The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963, was a cruel and shocking act of violence directed against a man, a family, a nation, and against all mankind. A young and vigorous leader whose years of public and private life stretched before him was the victim of the fourth presidential assassination in the history of a country dedicated to the concepts of reasoned argument and peaceful political change. This commission was created on November 29th 1963, in recognition of the right of people everywhere to full and truthful knowledge concerning these events.