(Thechieftainspear) – A new batch of unredacted documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy has been made public, following a directive issued by former President Donald Trump. The files, totaling over 31,000 pages, were released by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, adding to the extensive collection of records concerning Kennedy’s death.
The National Archives has already declassified a vast majority of the more than 6 million pages of materials tied to the assassination. However, researchers and historians have long awaited the full release of remaining documents, believing they could provide deeper insights into the case.
Ongoing Efforts to Analyze the Files
Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics and author of The Kennedy Half-Century, said his team has begun reviewing the latest release but emphasized that it will take considerable time to fully analyze its contents.
“There’s still a lot of work ahead, and people need to be patient,” Sabato said.
Trump, who announced the document release during a visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., stated that about 80,000 pages in total were being made public. However, researchers had estimated that prior to this release, around 3,000 to 3,500 documents remained either fully or partially classified. The FBI also recently uncovered approximately 2,400 additional assassination-related records.
Jefferson Morley, vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a group dedicated to archiving JFK-related files, called the document release “a promising start.” He noted that about one-third of previously redacted records have now been disclosed, estimating that around 1,100 of the approximately 3,500 classified documents are now fully available.
Morley also pointed out that while many unnecessary redactions have been removed, the full scope of the release remains unclear. He expressed concern that a significant portion of the promised files—including those discovered by the FBI—had yet to be included.
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Lingering Questions and Theories
Public interest in Kennedy’s assassination remains high, with numerous conspiracy theories persisting despite the findings of the Warren Commission.
Kennedy was shot and killed on November 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through downtown Dallas. Authorities identified 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald as the gunman, positioning himself on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Two days after his arrest, Oswald was fatally shot by nightclub owner Jack Ruby during a jail transfer.
The Warren Commission, established by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, determined that Oswald acted alone and found no evidence of a broader conspiracy. However, alternative theories have persisted for decades, with speculation involving foreign governments, intelligence agencies, and organized crime.
Among the newly released documents is a CIA memo from its St. Petersburg station in November 1991, in which an intelligence officer recounted a conversation with a U.S. professor. The professor’s contact, a KGB official, claimed to have reviewed extensive files on Oswald and dismissed the idea that he was ever an operative under Soviet control. The memo also noted that Oswald, while in the Soviet Union, was considered an erratic individual and was under constant KGB surveillance. It further suggested that Oswald had been evaluated as a poor marksman during his time there.
Declassification Efforts and Remaining Barriers
In the 1990s, the U.S. government ordered all assassination-related records to be centralized under the National Archives and scheduled for full public release by 2017, unless exempted by the president. While Trump had initially pledged full disclosure, he ultimately withheld some records, citing national security concerns. Under President Joe Biden’s administration, additional files have been released, but certain documents remain classified.
Sabato emphasized that some of the most sensitive records—particularly those detailing intelligence operations and U.S. relations with Cuba—continue to be heavily redacted.
“There’s a reason they’ve kept some sections of these documents classified for so long,” he said. “Many of them could reveal details about covert CIA activities or Oswald’s connections before the assassination.”
Previous document releases have provided insights into intelligence operations of the era, including records detailing Oswald’s visits to Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City just weeks before Kennedy’s death.
While the latest release marks progress in transparency, experts believe it could take years to fully examine its implications and determine if it significantly alters the historical understanding of Kennedy’s assassination .
