Lee Harvey Oswald: Background and Possible Motives
The evidence reviewed above identifies Lee Harvey Oswald as the
assassin of President Kennedy and indicates that he acted alone in
that event. There is no evidence that he had accomplices or that he
was involved in any conspiracy directed to the assassination of the
President. There remains the question of what impelled Oswald to
conceive and to carry out the assassination of the President of the
United States. The Commission has considered many possible motives
for the assassination, including those which might flow from Oswald’s
commitment to Marxism or communism, the existence of some personal
grievance, a desire to effect changes in the structure of society or
simply to go down in history as a well publicized assassin. None of
these possibilities satisfactorily explains Oswald’s act if it is
judged by the standards of reasonable men. The motives of any man,
however, must be analyzed in terms of the character and state of mind
of the particular individual involved. For a motive that appears
incomprehensible to other men may be the moving force of a man whose
view of the world has been twisted, possibly by factors of which
those around him were only dimly aware. Oswald’s complete state of
mind and character are now outside of the power of man to know. He
cannot, of course, be questioned or observed by those charged with the
responsibility for this report or by experts on their behalf. There is,
however, a large amount of material available in his writings and in
the history of his life which does give some insight into his character
and, possibly, into the motives for his act.
Since Oswald is dead, the Commission is not able to reach any definite
conclusions as to whether or not he was “sane” under prevailing legal
standards. Under our system of justice no forum could properly make
that determination unless Oswald were before it. It certainly could
not be made by this Commission which, as has been pointed out above,
ascertained the facts surrounding the assassination but did not draw
conclusions concerning Oswald’s legal guilt.
Indications of Oswald’s motivation may be obtained from a study of
the events, relationships and influences which appear to have been
significant in shaping his character and in guiding him. Perhaps
the most outstanding conclusion of such a study is that Oswald was
profoundly alienated from the world in which he lived. His life was
characterized by isolation, frustration, and failure. He had very
few, if any, close relationships with other people and he appeared to
have great difficulty in finding a meaningful place in the world. He
was never satisfied with anything. When he was in the United States
he resented the capitalist system which he thought was exploiting him
and others like him. He seemed to prefer the Soviet Union and he spoke
highly of Cuba.[C7-1] When he was in the Soviet Union, he apparently
resented the Communist Party members, who were accorded special
privileges and who he thought were betraying communism, and he spoke
well of the United States.[C7-2] He accused his wife of preferring
others to himself and told her to return to the Soviet Union without
him but without a divorce. At the same time he professed his love for
her and said that he could not get along without her.[C7-3] Marina
Oswald thought that he would not be happy anywhere, “Only on the moon,
perhaps.”[C7-4]
While Oswald appeared to most of those who knew him as a meek and
harmless person, he sometimes imagined himself as “the Commander”[C7-5]
and, apparently seriously, as a political prophet--a man who said that
after 20 years he would be prime minister.[C7-6] His wife testified
that he compared himself with great leaders of history. Such ideas of
grandeur were apparently accompanied by notions of oppression.[C7-7]
He had a great hostility toward his environment, whatever it happened
to be, which he expressed in striking and sometimes violent acts long
before the assassination. There was some quality about him that led
him to act with an apparent disregard for possible consequences.[C7-8]
He defected to the Soviet Union, shot at General Walker, tried to go
to Cuba and even contemplated hijacking an airplane to get there. He
assassinated the President, shot Officer Tippit, resisted arrest and
tried to kill another policeman in the process.
Oswald apparently started reading about communism when he was about 15.
In the Marines, he evidenced a strong conviction as to the correctness
of Marxist doctrine, which one associate described as “irrevocable,”
but also as “theoretical”; that associate did not think that Oswald was
a Communist.[C7-9] Oswald did not always distinguish between Marxism
and communism.[C7-10] He stated several times that he was a Communist
but apparently never joined any Communist Party.[C7-11]
His attachment to Marxist and Communist doctrine was probably, in some
measure, an expression of his hostility to his environment. While there
is doubt about how fully Oswald understood the doctrine which he so
often espoused, it seems clear that his commitment to Marxism was an
important factor influencing his conduct during his adult years. It was
an obvious element in his decision to go to Russia and later to Cuba
and it probably influenced his decision to shoot at General Walker. It
was a factor which contributed to his character and thereby might have
influenced his decision to assassinate President Kennedy.
The discussion below will describe the events known to the Commission
which most clearly reveals the formation and nature of Oswald’s
character. It will attempt to summarize the events of his early life,
his experience in New York City and in the Marine Corps, and his
interest in Marxism. It will examine his defection to the Soviet Union
in 1959, his subsequent return to the United States and his life here
after June of 1962. The review of the latter period will evaluate his
personal and employment relations, his attempt to kill General Walker,
his political activities, and his unsuccessful attempt to go to Cuba in
late September of 1963. Various possible motives will be treated in the
appropriate context of the discussion outlined above.
The Early Years
Significant in shaping the character of Lee Harvey Oswald was the death
of his father, a collector of insurance premiums. This occurred 2
months before Lee was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1939.[C7-12]
That death strained the financial fortunes of the remainder of the
Oswald family. It had its effect on Lee’s mother, Marguerite, his
brother Robert, who had been born in 1934, and his half-brother
John Pic, who had been born in 1932 during Marguerite’s previous
marriage.[C7-13] It forced Marguerite Oswald to go to work to provide
for her family.[C7-14] Reminding her sons that they were orphans and
that the family’s financial condition was poor, she placed John Pic
and Robert Oswald in an orphans’ home.[C7-15] From the time Marguerite
Oswald returned to work until December 26, 1942, when Lee too was sent
to the orphans’ home, he was cared for principally by his mother’s
sister, by babysitters and by his mother, when she had time for
him.[C7-16]
Marguerite Oswald withdrew Lee from the orphans’ home and took him
with her to Dallas when he was a little over 4 years old.[C7-17] About
6 months later she also withdrew John Pic and Robert Oswald.[C7-18]
Apparently that action was taken in anticipation of her marriage to
Edwin A. Ekdahl, which took place in May of 1945.[C7-19] In the fall of
that year John Pic and Robert Oswald went to a military academy where
they stayed, except for vacations, until the spring of 1948.[C7-20] Lee
Oswald remained with his mother and Ekdahl,[C7-21] to whom he became
quite attached. John Pic testified that he thought Lee found in Ekdahl
the father that he never had.[C7-22] That situation, however, was
short-lived, for the relations between Marguerite Oswald and Ekdahl
were stormy and they were finally divorced, after several separations
and reunions, in the summer of 1948.[C7-23]
After the divorce Mrs. Oswald complained considerably about how
unfairly she was treated, dwelling on the fact that she was a widow
with three children. John Pic, however, did not think her position was
worse than that of many other people.[C7-24] In the fall of 1948 she
told John Pic and Robert Oswald that she could not afford to send them
back to the military school and she asked Pic to quit school entirely
to help support the family, which he did for 4 months in the fall of
1948.[C7-25] In order to supplement their income further she falsely
swore that Pic was 17 years old so that he could join the Marine
Corps Reserves.[C7-26] Pic did turn over part of his income to his
mother, but he returned to high school in January of 1949, where he
stayed until 3 days before he was scheduled to graduate, when he left
