Editing Warren Commission

{{Short description|Investigation of President Kennedy's assassination}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox U.S. Presidential Commission
|longtitle = The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
|name = Warren Commission
|othershorttitles =
|shorttitle =
|depiction = Warren commission cover.jpg
|depictioncaption = Cover of final report
|depictionalt =
|establishedpresident = Lyndon B. Johnson
|establisheddate = November 29, 1963
|executiveorder = 11130
|disbandeddate = 1964
|chairperson = [[Earl Warren]]
|othermembers = [[Richard Russell Jr.]], [[John Sherman Cooper]], [[Hale Boggs]], [[Gerald Ford]], [[Allen Dulles]], [[John J. McCloy]]
}}
[[File:Warren Commission people.jpg|thumb|The Warren Commission on 14 August 1964.]]
The '''President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy''', known unofficially as the '''Warren Commission''', was established by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] through {{Executive Order|11130}} on November 29, 1963,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=26032 |title=Lyndon B. Johnson: "Executive Order 11130 – Appointing a Commission To Report Upon the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy," November 29, 1963 |author1=Peters, Gerhard |author2=Woolley, John T |work=The American Presidency Project |publisher=University of California – Santa Barbara}}</ref> to investigate the [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy]] that had taken place on November 22, 1963.<ref>{{cite news |title=Warren Heads into Assassination |date=November 30, 1963 |first=Jerry T. |last=Baluch |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |page=1}}</ref>

The U.S. Congress passed Senate Joint Resolution 137 authorizing the Presidential appointed Commission to report on the assassination of President [[John F. Kennedy]], mandating the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of evidence.<ref>{{usstat|77|362}}{{cite web |url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-77/pdf/STATUTE-77-Pg362.pdf |title=Joint resolution authorizing the Commission established to report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of evidence – P.L. 88-202 |access-date=18 November 2021|date=December 13, 1963 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}</ref> Its 888-page final report was presented to President Johnson on September 24, 1964,<ref>{{cite news |title=Johnson Gets Assassination Report |newspaper=The New York Times |first=Charles |last=Mohr |date=September 25, 1964 |page=1}}</ref> and made public three days later.<ref>{{cite news|title=Warren Report Says Oswald Acted Alone; Raps FBI, Secret Service|newspaper=The Washington Post|first=Chalmers M.|last=Roberts|date=September 28, 1964 |page=A1}}</ref>

It concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] and that Oswald acted entirely alone.<ref>{{cite news |title=Warren Commission Finds Oswald Guilty and Says Assassin and Ruby Acted Alone |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 28, 1964 |page=1 |first=Anthony |last=Lewis |author-link=Anthony Lewis}}</ref> It also concluded that [[Jack Ruby]] acted alone when he killed Oswald two days later.<ref>{{cite news |title=Commission Says Ruby Acted Alone in Slaying |first=John D. |last=Pomfret |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 28, 1964 |page=17}}</ref> The Commission's findings have proven controversial and have been both challenged and supported by later studies.

The Commission took its unofficial name—the Warren Commission—from its chairman, [[Chief Justice of the United States|Chief Justice]] [[Earl Warren]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Johnson Names a 7-Man Panel to Investigate Assassination; Chief Warren Heads It|first=John D.|last=Morris|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 30, 1963|page=1}}</ref> According to published transcripts of Johnson's presidential phone conversations, some major officials were opposed to forming such a commission and several commission members took part only reluctantly. One of their chief reservations was that a commission would ultimately create more controversy than consensus.<ref>{{cite news|title=Taking charge: the Johnson White House tapes, 1963-1964|last=Beschloss|first=Michael R.|location=New York|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1997|author-link=Michael Beschloss}}</ref>

==Formation==
The creation of the Warren Commission was a direct consequence of the murder by [[Jack Ruby]] of the assassin [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] on November 24, 1963, carried live on national television in the basement of the Dallas police station. The lack of a public process addressing the mistakes of the Dallas Police, who concluded that the case was closed, created doubt in the mind of the public.<ref name=":0" />

The new president, [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], himself from Texas, the state where the two assassinations had taken place, found himself faced with the risk of a weakening of his presidency. Confronted with the results obtained by the Texas authorities, themselves seriously discredited and criticized, he decided after various consultations, including in particular that with FBI director [[J. Edgar Hoover]], to create a presidential commission of inquiry by Executive Order 11130 of November 29, 1963. This act made it possible both to avoid an independent investigation led by Congress and to avoid entrusting the case to the Attorney General, [[Robert F. Kennedy]], deeply affected by the assassination, whose federal jurisdiction would have been applied in the event of withdrawal of the share of the [[Texas|State of Texas]] for the benefit of the federal authorities in Washington.<ref name=":0" />

