Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I thought at first it was a motorcycle backfire from one of the many motorcycles alongside of us in the motorcade.
00:09Bob Pierpoint jumped out of his seat and said, that's gunfire.
00:14Something has happened in the motorcade route. Something, I repeat, has happened in the motorcade route.
00:19The further release of declassified assassination files in 2022 shed further light on the events surrounding the assassination of Kennedy in 1963.
00:34More documents have been released about the presidency, first the context of what happened, then about the assassination itself.
00:42The fact that we could not interrogate him and find out his motive and exactly why he did this has created all the room for conspiracies of all kinds, and there's a new one every day.
00:54We've got different perspectives, but I don't think we've necessarily had anything that's fundamentally challenged our view of what happened on the day.
01:04What's crystal clear, despite the fact that over 4,000 files are still being held classified, the overwhelming fact is that both the CIA and the FBI were fully aware of Oswald's movement prior to 22nd of November.
01:21People have given me a hearing without legal representation or anything.
01:24Can we shoot the president?
01:25I didn't shoot anybody, no, sir.
01:27You should think the shot came from up on top of the viaduct and toward the president, is that correct?
01:30Yes, sir. No, not on the viaduct itself, but up on top of the hill, a little mound of ground near the garden.
01:36So you can see why non-crazy people would wonder about what really happened, and of course many have wondered.
01:42The House of Representatives impaneled a special committee to reinvestigate the JFK assassination.
01:47Their bipartisan conclusion?
01:49Jack Kennedy was almost certainly murdered as the result of a conspiracy.
01:52It is our conclusion, with a probability of 95% or better, there was indeed a shot fired from the grassy knoll.
02:01In fact, one of the declassified documents is a release that transcribes a message given by J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI just two days after the assassination.
02:11What it states is that the FBI were intercepting Oswald's mail prior to the 22nd of November.
02:19Further, the FBI knew that Oswald had contacted both the Cuban and the Russian embassies in the weeks leading up to the event.
02:25Congress found that, yeah, it was a plot. It was a conspiracy. There were multiple people involved.
02:32Could this have simply been CIA incompetence, or does it hint at something more sinister, some sort of coordinated activity between some complex mix of the intelligence agencies and the mob?
03:02There are many different people involved.
03:14There are many people involved in the FBI.
03:16The FBI said that, actually, it is a movie only, but this is a movie only, but this is a movie only.
03:22The FBI said that, actually, was a whole range of the FBI, when it started by the FBI, in the FBI, in the FBI.
03:28Where did all this begin?
03:42You know, as you said, we know a lot about the 20th century Kennedys and their success
03:48and what they mean to us as a country and what they represent.
03:52Where did it all begin?
03:53The only way we can truly understand what unfolded on that November day in Dallas
03:57is to go back 16 years to the inception of the Central Intelligence Agency.
04:10The CIA was formed in 1947, directly after Truman's signing of the National Security Act.
04:16But Truman was painfully aware of the ways fragmentation, disorganization and inter-service rivalries
04:26had contributed to Pearl Harbor, and he wanted to create a new post-war military
04:33and national intelligence structure.
04:37Which had a backdrop of increasing concerns about Soviet Union activity post-World War II.
04:42You begin to get by the late 1940s is this clash of systems
04:46and this sense that both sides are trying to build alliances.
04:50Self-protection is a primary function of any organism.
04:56This is the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States Government.
05:01We watch for the electronic imprint of the enemy's bombers.
05:04We listen for the whine of his missiles.
05:06I think to put this simply, to boil it down, the CIA was born out of fear.
05:21People on Capitol Hill, people in the White House, people across the country broadly
05:25did not want the United States caught napping again.
05:29They did not want another strategic surprise along the lines of Pearl Harbor.
05:33But also this sense that the U.S. needs to be on its toes with regards to the Soviet Union,
05:38international communism.
05:40The U.S. now has many more military bases.
05:43Its presence is global, unlike any other time in its history.
05:47Just as the new Central Intelligence Agency was asserting itself,
05:51a fresh-faced young war hero was taking his first steps into the political arena.
05:56Aged just 29, John Fitzgerald Kennedy took his seat in the United States Congress
06:01as the representative for Massachusetts' 11th Congressional District.
06:06Just five years later, he had graduated to the upper house as the junior senator for Massachusetts
06:11and was already being groomed as the Democratic Party's candidate for the top job.
06:17He's well thought of as a senator and then builds that profile up.
06:22But during his time there, he actually wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Profiles in Courage.
06:28Which we now know was ghostwritten by the guy who became one of Kennedy's speechwriters, Theodore Sorensen.
06:35There's a big thing that gets national attention, lots of television coverage and national audience.
06:41So he's gradually building what is sort of local support into a national TV audience.
06:50Jeff Kaye was making quite a name for himself.
