On November 22 , 1963 , Connally was seriously wounded while riding in President Kennedy 's car at Dealey Plaza in Dallas when the president was assassinated . Connally , riding in the middle jump seat of the President 's limousine in front of the President , recalled hearing the first shot which he immediately recognized as a rifle shot . He said he immediately feared an assassination attempt and turned to his right to look back to see the President . He looked over his right shoulder but did not catch the President out of the corner of his eye so he said he began to turn back to look to his left when he felt a forceful impact to his back . He stated to the Warren Commission : " I immediately , when I was hit , I said , " Oh , no , no , no . " And then I said , " My God , they are going to kill us all . " He looked down and saw that his chest was covered with blood and thought he had been fatally shot . Then he heard the third and final shot , which sprayed blood and brain tissue over them . Connally suffered three broken ribs , a punctured lung and a shattered wrist and had a bullet lodged in his leg . He underwent four hours of surgery after the shooting and recovered from his wounds . In testimony before the Warren Commission , Connally said : " There were either two or three people involved , or more , in this — or someone was shooting with an automatic rifle . " The ten-month investigation by the Warren Commission of 1963 – 64 concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by 24-year-old ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald and that Oswald had acted entirely alone . Connally questioned the single bullet theory , which suggested one shot passed through President Kennedy 's neck and caused all of Connally 's wounds . Connally never accepted the theory . He insisted that all three shots struck occupants of the limousine . Publicly , he agreed with the Warren Commission 's conclusion that Oswald acted alone . Journalist Doug Thompson claimed that in 1982 , he had a private conversation with Connally , and asked him if he was convinced that Oswald killed Kennedy . According to Thompson , Connally replied , " Absolutely not . I do not for one second believe the conclusions of the Warren Commission . " In 1971 , Republican President Nixon appointed the then Democrat Connally as Treasury Secretary . Before agreeing to take the appointment , however , Connally told Nixon that the president must find a position in the administration for George H. W. Bush , the Republican who had been defeated in November 1970 in a hard-fought U.S. Senate race against Democrat Lloyd M. Bentsen . Connally told Nixon that his taking the Treasury post would embarrass Bush , who had " labored in the vineyards " for Nixon 's election as president , while Connally had supported Humphrey . Ben Barnes , then the lieutenant governor and originally a Connally ally , claims in his autobiography that Connally 's insistence saved Bush 's political career because the then former U.S. representative and twice-defeated Senate candidate relied on appointed offices to build a resume by which to seek the presidency in 1980 and again in 1988 . Nixon hence named Bush as ambassador to the United Nations in order to secure Connally 's services at Treasury . Barnes also said that he doubted George W. Bush could have become president in 2001 had Bush 's father not first been given the string of federal appointments during the 1970s to strengthen the family 's political viability
the president was assassinated
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Connally