糖心Vlog传媒

糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock professor reflects on investigation of JFK assassination records

In 1991, the conspiracy-thriller film, 鈥淛FK,鈥� reignited the public鈥檚 interest in a potential political conspiracy involving the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.聽 Congress passed the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act in 1992, which created the Assassination Records Review Board, an agency that investigated and collected records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 鈥淎s someone who taught public policy, I鈥檓 not surprised a movie started all of this,鈥� said Dr. David Montague, director of eLearning at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock who served as the senior investigator of the from 1995 to 1997. 鈥淥nce that movie came out in 1991, a lot of people were getting older and wondering what really happened to JFK,鈥� he said. 鈥�You had a president killed on national TV, and then the Warren Commission comes out and said Lee Harvey Oswald, single bullet, lone gunman. A lot of people weren鈥檛 satisfied. People wondered why the government needed to keep so many records classified. Is it administrative red tape, national security, or something else?鈥� The legislation also required the government to release all files related to Kennedy鈥檚 assassination after 25 years. President Donald Trump released thousands of the last classified records Oct. 26, but delayed the release of hundreds of documents due to national security concerns. Those documents will receive a 180-day review of redactions from agencies. An additional batch of documents related to Kennedy鈥檚 assassination investigation was released Nov. 3. As senior investigator, Montague investigated, identified, collected, and reviewed countless documents and interviews related to Kennedy鈥檚 assassination. Most of the files Montague reviewed have already been released to the public. While he is excited about the recent release of additional documents, he doesn鈥檛 think they will provide the answers people hope to find. 鈥淒o I think the release of these documents will shut all the questions down? No. I think it will intensify the questions for some people, and there are always going to be those that think this (Kennedy鈥檚 assassination investigation) is a dead issue,鈥� Montague said. When Montague joined the review board, he didn鈥檛 realize how vastly complex the investigation and theories surrounding Kennedy鈥檚 assassination were. 鈥淚 grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, and I always had a commitment to public service,鈥� Montague said. 鈥淚 knew his death was a very big deal. What I didn鈥檛 realize is that it was enormously complex. I was very na茂ve at first. When I was first sitting in the executive director鈥檚 office, I started thinking about how we are a whole agency focused on the assassination of one person. Does that make sense? Then I realized how complex it has been for decades and the mystery that surrounded it.鈥� Montague thinks his team鈥檚 work with the review board was especially successful since people knew the information was being collected for the National Archives and reviewed for release to the public. 鈥淧eople really wanted to talk to us,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell you how many people started crying because they felt like they were finally able to talk about it. There were no secrecy orders. I think that is why we were successful. The public reached out to give us hints and clues about where records might be. At the same time, 鈥楾he X-Files鈥� was really popular on TV. I joked that our lives were like 鈥楾he X-Files.鈥欌�� While the Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in Kennedy鈥檚 assassination, it鈥檚 a conclusion with which Montague respectfully agrees to disagree. 鈥淕iven the level of access, just based on what I have seen, I just personally don鈥檛 see how Oswald could have done that by himself,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen I joined the agency, my hope was that we would release everything related to the assassination that was not a threat to national security or things we don鈥檛 release to the general public. I鈥檓 not surprised that there are still some documents that haven鈥檛 been released. They may be related to national security, but maybe there will be another agency investigating these documents in the future.鈥