1963年，遭到暗殺前的約翰·F·甘迺迪（左）與妻子傑奎琳。
The granddaddy of all conspiracy theories has re-emerged in the American psyche with the planned release of the National Archives’s final trove of records about the assassination ofPresident John F. Kennedy.
隨著美國國家檔案館(National Archives)計劃公開有關約翰·F·甘迺迪(John F. Kennedy)總統遇刺案的最後一批檔案，各種陰謀論的始祖再次浮現在美國人心頭。
Kennedy’s death on Nov. 22, 1963, and the numerous investigations that followed were simultaneously some of the most secretive and public events in modern history.
甘迺迪1963年11月22日的死亡和隨後的大量調查，是現代歷史上最神秘同時也是最公開的事件。
Government agencies, Hollywood big shots and amateur sleuths have floated theories of what happened to Kennedy: a plot by Cold War adversaries like Cuba and the Soviet Union; an elaborate mafia-backed hit; a covert federal government coup. And it’s been going on for over 50 years.
對於甘迺迪身上發生的事情，政府機構、好萊塢大亨和業餘偵探都提出了自己的理論：它是古巴和蘇聯等冷戰對手的一場陰謀、是一次精心策劃並得到了黑幫支持的行動、是一場秘密聯邦政府政變。這種眾說紛紜的狀況已經持續了50多年。
『A wound in the brain』
「腦部受傷」
Kennedy’s was one of the most public murders in history, a victim shot in front of hundreds of spectators, with a coterie of news reporters in tow. Page One of The Times blared the news of the assassination, reporting that 「he died of a wound in the brain caused by a rifle bullet that was fired at him as he was riding through downtown Dallas in a motorcade.」
甘迺迪遇刺是史上最公開的謀殺案之一。受害人在數百名觀眾面前被開槍擊中，緊接著出現了大量新聞報導。刺殺新聞出現在時報頭版，稱「總統車隊經過達拉斯市中心時他被步槍子彈擊中，死於腦傷」。
The report chronicled the swift chaos of the day, from Kennedy’s pre-breakfast speech to Lyndon B. Johnson’s swearing-in as president on Air Force One a few hours later.
這篇報導按時序記述了當天迅速上演的混亂局面，從甘迺迪在早餐前的講話，到幾個小時後林登·B·詹森(Lyndon B. Johnson)在「空軍一號」上宣誓就任總統。
Mr. Johnson, who was uninjured in the shooting, took his oath in the Presidential jet plane as it stood on the runway at Love Field. The body of Mr. Kennedy was aboard. Immediately after the oath-taking, the plane took off for Washington.
未在槍擊事件中受傷的詹森，在停在拉夫菲爾德(Love Field)機場跑道上的總統專機上宣誓。甘迺迪的遺體也在飛機上。宣誓結束後，飛機立即飛往華盛頓。
Standing beside the new President as Mr. Johnson took the oath of office was Mrs. John F. Kennedy. Her stockings were spattered with her husband’s blood.
詹森宣誓就職時，約翰·F·甘迺迪夫人就站在新總統的旁邊，襪子上還濺有她丈夫的血。
Lee Harvey Oswald
李·哈維·奧斯瓦爾德(Lee Harvey Oswald)
「Lee H. Oswald, who once defected to the Soviet Union and who has been active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, was arrested by the Dallas police,」 The Times reported on the same front page. 「Tonight he was accused of the killing.」
「李·H·奧斯瓦爾德被達拉斯警方逮捕。他曾經叛逃到蘇聯，並在公平對待古巴委員會(Fair Play for Cuba Committee)表現活躍，」時報在頭版還報導。「今晚，他被控制造了這起謀殺。」
Immediately after the shooting, a witness told reporters that as 「shots rang out he saw a rifle extended and then withdrawn from a window on the 「fifth or sixth floor」 of the Texas School Book Depository.
槍擊事件發生後，馬上就有一名目擊者對記者表示，槍聲響起的時候，他看到德克薩斯州教材倉庫大樓(Texas School Book Depository)「五樓或六樓」的一扇窗戶裡伸出來一把步槍，然後又縮了回去。
Oswald, a former Marine, had become 「a changed man with a new and bewildering personality when he returned to the United States in 1962,」 according to his wife, Marina, whom he married while living in Russia.
據奧斯瓦爾德的妻子瑪麗娜(Marina)說，曾是海軍陸戰隊員的他「1962年回到美國時像變了個人似的，新表現出的性格令人不解」。兩人是在奧斯瓦爾德在俄羅斯生活期間結婚的。
He was famously shot dead by Jack Ruby while in police custody on Nov. 24, two days after the assassination.
眾所周知，刺殺事件發生兩天後的11月24日，奧斯瓦爾德在警方羈押下死於傑克·魯比(Jack Ruby)的槍口。
The Warren Commission: discrediting 『myths』
沃倫委員會(The Warren Commission)：質疑『虛假言論』
A week after Kennedy’s death, Johnson convened a governmentbody to investigate it, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren.