school in order to get into the Coast Guard.[C7-27] Since his mother
did not approve of his decision to continue school he accepted the
responsibility for that decision himself and signed his mother’s name
to all his own excuses and report cards.[C7-28]
Pic thought that his mother overstated her financial problems and was
unduly concerned about money. Referring to the period after the divorce
from Ekdahl, which was apparently caused in part by Marguerite’s
desire to get more money from him, Pic said: “Lee was brought up in
this atmosphere of constant money problems, and I am sure it had quite
an effect on him, and also Robert.”[C7-29] Marguerite Oswald worked
in miscellaneous jobs after her divorce from Ekdahl.[C7-30] When she
worked for a time as an insurance saleslady, she would sometimes
take Lee with her, apparently leaving him alone in the car while she
transacted her business.[C7-31] When she worked during the school year,
Lee had to leave an empty house in the morning, return to it for lunch
and then again at night, his mother having trained him to do that
rather than to play with other children.[C7-32]
An indication of the nature of Lee’s character at this time was
provided in the spring of 1950, when he was sent to New Orleans to
visit the family of his mother’s sister, Mrs. Lillian Murret, for 2
or 3 weeks. Despite their urgings, he refused to play with the other
children his own age.[C7-33] It also appears that Lee tried to tag
along with his older brothers but apparently was not able to spend as
much time with them as he would have liked, because of the age gaps
of 5 and 7 years, which became more significant as the children grew
older.[C7-34]
New York City
Whatever problems may have been created by Lee’s home life in Louisiana
and Texas, he apparently adjusted well enough there to have had an
average, although gradually deteriorating, school record with no
behavior or truancy problems. That was not the case, however, after
he and his mother moved to New York in August of 1952, shortly
before Lee’s 13th birthday. They moved shortly after Robert joined
the Marines; they lived for a time with John Pic who was stationed
there with the Coast Guard.[C7-35] Relations soon became strained,
however,[C7-36] so in late September Lee and his mother moved to
their own apartment in the Bronx.[C7-37] Pic and his wife would
have been happy to have kept Lee, however, who was becoming quite a
disciplinary problem for his mother, having struck her on at least one
occasion.[C7-38]
The short-lived stay with the Pics was terminated after an incident in
which Lee allegedly pulled out a pocket knife during an argument and
threatened to use it on Mrs. Pic. When Pic returned home, Mrs. Oswald
tried to play down the event but Mrs. Pic took a different view and
asked the Oswalds to leave. Lee refused to discuss the matter with Pic,
whom he had previously idolized, and their relations were strained
thereafter.[C7-39]
On September 30, 1952, Lee enrolled in P.S. 117,[C7-40] a junior
high school in the Bronx, where the other children apparently teased
him because of his “western” clothes and Texas accent.[C7-41] He
began to stay away from school, preferring to read magazines and
watch television at home by himself.[C7-42] This continued despite
the efforts of the school authorities and, to a lesser extent, of
his mother to have him return to school.[C7-43] Truancy charges were
brought against him alleging that he was “beyond the control of his
mother insofar as school attendance is concerned.”[C7-44] Lee Oswald
was remanded for psychiatric observation to Youth House, an institution
in which children are kept for psychiatric observation or for detention
pending court appearance or commitment to a child-caring or custodial
institution such as a training school.[C7-45] He was in Youth House
from April 16 to May 7, 1953,[C7-46] during which time he was examined
by its Chief Psychiatrist, Dr. Renatus Hartogs, and interviewed and
observed by other members of the Youth House staff.[C7-47]
Marguerite Oswald visited her son at Youth House, where she recalled
that she waited in line “with Puerto Ricans and Negroes and
everything.”[C7-48] She said that her pocketbook was searched “because
the children in this home were such criminals, dope fiends, and had
been in criminal offenses, that anybody entering this home had to be
searched in case the parents were bringing cigarettes or narcotics or
anything.”[C7-49] She recalled that Lee cried and said, “Mother, I want
to get out of here. There are children in here who have killed people,
and smoke. I want to get out.”[C7-50] Marguerite Oswald said that she
had not realized until then in what kind of place her son had been
confined.[C7-51]
On the other hand, Lee told his probation officer, John Carro, that
“while he liked Youth House he miss[ed] the freedom of doing what he
wanted. He indicated that he did not miss his mother.”[C7-52] Mrs.
Evelyn Strickman Siegel, a social worker who interviewed both Lee and
his mother while Lee was confined in Youth House, reported that Lee
“confided that the worse thing about Youth House was the fact that he
had to be with other boys all the time, was disturbed about disrobing
in front of them, taking showers with them etc.”[C7-53]
Contrary to reports that appeared after the assassination, the
psychiatric examination did not indicate that Lee Oswald was
a potential assassin, potentially dangerous, that “his outlook
on life had strongly paranoid overtones” or that he should be
institutionalized.[C7-54] Dr. Hartogs did find Oswald to be a tense,
withdrawn, and evasive boy who intensely disliked talking about himself
and his feelings. He noted that Lee liked to give the impression that
he did not care for other people but preferred to keep to himself,
so that he was not bothered and did not have to make the effort of
communicating. Oswald’s withdrawn tendencies and solitary habits
were thought to be the result of “intense anxiety, shyness, feelings
of awkwardness and insecurity.”[C7-55] He was reported to have said
“I don’t want a friend and I don’t like to talk to people” and “I
dislike everybody.”[C7-56] He was also described as having a “vivid
fantasy life, turning around the topics of omnipotence and power,
through which he tries to compensate for his present shortcomings and
frustrations.”[C7-57] Dr. Hartogs summarized his report by stating:
This 13 year old well built boy has superior mental resources
and functions only slightly below his capacity level in spite
of chronic truancy from school which brought him into Youth
House. No finding of neurological impairment or psychotic
mental changes could be made. Lee has to be diagnosed as
“personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and
passive-aggressive tendencies.” Lee has to be seen as an
emotionally, quite disturbed youngster who suffers under the
impact of really existing emotional isolation and deprivation,
lack of affection, absence of family life and rejection by a
self involved and conflicted mother.[C7-58]
Dr. Hartogs recommended that Oswald be placed on probation on condition
that he seek help and guidance through a child guidance clinic. There,
he suggested, Lee should be treated by a male psychiatrist who could
substitute for the lack of a father figure. He also recommended that
Mrs. Oswald seek “psychotherapeutic guidance through contact with a
family agency.” The possibility of commitment was to be considered only
if the probation plan was not successful.[C7-59]
Lee’s withdrawal was also noted by Mrs. Siegel, who described him as
a “seriously detached, withdrawn youngster.”[C7-60] She also noted
that there was “a rather pleasant, appealing quality about this
emotionally starved, affectionless youngster which grows as one speaks
to him.”[C7-61] She thought that he had detached himself from the
world around him because “no one in it ever met any of his needs for
love.”[C7-62] She observed that since Lee’s mother worked all day,
he made his own meals and spent all his time alone because he didn’t
make friends with the boys in the neighborhood. She thought that he
“withdrew into a completely solitary and detached existence where he
did as he wanted and he didn’t have to live by any rules or come into
contact with people.”[C7-63] Mrs. Siegel concluded that Lee “just
felt that his mother never gave a damn for him. He always felt like
a burden that she simply just had to tolerate.”[C7-64] Lee confirmed
some of those observations by saying that he felt almost as if there
were a veil between him and other people through which they could not
reach him, but that he preferred the veil to remain intact. He admitted
to fantasies about being powerful and sometimes hurting and killing
people, but refused to elaborate on them. He took the position that
such matters were his own business.[C7-65]
A psychological human figure-drawing test corroborated the