[[Nicholas Katzenbach]], Deputy Attorney General, provided advice that led to the creation of the Warren Commission.<ref name="Savage">{{cite news |last=Savage |first=David G. |date=May 10, 2012 |title=Nicholas Katzenbach dies at 90; attorney general under Johnson |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-nicholas-katzenbach-20120510-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |location=Los Angeles |access-date=December 12, 2014}}</ref> On November 25 he sent a memo to Johnson's [[White House]] aide [[Bill Moyers]] recommending the formation of a [[Presidential Commission (United States)|Presidential Commission]]<!-- primary source may be needed to verify that he specifically recommended a PC --> to investigate the assassination.<ref name="Savage" /><ref name="Politico; May 9, 2012">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Nicholas Katzenbach, JFK and LBJ aide, dead at 90 |url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76118.html |newspaper=Politico |date=May 9, 2012 |agency=AP |access-date=December 12, 2014}}</ref> To combat [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories|speculation of a conspiracy]], Katzenbach said that the results of the FBI's investigation should be made public.<ref name="Savage" /><ref name="Politico; May 9, 2012" /> He wrote: ''The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large."<ref name="Politico; May 9, 2012" />

Four days after Katzenbach's memo, Johnson appointed to the commission some of the nation's most prominent figures, including [[Earl Warren]], [[Chief Justice of the United States]].<ref name="Savage" /><ref name="Politico; May 9, 2012" /> At first, Warren refused to head of the commission because he stated the principle of law that a member of the judicial power could not be at the service of the executive power. It was only under pressure from President Lyndon Johnson, who spoke of international tensions and the risks of war resulting from the death of his predecessor, that he agreed to chair the commission.<ref name=":0" /> The other members of the commission were chosen from among the representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties, in both houses of Congress, and added diplomat [[John J. McCloy]], former president of the World Bank, and former CIA director [[Allen Dulles]].<ref name=":0" />

==Meetings==
The Warren Commission met formally for the first time on December 5, 1963, on the second floor of the [[National Archives Building]] in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Warren Commission Meets |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2245&dat=19631206&id=ZWgzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xzIHAAAAIBAJ&pg=7094,4971217 |newspaper=Lodi News-Sentinel |location=Lodi, California |agency=UPI |page=2 |date=December 6, 1964 |access-date=November 12, 2014}}</ref> The Commission conducted its business primarily in closed sessions, but these were not ''secret'' sessions.

{{blockquote|Two misconceptions about the Warren Commission hearing need to be clarified...hearings were closed to the public unless the witness appearing before the Commission requested an open hearing. No witness except one...requested an open hearing... Second, although the hearings (except one) were conducted in private, they were not secret. In a secret hearing, the witness is instructed not to disclose his testimony to any third party, and the hearing testimony is not published for public consumption. The witnesses who appeared before the Commission were free to repeat what they said to anyone they pleased, and ''all'' of their testimony was subsequently published in the first fifteen volumes put out by the Warren Commission.<ref>{{harvnb|Bugliosi|2007|page=332}}</ref>}}

==Members==

<gallery widths="160" heights="120" caption="Members of the Warren Commission">
File:Earl Warren.jpg|alt=Earl Warren|[[Earl Warren]]
File:Richard RussellJr.jpg|alt=Richard Russell Jr.|[[Richard Russell Jr.]]
File:JohnShermanCooper.jpg|alt=John Sherman Cooper|[[John Sherman Cooper]]
File:Hale Boggs.png|alt=Hale Boggs|[[Hale Boggs]]
File:Representative Gerald R. Ford, Jr. with his Sports Illustrated Silver Anniversary Award - NARA - 7064481.jpg|alt=Gerald Ford|[[Gerald Ford]]
File:Allen w dulles.jpg|alt=Allen Welsh Dulles|[[Allen Dulles]]
File:John J. McCloy - Project Gutenberg etext 20587.jpg|alt=John J. McCloy|[[John J. McCloy]]
</gallery>

;Committee
*[[Earl Warren]], [[Chief Justice of the United States]] (chairman) (1891–1974)
*[[Richard Russell Jr.]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]), [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] (1897–1971)
*[[John Sherman Cooper]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]-[[Kentucky]]), U.S. Senator (1901–1991)
*[[Hale Boggs]] (D-[[Louisiana]]), [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]], House Majority Whip (1914–1972)
*[[Gerald Ford]] (R-[[Michigan]]), U.S. Representative (later 38th [[President of the United States]]), House Minority Leader (1913–2006)
*[[Allen Dulles]], former [[Director of Central Intelligence]] and head of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (1893–1969)
*[[John J. McCloy]], former president of the [[World Bank]] (1895–1989)