甘迺迪死後一周，詹森成立了一個政府機構調查此事，由首席大法官厄爾·沃倫(Earl Warren)領導。
The nearly yearlong investigation included the private testimony of Jacqueline Kennedy. Many of the findings, like the infamous 「magic-bullet theory,」 have been contested.
歷時近一年的調查包括傑奎琳·甘迺迪(Jacqueline Kennedy)的秘密證詞。很多調查結果，包括臭名昭著的「神奇子彈論」，都受到了質疑。
Ultimately, the commission ruled that Oswald had acted alone, rejecting any idea that Russia or Cuba officially backed him, but demanded reforms from the F.B.I. and the Secret Service.
最終，該委員會否定了奧斯瓦爾德得到了俄羅斯或古巴官方支持的觀點，判定他是獨自行動，但要求聯邦調查局(FBI)和特勤局(Secret Service)進行改革。
The commission, saying that the 「『publicizing of unchecked information』 had led to 『myths』 and 『distorted』 interpretations,」 also tried to discredit the multiplying conspiracy theories behind the assassination. It didn’t work.
該委員會稱「『宣傳未經核實的信息』造成了『虛假言論』和『歪曲』的解讀」，也試圖質疑刺殺事件背後成倍增長的陰謀論。但收效甚微。
Investigated again. And again.
反覆調查
At least two more official federal government panels convened in the 1960s and 』70s to relitigate the shooting. In 1969, Attorney General Ramsey Clark appointed four medical experts to re-examine scientific evidence, in part as a response to an investigation by the New Orleans district attorney, Jim Garrison. Clark’s panel backed the Warren Commission’s assertion that only two bullets had killed the president.
60和70年代，至少又成立了兩個正式的聯邦政府小組對這起槍擊事件重新提起訴訟。1969年，司法部長拉姆西·克拉克(Ramsey Clark)任命四名醫療專家重新檢視科學證據，作為回應紐奧良地方檢察官吉姆·加裡森(Jim Garrison)發起的一項調查的部分內容。克拉克的調查小組支持沃倫委員會關於殺害總統只有兩顆子彈的論斷。
In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, dogged by internal strife during its two and a half years of existence, released a report saying that untold conspirators had probably participated in the killing, citing newly uncovered evidence and scientific advances.
1979年，眾議院遇刺案特別委員會(House Select Committee on Assassinations)發布了一份報告，援引新發現的證據和科技進步稱，可能有未被提到的同謀參與這起謀殺案。在其存在的兩年半時間裡，該委員會內部衝突不斷。
According to the committee, Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository Building and an unidentified person fired one shot from the grassy knoll in front of the President’s limousine.
據該委員會稱，奧斯瓦爾德從德克薩斯州教材倉庫大樓六樓的窗戶開了三槍，一個身份不明的人從總統專車前方的草丘處開了一槍。
The committee cited witnesses in its findings of a second gunman, including:
該委員會在其調查結果中引用了多名見過另一名槍手的目擊者的話，其中包括：
… a police officer who said he heard a shot from the knoll and ran immediately toward it. There he encountered a man who said he was with the Secret Service and displayed a badge, which the policemen did not inspect very closely.
……一名警察說他聽到草丘那裡傳來槍聲，馬上跑了過去。在那裡，他遇到了一個自稱來自特勤局並出示了徽章的人，但這名警察檢查得不是非常仔細。
A check of the placement of Secret Service agents, however, disclosed that none had been in the area of the knoll.
然而，查看特勤局人員部署情況後發現，並沒有人安排在草丘區域。
Over the years, the Warren Commission findings remained in doubt in some circles. In 1988, David W. Belin, a lawyer who had advised the commission, wrote:
多年來，沃倫委員會的調查結果依然受到一些群體的質疑。1988年，曾擔任該委員會顧問的律師戴維·W·貝林(David W. Belin)寫道：
Yet 25 years after the event, a majority of the American public does not believe the truth. Rather, polls have shown that most Americans believe President Kennedy was assassinated as an outgrowth of a conspiracy.
但事情發生25年後，美國多數民眾仍不相信事實。調查顯示，大部分美國人認為，甘迺迪總統被刺殺是一場陰謀的結果。
In 1991, the conspiracy reignited in the form of a major Hollywood movie.
1991年，這場陰謀以一部好萊塢大片的形式再度出現。
『J.F.K.』 and rewriting history
『《刺殺甘迺迪》』(J.F.K.)與改編歷史
In 1969, a jury took only 50 minutes to acquit a man named Clay Shaw of conspiring to assassinate Kennedy.
1969年，一個陪審團僅用50分鐘便裁定一個名叫克萊·肖(Clay Shaw)的男子密謀刺殺甘迺迪罪名不成立。
The Oliver Stone movie 「J.F.K.」 in 1991 reimagined both that 34-day trial, called a 「circus」 by many, and the extensive investigation by Garrison, the New Orleans district attorney.