interviewer’s findings that Lee was insecure and had limited social
contacts. Irving Sokolow, a Youth House psychologist reported that:
The Human Figure Drawings are empty, poor characterizations
of persons approximately the same age as the subject. They
reflect a considerable amount of impoverishment in the social
and emotional areas. He appears to be a somewhat insecure
youngster exhibiting much inclination for warm and satisfying
relationships to others. There is some indication that he may
relate to men more easily than to women in view of the more
mature conceptualisation. He appears slightly withdrawn and in
view of the lack of detail within the drawings this may assume
a more significant characteristic. He exhibits some difficulty
in relationship to the maternal figure suggesting more anxiety
in this area than in any other.[C7-66]
Lee scored an IQ of 118 on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
Children. According to Sokolow, this indicated a “present intellectual
functioning in the upper range of bright normal intelligence.”[C7-67]
Sokolow said that although Lee was “presumably disinterested in school
subjects he operates on a much higher than average level.”[C7-68] On
the Monroe Silent Reading Test, Lee’s score indicated no retardation in
reading speed and comprehension; he had better than average ability in
arithmetical reasoning for his age group.[C7-69]
Lee told Carro, his probation officer, that he liked to be by himself
because he had too much difficulty in making friends.[C7-70] The
reports of Carro and Mrs. Siegel also indicate an ambivalent attitude
toward authority on Oswald’s part. Carro reported that Lee was
disruptive in class after he returned to school on a regular basis in
the fall of 1953. He had refused to salute the flag and was doing very
little, if any, work. It appears that he did not want to do any of
the things which the authorities suggested in their efforts to bring
him out of the shell into which he appeared to be retreating.[C7-71]
He told Mrs. Siegel that he would run away if sent to a boarding
school. On the other hand he also told her that he wished his mother
had been more firm with him in her attempts to get him to return to
school.[C7-72]
The reports of the New York authorities indicate that Lee’s mother gave
him very little affection and did not serve as any sort of substitute
for a father. Furthermore she did not appear to understand her own
relationship to Lee’s psychological problems. After her interview with
Mrs. Oswald, Mrs. Siegel described her as a “smartly dressed, gray
haired woman, very self-possessed and alert and superficially affable,”
but essentially a “defensive, rigid, self-involved person who had real
difficulty in accepting and relating to people” and who had “little
understanding” of Lee’s behavior and of the “protective shell he has
drawn around himself.”[C7-73] Dr. Hartogs reported that Mrs. Oswald
did not understand that Lee’s withdrawal was a form of “violent but
silent protest against his neglect by her and represents his reaction
to a complete absence of any real family life.”[C7-74] Carro reported
that when questioned about his mother Lee said, “well I’ve got to live
with her. I guess I love her.”[C7-75] It may also be significant that,
as reported by John Pic, “Lee slept with my mother until I joined the
service in 1950. This would make him approximately 10, well, almost 11
years old.”[C7-76]
The factors in Lee Oswald’s personality which were noted by those who
had contact with him in New York indicate that he had great difficulty
in adapting himself to conditions in that city. His usual reaction to
the problems which he encountered there was simply withdrawal. Those
factors indicated a severe inability to enter into relationships with
other people. In view of his experiences when he visited his relatives
in New Orleans in the spring of 1950, and his other solitary habits,
Lee had apparently been experiencing similar problems before going to
New York, and as will be shown below, this failure to adapt to his
environment was a dominant trait in his later life.
It would be incorrect, however, to believe that those aspects of Lee’s
personality which were observed in New York could have led anyone to
predict the outburst of violence which finally occurred. Carro was the
only one of Oswald’s three principal observers who recommended that
he be placed in a boy’s home or similar institution.[C7-77] But Carro
was quite specific that his recommendation was based primarily on the
adverse factors in Lee’s environment--his lack of friends, the apparent
unavailability of any agency assistance and the ineffectualness of
his mother--and not on any particular mental disturbance in the boy
himself.[C7-78] Carro testified that:
There was nothing that would lead me to believe when I saw
him at the age of 12 that there would be seeds of destruction
for somebody. I couldn’t in all honesty sincerely say such a
thing.[C7-79]
Mrs. Siegel concluded her report with the statement that:
Despite his withdrawal, he gives the impression that he is not
so difficult to reach as he appears and patient, prolonged
effort in a sustained relationship with one therapist might
bring results. There are indications that he has suffered
serious personality damage but if he can receive help quickly
this might be repaired to some extent.[C7-80]
Lee Oswald never received that help. Few social agencies even in New
York were equipped to provide the kind of intensive treatment that he
needed, and when one of the city’s clinics did find room to handle him,
for some reason the record does not show, advantage was never taken of
the chance afforded to Oswald. When Lee became a disciplinary problem
upon his return to school in the fall of 1953, and when his mother
failed to cooperate in any way with school authorities, authorities
were finally forced to consider placement in a home for boys. Such a
placement was postponed, however, perhaps in part at least because
Lee’s behavior suddenly improved. Before the court took any action,
the Oswalds left New York[C7-81] in January of 1954, and returned to
New Orleans where Lee finished the ninth grade before he left school
to work for a year.[C7-82] Then in October of 1956, he joined the
Marines.[C7-83]
Return to New Orleans and Joining the Marine Corps
After his return to New Orleans Oswald was teased at school because of
the northern accent which he had acquired.[C7-84] He concluded that
school had nothing to offer him.[C7-85] His mother exercised little
control over him and thought he could decide for himself whether to go
on in school.[C7-86] Neighbors and others who knew him at that time
recall an introverted boy who read a great deal.[C7-87] He took walks
and visited museums, and sometimes rode a rented bicycle in the park
on Saturday mornings.[C7-88] Mrs. Murret believes that he talked at
length with a girl on the telephone, but no one remembers that he had
any dates.[C7-89] A friend, Edward Voebel, testified that “he was more
bashful about girls than anything else.”[C7-90]
Several witnesses testified that Lee Oswald was not aggressive.[C7-91]
He was, however, involved in some fights. Once a group of white boys
beat him up for sitting in the Negro section of a bus, which he
apparently did simply out of ignorance.[C7-92] Another time, he fought
with two brothers who claimed that he had picked on the younger of
them, 3 years Oswald’s junior. Two days later, “some big guy, probably
from a high school--he looked like a tremendous football player”
accosted Oswald on the way home from school and punched him in the
mouth, making his lip bleed and loosening a tooth. Voebel took Oswald
back to the school to attend to his wounds, and their “mild friendship”
stemmed from that incident.[C7-93] Voebel also recalled that Oswald
once outlined a plan to cut the glass in the window of a store on
Rampart Street and steal a pistol, but he was not sure then that Oswald
meant to carry out the plan, and in fact they never did. Voebel said
that Oswald “wouldn’t start any fights, but if you wanted to start
one with him, he was going to make sure that he ended it, or you were
going to really have one, because he wasn’t going to take anything from
anybody.”[C7-94] In a space for the names of “close friends” on the
ninth grade personal history record, Oswald first wrote “Edward Vogel,”
an obvious misspelling of Voebel’s name, and “Arthor Abear,” most
likely Arthur Hebert, a classmate who has said that he did not know
Oswald well. Oswald erased those names, however, and indicated that he
had no close friends.[C7-95]
It has been suggested that this misspelling of names, apparently on a
phonetic basis, was caused by a reading-spelling disability from which
Oswald appeared to suffer.[C7-96] Other evidence of the existence of
such a disability is provided by the many other misspellings that
appear in Oswald’s writings, portions of which are quoted below.
