General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Let's have a poll on JFK [View all]Xithras
(16,191 posts)A lot of the public backstory about Oswald doesn't make sense if you look at it closely. I think that Oswald was a genuine hardcore communist who fled to the Soviet Union and was recruited to return to America and spy on emigre groups and anticommunist activities. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, we now know without question that the Soviets had a number of moles and sleeper agents in the U.S. for this purpose.
In mid-September 1963 it is announced that Kennedy will visit Dallas in November. Less than two weeks later Oswald attempts to get a Cuban visa to visit the Soviet embassy, but is turned away by a local Cuban official. The fact that the Soviets and Cubans quickly amended that refusal to permit him entry indicates that he was of SOME kind of interest to them, and the fact that he had already left after the initial refusal was a bit of bad timing. A month and a half later, he put his bullets into the President.
We know that Oswald had previously tried to assassinate another military official. My theory is that Oswald learned about Kennedy visiting Dallas and wanted to assassinate him as well. This was, after all, the same President who had "humiliated" the Soviets during the Cuban missile crisis only a year beforehand. He tried to visit the Soviets to get authorization for his idea, but was turned away by an uninformed local apparatchik. Without authorization, he put his plan into place and shot Kennedy.
Why the conspiracy? It was the height of the Cold War. If the President of the United States were killed by a Soviet agent...even one acting without authorization...there would have been a war. And in 1963, that would would have gone nuclear within hours. The U.S. government had a choice...execute the guy who killed the President and cover up the truth, or "avenge" him and kill 100 million-plus Americans in the process.
Oswald was executed, the truth was buried, and Armageddon was postponed.