Face it: Oswald did it

The Economist ^ | 11/22/2013

[ReaganÜberAlles]

FIFTY years ago this week President John Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, a Castro-supporting communist who had learned to shoot straight while in the US Marines. Half a century later, 61% of Americans believe in a conspiracy. Amazingly, this is the lowest level since the late 1960s.

Poster comments: There was no second gunman. There was no conspiracy.

There also was not a herd of pink elephants walking in the Reflecting Pool in DC, but I can't prove there wasn't. See the point?

[beelzepug]

The article says 61% of living Americans weren’t born yet when the assassination took place. Add to that the number of kids who were too young to know what it was all about. And the number of low/no information people running around loose in 1963 and what you end up with is a great majority of the population who don’t have a clue about who did what to whom.

I’m afraid I don’t put much stock in what any of the so-called experts have to say.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m going to have trouble sleeping now...

[KC_Lion]

[Catmom]

It was a random act of violence committed by an insane loser. Same for Jack Ruby.

There’s just something in the human mind that doesn’t want to admit that senseless acts can have profound consequences. I believe this is the motivation behind conspiracy theories. The idea that life can be so inexplicable is too much for many to take. There always “has” to be a “reason.”

[muir_redwoods]

A weak president like JFK would definitely be in the USSR’s interest

[Mr. K]

No, he didn’t

The Zapruder film clearly shows a shot from the front right

And there are hits on the curb and a bystander that disprove the 3 shots theory

[Bigtigermike]

Oswald pulled the trigger but other people or at least somebody probably knew when it was going to happen and said nothing about it which makes it a conspiracy of sorts.

Of all of the wild conspiracy theories, the only one that sounds half right plausible and make sense from a who would benefit greatly from it is that LBJ did it – He was a ruthless and extremely ambitious character according to all that knew him. He lusted for power unmatched by few in his day and he was corrupt through and through. In October of 1963 a Senate Committee that was investigating LBJ ‘s protege Bobby Baker for corruption had turned their attention to the Vice President and his shady dealings. There was rumors in the media that Bobby Kennedy wanted JFK to dump LBJ off the ticket. Reportedly JFK said no but LBJ still felt embarrassed and was greatly concerned about the investigations they could literally send him to jail, in fact on the day of the assassination, some reporters were gathering in NY to discuss what they gathered about Johnson. He was boxed in with no real power that he desperately wanted and knew he couldn’t get as a Vice President. He was standing behind a young fellow and his brother who didn’t care much for him and now investigators were turning up stuff about him. That must gave him the feeling that his goose was cooked, especially if they lost the election of 1964 (the reason they were in TX was to sure up waning support). He had to get JFK in TX where he and his cronies had controlled the state and powers that be.

[Mr. K]

Oswald was a patsy

They set him up to take the fall.

He may have thought there was a plan to STOP the shooting and he was there to help- I think he was a plant inside the commie operations to spy on them, but not a very bright or useful one

So they had him be there for the shooting, and he sat it out, not knowing they were setting him up to take the fall for it

[N. Theknow]

Obama/Hillary-Benghazi=4 dead.

JFK-Bay of Pigs=1400 killed or captured to spend the rest of their lives in one of Castro's prisons.

Same Shit Different Democrat!

[driftless2]

The conspiracy theory people are a convenient red herring the left has used to avoid the conclusion that a fellow leftist shot their hero. Nobody has been able to come up with any other plausible theory that it was not Oswald or that Oswald was a patsy.

What is also quite interesting is the level of hate...not the right-wing hate the leftist media accused conservatives of having. It's the irrational hate of leftists that was directed at conservatives even in those days. And that hate was rechanneled at Barry Goldwater when he ran for prez in 1964. All the bitter hatred of conservatives that liberals had built up since the Kennedy assassination was focused on Goldwater. He was the cynosure of hatred by all the libs who couldn't swallow the fact that JFK was killed by a communist.

[fabian]

you have to be very gullible to not clearly see a front head shot from the video...

[Revolting cat!]

KGB and the Cubans had plenty of agents in the U.S. (the latter still do.) It was said that the Soviets transferred about $30 million per year to their boy Gus Hall (not his birth name), and what did he do with the cash, no one seems to be interested in knowing. Yes, he lived in a mansion, yes he drove a Caddie, but the Russkies were not so stupid to fund some idiot’s high life. How about funding the saintly so-called “civil rights movement”? How about funding the conspiracy theories around the assassination of JFK when everything pointed to Moscow and Havana, EVEN if they were not involved? I have more respect for the promoters of those theories who did it for cash, than for the useful idiots on this forum and elsewhere who swallowed them without chewing first.

And another question unasked. There have been numerous Russian-American couples during Cold War, married some way, who could not obtain permission for one of the spouses to leave the Soviet paradise. Numerous diplomatic interventions, newspaper articles. And here Oswald and his beloved Marina leaving with no obstacles. Why? We are told he was a doofus whom the Soviets were glad to get rid of. Maybe. But Marina? He and she were their assets, no question. Just what they had to do in return for the passports we don’t know, and no one seems to be interested in finding out. No one left the Soviet block countries at the time without signing some agreements, without having to pay back one way or another, no one!

[muir_redwoods]

I’ll tell you this, I’ve been on the 6th floor of the book depository building and the supposed difficulty of the shot has been way overblown. It may have been a difficult shot for a reporter but not for me and certainly not for a Marine like Oswald.

I believe the whole conspiracy meme is an attempt to cloud the fact that JFK was shot by a communist, not a right-wing reactionary.

[bobby.223]

Hey Doc, what are your thoughts regarding the 11/2/63, (In Chicago), and the 11/18/63, (in Tampa), planned but foiled ahead of time, motorcade assassination attempts on JFK? Nobody speaks of those 2 much and I never understood why.

[muir_redwoods]

you’re probably right.

[gitmo]

I noticed flags were at half mast today. Was that because of JFK?

[LucyT]

Hey, here's a *better* thread; don't miss Laz's theories at # 12.

Personally, I wondered if Sarah Palin was involved. /s

Thanks, azishot.

[laplata]

Thanks, Bigtigermike. That makes a lot of sense. Yep, LBJ was a vile man and nothing could be put past him.

[Alberta's Child]

My understanding is that everyone in the U.S. government at the time pretty much acknowledged that Castro was behind it. For many of them it was seen as a legitimate "tit for tat," since the CIA had made a number of attempts on Castro's life during the Kennedy administration.

This was probably a case of one pile of trash taking out another one, but it's the reason why the U.S. will never lift the embargo on Cuba as long as Castro lives.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— believe the whole conspiracy meme is an attempt to cloud the fact that JFK was shot by a communist, not a right-wing reactionary -—

That’s the way I see it.