PSC404, Spring 2001
Assignment 4, due Friday 16 February 2001
Warren Report Chaps. VI, VII; App. VIII, IX

Read:
      Warren Commission Report Chapters VI, VII; Appendices VIII, IX..

Answer these questions:
      1. What relations did Lee Harvey Oswald have with the Communist Party, U.S.A.? Was he an actual member? How can conflicts on this point be resolved?

      2. Many people have speculated that if Oswald killed JFK, he must have hated him, and may have evidenced that feeling by associating with like-minded extreme right-wing groups in Dallas. How closely did Oswald associate with these groups?

      3. Oswald’s possible trip to Mexico City in September/October 1963 has been the object of much discussion, with many people denying that he ever went there. How solidly did the Warren Commission establish (a) that Oswald traveled to Mexico City, and (b) the dates of this trip? Cite the evidence that the Commission found.

      4. What does Oswald’s frequent use of P.O. boxes and aliases imply about his involvement in a conspiracy?

      5. Recount briefly the Sylvia Odio incident. What does it suggest about Oswald and possible conspiracy?

      6. How did the Commission decide that Oswald was not a secret agent of the FBI or CIA? Can you find any holes in their logic?

      7. How would the Oswalds’ finances bear on the matter of Lee Harvey and conspiracy? What did the Commission conclude from its investigation?

      8–10. Many writers have proposed that Oswald was an intelligence agent of the United States (CIA) or the Soviet Union (KGB). Briefly describe each of the following topics and comment on whether it implies anything about a possible intelligence connection for Oswald.

      (a) Oswald’s speedy entry into the USSR in October 1959.
      (b) His stated intention to give the Soviet government all his radar secrets.
      (c) His attempted suicide in his Moscow hotel room.
      (d) Bringing a Russian wife to the United States, especially when she hardly spoke English.
      (e) The extra money given him in Minsk by the Soviet Red Cross.
      (f) The level of his job in Minsk.
      (g) His ownership of a rifle in the USSR and his membership in a hunting club.
      (h) His and his wife’s unauthorized travel from Minsk to Moscow in July 1961.
      (i) The ease of his departure from the Soviet Union.

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