Rendezvous with Death
Encyclopedia
Rendezvous with Death is a 2006 German
documentary film
that claims that G2, a secret service organization of the Cuba
n government, organized the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
. The film first aired on January 6, 2006 on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk
. It was directed by Wilfried Huismann.
Rendezvous with Death features interviews with four Cuban former secret service agents and an American FBI agent, and also cites documents from KGB
and Mexican government archives.
A possible Cuban connection was investigated by the US immediately after Kennedy's death.
But an FBI officer sent to follow the Oswald's trail during a visit to Mexico was recalled after only three days and the investigation called off.
Laurence Keenan, now 81, said it was "perhaps the worst investigation the FBI was ever involved in".
"I realised that I was used. I felt ashamed. We missed a moment in history," Mr Keenan said.
Veteran US official Alexander Haig told the filmmaker that Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B Johnson, believed Cuba was to blame and feared a pronounced swing to the right if the truth were known that would keep the Democrats out of power for a long time.
Mr Haig - a US military adviser at the time and later a secretary of state - told the filmmakers Johnson said: "We must simply not allow the American people to believe Fidel Castro could have killed our president."
"He [Johnson] was convinced Castro killed Kennedy and he took it to his grave."
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
that claims that G2, a secret service organization of the Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n government, organized the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. The film first aired on January 6, 2006 on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
. It was directed by Wilfried Huismann.
Rendezvous with Death features interviews with four Cuban former secret service agents and an American FBI agent, and also cites documents from KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
and Mexican government archives.
A possible Cuban connection was investigated by the US immediately after Kennedy's death.
But an FBI officer sent to follow the Oswald's trail during a visit to Mexico was recalled after only three days and the investigation called off.
Laurence Keenan, now 81, said it was "perhaps the worst investigation the FBI was ever involved in".
"I realised that I was used. I felt ashamed. We missed a moment in history," Mr Keenan said.
Veteran US official Alexander Haig told the filmmaker that Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B Johnson, believed Cuba was to blame and feared a pronounced swing to the right if the truth were known that would keep the Democrats out of power for a long time.
Mr Haig - a US military adviser at the time and later a secretary of state - told the filmmakers Johnson said: "We must simply not allow the American people to believe Fidel Castro could have killed our president."
"He [Johnson] was convinced Castro killed Kennedy and he took it to his grave."
External links
- $6,500 to kill a president: did Oswald sell his soul to Cuba? in The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
- Film: Cuban secret service organized JFK's murder in The Miami HeraldThe Miami HeraldThe Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...