OSWALD'S MOTIVE

[Bill Brown]

 

Oswald's motive for shooting at General Walker was the same as he had for assassinating the President.  Marxism and Cuba.  Oswald wanted the United States Government to keep it's hands off of Cuba.

Oswald told Capt. Will Fritz that he was a Marxist, that he belonged to the Fair Play For Cuba organization and that he was in favor of Fidel Castro's revolution.

Before the revolution, Castro, with his Marxist beliefs, condemned social and economic inequality in Cuba.  He adopted the Marxist view that meaningful political change could only be brought about by proletariat revolution.

While Castro was imprisoned for the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in Cuba, his wife took employment with the Ministry of the Interior.  Castro was enraged and insulted.  His Marxist beliefs were so strong that filed for divorce.  Mirta (Castro's wife) took custody of their son Fidelito.  The thought of his son growing up in a bourgeois environment further enraged Castro.

Oswald agreed strongly with the Marxist beliefs of Castro.

During the revolution, the U.S. Government feared that Castro was a socialist.

In early January of 1959, Batista was overthrown by the rebels and he fled.

The revolution was a crucial turning point in relations between the U.S. and Cuba.  Originally, the U.S. government was willing to recognize Castro's new government.  However, the U.S. government would eventually fear that Communist insurgencies would spread through Latin America, as they had in Southeast Asia.

On March 5, 1963, Major General Edwin Walker gave a speech where he called on the White House to "liquidate the (communist) scourge that has descended upon the island of Cuba."  Walker was obviously referring to Fidel Castro.   Oswald ordered his rifle seven days later.

Captain Fritz told the Warren Commission:

"I got the impression that he was doing it because of his feeling about the Castro revolution, and I think that he felt, he had a lot of feeling about that revolution.

I think that was the reason. I noticed another thing. I noticed a little before when Walker was shot, he had come out with some statements about Castro and about Cuba and a lot of things and if you will remember the President had some stories a few weeks before his death about Cuba and about Castro and some things, and I wondered if that didn't have some bearing.

I have no way of knowing that other than just watching him and talking to him. I think it was his feeling about his belief in being a Marxist, he told me he had debated in New Orleans, and that he tried to get converts to this Fair Play for Cuba organization, so I think that was his motive. I think he was doing it because of that."

 

The image below is from the
Wichita Falls Record News
March 7, 1963
(Image courtesy of Dale Myers)

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by Bill Brown

[James DiEugenio]

Oh no.  I don't read Brown, but man with this reply and quote, good ole Bill is pounding that WC crap about Oswald the Marxist.

Look, Liebeler once said he was assigned to write that part of the report.

He retired to a cabin in Vermont and just about threw up his arms.  He then started calling people, like Robert Oswald.

He himself later said, he had no idea why Oswald would shoot Kennedy.  Which means that whole section of the report is BS.

 

[Gerry Down]

Oswald wrote to his brother that he was willing to kill any American.

Hardly a patriotic thing to say.

[Lawrence Schnapf]

No motive was ever established. any attempt at discerning his motive is essentially mental masturbation. 

 

[James DiEugenio]

7 minutes ago, Gerry Down said:

Oswald wrote to his brother that he was willing to kill any American.

Hardly a patriotic thing to say.

Do you mind giving away the context?  That is the date, from where he wrote it etc.

[Gerry Down]

6 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Do you mind giving away the context?  That is the date, from where he wrote it etc.

A rhetorical statement I presume. I'm sure you must know this yourself.

It would seem like an overly nasty thing to say to his own brother if it was all make up as part of a cover. 

Edited December 1, 2022 by Gerry Down

[Joseph McBride]

Robert Oswald is a deeply biased witness against his brother.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Joseph McBride

[Bill Brown]

21 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Do you mind giving away the context?  That is the date, from where he wrote it etc.

 

Oswald said it in a written letter to his brother Robert.

This is JFKA 101.

 

[Jonathan Cohen]

29 minutes ago, Joseph McBride said:

Robert Oswald is a deeply biased witness against his brother.

A laughable statement. Are you suggesting Robert knew his brother was innocent but instead spent the next 50+ years purposefully claiming he was guilty? If so, why on earth would he do that?

[James DiEugenio]

1 hour ago, Gerry Down said:

Oswald wrote to his brother that he was willing to kill any American.

Hardly a patriotic thing to say.

I am still waiting for the context of this.

What is the problem in sourcing your own quote?

[Mart Hall]

If Oswald agreed so strongly about the FPC and Marxism etc then why didn't he proudly proclaim that he had shot the POTUS instead of telling the reporters that he was "just a patsy"?

 

 

[Gerry Down]

5 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

I am still waiting for the context of this.

What is the problem in sourcing your own quote?

Surely there is no context that could justify to the statement he was willing to kill any American. 

[Tom Gram]

1 hour ago, Lawrence Schnapf said:

No motive was ever established. any attempt at discerning his motive is essentially mental masturbation. 

 

This. I will add though that the motive proposed by lone assassin theorists for why Oswald denied killing JFK, whether he just wanted to be a “big man in history” or it was something political, requires such a ridiculous stretch of the imagination that the only way to reconcile it with Oswald’s alleged behavior that day, the Tippit shooting in particular, is if Oswald was just flat out psychotic. 

[James DiEugenio]

Gerry,

I hope you realize that if you keep on ignoring the question, its makes people suspect you are not confident about the source yourself.

My books have literally thousands of footnotes.

The scripts I wrote for Oliver Stone have hundred of footnotes all displayed in the book JFK Revisited.

That is what we expect on this site.

 

[Joe Bauer]

21 minutes ago, Tom Gram said:

This. I will add though that the motive proposed by lone assassin theorists for why Oswald denied killing JFK, whether he just wanted to be a “big man in history” or it was something political, requires such a ridiculous stretch of the imagination that the only way to reconcile it with Oswald’s alleged behavior that day, the Tippit shooting in particular, is if Oswald was just flat out psychotic. 

I have also offered this same consideration.

Yet, Marina says she didn't see anything that crazy with her husband while they were in Russia, with the switch to the very risky violent talk and behavior starting a year or so after they arrived here in the states.

Shooting at Walker was crazy and telling his wife all about it must have been terrifying to her.  I want to hijack a plane to Cuba and Marina you can help me do this. 

What tripped the crazy murder minded switch in Oswald?

Did David Ferrie Manchurian Candidate hypnotize Oswald? Or could this have happened to Oswald in his time in Russia?