Sometime during this period, and under circumstances to be discussed
more fully below, Oswald started to read Communist literature, which he
obtained from the public library.[C7-97] One of his fellow employees,
Palmer McBride, stated that Oswald said he would like to kill President
Eisenhower because he was exploiting the working class.[C7-98] Oswald
praised Khrushchev and suggested that he and McBride join the Communist
Party “to take advantage of their social functions.”[C7-99] Oswald also
became interested in the New Orleans Amateur Astronomy Association, an
organization of high school students. The association’s then president,
William E. Wulf, testified that he remembered an occasion when Oswald
* * * started expounding the Communist doctrine and saying that
he was highly interested in communism, that communism was the
only way of life for the worker, et cetera, and then came out
with a statement that he was looking for a Communist cell in
town to join but he couldn’t find any. He was a little dismayed
at this, and he said that he couldn’t find any that would
show any interest in him as a Communist, and subsequently,
after this conversation, my father came in and we were kind of
arguing back and forth about the situation, and my father came
in the room, heard what we were arguing on communism, and that
this boy was loud-mouthed, boisterous, and my father asked him
to leave the house and politely put him out of the house, and
that is the last I have seen or spoken with Oswald.[C7-100]
Despite this apparent interest in communism, Oswald tried to join the
Marines when he was 16 years old.[C7-101] This was 1 year before his
actual enlistment and just a little over 2½ years after he left New
York. He wrote a note in his mother’s name to school authorities in New
Orleans saying that he was leaving school because he and his mother
were moving to San Diego. In fact, he had quit school in an attempt
to obtain his mother’s assistance to join the Marines.[C7-102] While
he apparently was able to induce his mother to make a false statement
about his age he was nevertheless unable to convince the proper
authorities that he was really 17 years old.[C7-103] There is evidence
that Oswald was greatly influenced in his decision to join the Marines
by the fact that his brother Robert had done so approximately 3 years
before.[C7-104] Robert Oswald had given his Marine Corps manual to his
brother Lee, who studied it during the year following his unsuccessful
attempt to enlist until “He knew it by heart.”[C7-105] According to
Marguerite Oswald, “Lee lived for the time that he would become 17
years old to join the Marines--that whole year.”[C7-106] In John Pic’s
view, Oswald was motivated to join the Marines in large part by a
desire “to get from out and under * * * the yoke of oppression from my
mother.”[C7-107]
Oswald’s inability or lack of desire to enter into meaningful
relationships with other people continued during this period in New
Orleans (1954-56).[C7-108] It probably contributed greatly to the
general dissatisfaction which he exhibited with his environment, a
dissatisfaction which seemed to find expression at this particular
point in his intense desire to join the Marines and get away from his
surroundings and his mother. His study of Communist literature, which
might appear to be inconsistent with his desire to join the Marines,
could have been another manifestation of Oswald’s rejection of his
environment.[C7-109]
His difficulty in relating to other people and his general
dissatisfaction with the world around him continued while he was in
the Marine Corps. Kerry Thornley, a marine associate, who, shortly
after Oswald’s defection, wrote an as yet unpublished novel based in
considerable part on Oswald’s life, testified that “definitely the
Marine Corps was not what he had expected it to be when he joined.”
He said that Oswald “seemed to guard against developing real close
friendships.”[C7-110] Daniel Powers, another marine who was stationed
with Oswald for part of his marine career, testified that Oswald seemed
“always [to be] striving for a relationship, but whenever he did * * *
his general personality would alienate the group against him.”[C7-111]
Other marines also testified that Oswald had few friends and kept very
much to himself.[C7-112]
While there is nothing in Oswald’s military records to indicate that
he was mentally unstable or otherwise psychologically unfit for duty
in the Marine Corps,[C7-113] he did not adjust well to conditions
which he found in that service.[C7-114] He did not rise above the
rank of private first class, even though he had passed a qualifying
examination for the rank of corporal.[C7-115] His Marine career was
not helped by his attitude that he was a man of great ability and
intelligence and that many of his superiors in the Marine Corps were
not sufficiently competent to give him orders.[C7-116] While Oswald did
not seem to object to authority in the abstract, he did think that he
should be the one to exercise it. John E. Donovan, one of his former
officers, testified that Oswald thought “that authority, particularly
the Marine Corps, ought to be able to recognize talent such as his own,
without a given magic college degree, and put them in positions of
prominence.”[C7-117]
Oswald manifested this feeling about authority by baiting his officers.
He led them into discussions of foreign affairs about which they often
knew less than he did, since he had apparently devoted considerable
time to a study of such matters.[C7-118] When the officers were unable
to discuss foreign affairs satisfactorily with him, Oswald regarded
them as unfit to exercise command over him.[C7-119] Nelson Delgado,
one of Oswald’s fellow Marines, testified that Oswald tried to “cut up
anybody that was high ranking” in those arguments “and make himself
come out top dog.”[C7-120] Oswald probably engaged his superiors in
arguments on a subject that he had studied in an attempt to attract
attention to himself and to support his exaggerated idea of his own
abilities.
