Hillary Willing to be VP

[Xavier_Onassis]

One of them was defecting to the Soviet Union.
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And then he returned. Oswald was not allowed to join the Communist Party in Kiev.

Whatever one believes about the assassination of JFK, it was not a Communist plot.

[Amianthus]

And then he returned. Oswald was not allowed to join the Communist Party in Kiev.

Why would he? He lived in Minsk.

[Brassmask]

Whatever Lee Harvey Oswald was, he was not acting as an agent of any Communist government. I believe he described himself best, referring to himself as a 'patsy'

Never said he was an agent of anyone. Do you deny he was a communist?

I believe that there is no way of knowing if Oswald was a communist or not.  He hung out with ANTI-communists like George DeMorenschildt (who some call his CIA "handler") and handed out pro-Castro literature. 

If you take into account the possibility that he was an intelligence agent when he went to Russia, it is entirely possible/probable that he was definitely not a communist.

[Brassmask]

>>He seems to have had some Communist ideas.<<

One of them was defecting to the Soviet Union.

 

Well, how do you explain his being allowed to come back to the US and bring his new bride with him with little to no effort?  How about the state dept giving him money to travel after coming back from the USSR?

How come he wasn't tried for treason since he had defected?

There are a lot of questions and odd situations that seem to indicate that he was not a communist but simply someone who was trying to convince a lot of people that he was a communist.

[Amianthus]

There are a lot of questions and odd situations that seem to indicate that he was not a communist but simply someone who was trying to convince a lot of people that he was a communist.

Then again, there were his subscriptions to communist party newspapers, and his claims to Mexican authorities (apparently backed with documents) that he was a member of the American Communist Party and also the Socialist Workers Party.

The most likely scenario is that he didn't really know where he stood politically.

And, BTW, the Russians weren't too happy to have him, and probably were happy to get rid of him. He was initially denied entrance to the USSR, they refused to make him a citizen, the KGB was distrustful of his motives, and he was only given a 1 year temporary pass to stay because he attempted to commit suicide. That temporary pass was renewed once, but he he didn't stay for the full term of the second year. The US, on the other hand, was happy to get him back - after all, here was someone who defected to the USSR, and ends up coming back the US because he was unsatisfied in the USSR, great publicity for the US.

[Brassmask]

The US, on the other hand, was happy to get him back - after all, here was someone who defected to the USSR, and ends up coming back the US because he was unsatisfied in the USSR, great publicity for the US.

You'd think but there is no record whatsoever of him doing any kind of press when he got back to US in support of capitalism or in denegration of communism that I know of.

Also, he was a radar operator and he had real radar information that (I think) he tried to give to the Russians but somehow that doesn't count as treason?

[Amianthus]

You'd think but there is no record whatsoever of him doing any kind of press when he got back to US in support of capitalism or in denegration of communism that I know of.

There are two news articles sourced regarding his return (prior to his his return, even) on the Wikipedia page for him. I'm sure there were more.

After nearly a year of paperwork and waiting, on June 1, 1962 the young family left the Soviet Union for the United States. Even before November 22, 1963, Oswald received a small measure of national notoriety in the U.S. press as an American who had defected to the U.S.S.R. and returned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald

[Amianthus]

Also, he was a radar operator and he had real radar information that (I think) he tried to give to the Russians but somehow that doesn't count as treason?

Actually, his threat of revealing information was regarding the U2 project. While he worked on the base where many U2 flights originated, when he left the military concluded that he had not been privy to any secrets of major import. The Russians had radar technology already.