Oswald and communist literature

[John Geraghty]

Oswald is often said to have been reading volumes of communist literature and that he subscribed to these magazines.

Were they ever found in his possession or what is the proof that he had this literature in dallas or in the military?

Any weblinks would be great

John

[Larry Hancock]

John, lots of sources on this, I'd certainly suggest you read John Newman's

book which tackles it in detail. I've presented before on the problems Oswald

had with his mail in Dallas.....his receipt of the mailed material was one of the

things that was monitored by the FBI. Indeed his mail was opened as part

of the FBI intercept program on incoming overseas mail and Oswald filed a protest

to the Post Office department in NYC about it. That doesn't seem to have made much difference toall the postal inspectors (T-1, T-2 who were also FBI sources) in his mail chain). There is no doubt that he ordered and received this sort of mail.

I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone do a detailed study of the extent

to which he actually read it or discussed it.

[Mark Knight]

Try this link to a speech Oswald gave:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...t+Oswald+speech

From what I can determine, Oswald had a grasp of a sort of utopian--or, as he referred to it, "Trotskyite"--form of communism which differed significantly from the despotic Stalinism that we are more familiar with.

So it's evident, from the text of the speech, that he read SOMETHING about communism, and he had a higher-than-average comprehension of the differences in the communism he "preached" and the communism practiced in the 1950's and 1960's in the Soviet Union and its spheres of influence.

Whether this answers your question or not, it does indicate that Oswald had a working knowledge of the style of communism he allegedly advocated. I would surmise that his knowledge of the "failures" of Soviet-styled communism would imply that he had knowledge of their system as well; else he would NOT have been able to articulate the differences. Whether that is evidence of reading a particular piece of literature or not is a conclusion each researcher will have to draw individually.

But that's just my impression.

Edited May 5, 2005 by Mark Knight

[Jim Root]

John

Try the testimony of Nelson Delgado, Oswalds Marine buddy and that of Agent Hosty. Most telling is the recorded interview of Oswald in New Orleans where, I believe, he discribes how he first started reading socialist material as a young boy. Also his letter to the Socialist Workers Party (a recent post of mine) gives his own account of the fact that he had been studying Marxist thought for months and was desirous of learning more.

Larry

What thoughts do you have on when Oswald's mail was first being opened. I have suggested that it may have began with his letter to the Socialist Workers Party (within weeks of his seventeeth birthday and his enlistment in the Marines).

Was this the begining of his life as a "patsy?"

Jim Root

[Guest Stephen Turner]

Oswald certainly had a grasp of the differences, Trotsky could draw a line back

to Karl Marx,and the Internationalist tradition,Stalin, author of "Communism in

one country" only spread the revolution so as to create Buffer Zones, & areas

of economic oppression.

Whether Oswald understood this because he was a Marxist, or simply read it in

a book is, as Mark says, open to speculation.....

Edited May 5, 2005 by Stephen Turner

[Larry Hancock]

Jim, that's a great question. I don't know that the FBI went as far as to maintain

list of all correspondants to target groups such as SWP; I suspect they did indeed maintain master lists of actual members and officers. I do have a document that specifically says anyone who was an officer or politically active (including in demonstrations) in any of the target subversive groups had to be placed on the master watch list (Hoover's pick up and intern in case of hostilities list). Actually according to that FBI reg. Oswald should have been held on the formal watch list after his actions in New Orleans but that's antother story.

The opening of mail to him was triggered by different factors after his return from Russia. One being his incoming mail from overseas/Russia and the other being his having been placed on a watch list during his time in Russia while he was sending mail back to the U.S. However beyond that its obvious that the FBI was continuing to have their postal office informants monitor not only his mail (which doesn't mean opening it but does mean surveillance on source and destination as well as moves). Newman documents that at length and I have an FBI document that shows they were doing the same with Robert Oswald in 1963 as far as monitoring one of his changes in residence.

I wish we could answer your question one way or the other but I suspect that

Oswald did not come onto the FBI radar that early. However it might be worthwhile checking some of the magazine subscriptions he held as a Marine because that would be a very good place for him to come under ONI and FBI monitoring at the same time.

-- Larry

John

Try the testimony of Nelson Delgado, Oswalds Marine buddy and that of Agent Hosty.  Most telling is the recorded interview of Oswald in New Orleans where, I believe, he discribes how he first started reading socialist material as a young boy.  Also his letter to the Socialist Workers Party (a recent post of mine) gives his own account of the fact that he had been studying Marxist thought for months and was desirous of learning more.

Larry

What thoughts do you have on when Oswald's mail was first being opened.  I have suggested that it may have began with his letter to the Socialist Workers Party (within weeks of his seventeeth birthday and his enlistment in the Marines).

Was this the begining of his life as a "patsy?"

Jim Root

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Jim Root]

Larry

A couple of weeks ago I made a post called "Oswalds letter to SWP." Within that I outlined the CIA ran letter opening program that was conducted by Dulles, Helms and Angleton with later help from Thomas Karamessines. Within that sudy it showed that the FBI did not become involved in the program till later.

Just a few months before Oswalds letter to the Socialist Workers Party the CIA mail operation went into full swing. For some reason I can imagine the excitment of this illustious group when (if) they found that a 17 year old that was writting to the SWP had just joined the Marines.

This speculation provides, to me, an interesting explanation for the training, placement and subsiquent meovements that would occur while Oswald was a Marine (especially in light of U-2 radar experience and speculation about the downing of Francis Gary Powers).

Just thoughts that seem to fit a consistant hypothisis that I have been following for years. After all the CIA program was in place and it was opperated by the usual cast of characters.

Jim Root