Soviet Defection Exposed at August 1963 WDSU Radio Debate
The WDSU radio debate on August 21, 1963, brought out the history of Oswald’s defection to the Soviet Union, which was uncovered independently by William Stuckey and Edward Butler of the Information Council of the Americas. Confronted with this at the debate’s outset, Oswald was forced onto the defensive and stated that Fair Play for Cuba was “not at all Communist controlled regardless of the fact that I had the experience of living in Russia.” Stuckey testified that publicly linking FPCC to “a fellow who had lived in Russia for 3 years and who was an admitted Marxist” effectively ended Oswald’s ability to recruit members. Nevertheless, Stuckey described Oswald as a very logical, intelligent, and clean-cut fellow who handled himself well—appearing more like a young attorney than someone associated with FPCC.
Outreach to the Communist Party, U.S.A. Post-FPCC Debate
Following the disclosure of his defection, Oswald sought advice from the Communist Party, U.S.A. He had previously sent unsolicited photographic samples to the Party newspaper, the Worker, offering free contributions. He presented Arnold Johnson, Gus Hall, and Benjamin J. Davis honorary membership cards in his nonexistent New Orleans FPCC chapter. Arnold Johnson, director of the Party’s information and lecture bureau, replied that the Party had no organizational ties with FPCC. Marina Oswald testified that such correspondence from those he considered important meant much to Oswald, providing proof that “there were people who understood his activity.” In an August 28, 1963 letter to the central committee, Oswald asked whether he should “always remain in the background, i.e. underground” given his compromised position, and Johnson advised that it was often “advisable for some people to remain in the background, not underground.”
Oswald’s 1963 New Orleans Personal and Professional Hardships
By August 1963, after only three months in New Orleans, Oswald had fallen on difficult times. He had disliked and quit his job greasing coffee processing machinery after slightly more than two months and had not found another. His wife was expecting their second child in October, with associated financial concerns. His FPCC efforts had won no support; the Bringuier altercation and arrest upset him and caused him to “cool off a little.” Most damaging, his defection history was now public, leaving him vulnerable to attack. Following Johnson’s advice to “remain in the background” was impossible since there was no background to his one-man “organization,” and he had received no letters from FPCC national headquarters since May 29, 1963, despite writing four detailed letters to V. T. Lee and keeping the headquarters informed of address changes.
Plans to Leave the U.S. for the Soviet Union or Cuba
By August 1963, Oswald had been considering leaving the United States again. On June 24, 1963, he applied for a new passport. In late June or early July, he told his wife he wanted to return to the Soviet Union with her, weeping as he said nothing kept him in the United States, that he would not lose anything by returning, and that it would be better to have less and not worry about tomorrow. Marina then wrote the Soviet Embassy regarding her earlier February 17, 1963 request for permission for herself and June to return—now stating that “things are improving” because her husband wished to return together. Unknown to his wife, Oswald enclosed a note requesting his wife’s entrance visa be expedited while asking that his own be considered “separately,” suggesting his true intentions were not to go directly to the Soviet Union, if at all, but rather to Cuba. In Marina’s words, “all the rest of it was window dressing for that purpose.”
Failed Mexico City Visa Applications for Cuba and the USSR
Oswald left for Mexico City on September 25, 1963, arriving September 27, and went almost directly to the Cuban Embassy to apply for a visa in transit to Russia, representing himself as head of the New Orleans FPCC branch and seeking acceptance as a “friend” of the Cuban Revolution. The Cubans refused to issue a visa until he obtained a Soviet one, which involved months of delay. When Oswald became greatly agitated, he unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a Soviet visa at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City and angrily argued with the Cuban consul, who told him a person like him “in place of aiding the Cuban Revolution, was doing it harm.” Oswald left Mexico City on October 2, 1963, thoroughly disillusioned, rejected by officials of both Cuba and the Soviet Union. The U.S. Government would not permit travel to Cuba, and the bureaucratic rebuffs left him with no apparent route to the communist ideal he had sought.
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