Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Motivations for and Enlistment in the Marine Corps

Despite his apparent interest in communism, Oswald tried to join the Marines at age 16, a year before his actual enlistment and approximately two and a half years after leaving New York. He wrote a note in his mother’s name to school authorities saying he was leaving because they were moving to San Diego, but in reality he had quit school to obtain his mother’s assistance in enlisting. Although she apparently made a false statement about his age, he could not convince the authorities he was really 17. Evidence indicates he was greatly influenced by his brother Robert’s enlistment three years earlier; he studied Robert’s Marine Corps manual until he knew it by heart. Marguerite Oswald said Lee lived for the day he could turn 17 and join the Marines. John Pic believed Oswald was motivated in large part by a desire to escape the “yoke of oppression” from his mother. Oswald’s ongoing difficulty forming meaningful relationships and dissatisfaction with his environment probably contributed to his intense desire to join the Marines and escape his surroundings. His study of Communist literature, though seemingly inconsistent with military service, may have been another manifestation of his rejection of his environment.

Marine Corps Service: Personality Traits and Authority Conflicts

Oswald’s difficulty relating to others and general dissatisfaction continued during his Marine Corps service. Kerry Thornley testified that the Marine Corps was not what Oswald had expected, and that Oswald seemed to guard against developing close friendships. Daniel Powers testified that Oswald seemed always striving for a relationship but that his general personality alienated groups against him. Other marines confirmed Oswald had few friends and kept to himself. Although his military records showed no psychological unfitness, he did not adjust well to the service and never rose above private first class despite passing the qualifying examination for corporal. His attitude that he was a man of great ability and intelligence and that many superiors were incompetent hindered his career. While he did not object to authority in the abstract, he believed he should be the one to exercise it. Former officer John E. Donovan testified that Oswald believed the Marine Corps should recognize talent like his without requiring a college degree. Oswald baited officers into discussions of foreign affairs where his knowledge exceeded theirs, then regarded them as unfit to command him. Nelson Delgado testified Oswald tried to “cut up” higher-ranking marines in such arguments and make himself come out on top. Thornley described Oswald’s extreme personal sloppiness as fitting a general pattern of doing whatever was not wanted of him, a recalcitrant trend. Thornley characterized Oswald as someone who would go out of his way to get into trouble, then used the resulting “special treatment” as evidence of being picked on and as a means of gaining sympathy. Thornley believed Oswald labored under a persecution complex, tending toward but not reaching paranoia. Powers considered Oswald meek, easily led, and capable of being brainwashed, but firm in his beliefs once formed. Powers described him as reserved, like a “frail, little puppy in the litter,” and he had the nickname “Ozzie Rabbit.” Oswald read serious literature such as Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” rather than westerns, and told Powers that the Marines only taught you to kill and that afterward you might be good gangsters. Powers believed that acquiring a girlfriend in Japan gave Oswald a sense of male status, making him more self-confident, aggressive, and pugnacious, transforming him from “Oswald the rabbit” to “Oswald the man.” Oswald told Powers he did not care if he returned to the United States.