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On the 50th anniversary of JFK’s death, the nation reflects on the safety of her presidents

Even after 50 years, the nation still mourns the assassination of President Kennedy | Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Even after 50 years, the nation still mourns the assassination of President Kennedy | Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

It was not a dark and stormy night in Dallas, Texas. In fact, it was a rather pleasant day; it started out with a little drizzle that had passed. The weather was so lovely that a 10-mile ride through downtown Dallas to the Merchandise Mart at noon could not be traveled without having the hood of a Lincoln convertible open.

This open hood also allowed for the thousands of people lined up on the sides of the streets to catch a glimpse of their guest from Washington, D.C.

Just as the procession of cars and buses was getting ready to go under a triple underpass of the streets Elm, Commerce and Main, a shot was heard. Then another. Panic and fear caused chaos among the people, who ran for cover. The front cars, including the car carrying the main guest, sped up and rushed from the scene, leaving the rest of the trail behind, confused at what just happened.

The speeding cars stopped at the emergency entrance of Parkland Hospital, where the victim was taken in for injuries to the head caused by rifle bullets.

Around 1 p.m. on Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy breathed his last.

The month of November is known for many things, primarily the famous celebration of Thanksgiving, but the tragic of Kennedy’s assassination is also remembered in this autumn month. It was the end of his third year in office, and the president had decided to run for another term, beginning the presidential campaign of the 1964 election.

Kennedy had many plans he believed would win him the election, and one of them was winning Texas.

After having already visited more than nine states in the previous two months, the president traveled to the conservative Republican state. Besides the dispute between the two parties of the Texas government, Kennedy knew of another challenge he would need to face in Texas.

Apparently, there was a group of trouble-making extremists based mainly in Dallas. Earlier, when U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson visited Dallas, he was attacked after giving a speech, presumably by these extremists.

But that didn’t stop the president. So after stopping by San Antonio and Houston, Kennedy — along with his wife, Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; and other campaign members — made his way to Dallas. The president and first lady met with many citizens, shaking hands for 10 minutes before they started the drive to Merchandise Mart, or Trade Mart, where Kennedy was to speak at a luncheon.

The Kennedys sat with Gov. John Connally and his wife, Nellie, in the first car with a Secret Service agent driving and two more running alongside. The next car was full of Secret Service agents. The third car had the Vice President, his wife and Texas Sen. Ralph W. Yarborough (D). These three leading cars were followed by cars with other Texas and Dallas government officials and buses of reporters and photographers.

When the procession reached the Dealey Plaza at approximately 12:30 p.m., the first gunshot was fired. It appeared to hit Connally in the chest and Kennedy in the arm. The second gunshot, the fatal one, hit Kennedy in the head. This one is said to have come from the Texas School Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald was sitting with his rifle.

There are many theories and conspiracies regarding the number and location of other shooters, but the one who was caught and arrested was Oswald. He was killed before his trial just a few days later.

The Warren Commission, a president’s commission on the assassination of Kennedy named after Chief Justice Earl Warren, reported that out of nine attacks on U.S. presidents up until then, four had resulted in the death of the president, the first death being that of Abraham Lincoln.

While Lincoln had a bodyguard with him most of the time, especially since the war produced many enemies, previous presidents did not have any kind of protection. They would walk around like regular citizens, open targets for any shooter. The concept of around-the-clock protection was just not recognized nor implemented.

In his book “Killing Lincoln,” Bill O’Reilly narrates a conversation between Lincoln and his secretary, John Hay. Hay worried about the president’s safety and once voiced his concerns about the White House being open for citizens to walk in at any time, making it easy an assassin to kill the president.

Lincoln responded that a very important characteristic of a U.S. president is being a man of the people; he said “it would never do for a president to have guards with drawn sabers at his door, as if he were, or assuming to be, an emperor.” This thinking conflicts with the thinking that a president should be guarded at all times, that the White House and any other building the president might be in should have guards at every door.

