Errol Morris and Persisting Questions about the JFK Assassination

Almost a half century has passed since John F. Kennedy died one sunny day in Dallas, Texas. His assassination was a national trauma and left many people with lingering questions.

Distinguished filmmaker Errol Morris, whose The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara won an Academy Award, recently wrote about a new project in which he looks at the Kennedy assassination. In a New York Times piece entitled ‘The Umbrella Man’ (which includes a link to a short film), he explained his interest in the subject this way:

"I believe that by looking at the assassination, we can learn a lot about the nature of investigation and evidence. Why, after 48 years, are people still quarreling and quibbling about this case? What is it about this case that has led not to a solution, but to the endless proliferation of possible solutions?"

Widespread traumas have a way of not only persisting in cultural memory, but of morphing over time. Layers of intervening experience and shifting recollection can cloud our understanding of an event. This is best countered by going back to the source to understand not only the exact details of an event, but also the context in which the event occurred.

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Image (above): Public domain photograph, WikiCommons

The JFK assassination continues to fascinate

As the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963 approaches, various news sources are reporting the "discovery" of an audio tape that was made on Air Force One immediately after that tragic event. Long thought to be lost, according to these reports, the tape recording reveals a few new details about circumstances right after the assassination. But the new revelations do not seem very dramatic and will not likely change very much of our understanding of history. The tape is apparently a longer version of a recording already known and in the collection of the Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library.

This "new" tape, which is up for sale by a firm in Philadelphia, is in private possession and not the property of the U.S. Government. The legal basis for this circumstance has not fully been explored in news accounts so far.

Regardless of any new details, it is doubtful that the tape will do much to dampen JFK assassination conspiracy theories, which are numerous and durable. 

You can read more about this story in USA Today here, or watch an Associated Press report via The Washington Post (below):

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Image (above): U.S. Government official presidential portrait of John F. Kennedy, painted by Aaron Shikler. Public domain.