06:53Aside from publishing his Pulitzer Prize-award-winning book,
06:57he was actively promoting the economy of Massachusetts
06:59and fighting against the movement of jobs to the south.
07:03Such standards would be of tremendous importance to us
07:06in not only helping the average man and woman who is thrown out of work,
07:11but in also maintaining purchasing power in this country.
07:15The Kennedys had the arrival of their first child, Caroline.
07:19The celebrity status of the Kennedy family was well into the ascendancy.
07:23It plays to sort of an American ideal of the family,
07:29particularly in the Cold War era, you know, the family, the home,
07:33as the important part of American society.
07:47Reserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
07:52The CIA was an instrument of the presidency, really, during this time.
08:00It was working for the president.
08:01But unchecked in other ways, no one was really overseeing or holding the CIA to account.
08:07There's two sides to the CIA house.
08:09One side looks very much like a university.
08:12The mission of that side of the house is to go out into the world
08:16and understand what's going on in the world.
08:18But then you have the other side of the CIA house,
08:22and that's the special operations covert action side of the house.
08:26And this is where agencies like the CIA go out into the world with a view to change the world.
08:34Covert action can be defined as an attempt by states to influence, impact or change
08:40the domestic affairs of foreign states.
08:42Alan Dulles started his career in the diplomatic service,
08:47then becoming a lawyer and joining the same law firm as his brother, John.
08:50Worked in Wall Street as well.
08:52He loved business, loved, loved business.
08:54And that, I think, is an important point to acknowledge when we consider
08:58and when we look at some of the American covert interventions in the 1950s
09:03and how they arguably served to advance the cause of American capitalism.
09:06Through the 1930s, he was legal advisor to the League of Nations
09:10and met a number of world leaders, including both Mussolini and Hitler.
09:15And in 1952, Eisenhower appointed him as the head of the CIA.
09:19The CIA's Executive Action Committee played a significant role in developments in Guatemala.
09:25The United Food Company had long been a strong corporate force within the country.
09:30They appointed Alan Dulles as their legal counsel.
09:33Guatemala City, 5,000 feet above sea level,
09:37has a population about the size of Jacksonville, Florida, or Fort Worth, Texas.
09:42For many years, these fascinating tropical countries have been served
09:46by United Fruit Company's Great White Fleet.
09:49The United States was using its commercial muscle
09:51to infiltrate countries it feared were becoming infected by communism.
09:55It is considered by many that the United Fruit Company was, in effect, a front for the CIA.
10:03Jacobo Arbenz took power in Guatemala and undertook a major program of reform.
10:09Arbenz in Guatemala, after coming to power,
10:12starts to introduce a lot of land reform,
10:15starts to appropriate the profits and proceeds of companies like the United Fruit Company.
10:21And obviously this is impacting the American bottom line.
10:25In 1954, the CIA, under Alan Dulles, supposedly concerned that the communists were supporting Arbenz,
10:33organized to overthrow him.
10:35I think the basic question with regard to Guatemala is whether or not the CIA carried this out on its own initiative,
10:42in which case it would be wholly improper.
10:44Alan Dulles was absolutely instrumental in the overthrow of their sitting leader in 1954.
10:50Through the lens of policy makers in Washington, Arbenz appears a little bit too left-leaning for their liking,
10:59appears a little bit too socialist, appears even a little bit too communist.
11:03Putting aside his obvious financial interests in the country,
11:07the argument from a CIA perspective was the suppression of the development of communism.
11:12I can assure you that the CIA has given these committees full information about what it's doing,
11:18how it's spending its money, and how it operates.
11:22Carlos Castillo Armas then became president and took about reversing all of the reforms that had taken place,
11:28returning the profitability to the United Fruit Company.
11:31Well, he's gone by 57 because he's a pretty nasty individual.
11:35He very much falls into the category of what we would associate as being a dictator.
11:40In 1957, Armas was assassinated by Romeo Vázquez.
11:45Vázquez had been in the military but dismissed due to his communist leanings.
11:49Rather curiously, he was then rapidly appointed to the presidential palace guard
11:54and then assassinated the president with two bullets.
11:58Shortly after that, Vázquez committed suicide before he was tried
12:01and left behind some Soviet-supporting diaries.
12:05The killer was a palace sentry who took his own life.
12:08Therefore, no one knows for sure who murdered Castillo Armas.
12:12It was this ruthless removal of a head of state by the CIA,
12:16which some will claim later,
12:18was a dress rehearsal for aiding and abetting
12:20in the slaughter of their own commander-in-chief
12:22in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
12:26Lee Harvey Oswald had a troubled education.
12:48At the age of 12, he was put in juvenile detention for truancy.
12:52This boy was first brought into the Domestic Relations Corps Children's Division
12:55here in New York.
12:57He was brought in, as you know,
13:00because he had been truanting from school.
13:02He had been absent 47 days from a period from October till January.
13:07He was an oddball.
