Oswald applied for CPUSA membership

[Larry Hancock]

Stephen, first off I think you make a very important point about "audiences". The manuscript could have been written with a completely different audience and with a different goal in mind.

In one fashion it would have make a very good propaganda piece and have received a wonderful media reception - impressionable young marine goes to Soviet Union and

see evils of Soviet system for himself, warns of the dangers of its devious, foul surrogates. He could have probably gotten Hoover to write an endorsement for the book that

followed. I have nothing compelling to say that was his intent, its only an observation.

Yet that manuscript and that worldview "aborts", and suddenly he is addressing a totally different audience with a totally different story line. And not just one audience but a series

of audiences which really were not happy with each other, the last thing FPCC needed were CPUSA members and champions. Now Oswald may have been enthusiastic enough

to keep contacting all the organizations over and over again even when they never responded to him or responded with great caution. My point would be that knowingly or

unknowingly he was creating a wonderful "image" that could be seized to turn him into a patsy - and the people that did that were concerned about his public image - and they

are the ones I'm interested in, whether that image was his true inner belief or created under some other scenario. From that perspective it really does not matter, even Oswald's

own version following the assassination - essentially that he was being made a patsy because he's been to Russia - will do. Especially if his rifle is upstairs in the building.

Its also extremely interesting that the WC never established a motive and that essentially the entire "system" chose not to present the heavy storyline that he was a communist inspired

assassin. Surely they would have had plenty of material to make that stick - just imagine the letter about "going underground" hitting the following edition of LIFE's cover after the one

with the rifle. Somebody surely decided not to play that card....which would have seemed one that Hoover would have particularly loved.

I guess at the end my point would be, whatever the motive, Oswald had created a very in depth image for himself that would have been quite attractive to his being used as a patsy and

that image was eventually minimized when he was presented as a lone nut.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Larry Hancock

[Robert Howard]

I don't believe one can properly weigh the proper perspective on this document without recalling the woman...Mary Sims? who ostensibly summoned the Sheriff's Department in Dallas, in the aftermath of the assassination to "pick up" material

which belonged to her Cuban boyfriend, that had material linking Oswald and Ruby.....Although I am going by memory, I

believe there was a Ruby Communist Party badge, although it may have only been a FPCC badge. This was either the

material or documentation in support of provided by Dallas DA Craig Watkins a couple of years ago. My take on this is

that it was [the Cuban boyfriend's material] all "manufactured evidence."I would really feel good if the Cuban boyfriend's

identity could ever be ascertained.....

Edited October 28, 2013 by Robert Howard

[Larry Hancock]

Robert, I do go into that story in detail in SWHT including remarks by all the officers involved. As we might expect, the story begins to diverge mightily once the FBI began to investigate it and since they were the only ones to follow up and their remarks are very much different from the officers who themselves saw the materials - we are left with nothing very satisfactory.

I'd just like to offer my last thoughts on the letter, Stephen has certainly made me think about it in a broad context and my final thought is that I can well I can well imagine that Oswald's generally populist, socialist, liberal world view did stay constant. That is very much in like with DiMohrenschieldt's characterization of him. However given that and given Oswald's very specific remarks about the CPUSA and its use a political tool, I just can't accept his going on following that for months trying to insert himself into it and promoting Gus Hall without something deeper going on. Turning to the FPCC would make sense given his history, writing CPUSA and asking if he should go underground would not. So that's where I have to leave it for myself, but of course its just an opinion.

Stephen, I would very much like to see your elaborate on your thoughts of Oswald's associates in NO and their perhaps being mis-characterized. I can see that a bit in Ferrie but I'd love to know more about your thoughts on the subject.

[Cliff Varnell]

emphasis mine:

Its also extremely interesting that the WC never established a motive and that essentially the entire "system" chose not to present the heavy storyline that he was a communist inspired

assassin. Surely they would have had plenty of material to make that stick - just imagine the letter about "going underground" hitting the following edition of LIFE's cover after the one

with the rifle. Somebody surely decided not to play that card....which would have seemed one that Hoover would have particularly loved.

I guess at the end my point would be, whatever the motive, Oswald had created a very in depth image for himself that would have been quite attractive to his being used as a patsy and

that image was eventually minimized when he was presented as a lone nut.

My best guess, that card was disposed of in the office of George Ball, #2 man at the State Department, Wanna-Be Wise Man, who spent the afternoon of 11/22/63 with the #3 man at State W. Averell Harriman, Skull & Bones blue blood patriarch, one of the six "Wise Men" of US foreign policy.

Those guys were the top US administration officials on the ground that afternoon.

McGeorge Bundy made it a trio. According to four sources it was Bundy who called LBJ on AF1 to inform the President that the lone assassin was captured.

In the dueling cover-up conspiracies -- Oswald as Lone Nut vs. Oswald as Commie Agent -- the blue bloods were the winners.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Cliff Varnell