JFK Files Key Takeaways: What We Learned and Didn't

The National Archives on Tuesday released thousands of pages of declassified records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The records were posted to the National Archives' website, joining recently released records posted in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2017-2018.

Most of what the government released tonight is not new -- in fact, much of what has attracted attention on social media and in news reports has long been in the public domain, except for minor redactions, such as the blacking out of personally-identifiable information of CIA sources or employees, including names and addresses, which have now been disclosed.

But the newly-declassified versions of these documents also shed light on granular details of mid-20th century espionage that the CIA had fiercely fought to keep secret. President Biden and President Trump had accepted those arguments, until now.

Tuesday's initial release contained 1,123 records comprising 32,000 pages. A subsequent release on Tuesday night contained 1,059 records comprising 31,400 additional pages and key takeaways from the newly released tranche of previously classified records.

Surveillance

Several of the newly-released pages detail how the CIA went about tapping telephones in Mexico City between in December 1962 and January 1963 to monitor the communications of the Soviets and Cubans at their diplomatic facilities, which Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald visited in the months before the assassination.

The previously-redacted pages spell out specific instructions for CIA operatives on how to wiretap, including the use of certain chemicals to create markings on telephone devices that could only be seen by other spies under UV light.

For decades, the CIA has urged the continued secrecy of these details out of fear that they would reveal the methods of the agency's spy craft.

Another newly-disclosed portion details CIA surveillance of Soviet embassies in Mexico City and efforts to recruit double agents from Soviet agency personnel -- and reveal the names and positions of those who were recruited.

The CIA officials writing these memos tout the efficacy of their efforts, with one trumpeting, "I cannot help but feel that we are buying a great deal for our money in this project."

The memo also details the CIA's surveillance of an American man described as a Communist living in Mexico. The bulk of the memo is a listing of phone numbers that were tapped by the U.S. government. This file has long been sought by researchers due to Oswald's visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City, but the document includes no mention of Oswald by name.

Cuba and Castro

The material shed new light on U.S. covert activities in Cuba targeting revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

Unredacted text of a June 1961 memo on the CIA -- sent to Kennedy by aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. -- contained harsh criticism of the spy agency just months after its backing of the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion.

Some of the other documents also detailed operations to potentially overthrow Castro. One 1964 document showed that two intelligence assets discussed potentially assassinating Castro under the administration of President Lyndon Johnson.

The document said the CIA was allegedly "formerly in favor of such a plan," but it was "shelved" due to the opposition of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Another previously released document detailed RFK being briefed on potential plans to kill Castro. "RFK asks to be told before the CIA works with the Mafia again," a footnote of the document read.

CIA foreign footprint

Schlesinger had also argued to Kennedy that the CIA's reliance on "controlled American sources" had been encroaching on the traditional functions of the State Department, and that the CIA may have been seeking to infiltrate the politics of America's allies.

At the U.S. embassy in Paris, for example, Schlesinger wrote that the "CIA has even sought to monopolize contact with certain French political personalities, among them the President of the National Assembly,"

Newly declassified portions of Schlesinger's notes also revealed the number of CIA sources in Austria and Chile.

RFK killing

The release included 77 documents regarding RFK, with most of the documents relating to his activities as attorney general and senator, totaling about 2,500 pages.

Of those, only two directly mentioned his assassination in 1968. An intelligence document from 1968 -- previously released in 2018 -- discusses how RFK's assassination stoked interest in his brother's assassination and New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into the matter.

"The forthcoming trial of Sirhan, accused of the murder of Senator Kennedy, can be expected to cause a new wave of criticism and suspicion against the United States, claiming once more the existence of a sinister 'political murder conspiracy,'" the dispatch said.