13:08I really think it was a matter of,
13:10he felt like he was a little smarter,
13:13possibly better than the rest of the people.
13:15Because he wasn't very personable,
13:17he didn't seem to get along with everybody, talk a lot.
13:21He had a fight with a couple of boys,
13:25and that's how I first saw him.
13:28I went to 12 different schools
13:30prior to joining the Marines at the age of 17.
13:33It's said that this boy had passive-aggressive tendencies,
13:35that he had schizoid features,
13:37and that he really was a boy who was
13:38feeling a deep sense of isolation,
13:41a deep sense of rejection,
13:42and who really had a supposedly hostility towards father figures.
13:46He was then posted to Japan at the Atsugi Air Base,
13:50where they flew U-2 spy planes.
13:53He was court-martialed twice,
13:54once for accidentally shooting himself,
13:56and the second time for getting into a fight
13:58with the sergeant that disciplined him.
14:00He was briefly imprisoned, but then released, but demoted.
14:04He taught himself how to speak Russian whilst on the base,
14:07and was qualified as initially a sharpshooter,
14:10but then taken down to the level of marksman.
14:12The problem is when you have issues
14:16that cross the domestic international line.
14:21So what happens when there is an issue,
14:24an individual will fall under the remit of the CIA,
14:27but also the FBI,
14:28and Lee Harvey Oswald would be one of those.
14:30In 1959, Fidel Castro took power in Cuba
14:51and set about transforming his country
14:53into the first communist state in the Western world.
14:56So Castro's rise to power in Cuba
14:59sets off a whole host of anxieties within the United States.
15:05Castro is a self-declared communist.
15:08Later that year, Castro flew to Washington, D.C.,
15:11where he had a private meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon.
15:15We are not afraid of any idea because we have our idea,
15:19and we believe in our idea.
15:22He wants to meet Castro to see how truly communist Castro was,
15:27try to get a feel for how close to the Soviet Union Castro was.
15:30Nixon comes away from that meeting thinking,
15:32wow, Castro is a problem.
15:35Only answer to communism is a massive offensive for freedom.
15:40Freedom from hunger, from disease,
15:42and a victory for the ageless hope of people everywhere.
15:46Freedom from tyranny.
15:47The relationship between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly.
15:52Nixon wanted to see Castro gone.
15:53So the word is put out to the CIA,
15:55what can you do to help us here?
15:58And the CIA starts to put together certain plans,
16:02certain operations with respect to Cuba.
16:05Assassination is discussed,
16:07but the road they ultimately want to go down is removal of Castro.
16:12They want to remove him by way of a covert action.
16:16So getting rid of Castro becomes something bordering on an obsession,
16:20not just for the policy-making community, but also for the CIA.
16:24But even as Nixon was facing off against Castro,
16:26he was gearing up for his own tilt at the United States presidency,
16:30where his opponent will be none other than
16:32the Democratic senator for Massachusetts,
16:35John F. Kennedy.
16:48Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts, Democrat,
16:51throws his hat in the presidential ring
16:53at a Washington press conference.
16:54I am today announcing my candidacy
16:59for the presidency of the United States.
17:01John F. Kennedy announced his intention
17:04to run for presidency in January 1960.
17:07Kennedy spoke of a new frontier
17:09and promoted the expansion of programs
17:11to aid the poor, protect African Americans' right to vote,
17:14and improve African Americans' employment
17:16and education opportunities.
17:19Kennedy told the convention delegates
17:20that he would get the nation moving again.
17:22He declared that the United States would have both the will
17:26and the strength to resist communism around the world.
17:29One of the big problems that John Kennedy faced running for the presidency
17:34was that he was Catholic.
17:35We don't talk a lot about it now,
17:37but in the 1940s and 1950s,
17:40there was virulent anti-Catholicism in the United States.
17:43He and his team knew that they had to address that.
17:47So he spends a lot of the campaign having to say,
17:51I'm a presidential candidate,
17:53I'm the democratic presidential candidate,
17:55not the Catholic candidate for president.
17:59His father's money is really important.
18:01It takes a lot of money, even in the 1940s and 1950s,
18:05to run for political office.
18:07His links with the film industry
18:08brought him into connection with celebrities,
18:11which then sort of feeds into JFK's later career.
18:18But above all, Kennedy needed to present himself
18:20as vital and vigorous a Cold War warrior
18:23as his Republican rival for the presidency, Richard Nixon.
18:27Nixon absolutely despised JFK.
18:29It was really for a social reason.
18:33Richard Nixon had been born effectively into poverty.
18:38Nixon, therefore, coming out of poverty,
18:41coming out of this background,
18:44he had a real chip on his shoulder
18:46about people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth,
18:51people who had not had to struggle like Nixon
18:55had had to struggle to get to the top.
18:58And who was the darling of the silver spoon group?
19:01Who was the individual in U.S. political life
19:06who personified privilege?
