November 18, 1963, exactly 60 years ago. The then president John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) He talks with the head of the Secret Service, Floyd Boring, about the security measures he had to adopt on the tour he would make through Texas in his campaign for re-election the following year.

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“It’s excessive, Floyd […] The objective is to make it accessible to the people,” the president responded to the agent’s suggestion that his escort be hanging from special running boards installed in the presidential vehicle during his tours. Finally, it was decided that the guards would go in an escort vehicle.

Kennedy was fully confident that the between 60 and 70 points of popular approval that he had maintained during that year would be sufficient shield. Who could harm such a beloved ruler?

– Five seconds, three shots –

On November 22, 1963, just four days after his conversation with Boring, JFK landed in Dallas.

A blue convertible Lincoln Continental awaits you on the track. His wife, Jackie Kennedy, approaches with the president; Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie Connally.

The pilot and co-pilot places are occupied by two Secret Service agents. The rest of the escort, as agreed, follows them in a second vehicle.

As they had agreed with the president, the escort protected JFK from a second vehicle.

The crowd that accompanies the presidential motorcade all along the way forces multiple stops to be made, in which both couples show their best smile and greet their followers. This, however, delays the delegation by six minutes heading downtown, where JFK is expected to give a speech.

At 12:29 pm, the procession borders Dealey Plaza. A minute later, a bullet hits the pavement. Three and a half seconds later, a second projectile passes through the president’s throat and wounds the governor in the back.

A second later, a third shot hits JFK’s skull. Terror is unleashed. While Connally and his wife hide under the seats, Jackie tries to jump out the back of the vehicle, but is stopped by Officer Clint Hill, who is the first to reach the moving car and jump on it. The car speeds off towards the hospital.

Agent Hill was the first to reach the presidential vehicle and prevented the first lady, Jackie Kennedy, from jumping out of it.

— Death and enigmas —

Doctors at Parkland Hospital pronounced JFK dead at one p.m.; The official announcement of the death was made 38 minutes later.

The country was shocked and full of questions. Twelve minutes after the news of the assassination spread, the police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a former military man who worked at the Texas School Book Depository, the place from which the bullets that killed the head of state were fired.

The slight sense of justice that Oswald’s capture left in some, however, faded just two days later, when local businessman and alleged mafia member Jack Ruby shot him in the abdomen while being transported by police. .

Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered by local businessman and alleged mob member Jack Ruby while being transferred from the police station to the state penitentiary.

Over the years, Kennedy’s popularity remained intact in the world and his death turned the politician into a popular icon. “While November 22 is the day we commemorate the anniversary of President Kennedy’s death, it is also an opportunity to remember how he lived: his service and sacrifice, his defense of democracy, and his commitment to building a better world. fair and peaceful“said this week the executive director of the JFK Library Foundation, Rachel Flor, during the commemorative events organized in honor of the president.

“President Kennedy’s time in office remains a powerful chapter in our country’s history”, commented Alan Price, Director of the JFK Presidential Library and Museum.

This popularity and the shadows that surrounded the case from the beginning, however, made it one of the main mysteries in American history.

Countless conspiracy theories have been woven around the assassination, ranging from a plot orchestrated by the US intelligence agencies themselves to an attack ordered by the Soviet or Cuban regimes.

The official response to the case came from the Warren Commission, created by Vice President and JFK’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. After 10 months, the seven-member panel led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren determined that Oswald carried out the shooting.

The simplicity of that conclusion, which did not bother to delve into Oswald’s past, linked to Moscow and Havana, in addition to the American Communist Party, generated criticism and disbelief in the public.

Conspiracy theories

The lack of credibility in the commissions’ conclusions gave rise to countless versions. These are some.

The CIA would have been involved, either as the author or ignoring reports that warned against it. The US Congress, however, could only determine that the agency was deficient in its investigative work.

It was an act ordered by Fidel Castro, the USSR or the mafia. Although there is no conclusive evidence behind these arguments, they are based on the then current Cold War or revenge for the appointment of Robert Kennedy as attorney general.

In 1976, Congress created a select committee that determined that JFK was likely the victim of a conspiracy, but was also unable to identify details about it. Despite this, the public has shown greater support for the theory that it was an organized attack and not the impulse of a single man.

Polls conducted by Gallup from 1963 to 2023 reflect that the percentage of Americans who believe that more than one person was involved in the assassination has remained between 52% and 81%.

The mystery surrounding the case resurfaced in both 2017 and 2022, when Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, respectively, declassified more than 15,000 files on the case. Nearly 300 more documents, however, remain classified for national security reasons, and researchers suspect the definitive answer to the mystery of JFK’s death could be found there.

International mourning

Peru was in mourning for JFK

Kennedy’s assassination occurred just four months after Fernando Belaunde Terry assumed the presidency of Peru. When the news reached these latitudes, he was shocked.

A crowd gathered outside El Comercio’s headquarters to read the blackboard that announced: “FLASH! President Kennedy was assassinated today.”

On Monday the 25th, the day of JFK’s funeral, Belaunde declared three days of national mourning in his honor.

That same day, furthermore, while the remains of the American leader were buried in the Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia, Belaunde arrived at the María Reina church, in San Isidro, to participate in a mass in honor of Kennedy that included an empty coffin. and covered with the United States flag at the foot of the altar.

Peru was in mourning for JFK

Expert look

“JFK’s tragic death amplified his mystique,” by John T. Shaw*

John F. Kennedy is one of the most compelling figures in American political history. Few leaders have possessed his magical blend of charisma, intelligence, wit and eloquence. His murder as a young man, and at the height of his power, was a historic event in the 20th century. His tragic death at age 46 amplified his mystique.

Kennedy was a son of privilege, served heroically in World War II and began a political career that took him to the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate and then the presidency. His political hero was Winston Churchill, the British politician who was both statesman and academic. JFK aspired to be both.

His presidency was brief and significant, beginning in snowy Washington, DC, on January 20, 1961, and ending in sunny Dallas on November 22, 1963. He was president of the United States for less than three years.

After making initial mistakes, including supporting the Bay of Pigs disaster, JFK became stable and secure. His calm and measured leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 helped prevent a possible nuclear war.

JFK’s assassination shocked the United States and the world. The stark reality that the most powerful man in the world, a young, rich and glamorous man, could be eliminated in a matter of seconds was terrifying and disorienting. It also left JFK’s contemporaries and future generations wondering what the world would have been like had he lived. Would Kennedy have ended America’s involvement in the Vietnam War? How would you have faced the growing political, practical, and moral complexities surrounding civil rights in the US? Could it have helped put the United States and the Soviet Union on a less conflictive path during the Cold War? We will never know.

An essential truth about JFK’s enduring appeal is that he remains eternally young. We never saw him grow old and struggle with the indignities of declining powers and advanced old age. He is fixed in our minds as young, confident, powerful and full of possibilities.

Leaders in the United States and around the world are still influenced by Kennedy. They try endlessly, and usually unsuccessfully, to evoke the kind of charm and charisma that JFK displayed so naturally.

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*John T. Shaw has been director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute since January 2018. Before that, he worked for 25 years as a congressional reporter and diplomatic correspondent in Washington, D.C. He is the author of five books, including “Rising Star, Setting Sun : Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and the presidential transition that changed America” and “JFK in the Senate: Path to the Presidency.”

“JFK's tragic death amplified his mystique,” by John T. Shaw*