;General counsel
*[[J. Lee Rankin]] (1907–1996)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Miscellaneous Records of the Church Committee; Memorandum to Mr. Mohr; Subject: ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT|date=12 December 1963|page=[https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/additional/docid-32423629.pdf#page=14 14]|url=https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/additional/docid-32423629.pdf#page=14|access-date=18 November 2021|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|last=DeLoach|first=C. D.|quote=On the occasion of their second meeting, Ford and Hale Boggs joined with Dulles.  Hale Boggs told Warren flatly that [Warren] Olney would not be acceptable and that he (Boggs) would not work on the Commission with [former Assistant Attorney General<!-- Info on Warren Olney, III - 18 November 2021 https://www.justice.gov/criminal/history/assistant-attorneys-general/warren-olney -->] Olney.  Warren put up a stiff argument but a compromise was made when the name of '''Lee Rankin''' was mentioned. Warren stated he knew Rankin and could work with him.,}}</ref>

{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
;Assistant counsel
*[[Francis W. H. Adams]] (1904–1990)
*Joseph A. Ball (1902–2000)
*[[David W. Belin]] (1928–1999)
*[[William Thaddeus Coleman Jr.]] (1920–2017)
*[[Melvin A. Eisenberg]] (1934–)
*Burt W. Griffin (1932–)
*Leon D. Hubert Jr. (1911–1977)
*[[Albert E. Jenner Jr.]] (1907–1988)
*[[Wesley Liebeler|Wesley J. Liebeler]] (1931–2002)
*[[Norman Redlich]] (1925–2011)
*W. David Slawson (1931–2023)
*[[Arlen Specter]] (1930–2012)
*Samuel A. Stern (1929–)
*[[Howard P. Willens]] (1931–) (liaison with the [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]])
{{col-2}}
;Staff
*Philip Barson (1912–1997)
*Edward A. Conroy (1920–1993)
*[[John Hart Ely]] (1938–2003)
*Alfred Goldberg (1918–2007)
*Murray J. Laulicht (1940–)
*Arthur K. Marmor (1915–1968)
*[[Richard M. Mosk]] (1939–2016)
*[[John J. O'Brien (civil servant)|John J. O'Brien]] (1919–2001)
*[[Stuart R. Pollak]] (1937–)
*Alfredda Scobey (1912–2001)
*Charles N. Shaffer Jr. (1932–2015)
*[[Lloyd L. Weinreb]] (1936–2021)
{{col-end}}

==Conclusions of the report==
The report concluded that:

# The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository.
# President Kennedy was first struck by a bullet which entered at the back of his neck and exited through the lower front portion of his neck, causing a wound which would not necessarily have been lethal. The President was struck by a second bullet, which entered the right-rear portion of his head, causing a massive and fatal wound.
# Governor Connally was struck by a bullet which entered on the right side of his back and traveled downward through the right side of his chest, exiting below his right nipple. This bullet then passed through his right wrist and entered his left thigh then it caused a superficial wound.
# There is no credible evidence that the shots were fired from the Triple Underpass, ahead of the motorcade, or from any other location.
# The weight of the evidence indicates that there were three shots fired.
# Although it is not necessary to any essential findings of the Commission to determine just which shot hit Governor Connally, there is very persuasive evidence from the experts to indicate that the same bullet which pierced the President's throat also caused Governor Connally's wounds. However, Governor Connally's testimony and certain other factors have given rise to some difference of opinion as to this probability but there is no question in the mind of any member of the Commission that all the shots which caused the President's and Governor Connally's wounds were fired from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.
# The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.
# Oswald killed Dallas Police Patrolman [[J. D. Tippit]] approximately 45 minutes after the assassination.
# Ruby entered the basement of the Dallas Police Department and killed Lee Harvey Oswald and there is no evidence to support the rumor that Ruby may have been assisted by any members of the Dallas Police Department.
# The Commission has found no evidence that either Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy.
# The Commission has found no evidence of conspiracy, subversion, or disloyalty to the U.S. Government by any Federal, State, or local official.
# The Commission could not make any definitive determination of Oswald's motives. 
# The Commission believes that recommendations for improvements in Presidential protection are compelled by the facts disclosed in this investigation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chapter 1 |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-1#conclusions |publisher=National Archives |work=Warren Commission Report |language=en |date=September 24, 1964}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>

==Death of Lee Harvey Oswald==
In response to Jack Ruby's shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Warren Commission declared that the news media must share responsibility with the Dallas police department for "the breakdown of law enforcement" that led to Oswald's death. In addition to the police department's "inadequacy of coordination", the Warren Commission noted that "these additional deficiencies [in security] were directly related to the decision to admit newsmen to the basement".<ref name="The New York Times 1964 l934">{{cite news| title=Press and Dallas Police Blamed for Confusion That Permitted Slaying of Oswald |url-access=subscription  | website=The New York Times | date=September 28, 1964 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/28/archives/press-and-dallas-police-blamed-for-confusion-that-permitted-slaying.html | access-date=April 15, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240416190800/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/28/archives/press-and-dallas-police-blamed-for-confusion-that-permitted-slaying.html |archive-date= Apr 16, 2024 }}</ref>