19:10It was JFK, so far as Nixon was concerned.
19:13But in the bitter presidential election battle of 1960,
19:17it was the boy with the silver spoon
19:19who would come out on top.
19:21Has a decision been reached
19:22on how far this country would be willing to go
19:25in helping an anti-Castro uprising or invasion in Cuba are concerned?
19:29Well, first I want to say that there will not be under any conditions
19:33there will be an intervention in Cuba by the United States Armed Forces.
19:37But when he reached the White House,
19:39Kennedy found that the CIA was already hard at work
19:42on a plan to sabotage the Castro regime
19:44and take back control in Cuba.
19:47Here's the White House,
19:48the home and the office of the President of the United States.
19:51Last November, some 70 million American citizens
19:55cast secret ballots to determine who would fill this chair,
19:59to determine upon whom would fall the responsibilities of this office.
20:03The choice was John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
20:06the youngest man ever elected.
20:07I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.
20:11And will to the best of your ability.
20:13And will to the best of my ability.
20:15Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
20:19He's facing quite an uphill battle on inauguration day.
20:25He really has to convince a lot of Americans
20:29that he's the right person, that he can do this,
20:32that he's got something to bring to the table.
20:35Immediately after his inauguration as President of the United States,
20:38John F. Kennedy appointed his brother Robert Kennedy
20:41as the Attorney General.
20:42Who had been his campaign manager,
20:45so he was sort of visible.
20:47Quite a high-profile role
20:49for someone who hadn't had a lot of trial experience.
20:54He then made it a priority to clamp down on organised crime.
20:58Robert Kennedy is trying to convince Hoover
21:00that the FBI needs to refocus.
21:02That actually organised crime
21:04is one of the biggest threats to the nation.
21:08The biggest haven for organised crime in the 1950s
21:11had been Cuba,
21:12with the ability to launder their illegal gains
21:15through Havana's casinos.
21:16Whilst hoping to avoid Bobby Kennedy's crusade
21:19against their interests in mainland America,
21:21mob bosses were hoping that his brother
21:23could wrench back control of Cuba from Castro
21:25so they could restart their businesses there.
21:28Lee Harvey Oswald was honourably released from the Marine Corps
21:42and moved into the Marine Corps Reserve.
21:45Much has been made about Oswald's apparent obsession
21:48with communism and Marxism,
21:50but there's some debate about that.
21:52There are various instances where he was clearly pro-Castro,
21:56but equally there are times
21:57when he's viewed as being anti-Castro.
21:59So I am not a communist
22:01and I think that the red herring and so forth
22:05is rather ridiculous to toss into this conversation.
22:08And are you a Marxist?
22:09Well, I have studied Marxist philosophy, yes sir,
22:13and also other philosophers.
22:15In your work with the Fair Play for Cuba committee,
22:19what are you advocating?
22:21We advocate restoration of diplomatic trade
22:23and tourist relations with Cuba.
22:25He flew to Europe and in 1959 defected into Russia.
22:32He then met and married his wife Marina
22:35and they had a baby daughter.
22:48The toppling of Fidel Castro in Cuba
22:51was intended to be a carbon copy
22:53of the CIA's activity in Guatemala in 1954.
23:09In the months that followed JFK becoming president
23:11and based on his pre-election campaign,
23:14the CIA were absolutely convinced
23:16that he had no choice
23:18other than to support their plans in Cuba.
23:20So Kennedy takes office and becomes aware
23:23that there has been a plan in place
23:26under the Eisenhower administration
23:27to invade Cuba.
23:29There has been tension with Cuba
23:31since Castro took office a few years earlier.
23:35Communist power 90 miles off the Florida coast
23:38does not look good for America's Cold War position.
23:41We have to remember that the intention
23:43of the Republican campaign here
23:45was to effectively wrong-foot Kennedy
23:47to seize public support
23:49by their plan to return Cuba
23:52to the exiles
23:54to suppress the development of communism
23:56on their doorstep.
23:57Alan Dulles, head of the CIA,
24:00briefed John F. Kennedy
24:01with regard to the CIA's plans
24:02to depose Fidel Castro.
24:04And what he did was to come out with a plan
24:06where he publicly announced his support
24:08for the exiles
24:10and the idea of suppressing communism in Cuba.
24:13Suddenly, out of nowhere,
24:15Kennedy inserts Castro,
24:17inserts Cuba as an election issue
24:19into the American psyche,
24:22into American minds.
24:23He basically starts saying
24:24to the American people
24:26in televised debates,
24:28President Eisenhower
24:29and Vice President Nixon
24:31are doing nothing about Castro's Cuba.
24:34They're weak on national security.
24:36They're weak on foreign policy.
24:38Nixon is not as tough
24:40as he's telling you.
24:41And Nixon was absolutely horrified
24:43and put in an impossible position.
