A Loss of Innocence

Part I

Yes, I do believe that our nation lost some of our innocence after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Before the assassination, we were a very confident nation. We didn’t think that anything could ever happen to our president. We believed that our leaders would make the right decisions to make our country the best. Because of all the media, the people really got to know the president better than any previous president because TVs and other media were just coming out. The assassination seemed to be the beginning of a lot of violence in our country.  It also affected our trust in our government.  We were able to bounce back but it has never quite been the same.

Part II

Yes, I do believe that 9/11 had a similar effect on the US and its people. When the planes knocked down the World Trade Center in New York City, the American people were in complete shock. They never thought anything like this would ever happen. Who would have thought that terrorists would attack us on American soil!  On this day and every day thereafter, we would never feel that sense of security again.

If you ask me which incident had a greater effect on America, I would say it was the assassination of JFK. JFK was only in office for almost 3 years. During this time, he had lot of good things going for him and for our country.  He created the first federal program to address juvenile delinquency, he signed the Nuclear Test Ban, he expanded the National park system, passed the Equal Pay Act, and many other things. I believe that if he could’ve kept going in office, he could’ve been one of the best presidents America would have seen. I think the assassination of JFK had a worse effect on the American people because the president is the most protected person in America. If we can’t even protect him, we won’t be able to protect anyone else. So now nobody feels 100% safe.

After something tragic happens, people always feel like they are the ones to blame. People always ask, what did I do wrong? What could’ve I done to prevent this from happening? What happened on September 11 of 2001 was very unfortunate and there was really nothing that the Americans could have done to stop it.

Part III

John F. Kennedy could’ve been targeted for many reasons. One of them being, once the Bay of Pigs operation went to a bust, JFK wanted to shut down the CIA. This was not a good idea because the CIA watches all the other countries to make sure that America isn’t in danger of any terrorist attacks or anything.

I think that the government was behind the assassinated JFK. In my opinion, they wanted him dead because he wanted to end the Vietnam War. The reason the government didn’t want to pull the troops out of the Vietnam was because by this time, we had already invested a lot of men, money and supplies into the war. They didn’t want to back out now and let all of that effort go to waste. Plus it would make our country look very weak if we backed out.

There are many reasons that back up why I think the government actually killed him. The first one is the parade route. Originally, they planned on going down Main Street. This street was straight and they would be able to keep a steady and fast pace. But at last second, they decided to turn down Houston Street and turn again on Elm Street. They had to take two extra turns which would slow them down and make it an easy shot. Also, there were better places to hide here and get off a much closer shot. Only the government would be able to change this on such short notice. After the assassination, there was very little investigating going on. The government obviously isn’t going to rat themselves out so they just pretended like Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.  

There was one big similarity between the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. All three of them were against the Vietnam War and wanted to get out as soon as possible. JFK wanted to get out because he noticed that our military was in trouble and that the American resources were in danger. RFK was eager to end the war because that was the main reason his brother (JFK) was assassinated. MLK was also against the Vietnam War. King wasn’t so mad about the war itself, but more on the racial view of it. We were sending a lot more black soldiers over there than white people. MLK thought this was very racist and wanted it to be more even.