Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 and changed the history of the entire country forever, his past and connection to Russia sparking dozens of conspiracy theories about his motives for kill a man who could have done great things from the White House.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy is one of the most painful events in American history and just under 60 years after it happened, thousands of people still have doubts about it and wonder why Lee Harvey Oswald would shoot the president in such a public event (in the middle of a parade in which he was with his wife, who wore a famous red suit that marked popular culture and tragedy).
When analyzing Oswald’s past, as reported by the BBC , it was discovered that the alleged murderer had lived in the then Soviet Union for two years. The assassin had deserted from the United States Marine Corps and moved to Minsk, the capital of Belarus that was part of the Soviet Union, with whom the United States was in the midst of the Cold War.
With such a history of leaving the military and moving to the country’s worst enemy at the time, many wondered how Lee Harvey Oswald was allowed back on American soil, and it all became even more suspicious when, a few months after his return , Oswald was arrested for the assassination of the country’s leader who played an important role in the political conflict.
What did Lee Harvey Oswald do in the Soviet Union?
It’s been 57 years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy , but there are still many things that remain a great mystery and the years Oswald spent in the Soviet Union and why he was allowed back into the United States are part of that. .
On the BBC’s Witness radio programme, journalist Vincent Dowd spoke with Anthony Summers, author of Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the JFK Assassination, to try to find answers to some of the most mysterious questions in the case. , also with the help of the archives that are still preserved from the investigation of the 60s.
According to the data, Lee Harvey Oswald entered the military at 17 and was soon sent to the Philippines, where he began to learn Russian and to speak more and more about Marxist ideologies, but according to Summers, that nobody found it alarming or dangerous, and nothing was done about it despite the fact that it was “one of the first signs that things were not as they seemed. From the beginning you have to take everything with a grain of salt,” he adds.
Many believe that Oswald was not serious and simply talked about Marxism to get attention, but it was only two years before he defected and traveled to France aboard a cargo ship and then took a plane to Helsinki , then to Finland. and finally arrived in Minsk where, according to the author, he could have become an important source of information for the Russians because he used to work at the U-2 spy plane base.
Was Oswald a CIA spy ? One theory suggests that Oswald may have been sent to the Soviet Union as an infiltrator to hinder their attempts to shoot down US U-2 jets, but there’s actually no proof of that.
What is known is that, once in Moscow, Oswald went to the embassy to let them know that he supported communist causes, renounce being an American citizen and apply for Soviet citizenship, according to consul Richard E. Snyder, who also said that the man intended to hand over military secrets.
Oswald spent a short time in Moscow and was later sent to Minsk to work in a radio factory. The job took him to live in a popular area of ​​the city and soon he met Marina Prusakova , who would become his wife. Marina said in a 1978 BBC interview that they met by chance, but Summers believes the meeting was not a coincidence and that Marina may have been sent by the KGB to spy on and manipulate Oswald.
John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy at their inauguration Paul Schutzer.
Two years later, Lee decided that he had had enough of the Soviet Union and decided to return home, leading many to believe that he may indeed have been a spy. “Well, apparently the Russians didn’t want him there. Because they thought he was a troublemaker. So they were probably happy to get rid of him. And he was going back to his home country. Besides, I wasn’t that valuable to the Russians.” declared his wife a few years later.
Once home, Oswald became involved with politics, and just 3 months later, the 24-year-old ex-serviceman was arrested for shooting John F. Kennedy while in a parade in Dallas, Texas (at an event held can be seen in several iconic series and movies).
Oswald said that he was innocent, but he never managed to make his case. Two days after his arrest he was murdered by Jack Ruby , the owner of a bar with ties to the mafia, who shot him in the stomach as he was being taken from the police station to the court where he would be tried.
Oswald ‘s assassination created even more conspiracy theories and cast doubt on the guilt of the 24-year-old man who, apart from being connected to the Soviet Union, didn’t seem to have much reason to want to kill the president (there’s even a theory that he It was a mob hit.