Dallas, 50 years ago

 

Very few historical events continue to influence modern imagination as does the John F. Kennedy assassination that shook the world this day 50 years ago. Still hotly disputed are the details of his assassination, which has triggered more conspiracy theories than any other incident in modern history.

 

A charismatic politician was gunned down in front of his beautiful socialite wife, Jacqueline, in Dallas by one gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, as the Warren Commission tried to establish, or by several, depending on which theory you subscribe to. Adding more intrigue is the fact that Kennedy’s brain has been missing from the national archives since 1966.

 

Post-assassination, history changed forever in the US. Would American involvement in the Vietnam War have ended earlier had Kennedy been alive is a leading question. The one tangible good that may have come out of his assassination is that racial integration became even more of a cause after Kennedy became the first President to have reached out to the black community, which helped him win the 1960 election.

 

The first to use television as a campaign tool, the suave, rich and charismatic leader, however, warned of the dangers lurking in the use of media, saying it could be abused by way of appeals to emotions and prejudice and ignorance, and that PR experts could take over campaigns. Those words were prophetic. But, again, Barack Obama, a modern-day Kennedy who was voted in twice by the blacks, the Hispanics and those on the fringe rather than the heartland of America, also changed the modern history of the US.