Lee Harvey Oswald
Living in the Soviet Union and the attack on WalkerAccording to the Warren Commission, a possible motive for Oswald to assassinate the president might have come from his interest from Communism or Marxism. He also didn't think fondly of the government in the United States. According to PBS's Frontline, Who was Lee Harvey Oswald?, when Oswald had attempted for citizenship in the Soviet Union, he wrote in his request for Soviet citizenship that he was "a communist and a worker" and that he had "lived in a decadent capitalist society where the workers are slaves". Oswald was denied citizenship. The day he was refused, Oswald had attempted suicide, but he was found and sent to a hospital. A couple weeks later, Oswald renounces his United States citizenship after the KGB (State Security Committee) shows interest in him.
Oswald had been tracked by the United States Government in 1960 while he lived in the Soviet Union. An obituary on James P. Hosty, a Special Agent who was given the case to figure out Oswald states: "Oswald had been on the F.B.I.'s radar since returning to the United States in 1962, with his Russian wife, after an unsuccessful effort to settle in the Soviet Union" (Vitello, 2011). |
In the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the number one suspect was, and still is, Lee Harvey Oswald. However, because of Oswald's unexpected murder by Jack Ruby, two days after Kennedy's assassination, he never faced a trial. In the official Warren Commission, it is stated that Oswald performed the assassination alone, and that "there is no evidence that he had accomplices or that he was involved in any conspiracy directed to the assassination of the President" (375). However, many believe that it was impossible for Oswald to do such an act alone. They believe that there must have been a second assassin. Conspiracies with Oswald can be linked to other conspiracies, such as the "Magic Bullet" (single bullet) Theory, the Fourth Shot theory, and the "Grassy Knoll". Motivations for his reasoning to possibly assassinate Kennedy were found in his communist background.
. |
In February of 1961, Oswald requested a return to the United States, because living in the Soviet Union wasn't what he expected. He returns to the United States in June of 1962 with his wife and daughter. Oswald only lived in the Soviet Union for two-and-a-half-years.
|
The Day of Kennedy's Assassination
Moving onto the day of Kennedy's assassination, witnesses said that they heard the three gunshots coming from the Texas School Book Depository Building, where there was a rifle planted in the window of the sixth floor. The rifle was identified as the same rifle that Oswald had in the picture of him prior to his attempted assassination of Walker. There are witnesses that heard a fourth gunshot, but it didn't come from the Book Depository Building. According to the article, "JFK: New Doubt; Lab's Tape May Clear Oswald of 1963 Shooting", there was an accidental recording done by a police officer. In the recording, one can hear four gunshots with one of them sounding "like it [came] from a totally different direction than the other three" (Sunday Mirror, 2005). However, the tape was not a reliable source because of how unclean the recording was. This fourth shot could have been just static.
The idea of acting with someone was a theory that is widely supported. Association with the CIA, Mafia, the Soviet Union, and even the Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson were just a few of the possible people Oswald could have worked with. However, in the article, "Dallas '63: the sad, chilling truth A potent, minute-by-minute account of John F. Kennedy's last moments crushes every conspiracy theory", the author, Vincent Bugliosi claims that Oswald acted alone. He describes him as "a loner, a loser, moody and unstable, desperate for attention, classic assassin material" (Bugliosi, 2008). Even the Warren Commission stated that Oswald was a person who kept his distance from the world, and was a person that didn't hold many close relationships, making him a loner. Because of this, it would be difficult for anyone to work with Oswald when it would come to something as planning out an assassination. |
|
The assassination of Kennedy can be considered to be a mystery, because of Oswald's murder. The Warren Commission drew the conclusion that Oswald was the one and only assassin due to the evidence such as the rifle in the Book Depository Building, his unstable personality, and his interest in Communism and how it affected his opinion towards the United States government. Oswald did shoot Kennedy, regardless if there was a second assassin or not. However, there was no real proof of Oswald having assistance. Because a large number of the United States population believes that Oswald did not act alone, convincing that the was the only assassin can be tough. What needs to be done is to look at the given evidence, and not to over-analyze details that aren't there, such as thinking that Johnson assisted in the assassination. Conspiracy theories around the assassination will always be around, but drawing a conclusion, there's evidence that Oswald acted alone, and that's how it should be known as.
|
|