The Kennedy assassination turned 60 years old last year, and it has been a subject of fascination since 1963. Countless conspiracy theories have emerged, as the official investigation had many inconsistencies, and the revisions in the years that followed highlighted many issues. It’s a historical fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was the alleged shooter, but he was killed by another assailant shortly after. Could it have been a coincidence? Was it really Oswald’s bullet that caused John F. Kennedy’s death? These are questions we explored in a separate article, but will we ever get answers if the remaining classified files are released? Director Oliver Stone, who is more than competent (though not necessarily impartial and objective!) on the subject (as seen in the Oscar-winning thriller JFK – The Open Files starring Kevin Costner), commented on the matter.
Donald Trump became president again and, after taking office, made several controversial moves. One of the most talked-about actions was signing an executive order on Thursday requiring the release of not only the JFK files but also the documents related to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. It's important to note that most of the JFK files have already been made public, as officials were required by law to release them, but there are still about 5 million documents that remain classified to this day. Therefore, Stone isn't under any illusions, but he welcomed Trump’s move.
“President Trump deserves credit for signing the executive order yesterday that declassifies the remaining documents related to the assassination of John Kennedy, which happened 61 years ago. These documents should have been made public in October 2017. President Trump also deserves praise for going further, ordering the declassification of the still-secret files on the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Of course, no one expects that suddenly there will be a game-changing piece of evidence that will definitively solve the case. But […] there will certainly be information in the files that will help us get a fuller picture of what happened in these cases,” Stone said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
The director also believes that it’s possible that the declassified documents might reveal a lead that could warrant further investigation. He himself has advocated for this and even made a documentary dedicated to the subject titled JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, along with a docuseries JFK: Destiny Betrayed. In these works, Stone argued that there were many problems with the investigations conducted in the 1960s and 70s, and more thorough investigations and access to the classified documents would be necessary. It’s worth noting that both in JFK Revisited and his feature film, Stone leans toward some popular conspiracy theories. We’ll see if these files reveal anything that sheds new light on either the assassination itself or the investigation that followed!
