🚨President Creates Special Commission to Investigate Kennedy Assassination

Nov. 29, 1963 - President Johnson created a special commission tonight to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy. He appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren (pictured left Sunday in the Capitol Rotunda) to head the panel. The White House, in announcing the action, said the Chief Justice would serve as chairman of a seven-member commission that also includes two senators, two representatives, and two former Administration officials. It added: “The President is instructing the special commission to satisfy itself that the truth is known as far as it can be discovered and to report its findings and conclusions to him, to the American people, and to the world.” Others appointed to the commission were: Senator Richard B. Russell (D-Ga.); Senator John Sherman Cooper, (R-Ky.); Representative Hale Boggs, (D-La.); Representative Gerald R. Ford, (R-Mich.); Allen Dulles, former director of the CIA; and John McCloy, former disarmament adviser to President Kennedy. The commission, according to the White House statement, will be instructed “to evaluate all available information concerning the subject of the inquiry.” President Johnson said all evidence uncovered by the FBI and a Texas court of inquiry will be made available to the commission. He also instructed all federal agencies and offices to lend services and cooperation to the commission. The panel will have all necessary powers, including the power of subpoena. Although Dallas police and the FBI are convinced beyond doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old Communist sympathizer, fired the rifle shots that killed President Kennedy, many vital questions have not been cleared up. Among them are these:

1 — Did Oswald have an accomplice?

2 — Was Mr. Kennedy’s assassination part of a conspiracy?

3 — Was Jack Ruby involved in any way with Oswald?

4 — How did Ruby get into Dallas police headquarters, where he murdered Oswald last Sunday morning?

5 — What were the motives for the killing of Mr. Kennedy and Oswald?

6 — Why was Oswald, a known Castro sympathizer and former defector to the Soviet Union, not kept under surveillance during the President’s visit to Dallas?

7 — Were the Secret Service and the Dallas police lax in protecting both Mr. Kennedy and his accused assassin?

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