UVA Center for Politics releases finding from JFK assassination records
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – The University of Virginia Center for Politics is releasing new details about information discovered from the JFK assassination records.
Larry Sabato, the center’s director, is calling this just the tip of the iceberg, as he expects more will come.
The National Archives released a collection of President John F. Kennedy assassination records in December. UVA Center for Politics announced Wednesday, January 18, what it found from the documents.
“It has much more to do with our relationship with Russia, with Cuba, in the Eisenhower administration, as well as the Kennedy and Johnson administration, and a lot about Doctor Martin Luther King,” Sabato said.
Sabato says it lends detail to things that have been hidden away from public review.
“King was also assassinated in the 60s, and because the FBI was obsessed with Dr. King, absolutely obsessed, and they tapped his telephones for years. So we have a lot of the the results of those taps,” Sabato said.
Another phone tap caught Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who killed JFK, in a call from Mexico City to the Soviet embassy, asking for a visa a month before he shot the president in Dallas. Sabato says it brings to light a previously unknown relationship between the CIA and then-President of Mexico.
Sabato’s team found there was an intense level of secrecy by the CIA during the investigation. Sabato’s students say it’s interesting to study these pieces now.
“Recently, there’s been a lot of talk in the news about classified documents, and that’s been pretty controversial. So, I think it’s really interesting to look at it through historical lens – talking about the Kennedy documents – because it connects to today,” UVA student Jessie Lewis said.
Sabato says it is unlikely they’ll find any evidence of a conspiracy to kill Kennedy, but it’s still important to research these records.
“We need to analyze not just the Kennedy assassination, but everything else that happened in the 50s and 60s,” he said.
Sabato says there are still many documents and work to be done.
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