DALLAS (AP) – More than 60 years later President John F. Kennedy was assassinatedconspiracy theories still swirl and every new insight into the fateful day of November 22, 1963 in Dallas continues to fascinate.

President-elect Donald Trump promised during his re-election campaign that he would declassify all remaining government documents surrounding the assassination if he returned to power. He made a similar commitment during his first term, but ultimately relented to calls from the CIA and FBI to keep certain documents withheld.

At this stage, only a few thousand millions of government documents Information related to the assassination has not yet been fully disclosed, and those who have studied the documents released so far say that even if the remaining files are declassified, the public should not expect earth-shattering revelations .

“Anyone waiting for compelling evidence that will turn this case upside down will be deeply disappointed,” said Gerald Posner, author of “Case Closed,” which concludes that the killer Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

Friday’s 61st birthday is expected to be marked with a moment of silence at 12:30 p.m. at Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy’s motorcade was passing when he was fatally shot. And throughout this week, events marked this anniversary.

November 22, 1963

When Air Force One carried Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy landed in Dallasthey were greeted by clear skies and an enthusiastic crowd. With a re-election campaign looming on the horizon the following year, they traveled to Texas for a political repair trip.

But as the procession finished its parade route through downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested Oswald, 24, and two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald during a transfer to prison.

A year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, created by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination, concluded that Oswald had acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But it failed to stifle a whole web of alternative theories over the decades.

The collection

In the early 1990s, the federal government required that all documents related to the assassinations be kept in a single collection within the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection of more than 5 million documents was expected to be opened by 2017, unless exempted by the president.

Trump, who took office for his first term in 2017, had boasted that he would authorize the release of all the remaining records, but ended up withholding some because of what he called potential harm to national security. And even if the files have continued to be released under President Joe Biden’s administration, some remain invisible.

The documents released in recent years offer details of how intelligence operated at the time and include CIA cables and memos discussing Oswald’s visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico just weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had already defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.

Mark S. Zaid, a national security lawyer in Washington, said what has been published so far has contributed to the understanding of the period, giving “a beautiful picture” of what was happening during the Cold War. and CIA activities.

Files retained

Posner estimates that there are still about 3,000 to 4,000 documents in the collection that have not yet been fully published. Of these documents, some are still fully redacted while others have only small redactions, such as a person’s social security number.

“If you followed it, as I and others did, you kind of focus on the pages that you think might provide additional information about the story,” Posner said.

There are about 500 documents that have been completely withheld, Posner said, among them Oswald’s and Ruby’s tax returns. These records, the National Archives says on its website, were not subject to the 2017 disclosure requirement.

Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions this week about his plans once he takes office.

A continuing fascination

Early on, some thought there must be more to the story than Oswald acting alone, said Stephen Fagin, curator of Dealey Plaza’s sixth-floor museum, which tells the story of the assassination from the building where Oswald was killed. his sniper’s perch.

“People want to make sense of this and find the right solution to the crime,” said Fagin, who said that while questions remain, law enforcement has made “a pretty compelling case” against Oswald.

Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said his interest in the assassination dates back to the event itself, when he was a child.

“It seemed so fantastical that a very disturbed individual could end up committing the crime of the century,” Sabato said. “But the more I studied it, the more I realized that it was a very possible hypothesis, maybe even probable in my opinion.”

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