The President Has Been Shot!: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Nonfiction | Biography | YA | Published in 2013

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Part 1, Chapter 3

Part 1, Chapters 4-6

Part 1, Chapters 7-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-13

Part 2, Chapter 14-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 2, Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “The Assassination”

Part 2, Chapter 11 Summary: “Thursday November 21, 1963”

Swanson notes that Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, did not plan to kill the President for long. “There is no evidence that Oswald hated the president,” Swanson writes, “Much evidence suggests that he rarely thought about him at all” (48). In fact, it is not really known exactly why Oswald assassinated Kennedy. Kennedy’s motorcade route through Dallas just happened to pass Oswald’s place of work, the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald planned to fire from a rifle on an upper floor of the building he worked in. It would be the first presidential assassination in history to use a long-range weapon. Past presidents subjected to assassination attempts had been shot at close range using pistols. Swanson speculates that perhaps the only reason Oswald targeted Kennedy was the coincidence that Kennedy would pass his workplace.

Next, Swanson describes Oswald’s biography. He was born in New Orleans in October 1939. From childhood, he was interested in Communism, which was “strange […] for an American teenage boy during the middle of the Cold War” (52). As a student in school, Oswald often rebelled against authority. Even after he enlisted in the U.S. Marines at the age of 17, he was court-martialed on two occasions, once for attacking a superior officer: “Oswald was a malcontent and constant complainer who loved to argue with his superiors to show that he was smarter than they were” (54).

In October 1959, Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union. When the Soviet government did not renew his visa, he attempted suicide. Afterward, he was allowed to stay in the Soviet Union and given a job. He married a Soviet citizen, Marina Prusakova, and had a daughter with her. However, he later became abusive toward her, and the couple would later separate. Oswald grew to dislike life in the Soviet Union and returned to the United States, moving in with his mother in Fort Worth, Texas.

After moving there, he was behind a failed assassination attempt on General Edwin Walker, who led the local chapter of the John Birch Society, a conservative and anti-Communist political organization. Oswald moved back to New Orleans, where he got involved in advocating for Cuba’s Communist government with an organization called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC). After a failed attempt to move to Cuba or return to the Soviet Union, Oswald moved to Dallas, where he got his job with the Texas School Book Depository.

Swanson suggests the possibility that Oswald only pretended to believe in Communism in order to stand out. He further describes Oswald as ambitious, but he “was living a dead-end life of unskilled, low-paying jobs and humiliation by superiors, with an inability to provide for his family” (61). When planning the assassination, Oswald decided to fire from the sixth floor of the Book Depository. The rifle was kept at the home his estranged wife Marina and his children were staying in. While there, Oswald tried to convince her to live with him in Dallas. She refused. Swanson argues this helped Oswald go through with his decision to assassinate Kennedy.

Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary: “Friday November 22, 1963”

When arriving in Dallas, Kennedy noticed a newspaper ad that welcomed him to Dallas but also listed a number of complaints against his administration. He remarked to Jackie that “last night would have been a hell of a night to assassinate a president” (79). Swanson points out Kennedy was aware of the belief that everyone since 1840 who became president on a year ending with a zero died before finishing their term. Nonetheless, Kennedy went on with his Texas tour.

Helping him was Jackie, who even in Texas remained popular with the people they encountered. In Dallas, both Kennedy and Jackie were enthusiastically greeted by a large crowd. As they rode in a topless motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Kennedy played to the crowds. He asked Jackie not to wear sunglasses so the spectators could see her face (96) and had the car stop so he could greet several nuns (97).

There were several factors that could have stopped the assassination. For example, the motorcade had been delayed by Kennedy’s stops to greet the crowd (98). Also, three men had gone up to the fifth floor of the Book Depository to watch the president’s motorcade (100). At the same time as Oswald was preparing for the assassination, an amateur photographer, Abraham Zapruder, was preparing to film the motorcade passing near where Oswald was located. Oswald’s first shot missed, likely because it “nicked a tree branch” (107). No one reacted, apparently thinking the sound was a car backfiring or a firecracker.

Aiming for Kennedy’s head, Oswald’s second shot injured Kennedy through his back and also injured Texas governor John Connally, who was sitting with Kennedy on the motorcade. A Secret Service agent, Clint Hill, ran for Kennedy’s car to serve as a human shield (112). Before he could reach the car, Oswald fired again, hitting Kennedy in the head, giving him a deadly wound. Hill did arrive in time to save Jackie from falling out of the now-speeding car. In shock, Jackie took part of Kennedy’s skull fragments and brain.

