What we've learned from declassified JFK assassination files released by Trump to 'reveal the truth'
Topics: Conspiracy Theories, Donald Trump, Politics, Crime
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Topics: Conspiracy Theories, Donald Trump, Politics, Crime
More than 60 years after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Texas, details surrounding that day have been released by the National Archives.
Releasing the declassified records is something Donald Trump has been promising to do following his return to Office, and the records were finally posted to the National Archives' website on Tuesday (March 18) after the president signed an order saying Americans deserve the 'truth'.
There were initially 1,123 records, comprising a total of 32,000 pages, released early on Tuesday, followed by another release on Tuesday night which contained 1,059 records, made up of 31,400 additional pages and key takeaways.
The documents relate to Kennedy's assassination, which is determined to have been carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald, a Marine veteran and self-described Marxist.
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A lot of the information in the documents was already known to the public - so, what exactly do the records tell us?
Among the newly released documents are details about how the CIA sought communication from the diplomatic facilities of the Soviets and Cubans, which Oswald visited prior to Kennedy's death.
The CIA recorded three phone calls, which took place between Oswald and a guard at the Soviet embassy, but Kennedy's killer only identified himself in one of them.
The CIA tapped telephones in Mexico City between in December 1962 and January 1963 to listen in on their conversations, with documents detailing instructions on how CIA operatives could wiretap phones, and mark them with chemicals that could only be seen under UV light.
The records also reveal how the agency also utilized fluoroscopic scanning, which uses X-rays to show the inside of an object and was developed to detect potential hidden microphones.
The CIA previously attempted to keep these details secret to avoid having their methods go public.
Documents also detail how the CIA surveilled Soviet embassies in Mexico City and attempted to recruit agents to be double-agents. Names and positions of those who were recruited have also been included in the documents.
Elsewhere, Kennedy aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. told the president that the CIA had 'sought to monopolize contact with certain French political personalities, among them the President of the National Assembly' as the agency allegedly sought to infiltrate the politics of America's allies.
Schlesinger's notes also included the number of CIA sources in Austria and Chile.
Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has also been named in the new documents after he was targeted by US covert activities in Cuba.
Pages detail operations to potentially overthrow the leader, with one document from 1964 revealing how two intelligence assets discussed potentially assassinating Castro while President Lyndon Johnson was in power.
The document revealed the CIA had allegedly previously been 'in favor' of the plan, but it was 'shelved' after receiving pushback from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
Robert Kennedy was also briefed on potential plans to kill Castro, according to one document, which added: "RFK asks to be told before the CIA works with the Mafia again."
Almost 80 of the newly released documents relate to RFK, mostly about his activities as attorney general and senator.
Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, but only two of documents that have been released by the government directly mention his death, one of which was an intelligence document from 1968, which was previously released in 2018.
The document discusses how RFK's assassination stoked interest in the assassination of his brother, as well as New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into the matter.
It reads: "The forthcoming trial of Sirhan, accused of the murder of Senator Kennedy, can be expected to cause a new wave of criticism and suspicion against the United States, claiming once more the existence of a sinister 'political murder conspiracy."