Thornley also testified that he thought that Oswald’s extreme personal
sloppiness in the Marine Corps “fitted into a general personality
pattern of his: to do whatever was not wanted of him, a recalcitrant
trend in his personality.”[C7-121] Oswald “seemed to be a person who
would go out of his way to get into trouble”[C7-122] and then used
the “special treatment” he received as an example of the way in which
he was being picked on and “as a means of getting or attempting to
get sympathy.”[C7-123] In Thornley’s view, Oswald labored under a
persecution complex which he strove to maintain and “felt the Marine
Corps kept a pretty close watch on him because of his ‘subversive’
activities.” Thornley added: “I think it was kind of necessary to him
to believe that he was being picked on. It wasn’t anything extreme. I
wouldn’t go as far as to call it, call him a paranoid, but a definite
tendency there was in that direction, I think.”[C7-124]
Powers considered Oswald to be meek and easily led,[C7-125] an
“individual that you would brainwash, and quite easy * * * [but]
I think once he believed in something * * * he stood in his
beliefs.”[C7-126] Powers also testified that Oswald was reserved and
seemed to be “somewhat the frail, little puppy in the litter.”[C7-127]
He had the nickname “Ozzie Rabbit.”[C7-128]
Oswald read a good deal, said Powers, but “he would never be reading
any of the shoot-em-up westerns or anything like that. Normally,
it would be a good type of literature; and the one that I recall
was ‘Leaves of Grass,’ by Walt Whitman.”[C7-129] According to
Powers, Oswald said: “‘All the Marine Corps did was to teach you
to kill’ and after you got out of the Marines you might be good
gangsters.”[C7-130] Powers believed that when Oswald arrived in Japan
he acquired a girlfriend, “finally attaining a male status or image in
his own eyes.”[C7-131] That apparently caused Oswald to become more
self-confident, aggressive and even somewhat pugnacious, although
Powers “wouldn’t say that this guy is a troublemaker.”[C7-132] Powers
said “now he was Oswald the man rather than Oswald the rabbit.”[C7-133]
Oswald once told Powers that he didn’t care if he returned to the
United States at all.[C7-134]
While in Japan, Oswald’s new found apparent self confidence and
pugnaciousness led to an incident in which he spilled a drink on one
of his sergeants and abusively challenged him to fight.[C7-135] At the
court-martial hearing which followed, Oswald admitted that he had been
rather drunk when the incident occurred. He testified that he had felt
the sergeant had a grudge against him and that he had unsuccessfully
sought a transfer from the sergeant’s unit. He said that he had simply
wanted to discuss the question with the sergeant and the drink had
been spilled accidentally. The hearing officer agreed with the latter
claim but found Oswald guilty of wrongfully using provoking words
and sentenced him to 28 days, canceling the suspension of a 20-day
sentence that Oswald had received in an earlier court-martial for
possessing an unauthorized pistol with which he had accidentally shot
himself.[C7-136]
At his own request, Oswald was transferred from active duty to the
Marine Corps Reserve under honorable conditions in September of 1959,
3 months prior to his regularly scheduled separation date,[C7-137]
ostensibly to care for his mother who had been injured in an accident
at her work.[C7-138] He was undesirably discharged from the Marine
Corps Reserve, to which he had been assigned on inactive status
following his transfer from active duty, after it was learned that he
had defected to the Soviet Union.[C7-139] In an attempt to have this
discharge reversed, Oswald wrote to then Secretary of the Navy Connally
on January 30, 1962, stating that he would “employ all means to right
this gross mistake or injustice.”[C7-140]
Governor Connally had just resigned to run for Governor of Texas,
so he advised Oswald that he had forwarded the letter to his
successor.[C7-141] It is thus clear that Oswald knew that Governor
Connally was never directly concerned with his discharge and he must
have known that President Kennedy had had nothing to do with it. In
that connection, it does not appear that Oswald ever expressed any
dissatisfaction of any kind with either the President or Governor
Connally.[C7-142] Marina Oswald testified that she “had never heard
anything bad about Kennedy from Lee. And he never had anything against
him.”[C7-143] Mrs. Oswald said that her husband did not say anything
about Governor Connally after his return to the United States. She
testified: “But while we were in Russia he spoke well of him. * * * Lee
said that when he would return to the United States he would vote for
him [for Governor].”[C7-144] Oswald must have already learned that the
Governor could not help him with his discharge because he was no longer
Secretary of the Navy, at the time he made that remark.
Even though Oswald apparently did not express any hostility against
the President or Governor Connally, he continued to be concerned about
his undesirable discharge.[C7-145] It is clear that he thought he had
been unjustly treated. Probably his complaint was due to the fact that
his discharge was not related to anything he had done while on active
duty and also because he had not received any notice of the original
discharge proceedings, since his whereabouts were not known.[C7-146] He
continued his efforts to reverse the discharge by petitioning the Navy
Discharge Review Board, which finally declined to modify the discharge
and so advised him in a letter dated July 25, 1963.[C7-147]
Governor Connally’s connection with the discharge, although indirect,
caused the Commission to consider whether he might have been Oswald’s
real target. In that connection, it should be noted that Marina Oswald
testified on September 6, 1964, that she thought her husband “was
shooting at Connally rather than President Kennedy.” In support of her
conclusion Mrs. Oswald noted her husband’s undesirable discharge and
that she could not think of any reason why Oswald would want to kill
President Kennedy.[C7-148] It should be noted, however, that at the
time Oswald fired the shots at the Presidential limousine the Governor
occupied the seat in front of the President, and it would have been
almost impossible for Oswald to have hit the Governor without hitting
the President first. Oswald could have shot the Governor as the car
approached the Depository or as it was making the turn onto Elm Street.
Once it had started down Elm Street toward the Triple Underpass,
however, the President almost completely blocked Oswald’s view of the
Governor prior to the time the first shot struck the President.[C7-150]
Furthermore, Oswald would have had other and more favorable
opportunities to strike at the Governor than on this occasion when, as
a member of the President’s party, he had more protection than usual.
It would appear, therefore, that to the extent Oswald’s undesirable
discharge affected his motivation, it was more in terms of a general
hostility against the government and its representatives rather than a
grudge against any particular person.
Interest in Marxism
As indicated above, Oswald started to read Communist literature after
he and his mother left New York and moved to New Orleans.[C7-151] He
told Aline Mosby, a reporter who interviewed him after he arrived in
Moscow:
I’m a Marxist, * * * I became interested about the age of 15.
From an ideological viewpoint. An old lady handed me a pamphlet
about saving the Rosenbergs. * * * I looked at that paper and I
still remember it for some reason, I don’t know why.[C7-152]
Oswald studied Marxism after he joined the Marines and his sympathies
in that direction and for the Soviet Union appear to have been widely
known, at least in the unit to which he was assigned after his return
from the Far East. His interest in Russia led some of his associates
to call him “comrade”[C7-153] or “Oswaldskovitch.”[C7-154] He always
wanted to play the red pieces in chess because, as he said in an
apparently humorous context, he preferred the “Red Army.”[C7-155]
He studied the Russian language,[C7-156] read a Russian language
newspaper[C7-157] and seemed interested in what was going on in the
Soviet Union.[C7-158] Thornley, who thought Oswald had an “irrevocable
conviction” that his Marxist beliefs were correct, testified:
I think you could sit down and argue with him for a number
of years * * * and I don’t think you could have changed his
mind on that unless you knew why he believed it in the first
place. I certainly don’t. I don’t think with any kind of formal
argument you could have shaken that conviction. And that is why
I say irrevocable. It was just--never getting back to looking
at things from any other way once he had become a Marxist,
whenever that was.[C7-159]
Thornley also testified about an incident which grew out of a
combination of Oswald’s known Marxist sympathies and George Orwell’s
book “1984,” one of Oswald’s favorite books which Thornley read at
Oswald’s suggestion. Shortly after Thornley finished reading that
book the Marine unit to which both men were assigned was required
to take part in a Saturday morning parade in honor of some retiring
noncommissioned officers, an event which they both approached with
little enthusiasm. While waiting for the parade to start they talked
briefly about “1984” even though Oswald seemed to be lost in his own
thoughts. After a brief period of silence Oswald remarked on the
stupidity of the parade and on how angry it made him, to which Thornley
replied: “Well, comes the revolution you will change all that.”
