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John F. Kennedy's Assassination
President John F. Kennedy began
making plans to visit Texas in November 1963 nearly a year
before the trip. Not only did he see it as an opportunity
to mend a rift within the Democratic Party, but he also
had made few visits to the state since his 1960 election.
In June 1963 in El Paso, Texas, President Kennedy, Vice
President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Texas Governor John B.
Connally, Jr. decided that the President would visit Texas
in late November 1963. Originally scheduled as a one-day
visit, the tour through the state was extended to two days
by September. After the trip was extended, Governor Connally
agreed to a motorcade through downtown Dallas so that as
many people as possible could see the President.
The motorcade, scheduled for
45 minutes, was routed from the airport at Love Field to
the luncheon site at the Trade Mart, a total distance of
10 miles. From the airport, the motorcade would travel on
Main Street to the Stemmons Freeway to reach the Trade Mart.
The route was typical for Presidential visits; in fact,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt had made the same trip in
1936.
Before the President's trip,
the White House staff had several concerns about going to
Texas. First, the state was predominantly anti-Democrat,
and Vice President Johnson had faced demonstrations during
the 1960 campaign. Second, demonstrators jeered US Ambassador
to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson in October, and newspapers
had publicized the President's visit in September, receiving
both criticism and optimism at the date. Furthermore, some
circulars and newspaper ads condemning the President appeared
in early November. Ironically, President Kennedy seemed
to predict his own fate, as he commented his wife and a
White House staff member on November 22, just before he
left for Dallas, that "if anybody really wanted to shoot
the President of the United States, it would not be a difficult
job. All one had to do was get into a high building someday
with a telescopic rifle, and there was nothing anybody could
do to defend against such an attempt."
Dallas police motorcycles led
the motorcade, with the lead car and the Presidential limousine
following. Because the weather was sunny, one of Kennedy's
Secret Service Agents suggested that the convertible top
on the Presidential limousine be left down. President and
Mrs. Kennedy sat in the back seat, with Governor and Mrs.
Connally directly in front of them, in seats that were between
the front and back seats. Following the Presidential limousine
were more motorcycle escorts, the Presidential follow-up
car, the Vice Presidential car and its follow-up car.
When the President's car arrived
in Dallas, throngs of people rushed to meet it. In fact,
the crowd was so thick that Special Agents had to leave
the follow-up car several times to keep people from deterring
the President's car. From Main Street, the motorcade turned
onto Houston Street and proceeded to Elm Street to reach
the Stemmons Freeway. At 12:30 PM, about 40 minutes after
the motorcade started, President Kennedy was shot in the
neck. As the President grabbed his neck and teetered forward,
Governor Connally turned around to look at him and was shot
in the back. A second shot through the back of President
Kennedy's head gave him the fatal wound. He was rushed to
Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died after attempts
at treatment failed.
The Grahams' Involvement
Earlier in November 1963, Billy
Graham said he had an unusual sense of foreboding about
the trip and tried earnestly to contact the President to
implore him not to go. His feelings were later justified,
as two weeks after Billy's ill feelings about the trip,
he received word that the President had been shot. During
the funeral, Billy sat among the Kennedys' friends, recalling
that, like everyone else, he wondered why this tragedy happened.
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