24:46But as JFK would soon find out,
24:49talking tough on the campaign trail
24:50was very different
24:51to sitting in the Oval Office,
24:53actually calling the shots.
24:54CIA director had come to the president
24:56with a desperate last-minute appeal.
24:59He knew that the president
25:00had said there would be no intervention.
25:02At this moment in Washington,
25:03the president is under heavy pressure.
25:06He is being pressed to OK the invasion plan.
25:09A major source of this pressure
25:11is CIA reports
25:12on what is happening inside Cuba.
25:14The question is,
25:15does he cancel it
25:16or does he go ahead with it?
25:18He's not seen as being experienced
25:20in American foreign policy
25:22or military matters,
25:23and he's concerned
25:25that if he decides
25:26not to go through with it,
25:27the military chiefs
25:30that he's going to have to work with
25:32are going to lose respect.
25:33The president's experts
25:34have told him to go ahead.
25:36His staff has not argued against them.
25:39The decision is now his alone.
25:43Operation Pluto,
25:45the invasion of Cuba,
25:46is approved.
25:47Kennedy had a major dilemma.
25:50The CIA's invasion plan
25:51had been conceived
25:52under his predecessor,
25:54Dwight Eisenhower.
25:55It wasn't his plan,
25:56yet he had to give it his blessing.
25:58At the same time, however,
26:00he had pledged not to officially
26:01commit U.S. troops to it.
26:03It had to be Cuban exiles
26:05actually on the ground
26:06and then only supported by the CIA.
26:10It was doomed to fail
26:11before it even began.
26:14At this moment in Guatemala,
26:15a Cuban exile army
26:16is being created by the CIA.
26:22A Cuban exile air force
26:24with B-26 bombers.
26:25We were called up to
26:28the General Doster's office
26:30and asked if we wanted
26:31to participate.
26:33And I think there was a group
26:34of about 12 or 15 of us then.
26:38We were not the first people
26:39down there.
26:40The intention then
26:41was to use Guatemala
26:42as a base to train
26:44a group of exiles
26:45to become the invading force
26:47in Cuba.
26:48The CIA trained the exiles
26:49in Guatemala
26:50as their support for the invasion
26:51was illegal
26:52under international law.
26:53And the offshore location
26:56of the training
26:56allowed them to claim
26:58plausible deniability.
27:00But JFK was increasingly doubtful
27:02and it took a persuasive argument
27:05by Alan Dulles
27:06to convince him
27:08that just because it worked
27:09in Guatemala,
27:10it was bound to work in Cuba.
27:12The CIA is riding high.
27:14The CIA has had good success,
27:17good covert action success
27:19in Italy in 1948
27:20and throughout the 1950s
27:22in keeping the communists
27:24out of power.
27:25The CIA has had good success
27:27in Iran in 53.
27:28It's had good success
27:29in Guatemala in 54.
27:31It's doing well
27:32in the cultural Cold War,
27:34radio-free Europe,
27:35radio-free liberty,
27:36all this kind of stuff.
27:37It's confident.
27:38It's riding high.
27:39It's riding tall
27:40in the saddle.
27:41Arguably,
27:41it's overconfident.
27:43On April 15, 1961,
27:45eight B-26s flew
27:47to bomb airfields in Havana.
27:49Two days later,
27:50the exiles dropped into Cuba
27:51and it all started to go wrong.
27:53So many things go wrong.
27:55Just one thing.
27:56It's a catalogue of disasters.
27:58The Cuban forces overrun
27:59the exiles who go in really quickly
28:02and it's a big public embarrassment.
28:04The CIA had assumed
28:05that once the invasion began,
28:07Kennedy would have to use
28:08further forces to back it up
28:09if it all began to fail.
28:11He did not.
28:12Kennedy cancelled
28:13further airstrikes
28:14and the Bay of Pigs land invasion
28:16presented easy pickings
28:17for a largely intact
28:19Cuban air force.
28:20It was a failure
28:21of United States policy
28:22which led to a failure
28:23of United States power.
28:26Clearly,
28:26the United States had
28:27the naked power
28:28to destroy Castro.
28:30But it could not ignore
28:31world opinion
28:32and use this power.
28:34This was probably
28:34the low point,
28:36the worst moment
28:37for John F. Kennedy
28:37in the White House.
28:39And then the blame game starts.
28:40Who was responsible
28:42for the fiasco
28:43at the Bay of Pigs?
28:45Was it JFK?
28:46Or was it the CIA?
28:47So we get this huge
28:48blame game
28:49taking place.
28:51Friends of the CIA
28:52and the American press
28:53start pushing the narrative
28:55that Kennedy
28:56had lost his nerve.
28:58Kennedy refused
28:59refused to give
29:00the invading force
29:01American air cover.
29:02There's an old saying
29:03that victory has
29:05a hundred fathers
29:06and defeat is an orphan.