The commission concluded that the pressure of press, radio, and television for information about Oswald's prison transfer resulted in relaxed security standards for admission to the basement, allowing Ruby to enter and subsequently shoot Oswald, noting that "the acceptance of inadequate press credentials posed a clear avenue for a one-man assault." Oswald's death was said to have been a direct result of "the failure of the police to remove Oswald secretly or control the crowd in the basement."<ref name="The New York Times 1964 l934"/>

The consequence of Oswald's death, according to the Commission, was that "it was no longer possible to arrive at the complete story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy through normal judicial procedures during the trial of the alleged assassin." While the Commission noted that the prime responsibility was that of the police department, it also recommended the adoption of a new "code of conduct" for news professionals regarding the collecting and presenting of information to the public that would ensure "there [would] be no interference with pending criminal investigations, court proceedings, or the right of individuals to a fair trial."<ref>{{cite book|last=Fixx|first=James F.|title=The Great Contemporary Issues: The Mass Media and Politics|year=1972|publisher=Ayer Co. Publishing|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0405012914|pages=82–83}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
[[File:Lbj-wc.jpg|thumb|right|The Warren Commission presents its report to President Johnson. From left to right: [[John J. McCloy|John McCloy]], [[J. Lee Rankin]] (General Counsel), Senator [[Richard Russell Jr.|Richard Russell]], Congressman [[Gerald Ford]], Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]], President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], [[Allen Dulles]], Senator [[John Sherman Cooper]], and Congressman [[Hale Boggs]].]]

[[File:WarrenReport-cover1.jpg|thumb|right|''The Warren Report'' reproduced in book form by the [[Associated Press]]]]

===Secret Service===
The findings prompted the [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] to make numerous modifications to its security procedures.<ref>{{cite news|title=(Warren Commission) Rebukes Secret Service, Asks Revamping|first=Felix|last=Belair Jr.|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 28, 1964|page=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Johnson Names 4 to Act on Report|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 28, 1964|page=1}}</ref> The Commission made other recommendations to the Congress to adopt new legislation that would make the murder of the President (or Vice-President) a federal crime, which was not the case in 1963.<ref name=":1" />

== Commission records ==
In November 1964, two months after the publication of its 888-page report, the commission published twenty-six volumes of supporting documents, including the testimony or depositions of 552 witnesses<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-08-15 |title=Warren Commission Report: Appendix 5 |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/appendix5.html |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=National Archives |language=en |quote=…list of the 552 witnesses whose testimony has been presented to the commission. Witnesses who appeared before members of the commission… those questioned during depositions by members of the Commission's legal staff… those who supplied affidavits and statements…}}</ref> and more than 3,100 exhibits<ref>{{cite news|title=Kennedy Slaying Relived in Detail in Warren Files|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Anthony|last=Lewis|date=November 24, 1964|page=1}}</ref> making a total of more than 16,000 pages. The Warren Report, however, lacked an index, which greatly complicated the work of reading. It was later endowed with an index by the work of Sylvia Meagher for the report and the twenty-six volumes of documents.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sylvia Meagher, Gary Owens |title=Master Index to the J. F. K. Assassination Investigations: The Reports and Supporting Volumes of the House Select Committee on Assassinations and the Warren Commission |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=1980 |location=Michigan University}}</ref>

All of the commission's records were then transferred on November 23 to the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]]. The unpublished portion of those records was initially sealed for seventy-five years (to 2039) under a general National Archives policy that applied to all federal investigations by the executive branch of government,<ref>{{harvnb|Bugliosi|2007|pages=136&ndash;137}}</ref> a period "intended to serve as protection for innocent persons who could otherwise be damaged because of their relationship with participants in the case."<ref>National Archives Deputy Dr. Robert Bahmer, interview in ''New York Herald Tribune'', December 18, 1964, p.24</ref>

The 75-Year Rule no longer exists, supplanted by the [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] of 1966 and the [[President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992|JFK Records Act of 1992]]. By 1992, ninety-eight percent of the Warren Commission records had been released to the public.<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/arrb/report/contents.htm Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board] (1998), p.2.</ref> Six years later, after the [[Assassination Records Review Board]]'s work, all Warren Commission records, except those records that contained [[tax return (United States)|tax return]] information, were available to the public with [[Sanitization (classified information)|redaction]]s.<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/arrb/report/html/arrb_fin_027.htm ARRB Final Report], p. 2. Redacted text includes the names of living intelligence sources, intelligence gathering methods still used today and not commonly known, and purely private matters. The Kennedy autopsy photographs and X-rays were never part of the Warren Commission records, and were deeded separately to the National Archives by the Kennedy family in 1966 under restricted conditions.</ref>

