a private matter, another side claims that it is a public matter.

"The stated reason is to protect the privacy of the Kennedy family."

In case you haven't figured it out, the government lies. And, during the 60s, we found out just how much the government lies. To believe that they would seal the Warren Commission records for 75 years from public scrutiny to "protect the family" is naive. In light of the controversy that has continued for over 40 years and the discrepancies in the official government story that are so big you could drive a fleet of trucks through it and all of the US aircraft carrier fleet without touching the sides. If the Warren Commission report was so factually correct, the government COULD have allowed designated, trusted investigators to review the records (according to your theory) and determine if the records support the report.

Look at the evidence that exists of government dirty doing:
1. All of the medical records from Parkland were seized and the staff ordered not to speak about what they knew. If there was no cover-up, why was this step taken?
2. Kennedy's body was placed aboard AF1 in Dallas in one casket and removed in Washington in another. The fate of the original casket has never been revealed. What happened to it and why?
3. The autopsy records from Bethesda are known to be markedly different from preliminary records made at Parkland. Exit/entry wound locations recorded at Parkland are known to have been altered in the "official" autopsy conducted by Bethesda. Parkland is not a podunk hospital, it is a well-known, well-credited teaching hospital in the region and residents and interns would not have been assigned to the President's care.
4. If we believe the Warren Commission and the single bullet theory, how do they account for the bullet (which I believe is the one called CE 399) that was found on the floor of the presidential limousine while it was at Parkland? According to the Warren Commission, one bullet missed, the magic bullet struck both JFK and Gov. Connally, and the last bullet removed the back of his head. Where did CE 399 come from?
5. If there was no cover-up, why were all cameras (except Zapruder's due to an error on the Secret Service's part) at Dealy Plaza confiscated and neither the film nor the developed photos were ever returned to any of the people from whom they were taken. If the investigation into the assassination were on the up-and-up and the photos were needed as evidence, why weren't the photos or duplcates returned to the owners? What did they show that the government didn't want us to see?
6. There was another film of the assassination taken from one of the office buildings across from Dealy Plaza that has rarely been seen and records the assassination from an entirely different angle. What's on it that the government doesn't want us to see?

If there was no cover-up, all of these questions would have been laid to rest along with JFK decades ago.

"Well, duh. That's the whole point that that is a time period for the immediate family members to no longer be with us. Do you seriously think that the present generation would overthrow the government if they found out LBJ was involved, but your children would not -- that they would simply flip over to watch "Terminator 12" on the other channel after hearing that LBJ was involved way back when on the news? Get real."

Me get real!!?? Take a dose of your own medicine. What would be the point of overthrowing the government after 75 years if it is revealed that LBJ was involved in the assassination? Do we just say "King's X", the last 75 years don't count? When those records are unsealed (perhaps in your lifetime, certainly not in mine) you will discover the truth about the assassination. If we hope for the best scenario (yours) that everything on the Warren Commission was on the up-and-up, then everyone walks away satisfied. If the records reveal something entirely different (as I believe that they will), then what? I don't believe that we are in danger of overthrowing the government over it (place events in perspective - are we likely to overthrow the government as the result of events that occurred in 1928?). People won't be happy and they may require future investigations of this type include civilian monitors or auditors to ensure that everything is aboveboard but, realistically, what can we do?

I believe that the records were sealed for 75 years to protect the JOHNSON family (NOT the Kennedys). THAT'S the family that the 75 years is intended to protect. LBJ could have cared less about the feelings of the Kennedys. If he was so compassionate, why was Jackie forced to stand next to him on AF1 while the oath of office was administered with her murdered husband only feet away in the rear of the aircraft? Doesn't sound too compassionate to me.