The Big History Podcast - The Making of Modern America
What events shook the 21st and 20th Century to make America what it is today? In this podcast we cover current politics, music, culture, history. From the Civil Rights Movement and Woodstock to 21st century culture, we examine what makes America what it is today?
The Big History Podcast - The Making of Modern America
The JFK Assassination: Unraveling the Myths and Realities of a Nation in Turmoil
What if everything you thought you knew about the JFK assassination is only part of the story? Join us as we unravel one of history's most profound moments, exploring the political tension and intrigue that shadowed President John F. Kennedy's fateful visit to Texas in November 1963. We transport you to the streets of Dallas, where a jubilant motorcade turned into a scene of chaos with a single gunshot. Witness the heart-pounding rush to Parkland Hospital and the nation's collective grief, all framed by the haunting image of Jackie Kennedy in her bloodstained suit. Our narrative dives into the complexity of events that followed, from the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald to the shocking actions of Jack Ruby, painting a portrait of a nation in turmoil.
Our exploration doesn’t stop there. We challenge conventional narratives and invite you to question the past's grip on our present and future. By engaging with eyewitness testimonies and scrutinizing official reports, we encourage a critical examination of how these events have shaped America's identity and global standing. We delve into the power of historical exploration, urging listeners to continuously ask questions and consider diverse perspectives to forge a deeper understanding of our shared history. Let this episode be your guide to uncovering the layers of history that continue to resonate today and ensure our journey through the past is as enlightening as it is compelling.
All right, everybody buckle up, because today we're diving headfirst into one of those moments that really makes you go. What if you know? Yeah, the JFK assassination.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's one of those events that, even if you weren't alive to see it, it still feels so immediate. You know, like this ripple effect through history.
Speaker 1:Totally. And what's crazy is just how much information is out there. I mean we've got eyewitness accounts, declassified files, the whole nine yards it.
Speaker 2:I mean we've got eyewitness accounts, declassified files, the whole nine yards. It's wild right Trying to piece together what actually happened on that day in Dallas, separating like actual fact from all the speculation and theories that have popped up over the years.
Speaker 1:And speaking of theories, there are a lot of them surrounding this event, but we're going to start with the facts, right?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Let's rewind back to November 1963. Jfk's in Texas. But this wasn't just a routine visit, was it?
Speaker 2:Not even close. This was high stakes politics, a delicate balancing act. Remember those tensions we talked about. This trip was JFK's attempt to kind of smooth things over within the Democratic Party itself. You had big personalities, different factions, all vying for power. Senator Yarbrough, LBJ, Governor.
Speaker 1:Connolly, Texas politics at its finest. Ok, so you're telling me there was already drama brewing before JFK even set foot in Dallas?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. And this is where those seemingly small details take on a whole new meaning. You know, the Kennedys arrive at Love Field. It's November, so a bit of rain, but then the sun breaks through just as their plane lands.
Speaker 1:It's like something out of a movie. I've seen the photos Jackie Kennedy in that pink Chanel suit, the crowds going wild. If you didn't know any better, you'd think it was a joyous occasion.
Speaker 2:And that's what makes the decision to remove the limousine's bubble top so eerie in hindsight. Oh yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:I mean talk about a sliding doors moment. What if they had just kept the top on?
Speaker 2:It makes you think, doesn't it, how these tiny choices can have such huge consequences.
Speaker 1:It really does. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's set the scene in Dealey Plaza the motorcade route, the crowds, that sense of excitement as JFK's car approaches. And then everything changes.
Speaker 2:In a heartbeat you go from this almost celebratory atmosphere to utter chaos and confusion. I mean imagine hearing those gunshots, not knowing where they're coming from, who's being targeted. People thought it was firecrackers at first.
Speaker 1:It's hard to even fathom right being in that crowd, the panic, the uncertainty.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And those firsthand accounts, they really paint a visceral picture of that day. Like there's this one from a man named Mr Newman who was there with his family. He describes seeing Kennedy jump up in his seat after the first shot, the blood, the pure terror, as his wife tries to shield their baby on the ground.
