5/7/2015 The JFK Assassination ContextIn what wider context should we understand the assassination? There are two broadly defined visions of the context of the assassination, and they are flatly contradictory. Conspiracy Worldview Lone Assassin Worldview Kennedy was a threat to Kennedy was a rather conventional politician. many interests. Kennedy had not decided to withdraw from Vietnam. Kennedy was going to Administration officials believed Oswald to be the lone withdraw from Vietnam. gunman. Administration officials The administration feared the consequences if the public knew there was a conspiracy, came to believe that a communist nation had Kennedy killed. or were actually part of it. The Warren Commission sought the truth — although it was The administration feared the excessively sensitive about matters relating to national public learning about the security and the Kennedy family. conspiracy. Bureaucracies have a "culture of secrecy" that leads them to The Warren Commission was conceal records for no good reason, and where good reasons a coverup. for keeping secrets exist, bureaucrats interpret them too When bureaucrats keep broadly. documents secret, it is to Conspiracy thinking results from a psychological process: conceal wrongdoing on their people are unwilling to accept that the assassination had no part. broader meaning. Conspiracy thinking results from government lying and scheming. So then, what does the evidence show? Kennedy and Foreign Policy Was Kennedy going to withdraw from Vietnam, and did the Evil Minions of the Military Industrial Complex have him killed for that reason? Was Kennedy a foreign policy "dove," soft on communism and on Castro? Did Dwight Eisenhower describe an evil Military Industrial Complex that later killed JFK? The Warren Commission http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/context.htm 1/2 5/7/2015 The JFK Assassination Context Was it a coverup, or an honest investigation? Was the Commission's Report less than frank about Oswald's motives? How Government Works Are government officials highly competent, but nefarious? Or are they bumblers who can't get things straight? Is it normal for government to release records in a timely way, or is it normal for government to secret records for a very long time? Thinking About Conspiracy Do normal psychological processes bias our thinking on the issue of conspiracy? Do we not want to believe in a lone assassin? The Suspects Does the large number of suspects in the assassination mean that some of them must have conspired to kill Kennedy? Or does it indicate the weakness of conspiracy theories? Return to Kennedy Assassination Home Page http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/context.htm 2/2