The Flame of Inspiration Replaced by the Flame of Cynicism

Conspiracy theorist were increasingly dismissed as crackpots in the years following the assassination of JFK, the event, 40 years ago today, now seen as a turning point in the domestic credibility of the federal U.S. government. Now, it turns out, they are in the majority.

AP Wire Service offers these none-too-surprising stats and comments.

In 1966, three years after Kennedy's death, 46 percent of people surveyed in a Harris poll believed the assassination was part of a broader plot. By 1983, that number had reached 80 percent in an ABC poll.

Some experts have suggested that the Vietnam War and Watergate deepened Americans' cynicism and eroded trust in government.

"Many people look at the Kennedy assassination as a turning point, when people started realizing and thinking and believing their government would lie to them and lie to them repeatedly," said Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas.

Perhaps the most persistently questioned finding of the Warren Commission is the "magic bullet" theory.

The theory assumes that Oswald alone fired three shots and that one bullet zigzagged through both Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally. The bullet is said to have gone through Kennedy's throat, then into Connally, puncturing his lung, hitting his rib and wrist and then exiting relatively unscathed.

I was at the Monterey Pop festival in the summer of 1967 when rock star David Crosby, then of the Byrds, stepped to the microphone, to the horror of his band mates and said "JFK was shot from several sides by many guns. Witness have been killed and evidence is being supressed, "ending his diatribe with "and this is your country, ladies and gentlemen!"

It's been a long time since then but that fire still burns.