1991年，奧利弗·斯通(Oliver Stone)執導的電影《刺殺甘迺迪》再現了這場歷時34天、被很多人稱作「馬戲」的審判，和紐奧良地方檢察官加裡森主導的那場大規模調查。
As The Times wrote in Garrison’s 1992 obituary:
正如1992年時報在加裡森的訃告中所寫的那樣：
Announcing that he had 「solved the assassination,」 Mr. Garrison accused anti-Communist and anti-Castro extremists in the Central Intelligence Agency of plotting the President’s death to thwart an easing of tension with the Soviet Union and Cuba, and to prevent a retreat from Vietnam.
加裡森宣布自己「偵破了刺殺案」，指控中央情報局(Central Intelligence Agency)內部的反共和反卡斯楚極端分子暗中策劃了殺害總統一事，以阻撓緩和同蘇聯和古巴的緊張關係，並阻止從越南撤軍。
Garrison, whom The Times described in a lengthy 1967 profile as a headline-seeking crusader with political aspirations long before the Shaw trial, was an adviser for the film, which renewed calls for answers but was criticized by many as a rewriting of history.
加裡森是該片的顧問。影片再次引發了要求獲得真相的呼聲，但也有很多人指責它不忠實歷史。早在肖受審之前的1967年，時報就在一個長篇人物特稿中稱加裡森是一個有政治抱負、希望登上頭條的鬥士。
Mr. Stone addressed these accusations in a Times Op-Ed:
斯通在時報的一篇評論文章中回應了這些指控：
My critics are outraged that I pose the view that Kennedy’s desire to wind down the cold war and the Vietnam War is a possible motive for the murder. When a leader of any country is assassinated, the media normally ask: 「What political forces were opposed to this leader and would benefit from his assassination?」
批評我的人憤怒的是，我提出了甘迺迪希望停止冷戰和越戰可能是這場謀殺案的動機這個觀點。任何一個國家的領導人遇刺時，媒體通常都會問：「什麼政治力量反對這位領導人並會從其遇刺中受益？」
The film is partly credited with the passage, the year after it was released, of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. The law mandated the release of all the government archives on the assassination within 25 years, by Oct. 26, 2017.
這部影片在一定程度上促成了《約翰·F·甘迺迪總統暗殺記錄收集法案》(President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act)在影片上映後的第二年獲得通過。該法要求在25年內，也就是2017年10月26日之前公開與該刺殺事件有關的所有政府檔案。
Case closed? It’s more complicated than that
結案？比這更複雜
Thousands of records have been declassified since, many shedding more light on American foreign policy than on the assassination. Some files detailed the president’s plans to exit the conflict in Vietnam; others showed how Fidel Castro feared the United States would retaliate against Cuba after the assassination. A large trove uncovered the ideas — ranging from the rote to the James Bond-like — that the Pentagon had floated for dealing with Cuba.
自那時以來，已有數千份記錄解密，其中很多都是揭秘美國的外交政策而不是那場刺殺。一些檔案詳細記述了甘迺迪總統退出越戰的計劃，其他一些表明刺殺事件後，菲德爾卡·斯特羅(Fidel Castro)非常擔心美國會報復古巴。大量文件曝光了五角大樓提出的對付古巴的辦法，從生搬硬套的老辦法到詹姆斯·邦德(James Bond)式的奇思妙想。
Public interest in the most recent release by the National Archives, in July 2017, nearly crashed its servers, Politico reported.
Politico報導稱，公眾對國家檔案館上一次，也就是2017年7月公開檔案的興趣，幾乎導致檔案館伺服器崩潰。
The release of the final papers may only fuel more conspiracy theories, as did the first set of files, made public in 1993:
最後一批文件的公開，可能只會引發更多陰謀論，就像1993年公開第一批檔案時那樣：
For those who believe that the assassination was the sole work of Oswald, an ex-marine who had failed in nearly every endeavor, including an attempt to defect to Moscow, the newly released documents offer the final proof. And for those who believe that Oswald did not act alone, the documents also offer substantiation.
前海軍陸戰隊員奧斯瓦爾德之前的幾乎每一次嘗試都失敗了，包括試圖叛逃到莫斯科。對那些相信刺殺是他一人所為的人來說，新公開的文件給出了最終的證據。而對那些認為奧斯瓦爾德不是獨自行動的人來說，這些文件也給出了證據。
「This will feed another generation of assassination buffs, the children of assassination buffs,」 said Edward Jay Epstein, who wrote three books and an anthology on the assassination.
「這將催生一代又一代刺殺迷，」撰寫了三部和這起刺殺事件有關的著作和一本選集的愛德華·傑伊·愛潑斯坦(Edward Jay Epstein)說。