FREE ESSAY ON AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY

An American Tragedy
Where were you November 22, 1963? Any and every American old enough to mourn, to feel
sorrow, remembers where they were and what they were doing when they received the news
that President John F. Kennedy had been murdered. The event had an effect on the entire
nation. Men and women, Democrats and Republicans, adults and children mourned the loss of
their fallen leader.
President Johnson, the Warren Commission, and every fascinated watcher-on in the world
would closely scrutinize that day and the following events. The facts of the day are
still hotly contested. Politicians have made their careers on the case. Conspiracy
theorists have had a field day writing books, accusing anyone and everyone of planing the
assassination. 
President and Mrs. Kennedy arrived in Dallas on Friday, November 22, 1963. The Texas trip
was planned in hopes of reviving the President's popularity in Texas after it was hurt
during the election of nineteen sixty. Until midmorning, cloudy skies had threatened to
cancel the motorcade-style parade that was planned for the day. The motorcade would
travel from Love Field, where the President's plane had landed, through Dallas on a
previously publicized route to the Trade Mart where a luncheon in honor of the President
had been planned. The motorcade consisted of the president's car, followed by a car
designate the "Presidential follow-up" which carried secret service members. Behind that
was another open roofed car carrying Vice-president Lyndon Johnson and Texas Governor
Connally and their wives. Following the vice-president's car was another follow-up car
and several cars and buses with dignitaries and press representatives. 
The motorcade followed its designated route, first passing through a residential area of
Dallas, and then making its way through the middle of the downtown area. The parade
traveled west on Main Street and then made a right on Houston. The motorcade went one
block and then made a left-turn on Elm. On the corner of Elm and Houston was the large,
ominous Texas School Book Depository, where the fatal shots were later accused of being
fired from. When the President's car turned west on Elm and crossed the Depository, three
shots were fired at the motorcade. The President was struck by a bullet that entered at
the base of his neck, just right of his spine and exited under the lower left portion of
the knot in the President's tie. A second bullet struck Kennedy in the rear base of his
head, causing the fatal wound. Texas Governor Connally, riding two cars behind the
President, was also hit. The bullet hit the Governor on the extreme right side of his
back, just below the armpit. The bullet exited below his left nipple and hit him again on
the left wrist. Secret Service Agent Roy Kellerman saw that the President had been hit
and instructed the driver to get the President to a hospital immediately. Parkland
Memorial Hospital was the closest hospital, just four miles away. 
Awaiting Doctors met the presidential car and immediately began an attempt to resuscitate
the dying President. At 1:00PM, just thirty minutes after the President had been shot,
Kennedy's heart had stopped and was pronounced dead. Vice-president Johnson left Parkland
Hospital after being notified of the President's death and traveled back to the
Presidential Plane at Love Field under close guard. Mrs. Kennedy and the President's body
followed and boarded the plane shortly after Johnson. At 2:38PM, with the plane on it's
way back to Washington, DC, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the thirty-sixth President
of the United States. 
On November 29, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson created an investigation commission to
"evaluate all the facts and circumstances surrounding the assassination and the
subsequent killing of the alleged assassin and to report its findings to him." Chief
Justice Earl Warren headed the commission that consisted of six other members including
two senators and two representatives, one of which was future President Gerald Ford.
After two hundred and ninety-nine days of investigation that included a recreation of the
event in Dallas, interviews with witnesses from the parade, gathering of rooms full of
evidence, the commission was ready to present their report to the President. The
commission concluded that the three shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded
Governor Connally were fired from the Texas School Board Depository. It also concluded
that the bullet that pierced the throat of the President hit and wounded the Governor, as
well. The report implies that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin based on the fact that
he was seen carrying the rifle into the Texas School Book Depository and the rifle used
to kill Kennedy was owned by Oswald. Also, the shots were fired from a window where
Oswald had been seen standing in at the time of the murder. 
It didn't take two days for conspiracy theorists to start rearing their ugly heads after
the death of President Kennedy. Once the public heard of Oswald, the only man accused in
the case, was in possession of Communistic propaganda, it immediately assumed that the
Soviet Union was responsible the assassination. Fingers were pointed at Cuba, the
American Government, and a great deal many other political entities in an attempt to find
the truly guilty. They couldn't believe that Oswald was alone in his attempts. There had
to be another person, another group who hired Oswald to assassinate the beloved figure.
But, no one could come to a conclusion without reasonable doubt as to who it was. To this
day, some people believe there was a conspiracy surrounding the murder. The trajectories
of the bullets were also called into question. But, no one ever came to a consistent
conclusion as it pertained to a conspiracy. Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby as
the police were handing him over to the state prison. 
For many countries around the world, November 22, 1963 is just another date on the
calendar. It has little meaning and it passes by with little thought of the past. But for
America, it represents one of the darkest days in the history of this still very young
nation. It represented the end of America's innocence. No longer were we the children of
naivete. It forced the country to wake up, rub its virgin eyes and experience the world
for what it really is: a cold, harsh reality that we were not ready to deal with. America
only had a few years to spend with President Kennedy while he was in the spotlight. There
was a love-hate relationship between the American people and President Kennedy. We loved
to see him and hated to see him go.