The murder of JFK: What really happened?
This week includes the 48th anniversary of the date when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. When the 50th anniversary of November 22, 1963, comes around, we can expect another flood of accounts trying to explain something that can probably never be explained to the satisfaction of everyone. Almost without exception, those who had reached the age of political awareness on that date seem to have almost total recall of where they were and what they were doing on November 22, 1963.
When the fateful shots were fired, due to the time difference, it was already evening in Augsburg, West Germany. The 24th Infantry Division was holding a promotion party for a dozen or so recently promoted officers. The officers’ club was packed, the men in their Dress Blue uniforms, the ladies in their nice cocktail dresses. All seemed well.
At some point, this writer happened to stroll through the foyer where several horror-stricken couples were gazing in disbelief at a TV set. At that moment, the public address system blared out a voice ordering all units to proceed immediately to their alert areas.
Within the hour, tanks and armored personnel carriers were pouring out of the motor pools, speeding through the cobbled streets of Augsburg and then deep into the Bavarian forests to our alert areas. There was no time to change into combat gear. So, many of the armored personnel carriers, to include mine, were commanded by officers still wearing their Dress Blue uniforms. Were it not for the seriousness of the situation, the sight of tankers’ helmets worn with Dress Blue uniforms might have provoked the startled German burghers to laughter. After we reached our alert area and all personnel and vehicles accounted for, it was time to dig into the alert bag and swap Dress Blues for combat fatigues and steel helmets.
No one knew who or what was behind the assassination of the Commander-in-Chief. Naturally, the Soviets were high on the suspect list. For that reason, we stayed in the woods for the next few days and nights, checking our weapons, and reviewing plans to withstand a Soviet invasion. Soon after we were told that Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the order came to stand down.
Months later, we read about the Warren Commission. We thought that was the end of the story. But it was not. As more classified documents are released, as more memoirs become available, as more reexaminations are made of the Warren Commission Report, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the Rockefeller Commission, the Ramsey Clark Panel, a study by ABC News, and almost countless other investigations, it becomes ever more clear that someone was manipulating Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby.
David Kaiser’s non-fiction, The Road to Dallas, and E. Duke Vincent’s fictionalized, The Camelot Conspiracy opened the eyes of my co-author and mine to the idea of writing a novel that incorporates the available facts and then weaves those facts into a plausible explanation of what led to the JFK assassination and to its aftermath. Our plan is to have this new novel available via Amazon.com and Kindle by 2013.
We have already read so many commission reports and studies that our heads are about to explode. But we think the effort will be worthwhile if, for no other reason, we come to a better understanding of the origins of both World War II and of the Vietnam War. Yes, we already think World War II lit a long fuse that burned all the way to November 22, 1963. The explosions changed the lives of millions of people world-wide and ended the lives of 58,272 young Americans. There is a place in Washington, D.C. where you can read their names.
Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.
©2011. William Hamilton.
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