The promise of a “final” release of all government secrets relating to the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy has whetted the appetite of many Americans, including the current occupant of the Oval Office.

But many historians are taking a more measured, wait-and-see approach to Tuesday’s release of documents by the National Archives.

“I doubt that these releases are going to overturn our understanding of what happened on that terrible day in Dallas,” Fredrik Logevall, a historian at Harvard who is working on a multivolume biography of President Kennedy, said before the release.

But still, he added, “we should prepare to be surprised.”

It could take months, if not longer, for scholars to parse and digest the pages. Previous Kennedy assassination documents that have been released were listed by serial number, according to the originating agency’s filing system.

Some will likely be full versions of documents previously available with only light redactions, adding a name or two to the record. And others, scholars say, are likely to be duplicates or variants of memos and reports that have long been available from other sources.

David J. Garrow, the author of “The F.B.I. and Martin Luther King” and numerous articles about the intelligence agencies, predicted that the release would likely be a “a big nothingburger” when it comes to the assassination itself.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.