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

Post-Discharge Passport Application

On September 4, the same day he was transferred out of MACS-9 in preparation for his discharge, Oswald applied for a passport at the Superior Court of Santa Ana, California. His application stated that he planned to leave the United States on September 21 to attend the Albert Schweitzer College and the University of Turku in Finland, and to travel in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, and Russia. The passport was routinely issued six days later.

第二章 With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the

This chapter traces Lee Harvey Oswald’s journey from his discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps through his defection to the Soviet Union in late 1959. After returning briefly to Fort Worth, Texas, Oswald traveled to New Orleans where he booked passage on a European freighter, the SS Marion Lykes, bound for Le Havre, France. After brief stops in England and Helsinki—where he obtained a Soviet visa—he traveled by train to Moscow, arriving on October 16, 1959. Almost immediately upon arrival, he announced his intention to defect and applied for Soviet citizenship. When Soviet officials informed him that his visa had expired and that he must leave Moscow, Oswald attempted suicide by cutting his wrist and was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of Botkinskaya Hospital. After his release, he was interviewed again by Soviet authorities, and ultimately visited the American Embassy in Moscow to declare his intention to renounce his U.S. citizenship. The chapter concludes with his formal written request to the Embassy to revoke his citizenship and a period of isolation during which he refused contact with his family and American officials.