13 Declassified FBI & CIA JFK Records from NARA: 1960-1978 Releases on Cuba and Operations

The federal government has spent decades releasing fragments of the JFK assassination files. Most researchers hunt for a singular smoking gun. That is a mistake.

Bottom line: A cross-section of randomly selected records from the NARA archive exposes a massive, bureaucratic intelligence web, detailing everything from CIA dispatches on Frank Sturgis to Army sub-committee reports on Cuban subversion between 1960 and 1978.

Here is what happens when you bypass the curated highlight reels. Pulling files at random from the declassified archives removes the narrative filter. You get the raw administrative machinery of the Cold War.

These NARA releases 1960s and 1970s files show exactly how intelligence agencies tracked assets, managed informants, and responded to congressional inquiries.

An Introduction to Random Declassified Documents

To understand the scope of the archive, you have to look at the mundane alongside the critical. The JFK Release 2017 and JFK Release 2022 batches contain thousands of routine routing slips, debriefings, and name checks.

We pulled 13 random records from the collection. The resulting cross-section spans multiple agencies and nearly two decades of intelligence gathering.

Document Title	Agency	Date	Original Source
124-90154-10082	FBI	06/15/1964	archives.gov PDF
104-10219-10080 — DISPATCH: DR ROSCOE WHITE	CIA	08/17/1965	archives.gov PDF
124-90122-10075	FBI	12/19/1963	archives.gov PDF
104-10048-10248 — DISPATCH - FRANK ANTHONY STURGIS	CIA	02/10/1961	archives.gov PDF
104-10135-10042 — HANDWRITTEN NOTE RE 'RICHARD GIBSON ISSUE'	CIA	07/07/1978	archives.gov PDF
104-10101-10061 — DEBRIEFING AND BRIEFING	CIA	11/19/1963	archives.gov PDF
124-10277-10375	FBI	08/29/1963	archives.gov PDF

The dates alone tell a story. Document 104-10101-10061 is a CIA debriefing cable sent from Mexico City to the Director on November 19, 1963. That is exactly three days before the assassination in Dallas.

FBI Memos and Reports: Insights from 1963-1970

The FBI generated a staggering volume of paper in the days and years following November 1963. These declassified FBI documents reveal a bureau obsessed with tracking regional leads.

Look at 124-90122-10075. It is an FD-306 form routed to the New Orleans office ("NO") on December 19, 1963, less than a month after the assassination. New Orleans was a critical hub for Lee Harvey Oswald's activities earlier that summer.

Here's the thing: the tracking never really stopped.

By 1970, the bureau was still filing reports like 124-90154-10136 out of Las Vegas. Other regional communications in this sample include:

• 124-10277-10375: Sent from the FBI Director to the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in Miami on August 29, 1963.
• 124-90107-10048: A memo routed from San Juan to Headquarters on March 10, 1967.
• 124-10209-10344: Sent from the SAC in Chicago to the FBI Director on May 5, 1967.

Even undated files like 124-10140-10115 remain in the system. They serve as placeholders for textual documents that were swept up in the massive archival dragnet.

CIA Dispatches and Cables: 1960-1978 Operations

When researchers dig into CIA records JFK connections are often found in operational dispatches. The random pull delivered heavily on this front, highlighting specific operatives and assets.

On February 10, 1961, the Chief of Base at JMWAVE (the CIA's massive Miami station) sent a dispatch regarding Frank Anthony Sturgis. Sturgis, also known in the files as Frank Fiorini, would later become infamous as one of the Watergate burglars. The document carries the internal comment code JFK2 : F15 : 20031203-1019384.

Other notable CIA dispatches include:

• Dr. Roscoe White: Document 104-10219-10080 is an August 17, 1965 dispatch routed from the Chief of the Western Europe division to a withheld recipient.
• Richard Gibson: Document 104-10135-10042 is a handwritten note from July 7, 1978, discussing the "Richard Gibson issue" during the height of the congressional investigations.

