Oswald's Motive

[Bill Brown]

Robert Oswald, in his PBS Frontline interview, said Lee ‘wasn’t a political extremist’ when he returned to the US from Russia:

“When Lee got back from Russia, the way he talked about the Russian system, he didn’t talk about it politically, in the sense that he was wrapped up in communism or Marxism. He was making fun of how inept they were, and he was making fun of them all the time. …
He wasn’t political. He really wasn’t. I say that in all honesty, because he tried to become what he needed to be to achieve his immediate objectives; i.e., he needed to be a Marxist and accept the Russians [to] get the experience in Russia. When he returned to the United States, he didn’t want to be a Russian. He wanted to be an American, to be accepted by the American society, and so wherever he was … he wanted to be accepted. He wasn’t political. He was what’s convenient to be.”

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/interview-robert-oswald/


In 1963, Lee wrote a speech or letter where he criticized the USSR and American communists.

He had no friends or associates in the US who were communists.

The problem with applying political motivation to LHO is that there’s so little evidence of his dislike of JFK or devotion to communism.

Oswald did not believe that Communism is the same as Marxism.  Do you?

[Steve M. Galbraith]

What Bill and others can do is speculate that the CIA killed JFK. Or the Pentagon. Or the FBI. Or Wall Street bankers. Or Texas oilmen.

We can speculate about all sorts of hairbrained conspiracy theories involving all sorts of institutions and figures and persons and forces. Hell, we can speculate about aliens (that is one theory). It's done here nearly every day. Tens of thousands of such posts. All sort of oddball claims and allegations.

And the skeptics here who lecture against "speculation" will not say a word about this. Not one. But speculating based on facts about Oswald's motives? That's simply not allowed.

And they think they are convincing people that they really aren't conspiracy believers. Yes they do.

[Martin Weidmann]

What Bill and others can do is speculate that the CIA killed JFK. Or the Pentagon. Or the FBI. Or Wall Street bankers. Or Texas oilmen.

We can speculate about all sorts of hairbrained conspiracy theories involving all sorts of institutions and figures and persons and forces. Hell, we can speculate about aliens (that is one theory). It's done here nearly every day. Tens of thousands of such posts. All sort of oddball claims and allegations.

And the skeptics here who lecture against "speculation" will not say a word about this. Not one. But speculating based on facts about Oswald's motives? That's simply not allowed.

And they think they are convincing people that they really aren't conspiracy believers. Yes they do.

But speculating based on facts about Oswald's motives? That's simply not allowed.

Why wouldn't that be allowed? It gets dubious when speculation and assumptions are being confused with actual facts.

Btw, how can you speculate "based on facts about Oswald's motives" when - unless you knew the man personally - all you are doing is accepting what you have been told is actually factual, without really knowing that it is.

[Jon Banks]

Oswald did not believe that Communism is the same as Marxism.  Do you?

Communism is derived from Marxism but there are different interpretations of Marxist philosophy as well as different interpretations of socialism and communism.

So yes, I think it's possible for someone to identify as a marxist but not a communist. I also mentioned earlier in the thread that there are anti-Stalinists within marxism who oppose Soviet style communism.

As for the questions of ideology and hate for America, there's no evidence that Oswald disliked JFK but plenty of evidence that right-wing loons in Dallas hated JFK.

[Jon Banks]

What Bill and others can do is speculate that the CIA killed JFK. Or the Pentagon. Or the FBI. Or Wall Street bankers. Or Texas oilmen.

We can speculate about all sorts of hairbrained conspiracy theories involving all sorts of institutions and figures and persons and forces. Hell, we can speculate about aliens (that is one theory). It's done here nearly every day. Tens of thousands of such posts. All sort of oddball claims and allegations.

And the skeptics here who lecture against "speculation" will not say a word about this. Not one. But speculating based on facts about Oswald's motives? That's simply not allowed.

And they think they are convincing people that they really aren't conspiracy believers. Yes they do.

Speculation about historic events is perfectly normal. Individuals can observe the same historic facts and reach different conclusions or interpretations of the facts. There are few historic events that have 100% consensus among historians and researchers.

Only the LN crowd within the JFK research community tries to discourage people from speculation about the JFK assassination.

I think it's perfectly fine to debate Oswald's motives but at the end of the day, only Oswald knows what he was thinking or feeling on 11/22/63 and all we can do is speculate because he was killed soon after.

I'm of the opinion that there was likely a conspiracy but I'm undecided on what role Oswald played in it. If he was involved, I admit that I don't know what would've motivated him.

[John Iacoletti]

Context also matters.  Walker was targeted by Oswald from all the other public figures because of his high-profile anti-Communist views.  JFK was largely a target of opportunity because his motorcade went by Oswald's place of employment by chance.  I doubt Oswald would otherwise have ever targeted JFK absent the chance falling into his lap.  In other words, Walker was clearly targeted for his political views while JFK was targeted more by opportunity. 

So the specific motivations vary a bit but do come back to Oswald's leftist, anti-American political views.  He certainly was ahead of his time by a few decades in that respect.  In Walker's case, the assassination attempt was clearly a direct political act based on Walker's right-wing views.  Oswald selected and went to his target in that case.  In JFK's case, it was a symbolic act against the US based upon the opportunity that presented itself to Oswald.  The target came to Oswald.

What a long-winded way to say “I don’t know, but here’s something I completely made up”.

[John Iacoletti]

A person who subscribes to/reads fascist publications, praises fascism, praises fascist figures, call himself a fascist is a fascist whether he openly associates with other fascists or not.

When did Oswald call himself a fascist?