The remaining Kennedy assassination-related documents were partly released to the public on October 26, 2017,<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4606082/jfk-assassination-secrets/|title=25th JFK Assassination Secrets Scheduled for 2017 Release|magazine=Time|access-date=2017-03-12}}</ref> twenty-five years after the passage of the JFK Records Act. President Donald Trump, as directed by the FBI and the CIA,<ref name="businessinsider.com">{{cite web|author=Laurie Kellman, Deb Riechmann |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/i-have-no-choice-trump-blocks-the-release-of-hundreds-of-jfk-files-2017-10 |title='I have no choice': Trump blocks the release of hundreds of JFK files |publisher=Business Insider |date=1963-11-22 |access-date=2019-09-28}}</ref> took action on that date to withhold certain remaining files, delaying the release until April 26, 2018,<ref name="businessinsider.com" /> then on April 26, 2018, took action to further withhold the records "until 2021".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-trump-jfk-files-20180426-story.html|title = Trump delays release of some JFK assassination files until 2021|website = [[Los Angeles Times]]|date = 26 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Jeremy B White |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jfk-assassination-files-release-trump-blocks-private-a8324111.html |title=Donald Trump blocks release of some JFK assassination files |work=The Independent |date=2018-04-26 |access-date=2019-09-28}}</ref><ref>"[U]nless the president certifies that continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations, and the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure." — JFK Records Act. Both the National Archives and the former chairman of the ARRB estimate that 7.6 percent of all identified Kennedy assassination records have been released to the public. The great majority of the unreleased records are from subsequent investigations, including the [[United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States|Rockefeller Commission]], the [[Church Committee]], and the [[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations|House Select Committee on Assassinations]].</ref>

== CIA "benign cover-up" ==
{{Main|CIA Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory}}
According to a report by the CIA Chief Historian David Robarge (which was released to the public in 2014), CIA Director [[John A. McCone|McCone]] was complicit in a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] "benign cover-up" by withholding information from the Warren Commission.<ref name="politico2014">{{cite web |last1=Shenon |first1=Philip |title=Yes, the CIA Director Was Part of the JFK Assassination Cover-Up |url=http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/jfk-assassination-john-mccone-warren-commission-cia-213197 |website=POLITICO Magazine |access-date=24 September 2020 |language=en |date=6 October 2014}}</ref> According to this report, CIA officers had been instructed to give only "passive, reactive, and selective" assistance to the commission, to keep the commission focused on "what the Agency believed at the time was the 'best truth' — that Lee Harvey Oswald, for as yet undetermined motives, had acted alone in killing John Kennedy." The CIA may have also covered up evidence of being in communication with Oswald before 1963, according to the 2014 report findings.<ref name="politico2014" />

Also withheld were earlier CIA plots, involving CIA links with the Mafia, to assassinate Cuban president [[Fidel Castro]], which might have been considered to provide a motive to assassinate Kennedy. The report concluded, "In the long term, the decision of John McCone and Agency leaders in 1964 not to disclose information about CIA's anti-Castro schemes might have done more to undermine the credibility of the Commission than anything else that happened while it was conducting its investigation."<ref name="politico2014" /><ref name=cia-2013>{{cite journal |url=http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB493/docs/intell_ebb_026.PDF |title=DCI John McCone and the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy |author=David Robarge |journal=[[Studies in Intelligence]] |date=September 2013 |volume=57 |issue=3 |publisher=CIA |id=C06185413 |pages=7–13, 20 |access-date=8 October 2015}}</ref>

== Skepticism ==
[[File:WC Vol18 CE903 SBT alignement.jpg|[[Arlen Specter]] reproducing the assumed alignment of the [[single-bullet theory]]|thumb]]
Many independent investigators, journalists, historians, jurists, and academics issued opinions opposing the conclusions of the Warren commission based on the same elements collected by its works.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=LENTZ |first=Thierry |title=L'assassinat de John F. Kennedy: Histoire d'un mystère d'Etat (Assassination of John F. Kennedy : history of State mystery) |publisher=Edition Nouveaux Mondes |year=2010 |isbn=978-2847365085 |location=Paris |language=Fr}}</ref> 

These skeptics and their works included Thomas Buchanan, [[Sylvan Fox]], Harold Feldman, Richard E. Sprague, [[Mark Lane (author)|Mark Lane]]{{'}}s ''Rush to Judgment'', [[Edward Jay Epstein]]{{'}}s ''Inquest'', Harold Weisberg's ''Whitewash'', Sylvia Meagher's ''Accessories After the Fact'' or Josiah Thompson's ''Six Seconds in Dallas''. English historian [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]] wrote: "The Warren Report will have to be judged, not by its soothing success, but by the value of its argument. I must admit that from the first reading of the report, it seemed impossible to me to join in this general cry of triumph. I had the impression that the text had serious flaws. Moreover, when probing the weak parts, they appeared even weaker than at first sight."<ref name=":0" />

