Assassination of JFK

[John Simkin]

I am currently working on some materials on the Kennedy Assassination. I have 32 books on the subject. Each one describes in detail how Lee Harvey Oswald killed J.D. Tippit. However, not one tells you what J. D. stands for. Nor can I find it on the Internet. In the American National Archives I have even found a telephone conversation between Lyndon B. Johnson and Mrs Tippit and the death of her husband. Even Johnson called him J.D. Anyone got any idea what the initials stand for?

By the way, I am willing to try and answer any questions people may have on the subject.

[Guest]

Was it Jefferson Davis?

[John Simkin]

Was it Jefferson Davis?

If it is, it could help to explain why all the books have referred to him as J.D. Tippit. One theory is that Tippit was part of the conspiracy. His job was to kill Oswald while he was resisting arrest. However, Oswald realised what was going on and killed Tippit first. Jefferson Davis was of course president on the Confederacy during the Civil War. People with right-wing racist views in the South often called their sons Jefferson Davis as an act of rebellion. Maybe he called himself J. D. because he was embarrassed by the political beliefs of his parents. Or maybe he just wanted to disguise the fact that he held these opinions. This would support Jim Garrison’s theory that Kennedy was killed by a right-wing white supremacy group based in New Orleans and Dallas.

[Marco Koene]

Well according to this website J.D. stand indeed for Jefferson Davis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Tippit

But if it is a reliable source... i do not know.

[John Simkin]

I have finished the first draft of my website on the Assassination of President Kennedy. There are biographies of 156 people: Major Figures in the Case (24), Important Witnesses (38), Investigators (46) and Possible Conspirators (48). Other sections include: Organization, Issues and Reports (10) and Primary Sources: Key Issues (6). The website also looks at the possibility that different organizations such as the Mafia, CIA, FBI, Secret Service, KGB and the John Birch Society might have been involved in the planning of the assassination. Other possibilities such as anti-Castro activists, Texas oil millionaires and the Warren Commission's lone-gunman theory are also looked at. I am currently working on the student activities. Would appreciate any suggestions.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKindex.htm

[Raymond Blair]

John. This is a topic of great interest in popular history, but I tend to not use it much or use it at all even though it is in the heart of my major course of instruction, Twentieth Century history.

The reason I tend not to look to closely at this is that I find it difficult to argue historical significance of the assassination itself. There is not a clear story line from the assassination to show any group on the historical radar getting great benefit out of JKF's assassination (other than the laws JKF supported that got passed in his name under the Johnson administration.

That aside, this looks like a great website. Have you considered trying to design webquests as part of your student activities? In your case you may have provided too many resources for an off site web quest but you create a wonderful and contained environment for them. I am relatively new to webquests and love the idea of them but have yet to try to use a free form one. I do have access to a mobile pc lab to use fro my classes.

From looking at your material, one thing I might do with our lab on your site would be to ask my students to rank the assassination theories from most to least credible and provide reasoning as to the order.

Time being short in my classes I would probably ask for a top three list or a most believable and least believable scenario and ask for solid reasoning behind any ranking assigned. (Spellcheck arriving soon? )

Edited for a misspelling of the word spellcheck. LOL

Also to add.

I have forty five minute classes, if I do an exercise on this I will have to confine the activity more than I listed above (although they would work if I was to expect the effort to be homework as well.

I am thinking of trying it out this Friday because I am unlikely to get much done and I am presently on the 1960s in the US in my course.

I would have to make the students:

Pick a theory or be assigned one

Make a document that explains the basic theory.

Pick the most credible piece of supporting evidence (quote and or explain)

Pick the least credible piece of supporting evidence (quote and or explain)

Cut and paste some bio information from a key player they had heard of

Cut and paste some bio information from a key player they had not heard of

Make a brief conclusion about the theory

Then turn it in at the end of class (as long as the printer is working I guess.

It would be a race, but I think I could expect this much work.

BTW would the cut and paste stuff violate your terms of usage for the site?????

Edited March 3, 2004 by Eeyore

[John Simkin]

John.  This is a topic of great interest in popular history, but I tend to not use it much or use it at all even though it is in the heart of my major course of instruction, Twentieth Century history.

The reason I tend not to look to closely at this is that I find it difficult to argue historical significance of the assassination itself.  There is not a clear story line from the assassination to show any group on the historical radar getting great benefit out of JKF's assassination (other than the laws JKF supported that got passed in his name under the Johnson administration.