29:07And I wouldn't be surprised
29:09if information
29:10is poured into you
29:11in regard to
29:12all the recent activities.
29:15Kennedy's acolytes,
29:17Kennedy's friends,
29:18Kennedy's allies
29:19in the media
29:21start fighting back
29:22and pointing the finger
29:22of blame
29:23at the CIA.
29:24Dulles is
29:26he's not fired as such
29:27but he is
29:29diplomatically
29:30politely asked
29:31to resign.
29:32So Dulles loses
29:33what for him
29:35was the job of a lifetime.
29:36However
29:37angry that Alan Dulles
29:39almost certainly was
29:42over the Bay of Pigs
29:44and losing his job,
29:46Dulles himself
29:47refrained
29:48from publicly attacking
29:50President Kennedy.
29:51In a single stroke
29:52by his actions
29:53over the Bay of Pigs,
29:55JFK had alienated
29:56the CIA,
29:57the mob,
29:58his own military
29:58and his entire
29:59national security
30:00infrastructure.
30:02He had committed
30:02the unforgivable sin
30:04of projecting
30:04American weakness abroad
30:06rather than
30:06American strength.
30:08His enemies
30:09would be emboldened
30:10and would be looking
30:10for an opportunity
30:11to strike back.
30:21We know
30:28that the CIA
30:29were becoming
30:29increasingly interested
30:31in Oswald's movements.
30:32Lee Harvey Oswald
30:33of course goes
30:33spends a bit of time
30:34in Moscow.
30:35He actually tries
30:36to speak with the Soviets
30:37who are unconvinced
30:39and sort of turn him away.
30:41Lee Harvey Oswald
30:41returns to the United States
30:43where the FBI
30:44is then in charge
30:46of sort of
30:46monitoring him,
30:48which they do.
30:48In fact,
30:49one of the declassified
30:50documents is a release
30:52that transcribes
30:53a message given
30:55by J. Edgar Hoover
30:56of the FBI
30:57just two days
30:59after the assassination.
31:00What it states
31:01is that the FBI
31:02were intercepting
31:03Oswald's mail
31:04prior to the 22nd of November.
31:07Further,
31:07the FBI knew
31:08that Oswald
31:09had contacted
31:10both the Cuban
31:10and the Russian embassies
31:12in the weeks
31:12leading up to the event.
31:14He would go into
31:15town on his own
31:17and come back
31:18with his Russian
31:19newspapers
31:20that he would then
31:21sit around
31:22with a Russian
31:23dictionary
31:24and try to
31:25translate out
31:26of this newspaper
31:27and apparently
31:28taught himself
31:29to be
31:30semi-proficient anyway.
31:32The issue,
31:33and this is one
31:33that would continue
31:34all the way
31:35into the 21st century,
31:36is that the CIA
31:37and the FBI
31:38don't collaborate
31:39that much.
31:40You have these
31:40international threats
31:41who also become
31:42a domestic one.
31:43The FBI are
31:44monitoring him,
31:45but the FBI
31:46are monitoring
31:46a lot of people
31:47at the time.
31:47They're probably
31:48spending more time
31:49surveying and trying
31:51to find dirt
31:51on civil rights leaders.
31:54Hindsight, of course,
31:54is a wonderful thing
31:55and we can find
31:57individuals,
31:59documents
32:00that can back up
32:01arguments, ideas,
32:03but at the time
32:04Lee Harvey Oswald
32:06was somebody
32:06who was known
32:08to the security services,
32:10but he was one
32:11of many needles
32:12in a very big haystack.
32:13having just emerged
32:23from the Bay of Pigs
32:24fiasco in 1961,
32:26JFK then went headlong
32:28into the Cuban
32:29Missile Crisis
32:29of 1962.
32:31All ships of any kind
32:36bound to Cuba
32:37from whatever nation
32:39or port
32:39where they're found
32:41to contain cargoes
32:42of offensive weapons
32:43be turned back.
32:44The Cold War
32:45was still developing
32:46apace
32:46and Kennedy
32:47had taken
32:47the strategic decision
32:48to install
32:50ballistic missile capability
32:51in both Italy
32:52and Turkey.
32:53In response,
32:54the Soviets
32:54had done a range
32:56of negotiations
32:57with the Cubans
32:58to install
32:59their own
32:59launch pad facilities
33:00so they could locate
33:01their own
33:02ballistic missiles
33:03right on the doorstep
33:05of US soil.
33:06The Americans
33:07had some sense
33:08that this was happening
33:08earlier,
33:10but it's finally confirmed
33:12with YouTube
33:13spy plane footage
33:14which shows
33:15that they're
33:15almost operational.
33:16It shall be
33:17the policy of this nation
33:18to regard
33:19any nuclear missile
33:20launched from Cuba
33:22against any nation
33:23in the Western Hemisphere
33:24as an attack
33:26by the Soviet Union
33:28on the United States.