In 1992, following popular political pressure in the wake of the film ''[[JFK (film)|JFK]]'', the [[Assassination Records Review Board]] (ARRB) was created by the JFK Records Act to collect and preserve the documents relating to the assassination. In a footnote in its final report, the ARRB wrote: "Doubts about the Warren Commission's findings were not restricted to ordinary Americans. Well before 1978, President Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, and four of the seven members of the Warren Commission all articulated, if sometimes off the record, some level of skepticism about the Commission's basic findings."<ref name="ARRB-ES">{{cite book |author=Assassination Records Review Board |author-link1=Assassination Records Review Board |title=Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/arrb-final-report.pdf |access-date=June 10, 2015 |date=September 30, 1998 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |page=11 |chapter=Chapter 1: The Problem of Secrecy and the Solution of the JFK Act}}</ref>

== Weak points of the report ==

The Warren Commission argued that direct witnesses to the shooting, who immediately rushed en masse to the grassy knoll after the shots were fired, were fleeing the area of the shooting. In reality, the people present, including a dozen members of the security forces, in particular Sheriff Decker's team, who had given the order to investigate the area, all testified that they were running to the search for one or more shooters posted on the grassy Knoll.<ref name=":0" /> 

It did not interview John Fitzgerald Kennedy's personal doctor, [[George Burkley]], who was present during the shooting in the convoy of official vehicles then at [[Parkland Memorial Hospital|Parkland Hospital]], on board Air Force One, then at Bethesda Naval Hospital during the autopsy. He signed the death certificate and also took delivery of the brain of John Fitzgerald Kennedy which is declared lost in the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]]. Concerning the conclusions of the Warren commission about the three shots, the practitioner had declared in 1967: "I would not like to be quoted on this subject".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mary Ferrel Foundation |date=4 March 2023 |title=The missing physician |url=https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/The_Missing_Physician.html |access-date=4 March 2023 |website=www.maryferrell.org}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=WP:RS|date=July 2024}}

The ballistic reports conducted by the FBI and the autopsy reports were not the subject of any counter-investigation, which made the commission directly dependent on the work of the latter. The Warren Commission, by decision of Earl Warren, refused to hire its own independent investigators. However, it had its own investigative capacity thanks to direct access to the emergency presidential budget funds granted by President Lyndon Johnson when it was created, to conduct its own investigations. Thus the Warren commission was not informed by the FBI of the discovery the day after the attack, on November 23, 1963, by a medical student, William Harper, of a piece of [[Occipital bone|occiput]] located at the rear left in relation to at the position of the presidential limo during the fatal shot to the head. He had it examined by the professor and medical examiner, Doctor Cairns who measured it and photographed this piece before informing the FBI, on November 25, 1963. The latter received instructions not to make any publicity on this subject. It was the Attorney General, [[Robert F. Kennedy]], who, informed by a letter from Dr. Cairns transmitted to the Warren Commission, allowed the latter to question the practitioner.<ref name=":0" /> The non-use by the members of the Warren Commission of the direct elements of the autopsy such as notes, photos and x-rays. He only used drawings by FBI artists reproducing photographic images.<ref name=":0" />

The revelation by [[Edward Jay Epstein]], in his book ''Inquest'' published in 1966,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Epstein |first=Edward J. |title=Inquest. The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth |publisher=Bantam |year=1966 |location=New York |page=245 |language=en}}</ref> that as early as the beginning of 1964, the chief adviser, [[J. Lee Rankin]], had given the outcome of the results of the work of the commission: guilt of Oswald, the latter having acted alone. Even before the creation of the commission, on November 25, 1963, and a few hours after the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby in the premises of the Dallas police, Nicolas Katzenbach, assistant attorney general, had indicated in a memorandum intended of Bill Moyers that: "The public must be convinced that Oswald was the killer; that he had no accomplices still at large; and that evidence was such that he would have been found guilty at trial"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mary Ferrel Foundation |date=4 March 2023 |title=Katzenbach Memo |url=https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Katzenbach_Memo.html |access-date=4 March 2023 |website=Mary Ferrel Foundation}}</ref> creating a political orientation of the results of the investigation, even before the start of the first official investigations and knowledge of the results. Its objective was to cut short the speculations of public opinion either on a plot of communist origin (thesis of the [[Dallas Police Department|Dallas police]]) or a plot fomented by the far right to blame the communists (hypothesis defended by the press of communist bloc formed around the [[Soviet Union|USSR]]).