Speaker 1:God, it just gives me chills thinking about it. It really highlights the fact that this wasn't just a historical event. It was a horrific tragedy that impacted real people's lives in a very real way. Right it reminds us that history is made up of individual stories of human experiences. Exactly, and in the frenzy that follows everyone's desperate for information, you have the frantic dash to Parkland Hospital, conflicting reports about President Kennedy and Governor Connolly's conditions. It must have been absolute mayhem.
Speaker 2:Total chaos and inside the hospital doctors are fighting to save the president. But the damage is just too severe. There's a quote from Dr Sire, who operated on Kennedy. He said the head wound was large, huge, jagged. He said there was just no way he could have survived.
Speaker 1:Just devastating. And while all of this is happening, news starts to spread like wildfire. And remember this is 1963. No internet, no smartphones, just radios and televisions bringing the news into people's homes.
Speaker 2:It's the dawn of a new era of news coverage the sense of immediacy, of shared experience, even without today's instant communication.
Speaker 1:It's wild to think about. So, as the nation mourns, we're left with this huge question what happens next? And, believe me, the story takes an even more unbelievable turn from here. But before we get into that, let's take a moment to just acknowledge the weight of this moment, the sheer magnitude of what had just transpired.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the world had changed in an instant.
Speaker 1:You know you can read about these things in history books, but I can't even imagine what it must have been like to actually watch it all unfold on live TV.
Speaker 2:Surreal right, I mean, as if the assassination itself wasn't shocking enough. But then you have Jack Ruby stepping in and bam shooting Lee Harvey Oswald the guy accused of killing the president on live TV.
Speaker 1:Like something out of a movie right Adds a whole other layer to this whole thing.
Speaker 2:It's insane.
Speaker 1:Right, as a whole other layer to this whole thing is insane. But let's back up for a second, because before Ruby even enters the picture, you've got the whole saga of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, talk about a life story. I mean, the guy was a former Marine, defected to the Soviet Union, then comes back to the US with this like cloud of suspicion hanging over him.
Speaker 1:So you're saying it's no surprise. People thought he wasn't working alone. I mean you've got the arrest, the photos of him in custody, his claims of innocence. It's a lot, a lot to untangle. For sure it really is. But in the meantime you've got these images that are forever etched in our minds, right Like Lyndon B Johnson being sworn in as president, right there on Air Force One.
Speaker 2:Talk about a powerful moment, and can we just talk about the weight of that photograph for a second Johnson taking the oath of office and right there beside him is Jackie Kennedy, still in her bloodstained suit.
Speaker 1:Chills, literal chills. It's such a raw human moment in the midst of this huge historical event. It really speaks volumes, doesn't it About resilience, about duty, about the country just trying to pick itself up and carry on.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, it was definitely a strategic move you know to project a sense of stability and continuity after all the chaos, but you can't deny the emotional impact of that image.
Speaker 1:Not at all. So we've got the nation in mourning. This investigation just getting started, and that's where the Warren Commission comes in right. What was their role in all of this?
Speaker 2:So their job was huge, right, like investigate the assassination, address everyone's fears and concerns about a possible conspiracy, because you know everyone was thinking it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And the whole world was watching, waiting to see what they'd uncover.
Speaker 1:No pressure Right.
Speaker 2:And after almost a year, after talking to who knows how many people and going through tons of evidence, they come back and say Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, Case closed. But you can't just, you know, put that genie back in the bottle.
Speaker 1:Because it almost feels like it raised more questions than answered.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, and it kind of makes sense when you think about it, because the idea that this lone gunman, this seemingly random guy, could just I don't know take out the president of the United States, it's almost impossible to believe.
Speaker 1:Right, like how can one person have that much power to change the course of history?
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's where a lot of these conspiracy theories really take hold, like take the magic bullet theory, for example.
Speaker 1:OK yeah, the single bullet theory. That one always gets me, because how can one bullet do that much damage, Going through President Kennedy and then injuring Governor Connolly too seems, I don't know, impossible.
Speaker 2:It does until you bring technology into the picture. So, decades after the assassination, this computer animator, dale Myers, he uses his skills to basically recreate the day in Dealey Plaza.
