The Cubans:
Realistic Cuban exiles could see the writing on the wall in 1963 and may have
wanted revenge. So these desperate men, no strangers to violence, had Kennedy assassinated, and left Oswald, who was somehow
duped into following them, as the patsy. This is probably the weakest theory. While the exiles had the means and reason to
kill Kennedy, and little to lose, it seems impossible that they could have escaped the police, covered up their role, and
arranged for Ruby to silence Oswald. The Cuban exile community was so riddled with CIA infiltrators in the '60s that U.S would
likely have noticed any plot. The idea of Cuban exiles acting under CIA guidance is rather more interesting, but that's another
story.
The more common theory is that Fidel Castro had Kennedy murdered in reprisal for numerous attempts on his own
life by the Mafia and Cuban counterrevolutionaries, both of whom were acting at the behest of Kennedy's CIA. The Bay of Pigs
and Cuban missile crisis only strengthened Castro's belief that he was in a kill-or-be-killed situation.
The
K.G.B.:
This version of events offers the most interesting explanation for the Warren Commission cover-up.
Most likely President Johnson, on learning of Russian involvement, ordered the Commission not to overturn it. If it were learned
that the K.G.B. controlled Oswald, the American public would demand war. The Democrats, afraid to appear soft on communism
during an election year, would be forced to start World War III. Professor Revilo Oliver, whose account merited 123 pages
of space in the Warren Report, offered a variation of the K.G.B. explanation. Oliver Stone explained that the international
communist conspiracy killed Kennedy because he was not serving it as efficiently as he had promised. Kennedy was behind schedule
in delivering America to communism and was eliminated when the conspiracy learned that he planned to turn American. Stone
concluded by noting sorrowfully that while Kennedy, a communist tool, was the object of national grief, not a tear was shed
in this country over the sad end of Adolph Hitler.
The Mafia:
This theory requires a deeper look into the policies of Kennedy
and his Attorney General and brother, Robert. The Kennedys took a much more aggressive stance against organized crime than
previous presidents. Robert Kennedy had earned the resentment of Teamster's Union boss Jimmy Hoffa, as well as other mafia
members, during his probes and racketeering prosecutions.
The
mob also had a Cuban connection. Before the Castro revolution, U.S. mobsters had a profitable stake in the Havana casinos
and were doing whatever they could to get it back. Mafia families funnelled money to the Cuban exiles, knowing their payback
would come with Castro deposed. It's rumoured that the CIA employed mob hit men to do away with Castro. La Cosa Nostra was
understandably irritated at the shabby treatment they received in return from the Kennedys. If rumours that JFK shared a mistress
with mobster Sam Giancana are true, perhaps jealousy had something to do with Kennedy's death.
The
U.S. Government:
This theory is the choice of all discriminating conspiracy hepcats,
both because of the hoopla surrounding Oliver Stone's film JFK and because it's such a grand theory, explaining away all disagreement
while accommodating maximum paranoia. It also has the advantage of being so shocking and implausible that it just might be
true.
The most probable story
is that a CIA faction decided to do away with Kennedy for one of three reasons: a) that he gave away Cuba, a country on which
the Agency had worked so hard and in whose struggle the renegades had become personally involved; b) to prevent him from doing
the same with Vietnam; or c) as a response to a wave of firings Kennedy had ordered in the Bay of Pigs aftermath, starting
with CIA director Allen Dulles (who, served on the Warren Commission), and out of fear that Kennedy was going to eviscerate
the intelligence establishment for misleading him about Cuba. In response to the charge that it would be incredible that a
government branch could pull off anything as efficiently as the Kennedy assassination and cover-up, it should be remembered
that the CIA of 1963 was an entirely different animal from what it is today.
