The year is 1963, the most common baby name is Michael, ‘Surfin’ USA’ is the best song ever created, and the President of the United States was just assassinated. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas, perhaps killed by those within the government he was running. According to thousands of people influenced by conspiracy theorists JFK was killed by the CIA for several reasons: firstly that he was a president weak on communism, especially evident in his refusal to provide air support for the Bay of Pigs Invasion, secondly that the CIA is the only organization within the United States that can carry out operations without the oversight or knowledge of the president, and lastly that they can be connected to several theories about the carrying out of the assassination. In the JFK Conspiracy, the CIA is the commonly blamed party for the assassination of John F. Kennedy. As a powerful, prevalent, and oftentimes perceived as controlling organization the CIA is a perfect example of the ‘enemy above’, especially within the context of the JFK conspiracy theory as the accused facilitator of the assassination.
A conspiracy theory is defined as “a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators” (Merriam-webster.com), as described by Jesse Walker these ‘powerful conspirators’ can take many forms. The first ‘enemy outside’ comes from the idea that enemies can take the form of someone outside of a given group, such as communist governments like the Soviet Union and Cuba. Second Walker identifies an ‘enemy below’ as the group that is frequently blamed for tragedies, for example, in the JFK CIA Conspiracy, conspiracy theorists identify ‘three tramps’ as potential conspirators or even the true assassins of JFK, pushing the blame onto a ‘lesser’ group. Next Walker highlights the ‘enemy within’, which describes the blame being pushed onto a group of people that walk among common people; frequently this creates a paranoia that people are trying to undo or affect society without being discovered because these people can hide in plain sight among common people. Walker also explains the ‘benevolent conspiracy’, which describes a war between good and evil “behind the scenes” so to speak, for example, God and his angels have been described as being in a war against Satan and his demons, and this battle has gone on forever without the common world realizing it’s going on. Finally, the last and most relevant to the JFK Conspiracy enemy that Walker identifies is the ‘enemy above’, which can either describe a supernatural, extraterrestrial, or powerful source of liability for given circumstances within a conspiracy theory. The archetypes can help explain and demonstrate differences between different conspiracy theories by distinguishing the blamed parties for each aspect of a theory. For example, within the JFK conspiracy theories, the different people accused bounced from the blaming of three tramps to the CIA, which are widely different types of enemies, the three tramps being the enemy below and the CIA being the enemy above.
According to the JFK CIA Conspiracy, anti-communists and anti-Castro extremists within the CIA had President Kennedy assassinated because Kennedy was planning on alleviating conflict with both Cuba and the Soviet Union. This storyline supports the ideology that The United States as a capitalist nation, as well as a sort of ‘international police’, had the obligation to stay involved in these conflicts. The blame for this horrendous act is passed to the CIA through three different theories surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
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The first of these theories is one dubbed the Clay Shaw Theory. This theory accentuates the idea that the CIA used a business, Permindex, as a front for their mischievous acts. This theory was founded by Jim Garrison, the lawyer who charged Clay Shaw with being involved with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and was founded not guilty. Conspiracy theorists were unconvinced by this, however, and claim that Clay Shaw not only was involved in the assassination but also worked for the CIA through the front of the international trading company, Permindex. Other support of this theory comes from a video of Lee Harvey Oswald handing out pro-Castro leaflets in front of the New Orleans International Trade Mart with Shaw depicted in the background, linking the two parties and further linking Oswald to the CIA. In addition, during the trial Garrison called a witness, Perry Russo, an insurance salesman to the stand; Russo stated that he was introduced to Oswald as ‘Leon Oswald’ and Shaw as ‘Clay Bertrand’ at a party of an anti-Castro activist where he claims that the two discussed their plan for assassinating Kennedy. Identifying specifics of the conversation for the ‘triangulation of crossfire’ and alibis for the conspirators.
Another theory that emerged among the constantly released CIA documents regarding the assassination is the Second Oswald Theory, which identifies that there were in fact two Lee Harvey Oswalds and that the CIA set one of them up. The two Oswalds differed radically, the first, given by conspiracy theorists the name ‘Harvey’ was the child of Hungarian parents, spoke Russian, and was pro-communism, the second, ‘Lee’, was from the southern United States, didn’t support communism, and didn’t speak any Russian. Theorists believe that Harvey was the man who was framed for the assassination by the CIA, had traveled to Russia, and was shot by Jack Ruby. Whereas Lee was the man that the CIA had been involved with and who actually had assassinated the president. These claims are supported by the records stating that Oswald visited the Cuban-Soviet embassies and was described as, unlike the actual Lee Harvey Oswald, who was arrested. Next, the man who visited the USSR was described as ‘speaking very poor Russian’, but in fact, the actual Lee Harvey Oswald could speak Russian fluently. The most convincing piece of evidence however comes from the conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson and an investigator of the assassination: “LBJ: ‘Have you established any more about [Oswald's] visit to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico in September?’. Hoover: ‘No, that's one angle that's very confusing for this reason. We have up here the tape and the photograph of the man who was at the Soviet Embassy, using Oswald's name. That picture and the tape do not correspond to this man's voice, nor his appearance. In other words, it appears that there is a second person who was at the embassy down there’” (document declassified from the National Archives, Oct. 26, 1993). This tape demonstrates the fact that even the investigator of the assassination was unsure of the identity of the man who was arrested and later killed by Jack Ruby. Finally, Oswald’s wife had the body of Oswald exhumed after his burial due to the questions and criticism from the American public. The casket was cracked open and appeared to be broken into, the mortician also stated that Oswald’s head had been severed from his body, leading many to believe that the CIA had in fact broken into and replaced the head of Oswald to hide their involvement.
Finally, the CIA has been linked to the assassination of JFK due to a theory called the Three Tramps Theory. This theory identifies three people allegedly arrested adjacent to Dealey Plaza shortly after the assassination of the president. The three tramps were identified by conspiracy theorists as E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, and Fred Crisman. E. Howard Hunt was a man involved in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and worked in the White House as a plumber during President Nixon’s Watergate scandal. In addition, Hunt admitted that he was involved in the assassination on his deathbed to his son, who released a biography of Hunt. The second tramp was identified as Frank Sturgis, who was also implicated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Watergate burglary. Sturgis was also involved in the assassination, according to Hunt’s confession, and his ex-girlfriend identified him as a gunman in the assassination. The third tramp, Fred Crisman, testified in the Clay Shaw case and often would write about conspiracy theories and paranormal activities himself. The record of this arrest is also under investigation by conspiracy theorists because of the lack of an arrest record of the three tramps who were photographed walking into the police station shortly after the murder of President Kennedy.
These theories support the idea that the CIA was involved, and in some cases, planned the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and even went to great lengths to hide their involvement. Both theories highlight the potential involvement of an ‘enemy above’ and often employ the manipulation of the ‘enemy below’ and the ‘enemy within’ with the use of a common person to actually commit the murder. According to conspiracy theorists, the CIA was motivated by multiple selfish factors and acted upon them, even though they were acting against the principles of the American people. This case has given birth to a series of generations who live in a state of fear and distrust of their own government, going to great lengths to find the truth and, despite the promise of releasing relevant information, have refused to give up a percentage of materials regarding the investigations and particulars of the case.
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