General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy believed President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy. [View all]nyquil_man
(1,443 posts)Katzenbach's memo of 11-25-63 states that "the public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large; and that the evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial."
Katzenbach goes on to say, "I think this objective may be satisfied by making public as soon as possible a complete and thorough FBI report on Oswald and the assassination. This may run into the difficulty of pointing to inconsistencies between this report and statements by Dallas police officials. But the reputation of the Bureau is such that it may do the whole job. The only other step would be the appointment of a Presidential Commission of unimpeachable personnel to review and examine the evidence and announce its conclusions. This has both advantages and disadvantages. I think it can await publication of the FBI report and public reaction to it here and abroad." (emphasis mine)
This is the opinion of the man acting, in RFK's effective absence, as head of the Justice Department. One, that the public must be satisfied that Oswald acted alone. Second, that the FBI is capable of doing the job itself. Third, that a commission should be appointed to "review and examine" the evidence once the FBI report has been issued. Nothing about examining a conspiracy. Nothing about the plausibility of finding a conspiracy.
Conspiracy theorists usually love to seize on that memo as proof that a cover-up was going on at high levels. But this is Nick Katzenbach we're talking about, second-in-command to RFK at the Justice Department, saying that the best course of action is to have the FBI present the case against Oswald and have a commission review it.
That's the Justice Department position three days after the assassination and, by extension, the position of the Attorney General. To my knowledge, RFK publicly renounced neither Katzenbach's memo nor the Warren Commission which that memo helped to spawn.
Did Katzenbach go rogue?