Conspiracy Theories

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was President of the United States for less than three years, yet in that time he had a major impact on the country and on foreign and domestic policy lasting for a decade or more. Some of his actions produced effects that were beneficial, and others can be seen now as less effective, notably his enmeshing the country in the Vietnam War. Kennedy's presidency began in a spirit of glamour and change and ended in the assassination of an American president. The country shifted from a period of hope to a period of tension, paranoia, conspiracy theories, and a growing distrust of government. In some degree, none of these things was new, but the Cold War era increased world tensions and made Americans less trustful both of other nations and of other Americans. The era of conspiracy theories really begins with the Kennedy assassination, an event so terrible and damaging to the country that many had to believe there was something more to the assassination than the action of one disaffected man. The idea of conspiracies all around us has become a staple in popular fiction, film, and television as well as emerging in news reports of actual events.

Conspiracy theories have actually been a staple throughout the modern period, as Julian Swann notes:

For the general public, Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plot, the 'Man in the Iron Mask' and the Devils of Loudun offer some of the most compelling images of the early modern period. The cloak and dagger world

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that Kennedy was killed and not really by whom or why. Footage that seems self-evident will be dissected in the course of the film, showing that meaning is not self-evident at all. Another image emerges from these opening sequences as we see different characters learning about the assassination--most of the participants who would feature in the investigation by the New Orleans District Attorney learned about the assassination by means of newsreel footage themselves as they watched television in their homes, offices, local bars, restaurants, and elsewhere. The viewer who was alive then likely learned much about the matter in the same way and will be reminded of this by these early scenes; the viewer who was not alive then likely gets most of his or her news from television today and so would also see a reflection of reality in this element. One film critic described the film as follows: Disturbing, infuriating yet undeniably effective, less a motion picture than an impassioned, insistent 3hourand7minute information barrage, Stone's JFK is a relentless indictment of the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of President John F. Kennedy (Turan F1). The barrage of information begins

Category: Government - C