US National Archives release trove of Kennedy assassination records
Dec 16, 2022
Washington [US], December 16 : The Biden administration on Thursday announced that records related to US President John F. Kennedy's assassination were released by the country's National Archives.
"As set forth in the Presidential Memorandum of October 22, 2021. ...in the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, the Congress declared that all Government records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy . . . should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination," the White House statement read quoting US President Joe Biden.
The agency released 13,173, documents containing new information, stating now over 97 per cent of records in the collection are publicly available, ABC news network reported. The report added that initially, the National Archives said 12,879 documents were being released but later updated the total due to "last-minute additions."
Though Biden authorized the release of the documents, however, he said he will continue to block some materials from public view until June 30, 2023, claiming that releasing them now would result in "identifiable harm."
"...I agree that continued postponement of public disclosure of such information is warranted to protect against an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure," Biden said in an official order.
John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States (1961-1963), the youngest man elected to the office.
On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, becoming also the youngest President to die.
In 2021, the National Archives released some 1,500 documents related to Kennedy's killing.
Those documents included CIA memos discussing Oswald's trips to the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City in the months before the assassination.