These files demonstrate how long the agency tracked individuals adjacent to the assassination narrative. The paper trail for a single operative often spanned decades.

The Cuban Connection: Subversion and Group Activities

You cannot separate the JFK files from Cuba. The island was the primary operational theater for American intelligence in the early 1960s.

The Cuban subversion declassified files show intense inter-agency focus. Document 198-10007-10023 is an Army record titled "SECOND PROGRESS REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE." Sent on May 9, 1963, it is a memo from James K. Patchell to Mr. Vance regarding the Sub-committee on Cuban Subversion.

The CIA was equally focused on anti-Castro militant groups.

On December 6, 1960, the CIA Director sent a cable to the Havana station regarding the Diaz Lanz group. Pedro Díaz Lanz was the former head of the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force before defecting to the US. The agency closely monitored his militant activities in Florida.

Project LIEMPTY and Security Analysis Group Memos

Code names dominate the CIA's internal reporting. The secondary dataset provides excellent examples of these operational files.

Look at 104-10079-10289. It is a progress report for "PROJECT LIEMPTY" covering November 1, 1964, to January 31, 1965. The routing is from the Chief of Station in Mexico City to the Chief of the Western Hemisphere (WH) Division.

The comments on the LIEMPTY file reveal the redaction process: HMMA 25352 (3 PGS) IS DUPLICATED IN 104-10187-10291 AND 104-10414-10116, BOTH RELEASED IN FULL. THE ADDITIONAL 2 PAGES ARE NOTES REQUIRING REDACTION.

Truth is: the internal security apparatus was constantly reviewing its own assets.

Document 104-10273-10311 is a June 11, 1976 memo regarding Gerald Patrick Hemming. Sent by Jerry G. Brown to the Chief of the Security Analysis Group, it shows the agency evaluating a well-known mercenary who frequently interacted with anti-Castro exiles.

HSCA and USIA Contributions to the JFK Archive

The JFK assassination records 1978 push was driven by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). This congressional body forced the CIA and FBI to produce massive amounts of historical data.

Document 104-10059-10139 is a direct response to the HSCA. On May 1, 1978, Robert A. Barteaux (Chief, IPG) sent Donald Gregg a response regarding an HSCA request for information on 26 names.

A follow-up document, 104-10059-10363 (JFK Release 2023), was sent on June 22, 1978. The metadata notes a bureaucratic error: THE ORIGINAL OF THE ROUTING SHEET WAS MISTAKENLY STAMPED FOR RELEASE IN 1993.

Other agencies were also pulled into the review board's orbit.

Document	Agency	Subject	Date
180-10077-10020	HSCA	Memo from Fonzi to Blakey	02/05/1978
165-10001-10036	USIA	John Kedzie Jacobs	11/14/1966
111-10001-10094	NIS	Charge Card NAVINTCOM	04/14/1972
111-10001-10098	WFASC	Name Check	03/23/1972

The USIA document regarding John Kedzie Jacobs explicitly states that only portions of the file relate to the Kennedy Assassination. The rest was postponed to protect personal privacy under Section (6)(3).

Similarly, the Naval Investigative Service (NIS) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) records from 1972 were part of a larger "NAME FILE FOLDER ENCLOSURE." Documents like 111-10001-10096 were held back pending review by the Assassination Records Review Board.

Quick Takeaways

• Geographic focus: The records heavily feature routing from Mexico City, Miami (JMWAVE), and New Orleans—the three most critical hubs for 1960s intelligence operations.
• Decades of tracking: CIA dispatches show continuous monitoring of assets like Frank Sturgis from 1961 well into the 1970s.
• The HSCA impact: The 1978 congressional investigations forced the intelligence community to consolidate files on dozens of peripheral names, creating the bulk of the modern NARA archive.
• Bureaucratic friction: Redaction notes routinely highlight duplicated pages, mistakenly stamped release dates, and inter-agency name checks between the FBI, CIA, and military intelligence branches.