WASHINGTON—Thousands of pages of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, were released late in the evening of March 18, revealing details about intelligence-gathering operations but little new information.
While researchers have long awaited the declassification, some are questioning the content of the released files and whether more documents exist or were previously destroyed.
Critics of the government’s slow release of information over the last 62 years suggest that the lack of transparency has created controversy and eroded credibility.
Many of the newly released files describe Central Intelligence Agency efforts to counter Russia and Cuba, including
plans to isolate, “further discredit,” and overthrow foreign governments with coup d'etat missions using “political and psychological warfare.”
A declassified CIA
file from October 1963 instructs agents to offer “no comment and complete denial if specifically asked” about a plot to attack a Cuban merchant ship. According to the document, Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was concerned about a bomb—which failed to detonate—planted on the ship in Genoa, Italy, that he claimed was placed there by the CIA.
In one instance, operatives were
advised to destroy all documents to prevent information from falling into the hands of a foreign government.
Several documents indicate that Lee Harvey Oswald, identified by the Warren Commission as the lone gunman responsible for killing Kennedy during a political visit to Dallas, Texas, was under U.S. government surveillance well before the assassination.
A police mug shot of Lee Harvey Oswald, who was identified by the Warren Commission as the lone gunman responsible for killing President John F. Kennedy. Oswald had extensive contacts within the intelligence community, according to numerous documents. Donald Uhrbrock/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
They say Oswald had extensive contacts within the intelligence community, and foreknowledge of his alleged activities was reported from European contacts to the U.S. agencies in the days and months before Kennedy was assassinated.
According to the Warren Commission, Oswald fired a Carcano rifle three times within 8.3 seconds, with the second and third shots allegedly striking the president.
Russian spy officials in the KGB rejected the notion, calling Oswald a “poor shooter” and suggested the killing was part of an elaborate “coup,” other documents revealed.
According to one newly released
report, former intelligence operative Gary Underhill reportedly told officials that the CIA was responsible for Kennedy’s murder and was found dead by suicide in 1964.
Underhill told friends Kennedy was killed because he uncovered evidence that rogue elements within the intelligence agency were running guns and drugs while also stirring up political mischief, the report reveals.
True crime researcher and author John Leake suggested the former agent’s tragic death likely occurred because of his work exposing potentially illegal actions.
“Underhill was too experienced in 1964 to make unfounded claims,” Leake told The Epoch Times. “I would bet a large sum he knew what he was talking about.”
Then-President Lyndon B. Johnson expressed concern in a 1964 interview with agents that the CIA was “always associated with dirty tricks” and advised the agency to “get away from the cloak and dagger image,” according to one file. Other files show that some authors, journalists, and their families were under investigation, especially those who
wrote about alternative theories to the assassination.
Some members of the media, to the benefit of the agency, avoided certain topics that included “sizable embarrassment potential,” according to a
file related to CIA activities regarding Cuba and Miami, which called the developments “partly a matter of luck and partly because of the friendly and cooperative attitude of these press contacts.”
“However, the situation remains delicate, since, even with much goodwill, local newsmen cannot afford to let themselves be scooped by outsiders concerning stories in their own backyard,” the February 1967 document reads.
Researchers and reporters review documents relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, at the National Archives on Aug. 23, 1993. Thousands of documents, including files from the Warren Commission and classified files from the Central Intelligence Agency were released. John Harrington/AFP via Getty Images
The CIA also noted its
intent to “penetrate” media organizations in countries where it sought to wield influence.
Other nations participated in intelligence activities, with Britain’s MI-5
monitoring communications between then New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, whose story was told in Oliver Stone’s film “JFK,” and a British foundation.
Some foreign governments were also intent on keeping certain files under wraps.
All mentions of Israel or its intelligence service were previously
scrubbed from several documents related to James Angleton, who served as chief of counterintelligence for the CIA over two decades and was subsequently identified as an Israeli spy and forced out of the U.S. intelligence apparatus by then-director William Colby in 1975.
Tensions that existed between Kennedy and Angleton and the Israeli government regarding the Middle Eastern nation’s acquisition of nuclear weapons are a focal point for some researchers who suggest deep-seated motives for removing the sitting president.
A 74-page document sought by researchers describing an interview Angleton conducted with the Church Committee—a U.S. Senate select committee established in 1975—was not included in the digital release but could reside in the National Archives.
Other countries sought to exclude their involvement in any communications related to the killing. Australian intelligence agency head Charles Spry requested in 1968 that Warren Commission document CD-971, which reportedly regards phone calls made to the Canberra embassy in 1963, remain classified.
Richard Helms, then CIA director, responded to Spry’s letter with a
note confirming the agency’s concurrence, saying his points “provide every reason to keep the document out of the public domain.”
Trump on Jan. 23
ordered the disclosure of all JFK assassination documents and those related to the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. (on April 4) and Robert F. Kennedy (on June 6).
“The Executive Order establishes the policy that, more than 50 years after these assassinations, the victims’ families and the American people deserve the truth,” according to a White House
fact sheet.Trump, while touring the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington on March 18, announced that approximately 80,000 files were scheduled for release the following day.
Documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy are displayed after they were released following an order from President Donald Trump, in Washington on March 18, 2025. Carlos Barria/Photo illustration/Reuters
As of early March 19, about 63,000 pages of information were included in nearly 2,200 links to files posted on the U.S. National Archives
website.
A White House official told The Epoch Times that other documents are awaiting digitization and are available for review at the National Archives building in Washington.
Some files are sealed by court order to conceal personal tax information or for grand jury secrecy, and release is blocked until they are unsealed.
“[The National Archives] is working with the Department of Justice to expedite the unsealing of these records,” the office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement. “Grand juries from many years ago have already seen them, so most of this information is already out, but regardless of this, this information will be immediately released upon the direction of the court.”
In total, approximately 6 million JFK-related documents are housed in the archives, most of which were made available for public review following the passage in 1992 of the President John F. Kennedy Records Act, which ordered full disclosure by 2017.
Trump released some of the files during his first term but was advised by intelligence agencies to withhold some other documents.
President Joe Biden
released more than 13,000 documents but twice delayed the release of more classified files, citing national security concerns.
The Epoch Times is currently reviewing the trove of newly released digitized files and documents stored in the National Archives.
