Dirty Politics: JFKill

Posted by Matthew D.S. on 01.12.2006

Revelations of the Dirtiest Nature

The eternal flame burns brightly at Arlington National Cemetery. Determined by youth and a resilient administration, immortalized by the assassin's bullet, the flame marks the resting place of the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Yet if the flame burns strongly to memorialize Kennedy's life, the flame that burns surrounding his assassination is that much stronger.

In the hours and days that followed those dark moments in Dealey Plaza, in Dallas, Texas, on 22nd November, 1963, conspiracy theories about the murder of the young President have abounded, and despite the four decades that have passed, show no sign of abatement.

Only 90 miles away from the United States sits a tiny island that is smouldering and has done so on the face of ten American presidents from its inception as a socialist state. Fidel Castro has held off in opposition to Eisenhower to Walker Bush, and also against a direct assault on Cuba from 15 April to 19 April, 1961 by American trained Cuban invaders.

This invasion, which the Cubans were able to repel, directly resulted in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, perhaps the closest instance of nuclear brinkmanship in world history. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev imported nuclear weapons into Cuba, causing President Kennedy to order an armed embargo around the island. Khrushchev and Kennedy struck a deal, whereby the Americans promised never to invade Cuba again in exchange for the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba, and other concessions.

Kennedy, and the world, breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Kennedy would enjoy that sigh for only a year.

Forty years later, and still only 90 miles away from the United States, smoulders a conspiracy theory in one of the most traumatic moments in 20th century history. The Cuban conspiracy theory of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is the basis of German filmmaker Wilfried Huismann's film, Rendezvous with Death.

While I have not had the good fortune to review Mr. Huismann's film, he provides interviews with various officials, including one former associate of the Cuban state intelligence service, which suggests that Lee Harvey Oswald was indeed the culprit, and acted on payment of $6500 and on his own initiative. The murder of Kennedy by Oswald occurred while the latter was allegedly a tool of the Cuban State Security service. Oswald had been suggested to Cuba by the Soviet Union's KGB that he could be useful in some capacity to agitate on their behalf. The result, so alleges Huismann, was Kennedy's demise, as Oswald wished to prove himself a worthy member of the Cuban revolution.

The film does not state whether President Fidel Castro had a hand in the elimination of his American foe, nor has the film been without its critics who lampoon its historical analysis.

Huismann is absolutely confident about the accuracy and content of his documentary which recently premiered on German television. If he is correct, he will have solved one of the greatest conspiracies - if not the greatest - in American history.

The ramifications if known at the time that Cuba was behind Kennedy's murder - if true - would have been devastating. Had the public and those in the Republican Party discovered that Cuba has been responsible, they would have pushed for the invasion and ousting of Castro, which would have riled the Soviet Union immensely. War between the two superpowers over Cuba would not have been out of the realm of possibility, hence President Lyndon Johnson's great reluctance to investigate the Cuba connection any further, so the film alleges.

One wonders what the reaction will be by the wider American public once this story really "gets out" into the public sphere. Some major newspapers (such as the Miami Herald, which I have referenced in writing this piece) have addressed the story, but not much has come of it yet.

Some in the populace may very well point to this revelation as a justification to still overthrow Castro's regime by use of force. After all, they may reason, his nation may have been responsible for murdering the American head of state and head of government, which is an overt act of war.

America may indeed have a case against Mr. Castro's Cuba, but the American state is not by any means without blood on its hands. Many countries around the world may have just as much claim against the United States for the assassination of its political leaders, or the destruction of domestic governments. One need only look to Chile and Augusto Pinochet's instalment as dictator with his military junta with assistance from the Central Intelligence Agency. The result of the Pinochet years in power was over 3000 dead or missing, with nearly 30 000 imprisoned and tortured.

Ngô Đình Diệm, the former President of the Republic of Vietnam from 1955-1963 also fell by the hand of the United States because of their distinct lack of action upon hearing that a coup d'état was imminent. Madame Nhu, who was considered the First Lady of the Vietnamese Republic during Diệm's time in office would famously remark: "Whoever has the Americans as allies does not need enemies;" a scathing indictment indeed.

One must remember that politics of course makes for very strange bedfellows, and every political action occurs for a reason, and never by accident. Kennedy's striking down happened for a reason, as did Pinochet's instalment and Diệm's downfall, regardless of who perpetrated such evil acts.

If Cuba did indeed have Kennedy eliminated, which is by no means certain, even with Huismann's film - Cuba's official paper vehemently rejects the film's claims - they are no worse off for doing so than the United States, or other nations that use the dirtiest of all political tools, assassination.

Former President Gerald Ford enacted Executive Order 12333, which in one of its clauses prohibited American intelligence agencies from carrying out assassinations of foreign leaders. With the age of terrorism inflicted upon the world now however, Presidents Clinton and W. Bush allowed the prohibitions in this order to be relaxed. Foreign leaders, be on guard.

The eternal flame should burn brighter still.

(References: wikipedia.org; the Miami Herald; the Times of London)