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

Peer Accounts of Conduct and Ideology at El Toro

Peers at El Toro described Oswald as performing his duties adequately but deficient in discipline and barracks inspection. After a series of bad inspections, his quonset hut mates complained and secured his transfer to another hut. He was considered intelligent, somewhat better educated and more intellectually oriented than other men, with a pronounced interest in world affairs in which he was often better informed than officers. By the time he returned to the United States, he had lost all spirit for the Marines and was increasingly preoccupied with Russia. He requested a foreign language qualification test on February 25, 1959, receiving a “poor” rating. He subscribed to a Russian-language newspaper, was nicknamed “Oswaldskovich” to his apparent pleasure, had his name written in Russian on a jacket, played Russian music loudly, and frequently used Russian expressions like “da,” “nyet,” and “Comrade.” Lt. John E. Donovan, his commanding officer and a Georgetown School of Foreign Service graduate, found him competent and noted his calm handling of emergencies, his interest in Latin America and Cuba, his sympathy for Castro, and his subscription to what Donovan considered a Communist newspaper. Donovan never heard Oswald claim to be a Communist. Private Kerry Thornley, a close acquaintance, corroborated Donovan’s testimony but believed Oswald thought Marxist morality “the most rational morality” and communism “the best system in the world,” though he characterized this as theoretical and not an active commitment. Nelson Delgado, another marine, recalled that Oswald, who enjoyed speaking Spanish with him, was “a complete believer that our way of government was not quite right” but did not think he was a Communist. They discussed Cuba, both favored Castro, and fantasized about joining the Cuban Army; Oswald claimed to be in contact with Cuban diplomatic officials. Oswald read “Das Kapital,” Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984,” played chess (always choosing the red pieces, citing a preference for the “Red Army”), and listened to classical music. He briefly played on the squadron football team but lacked team spirit and was a mediocre player. He spent most weekends alone on the base, though he once traveled to Tijuana with Delgado. Henry J. Roussel Jr. arranged a date between Oswald and his aunt, Rosaleen Quinn, an airline stewardess studying Russian, who found the evening uninteresting and described Oswald to Donovan as “kind of an oddball.”