Lee Oswald in His Own Words

In examining the character and mind of Lee Harvey Oswald, it is important to take a look at several of his writings, especially those that display his political or philosophical views.

One natural difficulty in examining Oswald's writing is that it is extremely sloppy, filled with a huge number of spelling and grammatical mistakes. If those mistakes are cleaned up to improve clarity and legibility, what does the writing reveal about Oswald is thinking?

Oswald has left a number of samples to explore this area, including "The Collective," a manuscript describing life in the Soviet Union, his "Historic Diary," which depicts his years in Russia, his "Revolutionary Resumé" — intended to persuade the Cuban Embassy to let him into their country — as well as a number of notes, and undelivered speeches.

In all of these writings, Oswald has revealed thinking that is broad, but not necessarily deep. Much of his writing is undisciplined, filtered through the eyes of someone who absolutely despises authority.

And yet there are a number of contradictions in his beliefs. While comparing the United States and the Soviet Union, Oswald said he would not take the stance of "a curse on both your houses" and yet that is exactly what he did. Oswald favored free speech, but also suppression of anti-Semitic or other forms of hate speech. He favored gun control in respect to handguns, but was willing to allow rifles and shotguns.

The following is a list of various samples of Oswald's writing and thinking:


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