Starting the Golden Age of television, the assassination of John F. Kennedy drew attention from television outlets less than an hour after two shots rang out in Dallas. From NBC and CBS, America knew about the first presidential assassination because of the rise of broadcast news. However, the official files from the CIA and FBI, among other organizations, have largely been kept in the dark, something that raises suspicion about what really happened Nov. 22, 1963.

Conspiracists held their breath as President Donald Trump and his administration planned to release the remaining documents concerning the assassination. But the long awaited release fell flat. The sudden retention of some of the documents is suspicious when trying to get to the bottom of the case. Who really was Lee Harvey Oswald?

The Trump administration is seemingly pushing for the release of all documents relating to the assassination, however related agencies asked to withhold certain archives due to a risk in security and international affairs, according to a National Archives Press Release. It seems fishy that the White House and the owners of the documents are not in agreement.

As one delves into the 2,891 documents released Oct. 26, it’s not a surprise to see evidence that anti-Fidel Castro supporters disliked Kennedy. After a failed Bay of Pigs invasion into Cuba, anti-Castro Americans and Cubans had resentment toward Kennedy and his administration. The new release of files opened up a gateway for investigators and conspirators to find out the true connections between Oswald and anti-Castro sentiments- an important breakthrough for bringing the truth to light.

However, the fact that thousands were held back puts a damper on all the potential possibilities that could come from this new information from the release. The chance of even more complex insight into one of the most influential assassinations could still be hidden and will always be at the back of conspiracists and historians alike.

Though Oswald publically supported Castro and his Communist ways, one of the files considers that Oswald could have been plotting with the protesting population. One of the documents released states that Oswald met with unaffiliated anti-Castro citizens, according to evidence found by the Select Committee of Assassinations. In a released file, Assistant Counsels William Coleman and W. David Slawson proposed that because Oswald was publically pro-Castro, anti-Castro Cubans reined him in to kill Kennedy which result in the Castro regime being blamed. An earlier release of this crucial document and more like it could have opened up an investigation long before the death of Castro.

Although some information was recovered from these files, some select documents had no relevance to the JFK case whatsoever. One released document contained information about a staff member from Richard Nixon’s presidency. While insight into the depths of the White House from any time period is valuable, for this case no major breakthrough was found, thus far. Wanting to protect the personal information of several living subjects of the documents is understandable, but it is about time seemingly important files were made available.

The fact that in 2017 the motive of Kennedy’s assassination is still a mystery is why all of the files need to be made public. The agencies and governments either need to actually put into action an assessment of the security risks or stop hoarding the evidence for no apparent reason and get to the bottom of one of the nation’s most shocking assassinations.