DALLAS (AP) — Millions of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963 have already been released, but U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of files that remain secret.
Trump signed the executive order on Thursday, part of a series of decrees he took in the first week of his second term.
Many people who have studied what has been disclosed so far say that the public should not expect shocking revelations, but there is still a strong interest in the details related to the murder and the events surrounding it. The possibility of obtaining new significant information is very appealing to researchers.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
Trump's order
Trump's order instructed the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to develop a plan within 15 days to disclose records related to Kennedy's assassination. However, it is not clear when the records could actually be released.
The order also aims to declassify the remaining federal records related to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. It states that a plan must be developed within 45 days to release those files.
After signing the order, Trump handed the pen to an assistant and ordered it to be given to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump has nominated to be Secretary of Health. He is the nephew of John F. Kennedy and son of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy Jr., whose activism against vaccines has distanced him from much of his family, has said he is not convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for his uncle's assassination.
In a post on Friday on the social network X, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. thanked Trump for ordering the release of the files and "trusting the American citizens."
November 22, 1963
When Air Force One carrying JFK and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy landed in Dallas, they were greeted by clear skies and enthusiastic crowds. With a re-election campaign on the horizon for the following year, they had come to Texas for a political trip of reconciliation.
But as the caravan was concluding its route through the city, shots were heard from the Texas School Book Depository building. The police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old who had hidden on the sixth floor to shoot from there. Two days later, Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner, fatally shot Oswald while he was being transferred from one jail to another.
One year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, established by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate, concluded that Oswald acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. However, this did not quell a network of alternative theories that have emerged over the decades.
The JFK Files
In the 1990s, the federal government mandated that all documents related to the assassination be stored in a single collection at the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection of over 5 million records was to be opened by 2017, unless exempted by the president.
Trump, who took office for the first time in 2017, had said he would allow the release of all remaining records, but ended up withholding some due to what he said was potential harm to national security. And although files continued to be disclosed during President Joe Biden's administration, some remain unseen.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and author of the book "The Kennedy Half-Century," said that most researchers agree that approximately 3,000 records have not yet been released, either in full or in part, and many of them originated from the CIA.
There are still some documents in the JFK collection that researchers do not believe the president will be able to release. About 500 documents, including tax returns, were not subject to the 2017 disclosure requirement.
What has been learned
Some of the documents already published have offered details on how intelligence services operated at the time, including cables and CIA memorandums discussing Oswald's visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.
A CIA memo describes how Oswald called the Soviet embassy while he was in Mexico City in order to request a visa to visit the Soviet Union. He also visited the Cuban embassy, apparently interested in obtaining a travel visa that would allow him to go to Cuba and wait there to receive a Soviet visa. On October 3, over a month before the assassination, he drove back to the United States through a border crossing in Texas.
Another memorandum, dated the day after Kennedy's assassination, states that, according to an intercepted phone call in Mexico City, Oswald communicated with a KGB officer while at the Soviet embassy that September.
Researchers also said that the publication of documents has contributed to the understanding of that period during the Cold War.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.