“This seems to be all the justification that would be needed by whoever would assassinate JFK.”
Maybe. Of course, we have a perfectly legal process for removing the president. Seems a bit rash to me that someone would go ahead and kill him instead of going public, considering that an election was around the corner.
Going public where? Remember that the self censorship of the media back then was intense. JFK had a huge cult of personality, which outlived him. Every public school had pictures of him well into the 1970s. Not bad for a president whose accomplishments were minor at best.
Even though it was very limited “public” knowledge, the Kennedy family did not admit to any of his health problems until the 1980s. The media certainly didn’t, beyond back pain.
JFK might have had Addison’s disease as early as 1946, and it is now known that at first, he was only given a year to live. So he obviously intended to keep going until he died. A later diagnosis was that he wouldn’t live past 45, and he has passed that age as well.
So if asked to resign for health reasons, he would have refused. And if he ran for reelection, he probably would have been reelected.
An unanswered question is why LBJ retained JFK’s cabinet, though their was tremendous mutual hatred between him and them. It implies that they had very powerful persuasion at their command.