Crucial JFK information still unreleased: Author James H. Johnston

His comments come after the remaining classified files on the assassination of Kennedy were released Tuesday.

Mar 20, 2025 - 16:32
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Crucial JFK information still unreleased: Author James H. Johnston

A missing memorandum documenting a conversation between former President Lyndon B. Johnson and ex-CIA Director John McCone days after President Kennedy's assassination could contain crucial information that was never submitted to the National Archives, according to an author.

James H. Johnston, author of "Murder, Inc., the CIA under John F. Kennedy," told NewsNation that the memorandum was written following a private hourlong conversation between Johnson and McCone at the author's residence six days after the former president's death.

His comments come following the release of the remaining classified files on the assassination of Kennedy were released Tuesday on the National Archives website.

"John McCone always wrote a memorandum for the record of any conversation he had with the president," Johnston said Wednesday on NewsNation's "Elizabeth Vargas Reports."

"And that memorandum was not given over to the National Archives and is not available," he added.

JFK memo reportedly discussed Cuba and Castro after assassination

According to Johnston, State Department historians viewed the document in 1997 and noted the conversation included discussion about Cuba and "how they were going to get rid of [Fidel] Castro." The full contents of this conversation remain unknown to the public.

  • John F. Kennedy gestures during a speech
  • A limousine is seen racing through the streets
  • John F. Kennedy sits in a rocking chair in the White House
  • Footage of a limousine speeding through the streets

Gerald Posner, investigative journalist and author of "Case Closed, Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK," acknowledged the document might exist but questioned its relevance to understanding the assassination.

"If there was a large conspiracy to kill the president, the evidence of it is not going to be found in the release of files from the National Archives," Posner said, suggesting any truly incriminating documents would have been retained or destroyed rather than archived.

Both authors discussed killer Lee Harvey Oswald's visit to Mexico City six weeks before the assassination, where he visited Soviet and Cuban embassies. Posner questioned why the CIA, which had monitored Oswald since his 1959 defection to the Soviet Union, didn't alert the FBI about his concerning behavior following this trip.

Johnston also explained that during this Mexico City visit, Oswald reportedly met with a KGB operative known for assassination operations, though he didn't suggest this directly connected Oswald to Kennedy's assassination.

NewsNation’s Ross Coulthart will host a special report, “Declassified: The JFK Assassination,” this Saturday at 8p/7C. Find out how to watch at NewsNationNow.com.