LBJ forms commission to investigate Kennedy assassination
On this day in 1963 President Lyndon B.Johnson appoints a special commission to investigate the assassination of President John F.Kennedy which had occurred a week earlier on November 22 1963 in Dallas Texas.According to his memoirs and biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin Johnson knew he had to provide strong leadership in the wake of the shocking murder of President Kennedy.
One of his first official acts was to initiate an investigation into the assassination.Johnson later wrote that in the weeks after the assassination the American public and the government that he now headed was in a state of confusion and disorientation like a bunch of cattle caught in a swamp.He felt the weight of his new responsibility keenly in a world that is never more than minutes away from catastrophe and knew that the whole world would be anxiously following every move I made.On November 29 Johnson issued Executive Order No.
11130 appointing the Presidents Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedycommonly referred to as the Warren Commission after its leader Chief Justice Earl Warren.Since the presidents assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was himself killed by Jack Ruby almost immediately after Oswald killed Kennedy details of Oswalds motive for the assassination remained murky.During its almost year-long investigation the Warren Commission reviewed reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Secret Service Department of State and the attorney general of Texas.It also poured over Oswalds personal history political affiliation and military record.
Overall the Warren Commission listened to the testimony of 552 witnesses and even traveled to Dallas several times to visit the site where Kennedy was shot.The commission concluded that Oswald had acted alone and that the Secret Service had made poor preparations for JFKs visit to Dallas and had subsequently failed to sufficiently protect him.The circumstances surrounding Kennedys death however have since given rise to several conspiracy theories involving such disparate characters as the Mafia Cuban exiles military leaders and even President Johnson.The Warren Commissions conclusion that Oswald was a lone gunman failed to satisfy some who witnessed the attack and others whose research found conflicting details in the commissions report.
Critics of the Warren Commissions report believed that additional ballistics experts conclusions and a home movie shot at the scene disputed the theory that three bullets fired from Oswalds gun could have caused Kennedys fatal wounds as well as the injuries to Texas Governor John Connally who was riding with the president in an open car as it traveled through Dallas Dealey Plaza that fateful day.So persistent was the controversy that another congressional investigation was conducted in 1979.That committee agreed with the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that killed the president and that the Secret Service failed to protect Kennedy.
It did however also allow for the possibility that a second gunman might have been involved but did not pursue the matter further.