Thornley testified:
At which time he looked at me like a betrayed Caesar and
screamed, screamed definitely, “Not you, too, Thornley.” And I
remember his voice cracked as he said this. He was definitely
disturbed at what I had said and I didn’t really think I had
said that much. * * * I never said anything to him again and he
never said anything to me again.[C7-160]
Thornley said that he had made his remark only in the context of “1984”
and had not intended any criticism of Oswald’s political views which is
the way in which, Thornley thought, Oswald took his remarks.[C7-161]
Lieutenant Donovan testified that Oswald thought that “there were
many grave injustices concerning the affairs in the international
situation.” He recalled that Oswald had a specific interest in Latin
America, particularly Cuba, and expressed opposition to the Batista
regime and sympathy for Castro, an attitude which, Donovan said,
was “not * * * unpopular” at that time. Donovan testified that he
never heard Oswald express a desire personally to take part in the
elimination of injustices anywhere in the world and that he “never
heard him in any way, shape or form confess that he was a Communist,
or that he ever thought about being a Communist.”[C7-162] Delgado
testified that Oswald was “a complete believer that our way of
government was not quite right” and believed that our Government did
not have “too much to offer,” but was not in favor of “the Communist
way of life.” Delgado and Oswald talked more about Cuba than Russia,
and sometimes imagined themselves as leaders in the Cuban Army or
Government, who might “lead an expedition to some of these other
islands and free them too.”[C7-163]
Thornley also believed that Oswald’s Marxist beliefs led to an
extraordinary view of history under which:
He looked upon the eyes of future people as some kind of
tribunal, and he wanted to be on the winning side so that
10,000 years from now people would look in the history books
and say, “Well, this man was ahead of his time.” * * * The
eyes of the future became * * * the eyes of God. * * * He was
concerned with his image in history and I do think that is why
he chose * * * the particular method [of defecting] he chose
and did it in the way he did. It got him in the newspapers. It
did broadcast his name out.[C7-164]
Thornley thought that Oswald not only wanted a place in history but
also wanted to live comfortably in the present. He testified that if
Oswald could not have that “degree of physical comfort that he expected
or sought, I think he would then throw himself entirely on the other
thing he also wanted, which was the image in history. * * * I think he
wanted both if he could have them. If he didn’t, he wanted to die with
the knowledge that, or with the idea that he was somebody.”[C7-165]
Oswald’s interest in Marxism led some people to avoid him, even though
as his wife suggested, that interest may have been motivated by a
desire to gain attention.[C7-166] He used his Marxist and associated
activities as excuses for his difficulties in getting along in the
world, which were usually caused by entirely different factors. His
use of those excuses to present himself to the world as a person who
was being unfairly treated is shown most clearly by his employment
relations after his return from the Soviet Union. Of course, he made
his real problems worse to the extent that his use of those excuses
prevented him from discovering the real reasons for and attempting to
overcome his difficulties. Of greater importance, Oswald’s commitment
to Marxism contributed to the decisions which led him to defect to the
Soviet Union in 1959, and later to engage in activities on behalf of
the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in the summer of 1963, and to attempt
to go to Cuba late in September of that year.
Defection to the Soviet Union
After Oswald left the Marine Corps in September of 1959, ostensibly to
care for his mother, he almost immediately left for the Soviet Union
where he attempted to renounce his citizenship. At the age of 19,
Oswald thus committed an act which was the most striking indication
he had yet given of his willingness to act on his beliefs in quite
extraordinary ways.
While his defection resulted in part from Oswald’s commitment to
Marxism, it appears that personal and psychological factors were also
involved. On August 17, 1963, Oswald told Mr. William Stuckey, who
had arranged a radio debate on Oswald’s activities on behalf of the
Fair Play for Cuba Committee, that while he had begun to read Marx and
Engels at the age of 15,
the conclusive thing that made him decide that Marxism was the
answer was his service in Japan. He said living conditions
over there convinced him something was wrong with the system,
and that possibly Marxism was the answer. He said it was
in Japan that he made up his mind to go to Russia and see
for himself how a revolutionary society operates, a Marxist
society.[C7-167]
On the other hand, at least one person who knew Oswald after his return
thought that his defection had a more personal and psychological
basis.[C7-168] The validity of the latter observation is borne out
by some of the things Oswald wrote in connection with his defection
indicating that his motivation was at least in part a personal one. On
November 26, 1959, shortly after he arrived in the Soviet Union, and
probably before Soviet authorities had given him permission to stay
indefinitely, he wrote to his brother Robert that the Soviet Union
was a country which “I have always considered * * * to be my own” and
that he went there “only to find freedom. * * * I could never have
been personally happy in the U.S.”[C7-169] He wrote in another letter
that he would “never return to the United States which is a country I
hate.”[C7-170] His idea that he was to find “freedom” in the Soviet
Union was to be rudely shattered.
Whatever Oswald’s reasons for going to the Soviet Union might have
been, however, there can be little doubt that his desire to go was
quite strong. In addition to studying the Russian language while he was
in the Marines, Oswald had managed to save enough money to cover the
expenses of his forthcoming trip. While there is no proof that he saved
$1,500, as he claimed, it would have taken considerable discipline to
save whatever amount was required to finance his defection out of the
salary of a low ranking enlisted man.[C7-171]
The extent of Oswald’s desire to go to the Soviet Union and of his
initial commitment to that country can best be understood, however,
in the context of his concomitant hatred of the United States, which
was most clearly expressed in his November 26, 1959, letter to his
brother Robert. Addressing himself to the question of why “I and my
fellow workers and communist’s would like to see the present capitalist
government of the U.S. overthrown” Oswald stated that that government
supported an economic system “which exploits all its workers” and under
which “art, culture and the sprit of man are subjected to commercial
enterpraising, [and] religion and education are used as a tool to
surpress what would otherwise be a population questioning their
government’s unfair economic system and plans for war.”[C7-172]
He complained in his letter about segregation, unemployment,
automation, and the use of military forces to suppress other
populations. Asking his brother why he supported the American
Government and what ideals he put forward, Oswald wrote:
Ask me and I will tell you I fight for _communism_. * * * I
will not say your grandchildren will live under communism, look
for yourself at history, look at a world map! America is a
dieing country, I do not wish to be a part of it, nor do I ever
again wish to be used as a tool in its military aggressions.
This should ansewer your question, and also give you a glimpse
of my way of thinking.
So you speak of advantages. Do you think that is why I am here?
For personal, material advantages? Happiness is not based on
oneself, it does not consist of a small home, of taking and
getting, Happiness is taking part in the struggle, where there
is no borderline between one’s own personal world, and the
world in general. I never believed I would find more material
advantages at _this_ stage of development in the Soviet Union
than I might of had in the U.S.
* * * * *
I have been a pro-communist for years and yet I have never
met a communist, instead I kept silent and observed, and what
I observed plus my Marx’ist learning brought me here to the
Soviet Union. I have always considered this country to be my
own.[C7-173]
Responding to Robert’s statement that he had not “renounced” him,
Oswald told his brother “on what terms I want this arrangement.” He
advised Robert that:
1. In the event of war I would kill _any_ american who put a
uniform on in defence of the american government--any american.
2. That in my own mind I have no attachment’s of any kind in
the U.S.
3. That I want to, and I shall, live a normal happy and
peaceful life here in the Soviet Union _for the rest of my
life_.
