It was a sunny day of November 22, 1963. The clock was approaching half past one p.m. as the people of Dallas, Texas, were still coming to Dealey Plaza to see the motorcade of the 35th President of United States, a young democrat who they believed will finally lead America into a brighter and prosperous future. He was seating in a black uncovered presidential limousine near his beautiful First Lady, Jacqueline, smiling and waving to the people who came to meet him. Nellie Connally, then the First Lady of Texas state who was sitting before Kennedy on the passenger seat, turned to him and said, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you." Unfortunately, that may have been the last words John Fitzgerald Kennedy heard in his life. When the clock hit 12:30, he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald with a sniper rifle. Indeed, history often seems to be a continuous stream of events and decisions, yet the killing of Kennedy on that day was a major turning point in the history of United States, as well as world history – and what was to come firmly proves it.
Since the days of The New-England Courant, Americans had been considering newspapers as primary source of news for more than two hundred years (Giokaris, 2013). The status quo changed upon assassination of Kennedy, which was the longest uninterrupted news event in television history until the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11th, 2001. Even fifty years after the event, 55% of American citizens use TV as primary news sources while only 9% still turn to newspapers (Saad, 2013).
But that is only the beginning. Presumptions around the assassination started so-called Conspiracies Era; people could not simply accept the fact of a murder (Giokaris, 2013). Theories were different – from Oswald having partners to involvement of the mob, and even led to a film JFK by Oliver Stone. Moreover, Americans did not get less suspicious about the murder through the years: 6 out of ten still believe in some conspiracy around the event (Swift 2013).
Among other changes, several progressives claim that assassination, along with the process of its investigation, produced a longstanding distrust in Americans towards their own federal government (Giokaris 2013). Kennedy’s killing might also have changed American liberalism’s focus from economics to cultural equity (Pipes, 2007). And it still lingers now (Pipes 2013).
The most interesting question still remains unanswered: what led to one of the most important turning points in the history of twentieth century? Excluding conspiracies as a very frail foundation due to their deeply controversial nature, finding the answer remains a hard objective. Maybe because it is not what people are ready to consider – like the psychological stance of the killer, Lee Harvey Oswald. Based on his reported behavior, he might have had a syndrome called “psychopathic narcissism”, meaning he was likely very anxious, an insecure and angry young man with somewhat paranoid or even delusional fantasy life (Diamond, 2013). He might have sought facile infamy or some kind of immortality through going into history by killing the President; or even think he is doing a favor to the whole nation (Diamond, 2013).
Despite of the alleged reasons, a lot has changed due to the assassination of Kennedy. Many loyalists reckon that if Kennedy had not been killed, the escalation of an American military presence in the Vietnam War would not have taken place (Giokaris, 2013). Nevertheless, U.S. might have not entered the Great Society era, one of the most progressive periods of legislation, results of which are seen even nowadays, because Kennedy lacked the persuasion skills of his follower, Lyndon Johnson (Giorakis, 2013).
References
Diamond, S. (2013). Why Did Lee Harvey Oswald Kill John Fitzgerald Kennedy? Psychology Today. Accessed March 20 2014. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evil-deeds/201311/why-did-lee-harvey-oswald-kill-john-fitzgerald-kennedy
Giokaris, J. (2013). 5 Ways JFK's Assassination Changed America Forever. Polymic. Accessed March 20 2014. Retrieved from http://www.policymic.com/articles/74069/5-ways-jfk-s-assassination-changed-america-forever
Pipes, D. (2007). Lee Harvey Oswald's Malign Legacy. Jerusalem Post. Accessed March 20 2014. Retrieved from http://www.danielpipes.org/5136/lee-harvey-oswalds-malign-legacy
Pipes, D. (2013). The Continued Consequences of John F. Kennedy's Assassination. Fox News. Accessed March 20 2014. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/11/22/continued-consequences-john-f-kennedy-assassination/
Saad, L. (2013). TV Is Americans' Main Source of News. Gallup. Accessed March 20 2014. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/163412/americans-main-source-news.aspx
Swift, A. (2013). Majority in U.S. Still Believe JFK Killed in a Conspiracy. Gallup. Accessed March 20 2014. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/165893/majority-believe-jfk-killed-conspiracy.aspx
