Who killed JFK, and why

In my last column, I called for a revival of the American space program as a way to make our nation stronger and bring the legacy of JFK alive in our times.

On this day, Nov. 22, I write for the first time about who I believe killed JFK, and why. I believe JFK was most likely killed by rogue elements of the military industrial complex. I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was one of at least two shooters. I believe that the Warren Commission was nothing more than a masterminded insider cover-up.

I cannot prove that what I believe is true, but here are some facts that cannot be disputed: By the third year of his presidency, when Kennedy reached true presidential greatness, he had become an ardent (and to the military industrial complex, threatening) champion of world peace.

{mosads}Earlier, Kennedy had been lied to before the Bay of Pigs by certain people at the CIA. They promised Kennedy he would not have to send air cover, knowing that was not true, and thought their lies could maneuver Kennedy into sending air cover. And they hated Kennedy when he said he would never do it, and acted accordingly.

After the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy vowed to reform the CIA. During the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy resisted strong pushes from certain generals to bomb Cuba and invade Cuba. Interested readers should read The Kennedy Tapes, which involve transcripts of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council that advised Kennedy during the crisis.

The casualness of some advisers from within the military industrial complex advising Kennedy to bomb or invade Cuba was extraordinary. Had they prevailed, the nuclear war that Kennedy prevented might well have happened. They hated Kennedy for ignoring them. Some of them (including some on tape) considered Kennedy virtually a traitor for his very acts that saved the world.

Both Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev were alarmed by how close the world came to nuclear war. They accelerated actions such as the nuclear test ban treaty and began back-channel discussions of greater arms control and moves to detente.

The right wing of the military industrial complex loathed, hated and feared this. Khrushchev was ultimately overthrown by the hard-line Soviet Politburo extremists after JFK was assassinated. What happened with JFK was that be became radicalized by his experiences, which taught him about the forces within the military industrial complex — here and within the Soviet Union — which he and Khrushchev concluded were driving the world to nuclear war.

By the way, (unrelated I assume to the assassination) Kennedy was also beginning to question the Federal Reserve Board. Kennedy would almost certainly been reelected by a landslide over Barry Goldwater in 1964, which created an urgency for action from within the military industrial complex.

They would have known, as well, that Kennedy was beginning to explore back channels with Fidel Castro to reach some accommodation. They would also have believed that there was a high probably that Kennedy would have withdrawn from Vietnam after winning the 1964 election, which his close aide Kenny O’Donnell once told me personally was absolutely the case.

My best guess is that Kennedy was assassinated by some combination of players from a rogue element of the military industrial complex, a rogue element that included a small group of hard-liners within the CIA and the military who operated outside the regular channels.

I want to emphasize that virtually everyone within the military and CIA, outside this small rogue group, would have been sickened and appalled by any conspiracy such as this, but they would not have known about it. I could certainly be wrong about this, but this is my view.

It is tragic that JFK is gone, but he left a legacy for us to carry on. And because he was president, a nuclear war might well have been prevented by his wisdom and judgment.