Trying to flee, Oswald was stopped by a cop who was searching the Book Depository. He was let go when the cop was told that Oswald was an employee. When Kennedy was taken to the hospital, Hill threw his coat over Kennedy’s body to prevent anyone from seeing him that way. To stop onlookers, the Secret Service washed the car, which destroyed any evidence. Jackie insisted on being present for the operation and handed over a part of Kennedy’s brain. In her shock, she thought it would be restored. Kennedy was pronounced dead after efforts by doctors to save his life. Over the objections of local police, the Secret Service demanded that Kennedy’s body be removed instead of given an immediate autopsy. This would “create widespread mistrust about the facts of the assassination” (140).

Oswald had gone home and walked through the streets of Dallas. Since Oswald’s description had already gone out to the police, Oswald was stopped by a local police officer, J.D. Tippitt. With a revolver, Oswald killed him and managed to escape a small mob of people that pursued him. Even though it was not necessary, Vice President Lyndon Johnson insisted on being given the oath of office as the new president before leaving Dallas. His reasoning was that it was “a symbol of the continuity of the American government” (144). Jackie, who refused to wash herself despite being covered with Kennedy’s blood and brains, was present for the swearing-in ceremony on Air Force One.

In a coffin, Kennedy’s body was flown back to Washington, DC on Air Force One. People watching events on television were shocked to see the blood on Jackie’s clothes. Swanson notes, “She wanted to sear these images into the collective memory of the American people so that they would never forget” (157). Meanwhile, Oswald hid in a movie theater. He was soon caught and arrested there.

Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary: “Sunday November 23, 1963”

The day after, Jackie spoke to her children. Lyndon Johnson’s staff began to occupy the White House, although he insisted that Jackie and her children should be allowed to stay for as long as they wanted. Back in Dallas, Oswald denied killing the president to police and the media. He also made a hand gesture associated with Communists to the press.

Due to the damage the assassination had done to the reputation of Dallas, the local police decided to give the press a lot of access to Oswald. In DC, Jackie both planned her husband’s funeral, which she decided would be modeled after President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral, and went ahead with her three-year-old son John’s birthday.

Part 2, Chapters 11-13 Analysis

Swanson does not just discuss the technical details of the assassination and Lee Harvey Oswald’s planning. He also gives some details about the actions and possible mindset of Jack and Jackie Kennedy and Oswald before, during, and after the assassination. Most of Swanson’s focus is on Oswald, the assassination of Kennedy itself, and the experiences of Jackie Kennedy. Still, Swanson does not go into significant detail about Jack Ruby, Oswald’s own killer (187). In offering a detailed account of the assassination, Swanson’s analysis implies The Unlikelihood of Conspiracy Theories.

While Swanson occasionally adds some dramatic flourishes to his writing—for example, after Oswald took his first failed shot at Kennedy, Swanson writes, “Oswald had missed!” (105)—such details do also serve a purpose in helping to debunk the many conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination (See: Background). Significantly, Swanson also acknowledges mistakes that were made after the assassination that helped foster conspiracy theories, such as how the failure to perform an autopsy on Kennedy’s corpse helped vindicate the idea that there was a cover-up (140). Swanson argues that there is no factual basis behind the argument that someone other than Oswald had killed Kennedy or that there was another assassin present (206-07). Making facts clear and accessible, Swanson implies, is the best way to combat such theories.

Swanson spends a lot of space speculating on Oswald’s motives and his actions. In particular, Swanson places Oswald against The Impact of the Cold War. When describing Oswald’s biography, Swanson focuses on Oswald’s activities related to Communism, such as his attempt to migrate to the Soviet Union or his advocacy in support of Cuba’s Communist government. However, Swanson also suggests that part, if not all, of the reason for Oswald’s interest in Communism was his need to be the “center of attention” (55) and was just a “fraudulent pose” (61). In other words, Swanson does not express any belief that Oswald was actually sincerely motivated by Communism. Instead, Swanson argues based on the evidence that Oswald showed no interest in Kennedy or his political actions (48-49). Nevertheless, Swanson mostly details how much Oswald’s life was shaped by his obsession with Communism, which does imply a possible, if vague, ideological motive for the assassination.

By focusing on Oswald, Swanson also invokes the theme of Mass Media, Fame, and Heroism. Swanson sets up a parallel between the assassin Oswald and his victim, Jack Kennedy. He speculates that Oswald was motivated by his frustration with the direction of his life (61-62, 75). In Swanson’s view, Oswald wanted to compensate for his lack of a successful marriage and career by achieving fame and a sort of warped heroism through killing the president. Both Kennedy and Oswald were ambitious and believed they had a special destiny (11, 61). Swanson argues the way Oswald thought of his ambition is in contrast to Kennedy, whose concept of heroism was based on helping others and serving as a positive example (17, 42, 209-10). In contrast, Oswald’s sense of ambition and heroism is revealed as selfish and destructive.