As early as the 1970s, official members of the Warren Commission questioned its work, in particular [[Hale Boggs]] who criticized the influence of [[J. Edgar Hoover]], the director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, who had centralized all of the information from the FBI agents before synthesizing it and transmitting it to the Warren Commission. He campaigned for a reopening of the file considering that the director of the FBI had lied to the Warren commission.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} He disappeared in a plane crash in October 1972.<ref name=":0" />

Commission member Richard Russell told the ''Washington Post'' in 1970 that Kennedy had been the victim of a conspiracy, criticizing the commission's no-conspiracy finding and saying "we weren't told the truth about Oswald".{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} [[John Sherman Cooper]] also considered the ballistic findings to be "unconvincing".{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} Russell also particularly rejected [[Arlen Specter|Arlen Specter's]] [[Single-bullet theory|"single bullet" theory]], and he asked Earl Warren to indicate his disagreement in a footnote, which the chairman of the commission refused.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

== Other investigations ==
Four other U.S. government or senate investigations have been conducted about the Warren Commission's conclusion or its material in different circumstances. The Church Committee analyzed in 1976 the work of the CIA and FBI which had communicated the different elements to the Warren Commission Members.<ref name=":2" /> The three others concluded with the initial conclusions that two shots struck JFK from the rear: the 1968 panel set by Attorney General [[Ramsey Clark]], the 1975 [[United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States|Rockefeller Commission]], and the 1978-79 [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] (HSCA), which reexamined the evidence with the help of the largest forensics panel and bringing new materials to the public.

=== The Church Committee ===
In 1975, the [[Church Committee]] was created per US Senate after the revelations about illegal actions of federal agency as the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] on the territory of the United States of America and after the political [[Watergate scandal]]. The Church Committee carried out investigative work on the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, questioning 50 witnesses and accessing 3,000 documents.

It focuses on the necessary actions and the support provided by the FBI and the CIA to the Warren Commission and raises the question of the possible connection between the plans to assassinate political leaders abroad, in particular in relation to [[Fidel Castro]] in [[Cuba]], a huge point of international tension in the 1960s, and that of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. The Church Committee questioned the process of obtaining the information, blaming federal agencies for failing in their duties and responsibilities and concluding that the investigation into the assassination had been flawed.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=US State Senate |first=Select Committee to tudy governmental operations wit respect to intelligence Agency |url=https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1161#relPageId=1 |title=Book V - The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F Kennedy performances of the intelligence agency |publisher=US Government Printing Office |date=April 26, 1979 |edition=First |location=Washington |language=en}}</ref>

The American Senator [[Richard Schweiker]] indicated on this subject, in a television interview on June 27, 1976: ''"The John F. Kennedy assassination investigation was snuffed out before it even began,"'' and that ''"the fatal mistake the Warren Commission made was to not use its own investigators, but instead to rely on the CIA and FBI personnel, which played directly into the hands of senior intelligence"''<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Marry Ferrel Foundation |date=4 March 2023 |title=Warren Commission |url=https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Warren_Commission.html |access-date=4 March 2023 |website=Mary Ferrel Foundation - preserving the legacy}}</ref>''.''

The results of the Church Committee opened the way of the creation of the HSCA, with parallelly the March 6, 1975, first time diffusion on network television in the show ''Good Night America'' of the [[Zapruder film]], which had been stored by [[Life (magazine)|''Life'' magazine]] and never shown to the public during the preceding twenty years.

=== The House Select Committee on Assassinations ===
The HSCA involved Congressional hearings and ultimately concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, probably as the result of a conspiracy.  The HSCA concluded that Oswald fired shots number one, two, and four, and that an unknown assassin fired shot number three (but missed) from near the corner of a picket fence that was above and to President Kennedy's right front on the [[Dealey Plaza]] [[grassy knoll]]. However, this conclusion has also been criticized, especially for its reliance upon [[John F. Kennedy assassination Dictabelt recording|disputed acoustic evidence]]. The HSCA Final Report in 1979 did agree with the Warren Report's conclusion in 1964 that two bullets caused all of President Kennedy's and Governor Connally's injuries, and that both bullets were fired by Oswald from the sixth floor of the [[Texas School Book Depository]].<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/report/html/HSCA_Report_0036a.htm HSCA Final Report], pp. 41-46.</ref>

In his September 1978 testimony to the HSCA, President Ford defended the Warren Commission's investigation as thorough.<ref name="Lawrence Journal Daily World; September 21, 1978">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=September 21, 1978 |title=Ford defends panel's findings |volume=120 |page=1 |newspaper=Lawrence Journal Daily World |agency=AP |issue=226 |location=Lawrence, Kansas |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19780921&id=_oEyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rOYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6063,3271481&hl=en |access-date=August 19, 2015}}</ref> Ford stated that knowledge of the assassination plots against Castro may have affected the scope of the Commission's investigation but expressed doubt that it would have altered its finding that Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy.<ref name="Lawrence Journal Daily World; September 21, 1978" />