Speaker 1:Wait, hold on Back up a bit. Remind me what's the Zapruder film again, oh right, right.
Speaker 2:So the Zapruder film was this home movie that this guy, abraham Zapruder, just happened to be filming when the assassination happened, so he ends up capturing the whole thing on film.
Speaker 1:Wow, ok, so Myers used that footage to like recreate the assassination.
Speaker 2:Exactly. He digitally mapped the trajectory of the bullets, like you could actually see the path of the bullet in 3D, and what he found was that the single bullet theory, while hard to grasp, is actually totally plausible.
Speaker 1:OK, so walk me through it. What did this recreation actually show?
Speaker 2:All right. So first shot completely misses the limo. But the second shot, that's the one that hit President Kennedy in the back and exited through his throat. Now here's where it gets interesting. Because of the way Kennedy was sitting, kind of leaning forward a bit, that bullet, after passing through him, continued on this like set trajectory and ended up hitting Governor Connolly who was sitting in front of him.
Speaker 1:So, despite it seeming completely impossible, the single bullet theory actually, like holds up.
Speaker 2:According to Myers Recreation. Yeah, he wasn't trying to prove or disprove any conspiracy theories or anything, just using technology to look at what was physically possible. But even with this evidence, the doubts still linger, you know.
Speaker 1:You want there to be some kind of explanation. You know, right, some reason why this happened, but sometimes I don't know. Maybe they're just in the one.
Speaker 2:Sometimes things just happen as terrible as they are and it's hard to accept that, you know, especially when it's something as significant as the assassination of a president, the idea that one person acting alone could just permanently alter the course of history. It's a lot to process.
Speaker 1:It makes you realize how fragile things are. You know, like if it could happen, then could it happen again, and it makes you question everything.
Speaker 2:It's that uncertainty, that lingering what if? That keeps us coming back to this event all these years later, trying to make sense of the senseless. But even with all the mystery and speculation, there's no denying the impact of this event, the way it just irrevocably changed the country, the world even.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like before the assassination. After the assassination, everything was different.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and you see it in all the images from that time. You know those somber faces at JFK's funeral little John Jr saluting his father's coffin.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was a collective grief, a shared trauma that transcended borders.
Speaker 1:And it's those images, those raw human moments that really stick with you. You know, it's not just history. It's like we're seeing the human cost of this tragedy play out right in front of us.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and beyond the immediate grief, there's this sense of lost innocence, like suddenly the world felt a lot more dangerous, a lot less certain.
Speaker 1:But that whole Camelot image, that optimism that defined the Kennedy era, just vanished.
Speaker 2:Gone in an instant Because the assassination, it wasn't just a political event, right, it was a wound, a collective trauma that exposed this vulnerability, this fragility that I think no one wanted to admit was there.
Speaker 1:And maybe that's why we're still talking about it. You know, even after all these years, the JFK assassination still fascinates us, because it reminds us that some things just don't have easy answers. We're left grappling with the unknown. So where does that leave us, the listener today? Why does any of this matter?
Speaker 2:Because it's a story that speaks to something much bigger than itself. It reminds us how fragile our systems are, how one moment can change everything and how desperately we try to understand, even when things just don't make sense. It challenges us to think critically, to engage with history and to never stop asking questions, even when the answers feel impossible to find.
Speaker 1:It makes you realize that, even though we're talking about events that happened decades ago, the echoes of the past are still reverberating today, shaping the world we live in.
Speaker 2:And as you go through those eyewitness accounts, those official reports, those lingering questions, think about this how would things be different if those shots had never been fired? Would America's place in the world be different? Would our social and political landscape be different? There are no easy answers, but these are the questions that history and this deep dive challenge us to confront.
Speaker 1:It's about engaging with those questions, looking at things from different angles and ultimately coming to our own conclusions about the past and what it means for us today.
Speaker 2:Because that's the power of history it makes us think, it challenges our assumptions and it reminds us that, even though it's gone, its impact continues to shape who we are and who we'll become.
Speaker 1:So until next time, keep exploring, keep asking questions and we'll see you on our next deep dive.