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It has inspired hundreds of books, dozens of documentaries and at least nine movies.
America, and the world, have a morbid fascination with the assassination of president John F Kennedy.
More than 61 years later, the new occupant of the White House is committed to full disclosure.
John F Kennedy in April 1963. File pic: AP
“That’s a big one,” President Donald Trump said, as he signed the executive order to declassify documents.
“A lot of people are waiting for this for a long [time], for years, for decades.”
“And everything will be revealed,” he added.
But the late president’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, accused Donald Trump of using his grandfather’s murder as a “political prop”.
In a statement posted online, he said: “JFK conspiracy theories – The truth is a lot sadder than the myth – a tragedy that didn’t need to happen. Not part of an inevitable grand scheme.
“Declassification is using JFK as a political prop, when he’s not here to punch back. There’s nothing heroic about it.”
John F Kennedy was a political icon – he steered America through the Cuban missile crisis, the closest it had ever come to nuclear war.
JFK moments before he was assassinated on 22 November 1963. Pic: Reuters
JFK the poster boy
A poster boy for the Democrats, he and first lady Jackie Kennedy were glamourous occupants of the White House.
He was shot dead in Dallas, Texas, on 22 November 1963 – an event that stunned the world and still echoes today.
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Opinion polls have consistently shown that most Americans do not believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assailant.
Conspiracy theorists lay the blame on everyone from Cuba – at the heart of the nuclear missile crisis – to the CIA itself.
Most Americans do not believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assailant, polls suggest. Pic: AP
Thousands of documents previously released
Many files have already been released, including 13,000 documents during president Joe Biden’s term, but most have been redacted.
But the ‘Who shot JFK?’ question fits the Trump narrative about a “deep state” hiding secrets from the American population.
The assassination of Kennedy endures as a symbol of people’s lack of faith in their government.
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The executive order also covers files related to the murders of Robert F Kennedy, the president’s brother, and Martin Luther King Jr.
The director of National Intelligence and the attorney general have 15 days to present a plan for the release of JFK documents, and 45 days for the RFK and MLK documents.
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