As part of its investigation, the HSCA also evaluated the performance of the Warren Commission, which included interviews and public testimony from the two surviving Commission members (Ford and McCloy) and various Commission legal counsel staff. The Committee concluded in their final report that the Commission was reasonably thorough and acted in good faith, but failed to adequately address the possibility of conspiracy:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-1d.html#wc|title=Findings|date=15 August 2016|website=archives.gov|access-date=25 March 2018}}</ref> ''"...the Warren Commission was not, in some respects, an accurate presentation of all the evidence available to the Commission or a true reflection of the scope of the Commission's work, particularly on the issue of possible conspiracy in the assassination."''<ref>{{Cite book |last=US House of representatives |first=House Select Committee on Assassinations |url=https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=800#relPageId=291 |title=Final Report : summary and findings |publisher=US Government Printing Office |date=January 2, 1979 |edition=First |location=Washington |pages=261 |language=en}}</ref>

The HSCA also pointed to the role of the mafia in the attack because of [[Cuba]]. Indeed, the Cuban Castro [[Cuban Revolution|Revolution]] of 1959 had caused the criminal organization to lose millions of dollars, which had tried in vain to win the favors of the Cuban leader during the change of regime. In 1959, the income generated by criminal activities amounted to an annual amount of 100 million dollars, i.e. 900 million reported in 2013.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Summer |first=Anthony |title=Not in Your Life Time |publisher=Headline Publishing Group |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-7553-6542-5 |location=London |language=en}}</ref>

The HSCA determined that the gradual change in policy of the Kennedy administration toward Cuba, first with the failure of the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]] in April 1961, then more sustainably with the [[Cuban Missile Crisis|missile crisis]] of October 1962, in order to appease relations with the Cuban regime on a lasting basis and to open up new prospects, contributed to directing, if not slightly, within the many groups of paramilitary operations the most radical fringe of anti-Castro Cubans, American intelligence agents and Mafia criminals who continued their operations to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro despite requests for formal arrests from the White House.<ref>{{Cite book |last=US House of representatives |first=House Select Committee on Assassinations |title=Volume X : The Ingredients of an Anti-Castro Cuban Conspiracy |publisher=US Government Publishing Office |year=1979 |edition=First |location=Washington |pages=5–18 |language=en}}</ref> The HSCA invited the Department of Justice to resume investigations. The latter would respond eight years later, arguing the absence of decisive evidence allowing the reopening of an investigation, which is equivalent to supporting the conclusions of Warren report.<ref name=":0" />

== Legacy ==
The findings of the Warren Commission are generally highly criticized, and while the majority of American citizens believe that Oswald shot President Kennedy, the majority also believe that Oswald was part of a conspiracy and therefore do not believe the official thesis defended by the commission. In 1976, 81% of Americans disputed the findings of the Warren Report, 74% in 1983, 75% in 1993 and 2003.<ref name=":0" /> In 2009, a CBS poll indicated that 74% of respondents believed there had been an official cover-up by the authorities to keep the general public away from the truth.<ref name=":3" />

==See also==
*[[9/11 Commission]]
*[[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories]]
*[[Presidential Commission (United States)|Presidential Commission]]
*[[Single-bullet theory]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last=Bugliosi |first=Vincent |title=[[Reclaiming History]]: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-393-04525-3 |location=New York, NY |author-link=Vincent Bugliosi}}
* Shenon, Philip (2013). ''A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination''. New York: Henry Holt and Co. {{ISBN|9780349140612}}.
* [[Dwight Macdonald|Macdonald, Dwight]]. [https://archive.today/20210516041546/http://www.kenrahn.com/JFK/History/WC_Period/Reactions_to_Warren_Report/Reactions_of_left/Macdonald_critique_of_WCR.html "A Critique of the Warren Report."] ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'', March 1965, pp. 60+.

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
* [https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report Warren Commission ''Report'' (Full Text)]
* [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/contents.htm Warren Commission ''Hearings'' (Full Text)]
* [https://fas.org/sgp/advisory/arrb98/index.html Assassination Records Review Board]
* [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/report/contents.htm House Select Committee on Assassinations]
* [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/rockcomm/contents.htm Rockefeller Commission]
* [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/contents.htm Church Committee]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=42517| name=the Warren Commission}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=("President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy" OR "Warren Commission") |dname=the Warren Commission}}
* {{Internet Archive short film|id=gov.archives.arc.50248|name="November 22nd and The Warren Report (1964)"}}
* {{Librivox author |id=12337}}

{{Assassination of John F. Kennedy}}
{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson]]
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