4. that my mother and you are (in spite of what the newspaper
said) _not_ objects of affection, but only examples of workers
in the U.S.[C7-174]
Despite this commitment to the Soviet Union Oswald met disappointments
there just as he had in the past. At the outset the Soviets told him
that he could not remain. It seems that Oswald immediately attempted
suicide--a striking indication of how much he desired to remain in the
Soviet Union.[C7-175] It shows how willing he was to act dramatically
and decisively when he faced an emotional crisis with few readily
available alternatives at hand. He was shocked to find that the Soviet
Union did not accept him with open arms. The entry in his self-styled
“Historic Diary” for October 21, 1959, reports:
I am shocked!! My dreams! * * * I have waited for 2 year to be
accepted. My fondes dreams are shattered because of a petty
offial, * * * I decide to end it. Soak rist in cold water to
numb the pain. Than slash my leftwrist. Than plaug wrist into
bathtum of hot water. * * * Somewhere, a violin plays, as I
wacth my life whirl away. I think to myself “How easy to Die”
and “A Sweet Death, (to violins) * * *”[C7-176]
Oswald was discovered in time to thwart his attempt at suicide.[C7-177]
He was taken to a hospital in Moscow where he was kept until October
28, 1959.[C7-178]
Still intent, however, on staying in the Soviet Union, Oswald went on
October 31, to the American Embassy to renounce his U.S. citizenship.
Mr. Richard E. Snyder, then Second Secretary and senior consular
official at the Embassy, testified that Oswald was extremely sure of
himself and seemed “to know what his mission was. He took charge, in
a sense, of the conversation right from the beginning.”[C7-179] He
presented the following signed note:
I Lee Harvey Oswald do hereby request that my present
citizenship in the United States of America, be revoked.
I have entered the Soviet Union for the express purpose of
appling for citizenship in the Soviet Union, through the means
of naturalization.
My request for citizenship is now pending before the Surprem
Soviet of the U.S.S.R..
I take these steps for political reasons. My request for the
revoking of my American citizenship is made only after the
longest and most serious considerations.
I affirm that my allegiance is to the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics.[C7-180] (See Commission Exhibit 913, p. 261.)
As his “principal reason” for renouncing his citizenship Oswald stated:
“I am a Marxist.”[C7-181] He also alluded to hardships endured by his
mother as a worker, referring to them as experiences that he did not
intend to have himself,[C7-182] even though he stated that he had
never held a civilian job.[C7-183] He said that his Marine service in
Okinawa and elsewhere had given him “a chance to observe ‘American
imperialism.’” but he also displayed some sensitivity at not having
reached a higher rank in the Marine Corps.[C7-184] He stated that he
had volunteered to give Soviet officials any information that he had
concerning Marine Corps operations,[C7-185] and intimated that he might
know something of special interest.[C7-186] Oswald’s “Historic Diary”
describes the event in part as follows:
I leave Embassy, elated at this showdown, returning to my hotel
I feel now my energies are not spent in vain. I’m sure Russians
will except me after this sign of my faith in them.[C7-187]
The Soviet authorities finally permitted Oswald to remain in their
country.[C7-188] No evidence has been found that they used him for any
particular propaganda or other political or informational purposes.
They sent him to Minsk to work in a radio and television factory as a
metal worker.[C7-189] The Soviet authorities denied Oswald permission
to attend a university in Moscow,[C7-190] but they gave him a monthly
allowance of 700 rubles a month (old exchange rate)[C7-191] in
addition to his factory salary of approximately equal amount[C7-192]
and considerably better living quarters than those accorded to Soviet
citizens of equal age and station.[C7-193] The subsidy, apparently
similar to those sometimes given to foreigners allowed to remain in the
Soviet Union, together with his salary, gave Oswald an income which
he said approximated that of the director of the factory in which he
worked.[C7-194]
Even though he received more money and better living quarters than
other Russians doing similar work, he envied his wife’s uncle, a
colonel in the MVD, because of the larger apartment in which he lived.
Reminiscent of his attitude toward his superiors in the Marine Corps,
Oswald apparently resented the exercise of authority over him and
the better treatment afforded to Communist Party officials.[C7-195]
After he returned to the United States he took the position that the
Communist Party officials in the Soviet Union were opportunists who
were betraying their positions for personal gain. He is reported to
have expressed the conclusion that they had “fat stinking politicians
over there just like we have over here.”[C7-196]
Oswald apparently continued to have personal difficulties while he was
in Minsk. Although Marina Oswald told the Commission that her husband
had good personal relationships in the Soviet Union,[C7-197] Katherine
Ford, one of the members of the Russian community in Dallas with
which the Oswalds became acquainted upon their arrival in the United
States, stated that Mrs. Oswald told her everybody in Russia “hated
him.”[C7-198] Jeanne De Mohrenschildt, another member of that group,
said that Oswald told her that he had returned because “I didn’t find
what I was looking for.”[C7-199] George De Mohrenschildt thought that
Oswald must have become disgusted with life in the Soviet Union as the
novelty of the presence of an American wore off and he began to be less
the center of attention.[C7-200]
The best description of Oswald’s state of mind, however, is set forth
in his own “Historic Diary.” Under the entry for May 1, 1960, he noted
that one of his acquaintances “relats many things I do not know about
the U.S.S.R. I begin to feel uneasy inside, its true!”[C7-201] Under
the entry for August-September of that year he wrote:
As my Russian improves I become increasingly concious of just
what sort of a sociaty I live in. Mass gymnastics, complusory
afterwork meeting, usually political information meeting.
Complusory attendence at lectures and the sending of the entire
shop collective (except me) to pick potatoes on a Sunday, at
a state collective farm: A “patroict duty” to bring in the
harvest. The opions of the workers (unvoiced) are that its
a great pain in the neck: they don’t seem to be esspicialy
enthusiastic about any of the “collective” duties a natural
feeling. I am increasingly aware of the presence, in all thing,
of Lebizen, shop party secretary, fat, fortyish, and jovial on
the outside. He is a no-nonsense party regular.[C7-202]
Finally, the entry of January 4-31 of 1961:
I am stating to reconsider my disire about staying the work is
drab the money I get has nowhere to be spent. No night clubs
or bowling allys no places of recreation acept the trade union
dances I have have had enough.[C7-203]
Shortly thereafter, less than 18 months after his defection, about 6
weeks before he met Marina Prusakova, Oswald opened negotiations with
the U.S. Embassy in Moscow looking toward his return to the United
States.[C7-204]
Return to the United States
In view of the intensity of his earlier commitment to the Soviet Union,
a great change must have occurred in Oswald’s thinking to induce him to
return to the United States. The psychological effects of that change
must have been highly unsettling. It should be remembered that he was
not yet 20 years old when he went to the Soviet Union with such high
hopes and not quite 23 when he returned bitterly disappointed. His
attempt to renounce his citizenship had been an open expression of
hostility against the United States and a profound rejection of his
early life. The dramatic break with society in America now had to be
undone. His return to the United States publicly testified to the utter
failure of what had been the most important act of his life.
