LBJ had several elements supporting a role in the JFK assassination:
1. Huge ambition, almost maniacal, to be president.
2. His health made him conclude that his only chance to be president was quickly.
3. Some believe he had used criminal means to gain power, from falsifying an election even to the point of murder to protect himself.
4. He was at great odds with the Kennedys generally, and reportedly just miserable as Kennedy's VP, which changed when he became president.
5. There is evidence that while JFK wanted LBJ to never be president and was already discussing how to keep him off the ticket in 1968, Robert Kennedy as Attorney General was feeding information to a national magazine to publish a scandal on Johnson that was scheduled for publication - and of course cancelled - the week after the assassination to drive him off the ticket in 1964. It's believed the assassination protected LBJ from criminal prosecution. The Bobby Baker scandal was ready to explode.
Jackie: ""Jack said it to me sometimes. He said, 'Oh, God, can you ever imagine what would happen to the country if Lyndon were president?'""
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Jacqu...ry?id=14477930
6. LBJ's differences with Kennedy could be bitter. In particular, JFK sent LBJ to Vietnam where he didn't want to go - and LBJ formed a close relationship with the dictator president, Diem. Against Kennedy's wishes LBJ told the press that Diem was the 'Winston
Churchill of Southeast Asia', giving high praise at the time Kennedy was trying to pressure Diem to reform. LBJ was bitter when Diem was assassinated in a US-backed coup and later said he suspected JFK had been assassinated in revenge for that.
7. Small anecdote - I recall a very odd filmed interview where LBJ referred to President Kennedy as "that fellow" in a way that was pretty shocking for a VP to refer to the president. Unfortunately I can't quickly find a link to it.
8. The Soviets reportedly believed LBJ had been involved.
9. LBJ had much better relations with the security establishment than JFK - as shown by his agreeing to the war in Vietnam they wanted that Kennedy refused.
In short, a lot of the pieces for LBJ to be involved fall into place.
Having said that, these are just some of the pieces - motive is not proof.
They move the question from the realm of the absurd and extremely unlikely much closer to plausible - but not much more.
It seems more likely to me that if there were a conspiracy, LBJ's role ranged from none to a quite hands-off role.
Didn't the warren Comm. say it was the most determined case of suicide they had ever seen.
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