33:29I was sitting
33:30at work
33:30on a Saturday morning.
33:31We were preparing
33:32one of our ICBMs,
33:33our Titan 1 missiles,
33:35and I got a call
33:36from the command post,
33:37the Bond Wing command post
33:38at Mountain Home Air Force Base
33:39saying,
33:41Lieutenant,
33:41you need to put the missile
33:42back on the boat
33:43right now.
33:44We can't tell you why,
33:45but SAC says do it.
33:47We weren't told yet
33:47what it was about.
33:48We didn't find out
33:49until President Kennedy
33:49made his speech.
33:51This government
33:51has promised
33:52has maintained
33:54the closest surveillance
33:56of the Soviet military build-up
33:58on the island of Cuba.
34:01Within the past week,
34:03unmistakable evidence
34:04has established the fact
34:06that a series
34:07of offensive missile sites
34:09is now in preparation
34:11on that imprisoned island.
34:14The United States
34:15Security Council
34:16then recommended
34:17to Kennedy
34:17that they should
34:18fire their own missiles
34:19and take out
34:20effectively
34:21the developing
34:22launch pads in Cuba.
34:24But rather than that,
34:25Kennedy took
34:25a very, very different approach.
34:27He decided
34:27to sit down
34:28and negotiate.
34:29We got,
34:30Friday night,
34:31got a message
34:32from Khrushchev
34:33which said
34:35that he would
34:36withdraw these
34:37missiles and technicians
34:39and so on
34:40providing we
34:40did not plan
34:43to invade Cuba.
34:44Where Kennedy
34:44cut the deal,
34:45the deal being
34:46Khrushchev,
34:47Soviets,
34:48get your missiles
34:48out of Cuba
34:49and in return
34:51six months
34:51down the line
34:52we remove
34:53and we remove
34:53our missiles
34:55from Turkey.
34:56The Americans
34:56and Kennedy
34:57agree publicly
34:58or state publicly
34:59that they will not
35:00attempt to invade Cuba.
35:02Whilst one could argue
35:03that this was a masterclass
35:04in negotiation skills
35:06averting world catastrophe
35:09with full nuclear war,
35:12it did little to support
35:13either Khrushchev
35:14or Kennedy
35:15in their own countries.
35:18In Russia,
35:19Khrushchev was seen
35:20to have backed down
35:21against the might
35:21of the United States
35:22and Kennedy in turn
35:24was seen to soften
35:26on the position
35:26of communism
35:27on the doorstep.
35:30Whilst the Cuban
35:31Missile Crisis
35:32did much to restore
35:33Kennedy's reputation
35:34as a statesman
35:35capable of holding
35:36his own
35:36on the world stage,
35:38it further alienated
35:39the US military
35:40and the likes
35:41of General Curtis LeMay
35:42who had wanted
35:43to use the crisis
35:44to take out
35:45the Soviet's
35:45nuclear arsenal.
35:47It also alienated
35:48the hawks
35:49at the CIA
35:49who were incensed
35:51by the President's
35:52use of his brother
35:53Bobby's back channel
35:54to the Soviets
35:54via military intelligence
35:56officer Georgie Bolshakov
35:58to negotiate his deal
35:59directly with Khrushchev
36:01rather than using
36:02their intelligence capability.
36:04As far as they were concerned,
36:06Kennedy's days
36:07were numbered.
36:19having returned to the United States,
36:34Lee Harvey Oswald
36:35led an unusual lifestyle.
36:37There are reports
36:38that he had attempted
36:39to shoot and kill
36:40former Army General
36:41Edwin A. Walker
36:42in Dallas
36:43in April 1963
36:44before then returning
36:46to his birthplace,
36:47New Orleans
36:48and establishing
36:49an independent chapter
36:50of the Pro-Castro
36:51Fair Play for Cuba committee
36:53of which he was
36:54the sole member.
36:56While passing out
36:57Pro-Castro literature
36:58alongside unknown
36:59compatriots,
37:01Oswald was arrested
37:02after scuffling
37:03with anti-Castro
37:03Cuban exiles.
37:06Oswald was
37:07apparently leading
37:07an increasingly
37:08dissolute existence,
37:10heavy drinking,
37:11arguing with Marina
37:12and then in September 1963
37:14he headed down
37:16to the Cuban
37:16and Soviet embassies
37:17in Mexico.
37:19On the face of it
37:20he was offering
37:20his services
37:21to see if he could
37:22either go back
37:22to Moscow
37:23or to Havana.
37:25The CIA's
37:26chief of psychological
37:27warfare in Miami
37:28was bankrolling
37:30a Cuban exiled group
37:31called the
37:32Student Revolutionary
37:33Directorate
37:34and we know
37:35that that directorate
37:36was in contact
37:37with Oswald
37:37at the time
37:38he visited Mexico
37:39which hints
37:40at a potential
37:41connection
37:41between Oswald
37:42and the CIA.