Marina Oswald confirmed the fact that her husband was experiencing
psychological difficulties at the time of his return. She said that
“immediately after coming to the United States Lee changed. I did not
know him as such a man in Russia.”[C7-205] She added that while he
helped her as he had done before, he became more of a recluse, that
“[he] was very irritable, sometimes for a trifle” and that “Lee was
very unrestrained and very explosive” during the period from November
19, 1962 to March of 1963.[C7-206]
After the assassination she wrote that:
In general, our family life began to deteriorate after we
arrived in America. Lee was always hot-tempered, and now this
trait of character more and more prevented us from living
together in harmony. Lee became very irritable, and sometimes
some completely trivial thing would drive him into a rage. I
myself do not have a particularly quiet disposition, but I had
to change my character a great deal in order to maintain a more
or less peaceful family life.[C7-207]
Marina Oswald’s judgment of her husband’s state of mind may be
substantiated by comparing material which he wrote in the Soviet Union
with what he wrote while on the way back to the United States and after
his return. While in the Soviet Union he wrote his longest and clearest
piece of work, “The Collective.” This was a fairly coherent description
of life in that country, basically centered around the radio and
television factory in which he worked.[C7-208] While it was apparently
intended for publication in the United States, and is in many respects
critical of certain aspects of life in the Soviet Union, it appears
to be the work of a fairly well organized person. Oswald prefaced his
manuscript with a short autobiographical sketch which reads in part as
follows:
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in Oct 1939 in New Orleans La. the
son of a Insuraen Salesmen whose early death left a far mean
streak of indepence brought on by negleck. entering the US
Marine corp at 17 this streak of independence was strengthed by
exotic journeys to Japan the Philipines and the scores of odd
Islands in the Pacific immianly after serving out his 3 years
in the USMC he abonded his american life to seek a new life
in the USSR. full of optimism and hope he stood in red square
in the fall of 1959 vowing to see his chosen course through,
after, however, two years and alot of growing up I decided to
return to the USA. * * *[C7-209]
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHS OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD TAKEN IN MINSK
COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2891
COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2892
(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2788)
PHOTOGRAPH OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD TAKEN AFTER HIS RETURN FROM THE SOVIET
UNION]
“The Collective” contrasts sharply with material which Oswald seems
to have written after he left the Soviet Union,[C7-210] which appears
to be more an expression of his own psychological condition than of a
reasoned analysis. The latter material expresses great hostility to
both communism and capitalism. He wrote, that to a person knowing both
of those systems, “their can be no mediation between those systems as
they exist to-day and that person. He must be opposed to their basic
foundations and representatives”[C7-211]
and yet it is imature to take the sort of attitude which
says “a curse on both your houses!” their are two great
represenative of power in the world, simply expressed, the left
and right, and their ~offspring~ factions and concers. any
practical attempt at one alternative must have as its nuclus
the triditionall ideological best of both systems, and yet be
utterly opposed to both systems.[C7-212]
Such an alternative was to be opposed both to capitalism and communism
because:
No man, having known, having lived, under the Russian Communist
and American capitalist system, could possibly make a choice
between them, there is no choice, one offers oppresstion the
other poverty. Both offer imperilistic injustice, tinted with
two brands of slavery.[C7-213]
Oswald actually did attempt to formulate such an alternative[C7-214]
which he planned to “put forward” himself.[C7-215] He thought the
new alternative would have its best chance to be accepted after
“conflict between the two world systems leaves the ~world~ country
without defense or foundation of goverment,”[C7-216] after which the
survivors would “seek a alturnative ~opposed~ to those systems which
have brough them misery.”[C7-217] Oswald realized that “their thinking
and education will be steeped in the traiditions of those systems
[and] they would never except a ‘new order’ complete beyond their
understanding.”[C7-218] As a result he thought it would be “neccary
to oppose the old systems but at the same time support their cherised
trations.”[C7-219]
Expanding on his ideas on how his alternative to communism and
capitalism might be introduced, he wrote of a “readily foreseeable
* * * economic, political or military crisis, internal or external,
[which] will bring about the final destrution of the capitalist
system,”[C7-220] and indicated that “preparation in a special
party could safeguard an independant course of action after the
debacle,”[C7-221] which would achieve the goal, which was:
The emplacement of a separate, democratic, pure communist
sociaty * * * but one with union-communes, democratic
socializing of production and without regard to the twisting
apart of ~Marxism~ Marxist Communism by other powers.[C7-222]
While “[r]esoufualniss and patient working towards the aforesaid
goal’s are prefered rather than loud and useless manifestation’s of
protest,”[C7-223] Oswald went on to note:
But these prefered tactics now, may prove to be too limited in
the near future, they should not be confused with slowness,
indesision or fear, only the intellectualy fearless could even
be remotly attracted too our doctrine, and yet this doctrine
requirers the ~uptmost~ utmost restraint, a state of being in
itself majustic in power.[C7-224]
Oswald’s decided rejection of both capitalism and communism seemed to
place him in a situation in which he could not live with satisfaction
either in the United States or in the Soviet Union. The discussion
above has already set forth examples of his expression of hatred for
the United States. He also expressed hatred of the Soviet Union and
of the Communist Party, U.S.A., even though he later referred to the
latter as “trusted long time fighters for progress.”[C7-225] He wrote:
The Communist Party of the United States has betrayed itself!
it has turned itself into the tradional lever of a foreign
power to overthrow the goverment of the United States; not in
the name of freedow or high ideals, but in servile conformity
to the wishes of the Soviet Union and in anticipation of Soviet
Russia’s complete domination of the American continent.[C7-226]
* * * * *
There can be no sympathy for those who have turned the idea of
communism into a vill curse to western man.
The Soviets have committed crimes unsurpassed even by their
early day capitalist counterparts, the imprisonment of their
own peoples, with the mass extermination so typical of Stalin,
and the individual surpresstion and regimentation under
Krushchev.
The deportations, the purposefull curtailment of diet in the
consumer slighted population of Russia, the murder of history,
the prositution of art and culture.[C7-227]
A suggestion that Oswald hated more than just capitalism and communism
is provided by the following, which was apparently written either on
the ship coming back, or after his return from the Soviet Union:
I have offen wondered why it is that the communist, ~anarchist~
capitatist and even the fasist and anarchist elements in
american, allways profess patrotistism toward the land and the
people, if not the goverment; although their ~ideals~ movements
must surly lead to the bitter destruction of all and everything.
I am quite sure these people must hate not only the goverment
but ~our~ the ~peop~ culture, ~traditions,~ heritage and very
people itself, and yet they stand up and piously pronouce
themselfs patriots, displaying their war medles, that they
gained in conflicts ~long-past~ between themselfs.
* * * * *
I wonder what would happen it somebody was to stand up and say
he was utterly opposed not only to the goverments, but to the
people, too the entire land and complete foundations of his
socically.[C7-228]
Oswald demonstrated his thinking in connection with his return to the
United States by preparing two sets of identical questions of the type
which he might have thought he would be asked at a press conference
when he returned. With either great ambivalence or cold calculation he
prepared completely different answers to the same questions. Judged
by his other statements and writings, however, he appears to have
indicated his true feelings in the set of answers first presented and
to have stated in the second what he thought would be least harmful
to him as he resumed life in the United States. For example, in
response to his questions about his decision to go to the Soviet Union,
his first draft answered “as a mark of dicuss and protest against
american political policies in foriengn countrys, my personal sign of
discontent and horror at the misguided line of resoning of the U.S.
Goverment.”[C7-229] His second answer was that he “went as a citizen of
the U.S. (as a tourist) residing in a forieng conutry which I have a
perfect right to do. I went there to see the land, the people and how
their system works.”[C7-230]