JFK and the assassin(s)

Chin Jung-kwon

The author is a professor at Kwangwoon University.

The history of conspiracy theories can be traced to Greek mythological thinking, which saw divine collusion behind every event. Modern variations include theories about Freemasons secretly running the world and “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which purported to reveal a Jewish plot for world domination.

The crucible of contemporary conspiracy theories, however, may be the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Modern conspiracy theories characteristically combine narrative with pseudo-reason. To persuade a public accustomed to scientific discourse, stories must be dressed in pseudo-rationality.

The supposed evidence underpinning the film “Assassin(s)” has already appeared in Kennedy assassination theories: “Four gunshots were heard. The bullet that killed Kennedy came from elsewhere. Therefore, Oswald did not act alone.” Oliver Stone might as well have called “JFK” (1991) “Oswald(s).”

Then there is this: “The CIA was already closely monitoring Oswald before the shooting. The Dallas FBI even received a tip the day before his death that someone was planning to kill him. Yet they failed to prevent either his crime or his murder.” So did the CIA and FBI at least facilitate, or perhaps even orchestrate, the crime?

At this point, imagination runs wild. Conspiracy theories have implicated 42 groups, including the CIA, the U.S. military-industrial complex, the Soviet Union, Cuba and the Israeli government. They have identified 82 supposed gunmen and 214 alleged conspirators, including George H.W. Bush, who later became U.S. president.

Almost all classified Kennedy assassination records have now been released, yet no evidence has emerged overturning the Warren Commission’s conclusion. Still, a 2023 poll found that 65 percent of Americans believed there was a conspiracy, while only 29 percent believed Oswald acted alone.

The conspiracy theory surrounding the assassination of former first lady Yook Young-soo is a recycled version of the same shabby story: “Six shots were recorded. The bullet that penetrated her head belonged to someone else. Therefore, Moon Se-kwang did not act alone.” Or: “The Korean Central Intelligence Agency [KCIA] was monitoring Moon. How did he enter the venue without an invitation?” The structure is identical.

In the film, the medical examiner avoids eye contact and fails to clearly state Yook’s cause of death. Numerous cover-up theories also arose over Kennedy’s autopsy. No conspiracy theory is complete without missing evidence. Theories about Kennedy invoke a “missing brain.” The Yook theory has a “missing bullet.”

Unlike the Kennedy theories, however, the Yook conspiracy theory identifies only one force which could be behind the assassination: the Park Chung Hee government. Two motives are generally proposed: “to abolish Chongryon,” the pro-Pyongyang organization of Koreans in Japan, or “to bury the Kim Dae-jung kidnapping scandal.” Neither is particularly plausible or consistent with circumstances at the time.

Suppose the theory were true. We would reach an absurd conclusion: The president, seeking to normalize deteriorating Korea-Japan relations, plotted his wife’s assassination, recruited a Korean resident of Japan prepared to die and silenced everyone involved for 50 years. Does that make sense?

Yet by adding an “s” to “Assassin,” the director resurrects this conspiracy theory: “The hidden truth — who was behind it?” Putting the “s” in parentheses conveniently avoids responsibility by suggesting everything is pure fiction.

The director said, “Judgment is up to the audience.” But hasn’t he already made the judgment? When controversy erupted, he retreated from the theory that Park ordered the assassination, calling it “rationally impossible,” and explained that he meant there was infighting among senior KCIA officials.

That motif also appears in Kennedy conspiracy theories, notably those involving Lyndon Johnson: facing removal as vice president over a corruption scandal, Johnson supposedly had Kennedy killed and then became president himself.

Such vaunted cinematic imagination thus coincides completely with conspiratorial imagination. Has the political legitimacy and progressive self-image of the 586 generation (Koreans now in their 50s and 60s who were student activists in the 1980s) fallen so far that it now requires crude conspiracy theories to sustain itself?

One movie has thrown the country into uproar. The loudest voices come from two extremes that look remarkably similar. Those who condemned “The Birth of Korea” (2024) as a “distortion of history” now invoke “freedom of expression,” while those who defended it as “freedom of expression” now denounce “distortion of history.”

Whether factual distortion is protected as free expression or prohibited, choose one standard. And please leave the actors alone. The attacks branding one actor a descendant of pro-Japanese collaborators and another a leftist are equally tiresome.

Conspiracy theory is a spell cast upon reason. Anyone can fall under it.