In November 1963, US President Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets. There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the murder. Washington is now releasing more confidential documents about the attack. The papers deal, among other things, with the travels of assassin Oswald before the crime.
Around six decades after the assassination of then US President John F. Kennedy, the government in Washington released thousands of other secret documents on the case. The US National Archives released more than 13,000 documents on Thursday. This means that 97 percent of the approximately five million pages stored in the National Archives on the assassination of "JFK" have now been released.
The documents published on Thursday - according to the National Archives exactly 13,173 - deal, among other things, with the international travels and contacts of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in the weeks, months and years before the crime.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said a “limited” number of documents would remain classified. This is necessary to prevent "damage to military defense, secret service operations, police work or foreign policy".
Kennedy was fatally shot on November 22, 1963 while driving in an open car in Dallas, Texas. After Kennedy's death, an official investigation came to the conclusion that the 46-year-old US Democrat was shot dead by the lone gunman Oswald, who in turn was killed two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
To this day, there are numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination attempt on the charismatic president, which caused outrage around the world. There is speculation that the communist sympathizer Oswald was sent to Kennedy by Cuba or the Soviet Union - or by groups hostile to Cuba with the help of the Federal Police FBI. Others believe political rivals may be behind the president's assassination.
The discussion about the background to the Kennedy assassination flared up, among other things, with the film "JFK - Tatort Dallas" by US director Oliver Stone from 1991. The following year, a law ordered the publication of almost all documents on Kennedy's death - a total of more than five million pages - within 25 years, i.e. by 2017. Exceptions are possible for reasons of national security.
A year ago, the Biden government had already released around 1,500 documents. Biden's predecessor Donald Trump had released more than 53,000 documents in seven tranches.