The Secret Service started in 1865 as a division of the Department of Treasury to investigate counterfeiting. During the Spanish-American War, it was called to protect President William McKinley at the White House and soon began to go with him wherever he went. Despite this, McKinley was shot while shaking people’s hands at a reception, and the need for a “systematic and continuous protection for the president” arose, according to the Warren Commission.

So in 1902, the Secret Service was given full-time responsibility for the safety of the president. Since then, it is required to protect not just the president, but also other members of the government and their families. In 2002, the Secret Service was moved from the Department of Treasury to a new department called the Department of Homeland Security.

According to President Theodore Roosevelt, who himself experienced an attempt on his life, the Secret Service is “a very small but very necessary thorn in the flesh.” Unfortunately, since John Wilkes Booth showed the world it could be done, precautions must be taken if we don’t want presidents and other leading figures to be cut short in the middle of their leadership and life.

 Opinion columnist Zehra Abbas is an English sophomore and may be reached at [email protected]

1 Comment

  • Perhaps known as one of the greatest murder mysteries of all time, the
    assassination of President John F. Kennedy has for years intrigued scholars,
    authors and the average American citizen. The assassination can be
    classified into two distinct categories: method and significance. Few would
    argue that too much emphasis has been given to the method and very little to
    the significance. This is exactly how the perpetrators would like it to be.
    Photographic evidence along with eyewitness testimony has already
    conclusively proven that JFK was shot by more than one assassin. The Mary
    Mormon photo clearly shows the profile of a shooter behind the picket fence
    on the grassy knoll. It is obviously someone wearing a policeman’s uniform
    {some speculate it was J.D. Tippit}. This was the fatal head shot. Two other
    bullets struck the President; the first one entered at the base of the
    throat and the second struck him in the back. While the positions of the
    assassins makes for a good game of clue, the more important issue is the
    significance of the assassination.

    Many have speculated that the former Soviet Union, Cuba, the KKK, the Mafia,
    LBJ, CIA and the FBI all had strong motives to attempt this. However, given
    the connection of Lee Harvey Oswald to the CIA and Jack Ruby to the Mafia
    along with the altered autopsy reports, the evidence points to a coup d’état
    by the CIA. They did it because they believed JFK was taking the United
    States on the wrong path towards dealing with communism. That is the reason
    why the cover-up has been sustained for so long. The perpetrators honestly
    believed they were doing the right thing for the United States at the time.
    The will of the people was discarded in favor of preserving the nation as
    they saw fit. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize the long term effects of
    the assassination. One result was the increased power of capitalism over
    democracy. Profit has become more important than freedom. Corporations are
    more concerned with increasing the wealth of a select few than with
    promoting the general welfare of the very nation that allows them to conduct
    business. A second result has been the subordination of this nation’s civil
    liberties to the private agendas of the powers that be. The only opinions
    that are accepted today are those that further the bottom line. Contrary
    opinions are discouraged and distorted by spin doctors. The only explanation
    for the lack of attention given to the significance of the assassination is
    because the government, the military and the media all know what happened
    and to expose the event for what it really was goes to the central core of
    what constitutes the United States of America.

    Joe Bialek

    http://www.elfindematrix.com/2012_09_01_arc {click Translate to English on the left}

    PS: I had the occasion back in November of 1993 to speak {via phone} with one of the eyewitnesses standing directly across from the grassy knoll when the shot was fired. Her name was Jean Hill. I was watching a PBS “As it Happened” documentary covering the 30th anniversary of the assassination. To my surprise her phone number was listed and I spoke with her for a few moments. She stated “the shot fired from the grassy knoll was as clear as daylight” and that coincidently she was just back from visiting Cleveland on a book tour. I thanked her for her time and then realized how I was able to touch history. Let us hope that this event will have it’s own “deep throat” come forward to reveal what truly happened. If that happens then the truth will have finally set us free.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Hill

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