Over time, I’ve come to the conclusion that if there was a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, it was actually a mistake, based on incorrect information.
Again, if it was the case, then it might have been done on the incorrect belief that Kennedy either was insane, or was going to go insane, and that an insane US president could start a nuclear war, so had to be removed from office.
The problem began with JFKs severe health problems, in this case, Addison’s disease, a malfunctioning adrenal gland. As with his other health problems, this was kept as a closely guarded secret.
However, about when he became president, his Addison’s disease became obvious, because it changed the appearance of his skin, so would have been recognizable to any physician familiar with the disease.
At the time, the only known therapy for Addison’s disease was large doses of cortisone, which JFK had been taking for years. His family was believed to have put cortisone pills in safety deposit boxes around the country, just in case he needed some while traveling.
By the mid-1950s, cortisone was seen as a “miracle drug”, but a potentially dangerous one. It was mistakenly believed that if a person took a large amount of cortisone over a period of time, they would become dangerously paranoid with severe mood swings.
This mistaken belief was made far worse when a movie came out in 1957, called “Bigger Than Life”, starring the major Hollywood star James Mason:
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0049010/
It is about an ordinary family man and teacher, who because of a medical condition must take cortisone, which eventually turns him into a dangerous lunatic. His over-the-top performance was very frightening, and probably scared many people away from taking cortisone.
Add to this the national panic created by the Cuban Missile Crisis, and many people were on edge. It is very likely that questions would have been raised about potential causes of a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union, both intentionally and by accident.
So the chain of misunderstanding would have been fairly simple. A physician noted Kennedy’s Addison’s disease, and mentioned it to someone outside his inner circle. Perhaps the same doctor would have mentioned that large amounts of cortisone was used to treat the disease.
Then either the doctor would mention the incorrect belief about cortisone, or more likely, someone would have seen the James Mason movie, and believed it accurately portrayed the effects of cortisone.
The final step would be that after the Cuban Missile Crisis, someone asked about JFKs mental health. And when told that JFK was likely going insane, or was dangerously insane, decided that Kennedy had to be removed from office.
One final note: Kennedy himself was adamant about staying in office, because he had been told by his doctors that he was likely to die from his health problems even before he was elected president, and had proven them wrong. Therefore, he would have almost certainly rejected the suggestion that he step down for health reasons.
Your hypothesis contains nothing more than conjecture in its presentation of JFK`s affliction with Addison's disease. So far, you've offered no proof and no evidence whatsoever to back up any of the bogus accusations you've made and for good reason.
All I can say is, whatever.
I read what you were saying about how “they” decided to take out Kennedy because of their assessment that Kennedy was either insane or going insane, and that the Cuban Missile Crisis contributed to that.
Starting with the Cuban Missile Crisis part, it appears to me that Kennedy was the much more sane one of the group. I think you’re misreading the “times” that Kennedy was in, at the time. You see, it was the Republicans who wanted the kind of “action” on Cuba that could have gotten us into a nuclear-missile war and the bombing of each others countries.
Kennedy, at the time, was saying that stronger action was not needed. In fact, he was worried, that because of his “softer stance” than the Republicans at the time (on Cuba) that when those missiles were discovered on Cuba, that this would *negatively impact* him politically, because it would make it out to be that Kennedy had been wrong (i.e., “not aggressive enough” with Cuba) and that the Republicans had been right.
What you’re making it sound like is that Kennedy was and/or perceived to be the one who wanted to aggressively take out Castro and Cuba, and therefore was viewed as the “insane one” for getting the U.S. into that mess.
In regards to the Bay of Pigs, which sort of lead up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, this was an operation which had been planned and approved before Kennedy got there and he went along with it, but, not aggressively enough, apparently, as it turned out to be a fiasco. I believe the Bay of Pigs was something that Truman and Eisenhower had approved, before, even if it wasn’t done in their Administrations.
BUT, the really “telling” part to the whole Cuban Missile Crisis, was that Kennedy had to fight off the “generals” in the military who were insisting that the *only way* that the U.S. could deal with this was to “strike” Cuba. They were pretty much insisting on this from the beginning and even after the “blockade idea” was presented.
I understand that Kennedy had to “ride herd hard” on the generals to make sure that some accident didn’t happen which would “set things off” and take everyone down the line to missile launches by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. at each other.
If *anything* — whoever “they” are — “they” would not be thinking that Kennedy was insane because he was going to start a nuclear war over this Cuban thing — but rather — “they” would be thinking, more or less, that Kennedy had not been “aggressive enough” with Castro and Cuba in the first place.
You seem to indicate that Kennedy would have been perceived as possibly “insane” for taking us down the road of this thing with Cuba, Russia and nuclear missiles and coming within seconds of nuking each other.
ACTUALLY, the argument was made that Kennedy was not “aggressive enough” in the face of our enemies... that was the complaint — not the other way around...
—
So, that sort of answers the “insane” thing for me and shows that if anything, it was not that, which was the problem for whomever “they” was.... LOL...
And to think that “they” would be concerned about Kennedy’s health, is sort of stupid, actually. I mean, how concerned were “they” over Franklin Roosevelt’s health? And we were fighting World War 2 at the time, actually fighting a full-fledged war on two fronts...
I don’t think the health matter would have made a difference.
—
If you saw the LBJ/Billie Sol Estes scandal, that makes a lot more sense, since there was “real motive” there (with LBJ) and he was getting deep in it. If LBJ had not become President, the authorities would have soon been after him and would have probably put LBJ away for life. But, upon becoming President, he was able to “put away” that whole Billie Sol Estes scandal and remove himself completely out of it.