Morley's LHO "Legend"

Jefferson Morley theorizes one purpose of his alleged "Oswald operation" was to create a "legend" of Oswald as "Marxist leader of the FPCC." This was accomplished by the DRE and Joannides in a mere 30-day period after the latter became head of Psychological Warfare at JMWAVE on August 1st. The purpose of this "legend" was to create a "public record" that showed Oswald as an "activist on Cuba" and "a supporter of the FPCC." According to Morley all of the activity promoting these facts started after Joannides began his new job on August 1st.

At the Mary Ferrell Foundation press conference in December 2022, Morley claimed:

What a difference 30 days makes. Before Joannides took over as the AMSPELL case officer on August 1 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald had no public record as an activist on Cuba or a supporter of the FPCC. Thirty days later, the FBI, DRE-AMSPELL and WDSU possessed film footage, audio recordings and newspaper coverage of Oswald, the Marxist leader of the FPCC. A legend had been created.

Similarly, in a 2019 Salon.com article, Morley wrote that the 44 Joannides documents that he suspects contain "smoking gun" proof of the "Oswald operation" also "identify the senior agency officers who authorized psychological warfare operations that linked Oswald to Castro’s Cuba before and after JFK was killed" (emphasis added).

But a "legend" by definition must be false. And Oswald's record of supporting Marxism and Fidel Castro clearly predates his August 1963 activities. As author Vincent Bugliosi wrote in Reclaiming History (p. 1550):

...this contention [that Oswald was not a Marxist] cannot seriously and rationally be made. To believe it, one would have to disbelieve not only all of Oswald’s words, including those uttered when he was only a teenager, but all of his conduct, as well as the impressions (many given under oath) of the considerable number of people who knew Oswald personally and spoke of his being a confirmed and passionate Marxist. In other words, one would have to believe that year in and year out for almost a decade, Oswald was putting on an Academy Award–winning performance, fooling everyone, including his family and wife, by the virtuosity of his acting skills.

Indeed, Oswald's association with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee began not in August of 1963 when, according to Morley, Oswald "sought to attract attention to himself" but in 1962 (Bugliosi, 684). This fact was revealed by a partly legible postmark on an envelope found during a search of his rooming house after the assassination. The empty envelope was addressed to 2703 Mercedes St. in Fort Worth where Oswald is known to have lived from about the end of July 1962 to October of that same year. The return address on the envelope matched that of the FPCC in New York.

Oswald next wrote to the FPCC at the end of March 1963. Oswald told the FPCC that he had passed out "Fair Play for Cuba pamphlets" in Dallas the previous day and asked for more. After his move to New Orleans, Oswald's communications with the group culminated with a request for "formal membership" on May 26th. Oswald joined the FPCC but they threw cold water on his idea of starting a chapter of the group in the Big Easy.

Undaunted, throughout the period from late May through July, Oswald pursued his goal of a New Orleans FPCC chapter and obtained handbills and membership applications. All of this activity occurred well before the August time-frame that is crucial to Morley's theory. Another fact that runs counter to Morley's ideas is the reason that Joannides came to be the DRE case officer.

Morley knows very well why Joannides was made the case officer for the DRE and that it was not to start an "Oswald operation." As Morley noted at the MFF presser, "the DRE had a knack for generating headlines that made Kennedy look weak or naïve on the Cuba issue." As a result of these unwanted antics, "[Richard] Helms sent George Joannides, an experienced officer from the Athens station, to handle the group."

While these facts create a persuasive argument against Morley's August 1963 "30 days" theory, the case for Oswald as a bona fide Marxist/Communist sympathizer is undeniable and dates back to 1953 when he was only thirteen years old. And Oswald's demonstrable leftist proclivities as a teenager render Morley's alleged 30-day campaign to create a false "Marxist leader of the FPCC" unnecessary.

In May of 1953, Oswald was given a pamphlet which changed his life and the course of history (Davison, 54-55). The literature was about the pending executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for treason. In his "Historic Diary," Oswald commented on the impression that the pamphlet had on him. "An old lady handed me a pamphlet about saving the Rosenbergs. I looked at that paper and I still remember it for some reason, I don't know why."

In late January or early February of 1956, Oswald befriended Palmer McBride who worked with him at Pfisterer Dental Laboratory. McBride told the Warren Commission that Oswald was "very serious about the virtues of Communism, and discussed those virtues at every opportunity. He would say that the capitalists were exploiting the working class and his central theme seemed to be that the workers in the world would one day rise up and throw off their chains." McBride also reported that Oswald said he would like to kill President Eisenhower because of that exploitation.

Probably that same year, McBride took Oswald to a meeting of the New Orleans Amateur Astronomy Association at the home of Walter Geherke. Oswald ended up getting thrown out of the house after again espousing the virtues of the Marxist-Communist system. In October 1956, Oswald wrote to Socialist Party of America in New York:

Dear Sirs: I am sixteen years of age and would like more information about your youth league. I would like to know if there is a branch in my area, how to join, etc. I am a Marxist, and have been studying socialist principles for well over fifteen months I am very interested in your YPSL [Young Peoples Socialist League]. Sincerely, Lee Oswald Send to: Lee Oswald 4936 Collinwood, Fort Worth, Tex.

A vital part of any "legend" to create a "Marxist leader of the FPCC" would be a false image that Oswald was a follower of Fidel Castro. But again, the evidence that Oswald was a bona fide Castro supporter is compelling and dates back to late 1958 before the bearded leader had even assumed power. Oswald's Marine Corps friend Nelson Delgado told the Warren Commission about his discussions with the future assassin.

Delgado stated that both he and Oswald expressed their admiration for Castro and had fantasies about traveling to Cuba and becoming officers in Castro's forces like William Morgan. Toward this end, Oswald asked Delgado, who spoke Spanish fluently, to teach him the language and he managed to learn a few phrases. Delgado considered talk of going to Cuba a harmless fantasy. But he became "scared" after he realized Oswald was serious about going there even after it became clear that Castro was turning toward Communism.

Another Marine who confirmed Oswald's admiration for Castro was John Donovan, a First Lieutenant who served with him in California. Donovan did not assign a negative connotation to Oswald's remarks since Castro had not yet turned toward Communism.

A third Marine who served with Oswald around this time and was aware of both his admiration for Castro and his support of Communism was Kerry Thornley. According to his Warren Commission testimony, Thornley believed that both he and Oswald considered Castro a "great hero." Thornley also said that his "first memory" of Oswald involved a discussion of Communism. When Thornley told Oswald he didn't think much of it Oswald said "Well, I think the best religion is Communism."

Additional evidence of Oswald's pre-1963 Castro support comes from his discussion in the Soviet Union with wife Marina Oswald's Uncle Ilya after a JFK speech of September 1961. Oswald "roundly deplored" the US policy on Cuba including the Bay of Pigs invasion. The following month, Oswald and Marina went to a film about Castro. Oswald referred to the Cuban leader as a "hero" and "a man of talent" (Marina and Lee, 222-223).

Finally, Oswald told Paul Gregory in 1962 that "Castro's Cuba might become a just society." He also stated America was an "imperialist bully except when challenged by brave foes such as Castro" (The Oswalds, p. 135).

What is Morley's answer to this type of rebuttal? After journalist Michael Isikoff made similar points during a discussion on his Skullduggery podcast in December of 2022, Morley insisted that Oswald's pro-Castro support only occurred "in his private life." But obviously, these "private" sentiments expressed by Oswald to several individuals became public record after the assassination. And that would have been the case without the DRE-Oswald contacts.