[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

grown up with these events and the doubt surrounding the Kennedy assassination and the
failures of the Warren Commission.
Gallup found that belief in a conspiracy declines with age. Eighty-seven percent
of 18- to 29-year olds in 2003 believed Oswald was part of a conspiracy, compared with
just 61 percent among those 65 and older. The young are also more inclined to believe
the Mafia or CIA were involved; older Americans are more ready to believe the Soviets
or Cubans were responsible. 757 Many of the older generation would be more receptive to
seeing the Cold War divide as a struggle between good and evil, making them more
likely to see a Red conspiracy or to accept the official findings of a lone gunman. Those
born in the post-Kennedy era have grown up with a mass culture in which it is
commonplace to question the Warren Commission’s findings – from Hollywood films to
best-selling novels and exposes. The Warren Commission largely has lost the battle in
the minds of the young over the meaning of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life. Oswald’s smirk
no longer means smugness at his dark accomplishment, but instead indicates hidden
knowledge of the conspiratorial forces behind the assassination.
757 Saad, 4.
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