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.