Quick Take
To this point at least, the new releases have given us nothing of consequence relating to what was thought to be their chief concern: the assassination of President Kennedy.
But they’ve been quite notable on another topic, namely U.S. covert operations in the early 1960s. In many cases the documents in question had been made available earlier, but only in redacted form (to protect intelligence operations and sources). Now they can be read in their totality.
We get a fuller sense of the scope of U.S. clandestine activities, especially in Latin America. With country names no longer redacted, we get a striking sense, for example, of how often the United States interfered in elections abroad.
For me, the latest release is another reminder of the importance of the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. At regular intervals, we’ve gotten access to materials that, in the absence of the Act, might have remained classified forever.