37:43Remarkable treatment
37:44that Oswald
37:45received in Russia
37:46he was allowed
37:47for example
37:48to join
37:49a rifle club
37:50within Russia.
37:51He returned
37:52to this country
37:53with favours
37:54that as far
37:55as we know
37:55were granted
37:56to no other person.
37:57The remarkable
37:58statement
37:58of the Chief Justice
37:59that some
38:01of the evidence
38:01given
38:02would never
38:03be brought out
38:03in our lifetime.
38:04This of course
38:05makes one wonder
38:06whether very serious
38:08matters of state
38:09are involved.
38:11Since my son
38:12had defected
38:13to Russia
38:13he should have
38:15been on the surveillance.
38:16of the
38:46Several thousand enthusiastic Texans are on hand to give the President and Mrs. Kennedy
38:55a warm welcome.
38:58The Kennedys arrive at Love Field in Dallas.
39:01It's part of a tour of Texas that Kennedy is undertaking.
39:05Kennedy was convinced that he'd win the 1964 election, but there was a problem with his
39:09running mate Lyndon Johnson's home state of Texas.
39:13So he planned a two day, five city tour of the state to shore up support.
39:21There were so many people around and so few Dallas police officers.
39:26This is one of the first things I noticed was the lack of Dallas police officers.
39:30It seems crystal clear that sufficient precautions were simply not taken in Dallas.
39:35The Secret Service certainly appeared to have let the President down.
39:39The agents were instructed to back off as much as possible.
39:43We tried to stay as far away as we could to make them feel like they were just among their
39:52friends and people along the side of the street and wanted the people inside the street to
39:57feel like there was no barrier between them and the President and Mrs. Kennedy.
40:01I was on Simmons freeway earlier and even the freeway was jam-packed with spectators waiting
40:05their chance to see the President as he made his way towards the trade march.
40:10And there was an overpass we were going to have to go under and I was looking at that
40:13and I noticed there was some police on top and that was good enough for me and windows
40:19were open on buildings and people were on fire escapes on top of buildings, any place they
40:25could be to get a better view of the voter cage.
40:29Governor and Mrs. Connolly ride in the presidential limousine.
40:32And the same was true of the building we passed on the corner of Houston and Elm Street.
40:38It was called the Texas School of Depository.
40:41The President's car is now turning on to Elm Street and it will be only a matter of minutes
40:57before he arrives at the trade march.
41:01It appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route, something I repeat
41:13has happened in the motorcade route.
41:15The preparation of the CIA, the FBI, the Secret Service and the Dallas police force must surely
41:24be called into question.
41:25They should have been on high alert.
41:28And yet simply because of the fine weather they declined to insist that the President
41:32use the bubble top on his vehicle which would have afforded some form of protection.
41:36They also failed to insist on using a couple of Secret Service agents on the back of the car.
41:43Could this have simply been CIA incompetence?
41:46Or does it hint at something more sinister, some sort of coordinated activity between some
41:51complex mix of the intelligence agencies and the mob?
41:55So many stakeholders when it comes to the Kennedy assassination, isn't there?
42:00There's the Dallas police, there's the White House, there's the CIA, there's the FBI, there's
42:05the Cubans, there's anti-Castro Cubans, there's Castro Cuba, I mean it's just, there's the
42:09Russians, there's the Mafia, it's absolutely endless.
42:14And all of this needs to be considered in the tangled web of crises involving the Bay of
42:19Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the CIA involvement in sequential covert assassination
42:26plots through the Executive Action Committee.
42:29For years, this has played into the conspiracy theory that somebody in the inside knew what
42:34was, what had been planned, what was going on.
42:37Seventy minutes after the shots are fired, the Dallas police arrest Lee Harvey Oswald.
42:42Officer McDonnell started to grapple with the man as he reached for a gun which was concealed
42:48under his shirt.
42:49I didn't shoot anybody, sir.
42:51I haven't been told what I'm here for.
42:53Are you the President?
42:54No, I'm just a patsy.
42:55The fact that we could not interrogate him and find out his motive and exactly why he
43:01did this has created all the room for conspiracies of all kinds and there's a new one every day.
43:08The man with a gun, absolute panic, Oswald has been shot.
43:38Or the president.
43:45Have a gun.
43:45Don't let a run.
43:45Or that would've been shot.
43:46Do you know what I'm here for.
43:46Is it aúng.
43:47They have been shot and on receive but will a treat.
43:49So he's back to the shot as a gun.
43:50Bad fingers and downp suk.
43:50Oh, sis.
43:52Oh,침.
43:52Ohh.
43:53I haveießen.
43:54I have�든 man.
43:55I have been способ I take those attacks.
43:55If someone's done anything,
43:57I have been crabby.
43:58They'll go self-man benefit on this job.
44:00You get caught, отправ pensando in too far advance andFL.