Mr. Jenner. Do you think that bias, if any, was a mild bias?
Mr. Thornley. I thought so at the time.
Mr. Jenner. Did you have any impression at anytime that he was interested from an objective standpoint; that he might like to experience by way of personal investigation what was going on in Russia?
Mr. Thornley. It never dawned on me. It was the farthest thing from my mind. Although I certainly will say this: When he did go to Russia it seemed to me as a much more likely alternative for Oswald than say joining the Communist Party in the United States.
Mr. Jenner. Excuse me.
Mr. Thornley. It seemed to fit his personality.
Mr. Jenner. Would you read that? I lost the thought of it.
(The reporter read the answer.)
Mr. Jenner. Would you elaborate, please?
Mr. Thornley. Well, Oswald was not militant. At the time it didn't seem to me he was at all militant. That he was at all a fighter, the kind of person who would glory in thinking of himself as marching along in a great crusade of some kind. He would be the kind of person who would take a quiet, as quiet as possible, for him personally, approach to something. For example, going to the Soviet Union would be a way he could experience what he thought were the benefits of communism without committing himself to storming the Bastille, so to speak.