This is an interesting point and if the event did not have significant political importance I would not have spent so much time developing the website (or expect teachers to use it). For example, recently I have been involved in a debate on the History Forum where I have argued against spending too much time studying the Jack the Ripper case.

http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/forum/index...?showtopic=2125

If JFK was assassinated by a lone nut (as argued by the FBI/Warren Commission) it could not be justified. However, I believe the assassination was carried out for political reasons and therefore is of extreme importance to any study of 20th century American history. As the American government has so much power over all other countries this coup d’état is worth studying in Europe as well.

For example, I believe Kennedy was murdered because of his foreign policy (Cuba, Vietnam, Soviet Union). If this is the case, the assassination of Kennedy had a profound impact on the history of the Cold War.

I have only just started producing the student activities for the material.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKresearch.htm

The plan is to use primary sources to study important aspects of the case. The second part will involve the students using the sources to try and find out who was behind the assassination: Mafia, KGB, the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro, John Birch Society, Texas Oil Industry, Anti-Castro Cubans, CIA or the FBI. In doing so they will be looking at the politics of the 1960s.

Students in Britain are fascinated by the Kennedy Assassination. Personally, I think it is a good idea to use this enthusiasm as a way in to look at the Cold War, a subject that they are usually less interested in.

  have forty five minute classes, if I do an exercise on this I will have to confine the activity more than I listed above (although they would work if I was to expect the effort to be homework as well...

BTW would the cut and paste stuff violate your terms of usage for the site?????

Please feel free to use the materials as you want. If you want, I could put the activities you create on my website.

The setting of activities obviously reflects the views of the author. I therefore would like to counteract that by inviting others to submit activities. For example, two of the most popular websites on the Assassination of Kennedy are run by John McAdams and Kenneth A. Rahn. Both these men believe strongly in the conclusions of the Warren Commission. I will be inviting them to set activities via my website (using the materials on their websites). I think this could be an interesting development.

[Raymond Blair]

For example, I believe Kennedy was murdered because of his foreign policy (Cuba, Vietnam, Soviet Union). If this is the case, the assassination of Kennedy had a profound impact on the history of the Cold War.

If diverting the thread topic is not acceptable in here please accept my apology

But if Kennedy was assassinated for Cold War reasons what would have been the impact on the Cold War itself. Did his assassination lead to a major shift in policy? I have seen no strong historical argument saying that it did.

The significance of the assassination should be more apparent because, whether the assassination intended specific consequences or not, any profound consequence should already be thoroughly studied by the profession by now.

Edited March 3, 2004 by Eeyore

[John Simkin]

But if Kennedy was assassinated for Cold War reasons what would have been the impact on the Cold War itself. Did his assassination lead to a major shift in policy? I have seen no strong historical argument saying that it did.

According to books written by Robert S. McNamara (Secretary of State for Defence) and Kenneth O'Donnell (Kennedy’s special assistant) Kennedy intended to withdraw from Vietnam after the 1964 presidential election. In his book, Memories of John F. Kennedy, O'Donnell claims that:

“Kennedy told me in the spring of 1963 that he could not pull out of Vietnam until he was re-elected, "So we had better make damned sure I am re-elected." ... At a White House reception on Christmas eve, a month after he succeeded to the presidency, Lyndon Johnson told the Joint Chiefs: "Just get me elected, and then you can have your war."

Kennedy had already upset the hawks by refusing to give adequate military support to the Bay of Pigs invasion. What is worse, Kennedy was involved in secret talks with Castro about a non-aggression treaty with Cuba (a decision that horrified the Mafia who were desperate to get back into Cuba).

Kennedy had also been deeply influenced by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Only he knew how close we came to a nuclear war that would have destroyed the planet. He was determined to bring the Cold War to an end. This did not please the hawks in the CIA or the arms industry.

Johnson changed this policy and the hawks did get their Vietnam War and the increase in military spending to fuel the Cold War. However, Johnson refused to accept the initial FBI report that the Kennedy Assassination had been planned by the governments of Cuba and the Soviet Union. Not that Johnson did not believe the report (although he was probably aware of who was actually behind the assassination) but he was convinced that any invasion of Cuba would result in a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Johnson told Hoover to rewrite the report. This time he had to prove that it was a lone-nut who killed Kennedy. This report was then given to the Warren Commission to publish as its own conclusions. (All this information became available in 1994 when Johnson’s telephone conversations with Hoover, Warren, Richard Russell, etc. were published). For a full account of this see Michael R. Beschloss’s book, Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-64 (Simon & Schuster, 1997).

[John Simkin]

See also this thread for a discussion on the assassination.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=153

[John Simkin]

Raymond Blair from Ground Academy, Nashville, Tennessee, has produced a webquest on the assassination of JFK material.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKresearch.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwebquest.htm