In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14176, directing the declassification of all remaining documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The JFK assassination files just got another big release in which over 80,000 pages of previously classified documents were made public. This is part of the ongoing effort to finally let people see what the government has been holding onto for decades. Most of the files focus on Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who was officially blamed for JFK’s murder. There are reports about his movements before the assassination, his attempts to get visas to Cuba and the Soviet Union, and the CIA’s surveillance of him. Some files suggest he was being watched more closely than people realized. Others confirm that the U.S. government was keeping tabs on Soviet and Cuban operatives at the time. A lot of the documents just confirm existing theories or provide extra details on things historians already suspected. The release comes after years of delays. The JFK Assassination Records Act of 1992 was supposed to make all documents public by 2017, but multiple presidents held some back, citing national security reasons. Now, with this latest batch out, many people are hoping for more transparency, though some files are still redacted or missing. President Trump's decision to release these files aligns with his commitment to transparency. He expressed skepticism about the official narrative, suggesting that while he believes Oswald was involved, he questions whether Oswald acted alone. The JFK assassination remains one of the biggest mysteries in American history, and even with these new documents, people will probably keep debating it forever.
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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