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Regional Op-Ed | David Briceno:Caroline Should Learn from JFK
Author: David Briceno, Grass Valley, CA
Published on Jan 12, 2009 - 7:09:50 AM

If Hillary Clinton becomes secretary of state, her senate seat will be vacant. Already, quite a few want it. Caroline Kennedy would like to have it. Yes, THAT Kennedy - the one who's John F. Kennedy's daughter all grown up.

The one thing going for her is her famous name and the fact that her father died such a tragic death that made him a legend. Caroline Kennedy should learn from her father: what he went through. What exactly did he go through? Let's go back in time to find out, shall we?

Once the door of Air Force One opened at Love Field on November 22, 1963, out came the Kennedys. After shaking hands with the Dallas crowd, they got into the presidential limousine (an open-top, 1961 Lincoln Continental) with Texas Governor John B. Connally and his wife. Secret Service men, the press, and Vice-President Johnson and his wife were in various cars in the procession. JFK had a one o'clock appointment to speak at a luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart shopping center.

Kennedy had come to Texas mainly to politically help heal the split in the Texas Democratic Party. Many Democrats were angry that Johnson would be left off the ticket in 1964, and so a joint appearance there would help. As far as dumping LBJ went, JFK had declared earlier, "That's preposterous on the face of it. We've got to carry Texas in '64."

The motorcade went down Elm Street. The crowd waved and cheered, happy to see JFK.

Then something went terribly wrong. Three gunshots rang out at 12:30.

One shot hit JFK in the upper back. He clutched his throat and slumped forward. The shot lacerated his right lung and tore his windpipe as it exited his throat. The same bullet also struck Governor Connally in the back. Another bullet struck the back of the president's head, instantly shattering his skull. The impact dropped him into the seat as if he were a rag doll. And the other bullet struck no one.

It took about six minutes for the limo to rush to the hospital four miles away, Traveling up to 70 mph, it arrived there at 12:36. "Ten doctors fought fearlessly to save the thirty-fifth President of the United States, but their gallant attempt failed," as Edward Jay Epstein put it in his 1966 book, "Inquest." JFK was pronounced dead around 1:00 p.m., CST.

The strange circumstances of the assassination, which suggested an elaborate plot by more than one killer, forced President Johnson to appoint Chief Justice Earl Warren to head an investigatory commission. The resulting Warren Commission reached the conclusion in September 1964 that only one person killed JFK. Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK. Oswald was guilty of murder because:

First of all, after Oswald was seized, he was taken to the Dallas Police Headquarters where he confessed that he had been inside the Texas School Book Depository Building that morning where the shots came from.

Secondly, the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Depository was traced back to Oswald, an expert marksman, who had ordered it through the mail, which was delivered to a post office box in Dallas under the fictitious name "A. Hidell." The post office box was rented to "Lee H. Oswald" between October 9, 1962 and May 14, 1963. The rifle had been shipped to him from Chicago on March 20, 1963, thus, received by Oswald during the time that Oswald rented and used the box. After being arrested he refused to answer any questions concerning the presence in his wallet of a selective service card with his picture and the name "Alex J. Hidell" on it - the same name he used to get the rifle.

Third, when police searched Oswald's apartment they found a map of the vicinity where the shots occurred. Strange indecipherable markings were on the map where he must have made secret notes in planning the assassination.

Fourth, there were cardboard cartons found in the room of the Depository where the shooting came from. Some were stacked in the room for the purpose of hiding the assassin at the window from view. A palm print taken from a carton matched Oswald's left hand. Also, other prints of his were found on several other boxes in the room.

Fifth cotton fibers of dark blue, gray-black, and orange-yellow shades were found on the gun. They matched the same color shirt that Oswald wore the morning of the assassination.

And sixth, the Commission found that a photograph taken in the yard of Oswald's apartment showed him holding the same rifle that was used to kill President Kennedy.

JFK was the youngest president in American history; he was only 43 and a half when he was elected president in 1960.

His daughter wants to follow in her father's footsteps by getting into politics, becoming a senator from New York. So be it. But there's a lot of Lee Harvey Oswalds out there. Caroline Kennedy better think twice before accepting the senate seat. There's definitely danger in politics sometimes. Especially when one happens to be a Kennedy. One should be careful in politics when one has the name Kennedy.

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