Oswald's 1959 passport application - explain this please, if you can

[John Iacoletti]

Addendum:

The State Department report, https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/finding-aids/mosk-59167870.pdf, states that LHO's passport was issued "routinely" on September 10.

"THAT CRAZY APPLICATION WAS PROCESSED ROUTINELY???!!!" you scream. Well, yes.

"HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS!!!" you scream. Well, no.

The procedures attached to the report explain that the local Passport Agency simply determined whether the applicant was a U.S. citizen. If so, the applicant's name and date and place of birth were sent by wire to the Passport Office in Washington. The Passport Office determined whether the applicant was in a "lookout file," more than 90% of whom were people who had lost their citizenship. If not, the passport was issued "routinely" even if the contents of the application might seem Rather Goofy.

This is what's known as special pleading.  If it's not suspicious for a real defector to put "goofy" things in an application then it's also not suspicious for a false defector either.

[Lance Payette]

This is what's known as special pleading.  If it's not suspicious for a real defector to put "goofy" things in an application then it's also not suspicious for a false defector either.

You'd have to explain your logic more fully. Oswald had a long history of lying when it wasn't necessary, doing seemingly inexplicable things and doing other things just for their shock value. This is what I mean by Oswald being Oswald on his passport application. It would be exceedingly unlikely, it seems to me, for a Cold War defector being guided by an intelligence agency to list on his passport application, for absolutely no reason, the Russia to which he would be defecting and Cuba as well. Why would he do this, or be allowed by the intelligence agency to do this, and how could he be sure it wouldn't raise red flags (no pun intended) in the processing of his application? Perhaps you're suggesting he would do something so unlikely and risky just to show he wasn't a false defector because no real false defector would do that? Well ...

[John Iacoletti]

You'd have to explain your logic more fully. Oswald had a long history of lying when it wasn't necessary, doing seemingly inexplicable things and doing other things just for their shock value. This is what I mean by Oswald being Oswald on his passport application. It would be exceedingly unlikely, it seems to me, for a Cold War defector being guided by an intelligence agency to list on his passport application, for absolutely no reason, the Russia to which he would be defecting and Cuba as well. Why would he do this, or be allowed by the intelligence agency to do this, and how could he be sure it wouldn't raise red flags (no pun intended) in the processing of his application? Perhaps you're suggesting he would do something so unlikely and risky just to show he wasn't a false defector because no real false defector would do that? Well ...

Well, it didn't "raise any red flags" anyway (or so they tell us), so what difference does it make?  If he was guided by "intelligence agencies", wouldn't it be those same intelligence agencies who would be looking for red flags?  I'm not sure how anybody could know what a "real false defector" would or would not do.

By the way, feel free to give specific, confirmable examples of Oswald's "long history of lying when it wasn't necessary".

[Tom Graves]

Dan's thread about Oswald in Helsinki caused me to take a closer look at Oswald's 1959 passport application.

It is WC Exhibit No. 1114: https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/pdf/WH22_CE_1114.pdf

This document seems to be taken for granted in most JFKA discussions. Sometimes, the most conspiracy-killing clues are right under our noses and we don't even see them.

In March of 1959, LHO had applied to Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland. In June, he had paid the $25 application fee. (He indicated that he would be attending the term beginning on April 12, 1960 and that he spoke Russian equivalent to "one year of schooling.") The ASC was a funky, obscure place, and I'm not sure how LHO even would have known about it. Greg Parker suggested that because Oswald was still in the Marines and would be on reserve status after his discharge, he needed an educational purpose to travel overseas.

On CE 1114, LHO listed his height as 5'11", thereby providing fodder for Harvey & Lee fans, but this is not our concern.

He applied for the passport on September 4, 1959, some three months after finalizing his attendance at ASC; his signature was notarized by the Clerk of the Santa Ana Superior Court. He attached a document from the USMC, also dated September 4 and also part of CE 1114, indicating he would be released from active duty and begin reserve status on September 11.

One mystery - to me anyway - is why he now listed study at the University of Turku in Finland as well as at ASC. WHY? How would he even have known the U of T existed? What possible purpose would there be for listing this? Do you think the State Department subsequently double-checked whether every traveler was actually visiting every country listed on the passport application? Hardly. If you have the ASC as your educational excuse, and you indicate you're only going to be traveling for four months, why do you need the U of T? Wouldn't this invite awkward questions as to how you're going to study at one school in Switzerland and another in Finland in the space of four months?

It's been suggested this was cover for his visa journey to Helsinki. But WHY? He wouldn't have needed any cover at all. Just list Finland among the countries you may visit, as he did, or say nothing about Finland at all. Moreover, how would Oswald have known that Helsinki was a potential "speedy visa" branch of the Soviet consulate (if it in fact was)? Was this published in some travel guide: "Go through Helsinki if you're desperate to begin your Soviet vacation as soon as possible." Moreover again, why would he have particularly cared if his visa were issued in two, three or seven days? In find it all bizarre and admit I have no convincing answers.

BUT THIS IS WHAT LEAPED OUT AT ME: In 1959, smack dab in the middle of the Cold War, he listed CUBA and RUSSIA among the "countries to be visited." WHAT? You're going to be a student for four months in Switzerland and Finland, but you may visit Cuba and Russia while you're at it? Who in his right mind, let alone a CIA-trained false defector who was still on active duty, would have listed CUBA and RUSSIA on a passport application? Talk about red flags - in 1959 and 2025 as well.

This is my point: A CIA operative about to be launched on a false-defection mission would not have included the U of T nonsense, and CERTAINLY would not have included the Cuba and Russia nonsense, on a passport application a month before his departure. Even if you think he was an unwitting "dangle," which seems the increasingly popular CT thesis since the false-defection one Makes No Sense, I find this impossible to explain. I explain it all as LHO simply being the incomprehensible, make-stuff-up-for-no-reason goof we Lone Nutters know and love.

When you cut through all the dark, cryptogram- and acronym-filled, wow-you-with-detail speculation of "experts" like John Newman and Bill Simpich, sometimes something as simple as this passport application tells you they have no clothes; they are butt-naked and spewing nonsense and hope you don't notice. It is to Larry Hancock's credit that he pretty obviously recognizes this and posits in The Oswald Puzzle that LHO was, at least until the fall of 1963, pretty much exactly who we LNers believe him to have been; I don't happen to agree with him, but at least this is what sane conspiracy theorizing looks like.

If you think you have a plausible, conspiracy-oriented explanation for CE 1114, go for it! "It's fake" will not be accepted.

It's understandable that Oswald, per his handler's instructions, put Russia on the list, and it's also understandable that Oswald decided on his own to put Cuba on it.