Conspiracy theorists flocked to the infamous grassy knoll and parents pointed toward a sixth-floor window as thousands gathered in Dealey Plaza on Saturday to mark the day 40 years ago when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on a trip through Dallas.
Dallas does not hold an official event to mark the day that, the official history says, Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository with a rifle he purchased for less than US$20, gunning down Kennedy during a trip to Texas he was reluctant to take.
PHOTO: AP
But most of the people in Dealey Plaza for the Nov. 22, 1963, anniversary do not believe in the official history. Copies of a magazine called JFK -- The Case for Conspiracy were selling briskly at US$5 a piece to the crowd of some 3,000 to 4,000 people.
Nearby, a man held a placard reading JFK -- Blown away by the CIA, Coup de tat [sic] in the USA.
The crowd reached its peak at 12:30pm, about the time when Kennedy was gunned down, then thinned out.
Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, a pro wrestler turned politician, spoke to the crowd, denouncing the government's first official, comprehensive record of the JFK assassination -- the Warren Report, which said Oswald was the lone gunman. That report was issued 10 months after Kennedy was slain.
"Eventually, we will prevail and the truth will prevail," Ventura told the crowd.
Most Americans stand with Ventura in believing a conspiracy was behind Kennedy's killing. Recent polls said that about 70 percent of respondents think Oswald was not solely responsible for gunning down Kennedy.
Among those who came to Dealey Plaza were Henry Rollins, 63, of Quincy, Florida, who answered Kennedy's call to join the Peace Corps and first heard news of the assassination in a French radio broadcast in Morocco.
Little has changed in Dealey Plaza in the four decades since the day that transformed a nation. The Texas School Book Depository still stands, although now it is a Dallas County building. The Sixth Floor Museum -- which recounts Kennedy's term as president and his assassination -- occupies the floor from which Oswald is said to have fired.
A plaque marks Dealey Plaza as a national historic site and a white "X" painted on the street marks the spot where a bullet struck Kennedy in the head.
Oswald's wife Marina, 62, still lives in the city and works at a store selling US military surplus. She did not want to be interviewed for the anniversary.
"This year is a little different because it feels like this will be the last time that many of the key participants in the history will be around for one of the big anniversaries," said Tom Stone, a professor at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas who teaches a course on the assassination.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS